From David’s Heart To Your Heart

Posted by on January 2, 2005 under Sermons

Order of Worship

  • first speaker: Isaiah 1:1-l7 followed by prayer
  • second speaker: John 4:7-26 followed by prayer
  • third speaker: Romans 12:1-8 followed by prayer
  • fourth speaker: Galatians 5:19-26 followed by prayer
  • songs
  • sermon

    This evening I want to express my personal appreciation for your being part of this gathering. My life is richly blessed by my relationship with this congregation. My wife and I have a real sense of love for all of you.

    The things I share with you this evening are intended as a challenge. That challenge is issued as much to me as it is to you.

    With all I am, I want our coming together in this auditorium on Sunday evening to be something we look forward to, to be our “place of priority,” to be our anticipation, not our obligation. I want all of us to work together to make that happen.

    1. This congregation has a lot of things happening on Sunday evening.
      1. Life groups are meeting in homes.
      2. The campus ministry conducts a class in their area.
      3. The youth group has a combination class and worship in their area.
      4. Kids for Christ assembles upstairs under the direction and guidance of the Browns and a large group of adult helpers.
      5. And, we have this assembly in this auditorium.
      6. All this occurs in a serious attempt to help everyone grow and develop spiritually. Please focus with me on Paul’s statement in Ephesians 4:11-16:
        And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
        1. Let me call these things to your attention:
          1. The whole leadership structure in the first century Christian community [apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers] had the objective in the church of maturing Christians. These roles served evangelistic purposes, but they did not serve just evangelistic purposes. Christians had two responsibilities: one was evangelistic, and one was their responsibility as a part of the Christian community.
          2. Within the Christian community they wanted to (a) equip Christians to serve, (b) generate maturity in the body of Christ, (c) learn and pursue God’s concept of unity, and (d) challenge Christians to mature in the image of Christ.
          3. The results:
            1. Christians will stop being like impressionable children.
            2. They will accept the responsibility of maturing in Christ.
            3. They will bond with others who are in Christ.
          4. Paul said they were responsible to mature in their Christian life!
      7. How would you answer this question: “How can we add meaning and life and fervor to our Sunday night assemblies?”
        1. “Get everybody back into one assembly!”
          1. I personally disagree.
          2. We do not all learn in the same ways.
          3. We are not in competition.
          4. We must not forget the objective: to help everyone mature spiritually.
        2. May I call your attention to one thing.
          1. If your suggestion for improvement lies primarily in what someone else does, I hope you will reconsider.
          2. Each of us needs to say, “The spiritual improvement of this assembly begins with me!”

    2. This evening, I want to share with you some rather obvious observations.
      1. Our Sunday evening assembly is not:
        1. A “spectator” event in which those who are leading try to challenge or touch you.
        2. A “performance” in which I or another speaker tries to force you to listen.
        3. A “mark of faithfulness” in which any of us receive some form of special credit from God for being here.
        4. A “godliness by attendance” occasion: we come so we can show whose side we are on.
      2. Being a part of this group must contain a sense of spiritual commitment: a commitment to who I am and what I am about, and a commitment to each other.
        1. Two illustrations used by New Testament writers to present the kind of commitment we are discussing is household [family] and body.
        2. There is a relationship bond in our commitment.
        3. Because each of us is in Christ, we owe each other something.
        4. We are here for two reasons: one is to receive a benefit from God’s people, and the other is to benefit God’s people–I come here both to receive a blessing and to be a blessing.
          1. I need to feel a part.
          2. Others need to be encouraged from me.
          3. Something is horribly wrong with my concept of Christianity if I feel no responsibility to other Christians.
          4. The first sign that we are walking with God, according to 1 John 1:6, is that we enter a bond of fellowship in the Christian community.

    3. This is the first Sunday evening of 2005, and I ask you to make a serious resolution.
      1. My request for a resolution is not a gimmick–I am weary of gimmicks.
        1. This is a huge room.
        2. No, I have no interest in putting up ropes to make it smaller.
        3. No, I do not plan to ask you to stand up and after you are standing ask you to move forward.
        4. No, I do not plan to ask you to help me.
      2. My resolution has nothing to do with me gaining a sense of control.
      3. My resolution has to do with:
        1. A sense of personal commitment to each other.
        2. Being a part as I learn to love and be loved.
      4. “What is your resolution?” It has four parts.
        1. Part one: “I am going to sing instead of listening to others sing.”
        2. Part two: “I am going to pray with all my heart.”
        3. Part three: “I am going to listen to learn.”
        4. Part four: “I am going to sit in the center toward the front and help generate a feeling of congregation.”

    We live in a very real, truly anti-spiritual, hard world. I deeply want this assembly to strengthen us to live for God in the week ahead of us.

  • invitation song
  • dismissal prayer

    • Act of God

    Posted by on under Sermons

    New Year celebrations were more solemn than ever this year. In Southeast Asia especially, celebrations were subdued with sadness and grief. Many nations, like Indonesia, suspended official celebrations and urged people to attend be reflective, to be prayerful, and to attend religious services.

    Even in countries not directly effected by the force and fury of the earthquake and tsunami, the ringing in of 2005 was perhaps a bit more sober. Many would have liked to "lose themselves" in the party and forget about their cares and worries, but it is hard to ignore 150,000 deaths (one third of them children). It is hard to ignore 5 million left homeless.

    And then there’s the staggering reality than this is just the beginning. Even the media has found it difficult to move past this story and return to the news that matters most (keeping us informed of the latest celebrity marriage, divorce, trial, shooting, fistfight). This story seems to be growing in intensity and severity each day. There’s the inevitable problem of disease and poverty. There are brewing controversies over which nation will help the most and whether or not we are doing all we can. Ironically, the tsunami doesn’t pay any attention to your national origin, your income, or how you voted in the last election. It doesn’t discriminate between Muslim and Christian, Buddhist or Baptist. The severity of this event has humbled humanity and made us ask some important questions; deep questions about the sort of things we would sometimes rather ignore.

    A week ago it was Southeast Asia. Last summer it was Florida. A few years ago it was the north coast of Honduras struck by Hurricane Mitch. What will it be and where will it be next time? You may have missed this "lesser" bit of news in the coverage of the tsunami, but last week astronomers discovered an asteroid that had a 1 in 37 chance of striking the earth 24 years from now. They have updated their data recently to revise the path of the quarter-mile wide rock so that it is less likely to hit us. But what if they are wrong again? It’s all a bit frightening and we are not used to being so concerned. We work hard to keep our homes safe and secure, but how do you control the planet? Perhaps our arrogance has convinced us that we can control nature and solve any problem. We are told that we have the power to destroy creation, but maybe we have forgotten that creation has great power to destroy us too. In the insurance business, these events are called Acts of God. I don’t think that the insurance companies are managed by theologians, rather, this term harkens back to the realization that there are some things that only God can control. [Want to read more about the asteroid risk?]

    It raises many questions, doesn’t it? The sort of questions that we in our quick-fix world tend to ignore: Is God paying attention? Did God sanction the earthquake? If not, why didn’t God protect against it? Why does the tsunami strike Southeast Asia and not somewhere else? Is there something unique about that place? Is it random or directed by God? Maybe the rain falls on the just and the unjust alike, but sometimes it seems like it falls harder in some places!

    These are the sort of questions Jesus fielded in his ministry. The people in the first century were accustomed to the concepts of fortune and misfortune. An act of God was more than insurance jargon to them …

    Luke 13:1-5: 1About this time Jesus was informed that Pilate had murdered some people from Galilee as they were sacrificing at the Temple in Jerusalem. 2“Do you think those Galileans were worse sinners than other people from Galilee?” he asked. “Is that why they suffered? 3Not at all! And you will also perish unless you turn from your evil ways and turn to God. 4And what about the eighteen men who died when the Tower of Siloam fell on them? Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem? 5No, and I tell you again that unless you repent, you will also perish.”

    Background: Jesus is teaching that judgment will come, so be ready. Fear God who has power to end life and eternal life. He is the judge we must deal with. Certainly he is merciful, but his mercy doesn’t deny the seriousness of having a rich relationship with him.

    Prompt: In the course of his teaching, someone brings up the tragic news of the day. Pilate slaughtered a group of Galileans at worship. He mingled their blood with the blood of the sacrifices. Pilate went straight into God’s house and killed these people who were doing nothing more than worshipping. Why? Had they done something to offend God? Did God allow it? If God didn’t, then why didn’t he stop Pilate? (It is a question of their fate).

    Response: Rather than comment on Pilate’s attack, Jesus focuses on the main issue: the need to repent.

    • Jesus adds a tragic event that was "just an accident." A tower in Siloam collapsed and killed 18 people. His question: Are we to assume that the slain Galileans were more sinful than other Galileans because of the tragedy? Are we to assume that the 18 killed by the tower collapse were more sinful than other Jerusalemites?
    • Jesus’ answer is no. Before God, we are all sinners and without repentance, we will all perish. It is futile to try and calculate and categorize tragedies as to whether they are random or according to divine law. Who are we to counsel God?
    • Act of God: We tend to think violent acts or natural disasters are the judgment of God or the will of God. Did God do this? And if he did why? Jesus calls us away from such fruitless pondering and says "People die and all of you will die. And all of you will perish if you don’t change."

    Application:
    The 150,000 who died are no more or less sinful than any of us. [Yes, there were children – and like our children they are innocent in their ignorance of right and wrong.] Sometimes, towers collapse. Sometimes, earthquakes strike. Sometimes, tornadoes destroy. Sometimes, planes and cars crash and collide. Sometimes, cruel leaders and desperate psychopaths commit acts of terror. And sometimes they do not. But unless you repent, you will perish.

    Repent = not just turning away from what’s wrong, but turning toward God. A parable about repentance (turning toward God) from Luke 13:6-9 …

    6Then Jesus used this illustration: “A man planted a fig tree in his garden and came again and again to see if there was any fruit on it, but he was always disappointed. 7Finally, he said to his gardener, ‘I’ve waited three years, and there hasn’t been a single fig! Cut it down. It’s taking up space we can use for something else.’ 8“The gardener answered, ‘Give it one more chance. Leave it another year, and I’ll give it special attention and plenty of fertilizer. 9If we get figs next year, fine. If not, you can cut it down.’ “

    The owner of the vineyard had every right to expect figs from his fruitless tree. He had been patient with it for three years. He has the authority and the right to cut it down. But he mercifully gives the tree another year. One more year …

    The New Year is a time when many of us consider changes we want to make in the upcoming year. There is some degree of reflection and moral introspection. Some of us will resolve to save money, to read a good book we’ve long intended to read, many of us will resolve to be more active and disciplined in our daily lives. Some of us will make a special effort to end a bad habit like cursing, smoking, or eating too much. But we all need to change. We need to repent, to turn toward God and be changed by the power of the Holy Spirit.

    The Christian life is not a matter of keeping the rules and keeping up appearances. Life in the Kingdom is not a game with God of gaining favors and avoiding losses. Life in the kingdom is about aligning our lives with God’s purposes. This means that the knee that bows before God is a part of the same leg that walks a life worthy of that worship. Without repentance (turning toward God) all our gains are nothing but loss. Christian life/Life in the kingdom is a changed life rooted in Christ and nurtured by the Holy Spirit. When our lives and our life together are rooted in Christ they yield a harvest of spiritual produce.

    Perhaps we have a year ahead of us to bear fruit consistent with changed lives. Perhaps a year – or more – or less. It’s hard to say because Christ could come back ready to clear out the worthless trees – or a tower might collapse, an enemy might strike, the earth may shake, the waters may come crashing down. I don’t know – and neither do you. But we do know this – unless we repent, we will certainly perish.

    [The teaching of Jesus is a call for you to turn to God. If you find yourself in sin, turn away from sin and turn to him. And God help us if any of us should be judgmental. Are we more or less sinful than any who respond? If you find yourself in need of help – maybe a crisis of a different magnitude has come crashing into your life, turn to God and let us pray with you. You may have to endure it, but not alone.]

    Addendum: I think every Christian should consider this recent article from the London Guardian. In no way am I agreeing with every point made by the author, but I think he sets forth the spiritual and theological challenge that all disciples should spend more than a minute considering. This is especially true if we want to proclaim a biblical worldview.

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