This Sunday's Sermon - October 18, 2009

Endurance
Living the Christian life is all about continuing.
I Peter 4:12-19

SLIDE OF Boy & Girl  I'm going to ask you a question, and I want you to give me your gut level response. I don't want you thinking too much about it—just give me your instinctive reaction. There's no right or wrong answer. I'll ask the question and then ask for a show of hands. Is life easier or harder when you follow Christ? Easier? Harder?

            Why is life easier when you're following Christ? You have God's help from day to day. You can pray. You have the Bible to guide you. You have the Holy Spirit to comfort and guide you. You have the support of the body of Christ. You have a sense of purpose and mission. And you have hope in face of death.

            Why is it harder when you're following Christ? You don't always fit in. You're going against the culture. People misunderstand you. You have rules to live by and temptation to deal with. There's an obligation to serve others—to sacrifice your own needs and interests. There's a sense of responsibility for the spiritual welfare of others, for you to be witnessing, etc. There are financial and time commitments involved—giving, worship, etc.

            So you could argue it both ways. On the one hand, we have blessings and resources in Christ that make life richer and help us to live it well. On the other hand, there are expectations that can seem burdensome and demanding, and we often find ourselves swimming against the cultural current.

              Regardless of how you answered, I think we can agree that sometimes, the Christian life is very difficult. And the more ungodly the environment we're living in, the more difficult it becomes. Learning to handle those difficulties is essential to being Deliberate Strangers, people who aren't always at home in this world, but who make a difference as we're traveling through.

SLIDE OF Endurance  So far we've learned that, in this world, we are to be people of purpose, hope, distinction, connection, submission, witness, and anticipation. As we turn our thoughts toward the trials and hardships of life, the word for this week is endurance.  Some people see this word as negative. You may be feeling the same way. But endurance happens to be a favorite word of mine, and by the time we're done this morning I hope you'll not only understand it, but embrace it. Deliberate Strangers are people of endurance who commit themselves to following Christ, and continue to do so even when it's difficult.

Let's look at 1 Peter 4:12–19 and see what we can learn from it:

SLIDE OF: Endurance is commitment to something difficult.

              Endurance begins with a commitment to something difficult. In fact, endurance is defined as the ability to withstand stress, hardship, and adversity.

SLIDE OF MARATHON  It so happens that endurance racing is becoming more popular these days. It all began with the marathon, of course, which has been around since ancient Greece. Bostonians know all about that—26.2 miles of running. But 20 years or so ago, some bored marathoners came up with the idea of a triathlon: a long-distance swim, bike, and run. The granddaddy of them all is the Hawaiian Iron-man: a 2 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and a 26. 2 mile run—all under the scorching tropical sun.

            If that sounds like too much fun, you can try the Western States Endurance Run—a 100-mile foot race up and down the Sierra Nevada mountains. This takes the average runner about 24 hours to complete, with about half the field not even finishing the race.  None of these events is for the faint of heart. You know going into the race that it's going to be difficult.

            That's what Peter wants his readers, and us, to know about following Christ: at times, it's going to be difficult. SLIDE OF: Verse 12 says: "Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange we're happening to you." Now this isn't the first time Peter has told us that following Christ involves pain and hardship. In 1:1 we read, "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials." In 2:19 we read, "For it is commendable if a person bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God." And in 3:14, "But even if you should suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed." Peter wants there to be no confusion about the fact that following Christ is difficult.

            There was a time when Peter himself didn't understand this. Remember how he responded the first time Jesus spoke to the disciples about suffering and death? "Never, Lord, this will never happen to you!" He wasn't crazy about the idea of a suffering Messiah, and he wasn't interested in following such a Messiah.

            As Christians, I think we can't help but feel surprised or disappointed when we suffer. We have a hard time letting go of the idea that, if we just trust and obey, God will take care of things. We're not talking about a health-and-wealth gospel, we just figure that if we live life God's way, things should work out for us. But they don't always work out, do they? At least not the way we had hoped. Sometimes following Christ makes life more difficult, and more painful.

            That's what was happening to these believers scattered throughout Asia Minor. They were suffering painful or fiery trials. Most commentators agree that the official persecution under Nero hadn't broken out yet, but it seems that already believers were suffering social, legal, and economic punishment for their faith. They may have been thrown in jail on trumped-up charges. If they were merchants or craftsmen, they may have been blacklisted so that other people wouldn't do business with them.

            Some of them were Jewish believers who came to Asia Minor in order to escape religious persecution in Judea. Now they were outsiders trying to make a life for themselves in this new, alien territory. The Gentiles who'd come to faith right there in their hometowns were likely to be ridiculed and ostracized by their neighbors and former friends. There was shame associated with following a crucified Messiah, and a loss of social status. We know from the letter that some of the believers were slaves working for pagan masters, who likely were cruel and unreasonable. Many of the women were married to unbelieving husbands who made life difficult for them because of their faith. The bottom line was that, because of their faith, these first century believers were suffering all kinds of pain and hardship.

            Notice that the suffering Peter is describing here is "righteous suffering"—pain or hardship that we experience in the course of following Christ, when we're doing the right thing. He's not really talking about suffering with an illness or experiencing some kind of natural disaster or the tragic loss of a loved one. Certainly these things are difficult, and some of the same principles do apply to enduring them. But Peter's focus here is on suffering that is related, somehow, to our faith.

            What does that look like for us, today? What are some "painful trials" that 21st century Christians encounter in following Christ? Certainly it includes persecution. All over the world today, Christ-followers are literally suffering for their faith. In fact, statistics tell us that Christians are the most persecuted people in the world today. Two hundred million believers in 60 nations across the world are persecuted for their faith every day. They suffer social and economic discrimination; they are denied rights and privileges in their society; they can be thrown in jail at any time for any reason. And every year, 150,000 believers are martyred for their faith.

            Here in America, and in other free nations, we know very little about that kind of suffering, so we want to be careful not to minimize their hardships by comparing them to ours. Lord willing, we will not have to face that kind of persecution in our nation, but still there are times we face pain and hardship in the course of following Christ.

SLIDE OF:  Sometimes we suffer ridicule and rejection for our commitment to Christ. I'm thinking of middle school or high school students who get teased or ostracized for their faith or morals or witness. Or believers who feel alienated from their extended family or friends because their faith in Christ is not understood or accepted.

              Sometimes we suffer economically for our commitment to Christ. I'm thinking of an employee who loses a job or gets passed over for a promotion because he won't compromise his ethics or because she won't sacrifice other priorities. Or, people who give so generously that they do with less or sacrifice things that other people consider essential.

              Sometimes we suffer relationally because of our faith. I'm thinking of Christian husbands and wives who persevere in a struggling marriage when it seems easier just to quit. I'm thinking of the divorced parent who is cut off from his or her children by an unscrupulous spouse or a flawed legal system. I'm thinking of single people who find themselves alone because they're not willing to compromise their sexual purity or marry someone who doesn't share their faith. I'm thinking of believers who struggle with their sexual identity and choose singleness and chastity instead of caving in to the cultural pressure.

              Sometimes we suffer hardship as a result of our service to Christ. I'm thinking of the missionary who comes down with malaria or leprosy or AIDS in the line of duty. I'm thinking of church workers who sometimes find themselves emotionally exhausted, out of touch with their families, and burdened for the people or ministry they are serving.

              Following Christ is difficult. It doesn't insulate you from pain and hardship. If anything, it makes you more vulnerable. That's why Christians have to be people of endurance who commit themselves to following Christ, and continue to do so even when it hurts.

            But why do we do it? Why should we put ourselves through such pain and hardship? Isn't that what people always ask about endurance athletes? Why would you want to run 1,100 miles across the Alaskan wilderness? In the next few verses, Peter tells us why. It's for the glory. Not the glory of winning, but the glory of finishing, of overcoming the adversity, of passing the test. That's the great thing about endurance racing. All you have to do is finish. In an endurance race it really doesn’t matter whether you are 1st or 10,000th. In endurance racing, it's all about finishing; about meeting the challenge, about passing the test. Let's look at the glory that awaits those who endure.

SLIDE OF: The glory of knowing Christ

            First, there's the glory of knowing Christ. Look at verses 13–14: "But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.” For the Christian who endures, there is the glory of knowing Christ more fully. The apostle Paul talks about the same thing when he writes, "I want to know Christ, and the fellowship of sharing in his suffering."

            When Peter and Paul talk about sharing in Christ's suffering, they don't mean that our suffering somehow atones for other people's sins, as if Christ's suffering was insufficient. They simply mean that when we suffer because of our identification with Christ, we experience an intimacy with Christ that can only be attained through shared pain and hardship.

            Think about some of the people you are closest to in life. Chances are you have been through some painful experiences together, and those experiences took your relationship to a deeper level. That's what Peter wants for his readers and for us: the intimacy of shared suffering.

            Once again, it's not hard to imagine why this is so important to Peter. He had a chance to participate in the sufferings of Christ, and he blew it. He could have stood with him when he was on trial, lending support and speaking on his behalf. He could have walked alongside Jesus all the way to Calvary. It could have been him carrying his master's cross instead of some other Simon, some stranger. Peter had blown that opportunity out of fear and shame, and he didn't want anyone else to make the same mistake.

            When we suffer for righteousness' sake, we have an opportunity to identify with Christ, to follow his example, and to deepen our relationship with him.                                                                        When we are misunderstood, ridiculed, criticized, or taken advantage of for bearing his name, we experience an intimacy with Christ that can only be experienced in the fire of affliction. No amount of Bible study or worship or service can afford you this knowledge of Christ. That's the glory of endurance: knowing Christ

SLIDE OF: The glory of showing Christ

              Secondly, for those who endure, there's the glory of showing Christ. Look again at verses 13–14: "So that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed … for the spirit of glory and of God rests on you." Then down in verse 16, "If you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name."

            That expression in verse 14, "the spirit of glory," is an interesting one. It's the same expression that's used to describe the shekinah glory of God in the Old Testament—the visible presence of God in the tabernacle or the temple. In the same way, Peter says, the glory of God is revealed in you when you suffer righteously. So it may be in a painful trial that you'll have the greatest opportunity to show Christ to the people around you.

            Chuck Colson suggests that as one of the reasons God allows his people to suffer. We haven't really talked about the problem of suffering today. If God loves us, and if he's all powerful, why does he allow us to suffer? Colson says it's so the world can see the difference between the way a Christian bears up under pain and hardship, as compared to those who don't know Christ.

            Have you ever read the book by Lisa Beamer, Let’s Roll?  It is the story of Lisa's husband, Todd, who was on board one of the doomed airliners on September 11th. Most of us are familiar with her story. Everything about Todd's death was wrong. Todd was on that flight because he had arranged his flight schedule to get more time with his kids. He was killed by wicked people who claimed to be acting in the name of God. He died doing the right thing, trying to save other people from death and disaster. Lisa ended up a widow with young children. It would have been easy to give in to despair and self-pity. She has every reason to be bitter and vindictive toward people and God.

But she has chosen instead to seize the opportunity to glorify Christ, to share her and Todd's faith with the world, to display grace and courage in the face of heartache and loss. If you see her or hear her speak, it is evident that the glory of Christ rests on her. She's showing Christ to the world.

            It's in the fiery trial that a person's Christ-likeness shines through. Anybody can be content in times of plenty. Anybody can love when they are loved in return. It's not hard to serve when ministry is successful. It's easy to praise Jesus when you're surrounded by believers. But when you're content in any and every circumstance, when you love people who insult you and reject you, when you serve without seeing any visible fruit, when you're the only one who dares to speak of Christ—that's when the glory of Christ shines on you and through you.

            That brings us back to the purpose of this letter, the big idea of the whole book: that we might live such good lives among the people that they might see our good works—that they might see the way we suffer, that they might watch us as we handle the trials of life and faith—and be ready to meet God on the day he draws near to them. If you're struggling right now through some trial or hardship, chances are there are people watching you. There may be believers who need to be encouraged, or seekers who are wondering if Christianity is the real thing. That's why we need to be people of endurance who commit ourselves to following Christ, and continue to do so even when it's hard.

SLIDE OF: The glory of being with Christ

            The glory of knowing Christ. The glory of showing Christ. Thirdly, for those who endure, there's the glory of being with Christ. In verse 13, Peter speaks about being "overjoyed when his glory is revealed." And then down in verse 17 he says: "For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God, and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?"

Peter is looking to that moment when each one of us will stand before God. It might happen at the end of the age, when human history comes to a close and Christ returns to establish his kingdom. It might happen at the end of our lives, when we stand on the threshold of the life to come and await God's judgment.

            Every endurance athlete will tell you that, when they feel like quitting, when they feel like they can't run another step or swim another stroke, they picture the finish line and they imagine themselves crossing it to the roar of the crowd, or the approval of their family or friends. For the glory of that moment, they keep going.

 SLIDE OF Finish Line              Peter reminds us that there's a finish line waiting for us, too. A line by which we cross over from this life to the next. The Lord will be waiting there, along with all of his people. But in order to cross that line, to pass that test, we have to endure.

            In vs. 19 it says: "So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good." Notice those closing words, "and continue to do good." Endurance is all about continuing.

              Anyone can start a race. It's the continuing that's so difficult. These believers had set out to follow Christ in a moment of great commitment and faith. Chances are, those early days of following Christ were days of joy and assurance, of new-found hope and courage. We all remember what it was like when we first came to Christ. How eager we were to speak for Christ, to worship and serve him. But then one day it got hard—painful even. But we pressed through, got a second wind and hit our stride. We were growing again, serving, gaining ground—only to have it get hard again, harder even than the last time. That's how it goes with the race of faith. That's why it's all about continuing.

            Some of you may be hitting the wall right now—feeling like you can't go on, like you'll never make it. Following Christ is harder than you ever imagined it would be, and you're thinking about giving up, about doing something foolish. Don't do it!

                There's no magic to endurance racing. It's all about continuing. Continue to do good, Peter says. Continue to obey. Continue to worship. Continue to serve. Respect those in authority. Work hard for your employer. Serve your spouse. Love your neighbors. Witness when you have the chance. One day at a time, one foot in front of the other. And someday you, too, will cross that finish line. You'll cross over from this life to the next. The Lord will be waiting for you there, along with all his people and all your loved ones in Christ who've gone on ahead of you. And when you cross that line, it will be glory—the glory of having run the race and finished the course, the glory of being with Christ and his people for all eternity.

SLIDE OF:              See why it's one of my favorite words? Why it's so essential to being God's people in the world today? Deliberate Strangers are people of endurance—people who commit themselves to following Christ and continue to do so, even when it's difficult.

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Living Like There’s No Tomorrow
1 Peter 4:7-4:11

SLIDE OF “Living…   William Miller came to Christ in the mid-19th century, a period of great revival in the churches of the NE USA. It was a time when, much the same as today, there was a keen interest in the prophecies of the Bible, especially concerning the return of Christ. Right after his conversion, Miller immersed himself in the book of Daniel, and after 14 years of study, he announced Jesus Christ would return to earth sometime in 1843 or 1844. He eventually nailed down the date to October 22, 1844.
  SLIDE OF CROWD  On the morning of October 22, 1844 thousands of people gathered on mountaintops and in churches. Others were in graveyards, planning to ascend in reunion with their departed loved ones. Philadelphia society ladies clustered together outside town to avoid entering God’s kingdom amid the common crowd. When the day passed uneventfully, many Christians grew disillusioned. The unsaved became cynical. The event became known as “The Great Disappointment”, while some of Miller’s followers evolved into the Seventh Day Adventist movement.”*
            I wonder if you’ve ever found the Bible’s prophecies of Jesus’ return to be a little disappointing. It’s not that you don’t believe Christ will return, but it can get confusing tying to make sense of all the conflicting theories about the rapture, the tribulation, and the millennium. I have seen charts depicting dragons and goats and angels and temples, depicting the same events in different ways, each claiming to be the only true one. You don’t want to get caught up in another “Great Disappointment.”
            I believe the best way to approach the Bible prophecies of the Lord’s return is to start with the right question, which is not “how can I figure out what God is going to do?” but instead, “Lord, since I believe You will return how should I live right now?”
            The apostle Peter wrote his first epistle to a church that was suffering intense persecution, to people who were tempted to give up their hope. They didn’t know what tomorrow would bring, so in 1 Peter 4:7-11 Peter teaches them how to live as if Jesus would come back today—to live as if there is no tomorrow; to live like you were dying.

SLIDE OF: I. LIVE EXPECTANTLY (v. 7a) …the end of all things is at hand…
            At first glance it seems Peter is as mistaken as William Miller was. The end of all things… obviously refers to the end of the world as we know it. No more tomorrows: Jesus is soon coming back to fulfill  SLIDE OF: Revelation 11:15 …“The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”
            All true Christians believe this will happen, but the Bible does not tell us when it will happen. But Peter specifically states this cataclysmic event is …at hand… = near in time or place. Since Peter wrote these words almost 2000 years ago, and obviously Christ has not returned. was Peter mistaken? NO. Like all of the apostles, Peter had heard Jesus tell them no one could predict the hour or day of His coming. Yet throughout the NT, Jesus’ return is consistently said to be “at hand.”
Philippians 4:5 Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.
James 5:8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
              Revelation 1:3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.  The idea behind all of these verses is not that Christ’s coming is immediate but that His coming is imminent. It could happen at any time. Peter is emphasizing that we should all live expectantly because though we don’t know when, Jesus may come at any moment.
SLIDE OF:              Matthew 24:44 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
            We ought to be looking for Jesus to return at any moment the way a wife waits for her husband to come home from a long journey, or a child waits for her dad to come home. Christians are praying and desiring that their Savior will come and rescue us from evil and make this world right. We ought to be waiting with joy for Jesus to arrive!
            If there’s any reason why we ought to be excited about Biblical prophecy it ought to be this: Jesus could come at any moment. Yet for some of us, that might not be such a thrill. If Jesus came back tonight, how would you feel? Would you wish you had more time to get ready? Would you wish you had done more to please Him? Will you be afraid that you might miss something you wanted on this side of heaven?
            Peter warns us to live expectantly, because the time of His return is near. Nobody knows how near, but one day, someone who believes that will discover that His coming is nearer than they realize! Are you living expectantly?
            It wasn’t exactly what the boss expected when he asked his employees to put suggestions in a box as to how the business could be improved. “When I come in each morning, I like to see everyone in his or her place and started on the day’s work. Anyone have any suggestions?” The next day he found only one suggestion in the box. It read, “Wear squeaky shoes.”
            Live expectantly, Peter says, and you’ll live like there’s no tomorrow. At the same time, living expectantly does not mean living recklessly. Peter says we should not only live expectantly, but also
SLIDE OF II. LIVE LIKE YOU WERE DYING (v. 7b-11a)
            Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my little apple tree and pay my debts. —Martin Luther
            In an effort to live expectantly, some Christians make the mistake of forsaking their duty to God and others because Jesus is coming soon. Like the misguided followers of William Miller, some have given up their jobs, left their families, and many other strange things. Peter agrees with Luther in saying that the return of Christ ought to make us more faithful in our duties to God and man. Specifically, he tells us 4 duties we should continue:
            a. Keep your head. (v. 7a) The word “clear-minded”= not swept away by emotions or passions. Peter already warned his readers about the persecution that is coming. It would be easy to give in to fear of the future. Don’t panic Peter says. Don’t become either a fanatic or a doomsayer. Keep your perspective balanced. Don’t become obsessed with what will happen, but keep your mind fixed on faithfully following Jesus whatever happens.

            b. Keep praying. (v. 7b) Kings and rulers can do many things to hinder Christians from
serving God, but they cannot prevent our prayers. Peter commands those who expect Christ’s return to focus on keeping the lines of communication open with the Lord. Don’t let what may nor may not happen distract you from praying for God’s will to be done, or for souls to be saved. Never let the headlines discourage you from trusting God to do His will in your life. Stay in touch with the Lord through prayer!
            c. Keep loving.(v. 8-9) Like the rest of the NT Scriptures, Peter stresses the priority of love. The word “deeply” = “stretched out” and up to full capacity. The term describes a horse at full gallop or “the taut muscle of strenuous and sustained effort, as of an athlete.”1 The idea is to put all your effort into loving your brothers and sisters in the Lord. During times of stress, relationships can strain to the breaking point. Peter’s readers probably discovered when the pressure of persecution is on, you are tempted to take out your frustrations on others. It’s easier to focus on the weaknesses and faults of others. Peter says make the effort to love and …cover a multitude of sins…= overlook the sins and faults of others. (Prov. 10:12).
            This love also includes the idea of being hospitable= showing love to strangers and travelers and especially your brothers and sisters in Christ by giving them a place to stay, or feeding them, or being there for them.  Hebrews 10:24 tells us “to spur one another on towards love and good deeds and encourage one another all the more as you see the DAY approaching.”  {This p.m. at the Minister’s Advisory Council we will be talking about fellowship diners for the fall.  We need people who are willing to open their homes and be hostesses. There is something else very important. IA part of “fellowship” our life together as Christians is accepting an invitation to be in another’s home. There is no agenda except to get to know each other, love and encourage each other.  Practicing loving each other as Christ loves us.}            Peter says show this welcoming love without grumbling. Be willing to share what you have with those in need. The modern application of this principle could be seen in being a good neighbor, and sharing your home and resources with other believers who are in need.
By focusing on loving one another, Peter says you are mirroring the commands of Jesus as you wait for His return:
            Work to maintain a loving relationship with God’s people!
            d. Keep serving.(v. 10-11a) One of the most common themes of the parables of Jesus that
speak of His return is stewardship. A steward is a person who is given the responsibility to use his Master’s resources for his Master’s purposes. Using this image, God is the Master, and you and I are His stewards. The gifts God gives you are not yours, but belong to Him.  He has given each one of us gifts= derived from the same root as “grace”, basically denotes something that has been bestowed freely and graciously.= It is not to be restricted to miraculous gifts; included is any “natural endowment or possession which is sanctified in the Christian by the Spirit.” These gifts are manifestations of the  grace of God, meaning that God’s gifts are full of variety.
            The gifts He gives us are not to be used to build us up, but to serve others. His purpose is not that you should use your gifts to please yourself or hide, but to help and bless other people.                         As you wait for Christ to return, keep using what God gave you to help and bless others
What can you do until Jesus comes back? You can keep your head and keep praying. You can love others with your attitude and actions. You can serve God by using what He has given you to help and bless others. Listen to the words of this song by Tim McGraw: “Live Like You Were Dying”             Jesus has given us plenty to do. He does not want us idly sitting around, complaining about how we wish He would hurry and get here. He wants us about our Father’s business, until it is time to go home. What are you doing for God as you wait for Jesus to come back?
SLIDE OF: III. LIVE FOR HIS GLORY (v. 11b)
            Many Christians long for the Rapture, not because of their intense love for the Lord, but because it symbolizes an escape from the distress of our age. - Erwin W. Lutzer
            Our goal must be His glory. The reason why you and I should long for Jesus’ return is not just to get us out of this wicked world; our goal should be to see God glorified. Our aim in life should not be for God to exalt us, but that everyone everywhere exalt Him. Our purpose in life is not to see our will done, but His will done on earth as it is in Heaven.
            It is popular to concentrate on the return of Christ in terms of the benefits we will receive. Many of us look forward to not having to suffer, or die, or sin. We like to think about how we will finally find the happiness that we never had in this life. Thank the Lord all of these things are true, but the only reason they are true is because Jesus will be glorified. We may do many things in heaven, but the one thing everyone will have in common is we will find our joy in giving our Lord glory!
            That’s what it’s all about---giving glory to our wonderful Lord. It’s why the universe was created. It’s why you were created. It’s why God gave you your talents, and your possessions and your body and your breath—all to show off His glory. His return will be to display His glory in us and through us. You might not believe it now, but the greatest joy you will ever experience will one day be when you fall down before His throne and give Him glory.
            In the middle of WWII, during the fight to control the Pacific Ocean, on March 11, 1942, a sixty-two-year-old Army officer, with his family, secretly slipped away from the Philippines and in a minor miracle made their way down to Australia. Before General Douglas MacArthur left the islands, he declared “I will return.” Two-and-a-half years later, October 20, 1944, he stood again on the soil of the Philippines and announced on the radio, “This is the voice of freedom. People of the Philippines, I have returned.”
            The Bible tells us that almost 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ died on the Cross, rose from the grave, and ascended into heaven right before the eyes of His faithful followers. He made a promise then: I will return.
            One day all of us who long for His return will hear the voice of freedom shout from heaven, and He will touch down again on planet earth, and He will announce to the world, “I have returned.”
            Until that day, let us live expectantly—let us live like we were dying—and let us live for His glory—let us live like there is no tomorrow, because one day, there will be no tomorrow—only eternity to enjoy His presence and love forever. Love deeper; speak sweeter; offer forgiveness freely; pray; do everything for God’s glory and you will know hope and joy like you’ve never known before.
           

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The Key to Lasting Relationships
I Peter 3:1-7

 I think we'd all agree that marriage has fallen on hard times these days. They tell us that the number of people getting married has declined 40 percent since 1970. In about the same time frame, the divorce rate has doubled. For the average couple getting married today, the probability of separation or divorce is over 50 percent. One half of all married couples choose to live together first, even though living together before marriage is one of the strongest predictors of marital failure. People are waiting longer to get married—age 27 for men, and about 25 for women. We see celebrities get married and unmarried just to keep their faces on the cover of magazines. And across the country there is a movement to reconstitute marriage to include same-sex couples, even though every society on Earth since the beginning of human history has understood marriage to be the union between a man and a woman.

            Certainly, marriage has come under attack in our society.  And one of the reasons is that marriage is hard. It could be that marriage is harder than ever—the frantic pace of life, unrealistic expectations of husbands and wives, financial pressure, job stress, sexual temptation, people growing up in broken homes, and the lack of positive role models. This sounds like a description of marriage in Peter’s day.

What kind of people are we to be in a society where this fundamental human institution is up for grabs? What does it mean to be Deliberate Strangers when it comes to marriage and to relationships between the sexes? While our text and our discussion will focus on husbands and wives, the principles will apply to all of our relationships with members of the opposite sex. If you're single, I'd like you to have in mind the men or women you relate to on a regular basis, particularly those in your family and extended family—parents, siblings, sons and daughters, nieces and nephews.

            Each week in this series we have offered you a different word to describe the kind of people we are to be in the world today. So far we've used the words purpose, hope, distinction, and connection. Today's word may be the most challenging one yet to understand and apply. Deliberate Strangers are to be people of submission.

Let's turn to 1 Peter 3:1–7.

            Most people want to do one of two things with this passage of Scripture. Some want to tear it right out of the Bible and throw it away. They consider it to be obsolete, irrelevant, and downright demeaning to women and to the institution of marriage. Other people want to wave it in the air and say: "See, I told you. We need to go back to the good old days when men ruled the roost and women knew their place." Both people are making the same mistake. They are failing to consider the context in which these words were written, and how that affects our understanding and application of these words today. If we believe the Bible to be God's revealed truth, then we cannot simply dismiss this passage as irrelevant, but neither can we take it out of the context of all Peter says or the 1st century time it was written.

            First, we have to consider the larger context.  This passage is part of a larger section of the letter that begins all the way back in 2:13, where Peter says,  "Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men … ." He goes on from there to talk about how Christians should relate to the king, how Christian slaves should relate to their masters, and now to how Christian husbands and wives should relate to one another. In the next passage, he'll conclude the section by talking about how Christ-followers relate to everybody else in their world—to people inside the church and outside the church.

   The section ends in 3:22 with, "all authorities and powers in submission to Christ." Notice that Peter uses the word submission at the beginning and end of this section so there is no doubt what it's all about. So, we have to understand that this teaching on husbands and wives is part of  a larger section in which Peter teaches that submission is to be a guiding principle for all Christian relationships.

            Secondly, we have to consider the cultural context.  This letter was written to a patriarchal society in which men ruled in every sphere of life—the home, the marketplace, the community, and the religious assembly. Women had very few rights, very few options, and virtually no clout in society. That was simply the way it was, the standard order of the day. Peter is not necessarily approving that order. He's not condoning patriarchy any more than he was condoning tyranny in verses 13–17 or slavery in verses 18–22. He's simply saying: That's the way it is. Christians ought to respect the order of the day and win a hearing for the gospel by being the best citizen, slave, or husband/wife they can possibly be.

            We live in a very different culture today. Based on principles found in God's Word, we have thrown off tyranny, we have abolished slavery, and we have moved beyond patriarchy. We live in a democratic, independent, classless society. And that's good. People have a voice in government, every human being is free to pursue his or her own happiness, and women have equal rights. And I'm glad. I'm glad my wife can vote, sign a contract, and own property. I'm glad my daughter can get a good education, can pursue any career she wants.                                                                                            My point is, the principle of submission still applies, but it's going to look differently than it did in Peter's day, or in Abraham's day. In ancient Mesopotamia, 4,000 years ago, it was very appropriate for a woman to "obey her husband and call him master." But Christianity brought a radical new way of looking at things.  It elevated the status of women.  But you have to understand this concept of submission.                                                                                                                    SLIDE OF: The word submission literally means, "to place yourself beneath someone else."  It's a military term describing a soldier falling in beneath or behind his commanding officer. When the word is applied outside the military setting, as it is here, it suggests giving way to another person, putting them first, yielding to them in light of their place or role in your life.

In this passage, that command is applied to both husbands and wives, just as it is in Ephesians 5. In that passage, Paul introduces his teaching In Ephesians with the words, "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ," then he applies it to wives and husbands. We find the very same thing here. Peter points both wives and husbands back to the example of Christ, who submitted himself to his persecutors. "Wives, in the same way … " he says in verse 1, and then, "Husbands, in the same way … " he says in verse 7. The principle of mutual submission runs throughout the New Testament and is applied here to the marriage relationship. So let's see what it looks like, practically speaking, for men and women to submit to one another, to give way to one another, to put one another first.  Wives, submit to your husbands.

            "Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without talk by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives." These verses tell us that the women Peter was writing to were in difficult marriages. Apparently, many of the believers in Asia were women whose husbands did not believe. What was her main motivation in that relationship of marriage to be? To win her husband to faith in Christ. This was a very unusual situation in that society. Usually a woman married within her faith, or else took the religion of her husband when she got married. The Bible gives great dignity to women here, affirming a woman's right and freedom to choose her own faith and to relate to God directly on her own, apart from the support or even the permission of her husband. This was a radical idea in that culture.

            But it did create a problem for these women whose unbelieving husbands may have been critical, restrictive, or even hostile toward their faith. As a result, wives tended to be either resentful toward their husbands—harboring anger and bitterness—or rebellious toward their husbands—disregarding their wishes or making life difficult in the home.

            Peter confronts those tendencies and challenges women in difficult circumstances to submit to their husbands. Instead of resenting or resisting their husbands, they are to be supportive and cooperative whenever possible; to put him first.

            Now, let me point out a couple of things. First, he doesn't tell them to be obedient. Obedience is something a person does when they have no other choice. Submission is a voluntary decision to yield, to give way, to put someone else first. The Bible teaches children to obey their parents, but it tells wives to submit to their husbands. Submission is the free choice of an independent, self-determining person.

            A  second thing to point out is that wives and women are never told to submit to abuse—to allow themselves to be exploited or harmed by their husbands or anyone else. In the same way that submissive citizens are sometimes required to righteously resist their government, so wives or daughters must sometimes act in their own defense, or the defense of their children. There are situations in which a Christian wife needs to say: "This is not acceptable. We cannot and will not live this way."

            So then what does submission look like for women in our society? It simply means to put your husband's needs, interests, and desires ahead of your own. To serve him whenever possible. It could mean creating an atmosphere at home that's comfortable, it could mean supporting a career move or encouraging a hobby that's healthy and relaxing. Serving your husband could mean  working outside the home to earn an income and help to provide for the family. Submission means asking yourself, on a daily basis, what can I do to make my partner's life easier, happier, and more productive? Isn’t that what we promise on our wedding day???

            Someone put together a list recently of what women want and what men want. According to this expert, what women want is to be loved, to be listened to, to be desired, to be needed, to be trusted, and sometimes just to be held. What men want is from the women in their life: respect. Can I tell you four words that every man in your life loves to hear? "You were right, dear." "You were right, Dad." Certainly, men need to earn that respect, but a wife honors her husband when she speaks and thinks well of him. Wives, how often do you say to your husband, "I'm proud of you." "I appreciate how hard you work to provide for our family." "Thanks for fixing the car or the kitchen sink."

Submission simply means considering another person's wants and needs, and putting them ahead of your own whenever possible. So, for these wives, married to unbelieving husbands, Peter tells them that the way to win them to the faith is not by harassing them or resisting them or scheming ways to convert them. It's simply by serving them whenever possible and honoring their place in your life.

            Notice something else: Peter challenges women not to resort to stereotypical ways of getting attention or gaining influence. "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and find clothes. Instead, it should be the inner beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit." Is it wrong for a woman to care for her hair and want to look her best? Of course not. Peter is simply reminding women that they were made for much more than that. Your worth is not defined by your physical appearance. Don't reduce yourself to an ornament or an accessory for your husband. Invest your time and energy in becoming a person of faith and character and inner strength. The best way to honor and serve your husband is to become the complete and mature person God created you to be.

            Then Peter moves on to husbands. Husbands, submit to your wives. Peter takes advantage of the opportunity to apply this principle of submission to husbands, as well. "Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives … ."

            That expression translated "live with your wives" describes a living together that is more than just sharing the same address. It suggests intimacy, physical and otherwise—the sharing of life. And the expression "be considerate" means more than just holding the door for your wife. It literally means, "according to knowledge." In other words, know your wife. Understand her wants and needs and fears, and be sensitive to them. That may sound like pretty basic stuff, but in that culture these commands were quite remarkable.

            When we were in Jamaica a few years ago, when we went inside for a meeting, the women sat together in one corner of the room. And when the day ended, the women left together and the men left together. Now, many of these men and women were married to each other, but you would never have known who went with whom. The same was true at church the next day. That's just the way things work. Husbands and wives rarely interact with each other on any kind of meaningful level.

            With that in mind, you begin to realize how radical Peter's teaching is when he tells husbands to live together with their wives, and to be considerate of their wives—to know them and understand them and share life with them. We like to think that men are much more enlightened and sensitive these days, but that's not always the case.

            Someone speaking to a group of women said to them, "If I had a chance to speak to your husbands, what would you want me to say to them?" They said, "Tell them to pay attention to what's happening in our lives," "tell them to just sit and talk sometimes," "tell them to notice when we've cleaned the house," "tell them to show affection without always looking for something more." They didn't say, "Tell them to make more money," or "tell them to fix the leaky faucet." (They did mention something about dirty laundry, but I won't go into that.)

            If men want to be respected by the women in their lives, women want to be valued by the men in their lives—to be appreciated and recognized and desired. That's true not only of wives, but of mothers and daughters and sisters, as well. Husbands, are you communicating that kind of value and appreciation to your wives on a regular basis?

Peter goes on to say, "Treat them with respect as the weaker partner." Now, the weaker partner expression simply refers to the fact that, physically speaking, women generally are not as strong as men. I know that's not always the case. Physiologically, women don't have as much muscle fiber, their bone structure is smaller. Peter is cautioning men not to use their physical size or strength to intimidate women, or to dominate them. Husbands, fathers, don't underestimate how frightening it can be to your wives or children when you lose control of your anger; when you try to gain the upper hand by raising your voice or pounding a table. Physical or emotional violence has no place in a Christian home. Respect your wives, Peter says, recognize the differences between you and be sensitive to them.

            More than that, Peter says, respect the fact that they are " heirs with you of the gracious gift of life." While there may be physical and even temperamental differences between men and women, there is complete equality spiritually. Once again, this was remarkably liberating and affirming for men and women in that culture. Husbands and wives could worship together, study the Scriptures together, serve together, "so that nothing will hinder your prayers." What Peter is teaching us is that when there is conflict between you and your spouse, it hinders, blocks your prayers until you make it right with them.

            So, while Peter doesn't use the word, "submit," in reference to husbands, he does tell them to respect their wives, to be sensitive to their needs, and to share all the experiences of life and faith with them. In other words, he's urging them to serve their wives; to put their needs, interests, and desires ahead of their own in ways that were appropriate to the order of the day. And that's submission.

            No two marriages will work it out quite the same way, and that's okay. The point is that, however you work it out, it should be a blessing to everyone involved and should reflect well on the gospel of Christ.

Conclusion

            Remember, that's what this whole letter is all about: Live such good lives among the people that they may see your good works, that they may see your beautiful marriages, and be drawn closer to God.  As Christians we should be out there showing people what marriage can really look like—the loving, lifelong union between a man and a woman. As husbands and wives, men and women, let's submit to one another in such remarkable ways that the people around us can't help but notice, and want to know more about the Lord we worship and serve.

Is that true of you? Is the quality of your marriage likely to inspire your children to want to follow in your footsteps and build a marriage based on faith in Christ? Is your love for your spouse so obvious and so attractive that people who know you will want to know more about your faith? Are our relationships with one another in this church so remarkable that people are drawn to a community where men and women truly respect and enjoy one another?

            If you are not practicing or experiencing these kinds of things, then you need to take some steps to rediscover marriage. It might mean seeing a counselor. It might mean asking another couple to mentor you. It might mean getting into a group with some other couples you can learn from, or some men and women you can begin to relate to in God-honoring ways. It might simply mean going home and having a conversation with your spouse—telling him how proud and thankful you are for him; asking her to tell you about her greatest dreams and fears. Whatever it means for you, let's show the world what it looks like to be people of submission—men and women who honor, appreciate, and serve one another. Let's do it so beautifully that the people around us are drawn to God.

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Like a Living Stone
1 Peter 2:4-10

            "How does it feel," Bob Dylan asks. "How does it feel to be on your own, with no direction home, a complete unknown, like a rolling stone?"

            Dylan is widely recognized as one of the most influential rock artists of all time. And his song, "Like a Rolling Stone," is considered by many to be his most significant work. Dylan wrote the lyrics and the music, and released the song in 1965. It tells the story of a young debutante who falls from grace. After years of society life, privilege, and parties, she finds herself out on the streets—no where to go, no one to turn to. "How does it feel?" he asks.

            But to those who listen between the lines, the song tells the story of a generation of women and men. It speaks of young people who came of age in the 1950's, in an age of prosperity and optimism, only to tumble headlong into the chaos of the 60's—the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, assassinations, divorce, and political unrest. A generation who found themselves cut loose, carried along by forces beyond their control like a rolling stone. The lyric originated with a blues musician named Muddy Waters, but Dylan made it stick.

A rolling stone gathers no moss, they say. It's always in motion. But it's random motion, bouncing downhill and crashing through trees—sound and fury, signifying nothing. That image captured the imagination of an emerging generation. Mick Jagger and his Rolling Stones gave voice and vision to reckless living and random relationships. Rolling Stone magazine chronicled the careening careers of musicians, artists, gurus, and celebrities. Forty years later, the Stones are still singing, and Dylan's question still haunts the airwaves and the psyche of boomers and busters and the generations that followed: "How does it feel to be on your own, with no direction home, a complete unknown, like a rolling stone?"

This morning I'd like to offer you the opportunity to become a different kind of stone, the kind of stone we read about in 1 Peter 2 a few minutes ago—a living stone. This summer we are figuring out who we are supposed to be in this changing world, what we are supposed to be doing during the years we spend on this spinning planet. For guidance, we've turned to a letter written by the apostle Peter to believers scattered throughout Asia Minor—believers who sometimes felt out of place in a pagan society, and whose faith was being tested at every turn. So far we've learned that we are to be people of purpose, who point others toward God; people of hope, who expect God to do something good; and people of distinction, who by the beauty of our lives show people a better way to live. This morning we discover that Deliberate Strangers are people of connection, who find identity, belonging, and significance in the body of Christ, the church.

            Listen again to 1 Peter 2:4–5: "As you come to him, the living stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."

            That image of a living stone is intriguing. I've been turning it over in my head for a couple of weeks now, trying to make sense out of it. What does it mean, exactly? I remember not too long ago seeing Bruce & Pauline Crawford drive up with a trailer full of rocks.  They were all shapes and sizes.  There they were not doing much of anything.  But then Bruce selected several and began putting them together into a rough pyramid. And suddenly, those stones looked kind of nice all fitted together like that. Under a Master mason’s hands they began to serve a purpose.  They were becoming a Memorial to Mrs. Mary Elenora McNish.

As I remembered that, suddenly, this image of the living stones began to make sense. Left to themselves, those stones were just a pile of rocks—lifeless and useless. But when they were fitted together, when they became part of this memorial, they came to life with beauty and purpose.    And so it is for us as believers of Christ, when we find our places in this edifice called "the church"—when we make the kinds of connections Peter is describing here in these verses. Specifically, three things happen to us when we get connected to the church—three things that bring stones to life.  Let me say this is what happens when you make a real commitment to Christ and His Church and you aren’t just sitting on the sidelines.

We find identity in the body of Christ.

            First, we find identity in the body of Christ. "As you come to him, the living stone … you also, like living stones … ." That really is an odd metaphor; because if there's one thing a rock definitely is not, it's not alive.

            I haven't watched Sesame Street in a long time, but for years it was on every day at our house. They used to have a segment on the show to teach kids the difference between things that were living and things that were not. And one of the things that was not living was a rock. I looked up the little ditty cause I couldn’t remember it: "It doesn't eat or sleep or grow. And that is how you know, that a rock is not alive." Remember "pet rocks" a few years ago? It caught on for a while, simply because it was so ridiculous. Everybody knows that a rock is not alive.

             Everybody except Peter. According to Peter, when we're left to ourselves, we're like dead rocks. But when we come to Christ, we become like living stones. That's because Christ himself is the Living Stone—the cornerstone, he calls him in verse 6.

            In ancient buildings, the cornerstone was the first stone set into place, and the most important stone. It anchored the entire structure, and every other stone would find its proper place in relation to that cornerstone. In the same way, Peter says, human beings come to life when they come into relationship with Christ, when they rest on him for their salvation, and when they align their lives with his life. That's when they are born spiritually and become children of God.

            I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that Peter came up with this odd metaphor. Who was he before he met Jesus? Simon, the fisherman. Who was he after he came to faith in Jesus? Peter, which means rock. It wasn't just a new name; it was a new identity. Once he was connected to Christ, he became the first of many rocks with which Jesus would build his church; the first of many living stones.

            Have you discovered your eternal identity as a child of God? Have you made this kind of personal connection to Jesus Christ? Or are you a complete unknown, like a rolling stone?

We find belonging in the body of Christ.

              Secondly, we find belonging in the body of Christ. "You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house." Peter reminds us several times in this letter that sometimes followers of Christ feel like strangers in the world; like we don't belong.

            And so it is, sometimes, for followers of Christ in a culture that doesn't share our faith or values or stories. You feel like a stranger when you're the only one not drinking at a party, when you're the only one who thinks sexual intimacy should be saved for marriage, when you're the only parent who won't let your kid see a particular movie, when you're the only one who doesn't swear on the job or the athletic field, when you're the only one driving out of your neighborhood on Sunday to go to church.

            That's how it feels sometimes for followers of Christ—like you're all alone out there. That's why it's so nice sometimes to bump into somebody from church out at Wal-Mart or on the soccer field. That's why it's nice to have some believers in your workplace. There's somebody who sees the world the way you do, who shares your beliefs and convictions. But it's not enough just to bump into people like that—you need to belong somewhere, to fit in with a particular fellowship of believers in a local church. When you make a connection to the church, when you find your place in the body of Christ, you find that sense of belonging.

              Watching Bruce build the Cairn out by the Bell Tower, I was impressed at how he found just the right spot for each stone; and how each one was matched to the stones around it; some were large and round, others small and angular. When each stone was placed in the right spot, he cemented them into place, so the stones couldn't be shaken loose by time or weather.

            So it is when you come to Christ. You not only find a sense of identity, you find a sense of belonging as well. There's a place for you in the body of Christ, uniquely suited for you to match the contours of your life and personality. There are relationships waiting for you here at Memorial-Patton, people with whom you can fit.  But let me show you something in this verse that's not evident at first. Our translation reads, "You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house." Most commentators seem to agree that the passive voice shouldn't be used here. It's better understood as a command: "Build yourselves into a spiritual house." It's suggesting that you can't just sit back and wait for these kinds of connections to develop. You have to intentionally find your place, fit yourselves together. Which means you won't find a sense of belonging by sitting in the pew every Sunday and waiting for people to come to you. When people tell me they've had a hard time finding a place to fit in here at Memorial-Patton, I try to ask them: "Have you tried a small group? Are you involved with a ministry? Do you attend a class?" You have to take some initiative. You may have to try a few things before you find the right fit, just like those masons have to find the right spot for those stones.

            I know how important these connections have been to my kids, especially as teenagers. They needed to see their Christian friends once or twice a week, to find a sense of belonging. That's not always easy to do at 13 or 15 years old. Parents, you need to help that happen. You need to make a point of getting your kids to youth group, to Sunday school, to special planned events. Even if it means you're here for two hours on a Sunday morning instead of one, or making an extra trip out in the middle of the week. You need to encourage them to try it; sometimes you need to insist that they go, just like you insist they go to piano lessons or soccer practice.

            "Build yourselves into a spiritual house … " Peter tells us. Have you found that sense of belonging in a local church, or are you on your own, like a rolling stone?

We find significance in the body of Christ.

             Finally, we find significance in the body of Christ. "To be a holy priesthood," Peter writes, "offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God in Christ." When we come together as a community of faith, when we take our places in the body, we not only find out who we are and where we belong, we find meaningful work to do: ministry. In the Old Testament, priests were the ones who ministered the presence and power of God to the people. If you wanted to express thanks to God, you brought an offering to the priest, and he presented it to God. If you needed forgiveness, you went to the priests, who would present a sin offering on your behalf. When the people needed guidance, the priests would cast the urim and thummim, and ask God to reveal his will.

            But now in the church, Peter tells us, we are all priests. We can all go directly to God—for ourselves and for one another. You can minister the blessings of God to people. You can come alongside someone who's sick or struggling and bring the comforting presence of God into their life. You can open up God's Word and explain it to a child or teenager or group of adults. You can stand before the congregation and use your voice or talent to lead others into God's presence. You can go to New Orleans or to some place closer and bring warm clothing, building expertise, and the good news of Christ and Food. Talk about significance! You have the opportunity to make an eternal difference in the life of a person, a family, a community, a nation.

            Rick Warren reminded us in his book, The Purpose Driven Life that every one of us has been uniquely shaped by God to do his work in the world. There's a place for you to serve here at Memorial-Patton. That's why we've declared service to be one of our Core Values here at Memorial-Patton—every person using their God-given gifts in ministry to others.

Conclusion

            Rolling stones can be spectacular to watch as they tumble down a mountain, but eventually they come to rest, somewhere, at the bottom of a ravine. They gather moss, they slowly sink into the ground, and soon are lost in the underbrush. A rolling stone blazes quite a trail as it crashes through meadows and woods, but it's a random route that leads to nowhere in particular. Living stones, on the other hand, are connected to Christ and each other. Together they become a spiritual house where lost people find a home, and a holy priesthood, making a powerful and lasting difference in the world.

Have you found a place to serve in the body of Christ? Or are you like a rolling stone, with no direction home?

            When you leave the building this morning, I want you to take a look at that Cairn sitting under the Bell Tower. I want you to see how strong it is and how each stone fits so well exactly where it is. Then I want you to imagine how strong and beautiful this church can become when everyone of us is fitted together, when we find our identity, belonging, and significance in the body of Christ.

Friends, there are dead rocks and there are living stones. Which do you want to be?

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Attractive Lighthouses
1 Peter 1:23-2:2

            The latest rage in reality TV is the makeover show, in which a team of experts are brought in to transform somebody's wardrobe, car, backyard, house, family, or physical appearance. Listen to a few of the titles: Extreme Makeover, Head to Toe, Star Makeover.

            The most bold and brash of them all is a show called The Swan, which promises to turn ugly ducklings into beauty queens. Each contestant is assigned to a team of makeover experts, including a therapist, a personal trainer, a life coach, a dentist, and a cosmetic surgeon. They undergo a three-month treatment program that is supposed to result in a mental, emotional, and physical transformation. Upon completion of their treatments, some are selected to participate in a beauty pageant, with the chance to become The Ultimate Swan.

            The website introduces us to some of the contestants from last year's show. Dawn is a 33-year-old mother of 5 children. Dawn has never felt beautiful and was the ugly kid at every age, in every class. Kelly is a 28-year-old flight attendant in a serious rut. She has incredibly loving parents who want nothing but happiness for her. Unfortunately, she can't see the beautiful person they see. She wants a total life change. Rachel is 27, an office worker, and has been married for one year. She grew up feeling that no one expected much from her, and so she didn't expect much from herself. She's tired of feeling average and is ready to dedicate herself to getting in shape and becoming a better person. Sarina is 36 and recently divorced. She has worked most of her life managing volunteer services. She works so hard helping others in order to avoid doing any work on herself. She needs this life transformation to stop running and start being the person she wants to be.

            These women, and the men who appear on similar shows, don't just want to be a little bit thinner or a little bit healthier. They want to be transformed; they want to become new, better, different people. And that's why these shows are so popular, because that's what we want for ourselves, too. We want to become better people. We're not just curious about what they're going to look like, we want to imagine what we could be like if we had 3 months with a team of experts. We want to be more disciplined, more patient, more kind, more organized. We want to be better parents, we want to have happier marriages, we want to be more successful in our work, we want to be nicer neighbors, better students. These shows speak to those longings. They tell us that, with the right help and some hard work, we could really be somebody.

            An observer from Time magazine analyzed the shows' success this way: "What people want is a new identity. They want to believe that this new, glorious self was inside them all along. These shows cater to the fantasy that if someone with a gifted eye took the time, that person would see your beauty and uniqueness, and would probe past the lie of your drab existence and bring the shimmering, true you to the surface."

Don't we all want to be better? The good news is you can be. Transformation is possible. In fact, with God's help, you can become one of the most beautiful people on Earth.

            This summer, we're learning what it means to be the people of God in the world today—a world that seems to be drifting further from God and further out of control with every passing year. We're learning what it means to be Deliberate Strangers. Now, someone pointed out to me this week that there's a movie by that title about a mysterious figure who ends up being a serial killer. That's obviously not what I had in mind when I came up with that little title. Nor does it mean that we are to be people who are deliberately strange, as if our goal is to be odd or peculiar. The idea is that, as followers of Christ, we sometimes feel like strangers in a culture that wants less and less to do with God and his truth. Peter uses the word "stranger" several times in this letter we are studying to describe his readers scattered throughout the Roman Empire and surrounded by pagan people.

            But we are to be Deliberate Strangers in the sense that we're on a mission as we make our way through this world. We don't just drift along with the cultural current; we don't just mark time here until we get to our heavenly home. As Deliberate Strangers we are people of purpose, pointing others toward God as we travel through this world.

            Last week we learned that Deliberate Strangers are people of hope in a world that's running scared. We should wake up each day with a sense of expectancy, believing that God is going to do something good in our lives and in the world in spite of the chaos and uncertainty that surrounds us.

            This morning we discover that followers of Christ are to be people of distinction who, by the beauty of our lives, show people a better way to live. To explain that more fully, I'd like to look more closely at the passage that was read a few minutes ago from 1 Peter 1:13–2:2. Let's find out how God can transform us into people of distinction.

Christians are distinguished by moral excellence.

            The first thing that distinguishes followers of Christ is moral excellence. I'm looking at verses 13–15: "Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: 'Be holy, because I am holy.'"

            Peter begins this new paragraph with the word "therefore," which refers us back to the preceding section—the living hope we talked about last week. Now that you are free from your past, that your future in heaven is secure, and that the blessings of God's Kingdom are already yours to enjoy, live like it. Live differently. Live distinctively. That expression, "prepare your minds for action," could be paraphrased by saying: "Roll up your sleeves."

            "Do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance." I'm thinking of some of the contestants in The Swan—women who always thought of themselves as ugly ducklings, who never expected much of themselves. They were living in ignorance; they weren't aware of their uniqueness and potential and inherent beauty. That ignorance shaped their life and behavior. They thought they were unattractive so they dressed like it and acted like it. They thought they had no potential so they didn't strive or dream or take risks. They were living in ignorance.  Peter doesn't want that to happen to his readers, or to us. He tells us: Don't live like you did before you realized that God created you in his image, that he wants to have a personal and eternal relationship with you, that he put you on this Earth for a purpose.

            For decades now, people have been telling us that our existence on this planet is an accident, a cosmic coincidence, and that human beings are nothing more than highly evolved animals. They have told us that when we die we simply cease to exist; we return to the Earth from which we came. So why are we surprised when people act like animals, satisfying every physical appetite with no sense of self-control or propriety? Why are we surprised when life is so cheap that a person will kill another human being for a few dollars or nothing at all? Why are we surprised when so many people live aimlessly, drifting from one relationship to another, one party to another, with no sense of purpose? If this life is all there is, if there are no eternal consequences, if there is no God to whom we must give an account, why shouldn't people just live for today and do what they please?

              Followers of Christ know better than that. We understand where we came from, why we're here, and what we were created for. So, we should live like it. We should value life. We should control our appetites. We should take care of our bodies. We should respect other people's rights and property. Later on in 2:2, Peter says, "Rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind." These are behaviors that demean us and demean other people, so we take them off like a pair of dirty old clothes.

            So, negatively speaking, moral excellence means not conforming to the standards of a culture that is ignorant of God's truth and love. Positively speaking, moral excellence means being holy. Now, at first reading, this doesn't sound especially appealing. "Holy" isn't one of the top 10 wannabe's in our culture. People want to be popular, they want to be famous, they want to be good-looking, they want to have some fun. But you don't see many magazines at the newsstands offering "10 secrets to a more holy you." To most people, holiness sounds like a stuffed shirt; it sounds boring and stifling and joyless.

            But the root idea of holiness is "otherness." To be holy is to be set apart from the rest, to be different or distinctive. And since God is the ultimate "other," holiness also means being like God. There are some ways in which we can never be like God. We can never be all-powerful, all-knowing, or everywhere-present. But God is also good and kind and merciful and just and faithful and pure and generous and true. And we can be these things! We can't be perfect, but we can be excellent. And when we are, we will stand out in a culture of moral confusion.

              Unfortunately, we're not doing a very good job of that these days. The pollster George Barna has done an extensive survey of people who claim to have a personal, life-changing relationship with Christ, and he finds an appalling lack of distinction from the rest of the population when it comes to lifestyle and behavior. Christian couples are almost as likely to get a divorce as the rest of the population. Christian singles are just about as likely to be active sexually as single people who are not Christians. Nearly 50 percent of people who claim to be born-again followers of Christ believe that it is morally acceptable to live with someone without being married. That's only 10 percent less than the general population. No wonder so many people have a hard time taking Christianity seriously—they see no discernible difference in the quality of our lives.

              Suppose someone were to follow you around for a week or so. Would they see a discernible difference in the quality of your life, or would it look pretty much like everybody else's? Suppose they were to listen in on your conversations in the hallway or the lunchroom or the locker room. Would they hear gossip or backstabbing or foul language or sexual innuendo? Suppose they were to follow you around as you did your daily work, whatever that happens to be. Would they find you wasting company time or money, losing your temper when things go wrong, humiliating people, or cutting corners on jobs when no one is looking? If they were to sit at the dinner table in your home, would they be surprised at the lack of meaningful conversation between you and your spouse, or at how harsh or inattentive you were to your children? Suppose they were to go shopping with you, would they see you spending money as freely as everybody else on things that really don't matter and don't last?

            Our behavior ought to be so distinctive that it causes people to stop and take notice. Not because it's so weird, but because it is so attractive, so excellent. That's what it means to be a person of distinction: showing people a better way to live.

But, you know, moral excellence alone won't give us influence with the people around us. Because holiness, while it is admirable, can also be intimidating and distancing. How do you get close to a person who seems to be morally superior? And how do you pursue moral excellence without appearing self-righteous or judgmental? If we are holy as God is holy, people may notice that we're different, they may even admire certain aspects of our lives, but they won't be influenced by our lives unless something else is present. That something else is love.

Christians are distinguished by a remarkable love.

That's the second transformation God wants to work in our lives. He wants to turn us into people of remarkable love. We read about it in verse 22: "Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart."

            Peter uses two different words for love here. The first is the Greek word philos, which we know describes brotherly love. It's the love that people commonly feel toward their friends and family. And certainly, as God's people, we ought to have positive, loving relationships with the important people in our lives.

            But then Peter uses a second word that is not quite as familiar as the first, but one we use from time to time because there is no English word that quite captures the richness of it. It's the word agape.  Agape is the word the Bible uses to describe God's kind of love. It's a unique love, unlike anything you find in human relationships. It's unconditional love, sacrificial love. This kind of love doesn't just respond to people, it reaches out to people. It seeks people—even when they don't want to be loved, even when they are hard to love.(REPEAT- even when they are hard to love). This is the kind of love that sets followers of Christ apart from the rest of the population. Anyone loves their friends and family, but people of distinction love everyone and will go out of their way to prove it.  They will go the extra mile, make the extra contact, try everything possible to make a relationship right when something has caused it to turn sour.

            Now, Peter is mainly speaking here about the way Christians love one another. He's saying that the quality of relationships we enjoy in the church ought to be so honest, so sincere, so transparent, and so authentic that the world can't help but notice a difference. Is that true of us?

              Suppose someone were to be visiting our church this morning, sitting right here in the service for the very first time. Would they be surprised at how friendly we were toward one another, and toward them? Would they be amazed at how many people said hello to them and introduced themselves?                                                                             But even though Peter is speaking primarily about love for the family of God, certainly this agape love ought to spill over into other relationships as well—to the people in our neighborhood, to our clients and co-workers and competitors, to strangers we meet on the street, extended family, even to people who might be described as our enemies. We all have people in our lives who are difficult to love, who have snubbed us or hurt us or taken advantage of us. Are we willing to forgive past offenses, to overlook shortcomings, to give people a second chance?  How about a third or fourth chance?

            We live in a culture here in Macon County where people value their privacy and are sometimes slow to open the doors of their homes and hearts to real relationships. The frantic pace of contemporary life works against meaningful connection with people. For those reasons, followers of Christ ought to stand out all the more as people who will go the extra mile, who freely open their homes and hearts, who will take the time to talk and listen with people who aren't accustomed to that.

            We'll talk more about loving one another and loving our neighbors in a few weeks, but we need to mention it here this morning because it's these two things together that distinguish followers of Christ: moral excellence and remarkable love. One without the other isn't good enough. Moral excellence without love is cold; people admire holiness, but they keep their distance. Love without moral excellence is flimsy; people feel comfortable around us, but walk away unchanged. But combine moral excellence with remarkable love, and you produce people of irresistible influence.

            I want to take you back to the theme verse of this series and the entire book, in my opinion. First Peter 2:12: "Live such good lives among the people that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us." There's something you need to know about that word translated "good" in our Bibles. In the Greek language, there are at least two words Peter could have used to describe the believers' lives and deeds. One word for good implies rightness, correctness. "Live such righteous lives among the people that they may see your correct deeds … ."

            But Peter chose to use a different word for good that adds a touch of beauty to the deed—that makes it appealing. When you send someone a sympathy card after they lose a loved one, you've done the right thing. When you show up at their door with a meal, you've done a beautiful thing. "Live such attractive lives among the people that they may see your beautiful deeds … ." It's not just that our behavior should be proper, it should be charming. This is why I believe followers of Christ ought to be the most beautiful people on Earth, showing people around us a better way to live.

Conclusion

Have you experienced this kind of transformation, this total makeover? It's not a three-month project. It's a lifelong process, but it begins when you are born again—when you admit your need, believe that Christ died and rose for you, and invite him into your life to save you and change you.

            God has already begun that work in many of our lives, but Peter reminds us here that we are still a work in progress. "Like newborn babies, grow up in your salvation." If you were to ask God to do some work in your life these days, where would it be? In the area of moral excellence? Changing some behavior? Or would it be in the area of remarkable love? Enabling you to reach out to someone you might have overlooked or stuggled with? Invite the Lord to begin that transforming work in your life today. Allow his Word to come alive in your heart and bring you to maturity as a follower of Christ.

At the beginning of the message, we talked about the fantasy that, if someone with a gifted eye took the time, they might see our inherent beauty and uniqueness. They might probe past our drab exterior and bring our shimmering, true self to the surface. It turns out that is no fantasy at all—it's the gospel. It's the good news that you have been created in the image of God, that your failures and flaws can be redeemed, and that by God's grace you can become a person of distinction who, by the beauty of your life, shows the people around you a better way to live.

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What We Need and Have
Why Christians should be the most hopeful people anywhere
I Peter 1:3-9

In his book Telling the Truth, author Frederick Buechner describes a scene that could be unfolding on any given Sunday in any given church, including this one. I'll offer it to you in his words:

The preacher hikes up his robe as he mounts the steps to the pulpit. He looks out on the congregation, and there they are. The 16-year old who feels life stirring within her body, but no one else knows. The bank vice-president who twice that week has contemplated suicide. The six-year old whose mother slips him a life-saver and magic marker. The college sophomore, home for the weekend, who slumps forward with his chin in his hands. The high-school math teacher trying to erase from his memory last week's trip to a “Gentlemen’s Club.” He carefully folds the bulletin and slips it under his knee.

              The preacher turns on the lectern light, deals out his note cards like a riverboat gambler. The stakes have never been higher. They're all there. They're all listening. Even the preacher is listening. But what will the preacher tell them?

And here we are—each of us with our secret sins, our boredom, our quiet desperations. And here is the Scripture, open before us. What does it have to say to us today—with all its big words and lofty language: resurrection and inheritance, salvation and glory? Is there any word here that can make a difference in our lives? That can find us and speak to us right where we are?

            Yes, there is such a word. One word in particular that is perhaps the word we need to hear more than any other. The word is hope. "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope … ."

            Last time I preached here I began a series on the book of 1 Peter designed to help us live as God's people in a world that seems to be drifting out of control and farther from God. We asked: "who in the world are we supposed to be," and "what in the world are we supposed to be doing?" We learned that we are to be Deliberate Strangers—people of purpose in a world that's not our true home. We're only passing through this world, but we wake up every morning with a mission: to live such good lives among the people that they may see our good deeds, and be ready to meet God on the day he visits them. The sign we see as we leave the church parking lot is NOT just a sign. It is a reminder. This morning we're going to learn that we are to be people of hope.

            On the closing night of the 2004 Republican convention, President Bush stepped out into the audience at Madison Square Garden and spoke of a more hopeful America. It was an interesting theme. His counterpart, John Kerry, a few weeks earlier had promised a stronger America, and most of us expected President Bush to strike the same theme. But instead, he spoke about hope. If we were to ask the American people if they were hopeful about the future, what would they say?

            Are we hopeful about our nation's security? Do we feel safer with every year that passes after 9/11, or do we fear that it's only a matter of time before terror strikes again? Not "if" but "when." Are we hopeful about the economy? If I watched the Stock Mkt. every day it would drive me crazy.  How hopeful are you about your financial future, about your investments, your job security, your retirement?

            How hopeful are we about our children's future? Do we believe our children will be better off than we are? Will they be healthier, safer, more prosperous? What about our environment? Will we save the rain forests? And what about the moral climate in our country? Are we going to drift further and further into the fog of relativism?

            In 1990, 7 out of 10 people reported feeling hopeful about the future. In 2001, the number had slipped to 1 in 5. No wonder President Bush spoke about hope in his speech. It's what we need right now.  It is this same theme that helped Barak Obama to become our present President.

            And hope was what the early Christians needed in the year 63 A.D.  When this book of the Bible was probably written, it was a letter written by the apostle Peter to believers scattered throughout Asia Minor. They were far away from Jerusalem and Judea, where Christianity began. They were surrounded by unbelievers, people who worshipped no god (or the many gods of Greece and Rome). It had been nearly 30 years since Jesus left the Earth, ascending to heaven on a cloud. At first, they expected him to return almost any day. But now, after so many years, the believers began to realize that they might be in for a long haul. Some were beginning to wonder if he would ever return at all, like some of us.

            Not only that, the more time passed, the more uncomfortable it became for followers of Christ. As the church grew and expanded throughout the empire, the opposition increased as well. The Jewish population considered the Christians to be heretics, and the Romans viewed them as a threat and a nuisance. Nero hadn't begun throwing Christians to the lions yet, but the world was quickly becoming a scary and difficult place for followers of Christ.

            So here comes this letter from the apostle Peter to these scattered, struggling believers. At last they have some words of counsel and instruction on how they are to live in this frightening, godless environment. And what's the first thing Peter writes? "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope … " Praise be? Living hope? What's Peter so optimistic about? Doesn't he read the newspaper? Doesn't he watch TV? Doesn't he know what kind of world we're living in?

            Of course he knows. Better than many, he knows. He's been jailed more than once for his faith, and has seen his friends and co-workers killed for following Christ. But he also knows that followers of Christ are to be people of hope in a world that's running scared.

              Recently, some researchers at the University of Texas set out to determine why some elderly people tend to live longer than others, even when their physical conditions are comparable. They discovered that a key ingredient in the longevity of aging people was hope. Those people who had positive expectations about the future were more than twice as likely to live beyond three years as those who were not optimistic about the future. The researchers went on to suggest that physicians trying to diagnose a patient's condition should not only run the usual battery of tests, but should also learn to ask one simple diagnostic question, "Are you hopeful about the future?"

            That's not only a helpful question for physicians to ask, but it comes in handy for pastors, as well. Are you hopeful about the future? The dictionary tells us that hope is "a wish or desire, with the expectation of fulfillment." We use the word hope when we want something good to happen. We hope for nice weather on the weekend. We hope the stock market will settle down.  We hope for things that we'd like to see happen. And there's a possibility that these things will happen. But when we use the word hope, there's always an element of uncertainty.  We won't know for sure until we get there.

            But when the Bible uses the word hope, it is always with a sense of certainty. There's no question about the outcome. In the Bible, hope is a sure thing. So Peter is telling his readers, and telling us, that as followers of Christ we are to be people of hope—even when the world around us is becoming more unpredictable, more difficult, and more godless. Whether we live in the 1st century or the 21st century, we are to live with a sense of optimism, of confidence, and of ultimate victory. In New Orleans you see things that would curl your hair. But as people of purpose, we wake up each day with a sense of mission—pointing people toward God. As people of hope, we wake up each day with a sense of expectancy—believing that God is going to do something good.

            But why? As we've already pointed out, there are plenty of reasons to fear the future. Nevertheless, I find at least three reasons why followers of Christ should be the most hopeful people in the world.

The future is bright.

First, for followers of Christ, the future is bright. I'm looking again at Peter's words in verse 3: "In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." New birth. What's more hopeful than a new birth? Laurie and II have a new grandbaby, Jude Dominic.  Look at him.  Isn’t he the most beautiful baby boy you’ve ever seen? That's how every proud parent and grandparent feels. Anything's possible for this smart, beautiful, baby! And so it is for those who are born again through faith in Jesus Christ.

            To be born again is to be born spiritually from the inside out. It's a fresh start, a new beginning. You can become a new person, the person you're supposed to be. You can become a great mother, a great neighbor, a great husband, a great friend, a person of hope and joy.  That fresh start is possible because of God's great mercy. He forgives us. Our sins and failures don't need to haunt us anymore.

            Peter had experienced this firsthand. He'd failed miserably—denying his Lord three times. He went out and wept bitterly over it. The shame and failure was so deep that there was nothing in the world that could free him from it. Not a good night's sleep. Not the dawn of a new day. Not even the love and support of his friends. It would take a resurrection to release Peter from the pain and failure of his past. It would take the risen Lord, standing before Peter, forgiving him—not once or twice, but three times—and then speaking the words he longed to hear more than any other: "Follow me." It was like a new birth for Peter. Suddenly, the future was bright. He could be the person, the disciple, he'd always wanted to be.

            And that's what we all want: a fresh sense of God’s love and power in our lives.  We want to be free from the mishaps and heartache of the past; to put it behind us once and for all and be born anew into a living hope.  And that's what we all want: to be free from the mistakes and mishaps and failures of the past. BUT ARE WE?  Or are we still being influenced by them?? The divorce, the depression, the addiction; the hurtful things we've done and said. We can't rewrite history, but we can be released from it. We can move beyond it. And new birth makes that possible.

            Is there something in your past that's haunting you? Some sin or failure ? Something that keeps you from being hopeful about the future? You, too, can be born again. You can be forgiven, healed, and set free to become the person you were created to be—have always wanted to be. That's the first step toward becoming a person of hope.

The future is secure.

            We can be people of hope because our future is bright and, secondly, because our future is secure. I'm looking at verses 4–5: and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

            The inheritance that Peter is speaking about is eternal life. A home in heaven. We don't know much about heaven, but we know it is a real place where we will enjoy fellowship with God and his people for ever and ever and ever and ever. It's a realm of beauty and belonging and purpose and love—no sickness or mourning or crying or pain. If you are a Christian, if you have been born again through faith in Christ, that inheritance is yours. It already has your name on it.

            And that inheritance can never perish, spoil, or fade. No matter how much time passes, no matter what happens to you in this life, no matter how many mistakes you make along the way, no matter how corrupt the environment around you becomes, nothing can threaten or diminish that inheritance. Peter says it is "kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power."

            It's not hard to determine whether or not a person is a Christian in the biblical sense of that word. All it takes is one question, "If you were to die tonight, would you go to heaven?" Some people will answer that question by saying, "I think so. I hope so." What they mean is that they hope they have been good enough or religious enough or sincere enough to pass the test. But there's uncertainty, isn't there? Considerable uncertainty. Because who's good enough to meet God's standards? What if they followed the wrong religion? How sincere do you have to be? No wonder people are afraid of death.

            Ask that same question to a follower of Christ—"If you were to die tonight, would you go to heaven?"—and he or she will answer, "Absolutely." Not "I think so" or "I hope so," but "I know so." Because their entrance to heaven isn't earned by their good works or religion or sincerity. It is simply received by faith, when we turn to God in repentance and invite Christ to be the Savior and the Lord of our lives. Vs. 7 - These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

             It has nothing to do with pride or arrogance or presumption, because salvation is God's work, accomplished by Christ, and made available to every human being through faith.  Do you have that sense of security? Do you know for certain that you are going to heaven when you die? If so, then you can be a hopeful person as you make your way through this world.

The future is already here.

            Now, this could sound like a lot of happy talk—pie in the sky in the sweet by and by. It plays well in church on a Sunday morning, but the world can be a nasty place sometimes. It's nice to know we have a home in heaven, but most of us don't expect to be going there any time soon. We need hope for today, for our present circumstances, for the realities of life.

            And in the final verses we discover that, for followers of Christ, the future is not only bright and secure, the future is already here. Look one more time at 1 Peter 1:6–9: "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls."

            Peter knew this world could be a tough place, especially for followers of Christ. He'd been imprisoned for his faith; he'd been ridiculed and ostracized and run out of town. But he also knew the joy of being God's servant; of living each day in fellowship with him, of experiencing God's presence in his most difficult moments. The glory and wonder of heaven was already his, the future had already arrived.

              Remember that inheritance we talked about earlier? How hopeful we could be if we knew we had a sum of money that would become ours someday? Well, now imagine if that inheritance were available to you now. You could begin drawing on it right away, even though it's not fully yours yet. What a difference that would make in your life. Think about how bold you could be with your investments, how generous you could be with your giving, how free you could be in choosing your life's work. It would change everything.

            So it is for followers of Christ. The joy of God's presence, the peace that passes understanding, the community of fellow believers, the power of the Holy Spirit, the wonders of God's creative hand, the wisdom that comes from above, the work of the kingdom—it's all ours to enjoy now, in this life. No wonder we can be hopeful about the future— it's already here! And that changes everything.

            Some of you may be familiar with the story of Admiral Jim Stockdale, who was captured by the enemy during the Vietnam War. He was the highest-ranking officer in the infamous POW camp called the Hanoi Hilton. He was tortured over 20 times during his 8 years of imprisonment. At one point, he beat himself with a stool and cut himself with a razor, deliberately disfiguring himself so that he couldn't be put on a videotape as an example of a well-treated prisoner.

              Stockdale was asked to explain how he managed to overcome such brutality, not knowing if or when he would ever be released. He explained that some of the prisoners fixed their hopes on arbitrary deadlines—getting out by Christmas or in a certain number of years. When that time came and went, they would lose hope and often die. Stockdale chose to focus on life beyond his imprisonment—returning to his family and career. He says: "I never lost faith in the end of the story. I never doubted that I would not only get out, but also that I would prevail in the end, and turn the experience into the defining event of my life." That's hope, hope that reaches backward from the future to our present and gives us strength and courage for today.

            And that's what Peter's describing in these verses. Though you do not see him now, you believe in him, and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving already the salvation of your souls. The believers' hope is not pie-in-the-sky; it's bread on the table. How does the great hymn put it? "Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, “It is well, it is well with my soul. For the follower of Christ, the future is bright, the future is secure, and the future is already here. We already know the end of the story. No wonder we can be people of hope in a world that's running scared.  That is what we tried to share in New Orleans.  It what we hope to share everyday.

Conclusion

            So there they are: the preacher and the congregation, waiting. Waiting for a word that will make a difference in their lives. And the word they need to hear above all others is hope. For the pregnant teenager, hope means she can be forgiven, and she and her child can be born into a new life, a fresh start. For the depressed bank executive, hope means that life is worth living because God can do something good with his future. For the bored college student, hope means there's more to life than waiting around for the next fraternity party. There's truth to be discovered, a world to explore, meaningful work to be done to the glory of God.

            For the frazzled mom trying to get a few minutes peace to listen to a sermon, hope means that every day, as she cares for her child, she and he are being formed into the people God called and created them to be. For the math teacher, hope means he can be released from his bondage to sin and begin to enjoy God's good gifts in ways that are ultimately satisfying and honorable. For the preacher, hope means a message for every person looking up at him from their pew—the forgiveness of sins, the promise of heaven, and the confidence that God is at work in our lives producing and strengthening our hope.

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Deliberate Strangers
Figuring out who we are and why we're here
I Peter 1:1-2; I Peter 2:11-12

“Deliberate Strangers” Have you ever put down the newspaper—after reading about genocide in Sudan and the awful violence in Iraq and shootings in schools and sexual assault in suburbia—and said to yourself, "What kind of world do we live in?"

            Have you ever snapped off the TV—after surfing scenes of murder, mayhem, promiscuity, voyeurism, drunkenness, and downright stupidity—and said to yourself, "How low can we sink?"

Have you ever come home from a day at school or the office—after battling gossip, greed, laziness, dishonesty, foul language, and godless talk—and said to yourself, "I really just don't fit in there"?

Have you ever walked through a season of sorrow or hardship—having lost someone you love dearly, or suffered some disappointment—and said to yourself, "I wish the Lord would take me home right now"?

            I read recently there are as many Muslims in the United States as there are Jews—about 6 million. There are roughly 4 million Buddhists and 1 million Hindus. Certainly we celebrate diversity and champion religious freedom. At the same time, we know that all religious roads do not lead to a true knowledge of God. How do we carry ourselves in a pluralistic culture? How do we relate to our neighbors of other faiths, or of no faith?

            Many of us are troubled by the drift from the historical, biblical definition of marriage as the lifelong union between a man and woman. We are dismayed by how trivial human sexuality is treated in our culture, and by the many people who have been wounded by reckless and immoral behavior. How do we safeguard our own marriages and families? How do we relate to friends and family who choose lifestyles or relationships we believe are hurtful and ultimately disappointing?

            In recent years, our society has become more uncomfortable for people of faith, especially for followers of Christ.  In a recent article in Christianity Today, Harold O. J. Brown points to changes in the culture, to Supreme Court decisions, to trends in our schools and universities, and says, "Much of the nation … has been or has recently become in essence anti-Christian, anti-Jewish, anti-natural law, and implicitly or explicitly pagan"—pagan meaning godless. As American Christians, we've never had to live out our faith in a hostile environment. How do we do that?

            On Thursday and Friday of this past week, I worked hard to share with people and forward emails and then contacted our senators to try to stop the Senate Hate Crimes bill. It has been attached to the Defense Bill.  If it passes, it could be used to make it illegal for me to preach against the homosexual lifestyle.  It could also be used to protect Pedophiles and others of different sexual orientation.  Folks we need to wakeup.  Our world is changing.

            As I talk with people about these things, I find that many are concerned for their children growing up in a world like this. Some Christians are angry about the drift and decay of our culture; others are confused about what really is right and wrong. Still others are just plain weary from swimming upstream all the time, fighting the current of contemporary culture.

            So, how do we live as God's people in a world that is becoming more difficult and more hostile towards followers of Christ? Or, to put it another way, who in the world are we supposed to be, and what in the world are we supposed to be doing?

            In order to answer those questions, I'd like to lead you into a series of messages from the book of 1 Peter—a letter that was written to believers in a pagan, and occasionally hostile, environment. I'm calling today’s sermon, "Deliberate Strangers." If that title doesn't make much sense at the moment, I hope that it will by the end of the message. We're going to look at just a few verses in 1 Peter as we begin the series this morning. We'll start with 1:1–2, which are the opening verses. Then we'll look at 2:11–12, which are the theme verses of the letter.

Who in the world are we?

            We learn in these opening verses that this letter was written by Peter. At the end of the letter, we read that he is writing from "Babylon," which was probably a code word for Rome. Nero had not yet begun his official persecution of the Christians, but followers of Jesus increasingly found themselves under suspicion and attack from Greek, Roman, and Jewish sectors of society. Kind of similar to what we are facing today.

            The letter is written "to God's elect." In other words, he's writing to believers—to men and women who have been drawn by the sovereign hand of God the Father, cleansed of their sins by the shed blood of God the Son, and made holy, "sanctified", by the work of God the Holy Spirit. The word Trinity never appears in the Bible, but passages like this reveal that we worship one God who exists and works eternally in three Persons.

            The recipients of the letter live in the Roman provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappodocia, Asia, and Bythinia. These provinces are located in what we would now call Turkey. It appears that there were both Jewish and Gentile believers in the churches. In other words, Jews who had come to recognize Jesus as their Messiah, and Gentiles who had converted from paganism or from the polytheistic religions of Greece and Rome.

            The most interesting word used to describe these believers is the word "strangers," which appears in verse 1. It's such an unusual word to use that we have to believe Peter was calling attention to it; that he's trying to communicate something about our identity as followers of Christ. It's such an important word that he uses it again in 2:11, where he refers to believers as "strangers and aliens."

These aren't the first words we might choose to describe ourselves. Who here wants to be strange? We hear the word "alien"-and think of bad science fiction movies. Now, what's he trying to get across by using these words? In the Greek language, in which the letter was written, the word translated “alien" or "foreigner" describes a person who resides in a given place but has no legal rights or protection in that place—they're not citizens of the land in which they are living. The other word, usually translated "stranger" or "sojourner," refers to a temporary resident of a place—someone who is passing through on their way to somewhere else.

            Now, why did Peter use these words to describe his readers? Were they literally aliens and strangers who were living temporarily in Asia Minor to escape persecution, or for some other reason? That may have been true for some of them, especially the Jewish believers who had relocated from Judea. But it's unlikely that all of them were fleeing persecution. Certainly some of these believers had come to faith right there in Asia, where they were living and working and probably had been raised. So Peter must be using the word metaphorically to identify their status in the world as followers of Christ. Spiritually speaking, they were aliens and strangers.

            And the same is true for us—for believers scattered throughout U.S. 2,000 years later. Like the original recipients of the letter, we have been called, saved, and brought into God's family by the work of the triune God. And, as followers of Christ in a culture that is increasingly ungodly, we are aliens and sojourners. And we dare not forget that.

Eleven years ago Laurie, Matthew, Faith, and I moved to the mountains from the piedmont.  Just like now, there were a lot of people here from Florida or from somewhere north via Florida. Franklin was growing so fast that many of you locals weren't happy about it. So some fold started putting bumper stickers on their cars—that had one word on them: NATIVE. They wanted everyone to know that they were born and raised in Macon County, and were not like the Johnny-come-latelies. Before long, I noticed cars with the word TRANSPLANT on them. They wanted everyone to know that, even though they came from somewhere else, they'd put down roots here and intended to stay; at least for 6 months every year.

            The longer you live in a place, the more comfortable you begin to feel and the more you find yourself shaped by your surroundings. For a Piedmont boy, I have fallen in love with these mountains. But when a Christian begins to feel at home in the world, that's a problem. So Peter reminds his readers and us that we are aliens and strangers in this world. Specifically, he wants us to remember three things.

First, this world is not our home.

            We really don't belong here. So we shouldn't be surprised when we don't fit in—when people misunderstand us or keep their distance. That's not always easy to take. We like to belong. We want to fit in. But we won't sometimes, and we shouldn't. If you live in a community that chases money and status and image, and you find yourself trying to keep up, something's wrong. If being popular is more important than being moral, something's wrong. If you work in an environment that exploits people and compromises integrity, and that doesn't bother you anymore, something's wrong. If you find your sexual values and lifestyle being shaped by the culture around you, something's wrong. Remember, we're strangers here—aliens. This world is not our home. We are to live for God alone.

Second, we are temporary residents.

            Some of us will remember a time when there was no such thing as contemporary Christian music, until a guy named Larry Norman came on the scene. He was one of the original Christian rock-and-rollers. He sang a song about the weirdness and confusion of the world around us, and he titled it, "Don't Ask Me. I'm Only Visiting This Planet." As goofy as that sounds, it's true. We're only visiting. Some of us remember even farther back to an old gospel chorus, "This world is not my home, I'm just a passin' through."  We are going to sing that at the end.

            That's important to remember, because when you're just passing through, you don't let yourself get too attached. You don't accumulate a lot of stuff. You're careful about how much time and money and energy you invest in a place that you're not going to be living in for the long-haul. So if you find yourself spending most of your discretionary time on your lawn or your boat or your couch or your Playstation, something's wrong. If you find yourself channeling your deepest passion and best energy towards getting one more degree or climbing the next rung of the corporate ladder, something's wrong. If you're spending a lot of money on things you can't take with you when you leave, something's wrong. Because you're only visiting this planet. You're just passing through.

Third, our true home is in heaven.

            Earth is not our final destination. Paul says, "Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there." While there is much to be enjoyed in this world, our deepest needs and highest longings will never be satisfied by anything the world has to offer. Don't be surprised when the world disappoints you. Don't doubt God's goodness when things don't always work out in this life. Don't despair when evil seems to triumph, and virtue is trampled on. Don't give up when the life of faith doesn't seem to be paying off. Your reward is yet to come. Too many Christians expect too much from this world. We forget that we are pilgrims on our way to a better land. It's fine to enjoy the sights and sounds along the way, but we never want to take our eyes off the horizon and our final destination.

            So we've answered the first question: who in the world are we? We're strangers—aliens and sojourners. We don't belong; we're only passing through, and heaven is our final home.

What in the world are we supposed to be doing?

            But that begs another question: why are we still here? If heaven is our ultimate destination, why doesn't God take us there right away? Jesus told his disciples, "In my father's house are many mansions, I go there to prepare a place for you." If there's a mansion waiting for me in heaven, I'd just as soon move in right now, because the house I'm currently living in has a leaky basement and peeling paint and monthly payments that are killing me! So why didn't Jesus take us with him when he returned to heaven? What, in the world, are we supposed to be doing?

We're here, Peter tells us, to fulfill a mission. The Lord left us here because he has work for us to do. Peter makes that clear in both verses. In 1:1 we read, "To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bythinia." That word "scattered" is an interesting one. Remember, this letter was written by Peter, who heard the Lord speak many times about the kingdom being like seed scattered in fields and along the road. Peter wants his readers to understand that they didn't end up in places like Pontus and Galatia by accident, but by the purposeful hand of God. He had scattered them like so many seeds to bear fruit for the kingdom.

            And the same is true for us—for God's elect scattered throughout Western NC, the Piedmont, North Georgia. You didn't end up in your neighborhood, your school, your workplace, by accident. God sent you there on a mission to bring the good news of the kingdom. I believe that God called the Newells to Macon County. I believe you are here because God has brought you here for a purpose. We are scattered in the world on purpose.

            In 2:12, Peter makes the mission even clearer: "Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good works and glorify God on the day he visits us." The quality of our lives, the integrity of our character, the excellence with which we work or study, the beauty of our marriages, the depth of our friendships—these things ought to capture people's imagination. The quality of our lives is to make such an impact on others that they want to know how they can enjoy victory in life like we do.  They ought to cause people to stop and think about God and prepare themselves to meet him. Once again, Peter is echoing the words of his Master, who said, "Let your light so shine before people that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven."

            Some years ago a book and a movie came out titled, The Accidental Tourist. The central character was a man who wrote travel guides for different parts of the world. In order to write these books, he had to travel to these places himself and spend days or weeks in foreign and sometimes exotic locations. As the story unfolds, we learn that all this traveling is really just running away from the emptiness of his own life. We learn that he never really experiences any of the places he visits. He eats American whenever he can. He avoids interacting with the local inhabitants. He does not affect, nor is he affected by, the places he visits. He just drifts from place to place—an accidental tourist.

How different it is for Christ's people as we make our way through this world. We don't find ourselves in these places by accident, but on purpose—God's purpose. We're not simply taking in the sights and sounds along the way, detached and unaffected. We're here to mix it up with our neighbors and co-workers and friends, to be touched by their needs and to touch them with the healing, saving, transforming love of God.

            We are not accidental tourists, but deliberate strangers. We wake up every morning with an agenda. We arrive at school and the office on a mission. We run our errands and raise our children with a sense of purpose: to live our lives in such a way that people may see our good works, and be ready to meet God. And we do it with a sense of urgency, because we know we're only here for a short while.

            Who in the world are we? Aliens and sojourners. What in the world are we doing? Living lives of purpose that point people toward God. We have more to learn in the weeks to come, but it begins with the understanding that we are deliberate strangers.

Which of those two concepts do you need to latch onto today? Have you forgotten that you're a stranger? Have you become too attached to the things of the world; too comfortable with the lifestyles of the lost and confused? Have you lost your sense of purpose? Are you just drifting through this life, enjoying sights and sounds without making any kind of impression—without inviting others to join you as you journey toward God?

            Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to live such good lives among the people that they may see your good deeds, and glorify God on the day he visits them.

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Living in HD: A Life of Contentment
Philippians 4:10-20

I think there are quite a few of us in this room that have a disease that has not yet been diagnosed. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but I think it is true. I mean, maybe you have this sense that there is something missing within you, that something isn’t quite right. I know that those symptoms are kind of generic. Let me see if I can give you some more specific symptoms so you can see if you have this. A man with this disease has been known to walk into his garage and to see a car that is less than two years old and runs perfectly and to think to himself, “I need to trade this in for another car.” A woman with this disease has been known to walk into a closet…into…not look at but into…meaning she is surrounded by clothes…and to say to herself, “I’ve got nothing to wear.” (Laughter) A person with this disease might look in the mirror and never like what they see, and they are always wondering how did they end up with their mom’s thighs and their dad’s nose. A person with this disease tends to compare their spouse to other people. I mean, they are always wondering if they couldn’t have gotten a better deal. They think they probably could have done a little bit better. I think this disease is to blame for a lot of the divorce in America. I know this disease is to blame for much of the consumer debt in America, because people with this disease oftentimes have three or four credit cards that are maxed out. I think you could blame almost all debt on this disease. This disease will make someone think that they always need to be making about twice as much money as they are currently making. And if you have this disease, it is really important that you not go to your friend’s new house—especially if they have granite countertops and you don’t, or if they have iron spindles on their staircase and you don’t, or if they have a finished basement and you don’t. I don’t know if any of these symptoms describe you, but there is this disease and it is known as the disease of discontentment, and it is an epidemic in our culture today. In our Western civilization, with all of our advantages and privileges, we are the most discontent people who have ever lived on the planet, anytime, anywhere.

            We try to treat this disease by self-medicating. So this year as a country we will spend nearly $1 billion in prescription drugs that will give us a sense of inner peace, a sense of contentment with life. And people will turn to alcohol, drugs, pornography, food—all these different ways—to try and treat this discontentment that they feel. I understand because discontentment will rob you of joy. I mean, it keeps you from living in HD.

            But here is the question: Is there a cure? I mean, is there a secret to finding contentment in our lives? Well, that is what Paul talks about here in Philippians 4. Listen to what he writes in verse 12. He says, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content.” “I have learned the secret of being content.”  Contentment is a learned thing.

            The first thing I want you to realize is that contentment is a learned thing. It doesn’t come naturally. We are not by nature content people. I think that we contract this disease of discontentment pretty early on in life.

            Laurie and I have 2 grandchildren.  Maris, our first, is learning to talk and doing very well. Jude is doing great also.  One word Maris seems to never have trouble with is: More!   
So empty Sippy cup? More! This! Another story to be read, more food, another ride in the wagon—everything is this. More! ..So just understand that this is natural.
Now here is the thing. As adults, it is the same: NOT  “contentment.”  it is still this: More! And do you know what we want when we get this (more)? We want More!

            Robert Hastings pictures us on a train ride. So imagine yourself going on this long journey on a train, and outside the window there are fields of corn and rolling hillsides and city skylines. But you don’t really notice those things on this train because you are absolutely focused on getting to the station. In your mind, you have decided that the station is the place where you will find fulfillment and satisfaction and happiness. So you walk up and down the aisles of the train looking at your watch, wishing the train could go faster, because if you could just get to that station everything would be good. Here is what Hastings says. He says, “The name of the train is More, and the name of the station is Contentment.”

            We think this will get us there. When I get to the station… When I just turn sixteen and get my driver’s license… When I get my degree… When I have enough money to buy the Jag… When I lose the weight… When I find Mr. or Miss Right… When we can retire comfortably… When. When I get to the station, I will find happiness. The train called More is always headed to a station called Contentment.

            Is that the secret that Paul is talking about? That the way to find contentment is just to get more? Because this is the message that is communicated to us by our culture constantly. We are bombarded by messages that remind us of things we don’t have and mostly don’t even need.

            Every year there are fifty billion mail order catalogs that are published in America. All of them designed to make us think we need this, that we just need a little bit more. And for every hour of TV there is at least 55 minutes of commercials.  I mean, “Am I right?” Is that the secret to contentment?

            To be honest, if we were really pushed on what it would take to make us content, we would describe this. We would describe that our life needs more of something. We would describe a change in circumstance or a change in our situation. But do you hear what Paul said? In verse 12 he says, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.” “In any and every situation…” Here is the thing: contentment is an intrinsic thing. It comes from WITHIN. It is not based on the externals.

            So contentment doesn’t come and go based on the size of your bank account, or the age of your car, or the strength of the stock market or the housing market. It is not based on the prognosis from the doctor or the shape of your body. These things on the outside don’t bring us lasting contentment.

            So here is the question: If it comes from within and it is something that we learn, then what lessons do we need to learn in order to have this contentment that can be found in any and every situation?

A. Lesson # 1: Rejoice in the Lord.

            I think it is here for us in chapter 4. Look at verse 10. Paul says, “I rejoice greatly in the Lord.” That is lesson number one—to rejoice in the Lord. I can be content in any and every situation if I will be disciplined. And it takes discipline. If I will be disciplined enough to look to the window of that train and to see all the ways God is blessing, to take note of His grace and His forgiveness and the promise of eternal life. I always have a reason to rejoice in the Lord because He has given me what I could never deserve, what I could never earn on my own. There is a joy there; there is a peace there that can’t be matched.

            So when is the last time you did this, when you just listed the blessings that come from God? Whatever situation is going on out here, you know that inside you can rejoice in the Lord.

            A missionary returned from the Island of Tobago where she worked with a leper colony. On the evening before she came back to the United States, she led that leper colony in a time of worship, and she asked them, “Is there anyone here who has a favorite song they would like to sing?” A fingerless hand was raised in the back row, and a woman with no ears and no nose, a woman whose face was disfigured, said, “Could we sing, ‘Count your many blessings?’” Hmmm… Whatever the situation, whatever the circumstance, there is still reason to rejoice in the Lord.

            Well, Paul goes on in verse 10 and he says, “I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it.” And then he says in verse 11… I think this is interesting. He says, “I am not saying this because I am in need.”   He doesn’t think of himself as someone in need, but he is in need. I mean, he is under house arrest and if he doesn’t get the money to pay for this house, he is going to be thrown into prison. He has to have money for food. He is in need. He has been unjustly held as a prisoner without any kind of charge for years. He needs. He needs freedom. He needs justice. He needs some sort of satisfaction there. At any time he could be executed, and he needs some comfort. But he doesn’t think of himself as someone who is in need? Why?

            I think it is because Paul has learned not to compare himself, his life and what is happening in his life to other people. Because nothing robs us of contentment quicker than comparisons. So here is lesson number two: Resist comparing to other people.

Lesson # 2: Resist comparing to other people.

            Resist comparisons to others. In 1 Corinthians Paul says, “Don’t compare or classify yourself. Don’t compare yourself with other people. It is not wise.”

            There was a study done in Muncie, Indiana. They found that there was a large percentage of women in Muncie who were working but they didn’t need to work and they didn’t want to work. So there was a sociological study done to see why these women, who didn’t need to work and didn’t want to work, were working. The number one reason was to be able to afford things that other people already had whether they needed them or not.

            We are always comparing. And have you noticed this about our comparisons? We always compare up. I mean, don’t you do that? I do. You see, if we compared down, if we compared to people who are less fortunate than we were, it would bring feelings of gratitude. We would be thankful for what we have. We don’t do that. We always compare up. And no matter what level we reach, we are always comparing to the person who is on the level ahead of us. The problem with always comparing to people who have more is this: There is always someone who has more.

            So we keep comparing up and it creates these feelings of discontentment. We are happy, but then maybe you see someone who is happier. Or you are attractive, but you can always find somebody who is more attractive. Or you have money, but there is always someone with more money.

            There was a study that was done in Newsweek. People were asked, “What would it take to make you happy, to make you satisfied with life?” They found that people who made an average of $25,000 a year said that they would be content if they could just make $54,000. “If I could just make $54,000,” they said, “I would be satisfied with that. But the very same study…the same study…found that people who made $100,000 a year said they would be content if they could make $192,000 on average a year. Of course, the lesson was that contentment is basically found in twice as much as whatever you are currently making.

            So Paul resists comparing to other people. Listen to verse 12 in its entirety. It is our memory verse for this weekend. He says, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”

            Now Paul speaks to us as someone who has been on both sides of the tracks. He knows what it is to have a lot. He grew up in a pretty well-to-do family. He went to the right school. Yet here he is under house arrest, so he knows what it is to have little. There have been many tough times for Paul.

            He just wants to be clear on this fact: You may have a lot or you may have a little, but that is

not really what contentment is about. Because if you have a little now and you are not content, then you are not going to be content when you have a lot. Whatever you are now is what you are going to be then. And if you think that getting a lot will make you content, it won’t. In fact, if you are not content now, you’ll just be even more discontent when you have a lot; because the more you have, the more you are going to end up wanting. Proverbs says that human desires are like the world of the dead. There is always room for more.

            So if you are looking for material blessings to satisfy that need in you, you are never going to be content. It doesn’t matter if you have a lot or if you have a little. So here is lesson number three: Recognize what doesn’t bring contentment.

Lesson # 3: Recognize what doesn’t bring contentment.

              Because if material possessions, if external things could bring us contentment and life, we would be the most content people on the planet. According to the most recent census that was done, 76% of poor households in America have air conditioning. Thirty years earlier, only 36% of the entire U.S. population had air conditioning. In 1973 the average size of a house being built was just over 1600 square feet. Today the average size of a house being built is just under 2600 square feet. According to the census, 97% of poor households today have a color television; 78% of poor households have a VCR or DVD player; 62% of poor households have cable or satellite TV. If we could find contentment in material things, then we would be content.

            When I’ve visited Third World countries, I have always expected to see people who are miserable in their conditions. I mean, after all, how can you be happy without air conditioning and pizza…preferably at the same time? But how can you be happy without that? How can you be happy and content without a hot shower? But what I found was that, whether you are in the dumps of Haiti or in villages of Jamaica, a lot of these people didn’t struggle with discontentment at all. In fact, studies have shown that depression and discontentment are almost nonexistent in non-westernized cultures.

            So you’ve got to ask yourself, “Are material blessings really blessings?” Well, they are not blessings if you look to them to find contentment.

            I think eventually we all recognize that these things don’t bring contentment, but unfortunately, we have to learn it by the process of elimination. We don’t take someone else’s word for it. We think, “Well, I’m going to experience it for myself.” We kind of take Solomon’s approach to satisfaction. So it is like there is this buffet of all these different things that promise satisfaction. So we grab a plate; we look it over and think, “Do you know what I think would bring me contentment? Some success and some achievement.” So we load up. Sixty hour workweeks for years. We finally get the promotion and the title, and for awhile—maybe even for years—we are satisfied; we are content. But then that hunger returns.

            So we grab another plate and we go back to the buffet. This time we think, “Well, maybe money and material possessions would make me content.” So we build up the portfolio and we get the second home on the beach. You buy the BMW. And for a moment, those pains are gone, but then you are hungry again.

        So we grab another plate and we think, “Well, maybe it is a romantic relationship,” or “Maybe it is sexual pleasure,” or “Maybe it is entertainment. Maybe one of these things will satisfy.” And they do.  for a moment…but the hunger always comes back.

            So what is the secret? Where is contentment found? Paul gives it to us. Here is lesson number four: Jesus is all you really need.

Lesson # 4: Jesus is all you really need.

            It is kind of interesting that pretty much every message in this series has had the same conclusion. How do you have hope? Jesus. How do you have joy? Jesus. Where do you find humility? Jesus. it’s always Jesus.

            There is a sense in which I feel like that makes things so simple. It seems  a little bit trite. It’s like when you are in Sunday School and the answer to every question is Jesus.

            But it is true. It’s Jesus. it doesn’t mean you won’t have troubles or struggles. It doesn’t mean you won’t have trials in your life. But it means that Jesus is enough. He is enough.

Paul puts it this way in verse 13. He says, “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.” Paul has learned that contentment is not found in anything out here, but it is found in this inner strength that comes from a relationship with Jesus Christ. He is the only one who truly satisfies.

              And all of these things on the buffet line that we try to find satisfaction in… they all accomplish one thing: They all point us to the Living Water. They all point us to the Bread of Life, to Jesus Christ, the only one who satisfies. He is our cure for the disease of discontentment.

            There are so many other options out there, and they can mask this hunger we feel—at least temporarily. So we never really realize that Jesus is enough because we keep trying to satisfy this hunger with these other things. So we put it off—temporarily, a little bit at a time. I want you to listen to what Mother Teresa said. She said, “You will never know that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you’ve got.” I have been thinking about this issue of contentment a lot. And it doesn’t really matter if you are rich or poor. It all comes down to this: If Jesus is all you had, would He be enough? If Jesus is all you had, would Jesus be enough?

            I am thinking of this song:

I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold;

I’d rather be His than have riches untold;

I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands,

I’d rather be led by His nail pierced hand.

Than to be a king of a vast domain

Or be held in sin’s dread sway,

I’d rather have Jesus than anything

This world affords today.

            If Jesus is all you had, would He be enough? When we invite you into a relationship with Christ, the invitation is not just to accept, but it is to surrender. It is to say, “God, everything else I am giving to You, and I am accepting Your Son as my Lord and Savior.” If you are ready to make that decision or if you want to talk to someone about that, you can meet me right down front over here.

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“Living in HD: A Life of Joy”
Philippians 4:1-9

We’re in a series called, “Living in HD,” where we are looking at seven characteristics found in the book of Philippians.  But if you were to boil the entire book down to the most central theme, this week’s title would be the summary―Paul is calling every Christian to live a life of joy. 

              Whenever you talk about areas that deserve our attention and ways that we can really look different from the world, for some reason joyful living gets bumped to the background behind purity, holiness, humility, compassion, and honesty. 

            Now I’m not saying there's anything wrong with that.  Believe me, those are very important if we are going to earn the right to be heard by an unbelieving world, but please don’t discount joy.  Don’t push it to the side, because Paul is going to point out that if you can have joy in the midst of taxing circumstances then you probably have your priorities in order and you are living this life with eternity in mind. 

              Through joy Christians can look very distinctive from the rest of society.  If we are serious about living a high definition life then the joy of the Lord should be a characteristic of our lives that is evident to those around us.  Your joy is not dictated by your financial portfolio or determined by your kid’s grades.  But, if that were the case, Paul would be the last person on earth to have joy. Yet, Paul writes these words while chained to a guard and in danger of execution any moment. You could summarize Paul’s letter to the Philippians in one sentence: “Because of Jesus, you should have joy despite your circumstances. Think of it like this…Joy is a decision that you make each day when you wake up. 

The key verse in today’s passage is also our memory verse for this week.  It’s Philippians 4:4 which says, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”  Notice that joy is a command, “Rejoice always.”  This time I want you to read that verse with me, but I want you to put special emphasis on the word always: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice.”

            You see, joy, is more than happiness, it is more than watching things come together, it somehow goes beyond the excitement of the pay raise, the “A” on the test, or the first date with that special someone.  No, joy is different; it runs deep and long.  It is lasting and rich. 

            Paul is saying something that is the very opposite to what most people think.  Be joyful in the hospital waiting room, be joyful in the unemployment line, be joyful in your mediocre marriage, be joyful even at the funeral service for a close friend.  It is a command which means it involves a choice on our part.

            I love the story about a boy named JEB.  He grew up in Alabama. Every morning his mom would come into his room at 6:00 a.m. and wake him by gently shaking him and saying, “Jeb, this is going to be a great day!” Now a little kid at 6:00 in the morning had to get a fire going cause the house was cold, then help mom with the other chores.  One morning Jeb was so tired of his mother coming into his room every morning and saying, “Jeb, it’s going to be a grreat day!” finally she came in one morning and she woke him up and said, “O Jeb, it’s going to be a great day.” Well Jeb just looked at her and said, “Mom, this is going to be a terrible day! I’m tired, it’s cold, and I don’t want to get up.”  “Well,” she said, “Sweetheart, if you feel like that then just go back to bed.” Jeb couldn’t believe it. Mom walked out of the bed room and Jeb thought to himself, “Why haven’t I thought of this before??”  He woke up about 3 hours later.  The house was warm. O it was wonderful. He could smell breakfast.  He just knew it was ready and waiting for him. He got up and went into the kitchen and said, “Mom, the house is so warm and the breakfast smells so good and I’m so hungry.”  She looked at him and she said, “Sweetheart, you don’t get any breakfast this morning.”  Jeb replied, “What do you mean?” She said, “Honey, remember when I came into your room this morning and I said it was going to be great day and sweetheart, don’t you remember you said ‘No mom, it’s going to be a terrible day.’ Honey, as your mother I’m going to do my best to make it a terrible day.”  Back to his room he was sent. He had to stay there all day.  He couldn’t play, he couldn’t go out, he didn’t get anything to eat.  So he went back to bed for a few hours, but you know what it’s like. After a while you can’t sleep anymore.  By the time it was time to sleep that night, he couldn’t go to sleep.  As he tells this story, the next morning at 5:30 he was sitting up, wide awake, dressed, and when mom came in the door, he threw out his arms, and said, “Mom, this is going to be a greeaaattt day!!!”

            I don’t know how you are feeling this morning about God, about yourself, your neighbor, your family, your business, or whatever, but I am here to tell you that the attitude you have today is YOUR choice.

            You know what an oxymoron is?  It’s two contrasting words like: jumbo shrimp, tall jockey, partially complete, sure bet, alone together, short sermon. But let me suggest another one―joyless Christian. Could there be such a thing?  Could there be a Christ-follower who does not have the joy of the Lord in them? 

In John 10, what was it that Jesus Christ said to those who would follow Him?  “I have come that you may life and that you may have it to the fullest.” The King James Version says, “…that you may have life and have it more abundantly.”  In other words there’s a joy that permeates your life when Jesus lives in you.  It is based on an internal and eternal relationship with Jesus, not external circumstances. 

              Where’s your joy?  What’s your priority?  Joy is the inner knowledge and outward expression that comes from peace and contentment.  Don’t you love these summer weekends that include days like today―weekends when there’s a cooling shower, the sun is shining, when we come in and you’ve landed a killer parking spot at church and your extended family has a Sunday afternoon picnic and everyone is on speaking terms.  In those moments it’s easy to have joy―when things are well at work, your family is getting along, and you are in good health…at those times the joy comes naturally. 

            You see, I don’t need to preach a sermon on being joyful in the great times.  That’s ridiculous…On the sidelines – when things are going well – there are no lectures to be joyful.  But what if you were falsely imprisoned, you were separated from your friends, your health was waning, and you were under house arrest waiting to stand trial to either be executed, or rot in jail?  What then?  Well, the answer to that question depends on the source of your joy.  While facing those very trials – work pressure, separation from family, physical danger, no money to his name – this is how the Apostle Paul responds: “Rejoice in the Lord always.  I will say it again:  Rejoice!”

            So let me just walk through this passage.

            We’re going to find some ingredients for Joy.  Philippians 4: 1: “Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!”

            Paul is expressing his love and joy for the church in Philippi because they are his crown.  It symbolized an incredible victory that was taking place.  At the root of joy is a commitment to faithfulness. In the second verse we find the first ingredient for Joy which is UNITY.  The apostle Paul calls out a couple of ladies within the church whose joy had been robbed due to some disagreement they were having.  Philippians 4:2: “I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord.”  We’re not sure exactly what it was that Euodia and Syntyche were arguing about.

            Isn’t a shame that the only thing these two women are known or remembered for is their quarrelling?  That is the one sentence that will define their lives and existence for all time.  Their bitterness and dissension was affecting the mood of the entire congregation.

            “Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life” (verse 3).

            It is interesting to note that Paul felt led to announce this quarrel to the whole congregation in this letter.  These two ladies must have been very well known and so Paul was essentially mobilizing the entire church to mediate this problem and mend it, and he’s challenging a gentlemen named Clement to strive to bring resolution in this matter. 

            WHY?  Why is it so important that these two ladies get along?  Maybe because (as Paul points out), they had been diligent servants within the church.  Maybe it’s because God intends for His followers to live a life of joy, and when you are at peace with others the Lord knows it paves the way and primes the pump for joyfulness.  Paul saw that there can be no joy in a church if that church is quarreling. 

            When you’re bitter at someone, it’s impossible to have joy.  That’s one of the reasons why the Bible warns in Ephesians 4:26, 31,32: “Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.”  “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger…Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”  If you want to have joy, you must find a way to overcome your bitterness or to ask for forgiveness.  

            Peace and joy go hand in hand throughout the Bible for obvious reasons.  No wonder Paul wanted these two women to work out their disagreement―he wanted them to experience joy.  Look at verse 5: Paul says, “Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.”  Those times when you feel like your joy has been robbed, hold onto the fact that the Lord is near.  When our spirit is humble and teachable there is a gentleness and that is when the Lord can do His best work. 

Well there’s another ingredient or principle we need to see.  The second ingredient for Joy is that of PRAYER…

             Philippians 4:6: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  Take your problems and worries to God in prayer.  He gives you HIS peace which in turn leads to joy.  Paul is encouraging this church to not get so caught up in what’s going on in their lives that they lose their joy when they already know how the story is going to end.

            Paul gives us a tip for overcoming worry and it sounds so simplistic, but try it.  The next time you are feeling stressed…stop and pray.  Present your requests to God.  For the Philippians their lives were bound in their worries and anxiousness.  Paul knows what the natural byproduct of anxiety and worry is – to take our lives into our own hands – and that can rob your joy real quickly! 

              Sometimes we allow circumstances to rob us of our joy and we don’t look like joyful Christians whose future is settled.  Instead we look more like frustrated sourpusses.  Have you seen the T shirt that says, “If you have Jesus down in your heart then please notify your face”?

            Notice that Paul says in verse 6 that we should offer these prayers “with thanksgiving.”  Ungrateful people are miserable people. Have you noticed that?  Ingratitude is a joy stealer.  So when you present your requests to God, remember to say a prayer of thanksgiving as well:

“Thank you, Lord, that even though my boss is sometimes harsh with me, thank you that I have a good paying job.”

“Thank you, Lord, for friends and family who care about me.  Even though I don’t always feel that, I know that they do.”

“Thank you for a church that has traffic jams because it reminds me that so many people have come to hear the gospel and to worship you.”                                                                                                      “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  When Paul says that the peace of God transcends all understanding he is saying that the peace of God is something that our minds can never manufacture or create.  It is a peace that is only found in Christ.  It is a peace that can only occur when we place our lives in God’s hands.  Brothers and Sisters:  THAT IS A CHOICE.  We all have choices.  We can choose to reflect God’s joy in us or we can choose to reflect our grumpiness. There is one more ingredient I want you to see.  For you to truly experience joy, the final ingredient is DISCERNMENT.  Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.”  This is the filter we are to run everything through:
‘whatever is pure, whatever is right, whatever is noble, whatever is admirable...think about such things.’” 

Remember this: Is it true, is it noble, is it right, is it pure, is it admirable and lovely?  Think about these things. 

I think we all have to ask ourselves if that’s the criteria in our homes, in our water cooler office conversations, how we act in the stands at the game, what we say about people behind their backs.  Is it true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy? TODAY is Father’s Day.  Fellow DADs, we set the tone.  The Bible is clear about that.  We are to establish what it takes to make the criteria and atmosphere of our home lives pure and right and noble, admirable, worthy of praise.  I want to challenge us to that today.  To do that as a dad and as a Christian,

            Paul didn’t just say, “Rid your mind of unwholesome things.  He said to think about positive things.  Remember the story that Jesus told about the demon a man swept out of his house?  The man swept the house clean but didn’t fill it with anything, and the demon returned with seven of his friends.  It’s not enough just to clear out; fill your mind with good things:

• Bible reading                                                           

• Christian music or preaching

• Enriching conversation with family and friends

• Meditate on a memory verse

              Colossians 3:2: “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”  Sometimes that means we have to make serious choices to rid our lives of those things that pollute our mind and take away our joy.

            Carl Sandburg wrote: “There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud.”  You know, we can all think of times when we’ve soared and we can also think of times that we’ve wallowed.

Joy starts with what you put into your eye-gate, and what you put in your ears.  You can control what you dwell on.  You may not be able to control what pops in your mind, but you can truly control what you dwell on.  And you can have joy.

            I’m thinking of a young lady in our church who has MS.  For her to walk from here to the other side of the church is sometimes a chore. I’m thinking of families who are going through a whole lot of adversity.  And yet week after week they continue to say, “God has a plan and He is at work unfolding it in our lives.”

            I’m thinking of a woman who has been diagnosed with cancer again!  And yet, she says whatever the Lord wills.  I’m thinking of a man( Rick Litchfield) who has had reasons to give up on his marriage.  But yet he has chosen to remain joyful and, instead of getting bitter, he has chosen to somehow make his marriage better.

            James writes in James 1:2, 3: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.”  Even when we are ridiculed for our faith, or when things aren’t going our way, the Bible says we can still have joy.

            Joy is based on an inner commitment not on outward circumstances.  Happiness depends on happenings, but joy depends on Christ.

             “Rejoice in the LORD always, I will say it again―Rejoice.” 

            Joy is not something that just happens, but it is a process that occurs as we surrender  ourselves to God.  We have to hear the Gospel, learn the scriptures, receive Christ as our Savior, and see Jesus in others.  Once these things have taken place there is no excuse for us to not have the joy that is available to all Christians.  Here’s the KEY:

Hebrews 12:2 says: “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”  The Hebrew writer goes on to say, “Consider Jesus and what He endured so you don’t lose heart.”  Let me ask you this question, ‘What was the joy that was set before Jesus?’  Think about it.  You see, Jesus Christ came and put all of his desires – subordinated all of His desires – to something and we are told that it was His joy...for the joy that was set before him He ran the race―He endured the pain of the cross.” 

            “What was the joy that caused Him to endure all of that?  Was it a crown?  Was it that He wanted the glory?  He had glory.  Was it God.  He had God.  A relationship with the Father?  He had a great relationship with the Father.  All before, so why would He have come down here?  What joy did He not already have?”

            “You know what it was, the only thing that He did not already have…was you!  Was me!  Was us!  The joy that was set before Him was us.  He had everything else.  He had a Father, He had the glory, He had a crown, He had the authority of the entire universe, the only thing that He did not have was us.  And if He loved you like that and if you were His joy then He can become your joy.”

            I urge you today…if you don’t have that joy in your heart – in your life – and you are controlled by circumstances, I am asking you to turn your life over to Jesus Christ―the One who embodied joy.  And when He hung on a cross He had his mind on you and that was the joy that kept Him going through it.  If you’ve never turned your life over to Christ then maybe today is the day.  If you’re already a Christian maybe you need to become a part of this joy-filled fellowship (Patton) (Memorial) Church.

            Come as we sing: “He Touched Me.”

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Living in HD: A Life of Hope (Part 2)
Philippians 3:1-21

Last week I began with  Romans 5:5 he speaks of hope this way. He says that there is a hope that doesn’t disappoint. I don’t know about you, but I am interested in a hope like that. As I shared last Sunday, It has been my experience that hope almost inevitably leads to disappointment. We are by nature hopers. We are always hoping. But it seems like we are almost always disappointed.  

            So Paul compiles this list of very impressive things that many people would have put their hope in, and his conclusion is…he says, “I consider them…” and here is the key word: “...rubbish.  “I consider them rubbish.”

            Now the Greek word for rubbish in this passage is the word: Remember? Skubala. Say that with me: skubala.   This translation of skubala (rubbish) is dung or excrement, but even those are kind translations. I want to remind you that the word Paul is using here is a very strong word. I mean, he is passionately trying to communicate to people how he considers these things. But, as you read through this, Paul calls them dogs and mutilators of the flesh. He talks about skubala. He is passionate about communicating to his readers, “Don’t put your hope in these things.”

Now there is another key word I want you to notice. When Paul says, “I consider everything a loss compared…” And that is the word—compared. “…to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” You see, there are a lot of things on his list and there are a lot of things on our list that aren’t wrong. In and of themselves they are fine. But when they become too valuable to us, when we put our hope in them that is when the problem arises. So Paul says, “Compared to knowing Christ all of these other things are really just garbage. It is rubbish.”

            Have you ever thrown away something valuable? I have. It is a terrible feeling when you discover it and there is no way to get it back. There are some things that just don’t belong in the garbage, and that is how Paul’s readers would have seen this list. And Paul says, “No, no. Compared to knowing Christ it is rubbish. It’s all rubbish.”

            So I started to think about my list—some things in my life that can become a little too valuable, some things that I sometimes put my hope in. I thought maybe a good exercise for me to do…and I just want to take a few minutes and do this in front of you…is to take some things and symbolically put them in the garbage and say, “You know what? Compared to my love for Christ, these seemingly valuable things really are just rubbish.”

            Now I want to encourage you to do this with your list.  This is my wallet, and it is easy to put your hope in money. I mean, money promises us comfort, promises us security. We think if we have enough of this all of our needs will be met. Society holds up this lifestyle of indulgence that is pretty appealing to most of us, and this is what it takes to live that lifestyle. So we put our hope in money. And the Bible describes money as God’s chief competition. One way you know if this is where your hope is, is how you do when it starts to disappear. But compared to knowing Christ, it really is just rubbish.                                                                                 

            This is my college degree, and it represents a lot of work. I don’t know about you, but when I grew up I was often told that a key to a good life is a good education. A good education will solve a lot of life’s problems. So it is easy to put your hope in your education. It is easy to put your hope in information. But you can know advanced mathematics, the periodic table and world history, be a whiz at finding information on the web,  but if you don’t know Jesus, you put your hope in the wrong thing. You know, something else that might go in here would be this, my wedding ring…and I’m sure we’ll talk about this when I get home.(HaHa).  But the truth is, you know, I love my wife. I’m head over heels in love with my wife. I’m going to go ahead and put that back on.  You know, I’ve got a picture of my family here. I love my kids and I would die for any of them at a moment’s notice. And yet, when I compare them to my love for Christ… Don’t get me wrong. The Bible teaches clearly that we are to love our family. I think my faith makes me a much more loving husband and father. But compared to…compared to how much I love Jesus….         

Jesus talks about this very thing in Luke chapter 14. Great crowds are following Him, and He turns to these crowds and here is what He says. He says, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.”  Now, obviously, Jesus isn’t saying that you should literally hate your family. The point again is compared. Compared to our love for Christ, everything else should pale in comparison.  He is where our hope lies.

            I was thinking about some other things, like the car that we drive. The car we drive can become too valuable. And I was thinking about my house…the house that you live in…a little bigger house, nicer counter tops, big upgrade. We can put our hope in those things. I’ve got a remote control in here. I mean, we can put our hope in entertainment and the lives of entertainers. It can become way too valuable. All these things aren’t wrong in and of themselves, but in comparison to our relationship with Jesus we need to be able to say they are rubbish. Our hope is in Him alone. And Paul warns his readers, “Don’t get caught up in making these valuable things too valuable.”

He goes onto say in verses 13 and 14: “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

            Usually when you hear this passage taught on, forgetting what is behind, the focus is on forgetting past mistakes and past failures. That is a legitimate biblical truth, but that is not Paul’s focus here. He is saying, “I am going to forget about my achievements. I’m going to forget about my success. I am not going to put my hope in those things. My hope is in Jesus Christ.”

            In September, 2007 Newsweek reported that Americans believe in God by a margin of 92 to 6, with only 2% saying they didn’t know. But they told about one astronomer by the name of Carolyn Porco who is attempting to replace hope in God with hope in science. Here is what the article had her saying:
Science itself should attempt to supplant God in a western culture by providing the benefits and comforts people find in religion: community, ceremony and a sense of awe. Imagine congregations raising their voices in tribute to gravity, the force that binds us all to the earth and the earth to the sun and the sun to the Milky Way.

             But even Porco admits that science has its limitations. Here is what she says later in the article: “The people who want to know that they are going to live forever and meet mom and dad in heaven…we can’t offer that.” Well, that is a pretty big one. And there are a lot of other things science can’t offer. It can’t offer purpose. It doesn’t tell us why we are here. It can’t offer peace. It is only through Jesus Christ we have a hope that does not disappoint, the hope of eternal life with Him in heaven.

            In verse 15 Paul says, “All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently (differently than I do), that too God will make clear to you.” I really like this approach. If you don’t’ get it yet, God will make it clear if you seek Him.

            In verse 16 he says, “Only let us live up to what we have already attained.” Verse 16 helps us understand the difference between hope in the way Paul talks about it and hope in the way we think of it.  We usually think of hope this way—as wishful thinking. We hope something will happen. It’s a long shot, but we’re hoping for it. When Paul speaks of hope, he speaks of hope as confident assurance. It’s not a question of if it exists. Verse 16 says it has already been attained. It is just a question of when because he knows the end of the story. We know how the story ends, so we have a confident assurance as our hope.

             So here is Paul under house arrest—unjustly held, facing execution—but he knows the end of the story. I don’t know what chapter of your life is being written. I don’t know what kind of disappointment you are experiencing. But if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, then I know and you know the end of the story. That is where our hope lies. In verse 20 it says, “But our citizenship is in heaven.” This is our memory verse for the week. I’ve already attained this citizenship. This would have made more sense to his readers, because Philippi was a Roman colony even though it wasn’t in Rome. So those living in Philippi had all the advantages of Roman citizenship even though they didn’t live there. And he is saying, “You are a citizen of heaven, even though heaven is not yet your home.” Say verse 20 with me. “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.” That is where our hope lies. “…who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”

That is the hope that we have. It is a hope that doesn’t disappoint.        

            There is a hope that doesn’t disappoint and His name is Jesus Christ. Maybe you have tried to put your hope in all these other things and you’ve already learned that it ends in disappointment. Or maybe you just don’t get it.  You will.  Everything else we put our trust in will disappoint us, fail us, even make us miserable.  The only hope that doesn’t disappoint is found in a relationship with Christ.

            I want to encourage you, if you’re experiencing some hopelessness and some disappointment in your life, bring it to God.  If you have tried to put your hope in other things and they have just fallen short, and you’ve never accepted Christ as your Savior, we do want to give you a chance to do that this morning, to put your hope in Him. 

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Living in HD: A Life of Hope (Part 1)
Philippians 3:1-21

In Romans 5:5 he speaks of hope this way. He says that there is a hope that doesn’t disappoint. I don’t know about you, but I am interested in a hope like that. It has been my experience that hope almost inevitably leads to disappointment. We are by nature hopers. We are always hoping. But it seems like we are almost always disappointed.

            Maybe it’s your anniversary and you play out in your mind how you hope the day will turn out.  But instead, you have to work and when you get home you find that your faucet has been leaking into a stopped up sink all day and now as you arrive home 3 inches of water stands in your kitchen.  Your carpet is soaked.  Dinner reservations have to be canceled and your scramble to get a hold of a plumber who can come out immediately and fix this absolute mess.  Not exactly the day you were hoping for, is it?

            I think that day is probably a microcosm of what life can be like all too often. . We are always hoping and almost always disappointed. I mean, we hope to make the team and hope to get invited to the prom. We hope to get into the right school. We hope to get married. We hope to get the promotion. We hope to have kids. We hope that one day those kids will leave the house. We hope for an early retirement. We hope for good health. And it just seems like along the way there is a lot of disappointment in life. Maybe you don’t make the team and you don’t get invited to the prom. You don’t get the right job, and your marriage turns out to be one of convenience. You’ve had it up to here with your kids and you can’t get on top financially. A lot of disappointment…

            But even when we get the things we hoped for, oftentimes we still find that we’re disappointed. I mean, let’s say you do get invited to the prom and you do make the team; you do get the job of your dreams and you marry the love of your life; your kids are perfect and you have more money than you know what to do with. Well, if your hope is in those things, it will still end in disappointment. Someone once put it this way: “The main emotion of the American adult who has had all the advantages of wealth, education and culture is disappointment.” After enough disappointment, we just lower our expectations and we settle. We settle for a standard definition life. We just accept that this is the way life is.

But here in Philippians 3 Paul talks to us about high definition living, and he tells us a little bit more about this hope that doesn’t disappoint. Look at verse 1: “Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord!” Now here again we see that theme of joy arise in the book of Philippians. Let me just remind you that Paul is writing this under house arrest, chained to a Roman guard. He could be executed at any time and yet continually we read about joy. Why? Because he had put his hope in the right thing.

            Now he is going to warn his readers in Philippi not to fall into the trap of putting their hope in the wrong things, because it is easy to do. So verse 2 is a warning. He says, “Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence (or no hope) in the flesh.”

            Here is what is happening.  In Philippi there was a group of false teachers known as Judaizers, and they were teaching that Jesus was good but that He wasn’t good enough. And if you were going to convert to Christianity, you needed to accept Jesus but you also needed to do these other things as well. Whenever you hear teaching that says it is Jesus plus something else, a red flag should go up. Now oftentimes churches with good intentions—they mean well—will create rules and regulations that are not in the Bible. At best it leads to legalism; at worst it turns into false teaching. That is what has happened here in Philippi. These teachers are saying, “You need to accept Jesus, but you also need to be circumcised.”

            So Paul is pretty upset. He refers to these teachers as dogs. He calls them mutilators of the flesh. They think that by requiring circumcision it honors God. He says, “Really all you are doing is mutilating your own bodies.”

            Now you’ve got to feel sorry for,  ol’ Bart who went for this procedure the day before Paul’s letter arrived. I mean, that is some serious bad timing. (Laughter) But Paul is upset. He’s resorted to name calling here because he wants to make sure that the people aren’t getting caught up in putting their hope in themselves, putting their hope in the flesh. So he warns them.

            And he has some personal experience with this. If you look at Paul’s life—the first half of his life before he met Jesus—he was caught up in putting hope in all these other things, in his accomplishments and his achievements. He knows that those things end in disappointment. He knows that Jesus Christ is the only One who will not disappoint. So he warns his readers: “Don’t put your hope in these things over here.”

He is going to go on here to give his personal testimony of things that he could put his hope in. The list that he compiles is a pretty impressive list—at least it would have been to his readers of that day. Before we look at his list, let me just take a second and ask you about yours. Where is your hope? Where do you turn for comfort and security? What motivates you? What gets you up and what gets you going? Where is your hope?

            Well, Paul gives us a list. Starting in verse 4 he says:

I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: (verse 5) circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.

So here are these things that were very valuable in his culture that Paul could have put his hope in. The first thing that he says is he was circumcised on the eighth day. He could have put his hope in the fact that he was brought up the right way. All the way back in Genesis God told His people, “Circumcise your sons on the eighth day as a way to show that your faith is in Me.” And Paul says, “I did that. He goes on to say that he was from the nation of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin. He could have put his hope in the fact that he was born into the right family. Being from the tribe of Benjamin—that is not that impressive to us, but it would have been to his readers. Benjamin was the only son of Jacob…twelve sons…the only son that was born in the Promised Land. Sometimes we can do that. We put our hope in the success of our parents or the faith of our grandparents.

            He could have put his hope in the fact that he had achieved the right credentials. He says he was a Hebrew of Hebrews, that he was a Pharisee. In his day there were never more than three hundred Pharisees and he was at the top of that list. This was the religious elite. He had achieved prominence, power, and he had the respect of the entire nation as a Pharisee. Sometimes we can do that. We can put our hope in the credentials we’ve earned, the titles we wear, the success we’ve achieved.

            He could have put his hope in the fact that he kept all the rules and regulations. He makes this statement. He says, “As for legalistic righteousness, faultless.” There were some 613 laws that as a Pharisee he would have been trying to keep. This isn’t just, “Do not murder,” or, “Do not lie.” I mean, there was one law that said if a gnat landed on your arm on the Sabbath you couldn’t brush it off because that was work. Another law said if a chicken laid an egg on the Sabbath you couldn’t eat that egg. So he says, “I’ve kept all those. I’ve kept those rules.”

            Maybe that happened to you. Maybe you look at the what you consider the main rules and put your trust in the fact that you keep them all. You could pull out a checklist and you have seen the rewards of that. So your temptation is to put your hope in yourself, what you’ve accomplished, what you’ve achieved.  Maybe you’ve put your hope in the fact you have joined the church.  Listen: Today is Pentecost—the birthday of the Church of Jesus Christ.  When you join the church you are not joining a club or just a group of fine folks.  You are proclaiming that your chief desire is to follow Jesus.  Jesus is Alive.  He has given His Holy Spirit, His Holy Presence to live inside us so that we are empowered to follow Him and to live lives that please God. 

            So Paul gives this list of these very impressive things that he was either born into or that he had accomplished. But then here is his conclusion. In verse 7 he says:

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, (not having a righteousness from my actions and my good deeds) but that which is through faith in Christ—(that is where his hope is) the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. (Verse 10) I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

      I will deal with some more specific things next Sunday, but today I want to ask you, have you made a decision to come to Christ?  Have you put your whole trust and hope in Him?  I promise you everything else will disappoint.  Only hope in Christ that is eternal life and the assurance that you are in God’s hands will make your life worth living and death only a door into His glorious Presence. Don’t put your hope in things that are here today and gone tomorrow.  Christ is ALL.  Our hymn is “My Hope is Built”

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Living in HD: A Life of Compassion
Philippians 2:19-30

The king of the comics, as far as I'm concerned, is still Peanuts by Charles Schulz. I love Linus, Lucy, Schroeder, Pigpen, Snoopy, Charlie Brown, etc. There's something real in their relationships. One sequence comes to mind. Linus has just written a comic strip of his own, and he wants Lucy's opinion. In the first frame, he tentatively hands Lucy his comic strip and says, "Lucy, would you read this and tell me if you think it is funny?" In the next frame, you see Lucy patting her foot, and a little bit of a grin comes across her face. She looks at Linus and says, "Well, Linus, who wrote this?"  Linus with his chest heaved out and a great big grin says, "Lucy, I wrote that." In the next frame, you see Lucy wadding it up, throwing it to the side, and saying, "Well, then, I don't think it's very funny."                                                                                                                                                  In the final frame, you see Linus picking up his comic strip, throwing his blanket over his shoulder, looking at Lucy and saying, "Big sisters are the crab grass in the lawn of life."    

          We find that humorous. I dare say if you and I thought long and hard enough, we'd remember being the crab grass in the lawn of somebody else's life. None of us wants to be a loser. None of us wants to be a source of discouragement. And yet, if we're not careful, we can find ourselves being more pessimistic than optimistic, more discouraging than encouraging. Usually when we think of a life of compassion we emphasize the need to love the unbeliever, the homeless, the needy.  But that’s not the emphasis of this passage and it will not be the emphasis of this sermon.  This Scripture underscores the compassion that Christians should have for other believers and the rich fellowship that results.  This is Living in HD!
              Sometimes when people go out of church they think, "I sure wish so & so had heard that message." But I don’t want you to do that this morning. I want you to take it personally, "How does it apply to me?" not, "How does it apply to someone else?" You see, I’m preaching this morning about "caring about others," & I’m convinced that it is a message needed by us all.
            As I prepare sermons I often think of the things I need to hear. So this message is just as much for me as it is for you.
             A youth minister was attending a Special Olympics where handicapped children competed with tremendous dedication & enthusiasm. One event was the 220-yard dash. Contestants lined up at the starting line, & at the signal, started running as fast as they could.
            One boy by the name of Andrew quickly took the lead, & was soon about 25 yards ahead of everybody else. As he approached the final turn he looked back & saw that his best friend had fallen & hurt himself on the track. Andrew stopped & looked at the finish line. Then he looked back at his friend. People were hollering, "Run, Andrew, run!" But he didn’t. He went back & got his friend, helped him up, brushed off the cinders. And hand in hand, they crossed the finish line dead last.
But as they did, the people cheered, because there are some things more important than finishing first.
Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, "Two are better than one... If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls & has no one to help him up!"
We do fall or get knocked down at times in life, don’t we? And how wonderful it is when we have a friend who cares enough to lift us up, dust us off, & help us continue on.
In fact, someone has noted that there are more than 100 people listed as Paul’s friends in the N.T. And one of the reasons Paul had so many friends was because he was such a good friend, himself.
            So as we look at Philippians 2:19-30 this morning, I want us to consider 3 very important lessons.
I. WE NEED TO CULTIVATE A GENUINE INTEREST IN OTHERS
The first is that we need to cultivate a genuine interest in others. In vs. 19, Paul says, "I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you."
Now Paul is a missionary, & sometimes missionaries write appeal letters. So it would have been logical for Paul to have written a letter saying, "I’m in prison here at Rome, & the conditions are really bad. I need help, so please take up a special offering & send it to me quickly."  But Paul doesn’t do that. Instead, he is concerned about them. So he is sending Timothy to find out how things are going. And he wants so much for the news to be good.
For a lot of people, weekends are "check on family" times. Married children call their parents, & parents call their children, & brothers & sisters call each other just to visit & hear about what is happening in each other’s lives. And when you hear good news, there’s joy all around.
Lou Gehrig was 1st baseman for the New York Yankees. He died on June 2, 1941, of A.L.S., later called "Lou Gehrig’s Disease." The doctors really didn’t know how to treat it. So he was in the hospital for a long time as they experimented with different drugs, trying to find one that would work.
Just before he died, Lou Gehrig called his friend, Bob Considine. He said, "Bob, I have great news. The boys in the lab have come up with a new serum, & they’re trying it on 10 of us. It seems to be working well on 9 out of 10." Bob Considine asked, "Is it working on you, Lou?"
Lou answered, "Well, no. But 9 out of 10, how do you like those odds?" He was really joyful because 9 out of 10 were being helped. 
That kind of attitude is probably why Lou Gehrig is remembered with such fond memories - because he was such a good friend.
The apostle Paul was the same way. In Philippians 2:3-4, he writes, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." In other words, "be genuinely concerned about others."
Do you ever ask yourself on Sunday morning, "Why am I going to church? Am I going because I feel I owe a debt to God, so I’m trying to pay it back? Or because I’m carrying a heavy burden that I hope will be lifted? Or because I like the music & the fellowship & even the preaching? Why am I going?"
            Why should we go?  One big reason is: because I am so thankful for what He has done for me.  Another is if we’re genuinely interested in others, the church becomes a training ground where we learn how to help one another.  So when you come to church, be on the lookout. Over there is a mother with both hands full, trying to herd her kids through the door. Maybe she could use your help.
Or you’re sitting near a guest, here for the first time or someone you do not know. Introduce yourself & tell them, "I’m glad you came." If they are a first-timer, be sure they fill out the registration pad with at least their address or telephone number so our CARE teams can follow up. And let them know that if we can help them in any way to grow in their faith, that’s why we’re here.
Or when you look at the prayer list, & learn of someone who is having a difficult time - get a card & write them a note, & let them know that you’ll be praying for them.
Or if someone you know is struggling with a heavy burden of grief or loss,  go to them and just love on them in whatever way is natural for you.   Just let them know that you care.
Now I realize that many of you are already doing that, & I praise God for you. Isn’t it refreshing to know that we can care about each other without any hidden agendas - to care about each other because "you’re my brother, or you’re my sister in the Lord Jesus Christ."
C. Certain things happen when you’re genuinely concerned about others.
1. First of all, you begin to forget your own problems. We seldom realize that. We think that when I’m having trouble, I need to do something just for me, something extravagant, or indulgent.
But that’s not the answer. The Bible teaches us, & psychologists are learning, that the quickest way to get rid of our troubles is to become involved in helping someone else.
The prophet Isaiah knew that a long time ago. Isaiah 58:10-12 says, "If you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry & satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, & your night will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs...&...strengthen your frame."
2. Secondly, when you’re genuinely concerned about others, you’ll find that when you’re in trouble, others will be good friends to you.  So the first thing we learn from Paul’s words is that we need to cultivate a genuine interest in others.
WE NEED TO OFFER SINCERE ENCOURAGEMENT TO OTHERS
Now the second lesson is that we need to offer sincere encouragement to others. In vs. 20, Paul says, "I have no one else like him, who takes a genuine interest in your welfare."
Paul is still talking about Timothy. Paul had discipled Timothy, & watched Him grow in his faith. Now Timothy is an adult & has a ministry of his own. Paul looks at him & says, "I don’t know anybody like Timothy."
In fact, the New American Standard Version translates that verse to say, "I have no one else of kindred spirit." And Chuck Swindoll points out that the two Greek words used there are words that mean "same soul." Paul is saying, "Timothy & I have the same soul. We’re kindred spirits, like-minded."
Now we have different levels of friendship. Most, I suppose, are casual friendships. We know each other’s names, & we greet each other, "How are you?" "I’m fine. How are you?" "I’m fine, thank you."  Neither of us may actually be fine, but we don’t feel like unloading on each other, so we answer, "I’m fine." That’s a casual friendship.
Some are close friendships, where we enjoy going out & spending time with each other, doing things together. It’s a deeper relationship, & we share things that we wouldn’t normally share with others.
But there are very few of "same soul" friendships where you’re so close to each other that you think alike, & you’re motivated by the same things. It’s scary sometimes to be around someone like that because they think so much like you that they know what you’re going to say even before you say it.
Now I want you to know that you’re really blessed if that "same-soul" friend is your husband or your wife. That’s a very special blessing, because you can come home & be who you are. You don’t have to pretend. You’re kindred spirits, & there’s love & understanding between you.
Paul writes that Timothy is a "same-soul" friend. Then in vs. 21, he says, "For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ."
I think Paul is presenting a contrast. He is saying, "Most everybody else looks out for his own interests, but Timothy is not like everybody else. He’s special, & he’s interested in you."
We need friends like that. And we need to be a friend like that, someone who will pick them up when they fall down, & brush them off, & hold their hand, & go on with them toward the finish line.
WE NEED TO RELEASE OUR RELATIONSHIPS TO THE LORD
Well, there is one more lesson here: We need to practice releasing our relationships to the Lord.  Look at Vs. 25. Here begins the story of Epaphroditus.  Epaphroditus was a member of the church in Philippi. And the church there was a strong supporter of the apostle Paul. So when they learned that Paul was in prison, they sent Epaphroditus to be with him, to be a source of encouragement & assistance to him.
But Epaphroditus wasn’t able to help Paul very long because he became seriously ill. In fact, he almost died. Well, the news of Epaphroditus’ illness got back to Philippi, & the people there were concerned about him. And Epaphroditus became distressed about their anxiety for him.
It would have been so easy for Paul to say, "Well, Timothy is leaving, & now you want to go, too. What am I supposed to do here in prison all by myself? Who is going to help me?"
But instead, Paul writes to the church in Philippi & says, "I’m sending Epaphroditus back to you, & I want you to welcome him, & encourage him because he almost died for the cause of Christ."
A friendship that is really a friendship isn’t a selfish or smothering kind of love. Those of you who are single & dating need to hear this. Husbands & wives need to hear this.               And I think parents need to hear it, too. There comes a time in every home when you have to let your children go, & that’s really difficult to do. The person you love is NOT your possession.  Don’t try to control them.  Friendship is NOT selfish.

I would like to tell you that’s the end of the story. But it really isn’t. Over in 2 Timothy 4, Paul is imprisoned again & the circumstances are very different this time. His friends aren’t there.
I don’t know where they are. Maybe they’re too far away to get to him. Maybe they’re in prison themselves, or dead. Or maybe they just got tired of coming to the prison. Paul’s been in prison a lot.
So Paul writes these words in 2 Timothy 4:16-17, "At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. But the Lord stood at my side & gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed & all the Gentiles might hear it."
Your best friend, the friend of friends, is Jesus. He will never leave you, nor forsake you. And when you fall, He’ll pick you up, dust you off, & walk with you hand in hand all the way to the finish line. You can bet your life on that.
This morning, if you don’t know Him as your friend, if He is not your Lord & Savior, then we extend His invitation. And He stands ready to meet every need in your life, forgive your sins, & give you the promise of everlasting life. Will you come?  And, if you have not been the encourager you need to be, ask the Lord for forgiveness and a deep compassion for others. 


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A Life of Humility1
Philippians 2:5-11
Series: Living in HD

In The Last Days Newsletter, Leonard Ravenhill tells about a group of tourists visiting a picturesque village who walked by an old man sitting beside a fence. In a rather patronizing way, one tourist asked, "Were any great men born in this village?" The old man replied, "Nope, only babies." To be humble is a seemingly elusive principle…but Paul goes on to talk about The Perfect Example

            If you have any interest in “High Definition Living” then pay attention to how Paul paints the ideal example of Jesus Christ.  The preceding verses were setting the stage for the crux of the passage, verses 5-11. 

Interpreters generally agree that Philippians 2:6-11 was a Christian hymn used in the worship of the church and inserted by Paul into the letter at this point.  People were familiar with it and in this setting it conveyed precisely the idea which Paul wanted to emphasize.

Philippians 2:5-8: “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!”

            Wow, if you ever feel like no one in the world loves you, read this passage and you’ll realize someone does.  If you ever feel like God doesn’t care about you or He’s off in some distant galaxy then memorize this passage.  If you ever think that the God of the Universe is impressed so much so that he would never associate with the commoners or peons, well then, it’s time to revisit these words from the apostle Paul, because you see, it is the gospel…without a crucifixion there would be no resurrection!  Without Jesus humbling Himself and coming to earth, living a perfect life, dying an atoning death, we would have no assurance of the forgiveness of our sins.

Look with me in your Bible at verse 6.  “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped…”  That translation gets at the servant hood of the Godhead.  So Paul begins by saying that Jesus is essentially and unalterably God, but as we read He became man. 

            No one had more right to be proud—to hang onto his position.  Yet no one humbled himself more than Jesus.  He made Himself nothing, meaning He emptied Himself…”taking the nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man.”

            Think about it: born as a baby in a stable; baptized by a cousin in Jordan River; a carpenter by trade; an itinerate preacher; so poor that the scriptures say He had no place to lay His head.”  Taking the very nature of a servant. 

            Have you ever noticed a wheat field?  At first you may notice the stems that stand straight up thinking that they have the most value, but any farmer will tell you that the stalks that stand straight up are lightheaded and almost good for nothing, while those that bend and hang their heads are full of beautiful grain. 

Someone observed that the growing Christian is like a head of wheat, the riper he grows, the lower he bends—there isn’t a cockiness, there is an acknowledgement of Who the Creator is and who the creature is.  Humility is the beginning of that.

            One time when Muhammad Ali was at the height of his boxing career he was about to take off on a flight and the stewardess reminded him to fasten his seat belt.  He defiantly folded his arms and said, “Superman don't need no seat belt.”  The flight attendant quickly replied, “Superman don't need no airplane…fasten your seat belt.”  And Ali fastened his seat belt!

            Now, contrast that with the perfect example.  Paul goes on to describe Christ by saying, “He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross.”

            He was arrested like a common criminal—ridiculed and beaten, stripped of his clothing, and nailed to a cross in front of a crowd.  This was not just any death but the most painful, visible, memorable, and humiliating death that one could ever imagine.

No wonder over in Romans 5:8 Paul says: “But God demonstrates his love for us that while WE were YET sinners, Christ died for us.”  Unbelievable!  Paul goes on to explain that because of the ultimate humility displayed by Jesus’ willingness to die a sacrificial death, because of His humility something great happens.  Look at verse 9: Therefore…in light of his servant’s heart, in light of taking the form of a man, in light of His death on a cross, “therefore”… “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

            Years ago, there was that Fram®  Oil company commercial which talked about the value of preventative maintenance and how superior Fram® was to other competitors.  Their point was that eventually you’d end up with them, so why not save some time and money.  The closing line of their commercials was always the same, a Fram® employee would say, “You can pay me now or you can pay me later.”

            I don’t know why but that commercial  popped into mind whenever I read Philippians 2:9-11.  What’s the world coming to?  I’ll tell you what the world is coming to—the world is coming to a day when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

            You can bow now or you can bow later…but when you hear that trumpet sound it will be too late to admit that you are a sinner and that you need this Savior.  I think it was C.S. Lewis who said, “You get no credit for kneeling when it’s become impossible to stand.”  And it will be too late for us to kneel then if we haven’t knelt before.  Today I invite you to kneel at the Cross as you come for Holy Communion.

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A Life of Connection
Philippians 1:1-11

We’re starting a new series today, in which we will walk through a verse by verse study of the book of Philippians.  This is one of my favorite books in the Bible.  It’s only four chapters long.  It is incredibly practical. 

            We’re going to look at seven attributes/characteristics that are found in Philippians.  We’re calling this study “Living in HD.”  You probably know that HD stands for high definition.  In recent years this newer technology is available everywhere.   You may have some channels that you can watch in HD, and the picture quality is amazing.  It shows the beads of sweat rolling down the face of an athlete.

            The idea is that high definition allows you to watch in incredible detail.  It takes you from the back row to the front row.  HD brings details into focus that you haven’t seen before, every flaw is magnified.  And, as strange as it might sound that is what I hope happens to all of us as we go through this study Philippians.  As we dig into these verses perhaps it will cause us each to take a deeper look into the mirror and see where we need to make some changes as we try to live the Christian life in HD.

            Now let me give you some background on the book of Philippians.  The author of this book is the apostle Paul, who was formerly called Saul.  As Saul, he spent his days arresting Christians, having them put in jail and eventually put to death.  But the Lord transformed him and Saul became a Christian and started going by the name Paul.  And instead of getting fame, wealth, and position when he began preaching the gospel he himself ended up in prison.  This book of Philippians is a letter written to the church in Philippi, and he writes from a prison cell in Rome, most likely chained to a guard.  He had been put there because he had been going from town to town  preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The date is around 62 A.D. 

            Paul’s first visit to the city of Philippi is recorded in Acts 16.  Several things happened.  Paul and Silas intended to start a church in Philippi where they found and struck up a conversation with Lydia who was a merchant.  They led her to the Lord and they baptized Lydia along with her household that very day!

            A little later, Paul cast out a demon from a fortune-telling girl and the people were upset about this because those who “owned” this slave woman made a lot of money off of her.  So they had them thrown in prison. 

            While they were in prison, God did an amazing thing:  An earthquake erupted and the doors were opened to all the jail cells and yet they didn’t leave.  This gave them an opportunity to have a spiritual conversation with the jailer in the middle of the night.  They led him to the Lord and they left the jail and went to his home and he with all  his household were baptized!  That was the beginning of the church in Philippi. 

            Now, Paul was kind of a church planter.  He would help get them launched in the area, and then go elsewhere and stir up spiritual interest and start another one.  It appears that Luke, the gospel writer and physician was the preacher at the Philippian church.

            So turn in your Bible to the New Testament Book of Philippians, Chapter 1. 

            In this message I have one simple goal to convey – one request – and it comes out of this opening passage in Philippians 1: The goal is for your life to be described as a life of connection.  When people ask you what is Memorial/Patton Church all about, a simple explanation is that we are about connecting people to Jesus and to one another.  High Definition living entails a life of connection.  Paul was really connected with the Philippians.  By reading his writings four important secrets are revealed in living a life of connection.  First… 

1. Join a small “community” of believers

            When the church began, they used to meet in the temple courts and in houses.  But as persecution intensified, at times it became safer for the Christians to meet in homes, and they became a tight knit community where they shared life together.  We know this because of what Paul writes in Philippians 1:3: “ I thank my God every time I remember you.”

Each week in this series, I am going to encourage you to memorize a verse that coincides with that week’s topic.  This verse, verse three, just happens to be the scripture that we are going to challenge you to learn this week.  I thought we’d start with an easy one.  Paul writes to this community and says, “I thank my God every time I remember you.”

              Sometimes you’ll get a handwritten note or letter from a brother or sister in Christ and at the bottom of the letter it will just say Philippians 1:3.  That’s their way of communicating, “I appreciate you.  I’m glad you are in my life.  I thank my God every time I remember you.”

            I really hope that you have some relationships like that.  Paul had opened up his life to the Philippians, and they had to him.  He knew their names and thought of them often and prayed for them often.  And now from a prison cell he shares his appreciation for that community of believers.

God did not intend for us to live this life isolated from others. You’ve heard me say that before.  Very early in the scriptures, at the creation of the world, God describes His creation as good—except one part.  He said, “It’s not good for man to be alone.” If we were to turn to Genesis 1-2 we would see that Adam had work, lots of pets, a beautiful place to live, an unhindered relationship with God, and there was no sin.  But still God said, “It’s not good.”

            Do you know why it was not good for Adam to be alone?  It’s simple: When God created the first person He said, “Let us make man in OUR image.”  You see God exists in a state of eternal community with Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  He made us with a deep need for the type of companionship that is part of His nature.

When Jesus began His ministry on earth what’s the first thing Jesus does?  He finds a group of people, His disciples, with whom He could share life.  If anyone could have gone through life and accomplished what He needed to “all by himself” it was Jesus.  But instead of isolation He chooses a life of connection with a community of believers, and He surrounds Himself with a group of people who later would pass on His message to the next generation.

            If you think you can live the Christian life by gutting it out and doing so all by yourself—then you are mistaken.  If Christ didn’t do it that way, what makes you think you can?  Use that the next time you invite someone to church and they say they don’t need it.  God says: We need one another…it is a theme that appears throughout the scriptures time and time again.

            In churches it’s often not possible to know everyone well.  But it’s essential for everyone to know someone.  Not every group gives people a family-like sense of belonging, but that would be an awesome goal.  You have been created in the image of God.  You are wired for relationships and community. 

You need to find a group where you can grow in your faith and where you can share your life with others for their benefit.  Philippians 1:4-6 says: “In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

            That word partnership comes from a Greek word, (koinonia) – fellowship, association, community, communion, joint participation.  Christians are to share the task of spreading the gospel. 

            In the earliest days of the Methodist movement, the foundational strength was small groups.  Every week they would gather together.  If you missed you needed to have a good excuse.    It was this group that helped you to understand the Bible.  This was the group that prayed for you, came along side you whenever tragedy, disappointment, or heartache struck.  They taught you the principles of prayer.  They kept you accountable to God and one another.  This group was your lifeline.

            When Paul was Saul, he was very antagonistic towards Christians and completely opposed their faith in Christ.  Maybe that’s a description of how you used to be.  Perhaps you rolled your eyes when you heard a friend thank God for a blessing they received or you found yourself completely dumbfounded by the joy other Christians around you expressed.  Perhaps you were someone who was quick to call the church hypocritical or money hungry.  But just like the man writing this letter chained to a prison guard, you are now a different person.  Paul had discovered the peace and joy of Christ and he was writing to encourage those that had come to faith in Philippi.

            Paul goes on to share another secret from his relationship with the Philippians…

Encourage one another

            Have you ever been a part of a group – maybe a ball team, a PTA group, a work environment, or even a church – where people discouraged one another?  Or maybe where someone griped, criticized, and complained about stuff not caring whether they hurt someone’s feelings or not?  Our words can be so damaging.  Paul, instead, encourages the Philippians.  They weren’t perfect people – he could have pointed out a lot of flaws – but instead he tells them how confident he is that God is going to do something special through each one of them.

Listen to how it is that Paul encourages the Christians in Philippi, in verse six.  Remember, he was in a prison cell…“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

            Maybe you’ve seen those T shirts that say, Please be patient with me—God isn’t finished with me yet!   That’s what the apostle Paul is stressing to these Christians.

            Paul says that he is confident that God, who has begun a good work in the Philippians, will complete it so that they will be ready for the day when they stand before Christ face to face.  The Greek words that Paul uses for to begin (enarchesthai) and for to complete (epitelein) are terms for the beginning and the end of a sacrifice.  Paul is communicating to them to hang in there and to realize this Christian life is going to be a life of sacrifice.  This would have painted a very vivid picture to the Philippians because they would have connected these words with a Greek sacrifice. 

              Remember in Romans 12:1, Paul writes for us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God.  The premise is to everyday give our lives to Christ to sacrifice your own desires and to say yes to His will.

            So please make no mistake the Christian life will involve being sold out, it will require sacrifice.  This isn’t some nice little club that you join and occasionally you show up and pick and choose whether or not to be involved based on the other choices you have or who you want to be with.  Not at all…that’s not what the church is to be.

            Again, that’s why you need to connect to one another and be a source of encouragement.  When you verbally lift someone up or you take the time to write a note or email that lifts someone’s spirit, you are putting into practice the law of love which Jesus said would mark us as His followers.

            I have heard some of you share how your Sunday School class was such a blessing when you needed some encouragement.  I heard one of you recently say: “You all say I am strong, but what you don’t understand is that it is you all who make me strong.”  I come in here each week and I feel weak and you all give me strength.  Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”

            That’s what happens when we encourage and come together, we empower and lift up one another and we are strengthened through that mutual encouragement.

Our third secret is:

Express love to one another

              Showing affection and expressing love is easier for some than others.  Someone said, “To live above with ones we love, oh that will be glory.  But to dwell below with ones we know…well that’s another story!” 

            But listen from Paul’s perspective.  He has the ability to focus on the identifying  characteristic of the Christian faith…that being love.  He is in prison, but he’s not bitter.

Philippians 1:7-8 tell us: “It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me.  God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.”                 Another way we express that love is through service—by looking for people that we can serve.  Jesus Christ set a great example for us as he washed the feet of the disciples and now it’s our responsibility to look for those opportunities and how we can, in a modern day sense, wash the feet of others.  When you and I humble ourselves to the point where we humbly desire that God use us to love someone else as He does, what an honor and a blessing.  We are to see our brothers and sisters in Christ as eternal blessings.  We are to see those who aren’t yet believers, as potential members of God’s family.  They need to experience the unconditional, heart-felt love and concern of Christ through how we treat them.

            That’s why we are constantly encouraging you to get connected to others.  There is a reason for that, the Christian life was not mean to be lived all by yourself.  People may say, “I don’t need a Bible study, I don’t need some group, I can worship God all by myself.”  And maybe you can worship God all by yourself, but let me tell you…you are robbing the church of a vital member of the body of Christ and you might say that you don’t need us but I’m going to say that we need you and the truth is you do need us!

            Paul called his relationship with the Philippians a “partnership,” because there was a whole lot of love in it.” Remember that the group is not just to meet your needs, but so that you can be a part of the Body of Christ. It is there to help you release the gifts of God in you so that you can serve Christ how and where He calls you. 

One more secret…

Study God’s Word together.

              Philippians 1:9-11: “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.”

            You know, we’re all about connecting people to Jesus and one another and while connecting with others is a great starting place, if that’s where it stops, then we’ve fallen short.  We’ve got to be intentional in helping each other’s faith grow.  Bible Study ( we are going to look at the possibilities of leaders who can teach the Bible.  I promise you we will look for a variety of ways you can grow in your understanding of the Bible.

            Did you see the last phrase in verse eleven?  Look at it again…: “…so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ,  filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.”

            The former Atlanta Falcon Quarterback Michael Vick has been in the news again lately. At his press conference  prior to his plea agreement, he stated, “Through this situation I found Jesus and asked him for forgiveness and turned my life over to God.”  (Atlanta Constitution pE6, 9/1/07)

            The Atlanta Constitution newspaper interviewed Mark Earley, the former Attorney General of Virginia who now heads up Prison Fellowship, to get his take on Vick’s supposed conversion.  Mark Earley said that to gauge whether someone’s conversion is authentic, look for several things: “Humility, movement from a ‘me centered life to an others centered life,’ involvement in a local church, and accountability.” 

            Jesus said the same thing in John 15:5: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

            If God can’t save Michael Vick from his life then there’s no hope for me!  I hope that Michael Vick has made a connection with Christ, but for that to stick—he needs to be connected to others in a redeeming relationship.  To have a band of brothers or sisters in Christ, a group that can walk us along the narrow path of following Christ, that can under gird and support us through the challenges that come with making significant changes.  That is what we all need.

            For some of you, the next step, at invitation time, is  for you just to decide, right where you are, I need to get involved in some sort of small group where I can connect with some other Christians.  Maybe you’ve never taken that step and it is frightening to you.  I’m going to challenge you to do that…so that you can get in God’s word and build some strong relationships.

            For others of you, you know the time is right for you to connect with this church and to say, “I need to commit to membership.  I need to stop standing back—being a spectator; I need to become an active participant.”  You need to make a connection with this church and make it your home church.  If you’ve been thinking about that, please contact me and let’s talk.

            There are others of you who are ready to make a connection with Jesus Christ and to follow Him. To say, “You know what, the most important relationship is my personal walk and relationship with Jesus Christ.”

If you would like to make any of those decisions, we want to invite you to do that right now.  Meet me right down front as we stand together and sing, “Blest Be the Tie that Binds”

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How’s Your Reflection
Colossians 3:1-11Luke 12:13-21

“Extravagant ...” There is a story about the ancient king of Macedonia, Alexander the Great. Whether it is true or not, we do not know for sure. As the tale is told, one day a beggar by the roadside asked for alms from Alexander as he passed by. The man was clearly destitute, and was quite bold and presumptuous even in asking anything from the powerful ruler. Yet the Emperor threw him several gold coins. A courtier was flabbergasted at his generosity and commented, “Sir, copper coins would adequately meet a beggar’s need. Why give him gold?” Alexander responded with the kind of conviction and certainty that characterized his exploits: “Copper coins would suit the beggar’s need, but gold coins suit Alexander's giving.”

We who follow Jesus Christ walk in the way of the King of kings. The question before us is, “What kind of giving suits us as God’s children? What does it mean for our generosity to be extravagant?

Again, we have been looking at the 5 fruitful practices of faithful congregations. They are: Let’s look at what Jesus says about this.

         In the midst of a crowd someone yelled to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” The man’s request may not be unfair, but perhaps Jesus perceived that there was more to his concern than equal shares. In Jewish law, the oldest son received a double portion of the father’s inheritance, while the remaining sons divided the rest equally. Perhaps this man was a younger brother who was not satisfied with his one-third or less, and who believed he deserved an equal share that, according to the law, was not rightfully his.

Jesus had no interest in mediating the dispute; instead, he seized upon the moment to deal with a sin that tempts each of us, a sin that reveals the true nature of our selfishness and self-centeredness. Jesus said, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions” (Luke 12:15).

Jesus spent more time talking about money than virtually any other subject. He talked more about it than prayer, and he spoke of it more than hell or heaven. In so doing, he was consistent with his Jewish tradition. 

After idolatry, the Bible condemns greed more than any other sin; in fact, the Bible refers to greed as idolatry; it is self-worship.

Of all the sermons I have given throughout my ministry, it is my sermons on stewardship that receive the least compliments. Being good stewards, or as Bishop Robert Schnase puts it more descriptively, being extravagantly generous, is difficult for most of us in our society today. We are very guarded in reference to our money, and we get very nervous when the topic of money is broached in church.  And yet, I do applaud so many of you who in a variety of ways, practice EXTRAVAGANT GENEROSITY.  Our budget giving for the year is slightly ahead.  Many of our debts have been recently paid off.  Obviously, there are persons among us who do practice extravagant generosity.  But not everyone.

Did you know the Methodist Church in Cuba is in the midst of revival, doubling its membership every two years. The average worshiper in Cuba on Sunday morning is in his or her twenties! Tithing is one of the requirements for membership in the Methodist Church in Cuba. In fact, the giving of each member is a matter of public record. The records are posted in the church sanctuary!  Now Cuba is a relatively poor country and yet, these churches are growing in numbers and in the number of people they help with basic needs all because they practice extravagant generosity.

I can tell by the look on some of your faces that you sure are glad we don’t do that here. Why is that?  Is it shame because you think you can’t give enough because your income is so low?  The real reason most Christians in our society want to keep their giving private is because they know that if there is one area of their lives that is not in order, if there is one realm of behavior that has not been given over to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, it is the sphere of the financial. In other words, most Christians in the United States are not good stewards of their money, and that lack of stewardship is reflected in their lack of giving to the church.

There’s an ancient story that concerns the army of the Emperor Constantine. Before Constantine’s soldiers went into battle, many of them wanted to be baptized so that they would feel protected by God as their lives were in danger. But when the companies waded out into the middle of the river for baptism, they held their swords up high above the water, as if to say, “This part of me does not belong to God. This part of me will not be subjected to the transformation that my baptism brings. The battle that I will wage is only under the authority of the Emperor.”

We followers of Jesus must ask ourselves whether we have allowed our wallets to be baptized along with the rest of us, or whether we have reserved that part of our lives for ourselves.

Jesus says to us, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). Jesus’ words emphasize not only that how we spend our money reveals what sort of people we already are, but also that how we spend our money determines what sort of people we become. Martin Luther, the man who lit the match that sparked the Protestant Reformation, said that every Christian needs to experience three conversions: a conversion of the heart, a conversion of the mind, and a conversion of the purse. Luther knew how deeply satisfying the spiritual life can be, but he also understood that unless we commit all of ourselves to CHRIST without reservation—unless we make Extravagant Generosity part of our spiritual formation—part of our absolute surrender to Christ--we will not come to know the deep joys of Christ for ourselves.  That is what our Lord is getting at in these words recorded in Matthew.

In his chapter on the last of the five fruitful practices, Bishop Schnase is inviting us to practice living in an extravagantly generous way not because the church wants to be the object of our Extravagant Generosity but because it will change us—change our lives. If we put our treasure—even our money—into our faith, our hearts will follow it there. The church’s task is simply to remind us that Christ calls us to give extravagantly because we serve an EXTRAVAGANT GOD! The church is the collection of people who are on the same team, practicing the same radical, counter-cultural skill: Extravagant Generosity, that Jesus models for us in the New Testament.

Many years ago when Laurie and I were a lot younger and she lived in Burlington, NC, she was neighbors with one of the widows in the church she served.   This woman only got a little social security and yet she tithed.  She claimed all her bills were paid and she had all she needed. She was a generous person.  Her face glowed with the love and contentment of God’s provision and power.

In our Epistle lesson, the apostle Paul writes, “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory” (Colossians 3:1-4).

When the church practices Extravagant Generosity, it radiates the resurrection life in this world; it reveals to the world that eternity has come into the present, and that this world, with all of its need, matters to God.

Our giving should suit what it means for us to be children of God, what it means for us to be subjects of the King of kings who have received from a generous God more than we can ever imagine!  Are we truly grateful for God’s gifts of love, grace, peace, houses, food, children, spouses, friends?  Are we grateful for God’s gift of salvation? 

In Romans 8:32 we read: He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?  Do we believe that?  Some of us do.  Those early Christians did.  They were willingly to even give up their homes in order that someone else might know Christ or have their needs met.  Does God own our wallets and purses?  

One of the things that Laurie and I have struggled with over the years is not having enough to give to every cause and ministry we want to support.  We want to get out of debt completely and have made a plan to do so, so that we can give even more to God’s work.  That is what it is all about.  It is not about another toy or gismo. It is not about us. It is about serving Christ with everything we have.  How about you?

If we were to give as those who are made in God’s image, what kind of Extravagant Generosity would we practice?

Prayer

Gracious Jesus, touch our lives; touch every aspect of our existence. May we bring everything we are and everything we have under your lordship, including our money and its use. In the name of our Lord who gave up His life for us. Amen

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Risky Business
Matthew 25:31-46

“Risk Taking Mission” Ernest Henry Shackleton was born on February 15, 1874, in Ireland. While Shackleton was still young, the family moved to London where Shackleton was educated. Ernest’s father wanted him to follow in his footsteps and become a doctor. Instead, Shackleton joined the merchant navy at the age of sixteen. As a sailor, he traveled to many places, but his great desire was to travel to the North and South Poles.

In December of 1914, Shackleton finally set sail for the South Pole in command of the ship Endurance. He took with him a crew of twenty-seven men, many of whom had answered the following recruitment notice Shackleton placed in the newspaper:

Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.

So many men responded to the ad that Shackleton had to turn more than a few away!

We have been emphasizing Robert Schnase’s 5 Practices of Fruitful Congregations.  Click mouse as each of the 5 are read: They Radical Hospitality, Passionate Worship, Intentional Faith Development, Risk taking Mission & Service, and Extravagant Generosity.  Click once more:  Today, we are focusing on: Risk-Taking Mission and Service. Doing mission and service work isn’t just a nice thing for us Christians to do; it’s something that we need to do. Ephesians 2:10 states: “For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  It’s something that we must do. It is the very reason why God has put us here. In fact, Schnase says that a church will die if it is not doing the kind of mission and service work that Jesus talked about and demonstrated. The church will die without mission—maybe not overnight, but it will die…slowly and surely. It will gradually waste away as all of its energies and resources turn more and more inward on itself and the church becomes merely a monument to the work and witness of saints gone by.

In our Gospel lesson, Jesus tells the parable of the sheep and the goats. To the sheep (the righteous), Jesus the Judge extends his invitation to enter into his kingdom, saying, “I was hungry and you gave me food…. I was in prison and you visited me…. Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these, who are members of my family, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:35, 36, 40).  To the goats (the not-so-righteous), Jesus the Judge sends them away from his presence, because “just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me” (Matthew 25:45).

Jesus leaves no doubt as to the necessity of Risk-taking Mission and Service for our eternity; we are to serve others in Christ’s name because our lives—for all eternity— depend on it. Indeed, in Risk-Taking Mission and Service we bring eternity into the present to those in need.      

The future of the church depends upon Risk-Taking Mission and Service. A congregation that loses the profound reason for its existence will slowly wither and die. The church of Jesus Christ exists for others; it exists for the world. What can happen (and happens all too often) is that congregations move from existing for the world to existing for their own sake. They see their mission not as reaching those outside the church for Jesus Christ, but as catering to the current membership. As important as it is for the church to care for its membership, focusing only inward on those who are members instead of outward on those who need to know and embrace God’s saving love is a recipe for eventual stagnation and decline.

After twenty-six years as a pastor, I have become convinced that the primary reason the church turns inward is because we are afraid. We are not afraid to be in mission and service; we are afraid to be in Risk-Taking Mission and Service.

It is precisely for this reason that I urge and encourage you to take part in a mission that stretches you in some way whether that is in our county or in the Gulf states or out of the country.  By so doing, we are forced to take risks.  We risk that our efforts will be for nothing or that they won't be appreciated.

Too often the church replaces Risk-Taking Mission and Service with charity. Charity is what we do for the poor and marginalized to make us feel good about ourselves. We put aside funds in our budget for homeless shelters and soup kitchens all over the US and world; and at the holidays we prepare food baskets & do Holiday Angels for the “underprivileged.”  Please do not misunderstand me; all of this is important and necessary and part of what it means to be a faithful church. But is this sufficient? Is this enough? Can such giving become a replacement for the Risk-Taking Mission and Service that are so necessary?

Micah 6:8  Instead of only providing a food and gifts once a year, what if we made a point to invite them over and over again for worship? What if we not only offered them a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name but also give Jesus himself to them in our presence? What if we not only invited them to worship but also brought them to worship and sat with them?

The truth of the matter is that charity is what we do for ourselves in order to make ourselves feel good; Risk-Taking Mission and Service is what we do for others because we, the church, exists for others. Above all things, Jesus Christ desires to be in relationship with all persons. He cannot be in relationship with others unless we are in relationship with him. Evangelism is more than conveying information about salvation; it is not about leaving tracts on park benches. Evangelism is about being in relationship with those whom Jesus wants to be in relationship.

Such mission and service is indeed risky. It forces us to be vulnerable, to step outside our comfort zones; but our lives, as well as the lives of others, depend upon it. When we the church are willing to step out and take the risk of such mission and service, we will discover a kind of joy and satisfaction that far surpasses the momentary thrill of charitable giving, because we will have discovered the adventure that is the gospel! 

That is what Holy Communion reminds us: that God took a great risk when He sent His Son that we would NOT accept Him.  Jesus invites us not only to commune with Him but to allow Him to use us in mighty ways, risky ways, to touch people with His love and grace.

Prayer

Gracious God, we have good intentions. We truly want to help those in need. We desire for all persons to come to Christ. We confess that there are times when we have used charity as a replacement for the Risk-Taking Mission and Service you have called us to do. We know that we cannot step out in such mission and service without the presence and power of your Holy Spirit in our lives. So in the power of your Spirit, assist us as we move forward in our task, knowing that we, your church, exist not for ourselves but for others. We lift our prayer in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, the biggest risk-taker of them all. Amen.

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The Pilgrim’s Progress
2 Timothy 2:11-15

INTENTIONAL FAITH DEVELOPMENT

Pilgrim's Progress, written by John Bunyan, catalogs the journey of Christian, a man who is seeking his salvation on a pilgrimage to Heaven. Along the way, Christian en-counters many obstacles that test his faith as well as many characters that are useful in showing him the difference between right and wrong, obedience and disobedience, from the perspective of Christian religious faith. After Christian attains his heavenly reward, his family completes a pilgrimage to join him. Told as a dream, this seventeenth century religious classic uses Bible verses mixed with allegorical characters to preach its evangelistic message.  

There are many positive messages in Pilgrim’s Progress.  The one I want us to see clearly today is that Christian, the main character, would never have reached his goal and destination were it not for others he met and that joined him on the way.  Faithful and Hopeful weren’t merely traveling buddies, but persons whose gifts, experiences, and faith gave Christian the insight, wisdom and tools necessary to reach the Celestial City. 

The same is true of us.  John Bunyan went to great lengths in this classic to share the truths of the Gospel in a format that his 17th century peers could understand.  He wanted them to see that the Christian journey was not a solitary one, a Lone Ranger sort of thing. Instead, the Christian life is life learned in the community of believers who together seek to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.  That is how we mature in faith. The practice of Intentional Faith Development is yet another of the Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations that we are focusing on during Lent.  As Methodists, we have a rich legacy reaching all the way back to the days of our founder John Wesley.  More than that, this practice centers in Jesus Christ.  His followers grew in their understanding of God and matured in their awareness of God’s will for their lives as they listened to Jesus’ stories, instructions, and lessons while gathering around dinner tables, on hillsides, and at the Temple.  Jesus taught us to learn our faith this way. Following the formation of the church by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the earliest communities of Christians thrived as “they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer” (Acts 2:42).  Notice the 2 references to learning and community. The Apostle Paul throughout his letters to churches encouraged the believers to learn, grow, teach, and mature in their faith.  He presents faith as a daily, lifelong practice that we learn by our relationship with God and with one another. 

The notion of growing in faith is central to Methodist practice. John Wesley taught of the maturing in faith that the Holy Spirit makes possible as we grow in Christ-likeness.  Wesley was concerned for Christian disciples beyond their initial encounter with Christ or even their salvation.  He wanted Methodist Christians to grow in the grace and understanding of God that can only occur by spending time in the presence of God’s Word and God’s people.  2 Timothy 2:11-15 instructs us to the steady maturing that occurs through learning to rightly divide, understand the Word of truth.  This occurs in the context of the church, fellow believers.  When we, you and I, are intentional about this, the result is the steady withering of the old ways of thinking and acting and sinning that were a part of our lives before we came to Christ and a nurturing of the fruit of the Spirit that mark our new life in Christ.

This fruit listed in Galatians 5:22-23 – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control cannot be learned apart from a network of relationships. Notice with me that these fruit, the results of our relationship with Christ, are developed and strengthened only in our association with others.  Love is an action we show to brothers and sisters in Christ and everyone else we may meet.  Peace is the overwhelming attribute of our relationship with each other in Christ.  Gentleness is not something we display toward our self primarily, but to others. In Bunyan’s masterpiece, Christian faces questions, doubts, temptations, and missteps as do we. He was not alone. These obstacles are a part of the journey towards Christ.  We are NOT alone either.  Christ is with us.  But our Lord has placed us in the company of other believers who support us and encourage us in our life of faith; who help us interpret God’s Word for our lives so that we don’t misinterpret it through our misunderstanding or self-justifying attitudes. 

In the intimacy of small groups like the choir, a Sunday School Class, small group Bible Study, Youth group, etc. we learn not only Scripture, but we give and receive the care of Christ by praying for one another, supporting one another through periods of grief and difficulty, and celebrating one another’s joys and hopes.  These groups also provide accountability.  A seminary professor once said: Everybody wants to want to study the Bible.”  He was referring to the contrast between our good intentions and our actual practices.  How many people each year resolve to read the Bible, start with Genesis in January, and give up of all hope of seeing their way through to the end by the time they reach Leviticus in February? I want to be serious about exercise.  I have started various programs over the years that have failed because there is no accountability.  When Laurie and I resolve to do it together then we are the check and balance for each other.  We try to make sure the other one has done what we agreed to do each day as a part of our exercise routine.  In community there is a natural accountability.  Asking one another whether or not we did something that we agree to do as a class keeps each of us honest.  Laurie and I are a part of an Emmaus support group.  Every month we meet together and in essence ask: how is it with your life in Christ?  Where have you succeeded?  Where have you failed?  In a small group that is committed to honoring each other through the integrity of not sharing with others what goes on in the group, we can honestly share our failures with a group that will offer forgiveness and encouragement that enables us to do what we have committed ourselves to do.  Dietrich Bonheoffer once said, “The Christ in one’s own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of a brother or sister in Christ.”  So why add the adjective intentional to describe the practice of faith development.  Intentional refers to deliberate effort and purposeful action. Furthermore, it reminds us that Intentional Faith Development is absolutely critical to the church’s calling.  Without the efforts of leaders and teachers, we would become stagnant and eventually we would die as a church.  But more poignantly, we would slowly and surely grow away from Christ. So the question for today for us as Memorial/Patton UMC and for each and everyone of us individually, is: how are we being intentional to grow in our faith? Paul warns us to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12).  And our Lord Jesus said: 12Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13but he who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:12-13).  In Deuteronomy 6:1-25 God instructs the people to keep His teaching and commandments upon their hearts and to Impress them on your children; to talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”  How can we do that in a haphazard way?  How can we expect to know when someone is giving us godly wisdom and teaching or lies, if we don’t diligently study God’s Word in the community of faith God has placed us in? This must be a priority in each of our lives above some of the things we have placed as priority.  What class or group or Bible Study will you attend?  If we don’t have one that meets your needs, say so and we will pray with you and work with you to create one.  Like Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress, we are on a journey walking with Jesus.  Will you join Christ and us on this journey that leads to fullness of life here and an eternity with Christ?  One caution: No matter how dedicated our efforts, the transformation of human hearts and minds is God’s work through he Holy Spirit, and intentionally learning in community is our way of placing ourselves in the hands of God so that God can sculpt our souls and recreate us in the image of Christ.  The refreshing intimacy and companionship of fellow Christians learning together  becomes a means of experiencing God’s grace that heightens our desire to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves.

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The Chief End of Man
Romans 15:1-7

Someone once commented that Socrates was considered wise, not because he knew all the right answers but because he knew how to ask the right questions. 

Questions—the right questions—can lead to very profound answers.  They can expose hidden motives as well as enable us to face truth we had not admitted even to ourselves.

Dr. Gregory Stock wrote a book simply entitled: The Book of Questions. It is simply that.  A book of 275 thought-provoking questions that pull us out of our shell.  For example:

If you were to die this evening with no opportunity to communicate with anyone, what would you most regret not having told someone? Why haven’t you told them yet?

Your house, containing everything you own, catches fire. After saving your loved ones and pets, you have time to safely make a final dash and save any one item. What would it be?

If you were at a friend’s house for Thanksgiving dinner and you found a dead cockroach in the salad, what would you do?

Funny thing about questions, they force us to come to terms with the issue.  I find it interesting

that the least asked questions in Stock’s book were the “Why” questions.  Yet I believe these are the most critical.  In my Strong’s Concordance-an alphabetical listing of every word in the Bible, when you turn to the term Why you find almost a page of the tiniest print dedicated to the places in scripture where this Why question is raised.  Like: God asked Cain, “Why are you angry?”  The angels asked Abram, “Why did Sarah laugh?”  JOB asked God, “Why did I not die at birth?”

            The Why question seemed to be Jesus’ favorite.  Why do you worry?”  Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye and not at the log in your own eye?  Why do you not believe Me?

So, when I wanted to arrive at the foundational reason the church exists, I asked “Why?”  Why indeed, has the church been called into existence?  Why do we occupy this piece of ground and this building? Why do we have a music ministry? Why are sermons preached?  Why do we support missions and ministries here and around the world?  Some of you have answered these questions as I’ve asked them.  Do our answers hit at the primary purpose of the church?  If I were to ask each of you: What is the primary purpose of the church?, what would you say?  We find the answer clearly stated in several places in the New Testament. I Cor. 10:31 – “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 

            What is the purpose of the church? To glorify the Lord our God.  Look at it.  “WHETHER…”  Whether we are eating or drinking, hurting or helping, serving or struggling the activities are limitless).

            Look further: “WHATEVER….” Again, it is as broad as we wish to make it.  Whatever you are—male or female; whatever country you find yourself; in whatever circumstance-the goal is God’s glory.

A few chapters earlier in the same letter, we find this probing question: “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?  For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body (Cor. 6:19-20).   God is concerned that we glorify Him even in our body.  The way we treat it. What we put into it. What we allow it to say.  Where we go and what we do with it.  Even our physical existence is to bring glory to God.  (Read Rom. 15:5-6) 

            The Bible is full of statements like this.  Our sole purpose, our basic reason for existence, is to bring maximum glory to our God.  To make this practical, the question needs to be asked on a regular basis: Why am I doing this? Why did I say yes? Why did I agree to that? Why am I teaching? Why do I sing in the choir? Why do I help the church plan and spend its budget? Why? Why? Why?  When those questions are asked, there must be one and only one answer: To glorify God. 

Jesus said: “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matt 5:16). So, if your life is an example of glorifying God, others won’t see your good works and glorify you, because they’ll know what you are doing is for God’s glory.  I’m not able to explain how they can tell. I just know Jesus said they can.

In 1647 the Westminster Shorter Catechism was devised.  In preparing for joining the church, teachers would ask their students: What is the chief end of man?  Answer: Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.  What then, does that word glory or glorify mean?  Briefly, when you study the Scriptures, the word glory is used in 3 major ways.  First of all, glory refers to light; the light of God’s presence, a bright and shining light from heaven like in Exodus 40:34 – “…the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.  The sense is of a blinding light.  It is what emanates from God’s presence.  It was sometimes called the shekinah of God.  So awesome was the light that to step into it inappropriately meant sudden death. Secondly, we find there is a glory that refers to a distinctive appearance used of the celestial bodies.  But that is not what Paul was talking about in our giving God glory.

            Thirdly: that glory means to magnify, to elevate, to shed splendor on Another.  So for us, to glorify God means to lift up, to elevate God as we humble ourselves.

            IN the Bible, John the Baptist is a great example of what we mean.  John once said of Jesus: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).  John was the voice of one crying in the wilderness; but to him, Jesus was the Word.  John the Baptist willingly lost his followers to the Lord Jesus.  Not once did John seek the glory that belonged only to the Messiah.  In his own words, he considered himself unworthy even to loosen the leather thong on the Messiah’s sandal.  Glorifying God means being occupied with and committed to God’s ways rather than preoccupied with and determined to go my own way.  It is being so thrilled with the Lord, so devoted to Him, so committed to Him that we cannot get enough of Him!

            Isaiah 55 is a wonderful chapter of Scripture.  It is not addressed to people who are satisfied with a little sip of God.  It is an invitation to those who are thirsty for Him…who are ready to gulp down all that God has.  That is why the prophet begins, “Ho!”  That means, “Listen up!” (Vs1) 1"Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat
         Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost.

            Is it possible to run a church that will have wide public appeal and gather a crowd without giving God the glory?  You betcha!  You see, we can do all the slick things that work in the marketing realm and cater to people’s every whim, and get great results.  But, if we are trying to follow Jesus, we have to do things for His glory not ours.  His ways are not our ways.”  His ways are so much higher and purer.  Our goal should be God’s glory.  God being recognized and raised up.  Not us. 

King David in Psalm 145:1-7 expresses this in a little different manner.  Here in these words we can see that exalting the living Lord is literally David’s greatest delight.

            1  I will exalt you, my God the King;  I will praise your name for ever and ever.  2 Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever.  3 Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom.  4 One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts. 5 They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty, and I will meditate on your wonderful works.  6 They will tell of the power of your awesome works,
       and I will proclaim your great deeds.  7 They will celebrate your abundant goodness
       and joyfully sing of your righteousness.

Here is a man who truly understood what it meant to give God the glory.  Would that all of us were cut from the same piece of cloth!

In Psalm 86, things were not as good for David.  The bottom seems to have dropped out of his life.  Yet, he is the same man addressing the same God, but affliction and trouble have come upon him.  Notice, circumstances did not change his attitude towards God.

             1Incline Your ear, O LORD, and answer me; For I am afflicted and needy.
    2 Preserve my soul, for I am a godly man; O You my God, save Your servant who trusts in You.
    3Be gracious to me, O Lord,  For to You I cry all day long.  4Make glad the soul of Your servant,
         For to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. 5For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive,
         And  abundant in loving kindness to all who call upon You.  6Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer;
         And give heed to the voice of my supplications!  7In the day of my trouble I shall call upon You,
         For You will answer me.  8There is no one like You among the gods, O Lord,  Nor are there any works like Yours.  9All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord,
         And they shall glorify Your name.  10For You are great and do wondrous deeds;
         You alone are God.

            Whether in days of delight (Ps. 145) or days of distress (Ps.86) the glory went to the Lord, his God.

So, HOW DOES ALL THIS APPLY?   Can I encourage us by lifting up the importance of glorifying God on a personal basis?  All of this could apply to the church in general, but it must begin with you and me.  When we finally see and embrace our purpose for being, we come to the realization that glorifying God applies to every detail of living our lives.  Let’s start with the “whens” in life.

            When I am unsure, I glorify Him by seeking to know God’s will and then waiting for His guidance.  When I need to make a decision, I lean on God’s Word for direction and the godly counsel of those I know can help me.  I lean on His Spirit of strength.  You want an example?  How about selecting a job or a major in college, determining which car to buy, focusing on a goal to accomplish.  I decide on each one of those things only for God’s glory.  How about this one? When suffering and affliction assault me.  Or when pursuing an education—all for God’s glory, not mine.  The same applies to the school I attend, the courses I take, the degree I seek, the career I ultimately embrace.  When any subject surfaces that calls for my response, God’s glory is to be in my attitude and woven through my direction.  When I am thinking and planning.  When I win or lose.  When I must give up a dream, I willingly surrender.  Why?  Again for the same reason—for God’s glory.

            Next, let’s apply this to the “ins” in life.  In my public life or private affairs, I seek God’s glory.  In relationships that please me or challenge me, they are all for God’s glory.  In my home, in my work, in my school, in traveling, in a crowd, or in my room or office alone.  In my research, my studies, exams, my day to day routine, all for His glory.  In fame and fortune, public applause and appreciation, or on days when none of that occurs, it is to be done for His glory.

            Let’s take this one step further to include all the “ifs” in life.  If a person I love stays or leaves, God gets the glory.  If a cause I support captures the hearts of others or dies for lack of support, God gets the glory.  If the plans I arrange succeed or fail or must be altered, I focus on God being honored and exalted, regardless.  If the church I am involved with grows or stops growing, God gets the glory.  If I get my way or If I don’t, God gets the glory.  My theme in life, your theme in life is to be: “To God be the glory for the things He has done.”

            Finally, HOW DOES IT OCCUR?  How do we make it happen.  Obviously you can’t accomplish your purpose simply by getting a copy of this sermon and reading it over and over again.  The goal is to personalize these truths so effectively that you end your life like Jesus who said at the end of His, “I glorified You on the earth.” (John 17:4a).  There are 3 suggestions that people I trust and respect for their faithfulness give over and over.  So, how does glorifying God happen?

First, by cultivating the habit of including the Lord God in every segment of your life. 

This is to be a conscious and constant thought.  Habits are formed that way.  It may help to write this probing question on 3X5 cards: IS GOD GETTING THE GLORY?  Put a card on the visor of your car, on your computer screen saver, on the mirror in your bathroom, on the refrigerator and in front of the sink.  The Christian faith is NOT supposed to be limited to Sundays and Wednesdays.  I urge you to open every closet, every room in your life and allow God’s glory in.  How does it occur?

Second: By refusing to expect or accept any of the glory that belongs to God.  It is helpful to remember that what the Bible calls your flesh or your human sinful nature is very creative and selfish.  It is like a sponge, ready and willing to soak up all the glory.  It looks for opportunities to grab the glory that belongs to God alone.  You see, I can hide my motives and try to manipulate people I am supposed to be serving.  I can make it seem that they are doing a God thing when in fact they are doing a Keith-thing.  I, like any of you, can take the glory God alone deserves.  I am suggesting a better way—that we no longer expect or accept any of the glory that belongs to God.  His glory is His alone, so let’s be sure He gets it all from now on!  Again, how does it occur?

By maintaining a priority relationship with God that is more important than any other on earth.  You may be closer to your child than you are to God.  You may spend more time with your spouse than you ever have with God.  You could be more concerned with your family’s safety and security than you are about the will of God in your life.  Nothing wrong with loving your family or planning their future, but if it is your sincere desire to follow Jesus, then I need to say again: make spending time with Him a priority.  This question: Will this bring glory to God or to me? must be asked often. 

            The Good News is that we, you and I can do this.  God doesn’t mock us.  He never gives a command that we cannot accomplish with His strength.  But you have to determine that you will do all things for His Glory and His alone.  When we do, our lives and our church will be filled with evidence and displays of His magnificent glory.

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"Fearfully and Wonderfully Made"
Text: Psalm 139:13-18

            I had the privilege of witnessing the birth of my children, and the memories still fill me with a sense of how awesome our God is.

Psalm 139 is a lament that tells us that God gave King David the ability to endure the struggles in his life. David was surrounded by enemies determined to destroy him, just as we are surrounded by the powers of death. This psalm reveals the resources which will help us cope with our crises. The psalm consists of four paragraphs, each composed of six verses, and each pointing to an attribute of God. Those four attributes are the omniscience, the omnipresence, the sovereignty, and the holiness of God, as they relate to our personal experience. In other words, God knows us completely (that's omniscience). He is with us no matter where we are (that's omnipresence). He is in control of our life (that's sovereignty). And He is our guide to holiness. I want to focus mainly on the third paragraph, our reading for today, but I want to put it in context by briefly addressing the first two paragraphs which speak of our security in God. This is an important message for children today, who, unlike their parents in their childhood, suffer the absence of security. When I was a kid, we didn't worry about our parents getting divorced, or about the possibility of getting shot dead on the way to school, or being the victim of some other violence. Let's look now at the psalm. 

A. The first paragraph speaks of God's omniscience, that fancy theological word that means God knows everything. We can find strength and security in the midst of any crisis because God knows us intimately.

O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O Lord.
You hem me in--behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

            You get the point. God knows our motives and our thoughts, our every action. He searches us like a miner digs for gold. He knows us better than we know ourselves. Everywhere we go, God is there, surrounding us, with His hand on our shoulders. Don't cringe under this wonderful, awesome, and incomprehensible knowledge, but rather find comfort in it. Like Jesus said, God counts the hairs on your heads, so concerned is He about you. The Hebrew concept of "knowledge" implies not only information, but intimacy and love. It is a personal knowledge, a love that is patient and kind, that protects us in a tender embrace. Therefore, we are comforted when in trouble.

B. The second paragraph speaks of God's omnipresence, meaning that God is everywhere. He is always with me. Even if I wanted, I couldn't escape God.

“Where Can I go from your Spirit?”

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
(that is, "your face," your personal presence)
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

            Paul writes, "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" (Rom 8:39). By His Holy Spirit, God is everywhere. If we could fly with the speed of light to a distant land, God would be there, guiding and upholding us with his right hand. Remember, it is Jesus who sits at God's right hand. No matter what darkness may surround us, whatever evil seeks to crush us, whatever depression or grief or oppressive power, God still sees us and cares for us, for the sake of Christ. How do we know that God knows so much about us, that God is ever present with us, that God personally cares for us? We have only to consider how wonderfully we are made.

THE WONDER OF MY OWN BODY CONVINCES ME THAT GOD IS LOVING AND PRESENT WITH ME.

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

            This third paragraph begins with the word "for," because it gives the basis for declaring those two truths about God that give us strength in the midst of crises: God knows us intimately because it was by His design that we came into being. It was the creative power of our sovereign God that controlled and sustained the development of our physical lives. Look at yourself!! You are not some chance accident of an impersonal universe. Consider how complex is your physical being. How can we do anything other than respond to this wonder by saying, "I will give thanks to you [God], for I am wonderfully and fearfully made. Isaac Newton said, "In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God's existence."

A. The third paragraph speaks of God's power. God controls our psychological and physical development by His "wonderful," or supernatural, power. He "created my inmost being," literally, "my kidneys." For the Hebrew, this was the seat of emotions and affections; today we'd say "you created my heart," my psyche. And, "He knit me together (or 'covered' me) in my mother's womb." He was directly involved in our physical formation from the beginning. God is concerned about our psychology and our physiology. He knows beforehand how many days we are to live, the experiences yet in store for us. God does not push out the boat of my life into the lake of time so I can get along as best I can. He has a plan for me. He ordained my days, or "formed" them like a potter gives shape to clay. There is comfort for us in the knowledge that our Creator has a plan for our lives, and our experiences are under His sovereign control. That He is the potter and we are the clay.  Some people teach that we are gods, but we are not. We are dust, mixed with water and given life by the only true God, our Creator.  If we let Him, He can make something beautiful and useful out of our lives.  Don't for a moment think that you or anyone else is lacking in worth or dignity in the eyes of God, or that God does not care for you.

B. Consider how you were knit in the womb. Consider how wonderfully and fearfully you were made. In 1965, Life magazine printed the first photos of the unborn child in various stages of development. It was wonderful. You may not agree with me, but I think the unborn child is beautiful. Now, I need to take a sharp right turn and mention two things at this point. Fasten your seatbelts.     First,1. We unfortunately have some confusion in our Church over when human life begins.       The General Conference of our Church  in the 2008 Discipline states: the beginning of life and the ending of life are the God-given boundaries of human existence…Our belief in the sanctity of unborn human life makes us reluctant to approve abortion.  But we are equally bound to respect the sacredness of the life and well-being of the mother and the unborn child. Because these statements are somewhat vague, United Methodists argue over whether or not abortion is okay.  Science, however, has clearly shown that human life begins at the moment of conception. 2. Science is not confused about when human life begins. In 1989, Dr. Jerome LeJeune--the world renown professor of genetics in Paris, France, who discovered the genetic cause of Downs Syndrome, testified at a trial in Tennessee, that no one can claim property rights on a frozen embryo because it is a human being. He said, and I quote in part:  Each of us has a unique human beginning, the moment of conception. Inside the chromosomes is written the program and all the definitions, so to speak, of the table of the law of life...when this information carried by the sperm and by the ovum has encountered each other, then a new human being is defined because its own personal and human constitution is entirely spelled out...science has a very simple conception of man; as soon as he has been conceived, a man is a man. ...Around twelve days after fertilization, the beginning of [the neural tube is formed]. Then, within...three weeks, the cardiac tubes will begin to beat, so that the heart is beginning to beat after three weeks. ...[At] two months of age, he is two centimeters and a half from the crown to the rump, and if I had him in my fist, you would not see that I have something, but if I opened my hand you would see the tiny man with hands, fingers, and toes. Everything is there.  At this stage, we change the name from "embryo" to "fetus" because, now, the visible evidence clearly shows that we are looking at a man and not a chimpanzee or other primate. A cytogenesis student could easily tell if the original zygote was a human being. 3. Only one question remains.         Our current governmental policy holds us to the objective biblical standard that killing an innocent human being is sin, but allows us to ignore the objective scientific standard that human life begins at conception, thus allowing us to justify abortion by saying we are not sure whether the one being killed is human. That ambiguity is unconscionable. When human life begins is no longer a question; science answered that question. The only question that remains is philosophical: whether or not we will value that human life above the modern gods of Comfort and Convenience. Those who framed our government's Constitution valued life. Thomas Jefferson wrote: "The care of human life and not destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government." I sincerely believe God's judgment awaits us if the laws of our land do not, once again, seek to protect the life of the weakest members of our society. You don't have to agree with me on this, but I want you to know that this is one of those beliefs I will not back down from nor apologize for.  I will fight for the right of the unborn to life as long as I am able.  Whether you agree with me or not, I do hope you will consider how wonderfully and fearfully we are made, and find comfort in the realization that the God who knit you together in the vast complexity of your physical and psychological design, is the God who is near to you and who loves you even in the dark times, the crisis moments, of your life. And, if what I am saying disturbs your conscience, know still that God loves you and invites you to draw near to Him, so that you can C. Praise God for the wonder of His work. Part of the wonder is the amount of information stored in the DNA of a single human zygote. It is so vast that no supercomputer in the world has enough storage space to contain the data. Can you fathom that??

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake, I am still with you.

            The knowledge of God is precious, inexhaustible. His creative ideas are utterly vast in number. The more a scientist discovers, the more he realizes how much he doesn't know. Just thinking about what God has done could put you to sleep, like counting sheep. Yet, God's presence is a changeless reality. As I awaken, day by day, I can know I am in God's presence, for I have considered how I am made and I have met God through faith in Jesus Christ. Someday, I know I will awaken even from death, and still I will be with God. You can know this, too.

            I hope I am a good citizen, a patriot, a lover of this great nation.  As I free-born American and a born-again Christian, I will be honest: I am scared of what some of President Obama’s plans are.  Whether you voted for him or not, I believe we should stand up for what is right.  Look at your insert.  There are ways to stand for the unborn.  It is not time to shrug and say, oh well, that’s the way it goes.  NO! Fight through signing petitions, calling your representatives, and praying that God’s righteousness will defeat evil wherever it is found. I don’t believe my tax dollars should be used to take innocent life.  Do you??                                                                                                                                 Someday, when Christ comes again, the wicked will want to hide from the wrath of the Lamb (Rev. 6:16). In the meantime, we ought not to compromise with those who seek, in the name of God, to justify the shedding of innocent blood by twisting or ignoring God's Word. Like David, we should be filled with revulsion for the moral and spiritual values they embody. Christ will forgive me if I get angry and disgusted over some of the things promoted by our own Church or our own Government.  But, the Lordship of Christ demands that we                                                                         III. Choose sides.
            Is this issue of God's creative sovereignty clear in your life? Is it clear that you have chosen the Lord's side? Pray this prayer often.

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way of everlasting.

            That can be your prayer. Open your heart to God. Ask him to search you. Not just about this issue, but to search you for any sin in your life.  The psalmist had some anxious thoughts about his commitment to God and was willing to have God expose anything in him that might be offensive to God, that he might deal with it and that God might lead him in the way of eternal life. God calls us to be holy because He is holy. Maybe you are realizing you really don't have a personal and intimate relationship to the God of all creation. I want you to know that your life has meaning and purpose, worth and dignity, because you are wonderfully and fearfully made by our loving Creator-God. He knows you better than you know yourself, and He is here with us now. And, you can ask him to reveal Himself to you, even now. Join me in praying as the Psalmist would pray:     O God, you know me. Let me know your loving presence. I thank you that I am wonderfully and fearfully made. Search me and know my heart. See if there is any offensive way in me and forgive it, for Christ's sake, who died for me. And, lead me in the way of eternal life; lead me in Jesus who is the way, the truth, and the life. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

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