MESSAGES

Note: The purpose of posting messages is to make them available to those who may not be able to attend service. Maybe when we get to Heaven we will meet someone who read a message and accepted Christ as Savior!! Cool by me!!

Sunday, February 5, 2012

The Reluctant Missionary

Answering God’s Call

Source: SERMON OUTLINES FORGROWING CHRISTIANS By Stephen M. Hooks

Scripture: Jonah 1-4 (NLT)

Scripture Contained in Speaking Points

Introduction

When the name “Jonah” is mentioned, most people immediately think of a man being swallowed by a great fish. Yet this remarkable event is really only a minor part of a much more important story.

The book of Jonah is really the story of a missionary—a reluctant missionary. It is the story of a man who tried to set himself up as the judge of who is worthy to receive God’s pardon. In response to God’s call Jonah began running:

I. Running From God (chapter one)

Jonah Runs from the LORD

¹The LORD gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: ²“Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”

³But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the LORD. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the LORD by sailing to Tarshish.

⁴But the LORD hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart. ⁵Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship.

But all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold. ⁶So the captain went down after him. “How can you sleep at a time like this?” he shouted. “Get up and pray to your god! Maybe he will pay attention to us and spare our lives.”

⁷Then the crew cast lots to see which of them had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm. When they did this, the lots identified Jonah as the culprit. ⁸“Why has this awful storm come down on us?” they demanded. “Who are you? What is your line of work? What country are you from? What is your nationality?”

⁹Jonah answered, “I am a Hebrew, and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”

¹⁰The sailors were terrified when they heard this, for he had already told them he was running away from the LORD. “Oh, why did you do it?” they groaned. ¹¹And since the storm was getting worse all the time, they asked him, “What should we do to you to stop this storm?”

¹²“Throw me into the sea,” Jonah said, “and it will become calm again. I know that this terrible storm is all my fault.”

¹³Instead, the sailors rowed even harder to get the ship to the land. But the stormy sea was too violent for them, and they couldn’t make it. ¹⁴Then they cried out to the LORD, Jonah’s God. “O LORD,” they pleaded, “don’t make us die for this man’s sin. And don’t hold us responsible for his death. O LORD, you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons.”

¹⁵Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once! ¹⁶The sailors were awestruck by the LORD’s great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him.

A. Jonah’s disobedience was a sin of omission. It was willful refusal to answer God’s call. True obedience often involves more than what we avoid doing. It also involves our positive response to God’s call to service.

B. God held Jonah accountable for his refusal to answer His call.

1. Jonah’s attempt to defy God was futile. Where does one run in an attempt to get away from God?

2. God’s judgment of Jonah was appropriate to his sin. The one fleeing is trapped. The means of his attempted escape (the sea) becomes the instrument of his punishment.

II. Running Toward God (chapter two)

^17£Now the LORD had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.

Jonah’s Prayer

^1£Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from inside the fish. ²He said,

“I cried out to the LORD in my great trouble,

and he answered me.

I called to you from the land of the dead,

and LORD, you heard me!

³ You threw me into the ocean depths,

and I sank down to the heart of the sea.

The mighty waters engulfed me;

I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves.

⁴ Then I said, ‘O LORD, you have driven me from your presence.

Yet I will look once more toward your holy Temple.’

⁵ “I sank beneath the waves,

and the waters closed over me.

Seaweed wrapped itself around my head.

⁶ I sank down to the very roots of the mountains.

I was imprisoned in the earth,

whose gates lock shut forever.

But you, O LORD my God,

snatched me from the jaws of death!

⁷ As my life was slipping away,

I remembered the LORD.

And my earnest prayer went out to you

in your holy Temple.

⁸ Those who worship false gods

turn their backs on all God’s mercies.

⁹ But I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise,

and I will fulfill all my vows.

For my salvation comes from the LORD alone.”

¹⁰Then the LORD ordered the fish to spit Jonah out onto the beach.

A. Jonah’s repentance was motivated by God’s judgment.

1. The consequences of his sin forced him to reconsider the error of his ways.

2. Sometimes we, like Jonah, must suffer the consequences of our sin before we are ready to repent.

B. Jonah’s repentance was motivated by God’s mercy.

1. Notice that Jonah’s prayer thanks God for a deliverance already begun. The creature which the Lord “provided” had saved Jonah from drowning and anticipated a greater deliverance to come.

2. Likewise, God delivers us from the full consequences of our sin as an invitation to seek his even greater pardon.

III. Running With God (chapter three)

Jonah Goes to Nineveh

¹Then the LORD spoke to Jonah a second time: ²“Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you.”

³This time Jonah obeyed the LORD’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all.^4On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” ⁵The people of Nineveh believed God’s message, and from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow.

⁶When the king of Nineveh heard what Jonah was saying, he stepped down from his throne and took off his royal robes. He dressed himself in burlap and sat on a heap of ashes. ⁷Then the king and his nobles sent this decree throughout the city:

“No one, not even the animals from your herds and flocks, may eat or drink anything at all. ⁸People and animals alike must wear garments of mourning, and everyone must pray earnestly to God. They must turn from their evil ways and stop all their violence. ⁹Who can tell? Perhaps even yet God will change his mind and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us.”

¹⁰When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened.

A. Jonah received a second chance to obey God’s calling.

1. God is a God of “second chances.” He does not quickly give up on his children.

2. God is responsive to our repentance. When we seek his mercy, he does not begrudge it.

B. When Jonah obeyed God’s call and cooperated with His will, his ministry was blessed with power and success.

1. At the preaching of a Hebrew prophet a hostile, pagan nation was led to repentance.

2. The power of God’s word to change lives is often released through a life that has fully submitted to His will.

IV. Running Ahead of God (chapter four)

Jonah’s Anger at the LORD’s Mercy

¹This change of plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry. ²So he complained to the LORD about it: “Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, LORD? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people. ³Just kill me now, LORD! I’d rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.”

⁴The LORD replied, “Is it right for you to be angry about this?”

⁵Then Jonah went out to the east side of the city and made a shelter to sit under as he waited to see what would happen to the city. ⁶And the LORD God arranged for a leafy plant to grow there, and soon it spread its broad leaves over Jonah’s head, shading him from the sun. This eased his discomfort, and Jonah was very grateful for the plant.

⁷But God also arranged for a worm! The next morning at dawn the worm ate through the stem of the plant so that it withered away. ⁸And as the sun grew hot, God arranged for a scorching east wind to blow on Jonah. The sun beat down on his head until he grew faint and wished to die. “Death is certainly better than living like this!” he exclaimed.

⁹Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?”

“Yes,” Jonah retorted, “even angry enough to die!”

¹⁰Then the LORD said, “You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. It came quickly and died quickly. ¹¹But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?”

A. Jonah second-guesses God.

1. He resents God’s offer of grace to Israel’s enemies. Jonah is an intolerant nationalist who wishes to see his nation’s enemies destroyed, not saved.

2. The Ninevites have been brutally dominating Israel for decades. Jonah wants God to repay them, to give them what they deserve.

B. God censures Jonah’s intolerance and prejudice.

1. Through the incident of the withered vine, God shows Jonah that He, not Jonah, decides who shall receive His grace.

2. Our responsibility is not to decide who is worthy to receive God’s pardon. Our responsibility is to proclaim God’s pardon.

Conclusion

The church today still has its reluctant missionaries—church members, who by their prejudices and judgmental attitudes, seek to limit the proclamation of the gospel to “all the nations.” When we are tempted to put limits on God’s grace and boundaries on his forgiveness, let us remember the lesson of Jonah.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Reaping Rewards from God’s Chastening

Loved by Perfection

Source: SERMON OUTLINES FOR GROWING CHRISTIANS

By Stephen M. Hooks

Scripture: Hebrews 12:4-13 (NIV)

God Disciplines His Children

 ⁴ In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. ⁵ And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,

   “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, 
   and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 
⁶ because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, 
   and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”^[a]

 ⁷ Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? ⁸ If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. ⁹ Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! ¹⁰ They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. ¹¹ No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

 ¹² Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. ¹³ “Make level paths for your feet,”^[b] so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

Introduction

It is hard to be loved by perfection. As a virtuoso pounces upon the keys of a piano determined to summon forth its most resonant sounds; as a sculptor furiously chips away at a large piece of marble intent on releasing the image of beauty that hides within it; so also does the Creator lay His hand upon our lives determined to lift us to our spiritual potential. It is hard to be loved by perfection.

I.The Father’s Affection for His Children

 ⁶ because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, 
   and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”^[a]

 ⁷ Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? (Hebrews 12:6, 7).

A. The Bible paints many portraits of God and how He relates to humankind.

1. He is the Creator, we are the creatures.

2. He is the Sovereign, we are His subjects.

3. He is the Shepherd, we are His sheep.

B. But the greatest biblical model of the divine-human encounter is that of a Father and His children.

1. He is the commanding Father ¹ You are the children of the LORD your God. Do not cut yourselves or shave the front of your heads for the dead, ² for you are a people holy to the LORD your God. (Deuteronomy 14:1ff).

2. He is the protective Father

(Exodus 4:22-23:

²² Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son, ²³ and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’” Deuteronomy 1:31:

³³ who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go.

3. He is the providing Father

Luke 11:9-13:

⁹ “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find;   knock and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

 ¹¹ “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for^[f] a fish, will give him a snake instead? ¹² Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? ¹³ If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

4. He is the forgiving Father (Luke 15:11-32) Prodigal son.

C. The idea of God’s “Fatherhood” owes its origin to the patriarchal culture of biblical times.

1. The Jews of Jesus’ day lived in a world dominated by the influence of fathers.

2. When the author calls God their father, to his readers this meant that He was a benevolent authority figure who acted toward his children in sovereignty and love. A father disciplines his children because he loves them.

II. The Father’s Correction of His Children

Hebrews 12:7, 10: ⁷ Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? ¹⁰ They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 

A.      Why do the righteous suffer?

The Bible does not ignore this question.

In fact it offers a number of possible answers.

1.       We live in a fallen world 

¹⁷ To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

   “Cursed is the ground because of you; 
   through painful toil you will eat food from it 
   all the days of your life. 
¹⁸ It will produce thorns and thistles for you, 
   and you will eat the plants of the field. 
¹⁹ By the sweat of your brow 
   you will eat your food 
until you return to the ground, 
   since from it you were taken; 
for dust you are 
   and to dust you will return.”

Genesis 3:14ff;

2.       We are “tested” by suffering

Zechariah 13:9; ⁹ This third I will put into the fire; 
   I will refine them like silver 
   and test them like gold. 
They will call on my name 
   and I will answer them; 
I will say, ‘They are my people,’ 
   and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’”  

1 Peter 4:12ff:  ¹² Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. ¹³ But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.

3.      We are “matured” by suffering

James 1:2-4: ²My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,

³knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. ⁴But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Romans 5:3-4: ³And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance;

⁴and perseverance, character; and character, hope.

4.      God can be glorified in our suffering

John 9:1ff: ¹Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth.

B. These Hebrew Christians are being persecuted by a world hostile to their faith  Hebrews 10:32-34: ³²But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings:

³³partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated; ³⁴for you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.

1. The author says that God is using this persecution to chasten his children and to bring them to spiritual maturity.

2. This suffering is a negative means to a positive end. God is permitting and even employing their suffering to summon forth holiness, righteousness and peace.

Conclusion

Only a fool would pretend to understand suffering fully and only a sadist would claim to enjoy it. But this at least can be said. There is in the struggles of life a catalyst for spiritual development which no other force can supply. Pain has the power to summon forth from us that which we find most difficult to surrender—uncompromising faith in God and unqualified love for God.

Illustrations

C. S. Lewis describes the role of suffering in the life of the believer as “soul-making.” It is the shaping of the Christian with the hammer and chisel of adversity. Lewis also said “God whispers to us in our pleasures; speaks in our consciences; but shouts in our pains.”

So Help Me, Me!!

Source: SERMON OUTLINES FOR GROWING CHRISTIANS

By Stephen M. Hooks

Scripture: Hebrews 6:1-20 (NLT)

Hebrews 6

¹So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. ²You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. ³And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding.

⁴For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, ⁵who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come—⁶and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.

⁷When the ground soaks up the falling rain and bears a good crop for the farmer, it has God’s blessing. ⁸But if a field bears thorns and thistles, it is useless. The farmer will soon condemn that field and burn it.

⁹Dear friends, even though we are talking this way, we really don’t believe it applies to you. We are confident that you are meant for better things, things that come with salvation. ¹⁰For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers,^£ as you still do. ¹¹Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true. ¹²Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and endurance.

God’s Promises Bring Hope

¹³For example, there was God’s promise to Abraham. Since there was no one greater to swear by, God took an oath in his own name, saying:

¹⁴ “I will certainly bless you,

and I will multiply your descendants beyond number.”

¹⁵Then Abraham waited patiently, and he received what God had promised.

¹⁶Now when people take an oath, they call on someone greater than themselves to hold them to it. And without any question that oath is binding. ¹⁷God also bound himself with an oath, so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that he would never change his mind. ¹⁸So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. ¹⁹This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary. ²⁰Jesus has already gone in there for us. He has become our eternal High Priest in the order of Melchizedek.

Introduction

Life has taught us that “promises are made to be broken.” For this reason we have learned to take most of them with a grain of salt. Yet the Christian faith calls us to stake our eternal destinies upon the promises of God. For this reason it is important that we understand the nature of those promises and how they are realized in our lives.

I.              God’s Immutable Purpose.

Immutable means: unchanging through time; unalterable; ageless: immutable laws

God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised (Hebrews 6:17).

A. God’s promises are credible.

1. God’s promises are grounded in His character.

He has the absolute ability and the uncompromising integrity to fulfill them.

They are, therefore, completely credible.

2. So important is it to God that His children believe in His promises

     that He on several occasions confirmed them by a sacred oath.

     He has voluntarily sworn by the highest power in the universe—Himself (Genesis 22:16; Isaiah 45:23; Jeremiah 22:5).

     It is as if God raises His right hand to us and says, “I will keep my promises, so help Me, Me!”

3. God’s promise and God’s oath are “two unchangeable things” (v. 18).

     They are fixed and immutable.

     They are as certain as the setting of the sun (Jeremiah 33:20, 21).

B. God’s promises are conditional.

1. Yet, as our author has repeatedly warned,

     not all of God’s children “inherit what has been promised” (Hebrews 6:12).

    This is not due to any failing on the part of God.

     It is due to some failing on the part of man.

2. Attached to God’s promises to man are his expectations of man.

    One may see this all through scripture.

     It was true of his promise to David (1 Kings 2:4; 1 Kings 9:4-7).

     It was true of his promises to Israel through Moses (Deuteronomy 4:23ff).

    And, in the example which the author cites here, it was true of his promise to Abraham.

3. The condition which the author of Hebrews says the believer today must meet

     if he is to enjoy the fulfillment of God’s promises is “patience” (v. 15).

    As God made Abraham wait for his child of promise,

    so also does God make us wait to see the ultimate fulfillment of his promises.

    By this the genuineness of our faith is “tested.”

II. Man’s Immovable Prospect.

God did this so that …

we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered us may be greatly encouraged.

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure (Hebrews 6:18, 19).

There is nothing more Christian than hope.

Along with faith and love, it is one of the three principle graces of the Christian life

(1 Corinthians 13:13).

We are a people who are “saved by hope” (Romans 8:24)

and who live “resting on the hope of eternal life” (Titus 1:2).

A. The character of Christian hope.

1. Those cheerful expressions—”all will be well,” “look on the bright side,” “hope for the best”—that we often use are mostly just sentiment,

wishful thinking, empty optimism.

The paths of life are strewn with the victims of such misplaced and ungrounded hope.

2. Christian hope, however, is not based upon the empty wishes of men

     but upon the nature and character of God.

     As long as our hope is founded in Him,

     it will never fail us,

     it will never let us down.

B. The consequences of Christian hope.

1. Hope is the Christian’s asylum or protection.

    As the ancient Israelite could cling to the temple altar in hope of redemption,

    so can the believer cling to hope as a temporary asylum/protection

    until the time of our final vindication (v. 18).

2. Hope is the Christian’s anchor.

    It functions like a spiritual mooring to bind us to the “Rock of our salvation” (v. 18; Psalm 95:1).

Conclusion

Here are 21 Promises to us from God found in Psalms:

You shall prosper...(Psalm 1:1-3)

You shall have hope...(Psalm 16:8-9)

You shall have joy...(Psalm 16:11)

You shall be delivered...(Psalm 18:19

You will be rewarded (Psalm 18:20)

You will receive mercy (Psalm 18:25)

You will be strengthened...(Psalm 27:14)

You will be blessed...(Psalm 32:1)

You will not fear...(Psalm 34:4)

You will be provided for... (Psalm 34:9-10)

You will have peace...(Psalm 37:11)

You will be led...(Psalm 37:23-24)

You will have strength in troubled times...(Psalm 37:39)

You will have the Lord's ear... (Psalm 40:1)

You will have answer to prayer...(Psalm 55:16-17)

You need not be afraid...(Psalm 56:11)

You will receive power... (Psalm 68:35)

You will not be afraid of night...(Psalm 91:5)

You will not stumble... (Psalm 119:165)

You will be preserved from evil...(Psalm 121:5-6)

You will draw close to God (Psalm 145:18)

We Have an Anchor

Will your anchor hold in the storms of life,
When the clouds unfold their wings of strife?
When the strong tides lift and the cables strain,
Will your anchor drift, or firm remain?

Refrain

We have an anchor that keeps the soul
Steadfast and sure while the billows roll,
Fastened to the Rock which cannot move,
Grounded firm and deep in the Savior’s love.

We Have An Anchor

1. Will your anchor hold in the storms of life,
When the clouds unfold their wings of strife?
When the strong tides lift and the cables strain,
Will your anchor drift, or firm remain?

Refrain

We have an anchor that keeps the soul
Steadfast and sure while the billows roll,
Fastened to the Rock which cannot move,
Grounded firm and deep in the Savior’s love.

2. It is safely moored, ’twill the storm withstand,
For ’tis well secured by the Savior’s hand;
And the cables, passed from His heart to mine,
Can defy that blast, thro’ strength divine.

Refrain

3.It will surely hold in the Straits of Fear—
When the breakers have told that the reef is near;
Though the tempest rave and the wild winds blow,
Not an angry wave shall our bark o’erflow.

Refrain

4. It will firmly hold in the Floods of Death—-
When the waters cold chill our latest breath,
On the rising tide it can never fail,
While our hopes abide within the Veil.

Refrain

When our eyes behold through the gath’ring night
The city of gold, our harbor bright,
We shall anchor fast by the heav’nly shore,
With the storms all past forevermore.

Refrain

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Jesus Knows Everything! Jesus Is God!

by Daniel G. Mueller

Scripture: John 1:43-51

Jesus Calls Philip and Nathanael

⁴³The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, "Follow me."
⁴⁴Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. ⁴⁵Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote--Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."
⁴⁶"Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked.
"Come and see," said Philip.
⁴⁷When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false."
⁴⁸"How do you know me?" Nathanael asked.
Jesus answered, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you."
⁴⁹Then Nathanael declared, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel."
⁵⁰Jesus said, "You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that." ⁵¹He then added, "I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

Introduction:
It is part of God's nature to know all things. We call this quality omniscience. God knows everything. There is nothing he does not know. Jesus once said that the Father's knowledge is so total that he even knows when a single bird falls out of the sky and he knows the number of hairs we have on our head. In the case of some of us it is easier for him to keep track of that last statistic.

1. God Knows Everything:

That God knows how much hair we have is just one indication of how intimately he knows each one of us.

In Hebrews we read that "no creature is hidden to him but all are open and laid bare to his eyes" (Hebrews 4:13).

Job confessed that "God's eyes are upon the ways of a man and he sees all his steps" (Job 31:21).

God's knowledge of us is so perfect, Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, that he knows all our needs even before we ask him (Matthew 6:8).

King David was very much aware of how personally and completely God knew him.

He confessed, "O Lord, you have examined me and you know me. You know everything I do; from far away you understand all my thoughts. You see me, whether I am working or resting, when I rise up and when I sit down. You know all my actions. Even before I speak you already know what I will say ... Your knowledge of me is overwhelming; it is too deep for me to understand."

God knows all things.

2. Jesus Knows All Things Also:

Today's Gospel lesson informs us that Jesus knows all things also.

He knew all about Nathanael even though they had never met. As Nathanael walked toward the Lord for the first time, Jesus could already say about him that he was an Israelite indeed, in whom was no guile. Nathanael looked back at Jesus and asked in wonder, "How do you know me?"

When Nathanael first heard about Jesus from Philip he was not impressed at all. "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" he asked. Nazareth was a little hick town and Nathanael figured all you get out of a hick town is hick people. But when he met the Lord face to face and saw how well Jesus already knew him, he confessed, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!"

Our Gospel lesson manifests Jesus Christ to us as true God because Jesus knows all things also, just as God does. In Hebrews we read that Jesus "reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature" (Hebrews 1:3). Just as it is part of God's nature to know everything, so it is also part of our Lord's nature. Jesus knows everything. Jesus is God.

Nathanael is not the only one who was ever impressed by the knowledge of Jesus. That happened for the first time, Saint Luke tells us, when Jesus was only twelve years old. Together with his parents, he went up to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. They stayed several days. When the Feast was over, the parents of our Lord started for home, supposing that Jesus was in the crowd of travelers with them. But he wasn't; he was in the Temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Saint Luke tells us that "all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers" (Luke 2:47).

3. Jesus knows everything. Jesus is God.

One day Jesus was in Samaria. He was thirsty so he sat down by a well and waited to get a drink. He didn't have anything with which to draw water so he had to wait for somebody who could help him to come by. Presently a woman of the area came to the well. She was the real reason why Jesus was there. They began to speak. Jesus asked her some questions about her personal life but the questions were asked in such a way that she could tell that he already knew the answers. Because of his intimate knowledge of her, she believed in him and confessed to her neighbors, "He told me all that I ever did" (John 4:39).

The Pharisees were regularly frustrated in their confrontations with Jesus because he always knew what they were thinking. "Jesus knew their thoughts," Matthew tells us; "he perceived their wickedness" (Matthew 12:25; 22:18). "Jesus knew all people and needed no one to tell him about man for he himself knew what was in man," Saint John confessed (John 2:25). He even knew that one of his disciples would betray him, from the moment he was chosen to be a disciple. All the disciples, in the last few hours before our Lord's death, confessed, "Now we know that you know all things ... (and) by this we believe that you came from God" (John 16:20).

4. Jesus knows everything. Jesus is God. Jesus knows us.

"I know my own and my own know me," he said (John 10:14).

This is God's seal of approval on us, for the sake of Jesus Christ. "The Lord knows all those who are his" (2 Timothy 2:19). Saint Paul testified, "If any one love God, the same is known of him" (1 Corinthians 8:3). Jesus knows us, everything about us, our strengths and weaknesses, our joys and our sorrows, our successes and our failures, our sins and our victories over sin. He knows everything.

The fact that Jesus knows everything about us can be either good news or bad news. We decide which it is. It is good news if we look at his omniscience and believe that because he knows everything about us he takes care of us, providing all our needs even before we ask him. It is bad news if we try to hide from him. Adam and Eve decided it was bad news, after they sinned. They knew that God knew what they had done. They decided to be afraid of God and run away from him. They tried to hide from him because of what they had done. It would have worked, except for the fact that our all-knowing God knew where they were.

Like Adam and Eve, many people still choose to pretend that God does not know everything. They try to hide things from him. The Pharisees of our Lord's day believed they could hide their wickedness from God and they hated Jesus, because he showed them over and over again that there was no hiding place. Like the Pharisees, people who try to hide from God today invariably wind up hating him also because he always finds them.

Little children try to hide from their parents. They try to conceal facts from Mom and Dad, but "the old man" and "the old lady" know what's going on. My children are always amazed that I know what they are doing. I tell them it's because fathers know everything. They don't believe that as much as they used to anymore. Even more than parents, God knows everything.

Better than to try to hide from our all-knowing God and Savior is to expose ourselves to him, to confess what he already knows about us anyway. To confess means, in its most basic sense, to expose oneself. The tax collector Jesus told about in one of his parables knew that God knew all about his sin and it was senseless to try and hide. So he confessed, "O God, have mercy on me, a sinner." God accepted him, Jesus tells us in his story, and forgave him and he was justified.

The good news about our Lord Jesus Christ is not only that he knows all things, but that he accepts us and loves us as we are, in spite of all that he knows about us. Jesus knew all the dirty details about that woman caught in adultery one day. She couldn't hide anything after the people dragged her out in front of him for punishment. He forgave her. Jesus knew all about the public sins of that woman who washed his feet with her tears. She didn't try to hide and he forgave her. He knew all about the weaknesses of Peter and James and John and Judas; still he called them to be his disciples. He knew the record of the thief crucified next to him, a record that could no longer be hidden even though the other criminal still tried to hide it. To the one who exposed himself, who confessed, "Lord, remember me when you come to your Kingdom," Jesus promised, "Today you will be with me in Paradise."

Jesus knows everything. There is no hiding from him. But when we expose ourselves to him, confessing our sins, there is no longer any need to hide, for he takes all our sins away; he forgives us; he accepts us and loves us. Then, knowing that he knows everything about us, there is no threat to us.

5. Best of all, Jesus knows the way to Heaven.

 He told Nathanael, "... you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." Jesus knows the way to heaven because he is the way. "I am the Way," Jesus said. "No one comes to the Father but by me" (John 14:6). All who believe in Jesus, our all-knowing Savior, have eternal life.

Closing:

There used to be a chilling radio drama many years ago that always began with these words: "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!" The Shadow was a mystical, magical agent of discovery. Somehow he always managed to know who the "bad guys" were and how to get them caught. The Shadow was imaginary. God is real. And God knows everything. Because he is true God, Jesus knows everything also. He knows everything about us, and he loves us in spite of all of it.

Are you willing to expose yourself to Jesus?

Are you willing to ask His forgiveness?

Are you willing to accept Him as your own personal Savior?

In Jesus' precious name. Amen

Just Follow The Signs, Daniel G. Mueller, CSS Publishing Co., Inc., 1984, 0-89536-676-2 Source: eSermons.com

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MESSAGE SERIES:

DON'T BE AFRAID

Sunday, Dec 11, 2011

Third Sunday of Advent

Don’t Be Afraid: You Have Found Favor With God!!

Scripture: Luke 1:26-38

Luke: 1:26-38 (NIV)

September 4, 2011

Sunday Morning Worship

 Love Is Not Easy 

by King Duncan

Romans 13:8-14 (NIV)

Love, for the Day is Near

⁸Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. ⁹The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." ¹⁰Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
¹¹And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. ¹²The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. ¹³Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. ¹⁴Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

 Have you ever noticed that it is not easy to love another human being?

Especially those closest to us.

Introduction:

In a recent television interview, First Lady Laura Bush reported that early in her marriage her mother-in-law, Barbara Bush, cautioned her not to criticize her husband George W.'s speeches. One day, the First Lady found out why.

As Laura and George W. returned from a speech he'd given in Lubbock, Texas, George was pulling into the garage. The future President turned to Laura and asked how she thought the speech had gone. She said, "Quite honestly, George, I don't think it was very good."

Laura Bush reports that George W. promptly drove into the garage wall. (1)

Like most wives, Laura Bush learned to be careful how she responded when her husband asked her opinion on something he had done. And I suspect that most husbands have learned to tread cautiously when wives ask something like, "Hon, how do I look? Do you think I've gained any weight?" In fact, some thoughtful person has prepared a handy guide for husbands for dealing with issues that can be somewhat explosive. The list is divided into "dangerous" things to say, "safer" things to say, and "safest" things to say.

For example,

DANGEROUS: What's for dinner?

SAFER: Can I help you with dinner?

SAFEST: Where would you like to go for dinner?

Or how about this:

DANGEROUS: Are you wearing THAT?

SAFER: Gee, you look good in brown.

SAFEST: Wow! Look at you!

DANGEROUS: What are you so worked up about?

SAFER: Could we be overreacting?

SAFEST: Here's fifty dollars.

DANGEROUS:

What did you DO all day?

SAFER: I hope you didn't overdo today.

SAFEST: I've always loved you in that robe. (2)

Love is not easy--particularly married love. And yet St. Paul tells us that the person who loves his fellow human being has fulfilled the law. He writes, "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law. The commandments, "Do not commit adultery,' "Do not murder,' "Do not steal,' "Do not covet,' and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up," says St. Paul, "in this one rule: " Love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." (Vs. 8-10 NIV)

Love is the meaning of life.

If you want to know what God expects out of us, here it is:

Love your neighbor--whoever that neighbor might be--love your children--love your spouse--and love God.

1. NOW IT'S IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND, PAUL ASSUMES THAT WE WILL BE MORAL PEOPLE.

He certainly did not mean to imply that the commandment to love one another negates our obligation to be moral, upright members of society.

In fact, later, in this same passage, Paul writes, "Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy." (v. 13)

Many people in our society over the past forty years have been influenced, knowingly or unknowingly, by so-called situational ethics. And they have interpreted situational ethics to mean that the law of love is to be interpreted like this: as long as nobody gets hurt, we don't need to worry about being moral. The truth of the matter is that life rarely works that way. Someone invariably gets hurt when we do not uphold standards of decency. But, even if no one else gets hurt, we hurt ourselves. When we do anything that is a betrayal of our values, our lives are cheapened in our own eyes. One way to increase your self-esteem is to always do what you know to be right. It's called character, and it does matter.

You don't have to be a prude or a member of the Religious Right to be concerned about the moral drift in our society. It may not be great poetry, but country singer Steve Vaus touched a sympathetic chord with many middle-aged and older people with his song, BLACK AND WHITE.

The lyrics go like this:

You could hardly see for all the snow,/

Spread the rabbit ears as far as they go/

Pull a chair up to the TV set,/

"Good night David, Good night Chet"/

Dependin' on the channel you tuned/

You got Rob and Laura or Ward and June/

It felt so good, felt so right/

Life looked better in black and white/ I

 Love Lucy, The Real McCoys/

Dennis the Menace, the Cleaver boys/

Rawhide, Gunsmoke, Wagon Train/

 Superman, Lois Lane Father Knows Best, Patty Duke/

Rin Tin Tin and Lassie too/

Donna Reed on Thursday night/

Life looked better in black and white/

I wanna go back to black and white/

Everything always turned out right/

Simple people, simple lives/

Good guys always won the fights/

Now nothin's the way it seems/

In living color or on the screen/

I wanna go back to black and white/

In God they trusted, in bed they slept/

A promise made was a promise kept/

They never cussed or broke their vows/

They'd never make the network now/

But if I could I'd rather be,/

in a TV town in '63/

 It felt so good, felt so right/

Life looked better in black and white/

 I'd trade all the channels on the satellite,/

If I could just turn back the clock tonight/

To when everybody knew wrong from right,/

life was better in black and white. (3)

That's ancient history to many members of our congregation.

And, of course, life was not better for everyone in 1963.

Our nation was in the throes of the Civil Rights movement.

Two-hundred-year-old wrongs needed to be made right.

And we have made progress.

But we also acknowledge that not all change is progress.

There is much confusion in this new millennium about personal morality.

CNN commentator Aaron Brown recently called ours "a soft-porn society."

That may shock some of us, but it is not far off-target.

And people are being hurt.

Sexually-transmitted diseases such as HIV and herpes are but the tip of the iceberg.

Young families are being buffeted from every side.

A record number of children are living in single-parent homes.

Marriages of twenty and thirty years are coming apart.

And much of it is related to the so-called sexual liberation of the past forty years.

How can you and I love God and love other people and live an immoral life?

We have responsibilities to one another and to society to maintain standards of morality and decency.

Love fulfills the law.

However, it does not negate standards of decency and morality.

Here's something else that needs to be said, though.

ST. PAUL ASSUMES THAT WE WILL DO MORE THAN SIMPLY KEEP THE RULES. We are to be moral people, but it is not enough simply to master the "Thou shalt nots."

Just because you do not steal or kill or commit adultery does not mean you are living the way Jesus wants you to live.

Obeying the law is the beginning of Christian discipleship not the end.

"Putting on the mind of Christ . . ." means that we are to live a life of love.

Storyteller Bill Harley tells a simple story about a children's T-ball game he witnessed a few years ago.

On one of the T-ball teams was a young girl named Tracy.

Tracy ran with a limp.

She couldn't hit the ball to save her life.

But everyone cheered for her anyway.

Finally, in her team's last game, Tracy did the unthinkable.

She hit the ball.

Tracy's coach began hollering for her to run the bases.

She landed on first base, only to be told to keep on running.

She rounded second base, and the fans stood to their feet and cheered.

With one voice, they were all urging Tracy to head home.

But as she neared third base, Tracy noticed an old dog that had loped onto the field.

It was sitting near the baseline between third plate and home.

Moments away from her first home run, Tracy made a momentous decision.

She knelt in the dirt and hugged the dog.

Tracy never made it to home plate.

But the fans cheered for her anyway.

She had made her priorities clear.

Love was more important than winning. (4)

Love is more important than winning.

 Love is even more important than keeping all the rules.

In I Corinthians 13, St. Paul says, "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing."

Do you get the point?

Love is everything.

A tragic story came out of Columbus, Ohio sometime back.

Two elderly sisters, Naomi and Ruth Schreiner, starved to death in their home.

Police found absolutely no food in the house.

They did find little rolls of newspaper on plates where the women, in a futile attempt at survival, had been eating a newspaper.

How do such things happen in cities with thousands of followers of Christ in them?

And yet they do happen.

And as more elderly people live alone and as the population of those stricken with unforgiving diseases like Alzheimer's grows, we will see more such tragedies.

Somebody has got to do something!

Love demands it.

You see, love is everything.

But by that Paul did not mean that kind of passive love that simply is a warm and fuzzy feeling toward humanity.

No, New Testament love, agape love, is love that does not wait until two elderly women living alone seek out help.

The love of Christ requires that we be out seeking the lost, the unloved and the alone. There are such tragedies occurring every day in this Christian nation,

and they are an indictment of our tendency to keep rules,

but to ignore the greatest law of all, the law of love.

St. Paul could write about such unlimited, sacrificial love,

because he lived in such close approximation to Jesus Christ.

Most of Paul's new friends had walked with Christ.

They had eaten with him daily.

They saw him reach out to the leper, the blind, the deaf, the lame.

They saw him feed the multitudes and heard him teach about loving your enemies.

They were in hiding nearby while he hung on the cross and they experienced his resurrection.

Paul knew that such love was possible in this world because he knew the impact Jesus of Nazareth had on his friends.

So Paul could write, "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law.

The commandments, "Do not commit adultery,' "Do not murder,' "Do not steal,' "Do not covet,' and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up," says St. Paul, "in this one rule: " Love your neighbor as yourself . . . '"

Is such love possible in this world?

Yes, it is.

A number of years ago, the USS Pueblo, a ship from the United States Navy,

was hijacked by the North Korean military.

The incident provoked a tense diplomatic and military standoff for a number of days.

The eighty-two surviving crew members were taken into a period of brutal captivity.

In one particular instance thirteen of the men were required to sit in a rigid manner around a table for hours.

After several hours, the door was flung open, and a North Korean guard brutally beat the man in the first chair with the butt of his rifle.

The next day, as each man sat at his assigned place, again the door was thrown open,

and the man in the first chair was brutally beaten.

On the third day, it happened again to the same man.

Knowing the man could not survive, the next day, another young sailor took his place.

When the door was flung open, the guard automatically beat the new victim senseless.

For weeks, a new man stepped forward each day to sit in that horrible chair,

knowing full well what would happen.

At last the guards gave up in exasperation.

They were unable to overcome that kind of sacrificial love. (5)

Closing:

Christ wants us to be moral, decent people.

Christ wants us to keep the law.

But the greatest law is this: to love God and to love your neighbor.

When you do those two things, everything else will fall into place.

_____________________________

1. Jessica Hatchigan, THE SPEECHWRITER'S NEWSLETTER, January 2002.

2. PearlyGates

3. From the cd VOICE OF AMERICA by Steve Vaus, http://www.stevevaus.com/lyrics/blackandwhite_vm.html.

4. Shared by Bill Harley on National Public Radio's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, July 11, 1995. Cited by Michael Yaconelli, DANGEROUS WONDER (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1998), pp. 58-60.

5. E. Glenn Wagner, THE AWESOME POWER OF SHARED BELIEFS (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1995), p. 77.

Collected Sermons, King Duncan, Dynamic Preaching, 2005, 0-000-0000-20

Source: esermons.com

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August 28, 2011

Sunday Worship

You Can Dress Them Up... 

by King Duncan

Romans 12:1-8

Living Sacrifices

¹Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. ²Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.
³For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. ⁴Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, ⁵so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. ⁶We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. ⁷If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; ⁸if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. Copyright: New International Version.

Introduction:

They changed him on the outside, but....
"You can dress them up, but you can't take them out."

1.       THAT NOTHING IS MORE DECEPTIVE THAN THE SPIRIT OF THE TIMES. The standards by which a culture lives, even our enlightened culture, may not be the standards of God. Let me give you an example.
The words of Paul challenge us to live our lives not conforming to the standards of the present age, but to allow ourselves to live above those standards, ” to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

2.       PAUL ALSO WARNS US ABOUT SEPARATING OUR LIVES INTO VARIOUS COMPARTMENTS.
Paul wanted the early Christians to understand that everything they did, whether it be Sunday or Tuesday, they did for the glory of God. They were to present their total lives "as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God."

3.       WE WILL MOVE FROM BEING SELF-CENTERED TO BEING COMMUNITY CENTERED. 

      Paul challenges the Romans, "I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think."

      The human body has many parts.

      The body functions best when all the parts forget themselves and work together. So it is with the church.

Closing:

Some of us have been more concerned about being dressed up on the outside than we have about being changed on the inside.

"Do not conform to the world ‘s standards..." writes St. Paul.

"Present your bodies as a living sacrifice...

Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think...."

Words of wisdom for those who would be beautiful on the inside.

Source: esermons.com

Kalamazoo Gospel Mission

Chapel Service

Monday, August 22, 2011

God’s Promise to Restore During Evil Times

Scripture: Jeremiah 32:42 – 33:11 (NIV)

42 “This is what the Lord says: As I have brought all this great calamity on this people, so I will give them all the prosperity I have promised them. 43 Once more fields will be bought in this land of which you say, ‘It is a desolate waste, without men or animals, for it has been handed over to the Babylonians.’ 44 Fields will be bought for silver, and deeds will be signed, sealed and witnessed in the territory of Benjamin, in the villages around Jerusalem, in the towns of Judah and in the towns of the hill country, of the western foothills and of the Negev, because I will restore their fortunes,  declares the Lord.”

Promise of Restoration

33     While Jeremiah was still confined in the courtyard of the guard, the word of the Lord came to him a second time: 2 “This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it—the Lord is his name: 3 ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ 4 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says about the houses in this city and the royal palaces of Judah that have been torn down to be used against the siege ramps and the sword 5 in the fight with the Babylonians: ‘They will be filled with the dead bodies of the men I will slay in my anger and wrath. I will hide my face from this city because of all its wickedness.

6 “‘Nevertheless, I will bring health and healing to it; I will heal my people and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security. 7 I will bring Judah and Israel back from captivity and will rebuild them as they were before. 8 I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against me and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me. 9 Then this city will bring me renown, joy, praise and honor before all nations on earth that hear of all the good things I do for it; and they will be in awe and will tremble at the abundant prosperity and peace I provide for it.’

10 “This is what the Lord says: ‘You say about this place, “It is a desolate waste, without men or animals.” Yet in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted, inhabited by neither men nor animals, there will be heard once more 11 the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, and the voices of those who bring thank offerings to the house of the Lord, saying,

  “Give thanks to the Lord Almighty,

                 For the Lord is good;

                 His love endures forever.”

For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were before,’ says the Lord.

Comments:

When Jeremiah wrote this Jerusalem was under siege. Siege ramps were being constructed so that when they reached the city walls the armies of Nebuchadnezzar could rush across the ramp to invade and loot the city.

Throughout the history of Israel God repeatedly warned, punished and forgave Israel for worshiping other god’s besides the one true God.

Northern Israel had already been carried off because of their sin. The underlying sin of worshiping other gods is that they did not love the Lord their God as commanded in the covenant that their ancestors had agreed to in the wilderness. God warned them what would happen if they broke the promises they made.

They broke their word and suffered the fate God warned them would become theirs.

Judah was about to meet the same fate as Northern Israel for the same reasons. Do we humans ever learn?

Except God is making a promise to His chosen people (Israel) through the prophet Jeremiah to restore them even while they are presently under attack and about to face defeat and destruction by invasion, and death by famine, pestilence and the sword.

Application:

Because of our continuing defiance of God by stubbornly living in our recurring sin, we come to a point where God allows us to begin reaping the rewards of our sin. The ultimate reward is death.

The God who has punished those who sin throughout history cannot let us off the hook and still call Himself a just God. The punishment for sin is universally applied.

The Bible teaches us to love only God.

It teaches us to not consume those things that harm and destroy our body.

It teaches us to treat our fellow human beings with respect as if they belong to God Himself…because they do.

When we consciously and willfully reject God and His teachings we begin to reap the rewards of that disobedience in our bodies, minds, and soul.

But in the middle of our suffering the consequences of our sin, God also gives us a promise of reconciliation, healing, renewal and eventually even of eternal life in Heaven.

Romans 10:9 (NIV)

9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

1 John 1:9 & 2:1-3 (NIV)

8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

2     My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

3 We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.

God wants to restore you.

The question is will you allow Him to?

God can forgive you of your sins immediately if you will let Him.

God will restore you as quickly as you allow Him to within His plans for your life.

May God give you the peace of His salvation and the blessings of your life lived for Him.

Respectfully Presented;

Richard D Hertsel, Pastor

Centre Avenue Church of God

1917 East Centre Avenue

Portage, Mi. 49002

Phone: 269-327-9648

October 10, 2010

The Grateful Samaritan
by King Duncan

Scripture: Luke 17 : 11-19 Ten Healed of Leprosy

^11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. ^12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance ^13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

^14 When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

^15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. ^16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.

^17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? ^18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” ^19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” ^[1]

One night many years ago, Ed Spencer, a student at a seminary near Lake Michigan, was awakened by shouts that there had been a shipwreck offshore from the campus. An excursion boat from the nearby Chicago harbor had collided with a freighter and was sinking. Spencer ran down to the lakeshore from which he could see lights from the boats. A strong swimmer, he plunged into the icy water and started searching for survivors.

For six hours Spencer swam out and back, pulling people ashore, battling stormy waves and powerful undertow. By dawn, he had personally rescued 15 people in as many trips. Exhausted, he sat down until someone spotted two more still in the water. Spencer dove in again and found a man and a woman clinging desperately to a piece of wreckage. He brought them in, too, and collapsed on the beach.

Fewer than one-fourth of the 400 passengers on that boat survived the shipwreck, 17 of them rescued by Ed Spencer. His own health, however, was irreparably damaged by his act of heroism, and he was never able to return to school, ultimately living out his days as an invalid.

Years later, a reporter doing a story on Great Lakes tragedies found Spencer as an old man in a nursing home in California and asked for his recollections of that night. He said bitterly, “The only thing I remember is that not one of the 17 ever thanked me.” (1)

Ingratitude 

For some people it is a way of life a very ugly way of life. Everyone who lives a life dedicated to others encounters it at some time or another.

Golfing legend Arnold Palmer encounters it in professional golfers who do not appreciate what a fortunate situation they have. He says, “Players complain to me all the time about how hard it is to constantly sign autographs or talk to the press or spend time with amateurs,” he said. “I tell them all the same thing: ‘If you don’t like it, don’t walk out the [clubhouse] door. Quit. No one is forcing you to do this.’”

He sighed. “A lot of players just don’t understand how lucky we all are to be doing what we do. I look at my life and all I can do is be thankful for everything I’ve been given by so many people over so many years.”

Author John Feinstein adds this comment, “Maybe that is the key to Arnold Daniel Palmer. After all these years; after playing golf with six presidents; after having signed every autograph; after granting every interview request; after making several thousand golfers wealthy men; he looks back and talks not about what he did for golf, but about what golf did for him.” (2)

Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. His journey carried him along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into one village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. The healed man was a Samaritan.

Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to the man, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

I suppose a million sermons have been preached on that question Jesus asked that day long ago, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?”

Mark J. Molldrem in Emphasis magazine made a Top Ten list in the vein of comedian David Letterman of the responses that the ten lepers who were healed by Jesus might have said after Jesus healed them:

Leper 10. Bummer, now my acne will be more apparent.

9. Will I have to file a medical insurance report for this?

8. It’s no fair, now I’ll have to work for a living instead of begging off others.

7. Does this mean I can go to Planet Hollywood this weekend?

6. Great! I can get back into the dating scene again.

5. Now what excuse will I use to get out of going to the in-laws for Thanksgiving?

4. I wonder if Jesus would also do something for my allergies.

3. All right! Now I can buy a new wardrobe.

2. Why didn’t this happen sooner?

And number 1: Thank you, Jesus! You are my Lord and Master. (3)

Only one of the ten returned with this kind of response. But that one gave us some important lessons.

1.     For one thing, we can see that faith and gratitude go hand in hand. 

Think about it and I believe you will agree.

If you trust God, you cannot help but have a profound sense of gratitude about what God has done in your life. Conversely, if you are a person without a sense of gratitude for what God has done in your life, you ought to examine your heart to see if God really does dwell there.

Gwendolyn Diaz, in her book Sticking Up For Who I Am, tells about a teenager whom she calls Jeremy.

She met Jeremy at a youth leadership conference. One day she asked Jeremy, “Are you having a good day?”

Jeremy responded, “I sure am.”

And then he began to list all the things that God had already done for him that day.

He had enjoyed a hot shower, eaten a wonderful breakfast, gone for a walk in the woods, and listened to some great music.

Things most of us take for granted evoked gratefulness in Jeremy’s heart.

As Ms. Diaz got to know Jeremy better she dis­covered that Jeremy’s father had died when he was very young. He had been raised in a home filled with alcoholism and abuse.

Irate landlords had often evicted his family from run‑down apart­ments.

He had lived in shelters and seedy motels for much of his life.

Yet Jeremy insisted that God had always provided for him. “God always took care of me.

He always knew what I needed,” Jeremy explained.

When his grandfather-‑the only man who had ever loved and cared for him died a few years ago as a result of alcoholism, Jeremy changed, for a time.

He developed a destructive attitude.

He grew a weird hairdo and began dressing in all black Gothic attire.

But then one day for a reason known only to him, Jeremy walked into a church.

Some of the kids from the youth group invited him to join them.

They insisted on loving Jeremy despite his counterculture appearance.

He was overwhelmed by their acceptance and friendship. It wasn’t long before he embraced the love of their God as well.

Difficulties continued to haunt Jeremy and his family.

The lat­est of his many stepfathers had died of cancer recently and another abusive man had taken his place. But Jeremy knew that God would somehow use the situation to bring about good.

“I know God will use everything that’s going on,” he insisted. “Somehow it’s going to be an important part of how He wants to use me.” (4)

How do you explain the amazing outlook on life that Jeremy had?

He had every reason, from the perspective of most of us, to be distrustful of God, perhaps even hate God.

Yet his heart overflowed with gratitude for all God had done for him.

It can only be the grace of God at work in Jeremy’s heart. Faith and gratitude go hand in hand.

2.     The real puzzle is why you and I aren’t bubbling over with gratitude. 

God has blessed most of us in so many ways.

Oh, from time to time all of us experience heartaches. That’s what it means to live in a fallen world, East of Eden.

But on balance, our lives are very, very good.

Why on earth don’t we come into this room just bubbling over with praise and thanksgiving?

When the healed man knelt down before him, Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed?

Where are the other nine?

Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”

Randy Phillips is a member of the contemporary Christian music group, “Phillips, Craig and Dean.”

Randy tells about an elderly woman who had a major influence on his life.

She was a member of the church where Randy’s father was pastor.

Randy says. “I was the meanest preacher’s kid you ever saw, but this lady, ‘Mamma Ruth’ Thurman felt sorry for me.

She took me to her house way out in the country where there were acres to run and play in.”

One hot Texas day, Randy reports, he came in to find Mama Ruth praying in the living room.

 It was an intense prayer. Randy couldn’t help but listen as she prayed.

She prayed for her children and then she prayed for Randy.

“It stopped me cold,” says Randy Phillips “to know that someone who really should be praying for other things was taking the time to pray for me.

Years later when I introduced my wife to Mamma Ruth, my wife asked, ‘Do you still pray for Randy?’

She answered, ‘I pray for him every day.’”

Randy says, “She’d been praying for me for 20 years, and when she died two years ago, it dawned on me that I never took the time to thank her.

She prayed for me when I couldn’t and didn’t pray for myself, and I think a lot of the things that have come to me are because she was praying.”

In the world to come, Randy Phillips concludes, he thinks the heroes will not be the singers and the writers and the people that grace the stage, but the devout people who spend time on their knees praying for others. (5)

It’s interesting that Phillips never thanked Mama Ruth.

Why not?

You and I know.

We all have a list in the recesses of our heart of people who have made a positive difference in our lives, yet we’ve never thought to express our appreciation.

It’s not surprising then if we do not take time to thank other human beings for their kindnesses that we also have never really thanked God.

For you see, if we have ever really thanked God for all God has done for us, our lives would be transformed.

We would have a sense of joy.

 We would have a sense of trust.

I mean, God is with us.

God has been with us.

God will always be with us.

How can we walk around with so much uncertainty and doubt?

How can we have such gloom written upon our faces?

God has done wondrous things for us.

 As it says in John Newton’s immortal hymn Amazing Grace, “Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home.”

What is it that keeps us from bubbling over with thanksgiving?

Faith and gratitude are forever linked together. T

he real puzzle of life is why you and I don’t express our gratitude in our daily lives.

Notice how this story ends.

Jesus says to the man, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

Jesus doesn’t praise the man for coming back and giving thanks.

He doesn’t have to. He knows the man’s heart.

This man is in tune with God’s will for his life.

This man knows God loves him.

His life is a study in thankfulness. Jesus simply affirms that this man is a man of faith, and that is all that is necessary for this man to live a whole and complete life.

3.     There is healing in an attitude of faith and thanksgiving. 

I am convinced we would have far fewer people suffering from both emotional and physical pain if they incorporated faith and a sense of gratitude into their lives.

Barbara Sholis, wrote an article for Christian Century in which she talked about her own experience of being healed.

Having faced the specter of cancer, Barbara said she could identify with these ten lepers and their disease.

This is a passage she lives close to. “When chemotherapy causes your hair to fall out, robs you of your energy and fills your mouth with canker sores, you begin to develop empathy with the lepers.

There is no hiding the fact that you are diseased.

Your cancer walks into the room before you do and people who know better still flinch as they did before the lepers, who were made to live outside the community, who had to beg for survival.”

Now that she is well, Barbara identifies closely with the tenth leper, the one who returned with gratitude.

“Like the tenth leper,” she writes, “I never want to lose sight of the miracle of God’s grace.

Being grateful as I awaken to the gift of each day is the key.”

She has come to believe that gratitude is “the purest measure of one’s character and spiritual condition.” (6)

Barbara is right.

Gratitude is the purest measure of one’s character and spiritual condition.

And there’s healing in such gratitude.

I believe it is the answer to stress.

It’s the answer to heartbreak and loss.

I believe that all of us would have healthier minds and bodies if we could have such faith and gratitude.

A Salvation Army preacher in England, during the first half of the twentieth century, had this to say about gratitude.

He wrote:

“Born in another man’s stable, buried in another man’s grave, his first pillow straw, and his last a crown of thorns.

His first resting place somebody else’s manger, and his last somebody else’s cross and it was for you and me.

“Have you ever thanked Him?

Have you ever gone on your knees and showed gratefulness?

You have cursed Him, taken His name in vain, rejected and spurned Him, and spurned His followers and ridiculed or criticized unmercifully, but you have never thanked Jesus.

That is the damning sin‑-ingratitude.

 Don’t forget! My brother, there is nothing that cost God so much as this.

They used to go to the cross and die, now they can go to the cross and live.

It used to be the place of death, but now it is the place of life.” (7)

Closing:

Are you one of the nine healed lepers who did not give thanks?

Or do you feel a great sense of gratitude to God this day?

I hope each of us will leave this room bubbling over with joy about all the great things God has done for us.

1. Michael Halleen, Monday Moment, 4-28-08.

2. John Feinstein, A Good Walk Spoiled Days and Nights on the PGA Tour (Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company, 1996, pp. 197-198).

3. Nov/Dec. 1999, p. 36.

4. (NavPress:Colorado Springs, CO, 2003), pp. 73-75.

5. Jim Barnes, http://www.christcov.org/sermons/06‑05‑14%20Sermon%20Notes.doc.

6. Barbara Sholis, “Living by the Word,” Christian Century, October 5, 2004, p. 20. Cited by Rev. Karen Chakoian, http://www.granpres.org/Sermons/2004‑10‑10.htm.

7. Pastor Dan Mangler, http://www.smlc‑elca.org/Sunday_sermons/october_10_2004_sermon.html.

Dynamic Preaching Sermons Fourth Quarter 2010, King Duncan, ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., 0-000-0000-20

Strategic Planning
by King Duncan

Scripture: Luke 14:25-35

The Cost of Being a Disciple

^25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: ^26 “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. ^27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

^28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? ^29 For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, ^30 saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’

^31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? ^32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. ^33 In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

^34 “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? ^35 It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” ^[1]

"Suppose you were on a nonstop flight to Asia, and heard this announcement: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We’re traveling west across the Pacific Ocean. In a few hours, you will be able to look down and see land. When that happens, we are going to start looking for a big city with an airport. If we find one before our fuel runs out, we will land. Then we will figure out where we are and decide where we want to go next. In the meantime folks, just sit back and relax and enjoy your trip.’

“Would you have a relaxed flight?

Wouldn’t it be better if somebody had planned ahead?” (1)

It has been said that the average American spends more time planning their vacation than they do planning their life.

Jesus certainly believed we should have a plan for our lives. On one occasion he told his disciples:

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?

For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’

“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?

If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.”

Jesus is asking us to reflect on our lives and not simply react to our lives.

There was a tragic story that came out of Portland Oregon back in 2004.

Dianne, a 56‑year‑old bus driver with many years of experience, pulled into the Sunset Transit Center shortly before noon.

She was running six minutes late, and was eager to use the bathroom.

After waiting impatiently for her passengers to disembark, Dianne hurried off the bus, leaving the engine in gear and running, with no parking brake engaged.

She walked around to the front of the bus and reached in the driver’s window to pull the lever that closed the door.

The bus is equipped with automatic brakes that keep it from moving as long as the doors are open.

Once the doors shut, the brakes release after a one‑and‑a‑half‑second delay.

As Dianne passed in front of the bus again, she suddenly found the 15‑ton bus creeping slowly toward her.

She could have jumped out of the way. In fact, she could have ambled out of the way.

Instead, witnesses watched her push against the bus with her arms outstretched, in an effort to stop it.

The mass of a bus is more than 200 times the mass of an adult woman. You do the math.

The bus did indeed stop, eventually, due to circumstances other than Dianne’s efforts.

Paramedics arrived within minutes to find Dianne trapped, embarrassed beneath the bus. An investigation blamed the accident on “operator error.” (2)

Now, if Dianne had stopped and thought it through, she would have known she could not stop this 15-ton bus with her own strength.

The problem was she didn’t think. She simply reacted to the situation. This is the difference between reflecting and reacting.

Many people live this way. They do not plan their lives.

They do not reflect on their purpose and the means they are taking to achieve that purpose.

They simply react to events as they unfold. Living on the edge is what they might call it.

For some of them, it is the edge of disaster.

Failing to plan, the old adage goes, is planning to fail. And it’s true whether we are talking about starting a business or finishing a life.

There are probably a couple of reasons why some people refuse to plan.

ONE IS A FEELING OF HELPLESSNESS.

You probably have heard that cry of despair that goes like this: “If you want to make God laugh, show him your calendar.”

That is, you’ve made plans and then, Whack!, out of the blue an event occurs--a crisis with your health, or the loss of a job, or a divorce or a problem with one of your kids--and all your well-made plans are knocked askew. It happens to us all.

It’s like the story of two explorers who were on a jungle safari when suddenly a ferocious lion jumped in front of them.

“Keep calm,” the first explorer whispered. “Remember what we read in that book on wild animals?

If you stand perfectly still and look the lion in the eye, he will turn and run.”

“Sure,” replied his companion. “You’ve read the book, and I’ve read the book. But has the lion read the book?”

That’s how some of us feel about long-term planning.

Why make plans that you probably will not be able to see through to fruition?

And it’s true that life does have a way of knocking us off course.

That is why part of our planning and preparation should take into consideration life crises, for surely they will come.

A SECOND REASON MANY OF US FAIL TO PLAN IS THAT WE SIMPLY DO NOT WANT TO CHANGE.

That is, if we plan for such things as financial security, marital happiness, good health, and a meaningful legacy to our community--we might have to change some of our present habits.

And we do not like to change.

I heard about a fellow back in the days when radio was the dominant medium who bought a radio, tuned it to WSM in Nashville, home of the Grand Ole Opry, and then pulled off the knobs.

He knew what he liked. As far as he was concerned, nothing was going to come along that he would like better. So, he pulled off the knobs so the radio could not be changed.

If that is your attitude, you don’t want to hear Jesus’ words about sitting down before you build a tower or before you engage an enemy because planning for the future implies changes in how we live in the present.

I trust that few of us are that foolish, however.

We would like to make our lives count for something. We would like to fulfill our dreams, and to believe that our best days lie ahead.

So, where do we begin?

Let’s begin with the end in mind. 

That’s what Stephen Covey encouraged us to do a few years back with his best-selling book, THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE.

When we get to the end of our life, will we do so with a lot of regrets?

What will our friends say about us?

Our family?

Will we have the resources to meet the challenges of our final years, not only financial resources, but emotional resources, relational resources, spiritual resources?

There is a little book titled LIFEFOCUS by Jerry Foster that introduces us to a concept that I hope you will take seriously.

He calls it LIFEWEALTH.

Lifewealth refers to each of the important areas of our life:

·         our finances,

·         our health,

·         our relationships,

·         our spiritual life.

These are our assets. All four are necessary to our well-being.

“How do you want your life to end?” asks Jerry Foster, “With your final breath do you want to utter, ‘What a satisfying, fulfilling, and meaningful life I have lived’?

Do you desire your relationship with your spouse and children to grow closer and stronger right to the very end?

Do you want to leave a rich legacy of material and nonmaterial treasures for your heirs?

Do you hope that friends and coworkers who attend your memorial service are filled with gratitude for your contribution to their lives?”

If you answer in the positive to each of these questions, then you need a plan for bringing these to fruition.

Foster suggests a very practical plan which he calls “the Vector Principle.”

Some of you know about vectors.

For those of us who don’t, a practical application of vectors will help us.

Let’s suppose we are in an airplane, flying to Europe. But somehow right at the beginning of our flight, we are knocked off course just a few degrees.

As we keep flying, that little discrepancy in our direction is amplified over time and distance.

And so we don’t arrive in Europe at all. We arrive somewhere in North Africa.

Just a few degrees at our point of origin produces a large variation in our final destination.

 That, in essence, is the vector principle. Small changes at one point in your life produce major, life-affecting results later in life.

Let’s suppose that a person decides at age 35 to jog two miles every day, and she keeps this up day after day.

Can you see that this small change in this person’s lifestyle might have major ramifications for her health 35 years later?

A small change, but with major consequences.

The same might be said for taking up walking two miles every day at age 60.

Can you see that putting $100 every month into a mutual fund when you are 35 can produce significant income when you reach retirement age?

A small change, but the rewards can be significant. Some of us are far beyond 35, but it is never too late to begin sound financial habits.

What might happen if you began today finding a way daily to pay more attention to your spouse or your children or a friend?

Might it not strengthen your relationship in such a way that you will be able to count on each other’s love and loyalty right until the end of life?

And then there’s our relationship with God.

What would it mean for your spiritual life if you began spending a little time each day in God’s presence, listening for God’s guidance in how you should lead your life and committing yourself daily, unconditionally to walking in the way God would have you go?

The vector principle.

Small, doable changes at one point in your life which produce major, life-affecting results later in your life.

As someone has noted, the mighty Mississippi begins with the bubbling of a little spring somewhere in Minnesota.

We’re told that vast areas of Holland have been covered by floods that began with a break in the dikes no larger than your hand.

You don’t have to have a blinding, Damascus Road-type experience to make your life more pleasing to God and more satisfying to yourself and to those you love.

Sometimes all it takes is a small change in your daily routine.

Let me challenge you this day to begin making some small deposits in your “LifeWealth” account. 

Take each of these four areas of your life:

·         your finances,

·         your health,

·         your relationships, especially your relationship with your spouse or your children,

·         and your relationship with God. What is one thing you can do to improve each of these areas of your life?

This is not a frivolous thing.

This could be the most important day of your life if you would make a few small changes that would change your final life destination just a few small degrees.

Steve Reeves tells the story of a woman who underwent a very delicate form of brain surgery.

In removing the tumor, the doctors were concerned that the slightest miscue could cause the loss of either her memory or her eyesight. S

o they asked the woman to choose which side of the brain tissue they’d enter with their scalpels. In other words, if she had to lose one of those senses, which would she prefer to lose?

Wisely, she said, “Let me think about it overnight, and I’ll tell you tomorrow which sense is more important to me.”

The next day she told the doctors, “If I had to lose either memory or sight, I would prefer to lose my memory.”

When asked how she arrived at her decision, she calmly replied, “I’d rather see where I’m going than remember where I’ve been.” (3)

I want you to see where you’re going and to make the changes required to get there.

That’s God’s will for you.

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?

For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’

“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?

If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.”

Jesus was warning his followers to carefully consider the cost of discipleship.

But his words also carry a very practical message about living.

Think about your life.

Where are you headed?

What will it take to get you to where you want to be and where God wants you to be?

Start today making the changes that are necessary to take you where you want to go.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Executive Speechwriters Newsletter

2. 2004 Darwin Award Nominee, http://www.darwinawards.com/.

3. Dave Stone, Keeping Your Head above Water (Loveland: Group Publishing, 2002), p. 122.

Third Quarter Sermons 2007, King Duncan, Dynamic Preaching, 0-000-0000-20

A Ministry Of Hospitality

by Richard W. Patt

Scriptures (all NIV):

Proverbs: 25:6-7

^6 Do not exalt yourself in the king’s presence,

and do not claim a place among great men;

^7 it is better for him to say to you, “Come up here,”

than for him to humiliate you before a nobleman.

^[1]

Hebrews 13:1-3     

Keep on loving each other as brothers. ^2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. ^3 Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. ^[2]

Luke 14:1-15 (NIV)

Jesus at a Pharisee’s House

14     One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. ^2 There in front of him was a man suffering from dropsy. ^3 Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” ^4 But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him away.

^5 Then he asked them, “If one of you has a son^a or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?” ^6 And they had nothing to say.

^7 When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: ^8 “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. ^9 If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. ^10 But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. ^11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

^12 Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. ^13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ^14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”  

Introduction

Maybe you've heard the humorous story about the pastor who was having difficulty with his assigned parking space on the church parking lot.

People parked in his spot whenever they pleased, even though there was a sign that clearly said, "This space reserved."

He thought the sign needed to be more clear, so he had a different sign made, which read, "Reserved for Pastor Only."

Still people ignored it and parked in his space whenever they felt like it.

"Maybe the sign should be more forceful," he thought.

So he devised a more intimidating one, which announced, "Thou shalt not park here."

That sign didn't make any difference either.

Finally, he hit upon the words that worked; in fact, nobody ever took his parking place again.

The sign read, "The one who parks here preaches the sermon on Sunday morning!"

I tell you this story because most of you would probably hedge at the prospect of such a ministry: preaching the sermon on a Sunday morning.

You would probably feel uncomfortable about doing that because of a lack of experience and training.

But what, then, is your ministry?

For you see, there are a variety of ministries in which all the people of a church can be involved.

These ministries are based on various gifts we have as people. Saint Paul once made a list of these gifts when he talked about church people being involved in such things as preaching, teaching, administering, caretaking, praying, or even arbitrating.

The Gospel reading here, as well as the other two readings selected for this Sunday, set before us a vision of a common ministry that all of us can be a part of.

I would call it something like "a ministry of hospitality."

Let’s Look at this Concept of Hospitality

Let's begin by looking at this concept of hospitality.

All three Bible readings remind us not to set ourselves above other people.

When we are together as the people of God, we ought to give place to one another.

We ought to be hospitable.

The reading from Proverbs says, "Do not exalt yourself ... do not claim a place...."

In the Second Reading, the writer to the Hebrews encourages us, "Keep on loving each other as brothers.

Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it."

Finally, today's Gospel reading brings us the parable about the wedding guests.

Jesus warns us that if you immediately claim a place of honor at such a gathering, you had better be prepared to experience some embarrassment when a more honored guest is ushered to your seat, and you are forced to take one of the undesirable spaces at the back of the hall.

Then Jesus concludes by saying that if you want to be truly hospitable when you give a luncheon or dinner, you ought not invite your same old friends all the time but rather people who could never repay you, like the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.

Jesus is beginning to build a case here for the truth that there are no throwaways when it comes to human beings.

Everybody is worthy of your attention and greeting.

There is no one who doesn't deserve your hospitality and mine.

In fact, Jesus suggests that you are taking a real chance when you slight certain people; you see, they might just turn out to be angels you did not know about!

On the surface, this is a story about good social manners at a wedding.

But its deeper purpose is to remind you and me in the family of God about our calling to be genuinely hospitable to one another. In the background looms the even brighter message about God's hospitality to each and every one of us (sinners that we are!), a hospitality which God showed us in the ministry of God's own blessed son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, what is this ministry of hospitality?

To help us, let's look more closely at this word "hospitality." Before we look at its literal meaning, we need to point out that there is a difference between hospitality and entertaining.

A psychologist put it this way:

Hospitality must not be confused with entertaining ...

Entertaining says, "Come to my house; admire my possessions; see the beautiful way the table is laid.

Enjoy the scrumptious food that has taken me all week to prepare.

See how perfectly neat and tidy and clean my house is.

Come and listen to my views and thoughts."

Entertaining is hard, stressful, because through it we perpetuate the myth that we are perfect.

We put up a facade saying that we manage our lives perfectly and that our children are perfectly disciplined and obedient.

Hospitality is totally different.

We do not seek to portray a "perfect" image; people can love us in our weakness, relax with us, and enjoy our company.

The Hospice in Hospitality

An even deeper meaning of the word "hospitality" emerges when we realize that this word comes from the same source as two similar sounding words, "hospice" and "hospital."

The word "hospice" means "shelter" and the word "hospital" means "a place of healing."

In this light, we can examine some of our own words and actions toward other people.

Do my words and actions as well as ours as a congregation provide a shelter for other persons when they are around me?

Or, do our words and deeds promote a sense of healing for other people when they are around me?

How hospitable are we, really?

For a moment, let us push the word "hospice" to its limits.

We are aware that today the word "hospice" usually refers to a special kind of care or place meant for people who are dying.

People with terminal illnesses receive hospice care.

In the church we need to remember, as we deal with one another -- with fellow church members, with visitors, with other folks from the community -- that there may be among us those who are dying!

They are dying on the inside; for whatever reason:

life is currently treating them harshly and they feel broken.

Some are dying just to know someone; they have few, if any, friends.

Some are dying to feel connected; they don't feel like they belong to the human race anymore.

Some are dying to be affirmed; they are weary from feeling that they amount to nothing.

Some are dying to be touched, even if only by eye contact, or by some word of acknowledgment from another human being.

All these people need hospice care; they need the hospitality of the church, because inwardly they are dying.

They need a place of shelter, no matter how fleeting, where they can catch another breath of air to sustain them, lest they die.

There was a minister who had a favorite slogan that he often repeated in his sermons.

He said, "The church is not like a country club; it's more like a hospital."

That's what Jesus was saying here when he gave us the direction, "... do not invite your friends ... or your rich neighbors ... invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind...."

You and I are not in the church to impress one another or to win power struggles; we are here to minister to one another in our weaknesses.

We are here to be hospitable.

Hospitality is a highly personal ministry

Now nobody can specifically tell you what your ministry of hospitality should consist of;

we should never over-define such a highly personal ministry.

But we must -- each of us -- define that ministry for ourselves.

More importantly we need to let God show us our individual ministry of hospitality.

One that we will be comfortable with because God will tailor our ministry to fit the personality that he gave us.

Some of us are enthusiastic and boisterous. Some of us are quiet and graceful. All of us can be friendly.

To encourage us about this, let's look at the ministry of Jesus.

In a way, we could call Christ's ministry to you and me a ministry of hospitality.

Yes, that is what he showed us.

The apostle Paul stated it in that singular sentence, "While we were yet sinners Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).

Think of it, "yet sinners...." God did not withhold hospitality from us until we straightened ourselves out.

While we were sinners, Christ was hospitable toward us by going to the cross and dying for us, in our place.

Noticing our sin, Christ did not refuse to acknowledge us.

He did not stop talking to us.

He did not withhold information from us about God's love.

No, in Christ, God made eye contact with us.

The Word became flesh.

The face of God now faced us. Looking into that face we felt sheltered and healed.

Looking at his cross we know we are healed -- cleansed and forgiven in the blood of Jesus Christ.

The cross enables us to follow the divine model of hospitality.

Again the apostle Paul encourages us toward such Christly hospitality when he writes to the Philippian Christians in chapter two of his letter, "Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus ... who humbled himself and took on the form of a servant and ... became obedient unto death, even death on a cross."

In this great passage, Paul reminds us how Jesus fulfilled the lesson of the parable we are considering in this Gospel reading.

Christ, who is the first, became the last, so that we, the last, might be first, having all our sins washed away by his obedience at the cross.

Hospitality is a Redemptive Ministry

So now, empowered by the cross of Christ, we each have our own ministry of hospitality.

This ministry is more than showing good manners in public.

It is a redemptive ministry, like Christ's, whereby we bring a sense of healing and genuine acceptance to all other people.

And we should get specific about our own ministry of hospitality.

Perhaps, for instance, you have the gift of gab -- the ability to talk at ease with just about anyone.

You could be an effective greeter to the strangers who visit your church.

You could be that little spark of light to many longtime members of the parish to whom no one else seems to speak or give notice.

On the other side of the coin, you can be one of those church members who responds in a vital way when others greet you.

Someone else takes the initiative and shows enough of a caring spirit to say "Good morning" to you, but sometimes all that can be observed in response is a faint grunt of acknowledgment or a slight tip of the head.

Our Ministry of Hospitality Shows People that God loves them.

But out of this initial hospitality shown one another in the church hallways needs to blossom a deeper hospitality whereby people come to know that God loves them and cares for them, too.

In this regard Christian hospitality always finally needs to involve some word of witness to God's love in Christ.

This is another way of saying that Christian hospitality ultimately involves evangelism: speaking God's good word of love to another human soul.

What could be more hospitable?

How could we provide more of a sheltering spirit or speak a more healing word than to remind someone of the love of God in the cross of Jesus Christ?

 With this singular message on the lips of its members, the church does indeed rise above mere country club status and reveals itself as the glorious household of faith.

Closing:

As the old hymn puts it, "If you cannot speak like angels, if you cannot preach like Paul, you can tell the love of Jesus, you can say he died for all."

God bless your ministry -- your ministry of hospitality! "

All Stirred Up, Richard W. Patt, CSS Publishing, Lima, Ohio, 1977, 0-7880-1040-9

Fire Falling from Heaven 

by R. Robert Cueni

Scripture Passage: Luke 12 : 49-53 (NIV) 

Not Peace but Division 

^49 “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! ^50 But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! ^51 Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. ^52 From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. ^53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

Jesus spends much of this twelfth chapter of Luke reassuring and encouraging his followers in the face of possible catastrophic circumstance:

·         "I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more" (v. 4).

·         "Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life" (v. 22).

·         "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (v. 32).

This same chapter ends on a far less positive note.

Rather than encouraging reassurance, Jesus says that his ministry will be very divisive.

After spending 45 verses trying to quiet the anxiety of his followers, Jesus tells them that he came to bring fire to the earth. He insists that he will not bring peace.

Instead, his ministry will divide families and pit individual members of households against one another.

The ministry of our Lord is to rain fire from heaven! 

I suspect his first century audience understood that imagery of fire more readily than we do.

We have only a passing acquaintance with the power of fire.

We see flames in the fireplace.

We worry about children holding candles on Christmas Eve.

We read of an occasional forest fire and hear the siren of a racing fire truck.

Our fire departments are so competent that an accidental fire death makes the national news. 

Ancient people had a more intimate knowledge of fire.

Their only nighttime illumination came from the flames of oil lamps.

The smoke of the cooking fire on the kitchen floor constantly irritated and reddened their eyes.

Everyone's fingers were callused from working household fires. Their arms and hands bore the scars from burns.

Early in childhood they learned that food tasted better cooked, that flames tempered metal tools, and that the kiln's heat hardened pottery.

People also knew firsthand the danger of uncontrolled fire.

Homes regularly burned to the ground by an overturned lamp or a carelessly maintained kitchen fire.

Well into the nineteenth century, devastating fires shaped communities.

In fact, fire spurred on the next urban renewal. 

So, how was Jesus using the image of fire in this Gospel? 

This Gospel recalls an ancient belief of fire as the manifestation of God. 

Jesus is reminding us of the radical nature of His ministry and is demanding we step up to the plate.

I. Fire As the Manifestation of God

This intimate acquaintance with the power and the paradox of fire moved the ancients to think of fire as theophany -- that is, fire as a manifestation of God.

When Moses was tending the flocks of his father-in-law on Mount Horeb, the Lord God spoke to him out of a burning bush.

When the Hebrew people were wandering in the wilderness of the Sinai, the Lord God led them at night with a pillar of fire.

On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit, the very presence of God, appeared to the apostles in the upper room as tongues of fire.

It did not puzzle his listeners when Jesus said that he was to bring fire on the earth.

They believed Jesus to be God's representative, and it was an ancient idea for God's presence to be manifested by fire. 

It would also not surprise them that Jesus spoke of God's presence being divisive.

The ancients knew both fire and God as being purifying and punishing.

They knew how to put metals to the flame to temper and to drive out impurities.

The Old and New Testaments use fire as a metaphor to talk about how God punishes, purifies, and strengthens the world.

Those folks believed that God worked through fire as well as various fire-like disasters.

With a little poetic imagination, even modern folks like us can understand that God works with "fire." 

Loren was only fourteen years old when he entered a life of petty crime.

By the time he was seventeen he had become one of the regulars in the county juvenile justice system.

At eighteen, the judge gave him a choice: enter the army or do hard time in a state penitentiary.

He volunteered for the army and was sent to Vietnam.

It was at the height of that bloody conflict.

He was assigned to a "graves unit" where he worked to identify, tag, and then ship the bodies of young men killed in battle.

The judge hoped military service would discipline him. It didn't. When he returned to his hometown, he was even more troubled. In Southeast Asia, he compounded his alcohol problem by taking illegal drugs.

With this new addiction, his life of crime took a leap into an abyss. This one-time juvenile delinquent started doing armed robbery. 

One night he and a friend held up a liquor store.

The clerk managed to notify police and the car chase was on. Loren admits that he considered using the gun he had with him to shoot it out with police.

A guardian angel must have whispered the right words in his ear that night.

He and the friend decided to surrender. 

The judge sentenced Loren to the state prison at Joliet.

He had plenty of experience in county jail and the local juvenile detention center.

He was tough.

He thought he knew how to do hard time.

It would not bother him, he thought.

Unfortunately, he didn't know Joliet.

His years there were experienced as being burned alive at the stake. 

Loren paid his debt to society and his first job as a free man was as the church custodian.

The congregation frequently used that position as a ministry. Loren quickly proved that he had learned his lesson.

His first day on the job he walked up two flights of steps to give a quarter to the church treasurer that he found in the coin return of the soda pop machine.

He was indeed an honest man. 

Loren was never shy about giving his testimonial.

When he came home from Vietnam, he was angry and bitter.

He didn't believe in anyone or anything.

He knew he was traveling the road to self-destruction and that was fine with him.

Loren had chosen the hard way to commit suicide.

Then his life was turned around.

It was no revival preacher who issued an altar call.

There was no gentle voice of God urging him to come to Jesus.

It was, however, no less the presence of God -- a theophany in fire.

As Loren described it, "I was in Joliet only for three weeks when enough terrible things happened to me at the hands of other inmates that I said to myself, 'I will never, ever do anything that will get me into a place like this again.' "

His life straightened out.

He married and had a family.

He established himself as a responsible citizen and then was able to go on and get a much better job than the one at the church. Criminal justice critics will tell you it doesn't happen nearly often enough.

But with Loren, the fire that rained down on his life punished him for his foolish choices and then that fire began to purify him and make him a better man. 

Those who heard Jesus say, "I came to bring fire to the earth," knew that is what he meant. Fire symbolized the presence of God.

They believed God used the "fires" of life to punish and purify.  That backgrounds this passage of scripture.

That is not, however, the point Jesus is making.

This is not a simple observation about how God can work through devastation to strengthen.

In Luke 12:49-56, Jesus claims that the gospel is so radical that the world will experience it as fire raining from heaven.

Those who follow his teachings, Jesus warns, will be considered revolutionaries.

Jesus tells those of us who strive to follow him even today that when his message sinks into our hearts and minds, it can cause trouble in our families.

If we choose to follow the Christ, we can get in trouble at work. This Gospel can have a negative impact on our friendships.

If we take our faith seriously, we can plan on losing enemies because God commands we commit ourselves to turning enemies into friends.

Adhering to this faith just might get us thrown in jail.

II. The Radical Gospel of Jesus Christ

For the most part, this radical edge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been lost.

Most who now claim Christianity as their religion understand Christ as the Prince of Peace.

That means believers can seek personal healing and forgiveness. It means our faith promises contentment and personal security in the here and now and entry to heaven at the moment of death. We refer to nice, kind, gentle people as "Christians." 

We seem to have forgotten that the kingdom of God Jesus introduced was quite radical.

If you remember, Jesus was crucified.

The Romans did not give him an award for keeping Jewish citizens quiet and content.

Most of his apostles met violent deaths at the hands of those who were outraged at the revolutionary changes they wanted to make both in society and in the lives of individuals.

When Pliny was governor of a province in Asia Minor, he wrote a letter to the Roman emperor telling him that he didn't know what these Christians believed exactly but they were the most willful, obstinate, rebellious, disobedient people he had ever encountered.

Therefore he had put some of them to death just on general principles.1 

Seminary professor Stanley Hauerwas opens one of his classes by reading a letter from a parent to a government official.

The parent complains that the family was paying for the very best education for their son.

Then the young man got involved with a weird religious sect.

The parent pleads with the government to do something about this group that was ruining his son's life. 

Dr. Hauerwas ends by explaining that the parent is not complaining about the Moonies, the Hare Krishnas, or some other group.

The professor had assembled snippets from different letters written to the Roman government in the third century about a weird religious group called the Church of Jesus Christ.2 

III. Catching Fire for Christ

How that differs from the claims the church makes on people's lives today!

Instead of high demands and radical changes, we think Christianity is to make us feel good about ourselves.

Rather than an institution inciting revolutionary change, the community today wants the church to be a well-maintained, quiet presence that never threatens property values.

Jesus said that he came to rain fire from heaven.

But in the last couple thousand years we have managed to get the fire under control by reducing it to candles on the communion table. 

Every once in a while, however, someone catches fire for God. Some people catch the vision that there is more to the good life than just acquiring more and more.

Some realize that their Christian faith calls them to do something for others, rather than just feeling good about themselves. Sometimes people decide to go to seminary rather than law school.

Some decide to pursue a Master of Divinity rather than a Master of Business Administration.

Some people feel the heat of God's presence and are moved to extravagant generosity. 

 Some people catch on fire with the presence of God and do things that disrupt their family life -- just as Jesus predicted.

Jim was a prominent businessman in town. He belonged to the church, but had never taken it very seriously.

Some of his friends were active in a spiritual renewal movement and encouraged him to attend one of the weekend retreats. "You will really enjoy it," they promised. 

Reluctantly, Jim went.

He didn't really believe the church had anything to offer him.

He went and listened carefully.

He did not enjoy the weekend at all.

In fact, it was a terrible experience for him and for his family.

You see, Jim had been embezzling money from the company where he worked. 

They talked a great deal about Jesus' teachings at that retreat. For Jim it was as if the Word of God was fire rained down from heaven.

The Monday morning after the retreat he walked into the office of the owner of the company and confessed.

He spent the next few years in prison.

When he returned, he became one of the leaders of that spiritual renewal movement.

Jim experienced the teachings of Jesus as disruptive.

It was nothing less than a firestorm from heaven.

That can happen. 

This faith can change your life as well.

Be open to that fire God rains down from heaven.

Open your heart that God in Christ Jesus will strengthen and purify you.

As hymn writer Adelaide Pollard puts it,

"Have Thine own way, Lord. Have Thine own way.

Thou art the potter.

 I am the clay.

Mold me and make me after Thy will, while I am waiting, yielded and still."3

How about it?

Are we filled with the fire of Jesus?

Have we allowed ourselves to be purged of our sinfulness and self will?

Can people feel the warmth of the love of Jesus in our lives?

Can God use the Holy Spirit originated fire within us to light our world…illuminating the way to salvation and a blessed life on this earth until we reach Heaven?

What we need more than anything as a congregation is fire from Heaven to purify us, to temper us and to make us useful in God’s kingdom.

May we be set on fire for God.

May burn with the warmth of God’s love.

May shed the light of God’s saving grace as we burn for Him.

____________

1. Pliny, Letters X, p. 96.

2. Pulpit Resources, Volume 23, No. 3, July-September, 1995, p. 34.

3. "Have Thine Own Way, Lord," Adelaide A. Pollard, 1902.

Sermons on the Gospel Readings, Series I, Cycle C, R. Robert Cueni, CSS Publishing Company, 2004, 0-7880-1968-6e

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Message: Ready or Not, Here I Come 

by Ron Lavin

Scripture: Luke 12:32-48 (NIV)

^32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. ^33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. ^34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Watchfulness

^35 “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, ^36 like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. ^37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. ^38 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. ^39 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. ^40 You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

^41 Peter asked, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?”

^42 The Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? ^43 It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. ^44 I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. ^45 But suppose the servant says to himself, ‘My master is taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat the menservants and maidservants and to eat and drink and get drunk. ^46 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.

^47 “That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. ^48 But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

Introduction:

When you were a child, did you play the game, "Hide and Go Seek"?

The person who is "It" closes his or her eyes, counts to ten, and then searches for the other children who are hiding. "1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10. Ready or not, here I come!"

Something like that is going on in our text.

The master is off to a wedding banquet.

His servants are at the family farm.

Some are alert, ready for his return; some are not ready. The countdown has begun. No one knows exactly when the master will return. At the end of our story, Jesus says, "You ... must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour" (Luke 12:40).

1.     Clearly, Jesus is talking about his Second Coming.

Clearly, Jesus is speaking of his return at the end of the world. Clearly, we must be ready to meet him when he returns in power and majesty. We don't know when that will be, but we are called to wait with patience and act with faithfulness, like good servants. The countdown has begun.

            We live between the lightning and the thunder. The First Coming of Christ is like the lightning. We wait; then comes the thunder. When we see the one, we know the other will follow. The countdown has started: 1-2-3-4.... The Second Coming of Christ is like that. We know it's coming, but we don't know when it will arrive. Between the lightning and the thunder we are called to wait with patience and faith and act with faithfulness and obedience to the master's teaching. The countdown has begun for the Second Coming.

            In addition, the countdown has begun for our death. At death, as well as at the Second Coming of Christ, we must be ready to meet the Lord face-to-face. We don't know when we will die, but we are called to wait patiently and act faithfully in this in-between time.

            In this in-between time, before the Second Coming of Christ and before we die, the servants of God are called to wait with faith. That means that we believe what the master said. We trust him. We trust his Word. We are called to treasure his Word. Jesus said, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Luke 12:34).

            The world may live in fear because the people of the world don't know what is happening, but we, the disciples of Christ, have been told what is coming at the end of time and at the end of our time. Therefore, we can be ready to meet Christ with faith and hope in our hearts. Jesus said, "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32).

2.     "Ready or not, here I come" Jesus said. Death sometimes comes unexpectedly.

a.     The widow wasn't ready for that message.

            A couple from Minneapolis decided to go to Florida to thaw out during one particularly icy winter. They planned to stay at the very same hotel where they spent their honeymoon twenty years earlier. Because of hectic schedules, it was difficult to coordinate their schedules, so the husband left Minneapolis and flew to Florida on Thursday with his wife scheduled to fly down the next day.

            The husband checked into the hotel. There was a computer in his room, so he decided to send an email to his wife. Accidentally, he left out one letter in her email address and without realizing it, sent the email message to the wrong person.

            Meanwhile, somewhere in Houston, a widow had just returned home from her husband's funeral. He was a minister of many years who was called home to glory following a sudden heart attack.

            The widow decided to check her email since she was expecting messages of condolence from relatives and friends. After reading the first message, she fainted.

The widow's son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor and was amazed by what he saw on the computer screen. 

To: My loving wife

Subject: I've arrived

I know you're surprised to hear from me. They have computers here now and you are allowed to send emails to your loved ones. I've just arrived and have been checked in. I see that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you then! Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was. 

P.S. It sure is hot down here! 

            The widow wasn't ready for that message. It was a mistake. The time will come when we get the message saying that the time has come for us to die. It won't be a mistake. We are called to be ready for this time by having faith and hope in Christ.

b.    Harry Andersen was ready.

Harry Andersen was ready. He had terminal cancer, but kept his sense of faith and hope alive. His pastor could tell he was ready because they talked about Christ's death and resurrection and what this event means for us when we die. Harry showed no fear since he believed the promises of God. In addition, a sign of Harry's faith and hope was expressed in the humor he shared with his pastor.

            After scripture reading and prayer, Harry told the pastor the story of a man who was dying of cancer. He was bedridden on the second floor of his house. He could smell the aroma of chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven downstairs. He loved chocolate chip cookies. As a matter of fact, they were his favorite. He forced himself to get out of bed and crawled to the flight of steps leading downstairs. Each step brought new pain to his body, but he had to have some of those chocolate chip cookies. When he got to the bottom of the stairs, he crawled to the kitchen table and reached up for a cookie.

            Suddenly, his wife appeared out of nowhere and slapped his hand with a spatula.

            "Why did you do that?" he cried out.

            "Those cookies are for your funeral reception," she said.

3.    The best is yet to come 

Harry Andersen laughed out loud as he told the story. The pastor rolled on the floor with laughter at the unexpected ending. Then Harry said, "That's just the kind of thing my wife would do."

            Just then Harry's wife walked into the room. "I wouldn't do that," she said smiling at the pastor, "but there's something else I'd like to do at Harry's funeral."

            "What's that?" asked the pastor.

            "I'd like to pass out plastic forks to everyone as they arrive for the funeral."

            "Plastic forks?"

            "Yes," she said. "I love the story about the woman who went to many church potlucks and always rejoiced when she was given a new plastic fork at the end of the meal. That meant that homemade pie was being served for dessert. When she got the fork, she always said, �The best is yet to come.' "

            A few weeks later, Harry died. As the parishioners arrived at the church door, they were each given a plastic fork. When they asked the reason for this unusual gift, they were told that they would hear more about it later. The title of the pastor's funeral sermon was, "The Best Is Yet To Come." He explained that Jesus died for us that we might be forgiven and go to heaven. "It is the Father's pleasure to give you the kingdom" he said, quoting Luke 12:32. Then he told the story of the woman who loved homemade pie at the end of church potlucks and he pointed out that Harry was being buried with a plastic fork in his casket because when we have faith and hope in the Lord in this life, the best is yet to come.

            Harry was ready to meet Jesus. Some people aren't. Their hearts are set on the treasures of this world instead of heaven. They don't wait patiently for the Lord with faith and hope. They don't act faithfully with their eyes focused on the Lord, their lamps lit and dressed for action (Luke 12:35).

            It's always good to check the context of a sermon text. Both the front side context and the back side context of this parable add meaning to our story. The front side context (Luke 12:13-31) is about a rich, but foolish, farmer who believed in and sought possessions in this life as if they were the ultimate goal of life. The back side context (Luke 12:41-48) is about a servant who mistreated his fellow servants because he didn't think he'd ever have to face the absent master again. This evil servant lived as if he were the master, eating and drinking excessively. He was saying, "The master is away, I can do whatever I wish."

            Jesus said, "... The master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour that he does not know ... and will put him with the unfaithful" (Luke 12:46). There is punishment for evil deeds.

            In other words, we are not just called to believe in the master. We are not only called to realize that we will face him again at the end of time or at the end of our lives, whichever comes first. In addition, we are also called to act on these beliefs. We are called to be "dressed for action and have our lamps lit" (Luke 12:35). We are called to make faith active in the way we live for God and people. Sometimes there are demonic factors that seem to make it nearly impossible to put our faith into action. These factors can be overcome, but not if we keep them secret. Secrets make us sick. Secrets have to be revealed before anything can be done about them. The beginning of forgiveness is to bring secret sins out of hiding.

4.     "One day, you will see Jesus face-to-face."

A woman named Mary came to her pastor for counseling one day. After the preliminaries, Mary confessed that she had done many things in her past that made her feel ashamed. "My behavior has not been that of a Christian," she said. Then she went on to explain that she had had sex many times before she was married and had committed adultery after she was married. "I've tried to confess my sins to God," she said, "and I know the Bible says that he forgives me, but I just don't feel forgiven. My marriage is falling apart. I feel guilty about the past, fearful of the future, and inhibited in the present."

            The pastor prayed privately, "Lord, help me to find some way to help Mary."

When Mary finished her story, the pastor asked her to stand in front of a crucifix he had on his wall. "That's where you're headed when you die," he said. "One day, you will see Jesus face-to-face."

            "Yes," she said, "I know, and I'm not ready."

            "Right now, you are burdened by your past," the pastor told her. "It's like you are carrying a bag of rocks on your back." He walked over to the corner of the room where he recently had placed a bag of rocks he had taken from church property during a church clean-up day. He hoisted the heavy bag onto Mary's back and asked her to grab it. "You are carrying a bag of rocks from your past," he said. "That's the guilt you feel for what you've done. The reason you feel stuck in the present is because of that guilt. Your fear of the future also makes you feel stuck in the present. Do you want to continue carrying this bag of rocks?"

            "No," Mary said. "It's heavy."

            "Then let Jesus have it. He died on the cross to take your bag of rocks from you. You can't carry those rocks. He can. Your only job is to let him have your bag of rocks and not pick it up again."

            The pastor took the bag of heavy rocks from Mary's back. "That's what the forgiveness of sins is like," he said.

            A week later, Mary told the pastor, "For the first time in my adult life, I feel free to live my faith with faithfulness. It's like a new world."

            "It is a new world," the pastor responded. "It's called the kingdom of God. When you gave your bag of rocks to the Lord, you got a foretaste of what it will be like when you go to heaven."

            Together they turned to Luke 12:32. "Maybe you'd like to read it out loud," the pastor suggested.

            Mary read, "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."

            "You are ready to meet the Lord," the pastor told her.

Closing:

Jesus told his followers that he would return. He told them to be ready for his return at the end of time. He also urged us to be ready for our end time, when we die and come before his throne of grace. He doesn't ask us to be perfect. He asks us to wait with faith and hope and act faithfully with obedience to what he has taught us. He wants us to be ready.

            In the child's game of Hide and Go Seek there's a countdown. There's also a countdown in life.

            "1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10. Ready or not, here I come!"

Sermons for Sundays After Pentecost (Middle Third): Only the Lonely, Ron Lavin, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.

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How Wealthy Are We?

From the standpoint of material wealth, we Americans have difficulty realizing how rich we are.

Robert Heilbroner, who has written dozens of books on the subject of the economy, suggest that we go through a little mental exercise that will help us count our blessings.

Imagine doing the following, and you will see how daily life is for more than a billion people in the world.

1. Take out all the furniture in your home except for one table and a couple of chairs. Use blanket and pads for beds.

2. Take away all of your clothing except for your oldest dress or suit, shirt or blouse. Leave only one pair of shoes.

3. Empty the pantry and the refrigerator except for a small bag of flour, some sugar and salt, a few potatoes, some onions, and a dish of dried beans.

4. Dismantle the bathroom, shut off the running water, and remove all the electrical wiring in your house.

5. Take away the house itself and move the family into the tool shed.

6. Place your "house" in a shantytown.

7. Cancel all subscriptions to newspapers, magazines, and book clubs. This is no great loss because now none of you can read anyway.

8. Leave only one radio for the whole shantytown.

9. Move the nearest hospital or clinic ten miles away and put a midwife in charge instead of a doctor.

10. Throw away your bankbooks, stock certificates, pension plans, and insurance policies. Leave the family a cash hoard of ten dollars.

11. Give the head of the family a few acres to cultivate on which he can raise a few hundred dollars of cash crops, of which one third will go to the landlord and one tenth to the money lenders.

12. Lop off twenty-five or more years in life expectancy.

By comparison how rich we are! And with our wealth comes responsibility.

We should use it wisely, not be wasteful, and help others.

The list comes from economist Robert Heilbroner

Scripture: Luke 12:13-21 (NIV):

The Parable of the Rich Fool

^{ 13 } Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”