Life on the Vine: Cultivating Faithfulness

Posted by Chris on November 27, 2005 under Sermons

Being a prophet seems like a privilege. It seems a special gift to hear God’s voice. But consider poor Hosea. The Lord’s first words to Hosea were brutal: “Go marry a prostitute, and some of her children will be born to you from other men.” Why isn’t the Lord a little more sociable? There’s no “welcome to the life of a prophet” speech. There’s no small talk to break the ice, not even a simple “hello.”
        Why would the Lord ask such a thing? Didn’t he read the Bible? It is not right to marry a fornicator or adulterer. Why would the Lord ask someone to do this? God’s explanation is that Hosea is supposed to do this so that his life will become a living illustration of God’s relationship with his people. You see, God’s “wife” has not been very faithful to him. God’s people have been unfaithful to him even though he has been faithful to the covenant.
        So Hosea marries Gomer. He will remain faithful to their vows even though she will break them. On the day of the wedding she marches out to “Here comes the bride” – and she is already making eyes at the groomsmen. In short time the couple have children and Hosea has to wonder if they are all his. Two of his children are named “Not Loved” and “Not Mine.” Two innocent children stuck with names that are drenched in sin. If the story is breaking your heart, then you get the point: God’s heart was breaking because his people were unfaithful to him although he was faithful many times over. Hosea embodies the faithfulness of God in his life and preaching which reveals to us some very important truths about faithfulness and the faithfulness of God:
        First, God binds himself to the people and creation He loves. The LORD is not the unemotional, logical God of the Greeks and philosophers. He is passionate about the people and the world he has created and he binds himself to us in a relationship of love. God instructs Hosea to embody this same covenant bond with his wife, Gomer. We might say that Hosea has “scriptural cause” to divorce his wife, but rather than follow his legitimate right to divorce his unfaithful wife, Hosea redeems her and takes her back: Then the LORD said to me, “Go and get your wife again. Bring her back to you and love her, even though she loves adultery. For the LORD still loves Israel even though the people have turned to other gods, offering them choice gifts.” – Hosea 3:1
        Hosea does this to illustrate the faithful character of God who binds himself in covenant love to the people he created. God himself says of his unfaithful people: “Oh, how can I give you up, Israel? How can I let you go? How can I destroy you like Admah and Zeboiim? My heart is torn within me, and my compassion overflows. 9No, I will not punish you as much as my burning anger tells me to. I will not completely destroy Israel, for I am God and not a mere mortal. I am the Holy One living among you, and I will not come to destroy.” – Hosea 11 This reveals to us that God is faithful even when we are unfaithful. Hosea takes Gomer back. And God, because of his faithfulness and love, takes back the people who have unfaithfully cheated on him. I will show love to those I called `Not loved.’ And to those I called `Not my people,’ I will say; `Now you are my people.’ Then they will reply, `You are our God!'” – Hosea 2
        Faithfulness is the character of God. This isn’t a unique quality of God’s relationship with Israel. This is the way God treats all of creation. This is the way God treats us even when we are unfaithful. The New Testament affirms: Some of [the Israelites] were unfaithful; but just because they broke their promises, does that mean God will break his promises? Of course not! Though everyone else in the world is a liar, God is true. (Romans 3:3-4) If we are unfaithful, God remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. – 2 Timothy 2:13
        God’s faithfulness is not self-centered. It is faithfulness that is directed toward the other. It is directed toward us. We are called to cultivate the fruit of the spirit in our lives and our life together. Consider what this means. This means that we are called to live in faithfulness to God and also with one another. But we know this is difficult because we have all been touched by the pain of unfaithfulness in some way. Why is it difficult to cultivate faithfulness?

We live in a culture of disposables. One day in 1954, an industrial desinger named Brooks Stevens spoke at an advertising conference in Minneapolis. The title of his talk was “Planned Obsolescense” which he defined as the strategy to “Instill in the buyer the desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than is necessary.” Stevens has not given his talk much thought and was essentially speaking about ideas he had been advancing for years, but that talk in Minneapolis caught on. Manufacturers and marketers began to see the profit in producing items that designed to be obsolete very quickly or even disposable. So what had originally been an abstract concept that Stevens had pulled from his hat had now become a concrete theory.
        We now live in a culture fully entrenched in this theory. Rather than service those items that serve us we just throw them away. We have disposable napkins, plates, razors, diapers, contact lenses, cameras, cell phones. Even the space program was disposable to a certain degree! Even items we don’t think of as disposable have become disposable. Why service a car to last for 20 years when we can just keep trading in a car for the latest model? Who buys a computer thinking that it will be something to pass down to the next generation? It was obsolete when you bought it. We enjoy disposable because it is convenient. These items are useful because they are short-lived. They are not artistic or beautiful, they are utilitarian. Items are not even built to last. They are impermanent. And we have no sense of faithfulness to these tools and goods. That would contradict the convenience of being disposable.
        But our disposable culture has influenced more than material goods. We now have a disposable workforce. Workers are hired on an impermanent basis to provide additional labor as needed. The advantage is that there is no long-term commitment given to these disposable workers. Our culture understands the notion of disposable income – throwaway money that is not faithfully committed to any purpose but is just spent frivolously. Now is it any stretch to recognize that we often have disposable relationships? Everything from friendships based on mutual benefit to sexual partnerships. Even church relationships might be regarded as impermanent and people may leave a church when it no longer meets their needs. Why not “keep our options open?” Why commit to something that may not work – whether it is employment, community involvement, or relationships.
        As much as we might like to imagine that relationships like marriage, family, church, work and community are impermanent and disposable, they still hurt when they fall apart. Because of this, our culture tends to avoid commitments. Think of how often we come across the words “no obligation.” And these words are always a good thing. No risk, no obligation. Just try it for free. No strings attached. Why is this appealing? Because obligation and commitment seems to complicate our lives: Years ago, a friend once told me how much he feared getting married because it would mean the loss of his self-identity. I fussed with him at the time and tried to tell him that this wasn’t true. Now I know that he was right and I was wrong. Commitment is always directed toward the other. My friend knew this. But here’s what he and I both needed to learn – that a life directed toward others is more in line with the image of God. God made us as communal creatures – not to be alone! But when we safeguard our independence and autonomy at all costs we cultivate unfaithfulness.

Ways of cultivating faithfulness:
Establish a positive definition of faithfulness. We tend to define faithfulness in negative terms (like we do when we define goodness as not being bad). When it comes to marriage, we assume that we are faithful as long as we do not cheat on our spouse. But faithfulness calls us to do more than avoid dissolving the marriage. This doesn’t say anything positive about marital faithfulness. We need to cultivate a positive meaning for faithfulness. In Eph. 5:21-6:9, Paul describes relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children, even masters and slaves. The model for all the relationships is Christ. Everyone is called to submit to one another out of respect for Christ. That is a positive, active definition of other-directed faithfulness. Not simply faithfulness by default since we haven’t been unfaithful.

1. Cherish the power of promise. Early in my ministry I was frequently asked to perform “church weddings” for people who are not a part of any church. I was puzzled. I wondered why people who had no commitment to Christ or church wanted a church wedding. And why were they asking me? I found out that they asked me because other ministers and churches refused them. This led me to realize that people inside the church and outside the church viewed a church wedding as a sort of magical rite that sealed a marriage with divine power. I wasn’t comfortable with this at all, for if it were true, the power was ineffective 50% of the time. This experience led me to write something into my wedding ceremony that I consider very important and biblical. It is based on Jesus teaching in Matthew 5:33-37. Rather than swear ritual oaths, Jesus says, “Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” So at every wedding I speak of the power of a promise kept. Keeping a vow made before God and the church is more powerful than any so-called magic. When you see a couple that have let their “Yes be Yes” through hardships and trials and even sin, then you know that faithfulness involves cherishing the power of a promise.
2. Tell the truth. Have you ever had a friend you could be completely honest with? You are able to be so honest because you share a bond of faithfulness that looks past the failings. But more than that, the honesty of the relationship demands that we become more than what we currently are. This is the way it is supposed to be in the body of Christ. We speak the truth in love – but not to judge or condemn. We tell the truth in the context of loving faithfulness to God and one another so that we might become more like Christ. “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.”

One writer has said that what people are really longing for is a truthful community. But it is necessary that we talk about our sins and weaknesses without fear of being totally rejected. This is why faithfulness is so important. If I am faithful to you then we can both help each other become more than what we are today. If we are faithful to one another because we know how God has been faithful to us and we are faithful to him, then we know that we are all striving to become what God wants us to be.

The only way you and I can cultivate a culture of faithfulness is to imagine and remember the reality of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness being recreated among us every day. Hosea did this in his marriage. And another prophet who witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem imagined this faithfulness and renewal when, standing among the smoking rubble of the holy city he sang out:
Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The unfailing love of the LORD never ends! By his mercies we have been kept from complete destruction. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each day. I say to myself, “The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!” – Lamentations 3:21-24

Life on the Vine: Cultivating Goodness

Posted by Chris on November 20, 2005 under Sermons

Open with the text and story about the Rich Young Ruler (Matthew 19:16-30; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18:18-30)

What do we know about goodness?

God is distinctly good. Jesus asks and affirms, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.” What is Jesus saying about the source of goodness? There is a distinct, unique goodness about God. The goodness of God is total – 100%; not a degree of goodness or the highest grade possible. It is the source of goodness. We regard God as uniquely good not only because of his character, but also because of ours …

Goodness does not characterize our sinful condition. – We are discouraged when it comes to our sinful condition. Perhaps this is why we want to resist acknowledging it. The disciples are discouraged when Jesus tells them that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. (Camels are big. And no the eye of needle isn’t a small gate. That explanation comes from a 5th century commentary, not history. Jesus would say today that it is easier to shove a cow through a keyhole.) The point is that on own it is impossible to attain the distinct goodness of God. Romans 7:18-21, I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.

Yet, we have potential for good. We have some capacity for good and we cannot deny that since we were created in the image of the good God. Paul very truthfully and accurately described our sinful condition, but he also truthfully and accurately states that 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. We believe that enough that we let this word shape our identity (notice the banner). So how do we reconcile this conflict between our sinful nature and the calling of God to do good works? Is it fair of God to expect us to do good works when we are corrupted by the sinful nature? It is if we accept that …

We depend on God’s Spirit to cultivate goodness.

Life on the Vine: Cultivating Kindness

Posted by Chris on November 13, 2005 under Sermons

What is the kindest thing someone has done for you lately? Have you tried to do something kind for someone? What is it? What do usually think about when we think about kindness? Opening the door for others. Being nice to the cashier at the store. Leaving a generous tip for the waiter. Sending a card of thanks. What do you think of when you think of kindness?

All of these are good things. Typically, kindness is equated with being polite or nice. Some years ago a movement started that called people to practice random acts of kindness. In other words, be nice and be polite. I am not sure if the goal was to make people feel better about themselves or to make the world a better place. Either way, both are good things. Now think of the fruit of the spirit, among which is kindness, and ask yourself, is kindness just being nice and polite, or is there even more to it?
Kindness in scripture is more often equated with love. The word for kindness in Hebrew and Greek is interchangeable with mercy, goodness, loyalty, faithfulness, but most of all steadfast love. Kindness is the visible action of love directed toward others. God is praised for being kind – for showing his steadfast love in so many ways. There is an example in the Bible of a mortal like you and me putting the kindness of God into practice. Read from 2 Samuel 9.

There’s more in this story than politeness. Here is kindness with long lasting implications that spanned generations. What does this tell us about the character of God and the kindness of God? It shows that kindness is the fruit of the spirit that holds us together. It is love directed toward others for their sake and not just our own. Talk about life on the vine – kindness is like a ground covering vine or ivy that binds the earth so that it doesn’t erode away. It is the raw material of the social fiber.

Knowing what the kindness of God is, we can understand why it is hard to cultivate kindness in our culture. Our culture is hostile to kindness because …

1. Our culture tolerates rude, angry, unkind, and violent behavior. No one really likes this, but they have become so commonplace that we have just accepted it. Talk shows and sports thrive on a culture of conflict in which it is more important to be tough and take no “guff” from anybody. We mentioned random acts of kindness – recall that this is a take off on the phrase random acts of violence. Maybe we crave something as refreshing as nice and polite because we have suffered enough from the RAV.
   1. Even in church it is possible to accept and tolerate crude and unkind behavior. One of the reasons we find it difficult to debate and discuss serious and controversial matters is because there has been too many occasions of attacking the person rather than the argument. One of my delights in Restoration History was being in class with a man who had lived ministry in the 20th century. When the class began discussing one well known “debating minister,” this man chuckled and told us how he had seen that minister debate many times. He described how he would turn red, sweat, call his opponents names and ridicule them. “Nobody bought the man’s argument,” said our wise classmate, “but it was a sight to see him get mad.” We all appreciated our classmate’s humor but his wisdom also reminded us that many people and many churches are hurt by such behavior.
2. But this sort of behavior is a symptom of the deeper problem. The rude behavior we see is the product of radical independence and self-sufficiency. Why is there road rage? Because people act and drive as if they are the only ones who matter. Why do people get rude at restaurants? Because they hold their satisfaction in higher esteem than the person who waits on them. Our culture promotes radical independence and self-sufficiency.
   1. Technology has enabled us to be radically independent. Remember when phones operated on a party line? Now you and every member of your family can have your own mobile phone. Against the experience of the public concert or radio broadcast is the iPod or MP3 player which allows you to have your own personal concert with every song you can ever imagine. [Have you seen the MP3 commercial of people going about their lives stoically while their reflections enjoy their own private party?]
   2. But technology is not the cause; it is just the enabler. For many generations now we have praised the self-made man and the pioneer spirit. We have acclaimed the rugged individual who pulls himself up by his own bootstraps. We learned from Shakespeare that we should “neither a borrower or a lender be, but to thine ownself be true.” Many people in our culture assume that the old maxim “God helps those who help themselves” is really in the Bible.
   3. I love to watch when two fiercely strong-willed and independent individuals fight over who will pick up the check at a restaurant. They will even trick one another out of paying and bribe waiters and waitresses. A few even threaten the friendship if the other pays the bill. Why? Why would someone risk a friendship over an act of kindness? Well even those of us who aren’t quite in that league still understand the awkward feeling of obligation and dependence. We would rather be the giver than the recipient because receiving erodes our feeling of self-sufficiency.

Knowing the disease is the first step to taking the cure. Isn’t it wonderful when medical science affirms that something very simple might be a solution to some of the worst problems we know? Recently studies showed that blueberries have a greater effect at reducing the development of cancer than any other fruit. You can prevent cancer by eating blueberries! It is that simple.
Likewise, cultivating kindness will overcome so many of the problems we suffer from as a culture. It is that simple. If David could demonstrate the kindness of God then I believe we can too with the help of the Holy Spirit. I believe there are some ways we can begin to cultivate true kindness – the kindness of God …

1. Start by listening to others. If kindness is love directed to others for their sake, then we need to start paying attention to others. Genuine kindness doesn’t simply give someone something they don’t really need just so the giver feels better about himself or herself. For kindness to really blossom among us we need to listen carefully to one another. Just giving our time and attention to others for their sake is kindness.
2. Intentionally cultivate connections with others. Kindness is not a virtue that can be developed in isolation. Kindness is all about the quality of our relationships with one another. In our fragmented, self-sufficient culture we will need to intentionally create connections. This is why we have started a “Connections Ministry.” This is why we have Care Groups and LIFE Groups. They are intentional, deliberate means of forming connections. (I myself have been skeptical of the role and need for such groups and ministries. Back at Winslow we didn’t have to create groups and ministries to form connections. Then I realized that Winslow was a small group. Such ministries are just an intentional way of doing what is natural in a smaller church.)
3. Imitate God’s loving kindness. This is what David did. This is what Paul urges us to do (Eph. 4:31-32) Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of malicious behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. [Notice the description of kindness].

The Kind Ones:It is said that in the ancient world the early Christians were sometimes called the Kind Ones rather than Christians. This is due in part to the fact that there is just one letter of difference in the word for Christ (christos) and the word for kindness (chrēstos). People were confused about the name.

The Mission’s Church

Posted by Chris on November 6, 2005 under Sermons

For the last three weeks I have been immersed in discussions about the mission of God: the Gospel and Our Culture Network(GOCN) conference, Dr. Farrar spoke to us last Sunday, and yesterday morning a group gathered at the Wilsons’ home to pray about the mission and then many of us enjoyed a time of worship and fellowship at the Canfields’ house last evening. One theme runs through all of this – God is doing wondrous things in this world and we are sent to witness it.

Read Luke 10.After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go. Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals; and greet no one along the road. But whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it; if not, it will return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things as they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you. And heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, ‘The very dust of your city which clings to us we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you.’ But I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that Day for Sodom than for that city.
… Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”

Traditional View: The church has a mission. That statement seems so simple and unsurprising. Of course the church has a mission. And what is that mission? Well, we think of the Great Commission. Evangelism must be the mission of the church. But the Great Commission also involves teaching, so the mission of the church is evangelizing and teaching. But what about good works? Of course we need to do good works, so we should also affirm that the mission of the church is to do good works. Evangelism, education, service – these are the mission of the church. But what about fellowship and edification? You know, just spending time with one another and encouraging one another? Do we have to feel guilty about that because it isn’t really mission? Does that really fit into the church’s mission or is it a secondary activity? Well, I suppose they could fit into mission. Jesus certainly wouldn’t want his disciples to be strangers to one another. He did say, “People will know you are My disciples if you love one another.” So, the mission of the church is evangelism, education, service, fellowship, and edification. Have we left anything out? …

This is why it is difficult to write a mission statement. We want to cover everything the church needs to do. And when you start considering how we are going to fund activities, plan programs, and build buildings then it gets even more intimidating and complex. I don’t want to seem alarming or cynical (and I am certainly not being critical of so much good that has been done for generations and is being done even now), but sometimes when we think and talk about “the mission of the church” we have the whole matter turned upside down. We have the cart before the horse. I say this to be hopeful because we will be less discouraged and more inspired when we realize that the church doesn’t have a mission. Rather, the mission has a church!

What do I mean by this? I simply mean that the biblical view of the church is not that of a static organization that determines its own mission. Rather, God has a mission in this world and God is about His mission; He is calling and sending people caught up in that mission and they are the church.

Think of the comparison like this, when we say the church has a mission, we tend to view the church as a sort of machine that comes in a kit, and when we assemble it properly according to the instructions and turn on the power, it goes to work.
But the Bible never pictures the church as an independent institution that churns out a product or repeats a task under its own power. The biblical view of the church is active: The mission of God is a tidal wave breaking onto the shores of earth and the church is caught up in it. In the Bible, the followers of Christ are called “The Way.” [Not “The Where” or “The Place.”] The church is the transformation of the old humanity into the new humanity. The church is the result of God’s Activity – we are the fish caught up in the dragnet, we are the sheaves of wheat gathered in harvest, we are the mustard tree sown by the sower, we are persecuted believers on the run who tell the story that changes the world. The church is like a pile of leaves or a drift of snow gathered up by the wind. We are the visible evidence of God’s invisible activity in the world. The mission of God has a church!

When the mission has a church, then we are no longer tempted to shape the mission into whatever we want, instead we are shaped and formed according to God’s mission in this world. We see this clearly in Luke 10 when Jesus sends the 70.

1. The mission has a church because Jesus sends his disciples with intention. He sent them to the towns and places where he intended to go.
2. The mission has a church because God supplies the laborers for the mission. Jesus tells us that our first work in mission is to pray — to ask the Lord of the harvest for workers.
3. The mission has a church because (and this one is so difficult) we are sent out like lambs among wolves. We are not conquerors establishing our rule; we are heralds announcing the rule of God: we proclaim that “the kingdom of God has come near you.”
4. The mission has a church and so we needn’t get distracted and worried with the many things we assume necessary for that mission: purse, bag, sandals – buildings, programs, personnel, influential contacts, or even well-crafted mission statements!

Do not suppose that I have just dismissed the hard work and thought of those who labored to put up these lovely banners. I am not. The proper way to read these statements is not as if the church gave life to the words, but to always know that these words give life to the church! These statements did not originate in Fort Smith. The mission to Southeast Asia, Africa, France, and Guyana [etc.] did not originate in Fort Smith. The mission to all parts of the earth originates from the Lord who sends us out …

The Mission Report: (The Return of the 70)
I truly had a sense of this yesterday when some of us gathered to talk about and pray for our partners in mission here and around the world. We prayed and gave reports on the mission in New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Africa, France, Guyana, and even Fort Smith. The common theme to all of these was recognition of what God was doing. That’s a true mission report – to report on what God has done.

Traditionally, we have thought of the mission report as a status report from “our” missionaries? Consider the assumptions: Why do we think missionaries have to give “us” a report? Is it because we expect it? Is it because we regard ourselves as investors who fund the mission? Again these are assumptions that must be tested if we are to be the church shaped by God’s mission rather than another agenda. With the traditional view, we expect reports from our missionaries but we don’t have anything to report ourselves. We assume that we are the senders and they are the sent. That is not the mission’s church: Our missionaries should expect reports from us as much as we want reports from them. We all need encouragement of what God is doing among us. We should send them good news of what God is doing and invite the same of them (and many of them are doing so).
I am inspired by the stories being told about God’s mission around the world. Last Sunday, Dr. Henry Farrar encouraged us with a lifetime of stories of God’s work in Nigeria. Because of God he has keen eyes and steady hands and through him God is healing sickness and disease. The mission has a church in Nigeria.
I think of our missionaries who are working subversively for God in Laos. The mission’s church works in secret, but the kingdom reign of God over Laos will not always be a secret. It is no secret to us! God continues his mission there.
Likewise, our missionary in Vietnam and his wife are the mission’s church in a place where the mission of God encounters hostility. But he has encouraged us by reminding us that it doesn’t matter if the church is legal or illegal in Vietnam, because God’s mission continues regardless. We should be emboldened by their refusal to submit to powers of lesser authority than God. Let that strengthen us as we enter into the kingdom of God in this place.
Every time John Paul and Ruby Lee Hundley are visiting with us they share stories about people they love in France. The mission has a church there and it has created a family of believers.
I have always been encouraged by Steve DeLoach‘s reports – better to call them “stories” – because Steve makes it clear that God is doing amazing things. The mission has a church in Guyana – a church made up of believers in Guyana and many other nations who come and participate in what God is doing there.

I am convicted that we can tell stories just like this about Fort Smith and how God is working through West-Ark. I am convicted that we too are the mission’s church. There is no reason for us to believe that God works differently around the world than he does across the street or right here in this assembly. Mission reports and mission stories are not just reports for missionaries to give to us. We need to give our mission reports, too. Let us tell what God is doing through the Iglesia de Cristo, the Laotian Church, CURE, the Outreach Service Center downtown, and Overcomers Outreach. But let’s not stop there – God is also working through the ministries we often consider “internal” (but I tell you that they are mission if God is working through them!). Let us report on what God is doing through FLOCK, GATEWAY, the Youth Ministry, Lions for Christ, Kids for Christ, Connections, and just the everyday fact of being disciples for Jesus eager to serve others.

Like the 70 who were sent, we need to give our reports, too – and we give them to Jesus. Later in Luke 10, you will notice that the 70 returned with fascinating news of what God was doing to overthrow evil. “Even the demons submitted to us!” they report to Jesus. And notice very carefully Jesus’ response: He rejoices in the Holy Spirit. That’s why I want to be the mission’s church. Don’t you want to cause Jesus to rejoice?! Don’t you want to hear him say: “I saw Satan fall like lightning!”?

Conclusion
Earlier I invited you to contribute your money to supporting those who are involved in the mission in other places. Now I invite you to give yourself. The mission’s church is caught up in the tidal wave of God’s mission on earth, but if you want to be part of it you have to get into the water. The kingdom of God isn’t something we build. God is building it. We enter into it and receive it. The mission of God goes on and it shapes a church out of people like Steve, John Paul and Ruby Lee, Thomas, Oscar, and you. The mission of God is not simply the work of a few invested and interested individuals. The mission is the calling of all immersed individuals who are the church shaped by the mission. The church doesn’t have a mission – the mission of God has a church. Let’s be that church.

Life on the Vine: Cultivating Patience

Posted by Chris on October 16, 2005 under Sermons

And so there’s Moses watching the people of God disgrace themselves. God had saved them from slavery by humbling the mighty king of Egypt. They were free and God was putting the finishing touches on the covenant agreement between him and his people. And how do they use that freedom? By becoming slaves to idolatry and disgracing themselves in ways that even their enemies would consider wicked.
God and Moses were mapping out a bright future for these people and the world, but once God heard them debasing themselves and acting like their oppressors, he thought about incinerating them and starting over with Moses, but Moses reminded him of his covenant and how it had lasted for centuries. Of course, God remained faithful.
And so there’s Moses who has just stood up for the people. He is holding the symbol of their covenant with God (the stone tablets). These people have spit in God’s face and challenged Moses’ leadership. No wonder Moses loses his temper and smashes the symbol of covenant. It was already broken before he left the mountaintop.
But the story doesn’t end there. Moses returns to the mountaintop. There’s going to be a second chance at covenant. And just so no one will assume that God isn’t present among his people, he agrees to draw even closer to Moses. God will reveal his glory to Moses. Moses will not see God’s face, but he will see his back as he passes by. And he does. And God draws even closer by telling Moses his name; and it isn’t so much as single name as it is a declaration of who God is …
“The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”

Patience is Rooted in the Character of God
How does Exodus 34 describe God? This is the covenant name of God that is remembered throughout the generations by God’s people. It describes God’s character especially in those moments when we, his people, shame him by disgracing ourselves with sin. This “name of God” that recalls how God is compassionate, gracious, and slow to anger is repeated many times in the Bible. The Psalmists sing in Psalms 86, 103, and 145 that God is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. Prophets like Joel and Jonah affirm that God is compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. For leaders like Nehemiah and Ezra this was the cornerstone of their faith. In our wickedness, God did not abandon us! Why? “Because the Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.”
This is another way of saying “The Lord, the Lord is patient.” And as much as it comforts us to know that about God, it challenges us when we know that we too must be patient as God is patient. The fruit of the Spirit is rooted in the character of God, and that is so true of patience. Bearing Fruit of the Spirit means adopting the character of God. How well are we wearing the name of God? If we are to be patient like God, then that means being compassionate and gracious-how are you doing on those?-slow to anger-how’s that going?-abounding in love and faithfulness – well, how’s that going? This is what it means to be patient …

Why are we so impatient? (Why is it difficult to cultivate patience?)
It’s difficult to be patient isn’t in an environment that is more suited to cultivating impatience than patience.

1. We are a culture of the quick fix rather than the long haul. We are the product of 200 years of the modern scientific age. A lot of good has come from that. But we have picked up some bad habits too. One of the most unfortunate results of the modern age is arrogance. We have assumed that we can solves any problem and along with advances in industrialization and transportation we assume that we can fix anything now. (If anything good is coming of post-modernism, it is that the consequences of our arrogance are now convicting us to be a bit more humble).

   In every area of our lives we are often committed to the quick fix. Politics: “Why haven’t we rebuilt the Gulf Coast? It’s been weeks! Why haven’t we won the war on terror? It’s been years!” Health: “Do you want to lose weight instantly? Here’s the solution …” People seek out doctors to get the quick fix for what’s wrong with them, but they don’t realize that health is often the result of how they have been caring for themselves over the long haul. Faith: “I want to grow as a Christian and I want to do it now!” God saves us instantly, but salvation lasts for eternity. Some of us want to cultivate the fruit of the spirit right now, or at the end of this season. But cultivation is a lifelong process and in an impatient culture that is intimidating, but that’s the way the world really is. When we cultivate patience we learn that the best things take time. Olive tree farmers know that. An olive tree will only start to bear fruit in its 5th or 6th year, and doesn’t reach maximum yield until it is 30 or 40 years old. When the olive growers in the Middle East plant an olive tree, they say a prayer: “God protect it and make it grow so that my children’s grandchildren will benefit from its abundance.” Once I heard a story that an olive tree farmer said that he harvests the trees his father planted and he plants the trees his son will harvest. That is patience.

2. We are obsessed with speed and productivity. Because of that obsession, some olive trees have been forced to yield maximum harvest in 5 to 6 years. Now think, is that so we can have better olives or is it to make more profit more quickly? Our obsession with speed and productivity is rooted in greed which is the antithesis to patience.

   A few weeks ago I was in Silver Dollar City watching the knifesmith. He described our culture as a throwaway culture. That’s why his trade (which is really just a hobby for him) is no more. The way he makes knives is just for collectors and hobbyists, but it used to be for everday work. The knife smith worked in an inefficient and slow way to make a knife that would last for generations. But now knives are pressed on a machine that can turn out thousands in the time it takes the knife smith to make one. That makes the knives cheaper and easily replaceable. But are they better knives? Are they items that can be passed on to your children and maybe even grandchildren?
   Our obsession with speed and productivity has put even our faith on the clock. We want to attend to all of our spiritual needs in one hour a week. And God help us the church has sometimes catered to this fixation with productivity. A church in Orange County, California has a slogan “Give us 90 minutes of your time and we will change your life.” Well, that is a step better than Jesus who asks us to take up our cross and follow him for the rest of our lives. But then we are so much more advanced than Jesus was back in the first century, yes?

3. We regard time as a commodity rather than a gift. One of the advancements since Jesus is the clock. (The concept of the “second” wasn’t invented until the 1700’s). People have always had means for gauging time, but the mechanical clock allowed us to standardize time. And now we feel that what started as a tool has become a master. We are now a tool of the tool. This is toxic to patience because Our lives have become ordered by an unnatural rhythm instead of the rhythms of God’s created order. God made the world in six days and rested on the seventh. Do you see how God built patience into the natural rhythm of the created order. He gave us the lights in the heavens to order the times and seasons. But we have invented artificial light and weather so that we can order time our way! And we are more impatient and stressed out than ever. Think about it, what is the most common response you get to the question “How are you doing?” – BUSY!

   This busy-ness has changed the way we view time. It is a commodity, not a gift from God. We hoard it and sell it. The language we use with time is unique to our culture. We “spend” time. We “invest” time. We “waste” time. We “steal” time and “take-up” time. We have invented the concept of quality time as an excuse to spend less time with people. We are apologetic of intruding on one’s time and we are disturbed sometimes when others want to take some of our time. Why? Because we all have the sense that there is precious little time – but more because we regard time as “my time, my day.” It is mine! Now how does that make us patient? How does that help us cultivate the spirit among us that is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.

How shall we cultivate patience? If we want to cultivate patience we must actively resist the powers that make us impatient.

1. Give away time in worship, fellowship and service. – Time is a gift from God. We are destined for an eternity, so time isn’t something scarce. Spend time with God in worship. Worship with others and let’s come to the table as if we are coming to a banquet not fast-food carry out. Let’s spend time with one another for no other reason than to know one another. (What I appreciate about our Care Groups and LIFE groups is that so many in our groups, especially our new ones, have said that they want to give up their “personal time” to spend it with others. They realize that there is a power of selfishness and impatience that needs to be challenged.) If we spend time in service with others, do it just to serve others not to be more productive.
2. Appreciate the journey as much as the destination. – Our impatient culture wants to convince us that the end product or the destination is all that matters. The quicker you arrive there or produce it the better. In 2001 my family took a trip in an RV to New York, my father’s home. The journey is as much a part of that trip as the destination. In some ways even more so. How will our children remember our faith? By the destination or the journey. When we read the stories of the patriarchs, we see that the journey is even more important than the destination, because the goals weren’t always achieved in one generation.
3. Trust the future to God. – Much of our impatience is rooted in the fact that we do not trust the future to God. We have forgotten the stories. God doesn’t abandon us. He doesn’t leave us with a set of Tinkertoys and Lego’s and say build it yourself. He is working in the details to accomplish all things in his own time and his own way.
4. Forgive others. (See Matthew 18:23-35) – If we truly want to be patient, then we need to be as patient with others as God is with us. This is the point of Jesus vivid parable about the unforgiving servant. You have been forgiven of so much by a God who is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in love and faithfulness. How dare you not be forgiving of others. “But you don’t understand they did …!” This isn’t about them. It’s about God. It is about cultivating patience. It’s about being like God.

Life on the Vine: Cultivating Peace

Posted by Chris on October 9, 2005 under Sermons

Star Fruit, Carambola – Origin unknown, but probably native to Malaysia, Indonesia and Southern China. The star fruit has never been located in the wild.

The Rare Fruit of the Spirit: Peace
When we strive for the fruit of the spirit that is love and joy we strive for the wonderful, God-grown variety. We accept no substitutes and we are aware that there are cheapened, weakened, less wholesome varieties of love and joy that are not produced by the Holy Spirit.
However, peace is different. Peace is just simply a rare fruit. We are not accustomed to its taste or its presence. When we see it, it seems so strange and out of place. But when we taste it we know that it is good. And when we cultivate it in our life together we realize that the fruit of the spirit that is peace is truly a gift from God because it doesn’t grow naturally or “wild” in the soil of our world.

We tend to define peace as the absence of something: The absence of war, conflict, stress, fear, noise. Consider why we do that: Because we are not used to the alternative that peace is actually something positive and war, conflict, stress, fear, and noise are actually the absence of peace. But peace is more than absence of negative elements. It is the presences of something very good. It may be more accurate to say that the negative elements are the absence of peace. In the Hebrew, this present peace is known as shalom. It is something real and it involves relationships. We see it at the creation … Creation – “It was good and very good” – But in a corrupted world we don’t recognize the “shalom of God” …
Christ’s mission is to restore that shalom … The world vs. Christ – John 14 – Christ gives peace, but the world gives …
Why is it difficult to cultivate peace? [What does the world give?]

Our world and culture are fragmented: We are fragmented in so many ways.

• In order to live with one another we require rules and boundaries. “Good fences make good neighbors.” Our politics assume fragmentation and conflict. We accept so easily the reality of “us and them.” We are comfortable with “our kind of people” but concerned or fearful of “those kind of people.” So we maintain boundaries (some subtle and some obvious) that keep all kinds of people apart – we say it is to avoid conflict. The rules and boundaries we live with do not create peace – but they do limit chaos and conflict.
• We divide our lives into public and private worlds. It seems so second-nature and it is understandable that there must be boundaries to respect privacy, but what happens when these two worlds and two selves are at odds? The greater the difference between our private self and our public self, the less peace we enjoy.
• We divide our world into the religious and the secular. And we make absolutely certain that they do not overlap. Now if we believe that peace is a gift of God, and God is contained to the religious world, then how much peace will there be in the secular? Faith is privatized so we make many private choices, but we do not realize how they are connected to community or to the rule of God.

This is the way of the world -but the world cannot give us peace (John 14)

Our world and culture and polarized:
Our culture wants to force us to take extreme positions. Examples: Red States vs. Blue States. Liberal vs. Conservative. There are absolutes, but these do not demand that we are polarized from others. We are in the world though not of the world.

Our world and culture are compartmentalized:Our world and culture compartmentalizes life by setting up different expectations in different settings. This calls for different rules. One set of rules and expectations at home. One set of rules and expectations at work/school. One set of rules and expectations in church. This confusion keeps us from peace which is a result of submitting to the rule of God.
Can we recognize the problem? A compartmentalized life challenges our allegiances. Strangely, we only know peace when we are so devoted to God that our allegiance is undivided. No compromises are made in any other area of our lives.
Through history, the martyrs have peace because their allegiance is not divided. The ethics of our culture would have advised persecuted Christians in the late first century to go ahead and make an offering to the altar of the emperor. After all, it is just politics and isn’t really your faith. But they didn’t compartmentalize their lives like we do. And so many who would not worship the emperor and call him “Lord and God” where executed. Foolish? Perhaps by the standards of our culture, but that devotion was built on peace given by the true Lord and God and the martyrs gave witness to a faith that outlasted their persecutors.

How to Cultivate Peace

1. Live Under the Rule of God. Shalom, the real Peace of God is something positive not just an absence. It is more than an attitude. Shalom/peace is a way of life. Well-being, wholeness and harmony that characterizes all relationships: with one another, with the world and with God. Shalom is what we can expect when we live under the Rule of God. Because Christ is our Lord, we ought to review our structures of power (Mark 10) – We do not lord it over one another

2. Pursue peace with one another – Philippians 4:8-9. Remember that what God wants above all is for his people to live together in whole healthy relationships. We are instruments of his peace.

3. Practice Forgiveness and Accountability
   When we admonish one another and forgive one another it is not about exacting authority over them; it is about promoting well being and wholeness. When we pursue forgiveness and accountability, conflict can lead to peace!
   Accountability must always follow forgiveness. The accountability is an accountability to live worthy of our salvation and not cheapen it. All of us are both debtors and lenders in the kingdom that is what it means to be a kingdom of priests. So we are holding one another accountable. Here’s a suggestion on how we proceed with accountability: Since it is just not practical for us to go around forcing others to be accountable to us, let us give others permission to examine our lives. Let’s make ourselves accountable.

4. Remember your Baptism (Romans 6:3-6) – Added to Body of Christ – we are not fragmented! We are given a foretaste of shalom in the body of Christ (Acts).

Life on the Vine: Cultivating Joy

Posted by Chris on October 2, 2005 under Sermons

Read John 15:8-11 –

We want to live our life, and our life together, connected to the true vine. We want to bear the fruit of the spirit. The fruit of the spirit is love. Genuine love. The kind of love that the Father has for his son Jesus. The kind of love Jesus has for us. If we remain in Christ, then we will remain in his love. The result of this is joy. And the fruit of the spirit is joy. Christ’s teaching about “the vine and branches” tells us a couple of things about joy.

1. Joy is directed outward. Notice in verse 11 that Christ is teaching us this lesson so that his joy may be in us and our joy may be complete. He does not say, “do this and you will be joyous” or “I am doing this so I can be joyous.” A relationship is assumed. The loving, vine & branches, obeying Christ, asking & receiving relationship leads to a by-product: Christ takes joy in us and our joy is made complete because we take joy in him.
   Real joy is not something you pursue for its own sake. In fact, you cannot. Joy cannot be manufactured. It is a natural product that is a by-product of taking delight in something external. (Like honey – you can encourage the development of honey, but only bees can make it.) This strikes us as strange because we are a culture and a people who invest a great deal of resources in entertainment and pleasure. We will come back to this in a moment, but let’s just notice that joy is something altogether different that entertainment and pleasure. Being entertained can lead to joy. And when we are joyous we may be pleased. But it is a mistake to equate these with joy.

2. One of the ways we know this is true is because joy can thrive even in suffering and difficulty. Notice that branches are sometimes pruned so that they will become more fruitful. A survey of the apostle’s teachings on joy will show you that joy can emerge in the midst of great difficulty. “Consider it nothing but joy when you face difficulties of any kind, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.” James 1:2-4
   Mature and complete! Joy grows out of the stoniest and harshest of soils, but it is one the sweetest of fruits and if you have ever experienced joy grown in suffering or difficult circumstance then you know …

One of the most extravagant meals I have enjoyed is a plate of beans and rice shared with a family of 6 living in a 10′ x 10′ box of wood and corrugated metal in Mexico. With gratitude and joy they shared their food with Karen and me. Joy was served up at that meal. We were touched by their generosity and their hospitality – not because they could show us hospitality, but because they did!
Our joy becomes complete in maturity for this simple reason: The more we are drawn out or ourselves the more we likely we are to find joy. If we are drawn out of ourselves toward God and one another, then we are more likely to cultivate joy.
It can be hard to cultivate joy in our culture, especially if that means being drawn outside ourselves being called to mature.

1. As I have already mentioned, joy is too often confused with pleasure. Here’s the root of the problem. We get the cart before the horse and assume that pleasure leads to joy. And we are disappointed when our attempts to find joy fail. In our culture we are conditioned to consume what we want, not what we need. This makes our lives and our life together vulnerable to some of the pestilence in our culture that makes joy difficult to cultivate …

2. We are bombarded by attempts to manufacture desire. How were we conditioned to want and desire? The spirit of the age. Just as the Holy Spirit gives life and ripens the fruit of the spirit, the spirit of our age tries to bring life to desire. Much of our culture and economy is based on gratifying desires. This is sometimes very obviously bad. But sometimes not so bad. Perhaps you would like to get a better education or get healthier. These are not bad. And if you invest your time, money and energy in pursuing these things you are gratifying a desire. Just pay attention to the ways that our culture (media, peer pressure, expectations) attempts to manufacture desire and then offer the means to gratify it. This becomes most detrimental to cultivating joy when the cycle of manufacturing and gratifying desire becomes an endless pursuit of happiness …

3. And our culture too often equates happiness with excess. We live in a Super Size culture that craves “More” and we are convinced that “Bigger is Better.” Until recently, cars have gotten bigger and bigger. I have no problem with anyone driving a Humvee. But if you had told me 10 years ago that there would be dealerships selling anyone their own battlefield assault vehicle I wouldn’t have accepted it. What is interesting is that excess begins to hurt and now the gas bills are starting to compare with the loan payments. Small care or large car we are all starting to think about excess. Let that examination carry over to other areas – I don’t understand why we complain that gas is $2.75 a gallon when we are paying over $3 for 12 oz. of coffee at Starbucks. (How was I ever convinced to pay so much for coffee?)
   We have become a distracted people. Sort of like the man Jesus spoke of who kept building bigger barns to store his wealth, but ran out of time to enjoy what he had acquired. This is why the endless pursuit of happiness doesn’t necessarily lead to joy. Excess prevents us from being thankful with what we have. We become insatiable. When we gather to worship we cannot give thanks because we feel such insatiable desire rather than gratitude. (We often say that we cannot evangelize those we meet through benevolence until we meet their physical needs. In other words, we cannot preach the gospel to empty stomachs. I think we have the same problem in our worship sometimes. We cannot preach the gospel or enjoy the fruit of the spirit because we are spiritually hungry. The good news is that there is food for the soul).

4. Finally, joy is choked out by the weeds of fear and anxiety. The endless pursuit of happiness that accepts the principles of excess often lead to financial burdens that create fear and anxiety. Some of the desire that our culture tries to manufacture is the desire to feel safe. So we are sold products that are supposed to eliminate our fear and worry. Jesus taught us about the seed and the sower and that some of the seed fell on rocky soil and thorny ground. These are those who receive the word with joy, but trouble and persecution (rocks and stones) or worries and desire for wealth (thorns) choke out the seed or keep it from taking root. The result is the same – it yields nothing. It doesn’t mature.

So how do we cultivate joy? How do we encourage the environment that allows us to find joy and allows joy to mature and ripen in our lives and our life together? (Note the importance of cultivating joy among us, since we cannot seek joy for its own sake and since joy is experience when we are drawn outside ourselves.)

1. Joy thrives in worship, because joy draws us outside ourselves. In worship we focus on God and what he has done for us. Our worship is a response to God’s actions. The confusion in our culture could create some concern among us because we assume that joy contradicts reverence. Especially when joy is mistaken for pleasure. Joy takes place in worship when we are drawn outside of ourselves – either to God or one another.

2. Joy is nurtured by contentment. I didn’t know if anyone could ever improve on “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” but Tim Burton did. He has so captured the spirit of our age. One of the characters, Varuca Salt, is a spoiled brat and her father gets her whatever she wants. She wants a golden ticket to visit Wonka’s factory. Mr. Salt drives his workers to slavery to unwrap thousands of chocolate bars in search of the golden ticket. When he finally gives her the golden ticket (through no work of her own) he offers it to her with a smile hoping for a bit of thanks, but instead without missing a beat the child says – Now daddy, I want a pony. Without contentment, none of us can experience joy. Discontent family members can rob the joy from the whole family. And discontent church members can rob the joy from a congregation. This is why the cultivation of joy is so associated with maturity, because it is nurtured by contentment.

3. Now having said that it seems odd that I would next suggest that if we want to cultivate joy, we should “Learn From Children.” When we think of adults who act spoiled, discontent, grouchy, stubborn, selfish we call them childish. Maybe that is unfair. Maybe children who act in those ways are really acting “adult-ish!” Some of the most “childish” behavior in kids is just an imitation of a more sophisticated, but just as negative, adult behavior. Children are just like us, they have their good days and bad days, and we can learn from them on the good days.

Story of the boy at Fort Chaffee: A Katrina evacuee from New Orleans who took joy in the toys we found for him. He taught me a lesson about joy and I took joy in his delight.

Life on the Vine: Cultivating Love

Posted by Chris on September 25, 2005 under Sermons

The call to worship for Sunday

Call to worship – our response to God’s love.

The other day I saw a sign advertising garden-fresh tomatoes. It made me sad because I know that we are heading for the season without tomatoes. Once I was asked why I don’t just get a tomato from the grocery store. My answer is simple, what you usually get in the produce section of a store isn’t really a tomato. Call me a tomato purist if you like, but there is a difference. There are tomatoes and then there are these strange fruit that are passed off as tomatoes.

Tomatoes – real tomatoes – are soft and juicy. They can barely survive the trip from the garden to the brown paper bag – and that’s good. You hold them gently lest the skin rips beneath the pressure of your fingers. They are reddish or yellowish. They may be shaded but that doesn’t disturb the taste. You slice them and the meat falls apart like a tender steak. The smell is what gets you first – just as you are about to bite into one or eat up some of the slices you sense along with the tomato scent the faintest aroma of the vine. That the mark of a real tomato. And the taste is just a perfect sweetness combined with a slight bite of sour. And if some of the juice doesn’t trickle off on your chin at some point then you are not eating a real, God-made, natural tomato.

There’s a lot of confusion in our culture about tomatoes because the store variety is so much more common than the variety plucked straight from the garden vine.

And as we strive to cultivate the fruit of the spirit, first of which is love, there is also a lot of confusion for much the same reason. There is a mass-produced, store-bought, marketed variety of love. It is a fruit that is fed by other spirits. It looks like love, it imitates love, some even assume that it is love and it may share some basic characteristics, but it certainly isn’t the Holy Spirt-nourished fruit called love that we observe when the life that manifests love is connected to the true vine.

The word tomato is generic and there are many varieties. So also, the word love in our language is generic and it comes in varieties. The word itself is part of the problem and the word may reference a variety of ideas. Love that is the fruit of the spirit will resemble God’s love since it is nourished by the true vine and filled with the Holy Spirit. Just as we described a real garden-fresh tomato, we can describe genuine, God-like love.

What Do We Know About God’s Love?
(Note the following lists are suggested by Phillip Kennson, Life on the Vine, chapter 2)

1. God’s love is unmerited and undeserved. – When we say unmerited we mean that God’s love is not something we earn. There are no pre-requisites of God’s love. (My children are making their plans to earn scouting awards. Earning a scouting award involves hard-work and preparation, but when you do the work, you earn it. That’s merit. But God’s love cannot be merited. If you could earn it, it really wouldn’t be love. This can be very hard for us to accept, but even harder is to realize that not only can we not earn God’s love – we do not deserve it. We haven’t always been the most lovable people. Yet, God loves us.
   1. (Romans 5:8 – God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us; Eph 2:4-7 – 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved)
   2. Compare to Hosea 3:1. The LORD said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods.
   3. So much of our faith is centered on the fact that God’s love is unmerited and undeserved. Yet, churches still behave as if God’s love is the result of divine bargaining or contract. We act to insure God’s favors and blessing. I am convinced that the quality of our discipleship and the nature of our life together would grow to the next level if we would take this one simple truth to heart and live it out. Instead of coming to worship trying to calculate how we can maintain God’s grace, instead of organizing church work and church life in such a way as to avoid God’s wrath or get his attention, we would live honestly before God and one another and say in wonder with the apostle John “Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us!”
2. God’s love is steadfast. – Have you ever fallen out of love? Have you ever been in love with a person then years after the “break-up” wonder what you ever saw in that person? That’s not steadfast love Because the love of God is so real it is steadfast – it isn’t momentary or capricious. God doesn’t break up with us when we change the way we feel about him. Romans 8:31-39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[m] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Can a Christian fall away? Sure, it happens all the time. Can people reject the love of God? Absolutely, it has happened so many times. But we cannot stop God from loving us. Even if we should choose to separate ourselves from the love of God, this doesn’t mean that God stops loving us. Love that gives up or fades away isn’t really love.
3. God’s love is a love that suffers with us. – God doesn’t stop loving us when bad things happen either. Job’s friends seem to have out lived Job. Their spirit continues into our culture today. I have heard people say that when something bad is happening, when someone is suffering, they are cut-off from God’s love. Or God is holding something against them. That’s not love. Yes, trials and suffering can be the consequence of our own sin – that is obvious. But to assume that all suffering is the judgment of God ignores the truth of God’s love and the testimony of the cross. Jesus humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross! (Phil 2) Why is God willing to suffer with us? Because he loves us enough to bear the burden with us. Love that cannot share in suffering isn’t really love.
4. God’s love is without boundaries. – We tend to draw limits to love. We limit love to fences, borders, levees. Love your enemies! What a strange suggestion. If one is our enemy doesn’t that mean that love is absent? We find it difficult to accept this. When Jesus told the expert in the law to love God and love your neighbor as yourself, the expert in the law asked the boundary question – “Who is my neighbor?” Do I have to love everyone? Love with boundaries isn’t really love. It is an imitation.
5. God’s love is directed toward others. – It moves beyond self-interest and looks to the interest of the other. God doesn’t love for his own sake. He loves because he is drawn to our interest, not his own. Paul urges us to immitate the mind of Christ (Phil 2) in our life together. To focus on the interest of others. His model for doing so is Jesus Christ who became a man and offered his life on the cross for our sake – certainly not his own.

Why is it so difficult to cultivate God-like love in our culture?
Just as the demands of the market-driven economy force farmers to mass-produce the waxy imitations of real tomatoes, the forces of our culture are hostile to the cultivation of real love. It is no wonder that the love of God comes to us a something unfamiliar – we are not used to seeing it even in its natural habitat. Don’t misunderstand, God’s love is enduring, but the cultivation of God-like, fruit of the spirit love in our lives and even more so in our church (our life together) is hindered by certain “pests” that may allow us to produce the imitation or just a big green leafy plant, but if we don’t overcome these hostile cultural elements our garden will not grow …

1. Our culture promotes self-interest. The economic system of our culture is an incredible power to deal with. Think about all the coverage of the hurricanes. What is one of the primary concerns – gas prices! And how is it reported? It will hurt us!
   • We are encouraged to think of ourselves as self-interested parties in the marketplace. We all have to “do” for ourselves. The customer is always right, we are consumers looking for the best service (and we even carry this over into our non-marketplace relationships such as school, church, family.) The power that shapes our relationships in these other arenas is the power of self-interest. Can we recognize how toxic this is to the cultivation of God’s love? It is a dangerous blight that corrupts the growth of the fruit of the spirit.
2. Putting a price on everything and everyone. Value is calculated in terms of money. Isn’t it interesting that there are so many ways to measure a hurricane? Category, intensity, strength, and monetary destruction. (The most intense hurricane in the Atlantic was an unnamed Cat 5 that breezed thru the Florida Keys in 1935. But of the top ten costliest hurricanes only one was a Cat 5 at landfall and most of the costly hurricanes have occurred in the last 15 years. What does this say to us about our tendency to put a price tag on everything?) Our price-tag culture tries to convince us that everything is for sale: (food, clothing, knowledge, insights, entertainment, sex, affection, loyalty)
   • In Sept 1999 someone offered to sell his own kidney on eBay. Bidding started at 2.5 million and was up to 5.75 million before eBay ended the auction.
3. We equate worth with money. What one is worth is valued in terms of financial power. Assets or earning potential. Career choices are made in terms of economics rather than calling. How many young people have been persuaded not to be teachers, artists, or missionaries because the work does not pay and it is hard to support a family? Churches are guilty of this as well when they equate status in the church with wealth. James warns us very sharply about showing favoritism of any sort based on finances or economics.
4. Our culture contracts relationships. Since ancient times, relationships have been contracted. When Paul addresses households he uses an ancient form that lays out the obligations of husbands and wives, parents and children, and masters and slaves. Relationships between these pairs were contracted. Marriage wasn’t always about love, it was about business. Children were an asset to achieve power and wealth. And slavery was seen as a necessity. In our culture we have moved beyond overt slavery. But we still contract relationships. We have quid pro quo relationships that are arranged for mutual benefit. But what happens when the benefit if no longer there or no longer mutual.
   1. We do this in churches. Consumerism is the greatest challenge to church life. Some churches are marketing their church to others. Does this cultivate love?
   2. No wonder we try to contract our relationship with God. We have mistaken covenant for contract.

How can we cultivate God-like love?
Recognizing the cheap fruit and the hostile elements is only part of the process of good gardening. How can we cultivate the fruit of the spirit – how can we cultivate love?

1. Pay attention to Others. – Consider how this alone would cultivate love – To genuinely give attention to others is to demonstrate that Christ-like quality of love that looks to the interest of others. To pay attention to others regardless of who they are will overcome boundaries that often hinder the cultivation of love. To pay attention to others teaches us to be steadfast rather than conditional in the way we show love. To pay attention to others may encourage us to recognize how others are hurting. It is hard to pay attention to others if we are consumed with our own interests.

2. Giving and receiving graciously. – keeps before us just how much we have received from God. Love is a gift and it can only be freely given. But it is also important to receive graciously. The only thing better than buying good garden fresh tomatoes from the farmer’s market is to get a batch of tomatoes as a gift from the abundance of a friend’s garden. Part of the goodness of enjoying a tomato is to realize that this good food is a gift from our Creator. Giving to others reminds us that we cannot put a price tag on everyone and everything. Receiving graciously chastens us when we think we can buy anything we want. No matter how wealthy you may be or become you cannot buy everything. No matter how many resources we acquire as a church we will always be dependent on God’s graciousness to do anything.

3. View our stuff and time as a trust we hold for God. – The laws of old Israel concerning possessions were not simply rules to take care of religious things. They were designed to remind the people of God of the source of their stuff and their time. The aim was to encourage them to share and not abuse one another. They were to leave the corners of their fields unharvested and leave the grapes that fell on the ground. That’s poor economics because it doesn’t maximize output, but it is godliness because it provides freely for the poor and reminds those who have that what they have is a gift from God.

Your stuff and your time is something God has entrusted to you. Now will you use it to cultivate real, Christ-like, fruit of the spirit quality love, or the mass-produced, ready for transport, high-yield, waxy imitation love that is so in demand and passes for love to those who aren’t paying attention?

Life on the Vine: Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit

Posted by Chris on September 18, 2005 under Sermons

I want to tell you a preacher story, but it isn’t my story. It’s a story that David Chadwell shared with me. David & Joyce Chadwell tried to plant a garden in Africa. The soil there was so very rich that they decided to bring seeds from home back to Africa. So they planted their beans and peas, tomatoes, and other good seeds and waited for the rich nutrient-filled soil to yield a great harvest. And lo and behold huge plants sprung forth from the ground. Large plants, larger than they typically grew back home in America. And so they waited for the fruit. And they waited. And they waited. There weren’t any fruit. There weren’t even any blooms. For whatever reasons, the environment in Africa was wonderful for growing their seeds into large, green, healthy plants, but there were no fruit. Rather disappointing wouldn’t you say?

Read Luke 13:6-9 –

Compare to the parable. God is looking for fruit. He has a reason for expecting fruit from his people. God wants his people to bear fruit because he desires a harvest. Bearing Fruit has to do With God’s purpose for us. If we are caught up and involved in Gods mission then we will bear Fruit. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit; we are immersed in an environment and connected to a source of life that will do more than grow big green leafy plants – it will bring forth fruit.

As we begin this series I want to lay out some key principles for us to meditate on and discuss often …

1. What do we mean when we speak of the Fruit of the Spirit?
   1. Read Galatians 5:22-25
   2. First, notice that there is “one fruit.”
   3. “Fruit of the spirit” is not a way of talking about a list of good characteristics so as to make them sound holy or churchy. “Of the Spirit” means that these qualities are the result of the spirit active in our life together
   4. The Fruit of the Spirit are not a collector’s set. They are not our individual possessions. They are virtues and virtues: 1) the disposition to act in a certain way that are rooted in life together; and 2) they are rooted in common soil which are the common values and faith of the Christian community, so …
2. We are concerned not merely with the fruit that individuals bear, but the fruit that springs forth from the church – from this congregation. Now that involves all of us as individuals, but it is more than just us as individuals. Too often we tend to think of every Christian as a little tree in God’s orchard. Growing in the spirit is not a matter for private study.
   1. Let’s look at another teaching of Jesus using an agricultural image (John 15:1-6). Not only does this affirm what we said about being in step with God’s spirit, it also indicates that if we are going to have any sort of spiritual life at all we must be connected to Christ. Now use a little logic – if I am connected with Christ and you are connected with Christ and he is connected with Christ and she is connected with Christ then aren’t all of us connected with Christ also connected with one another. Sure we are (and John even affirms that in his letters).
   2. The language in Galatians 5 is plural – “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.” If the Spirit animates and courses through the Church, then the church should be bearing producing giving forth the fruit of the spirit.

I am the True Vine – You are the Branches!

Before we get concerned about the fruit we first need to go back to the vine, our spirituality and our Christian walk is not based on the fruit we bear, but on the vine that gives that fruit life. It is about the Spirit coming into our life together and into our congregation and filling us so full with the love of Christ that we act toward one another and toward the world in ways that give glory to the God. Christians whose lives remain in Christ will bear fruit charged with the richness of the Holy Spirit.

Conclusion:
I have heard it said that we are not judges but we are fruit inspectors. I am not sure we are worthy to be either. If we recognize the fruit of the spirit it is only because the love, joy, peace patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are as easy for us to recognize as are apples, oranges, bananas, and grapes. The fruit inspector is God. He comes to us and wants more than a great big leafy plant. He seeks the fruit of the spirit that embodies before the world the sort of changed lives that God desires for all creation. The story of the man who owned a vineyard and a fig tree is not just a story of judgment – or fruit inspection – it is also a story of grace – or good gardening. There is still time to see a bountiful harvest.

The soil of our American culture may not be the best, but the true vine can grow in the most hostile environments.

The true vine, the sign of God’s mercy and love, was a horrible, scandalous cross raised up in a city garbage heap outside the respectable borders of town. If we remain in the true vine, nourished by the life-giving Holy Spirit, then there is real hope of bearing fruit.

Chris Benjamin

West-Ark Church of Christ, Fort Smith, AR
Morning Sermon, 18 September 2005

What Are We Afraid Of?

Posted by Chris on September 11, 2005 under Sermons

Dedication. Commitment. Determination. Conviction.
When we think of 9/11, we may think of these virtues and reflect on the heroes of 9/11. Without any disrespect to those who sacrificed their lives to save others, consider for a moment that these terms also apply in a literal way to those who sacrificed their lives to destroy others.

When the President said on that day that America was attacked by a faceless coward, I believe he spoke the truth. They are cowards because they have focused their fear and fright into the intimidation of others. Since they themselves are terrified and cowardly, they seek to make other afraid of them. Like a frightened dog that growls and barks menacingly or the schoolyard bully who wants to make everyone afraid of him because he is weak inside, so then terrorists are not fearless, they are just bullies.

Nevertheless, now that we know more about the terrorists of 9/11 we discover that they were completely dedicated, committed, determined, and convicted that it was their mission to attack the United States. For years they planned their assault. They learned to fly jets. They learned martial arts. They challenged and tested airport security over and over again. The attacks of 9/11 were not the result of insane, impassioned madmen. It was the work of calculated, controlled, focused murderers. They were dedicated, committed, determined, and convicted in their cause and in their mission. And they even claimed it was in the name of God, though it served only evil.

Let this be a lesson for us as we consider the mission of God working through us. The powers against God are dedicated, committed, determined, and convicted. Are we? The powers against God call upon their devotees to be sacrificial – are we sacrificial in our service to God?
The powers against God are also cowardly – they are fearful and frightened and seek to intimidate others. Satan’s schemes are the terrified attacks of a desperate power that knows its ultimate fate. Are we fearful? Are we afraid? Or can we be fear-less for God?

Read Mark 16:1-8

⁸So they went out quickly and fled from the tomb, for they trembled and were amazed. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
Verse 8 is rather startling. It leaves us hanging like the ending of a movie we do not like. It unsettles us. It disappoints us. Sort of like the disciples who at just the wrong moment become afraid. Sort of like Peter who even though Jesus warns him, he denies Jesus. He curses, lies, barks, and growls because he is afraid. Sort of like the Pharisees and scribes who should have responded to the Messiah with open arms, but they were afraid of losing the world and the order and the control that they had so carefully built so in their fear they found reasons to justify their rejection and elimination of Jesus.

Why couldn’t the women be like John the Baptist? He was fearless. He was dedicated, committed, determined and convicted. He proclaimed truth. He called on the ruler of Judah to demonstrate God’s ways and not continue his immorality. But the truth threatened the power of Herod and Herodias and through commitment, dedication, determination, and conviction to being devious and ruthless, the powers against God had John put to death.

Jesus knew that the powers against God would also be intimidated by his presence. He taught his disciples that following him called for commitment, dedication, determination, and conviction. He symbolized that not with stories about rushing fearlessly into battle with blood-drenched swords, but with the the symbol of execution – a cross. “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.”

This is a call to sacrificial dedication and it is a call to fearlessness. Those who are fearless can sacrifice without feeling the need to save their own lives or threaten the lives of others.

We didn’t expect such fear from the women. They were the only ones with the courage to stay devoted to Jesus and witness his trial, crucifixion, and death. They were arriving at the tomb for another decoration ceremony to mourn their fallen teacher.

That’s when they not only witness the empty tomb, but they also have it explained by an angel. They see and empty tomb, but it is not left open to interpretation – “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’ “

Do not be afraid! And yet they are. Jesus had told others who were unafraid to seek his power (lepers, gentile women, unclean people) to be silent. The world wasn’t ready to hear about the Messiah. But now when the time comes to speak about it, the messenger fall silent because they are afraid.

If the gospel ends here, then why are we here? If the women really said nothing, then how did Peter and the others ever find out about the risen Lord? How did they ever learn the good news that casts out fear? Simple – the women and the disciples are called to be committed, dedicated, convicted, and determined; they are called to be fearless and to speak up – they are called to participate in the mission – but the mission doesn’t depend on them! Notice that Jesus is already in Galilee and he will meet the disciples.

Out of the wreckage of the World Trade Center, a cross appeared. It wasn’t formed by anyone as much as it appeared as a result of the destruction. This symbol that rose up out of the rubble and tragedy is more than a symbol for the Christian church. It actually shows us where the cross is really at home. Not on a gilded pedestal high and unreachable above a glorious cathedral, but in the ashes. Twisted, battered and half burnt. The cross is surrounded by those who are tired, dirty, and hopeless. As it was in the first century when the cross – an instrument of Roman execution – was mounted in the most visible location near the city dump where men curse and gamble, in a place where people cry out and criticize, so the cross belongs in the most unlikely and most human – even the most tragic and evil places for it is God’s standard that he rises up to say that this is never the end! There is hope! Do not be afraid! God will have the last word.

Mark’s gospel pulls us into the story. You have witnessed the risen Lord. You have heard his voice. You know the good news. Now, will you be fearless or fearful? What will you do?

Wherever God sends us, he goes before us. He is already in New Orleans, Mississippi, and Alabama. He is already in Laos, Vietnam, Nigeria. He is already in Guyana. He is already in Iraq, Iran, North Korea. God doesn’t depend on us to conquer territory in his name and intimidate the natives into submission. There is no realm that is not under his authority. There may be rebellion – but Christ is still Lord over all. So why are we afraid?