“GOD ALONE”

Psalm 62:1


1. this picture you see of a gate into a garden is from the Abbey of Gethsemani outside of Bardstown, Kentucky (where they brew Barton’s Bourbon). Etched into the stone above the gate are the words, God Alone.

2. I first saw this gate in July of 1994 on a weekend retreat at the monastery chasing Thomas Merton’s ghost. They engraved themselves into the pictorial directory of my mind & have stayed there ever since. They move me, challenge me, examine me, inspire me & haunt me, depending on the day.

3. I knew these words – God alone – were from the Psalms. A little over 18 months earlier God led me to Psalm 62 on a day of
prayer I was observing at Mt. Angel:
My soul finds rest in God alone
my salvation come from him
He alone is my rock and my salvation
he is my fortress
I will never be shaken.

4. since then I have read, prayed & pondered these words more than any other in Scripture – my soul finds rest in God alone . They grabbed me on that February day, 1992, up at Mt. Angel. They grabbed me on that July day, 1994, at the Abbey of Gethsemani. And they are still grabbing me. And I want them to grab you today!

A New Year
1. we begin a new year today. A year full of new hope. New promises. New dreams. And new challenges.

2. I want to challenge all of us to make this a God alone year as we learn to live a God alone life.

3. lately I’ve been slowly reading my way through Practicing God’s Presence by Brother Lawrence, a spiritual classic from the 17th century. One phrase from the book that jumped out at me this week is – faith needs revival. Meaning our faith is always in need of cultivation, renewal, examination.

4. TIME magazine named Bill & Melinda Gates & this guy named Bozo, I mean Bono, as their persons of the year for 2005. In the article on the Gates, Melinda was quoted as saying every month she & Bill step back & evaluate how they spent their time – at Microsoft, with their children, with their foundation.

5. that is what I want today to be & this whole month for our church. A time of examination & evaluation of our faith & how we are spending or not spending it…on, with, or for God alone.

My
1. this means you. You matter to God. He created you. He put this wonderful world in place to sustain you, for you to enjoy. He loves you. He sent his Son to die for you.

2. no one can take your place before God. You have to take ownership over your life – your decisions, your relationships, your attitudes, your stewardship of pain, your enjoyment of life’s blessings, your walk with God.

3. God alone for each one of us begins with my.

Soul
1. soul does not mean that invisible part of you that relates to things spiritual – as opposed to – the physical part of you that relates to the natural world through your 5 senses.

2. in the Hebrew Scriptures soul means your very self, you, and all that you are. It’s another way of saying ‘you’ as a person.

3. soul is not a part of you; soul is you. The part of you that relates to God, to others, to the world & to yourself.

4. what I want you to get is that this statement – my soul finds rest in God alone – is talking about the full meal deal, all of you.

Finds
1. finds speaks of looking, searching, scouting for something. Finds speaks of effort, action, steps. This is not a passive soul but an active soul.

2. behind the looking, searching, scouting is a hunger for something. Hunger, longing, yearning.

3. this is tapping into the deepest longings of our soul, our lives, our hearts. This is what rises to the surface when all the noise disappears, when activity stops, when busyness ceases. When quietness begins to flood your life. Those inner voices that are always speaking but seldom heard.

4. what are we looking for?

Rest
1. we all of us are looking for rest. Rest is what Adam & Eve enjoyed & took for granted in the garden. It’s part of what they lost when they sinned against God. The relational unity & harmony they had with God, each other, themselves & the natural world. Now we are born into a fallen world estranged from God, each other, ourselves & our world.

2. the result? One being that we lack rest for our souls. Rest is the absence of the spiritual relational emotional & mental dissonance that marks our lives.

3. this Psalm 62:1 rest is deeper than 7 days on the beach in the Bahamas. This rest is far more than a day at home to read in your pajamas with the shades pulled & phone off the hook. This rest stumps a perfect day of skiing up at Mt Hood. This rest swallows up a growing, bulging bank account. This rest dwarfs the closest we can get to marriage intimacy & family togetherness. This rest beats anything that money can buy, earth can give, or hell can seduce with.

4. this rest is what the whole world is looking for.

in God
1. these are scandalous words to we who are born into this world wanting to be our own god. Our souls are seared with streaks of rebellion against this God.

2. rest in God. In God. Not in beauty. Or health. Or career. Or accomplishment. Or money. Or power. Or pleasure. Or houses. Or cars. Or vacations. Or iPods. Or Xboxes. Or relationships. Or knowledge. Or success. Or a fat nest egg for retirement. Or you fill in the blank.

3. we chase after a thousand gods in this life. I’m afraid we are just as guilty of idolatry as the Israelites of the Old Testament. We just don’t call them gods.

Alone
1. most if not all of us want God in our lives. That’s probably why we’re here today. We just don’t want him alone. We are ‘plus’ people. My soul finds rest in God +
* the idol that is my home – that place of shelter that consumes so much of your time, energy, attention & money
* the idol that is my private time – that you guard religiously to the exclusion of your God, your family & your neighbor
* the idol that is my bank account – it’s my money, I worked hard for it, I’m entitled to it, I can do what I want with it
* the idol that is my pursuit of pleasure – youth or adults, men or women, married or single…are you remaining sexually pure?
* the idol that is…you fill in the blank

2. that which neutralizes the alone in many of our lives is our sin. Some of us are in love with our sin. Our sin has become part of our identity, who we understand our selves to be.

3. your soul will never find rest in God alone unless you identify the idols in your life & slay them.

4. your soul will never find rest in God alone unless you identify the sin in your life & turn from it.

January 22, 2006 @ 6pm
1. November 18-19 the elders & Gov Bd went on a prayer retreat. No agenda but to listen to what God wanted to say to us about our church.

2. when all was said & done we felt like God was saying 2 things to us. #1 – in & through the difficult events of the past year I am doing a new thing in CAC. A new day is dawning. #2 – I want you as a church to come together and examine yourselves to make sure there is nothing in your past that will hold you back from the future I have planned for you. Are we right with God? Are we right with each other? What do we need to repent of – individually & as a church body?

3. Sunday evening, 6pm, January 22 has been set aside to do this. This is not a time to come & throw stones at others, or complain, or criticize. This is a time to come together to repent of our sin.

4. we have 3 weeks to get ready. 3 weeks to pray. To listen. To seek God’s face. To start our repentance.


Ten Steps for Spiritual Cleansing

1. Get alone in a quiet place with paper, pen, and your Bible.

2. Quiet your heart before God - put away all distractions and worries until you are finally quiet before God (this may take some time!).

3. Pray to God and thank Him for bringing you to this place in your life where you desire to be cleansed before Him and His holiness. Commit yourself to God and ask for the courage to not run away from the deep work that He wants to do in your life.

4. Ask the Holy Spirit, "please reveal to me the specific sins in my life - even the ones I may have forgotten - which lie between You and me. In Jesus name, amen."

5. List everything the Holy Spirit reveals to you. Don't give into the temptation to skip some of the harder ones. Give this some time, expect some struggle. When you have completed your list, number them in the order of how difficult they will be for you to confess and make necessary restitution.

6. Anticipate the personal struggle you will face, as you have not been willing to face these issues and confess them before the Lord until this point.

7. Confess your sins one at a time before the Lord, beginning with the hardest first. "Lord, I confess to You that I committed the sin of _____________. Please forgive me for this sin and thoroughly cleanse me from it." Go through your list one by one until you are finished.

8. Expect to have to humble yourself to at least one other person as you seek to make all things right in your life. Take the hardest first and personally visit with that person. If that's not possible, telephone, if that's not possible, write a letter. Always take the upper road and do more than what would be expected of you in order to satisfy the Lord and the offended person.

9. Write "DONE!" across your sheet of paper after you have "confessed, made restoration, forgiven, and received God's cleansing!" Then burn your sheet as an act of assurance of the Lord's total and complete forgiveness.

10. Thank the Lord when you have completed your list. Praise Him for His forgiveness and thank Him for His cleansing.


(taken from the book Personal Holiness in Time of Temptation by Bruce Wilkinson, p. 112)

“MARY’S NOT-SO-TAME SONG”

Luke 1:46-55


PART ONE
Most of us know the story well – a teenage girl, a virgin, engaged to Joseph, but pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit. We call it the virgin birth.

This baby causing her stretch marks & sitting on her bladder is God. The new-born nursing at her breasts is the Eternal Creator of all things, including the warm milk in his mouth.

Mary lived as a mama to God-made-flesh while bowing in her heart to the King of kings & Lord of lords. She knew that she had been the site of a holy Miracle, the habitation of Divinity within her virgin womb.

It began something like this. The angel Gabriel told Mary that she was with child by the power of the Holy Spirit. He also told her that her baby was to be name Jesus, because (as Matthew tells us in his gospel) he will save his people from their sins. Mary has a Savior growing in her belly.

Mary’s baby is the long-awaited Messiah – think Savior – of Israel! Help is on the way. Deliverance is coming. God is re-visiting his people.

BUT not in the way that Israel expected. Not a political Messiah but a spiritual Messiah to free them from their sin. This baby was coming to deal with humanity’s ‘sin problem.’ It’s Frank Sinatra ‘I’ll do it my way’ problem.

After this angelic birth announcement Mary ran to her aged relative Elizabeth – barren, elderly, post-menopausal – but miraculously pregnant herself. Elizabeth calls her blessed.
And Mary bursts into a song. What I’m calling her not-so-tame song. Words of spiritual & social revolution roll off her virgin lips. READ LUKE 1:46-55.

In a sermon he preached on this song in London on December 17, 1933 Dietrich Bonhoeffer says: this song of Mary’s is the most passionate, most heated, one might almost say, most revolutionary Advent hymn ever sung. It is not the gentle, sweet, dreamy Mary that we so often see portrayed in pictures, but the passionate, powerful, proud, enthusiastic Mary, who speaks here. None of the sweet, sugary, or childish tones that we find so often in our Christmas hymns, but a hard, strong, uncompromising song of bringing down rulers from their thrones and humbling the lords of the world, of God’s power and of the powerlessness of men. These are the tones of the prophetic women of the Old Testament: Deborah, Judith, Miriam, coming alive in the mouth of Mary.

On this Christmas morning I want us to view this song through the window of humility – for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant (1:48). Humility. First in Mary. Second in Jesus. Third of God’s great reversal.

Humility in Mary
The yet-to-be wife of a carpenter sings this song – the poor, working man’s wife; insignificant to all but significant to God. Appointed to be the mother of the Savior of the world.

Not because of some remarkable accomplishment in her life – she hadn’t lived long enough, or great piety, or virtue. Only because God’s gracious will is to love the humble and lowly.

Her fiancée, her Joseph, a simple blue collar carpenter with rough, sand paper-like hands. Part of the framing crew putting up houses on the corner Juniper & Territorial in Canby. This humble working man’s fiancée makes her place in history as the mother of my Lord, as Elizabeth puts it (1:43).

We learn a wonderful thing here about God – he is not ashamed to be cast with the humble & poor. And neither should we. God loves the lost, the forgotten, the insignificant, the outcasts, the weak, and the broken. He feels at home with the humble.

Mary’s humility expresses itself as I am the Lord’s servant, may it be to me as you have said (1:38). Take my life, Lord, my body, my reputation, my coming marriage, my place in the community. May her words & her heart behind them be ours as well.


PART TWO

Humility in Jesus
Mary with child, by the Holy Spirit, is how God splits history in half. This is the turning point of the Grand narrative – creation then fall then Israel then Jesus followed by us, the church. A new ordering of all things on earth begins here in Mary’s womb. The Kingdom of God is unleashed.

God himself, the Lord and Creator of all things, becomes little and helpless, here in a corner, in seclusion, unnoticed, he enters the world. This is humility like nothing else in our world.

Think of George W. Bush going from President of the United States to President of the Knight School PTA. Think of Bill Gates going from running Microsoft to running Canby Disposal. Think of all-pro running back Shaun Alexander of the Seahawks going from the NFL to the Kyllo family’s annual football game on Christmas Day. Think of Rick Warren leaving his multi-thousand member mega church in southern California to join our staff as visitation pastor.

There is no human parallel that even begins to match the humility of God becoming man.

The ultimate perfecto picture of humility in our world comes in Jesus when the Almighty Eternal Creator God makes his home in his skin & bones.

This tells us something wonderful about God – he is not ashamed to be cast with the humble and poor AND he’s wiling to humble himself to become a piece of his creation. To be humble is to be God-like.

Humility of the Great Reversal
By Great Reversal I refer to the way we experience the world around us when God conceives new life in us.

In 1:51-53 we read that God scatters those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He brings down the rulers from their thrones & lifts up the humble. He fills the hungry with good things & sends the rich away empty.

These words roll off of Mary’s tongue like flames of fire. This is not a nice, sugar-coated, tame song. Revolution is on the horizon. Like Aslan, God is on the move.

The first will be last & the last will be first, is how Jesus says it. God & the humble & the hungry are exalted. The proud & the rulers & the rich are brought down.

This is a picture of the coming Kingdom of God that we experience in part now & in full when Christ returns. Salvation is not just about forgiveness of sins. It stretches out to include justice & mercy for the disenfranchised as well.

Pride, power & wealth should be held lightly. If not, they become thick barriers to a relationship with God. Humility before God is the pathway that God travels into our hearts. And out of our hearts into the hearts of our broken world.

As Christ followers we have a kingdom to participate in and a King to worship. Ours is a world large with creation and wonder, history and salvation. In Christ we are joyful participants in what has been and is yet to come. How?

By confessing our belief in the truth of this story of Jesus. By inviting Jesus into our story, our life, as our Savior & Lord. By humbling ourselves before God & others. By serving God, the downtrodden & the deprived.

Let us sing with Mary this Christmas morning, for (God my Savior) has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. My soul glorifies the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God my Savor. Amen.

“SONGS AND PRAYERS OF HOPE” Luke 1-2

4th Sunday of Advent
1. last week I talked about our storied existence. We live in stories. AND the Bible is a story book – grand narrative – composed of 5 chapters:
* creation (Gen 1-2)
* fall (Gen 3-11)
* Israel (Gen – Malachi)
--> advent / Christmas
* Jesus (Matt – John)
* Church (Acts – Rev)

2. God has a sovereign & saving plan for all of creation. This salvation is inaugurated by Jesus himself in his life death resurrection & ascension. This salvation is implemented through the Spirit-led life of the church. Jesus is the main character & salvation is the main theme of the story.

3. today I want to add song to story. We write & sing songs to mark important events in our lives. 2 examples:
* when the Bonneville Dam was being built in the late 1930s, the Bonneville Power Administration hired Woody Guthrie to write songs to promote the dam. In 30 days he wrote 26 songs & was paid $270. Out of that came Roll On Columbia, Roll On which was adopted as the Washington State Folk song
* after 9/11 Bruce Springsteen recorded The Rising, deeply emotive story songs about 9/11 that have helped thousands of people work through their grief

4. Our faith is not only communicated in & through story. It is sung through song. Ours is a singing story, a singing faith. The Christian Church is meant to be a worshipping community.

5. and this is no better illustrated than at Christmas time – we love singing Christmas hymns that tell the Christmas story.

Luke’s songs
1. in telling the story of Jesus Luke includes 4 songs that express the story significance of Jesus’ birth.

2. these are 4 songs of hope. Historically they have been identified in the church by the Latin words that begin each song:
* magnificat (1:46-55): Mary’s song
* benedictus (1:68-79): Zechariah’s song
* gloria in excelesis (2:14): shepherd’s song
* nunc dimittis (2:29-32): Simeon’s song

Magnificat – 1:46-55
1. the teenage virgin Mary goes to tell Elizabeth she is pregnant. And the elderly, barren, post-menopausal, pregnant Elizabeth hits her with Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me. Mary’s heart bursts with song & prayer – the Magnificat.

2. revolution is on the horizon. The proud, the powerful & the rich are reduced to size. And God, the downtrodden & the deprived are lifted up. In Jesus’ words, the first shall be last & the last shall be first. This is a picture of Jesus’ upside-down kingdom. God is on the move in Jesus.

3. this is a song to be sung. Mary’s soul glorifies the Lord. Her spirit rejoices in God her Savior. More on this next week in my Christmas Sunday message.
4. but notice this re: worship – 2 people meeting in a home out in the countryside. Is your home a place of worship?

Benedictus – 1:68-79
1. Elizabeth’s priest husband Zechariah, speechless since the day the angel Gabriel announced to him the conception of John, gets his voice back on the day his son is named & circumcised. The first thing he does is pray this song of praise!

2. read 67-75. Zechariah bursts into praise – praise be to the Lord. This song gathers the revelation of God to Abraham, David & all the holy prophets. It places Zechariah’s 8-day old son in their company.

3. read 76-79. this 8-day old infant is a prophet in the making. He is going to prepare the way for the Messiah. Salvation & forgiveness of sin will grace John’s lips. Light will shine in the darkness & death. Peace is coming. The tender mercies of God are being unleashed.

4. praise be to the Lord. When we hear of God’s tender mercies, his salvation, his forgiveness, his peace we praise God!

5. this song, these songs, are God-centered. They are about God & sung to God. They include humans but humans are not the focus. True worship has God in its sights. The more God is the focus of our worship, the more we can expect to experience his presence & glory.

6. worship is all about God & what God is doing.

Gloria – 2:14
1. the setting is a field near Bethlehem. It is night. Shepherds are tending their sheep. This is their work place. Jesus has just been born in a stable not far away. History has just been split in two. God has entered our space-time continuum in a little baby.

2. hinge-joint between chapter 3 / Israel & chapter 4 / Jesus.

3. suddenly the shepherds are flooded with light. An angel appears. Jesus’ birth is announced.

4. and then something even more incredible occurs. A great choir of angels appears. They are praising God. Can you imagine what a choir of angels praising God sounds like?

5. I’ve done 5 funerals this fall. I know of 5 people who now know the sound of a heavenly choir:
* Maureen Guthner’s sister
* Nancy Pickett’s mother-in-law
* Renae Roskott
* Tom Sawyer
* Bob Cryder
And others as well –
* Carol Beck’s mother
* Steve Thoroughman’s mother
* Kathe Cutsforth’s mother

7. these angels are singing their lungs out – glory to God in the highest and on earth peace on those whom his favor rests. What a picture of worship!

8. U2 often sings a song entitled Gloria at their concerts. This song comes from this verse –
I try to sing this song
I try to stand up
But I can’t find my feet
I try, I try to speak up
But only in you I’m complete
Gloria, in Te Domine
Gloria, exultate

Oh Lord, loosen my lips
I try to sing this song.

9. the praise of these angels joins what originates in heaven with what takes place on earth.

10. This is what worship is meant to be – a bridge activity. The joining of heaven & earth, God & humanity. The realities of heaven inform our praises on earth & our earthly realties are carried up to the heavenly realms in worship. On earth as it is in heaven, in prayer & in worship.

11. for the shepherds this worship scene happens at work. In the marketplace. Not at church. Do you expect God to show up at your job? You should. Can your work-place become a place of worship? It can!

Nunc dimittis – 2:29-32
1. read 2:27. Jesus’ parents bring him to the temple 40 days after his birth. According to the Law of Moses at this time a purification rite was held for the birth mother.

2. they are met by Simeon, an obscure senior citizen who is well-acquainted with the Holy Spirit (2:25-27). Simeon takes the baby Jesus in his arms & erupts with a song of praise, a song of completion. What he has been praying for his whole life is now present in this infant. He is ready to die!

3. if you’ve been around here long you know that Frederick Buechner is one of my favorite writers. I’ve told the family for years that I want to meet him before I die. I got the chance to meet him at Calvin College, April 2004. As he signed one of my Buechner books I told him that I was now ready to die, having met him. He quickly looked up with a panicky smile on his face & said something like – please not here, you don’t have to die!

4. what a lesson in visionary, expectant prayer. In patience & waiting. In not giving up but living in hope between promise & fulfillment. God can be trusted.

5. the theme of Simeon’s song? Salvation in Christ will to come to all people – Gentiles & Israel. I’m now back to our CAC barrenness from last week – do we have any new Christ-followers among us? where are they?

6. salvation-wise, I see our empty wombs. I encounter our quiet nursery. Each of these 4 songs celebrating Christ’s birth point to the reason for his birth – he’s a Savior. Where are the people he is saving?

7. there’s a repentance issue here. There’s a brokenness issue here. There’s a passion issue here. There’s a love-of-God-for-lost-people issue here that we must deal address.

8. mark Sunday night, 1/22/06 on your calendars. We’re going to gather together as a church that evening. We’re going to seek to make things right with God.

9. In the baby Jesus Simeon’s eyes have peered down on salvation. Salvation for all people. A light of revelation to the Gentiles & for glory to your people Israel. God intends to extend his tender mercies to all. Are we willing to join in? To help him?

Wrap-up
1. we began with Mary – we end with Simeon. The 1st & last worshippers in the story. They complement one another. Mary the young girl starting out in submission to God’s word as it comes by the Holy Spirit. Simeon the old man ending in submission to God’s word as it comes by the Holy Spirit.

2. a good place to end – in submission before God.

"Spirit Invading Flesh"

Luke 1-2

1. All of us live a storied life. We live in stories. I live in my story. The story of Tim, Heather, Hannah, Elizabeth. The story of my parents & my brothers & sister. The story of Canby Alliance Church. I live in your stories. And on & on it goes.

2. I also live in God’s story, just like all of you. The God-story that we live in began before creation in the eternal being of God. Part of God’s story is captured in the Bible.

Bible story in 5 acts
1. more than anything else the Bible is a story book. The majority of its pages are narrative. And this story has 5 chapters:

1 – Creation – Genesis 1-2:
2. God creates the heavens & the earth & everything in them & pronounces creation good, very good.

2 – Fall – Genesis 3-11:
3. Adam & Eve sin. They spoil God’s perfect creation. All creation is now stained by sin. We are born into a fallen world with a fallen, self-bent rather than God-bent, human nature.

3 – Israel – Abraham to Jesus:
4. God begins his rescue operation of the world. He forms the people through whom his Savior Son will be born. To this people God reveals his character & uncovers his holiness & power.

4 – Jesus – gospels:
5. Jesus is the decisive & pinnacle act of the 4th chapter. Jesus’ story is the climax of Israel’s story. Jesus’ story is the focal point of God’s redemptive drama.

5 - church – Acts-Revelation:
6. Jesus launches his ‘new’ people, the church, to take his story to the nations. Jesus’ story goes forth in the church. And is meant to bust down the doors of the church & permeate non-Christian culture. This Jesus story moves forward in my story & your story.

7. creation – fall – Israel – Jesus – the church.

8. according to N. T. Wright, these 5 chapters in God’s grand story offer a picture of God’s sovereign and saving plan for the entire cosmos, dramatically inaugurated by Jesus himself, and now implemented through the Spirit-led life of the church (The Last Word). This grand story calls every child, woman and man to submit in faith to the Lordship of the crucified and risen Jesus.

9. we live in the still open-ended 5th chapter. The 5th chapter goes on toward its final destination – the new heaven & the new earth of Revelation 21-22.

Transition
1. advent & Christmas compose the hinge point between the 3rd & 4th chapters, between Israel & Jesus. The story of God’s presence in Israel comes to a close. The story of God’s presence in Jesus begins to open up.

2. Jesus is the main figure in the story. The plot revolves around him. The sub-themes & sub-sub-themes of this story are saturated with the Jesus story, either overtly or covertly.

Spirit invading flesh
1. the Holy Spirit is mentioned 7xs in Luke’s account of Jesus’ conception & birth. Only in Luke do we find the Spirit so mentioned.

2. the cast of characters are an odd bunch. Jesus’ conception is paired with the prior conception of his cousin John. John is filled with the Holy Spirit in the womb of his mother Elizabeth, who by this time is a senior citizen. 6 months later Jesus is conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary. A virgin with no sexual experience.

3. these 2 women stand at the extremes of impossibility regarding having a baby. Elizabeth is a barren post-menopausal old woman and Mary a young virgin.

4. I want you to catch these Holy Spirit references:
1:15 – he (John the Baptist) will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his birth…this is told to Zechariah by an angel who appeared to him during his priestly duty – he’s going to have a son.

1:35 – the Holy Spirit will come upon you…this is told by the angel Gabriel to Mary when she asks how she is going to have a baby when she is a virgin.

1:41 – Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit…when the Mary came to visit her. Elizabeth & Mary were relatives (1:36).

1:67 – Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit…at the birth of his son & prophesied about Jesus the coming Savior.

2:25 – the Holy Spirit was upon him…speaking of Simeon.

2:26 – it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit…that Simeon would see the Messiah before he died

2:27 – moved by the Spirit he went into the temple courts…the Spirit led Simeon to Joseph, Mary & Jesus at his dedication in the temple.

5. Luke wants us to understand that God is actively creating & confirming life in this setting of sheer impossibility! The Holy Spirit moves in the lives of – the embryonic John, the virginal Mary, the great-with-child Elizabeth, the old priest Zechariah & the devout Simeon.

6. these were Divine days for the people of Israel. God was keeping his word. The Messiah was coming. The kingdom of God was entering the world in a manner never before seen, experienced, or imagined. The Holy Spirit was on the move.

7. but notice something else. The ordinary dimension. These 2 births are completely normal. Elizabeth & Mary carried their babies for 9 months. The babies born from these unlikely wombs (barren & virgin) had normal infancies. They were weaned from the breast. They gradually acquired the ability to eat solid food. One day they rolled over & started to crawl. Soon they began to walk. Then run. They made nonsense babbling sounds that turned into words. And then into sentences.

8. Eugene Peterson, The Holy Spirit, however miraculous in the conception of life itself, doesn’t seem to shortcut or skip anything that is human. There is nothing in a Holy Spirit-conceived life that exempts that life from the common lot of humanity. There is absolutely nothing in us that is inaccessible to or incapable of holiness.
9. nothing was missed. Nothing was bypassed. Even though the Holy Spirit is running the story. It’s a beautiful picture of the Divine-human dance that is ours as Christ-followers.

When the Spirit invades my life
1. the majority of the time the Holy Spirit shows up in our lives when things are at their normal-most. The Divine does not cancel out the human.

2. so often we want to be delivered from our hard circumstances. We want to be spared the agony of our fallen humanity. We want the unbearable made instantly bearable by the Divine supernatural intervention of God. And sometimes this happens, yes, sometimes this happens.

3. but as Peterson writes the Divine work of the Holy Spirit comes in the midst of the ordinary, the human.

4. I have 1 point I want to make as I draw this to a close. It has to do with Elizabeth’s barrenness. She was not able to conceive and bear a child. She was childless. Until the Holy Spirit changed all that.

5. we are barren as a church. The 5 chapters of the Grand Story tell us that we are to be a people who reproduce ourselves. We are to be witnesses of Christ’s love to others. We are to partner with God in bringing people into the kingdom of light.

6. we are barren. Our wombs are empty. Our arms are empty. Our nursery lies unused. Where are the new baby Christ-followers? Where the joyful chatter of new believers?

7. Divine-wise, we are totally dependent upon the Holy Spirit to draw people to Christ in salvation. Human-wise God stoops to depend upon us to witness with our lives & our words. Lost people matter to God. Lost people matter big-time in this Grand Story. Do they matter to us? it’s time our hearts were broken before God for not caring about the people he created, loves & died for.

8. the Holy Spirit is the only One who can change our barrenness. The power of the Holy Spirit is released in our lives through repentance, humility & surrender. We must turn from our sins. Humble ourselves before God. Surrender our all to him.

9. Christ comes to be born in our lives – the fullness of Christ – and to flow out of our lives into others to be born in them as well!

Ephesians 4: Good Words

1. I want to begin with a song from Patty Griffin. The Oregonian reporter who reviewed her August concert in Portland wrote – she has a voice so pure it would melt metal. "Long Ride Home" is her song about a 40 yr marriage. One of the spouses has just died. The living spouse is thinking about their marriage which death just ended –

one day I took your tiny hand
put your finger in the wedding band
daddy gave a piece of land
made ourselves the best of plans
40 years go by with someone laying in your bed
40 years of things you say you wished you’d never said
how hard would it have been to say some kinder words instead
I wonder as I stare at the sky a turnin’ red

2. the nitty-gritty of a 40 year relationship. 40 years of
things said & not said. The power of words to both
inflict pain & heal pain. In marriage. In families. In friendships. In the church. The nitty-gritty of relationships.

Back to Ephesians 4
1. we’ve been slowly working our way through Ephesians 4. This is message #7. And today we wade into Paul’s teaching for how Christ-followers are treat one another. This is what it comes down to in community. This is how we will be known by others.

2. 4:25-32 is a picture of 4:22-24. When we put off our old self and put on our new self this (25-32) is what will emerge out of our actions, words, attitudes.

Truth: don’t tell lies; tell the truth (25)
1. truth matters to Paul in this chapter:
§ 4:15 – speak truth in love
§ 4:21 – truth that is in Jesus
§ 4:25 – speak truthfully to his neighbor
The opposite of truth is falsehood, literally “the lie.”

2. as Christ-followers we are to be honest people. People whose word can be trusted.

3. why? For we are all members of one body. The Message, In Christ’s body we’re all connected to each other, after all. When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself. Christian community is built on trust. Trust is built on truth. Falsehood & lies undermine Christian community. Truth, on the other hand, strengthens it.

4. this is a critical issue for leaders. It’s easy to become defensive. It’s easy to tell lies to protect yourself, hide your faults, hid your sins, make yourself look good at the expense of others.

5. I’ve had to go to people & confess that I lied to them. It’s humiliating. But it’s also liberating. Told any lies lately? Is there someone you need to go to & make things right?

Anger: don’t lose your temper; don’t let your anger endure (26-27)
1. there is such a thing as righteous anger:
§ Jesus got angry & ran the money-changers out of the temple
§ Martin Luther expressed his anger at the medieval Catholic Church for their skewing of the gospel message
§ William Wilberforce was angry at slavery in 19th century England & became an abolitionist
§ 25 years ago Francis Schaeffer was angered by what he saw as the cheapening of human life & wrote a book & made a film that addressed the issues of infanticide, abortion & euthanasia

2. but this is not the kind of anger Paul wrote about. Not anger over evil BUT anger toward people. Our boss, our husband, our mother, our pastor – you fill in the blank.

3. Paul is so practical. He leaves us 3 steps to address our anger at people:
§ do not sin – we have to make sure that our anger doesn’t come from injured pride, spite, malice, animosity or revenge
§ do not nurse your anger – in other words, don’t let it smolder. Don’t feed it. Don’t let it build up. ‘Never go to bed angry’ is a good rule, and is seldom more applicable than to a married couple, writes John Stott

When you think about it, anger is largely a self-centered emotion. It’s about us. We’re not getting what we want. The world is not what we wish it to be. My husband doesn’t understand me. My boss takes me for granted. The oil companies care more about lining their pockets with profits than about how much it costs me to drive into Portland everyday to work. Our anger says something about us.

§ don’t give the devil a place in your life – the word here for foothold means literally ‘a place.’ We can’t let anger take us residence in our lives. It infects. It mutates. It becomes the avenue the devil uses to cause us to sin even more

**The New King James – Jamie Netter & Anne Chambers**

Stealing – don’t steal; work & give (28)
1. this is a striking picture of conversion. The thief becomes a philanthropist. The one doing wrong to meet his own selfish needs – is now – to do right to meet not only his needs but the needs of others.

2. Klyne Snodgrass writes of this verse in his commentary, (4:28) ignites a bomb under our self-centered thinking. Our goal is productivity so that we can give. We do not exist for ourselves, but for relations with other people and with God.

3. the 2 richest men in the world – Warren Buffet & Bill Gates – were interviewed in Fortune magazine in October. Together the 2 of them are worth around $100 billion. Both of them feel that a tremendous responsibility comes with the wealth they’ve acquired. Both have plans to give away 99% of their money – Buffet after he dies & Gates is working on it right now. They are applying the truth of this verse whether they realize it or not.

4. our application of this truth has very little to do with income. This is a mindset that becomes ours as our old self gives way to our new self. We work. We strive to become productive. We become God-honoring stewards. We make sure the community benefits from our productivity.

5. this is what our weekly offering is all about. This is what the Miracle Sunday Offering is all about. And the Habitat for Humanity dinner/auction. And the benefit concert for Habitat for Humanity. And our weekly offering.

6. For the Christ-follower we all of us need to ask ourselves a question – when does satisfying our wants leave unsatisfied the needs of others? I agree with Snodgrass. This verse ignites a bomb underneath our greed.

Speech – don’t use destructive words; build others up (29)
1. now we go from hands to mouth. Our God speaks & like him we also speak. Our speech distinguishes us from animals – cows moo, dogs bark, pigs grunt, sheep bleat, lions roar, birds sing. But only humans speak words.

2. unwholesome words are not to be found among us. Unwholesome in Paul’s time referred to spoiled fish & rotten fruit. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth (Message).

3. 3 pointers for our speech:
§ our words are to build people up
§ address people’s needs
§ benefit others
Words are powerful. They mold & shape. They do good & evil. By them people’s lives are made or destroyed, found or lost.

4. how are you doing with your words? Building people up? Speaking into their needs? Make a positive difference in people’s lives?

Attitude – don’t be unkind & bitter; be kind & forgiving (31-32)
1. Paul starts us off with 6 unpleasant attitudes/actions. They are descriptive of what destroys human relationships. Instead of love, various expressions of hostility reign:
§ bitterness – hardness of heart, a sour spirit, sour speech, negative & cynical outlook, acidity disposition
§ rage & anger – these mean the same thing; outbursts of anger; anger directed at another person; personal attack
§ brawling – not physical violence but shouting, yelling, screaming at someone
§ slander – this is speaking bad or evil of someone, especially behind their backs; spreading gossip; tearing someone down; calling into question their character, reputation
§ malice – harboring grudges, simmering anger, public attack, wishing some kind of evil or setback for someone

2. what’s the operative word? Get rid of all this stuff! Back to 4:22f., - put off your old self & put on the new self. Stott, there is no place for any of these horrid things in the Christian community; they have to be totally rejected.

3. these things destroy marriages, families, friendships & churches. These things annihilate human beings. They are the nuclear threats to our love, unity & peace. They are terrorist attacks upon our mission to make a difference for Christ in our community & world.

In my 25 years of pastoring I’ve seen more
relationships shattered by these 6 things than I have
by alcohol, drugs, sexual immorality, greed or
gambling. The church has been guilty of crusading
against social evils while overlooking the evil
at work in their human, Christian hearts.

4. what’s the alternative? Putting on the new self, w/c is Christ’s self, w/c reflects the person of God:
§ be kind – a Greek word spelled almost like Christ; used by Christ in the Sermon on the Mount for God’s kindness toward the unrighteous (5:45). Means = be like Christ.
§ be compassionate – not bitter or angry or slanderous or poisoned by malice
§ be forgiving – literally ‘act in grace toward one another.’

5. our treatment of others is to be grounded in God’s treatment of us in Jesus Christ. The way God has treated me in my sin, my failure, my rebellion, my selfishness, my jealously is the way I am to treat you in yours – especially when you mistreat me.

6. the nitty-gritty of lying, anger, stealing, speech & attitude.

Holy Spirit – 30
1. to engage in any of these negative attitudes, words or actions of 4:25-32 is to grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Grieve means sorrow or pain or distress. God is a person & we can cause God grief & we do.

2. this is huge. I’m afraid we miss this in our failed human relationships. Ultimately, all this is about God, not us. When we fail each other we fail God. Anything we say or do that weakens the purity or unity of the church is a sin against the Holy Spirit.

3. confession & repentance are to start with God & go on to those we have hurt or mistreated.

4. 2 things in leaving:
§ 1st, if you have things you need to make right with God or people this week, do it. Don’t put it off. I’ve never had someone come to me & say – oh, boy, I wish I hadn’t asked forgiveness of ???...or made things right with ???...or taken the 1st step to heal my broken relationship with???

§ 2nd, we need to realize that on our own we can’t be Christ-like in our relationships. We can’t grind it out on good intentions. We need God. We need Jesus. We need the power of the Holy Spirit.

Listen to The Message (4:22-23) – everything – and I do mean everything – connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life – a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.

**New Living Translation – Jeff Cook & Jeff Cook**

Guest Speakers: The Champs

John & Marie Champ will be speaking this week and John will come to our Sunday school class as well.

John may be able to provide some notes for his talk which will be posted here.

“Let’s Talk About Money & Spirituality”

1. many of you are familiar with Rick Warren’s book The Purpose-Driven Life, the best-selling book in the world since 2003. This book has made Warren a millionaire many times over. What’s he doing with all his money?

2. Warren & his wife have made five decisions:
* they did not upgrade their lifestyle
* Warren stopped taking a paycheck from Saddleback Church where he is the pastor
* he repaid 25 years of his salary to the church he founded in 1980
* they created three charitable foundations
* they started "reverse tithing," meaning they live on 10 percent of their income and give away 90 percent.

3. in 2003 Warren traveled to Johannesburg, South Africa the help lead an HIV/AIDS conference. He was struck by the needs in Africa. He began to reexamine Scripture & was humbled – I found those 2,000 verses on the poor. How did I miss that? I went to Bible college, two seminaries, and I got a doctorate. How did I miss God’s compassion for the poor? I was not seeing all the purposes of God.

4. today Warren is mobilizing his church to be on the frontlines of ministry fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Money & Spirituality
1. today I want to talk about money & spirituality. The 2 go hand-in-hand. Does money come up very often in the Bible? Listen to these numbers:
* baptism – 40xs in Bible
* prayer – 275xs
* faith – 350xs
* love – 650xs
* money/wealth/material possessions – 2350xs!
Money & our relationships with God & others can’t be dismissed or divided.

5. let me take you on a little tour of the Bible & show you what it teaches us about money & spirituality – Solomon, John the Baptist, Jesus, the early church & Paul.

Solomon: Proverbs 3:9-10
1. these are my all-time favorite Bible verses about money, wealth, giving.

2. 1st we honor God with how we use my money. Our money matters to God. The way we spend our money is a statement of faith!

3. 2nd God deserves the 1st cut from our paycheck. First-fruits = crops, herds, labor for the Israelites AND 1st allotment of our paycheck.

4. 3rd God blesses those who give their first-fruits. Their barns will not be able to hold the harvest. Their wine vats will overflow with wine. This is a picture of abundance & blessing.

5. we can’t out-give God. God blesses those who give. If we honor God with our money, he will honor us with his blessings. You can’t out-give God!

John the Baptist: Luke 3:7-14
1. John the Baptist is preaching. He’s calling people to repentance, produce fruit in keeping with repentance (8). The crowd asks him, what shall we do then (10)? In other words, how do we need to change? How do we get on board with what you’re saying? Tell us what to do.

2. John gave them 3 answers:
* everyone should share clothes & food with the poor (11)
* tax collectors shouldn’t pocket extra money (12)
* soldiers should be content with their wages & not extort money (14)
Each answer relates to money & possessions.

3. think hard. John was not asked about money & possessions. He was asked what they needed to do to demonstrate the fruit of spiritual transformation. John couldn’t talk about spirituality without talking about how to handle money & possessions.

4. John’s point – we won’t fully serve God unless we’ve dethroned the money idol in our lives. Luke 16:13, No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

5. 15% of Jesus’ teaching focused on money & possessions. He spoke more about money than he did about heaven & hell combined.

Jesus: Luke 12:13-21
1. Jesus is with a huge crowd – thousands had gathered (12:1). Someone in the crowd had money on his mind & asked Jesus a question – teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me (13).

2. Jesus knows that money issues are heart issues. He issues a warning about greed – watch out, be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions (15). In God’s eyes, the one with the most toys doesn’t automatically win. Life is more than money, stuff, possessions, holdings.

3. he tells a parable – read. And then the clincher, this is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.

4. rich toward God, rich toward God, rich toward God. Let that sink in. This is not a matter of income. Of being rich or poor. Lower or middle or higher class. Living in the Dunsthrope area of Portland or in a humble manufactured home in Gresham.

5. rich toward God. What does this mean? The book of Acts tells us so let’s move on…

the early church
Acts 2:45
1. 1 mark of the first church of Christ-followers in Jerusalem was radical generosity! They sold their ‘stuff’ & gave the money to the needy.

2. when the Holy Spirit fills the church, the Holy Spirit will lead the followers of Christ into revolutionary acts of generosity. When God gets a hold of our lives our financial priorities change.

3. instead of a ‘helping others’ sale like we just had 2 weeks ago, we should hold a ‘helping others give-away’ event – sell our stuff & give the money away, bring our stuff & give it away!

Acts 4:32-37
1. here’s more of the same, radical, revolutionary acts of giving. Possessions were shared. Bill, Rae, I’d like to use your mini Cooper this week. Harry, I’d like to use your rain gear. Jeff, I’d like to use your office. When the Holy Spirit moves in our lives suddenly our possessions have less of a grip on our lives!

2. houses were sold. Land was sold. The money was brought to the church leadership. it was given to the poor. Holy Spirit-driven church growth principle – the ‘haves’ share with the ‘have-nots.’

3. good case-in-point = Joe Barney sold a piece of land & gave the money to the apostles.

4. bad case-in-point = Ananias & Sapphira sold a piece of land & lied to the apostles & to the Holy Spirit about what they got for the land. They wanted to look more generous than they were. They died as a result.

5. if this kind of thing happened today, some of us wouldn’t be here. We’d be dead & buried, 6 ft under ground.

6. when the Holy Spirit moves in our lives 1 thing we can count on is a greater desire to give give give. Even radically.

Paul
Galatians 2:10
1. when the hater-of-Christians Saul turned lover-of-Christians Paul, he went before the church leadership in Jerusalem for acceptance. They said, yes, you’re one of us! Followed by remember the poor.

2. faith & giving, faith & money, faith & generosity, faith & compassion are to mark our lives.

Ephesians 4:28
1. I love this verse – quit stealing, get a job, do something useful, make your life count, set aside some of your income to help the needy.

2. to be a follower of Christ means that part of our income goes to help those less fortunate than ourselves.

3. in 2 weeks we are going to take up our annual Miracle Sunday Thanksgiving offering. This offering has averaged $30,000 over the past 10 years. We’re going to give all the money away:
* 10% to Christian workers @ CAC
* $1500 to Josh , Bev Harlan’s grandson who is an Assemblies of God missionary in China, studying the Chinese language so he can teach English as a 2nd language & share Christ with his students
* ½ to dig wells & buy medicine & food in the name of Christ for needy Muslins that the Susu church in Guinea, West Africa are trying to reach
* ½ to CAMA Services, the social relief arm of the C&MA who are involved in working with the needy all around the world

4. we have so much & others have so little. To remember the poor, to write out some big checks, to say “no” to our wants in order to say “yes” to other’s needs is part of what it means to be rich toward God.

2 Corinthians 9:6-11
1. 1st we reap what we sow. Tight-fisted giving = little blessings. Generous, sacrificial giving = huge blessings. Scripture clearly teaches that God’s blessing follows our giving. Giving leads to the goodness of God.

2. 2nd God loves cheerful giving. Giving out of want, gratitude, passion, desire, obedience.

3. 3rd God will meet all our needs in our generous giving.

4. like I’ve already said, we can’t out-give God.

The last word
1. I want you to give. I want all of you to give. I want you to give consistently. I want you to give generously. I want you to give cheerfully. I want you to give sacrificially.

2. some of you don’t give. I want you to start. I want you to get with it.

3. some of you sort-of-give. Token amounts. Not anything like a tithe (10%) of your income. I want you to increase you giving till you get up to a tithe.

4. some of you have lots of money. Some of you have some money. Some of you have very little money. Doesn’t matter how much or how little you have. I want you to give. I want you to follow the advice & model of Solomon, John the Baptist, Jesus, the early church & Paul.

5. I believe that your 1st responsibility for giving is right here, your own church. I want you to give to our church. Our vision, our ministry will be limited by your lack of giving & multiplied by your generous giving.

6. I have no trouble looking all of you in the eye & saying as your pastor – I want you to give! Why? Because…
* I want what’s spiritually best for your life
* I want God to bless you
* I want you to learn to trust in God rather than in your bank account
* I want you to experience how God takes care of us when we give
* I want you to experience the joy of giving to others
* I want you to experience the joy of seeing your dollars make a difference in someone’s life
* I want you to be a part of touching our community & our world for Christ
* I want you to know the joy of being rich toward God!

7. we have 7 weeks left in 2005. I want you to use those weeks to bring your giving up to the level that will please God.

Church: The Way It’s Supposed To Be

“The Good News”
Ephesians 4:17-24

1. last Sunday we looked at the bad news of 4:17-19. That people who live their lives without God are caught in a downward spiral of:
* hardened hearts
* darkened understanding
* spiritual death
* unbridled impurity --> pornography
This doesn’t describe every single person who lives a “minus-God” lifestyle BUT it’s generally true of cultures, societies & peoples who do.

2. today, I have good news for you.

Father, Son, Holy Spirit, open our ears so we can hear you speak to us this morning. Do something in our lives, in our church, in our community that we are not used to. Make us desperate for Jesus and the truth that is found only in him. Amen.

Change
1. bad news becomes good news through change. Donald Miller writes of change in his book, Through Painted Deserts: "I want to keep my soul fertile for the changes, so things keep getting born in me, so things keep dying when it is time for things to die. Only the good stories have the characters different at the end than they were at the beginning. And the closest thing I can liken life to is a book, the way it stretches out on paper, page after page."

2. the change that turns the bad news into the good news is tied up in one name – Jesus. Read 4:20-21.
Jesus the Good News
1. Paul defines Jesus by 3 verbs – know, heard & taught. Know is better translated learn.

1st. we learn about Jesus = Jesus is the content of the good news
2. Jesus is the substance of the good news that brings about change. Jesus is Christianity. Jesus is the core of our faith. It all starts & comes back to Jesus.

3. remove Jesus from our Christian faith & you have nothing. The Apostles Creed is centrally taken up with Jesus:

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:
Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into hell.
The third day He arose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty,
whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

4. Jesus is our one true vision!

2nd, we hear from him = Jesus is our teacher of the good news
5. literally, him we heard. Where do we hear Jesus? 1st in the written Word – the Bible. This is why it’s imperative that we become a people of the ‘the Book.’ Jesus shows up in these words. These words reveal Jesus to us.

6. where do we hear Jesus? 2nd as the Living Word who speaks not just through the Bible but through people, events & everything he has created.

7. Jesus speaks to us through people. This means that we hear the voice of Jesus in the voices of our human teachers. When I was a freshman in college, barely a 9-month old Christ-follower, I heard Jesus ask me to give my life to serve him through the words of Dr. L.L. King, who at that time was President of the Alliance. I’ve never turned my back on those words.

8. I’m blown away by this every week – people are going to hear the words of Jesus when I teach. And so I begin my sermon on Monday morning. I pray. I study. I stare at my Greek New Testament. I jot down observations. I look for connections. I consult commentaries. I may read a sermon online from the text I’m preaching. I try to allow the Scriptures to address me. And at the end of the week I walk up here with a sermon in hand & heart.

9. I speak through incomplete sentences & miss-pronounced words. And miracle of all miracles – you hear Jesus speaking to you. And I pray that you won’t turn your back on his words.

10. after speaking on pornography last week I received an email from someone who’s struggled with this issue. About 2 years ago I told this person it was time to get some help. He wrote, I have been involved for over a year in the ministry For Men Only / Pure Life Alliance. Tim, as you recall, this comes after your Christ-like counsel to me to get serious about this issue. Thank you, this was the guidance I needed to get serious and get help. I opened my mouth & Jesus spoke to this person.

11. Jesus speaks through events. Last Sunday morning Kyle Lake, pastor of the University Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, was electrocuted in front of 800 people in his church during a baptismal service. He reached for a microphone while in the water, something went wrong, and he was killed. 33 yrs old, he leaves behind a wife & 3 young kids.

12. one of his friends trying to make sense of this senseless tragedy wrote on the internet – Kyle died young. Where is God in that? I think He is in those of us who are so deeply shaken by his loss that we have found a new determination to make our lives as meaningful as possible. Death is always what wakes us up to life. Jesus is saying to 800 people in Waco, Texas right now – live, live, live. Live your life for me as if this is your last day on planet earth!

13. Jesus speaks through everything he has created. One of my spiritual pathways – the avenues through which I experience God – is creation. I took Wednesday away from the office & went to the Trappist monastery in Lafayette. I read. I prayed. I journaled. I did some planning. I took a walk. I prayed with the monks at noon. And I kept looking out of the window of the room I was staying in at a magnificent sight – a large, old gnarly oak tree, losing it’s yellow & red leaves, the topside of its branches covered with different shades of green moss.

14. The tree spoke to me not just of beauty & creativity. It spoke to me of perseverance. I thought of all the autumns & winters it had weathered. The tree spoke to me of refuge, safe places. The birds & squirrels it had sheltered. The monks it had shaded. The tree spoke to me of its life-giving nature. Season after season its leaves having fallen to the ground, decompose into the ground to feed its roots for another round of 4 seasons.

15. Jesus was speaking to me about my life & the kind of person I want to be – someone who appreciates & encourages beauty & creativity; someone who perseveres in the hard seasons of life; someone who is a safe place for people to come find rest & encouragement; someone who is a conduit of Jesus’ very life to others.

16. Jesus speaks to us all the time. Through his written Word & as the Living Word through people, events & all that he has made. If we don’t hear the voice of Jesus it’s not his fault. This universe reverberates with his Living Voice!

17. Jesus is the content of the good news as well as the teacher of the good news.

3rd, we are taught the truth in Jesus = he’s the context of the good news
18. Christ himself is the truth of the good news. He doesn’t just speak truth – he is the truth. The truth is a living person. For the follower of Christ, truth is personal.

19. I can speak the truth But I am not the truth. You can speak the truth But you are not the truth. Jesus speaks the truth & he is the truth. Every ounce of truth in the universe emanates from the person of Jesus. I am the way, the truth, and the life Jesus says in John 14:6.

20. truth is always found in the context, the environment, atmosphere of Jesus himself.

Communion
1. communion is a picture of how the bad news is changed by the good news. Jesus is the change-maker. He sees us with hardened hearts, with darkened understanding, with spiritual death & with all our impurities.

2. and he loves us still. He dies for us. He takes all of our bad news upon himself. And by the cross, his death & his resurrection he changes that bad news into good news.

3. he comes to us & says, if you acknowledge me, confess me, follow me, invite me to be yours, Than yours is unconditional forgiveness, mercy, grace, love & eternal life here & now, there & then.

4. he is the content of this meal. He is the teacher of this meal. He is the environment in which we enjoy this meal.

5. let’s eat, let’s drink, let’s enjoy sweet, sweet communion with our Maker & Redeemer.

Good News, Bad News

1. we are searching Ephesians 4 to discover the way church is supposed to be:
§ 9/18 & 25 we explored the strategic importance of unity
§ 10/2 I spoke about service
§ 10/9 I spoke about the spiritual growth that results from our service about growth – ministry leads to maturity
§ today – I’m speaking about the bad news that must precede the good news

Sing “Open Our Eyes, Lord” led by WTeam

2. read Ephesians 4:17-24

3. 4:17-19 is the bad news – 4:20-24 is the good news

4. we’ve all heard good news/bad news jokes…
§ doctor – I have some good news & some bad news
§ patient – what’s the good news
§ doctor – the good news is the tests you took showed
that you have 24 hrs to live
§ patient – that the good news? Well what’s the bad
news?
§ doctor – the bad news is I forgot to call you
yesterday!

§ gallery owner – I have some good news & some bad neww
§ artist – what’s the good news
§ gallery owner – the good news is a man came in yesterday asking if the price of your paintings would go up after you die, when I told him they would he bought every one of your paintings
§ artist – that’s great, what’s the bad news?
§ gallery owner – the bad news is that the man was your doctor

§ lawyer – I have some good news & some bad news
§ client – well give me the bad news first
§ lawyer – the bad is the DNA tests showed that it was you blood they found all over the crime scene
§ client – oh no, I’m ruined, what the good news?
§ lawyer – the good news is your cholesterol is down to 130

5. imagine a good news/bad news conversation between God & humanity –
§ God – I have some good news & some bad news
§ Humanity – well give me the bad news first
§ God – your thinking is futile, your understanding is darkened, your separated from my life, your ignorant, your heart has hardened, you’ve lost your sensitivity, you’ve given yourself over to sensuality, impurity & lust
§ Humanity – sounds terminal, what’s the good news?
§ God – Christ, Jesus Christ, is the good news, he’s made a way for you to leave all that behind, be renewed in your minds, put on a new self, and become like God-like in true righteousness & holiness

6. today, the bad news of vs. 17-19; next week the good news of vs. 20-24

the bad news (17-19, 22)
1. these read like pretty harsh words. Paul lays it on pretty heavy. These are not the seminal ideas for the latest Christian bestseller. The Prayer of Jabez & The Purpose-Driven Life they’re not.
2. But what Paul writes here he writes in the Lord. These words come from Christ & saddles up to the way he sees the world. The Message - and so I insist--and God backs me up on this. What follows is God’s assessment of the human condition.

3. Paul tells the church in Ephesus that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do. What he means is – quit living your life without God. And then he describes a life without God, the bad news.

4. read vs. 17-19. Not all people without God live exactly like this. But the description is generally true of cultures & societies & peoples who live God-less lives.

5. I want you to notice the downward spiral that Paul depicts – from hardness to darkness to deadness to impurity.

Hardness (18):
1. hardening of their hearts. The word for hardness is poros & means a stone harder than marble. Or, a heart of stone. In the Bible heart means your mind, will & emotions. The “core” you. Hardened, petrified.

2. these people are unwilling to respond to God’s truth. They’ve said “no” to God too many times. They’ve taken life into their own hands. They live as if God doesn’t exist.

Darkness (18):
1. darkened in their understanding. Darkness follows hardness. There is an absence of spiritual sensitivity. There is an inability to discern true spiritual reality. The truth that is in Jesus (21) is lost upon these people.

2. their understanding, their mind, their intellect, their spiritual radar picks up nothing of God, of Christ, of his Light.

Deadness (18):
1. separated from the life of God. Death follows darkness & hardness. These people are spiritually dead. Cut off from, unable to dial into the life & vitality of God.

2. what a terrible thing to be separated by the life of God. This is our word zoe life – God’s life, eternal life, true spiritual life. Wholeness, joy, peace.

3. this kind of separation from the life of God makes anything possible – spousal abuse, sexual abuse or suicide bombings or lying, cheating, deceiving or the killing fields of Cambodia & the Holocaust of WWII or the racism which surfaced at Canby High School this past week.

Impurity (19):
1. last comes impurity. John Stott prefers the word ‘recklessness’ in his commentary. Having lost all sensitivity means having lost the ability to feel. Hardness, darkness & deadness lead to a callousness & numbness of soul. These people simply no longer care.

2. 3 of the words in 4:19 have to do with our sexuality:
§ sensuality – uncontrolled sexuality
§ impurity – the opposite of sexual purity
§ lust – the desire to have more & more sex anyway it can be had, wherever it can be found

3. I want to elaborate upon sensuality, impurity & lust by talking about pornography. Pornography is running rampant & out of control in our society. Bear with me.

Pornography
1. 3 weeks ago a number of churches in our country participated in a National Porn Sunday – organized by the creators of the web site www.xxxchurch.com. The point of National Porn Sunday - confront the elephant in the pews. In other words, followers of Christ are not immune to become addicted to pornography.

2. some financial statistics:
§ pornography is a $57 billion industry world-wide with $12 billion of that coming from the US
§ US porn revenue is larger than all combined revenues of all professional football, baseball & basketball franchises
§ US porn revenue exceeds the combined revenues of ABC, CBS & NBC ($6.2billion)
§ Child porn generates $3 billion annually in this country & that number is rapidly growing

3. some internet porn statistics:
§ 4.2 million pornographic websites, 12% of total
§ 68 million daily search engine requests for porn – 25% of all requests
§ 1.5 billion monthly porn downloads between friends – 35% of all downloads
§ 89% of all youth who receive sexual solicitations come in chat rooms

4. user statistics:
§ 40 million Americans regularly view internet pornography – that’s 1 out of every 7 people in our country
§ 20% of men & 13% of women admit to accessing porn at work
§ the breakdown between male & female visitors to porn sites comes out at 72% men & 28% women
§ Focus on the Family research points out that 20% of all pastors have a pornography issue
5. in this country we are experiencing a growing number of teens & adults, male & female who are becoming addicted to pornography.

6. psychologists have identified a 5-step pattern to pornographic addiction:
§ exposure
§ addiction – keep coming back for more & more in order to get new sexual highs – experiences of emotional or sexual arousal get locked in the brain by the chemical epinephrine & become impossible to erase
§ escalation – the search for more exotic material
§ desensitization – shocking & disgusting behavior is no longer avoided but sought out
§ acting out fantasies – people do what they have viewed

Biblical perspective
1. we learn in the book of Genesis that God created both men & women in his image as sexual beings. But once sin entered into the world, sex was misused & abused.

2. pornography attacks the dignity of men, women & children created in God’s image. Pornography also distorts God’s good gift of sex, which God intends to be only shared within the bonds of marriage.

3. the following practices are spoken against in Scripture. Often these are linked to pornography – adultery, bestiality, homosexuality, incest & prostitution.

4. scripture teaches us to celebrate our sexuality in marriage. Premarital & extramarital sex lie outside of God’s will.

5. as Christ-followers ours is to work to keep ourselves pure. We are to flee sexual immorality. I believe our responsibility goes beyond our own personal morality. We must reach out to those entrapped, in this case, in pornography.

6. what can we do?
§ parents need to teach a biblical view of sex to their children
§ we need to evaluate our exposure to media with inappropriate sexual themes (magazines, TV, videos, DVDs, websites, music, etc)
§ the church should quit blushing about sex, teach what the Bible teaches about sex & make its fellowships a safe place to share struggles & ask for help
§ maybe some of us need to take up the fight against pornography in our society
§ encourage our federal & state representatives to pass legislation against the distribution of pornography

7. if you have a struggle with pornography here’s some steps you can take:
§ be honest with yourself – admit your problem
§ confide in a trusted friend who can hold you accountable
§ I would be willing to meet with you – Jeff would
§ Check out www.xxxchurch.com for helpful resources
§ The elders would be happy to pray with you – or we could arrange for a team of women to pray

8. don’t be shamed, don’t stay in hiding, don’t stay in denial. God loves you just the way you are. God is waiting to help you. God is waiting to give you good news!

Guest Speakers

Canby Alliance Church has guest speakers today, Duane & Lois Thiessen.

We will discuss their message during the class today.

For more information about them you can learn more of them here, and here.

“HEAVEN”

Revelation 21-22

1. today I want to talk about heaven. The events of the last several months have caused me to think about heaven, a lot…
* the fire in June & how Brenda, Norm, Mel, Will & myself could have been killed if we had made different decisions – all of us were seconds from being in the youth center when that huge fire ball rolled through
* in July my younger brother was shot by his wife in a domestic dispute – he’s going to be okay but if the bullet had entered his body an inch or two in a different direction, he might have been killed
* in August Heather’s brother Gary died less than 2 years after being diagnosed with colon cancer
* on 9/15 I led a memorial service for Maureen Guthner’s sister, Mavis
* on 9/20 Duane Oleson dropped dead of a heart attack in Pasco, WA (son of former CAC pastor)
* on 9/22 Renae Roskott died in her sleep
* on 9/24 I led a memorial service for Nancy Pickett’s 99 year old mother-in-law, Francis
* on 10/5 Tom Sawyer died of a stroke while hunting
* earlier this week in a conversation with my parents I heard that my cousin’s son was wounded in the war in Iraq – the vehicle he was traveling in hit a land mind – the person sitting next to him was killed – he may lose a leg due to shrapnel wounds

2. add to these Katrina, Rita & the earthquake in Pakistan.

3. there have been days where I’ve thought long & hard about heaven & wished it would come soon.
4. on the other side of the spectrum, I’ve enjoyed, we’ve enjoyed, evenings of laughter while eating dinner & having 3-4 conversations going on at once amongst the 4 of us. Life is also good.

5. I have 7 realities about heaven that I want to share with you this morning from Revelation 21-22. I’m indebted to Darrell Johnson of Regent College & his commentary on Revelation for much of what I’m going to share. What will we find in heaven?

Heaven
1st God is there (21:3)
1. in him we live, move & have our being, in heaven as never before. In heaven we are finally encompassed by & enfolded in God himself.

2. we will at long last live, fully alive, within the circle of the inner Trinitarian relations of God. We, mere creatures that we are, along with all of creation, will be drawn into the circle of Holy love that has forever existed as Father, Son & Holy Spirit.

3. God is there in heaven.

2nd glory is there (21:11,23)
1. the ultimate reason for the universe is to show the glory of God (rick warren). What is the glory of God? It is who God is.

2. the essence of his nature. The weight of his importance. The radiance of his splendor. The demonstration of his power. The atmosphere of his presence. God’s glory is the expression of God.

3. Any glory that this earth has seen is but a speckle, a shadow of the heavenly glory.

4. in heaven God’s glory shines – its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. This is poetic language attempting to describe the indescribable – God’s unfiltered presence manifested everywhere.

5. theologians call this phenomenon ‘effusion.’ The unrestrained expression & free flow of all that makes God to be God.

6. glory is found in heaven.

3rd materiality is there
1. heaven is full of tangible stuff. Stones & gems of all colors. Walls, gates, streets. Trees yielding fruit. A city. A river full of the water of life.

2. our Christian faith is the most materialistic of all faiths or world religions.

3. originally God made us for earth & placed us on earth. In Jesus God will fulfill that original intent in a new heaven & a new earth (21:1). Heaven, our eternal home, is actually the new earth.

4. our Christian hope is not to be freed of our creatureliness but to be freed of the sin that causes our creatureliness to decay. Heaven is God’s new earth, new city, his original dream, brought to completion & perfection.

5. stuff matters to God. Materiality is in heaven.

4th peoples are there (21:3, 24)
1. men, people, nations, kings. In heaven God will gather up within himself the full range of the world’s ethnic diversity.

2. no one ethnic grouping can bear or manifest the full image of God. It takes us all – Anglos, Hispanics, Peruvians, Costa Ricans, Dominican Republicans. These are the people Tom & Roberta worked with as missionaries. People that they helped bring to Christ from these various ethnic groups will be part of the make-up of heaven.

3. the new heaven, the new earth, the new city will be composed of a vast multi-ethnic people.

4. peoples are in heaven.

5th creativity is there (21:5)
1. if God is anything God is an artist. God is creativity. God is beauty, shape, form & texture. The beauty & wonder of his creation in earth, sky & sea are signs of that.

2. heaven is going to be noted for its new expression of Divine creativity – I am making everything new, says the inventive God.

3. creativity – vibrant & unceasing. I do not understand all of what that means. As wonderful & stunning & spell-binding & awe-inspiring as this creation is, it doesn’t hold a candle to the new things that God has in store for us.

4. creativity is in heaven.

6th life is there (22:1)
1. this explains all of the creativity. The water of life. The Greek language has 2 words for life. Bios meaning the life we inherit from our biological parents.

2. but heaven will be full of zoe life. The life that does not run down because it cannot run down. It is God’s life. It is eternal life. It is Divine life.

3. it is the life that Jesus brings to us & gives us. Jesus did not leave heaven & come to earth to give us our biological life. He came to grace us with spiritual-zoe life.

4. Zoe life becomes ours when we humble ourselves before God. When we admit that he is God & we’re not. When we admit that we’re helpless to do anything about our “sin” problem. When we recognize that God has solved our sin problem in Jesus. When we by faith accept the fact that Jesus died on the cross as the perfect sacrifice for us. When we confess our sins. When we invite Jesus into our lives to be our forgiveness. When we turn the reigns of our lives over to Jesus & ask him to lead the way. Zoe life, spiritual life, eternal life becomes ours. And heaven becomes our true & lasting home.

5. zoe life is in heaven.

7th God’s face is there (22:4)
1. I save the best for last. Here’s the most wonderful reality of heaven. It’s a face. The face of God is there.

2. we will finally be able to see the face of God & not die. Then we shall see him – Father Son Spirit – face to face as I Corinthians 13 says.

3. and they shall see his face. Isn’t this the deepest longing of our hearts? As children we possess a deep-seated longing to be intimately connected with our parents, those who give us bios life.

4. I believe this is even truer with our heavenly Father. Beneath any longing we have to know & be known by our earthly parents, we hold a desire to be connected with our Creator.

5. we have a God-shaped vacuum in our souls. Only God can fill that. To look into God’s eyes & have him look into ours is to fill that vacuum so that we are completely satisfied, so that finally feel completely at home, completely human, completely made in the image & likeness of God.

6. God’s face is in heaven.

On earth as it is in heaven
1. this phrase from the Lord’s prayer is taking on a greater & greater significance for me as I grow older. These 7 realities of heaven are also meant to be earthly realities. Right now. Today.

2. We as Christ-followers exist, in part, to do our part in showing them in the here & now. We pray that God’s kingdom may come & his will be done, NOW, on earth as it is in heaven.

God
1. God is in heaven & God is on earth. We are his people. We are his Body. God shows up “in” us. The world discovers Jesus “in” us.

2. are you allowing God to be your very life? Your everything?

Glory
1. I wish I had a better grip on this one. The glory of God. A friend emailed me a prayer 2 weeks ago – Lord, would you increase my appetite for the things that attract your presence. God’s glory is God’s presence.

2. do we have a hunger, a longing to both experience God’s glory & be conveyers of his glory?

Materiality
1. matter matters to God. Do we value our bodies? Do we take proper care of them – diet, exercise, rest? Do we value God’s creation? He has made of keepers of his vast, wonderful world.

2. When it comes to ecology & the environment, we as Christ-followers should be leading the pack. As we sometimes sing, this is my Father’s world (Tom Sawyer loved this hymn). What are we doing with our Father’s world?

Peoples
1. heaven is truly going to be multiplicity of races & ethnic groups. The Alliance church is Paris, the international church, is composed of people from 32 different countries. That’s a picture of heaven on earth.

2. if that’s the shape of heaven, we’d do well to begin to live like that now. To shed our American ethnocentrism – national self-centeredness & pride – and begin to affirm & embrace other nations. In doing so we will begin to bring heaven to earth now.

Creativity
1. we Protestant evangelicals are slow to get this one. Historically we have not valued creativity. We have debunked the arts. And in being so we have denied an essential part of God’s nature.
2. I would pray for an outburst of Spirit-driven creativity in our midst. Song – dance – painting – sculpture – drama – writing – drawing – lettering. We are impoverished without it. We miss out on part of God’s very nature.

Life
1. are we experiencing God’s life? Spiritual life? Divine life? Zoe life? Eternal life?

2. the unique role we play in this world is to act as conveyers of God’s eternal life. Government can’t dispense it. Schools don’t have it. Business doesn’t trade in it. But we as the church do.

3. Jesus came to seek & to save the lost – those with biological life but not spiritual life. This is what we must be about.

God’s face
1. God’s face is reserved for heaven. But here’s the counter-part. We can be reflections of Jesus. As we surrender our lives to Jesus & give ourselves to him & his mission, he is seen in us.

2. we may be the only Jesus some people ever see. The closest they might ever get to God’s face is to peer into our face.

3. we must be like Moses. We must spend enough time in God’s presence that his radiance, his love, his life, his presence shines through ours.

4. On Earth As It Is In Heaven – let’s help to bring heaven to earth by being Christ-followers in whose lives can be found – God, his glory, his value of materiality, his love for all peoples, his penchant for creativity, his life, and his inviting face.

Church: The Way It’s Supposed To Be, Part Four

“Growth”

Ephesians 4:7-16

Ministry morphs into maturity

Father Son Holy Spirit – as we discover the way church is supposed to be, I pray that you would do things in our lives that we are not used to. Give us an appetite for the things that increase your presence. Take our lives & use them wherever & however you see fit for your Kingdom work. Amen.

I came across these 6 safety tips this week – listen closely:
§ 20% of all fatal accidents happen in cars (walking to church)
§ 17% of all accidents happen at home
§ 15% of all accidents happen to people walking on the street
§ 14% of all accidents happen on air/rail/water transportation
§ beware – more people die in bed than in any other place!
§ church – only .001% of all accidents happen at church = this is a safe place to be!

We are searching Ephesians 4 in hopes of discovering something about the church – the way its supposed to be.

On 9/18 we explored the strategic importance of unity – the 7 “ones” (body, Spirit, hope, Lord, faith, baptism, God) which form the foundation for the 5 “ways” we are to treat each other – with humility, gentleness, patience, tolerant love & peacekeeping.

On 9/25 we expanded our understanding of unity. 1 – God himself is a unity of 3 persons. 2 – the church’s unity will help convince the watching world that Jesus & his love are real. 3 – unity is our final destiny as the people of God

Last week I spoke about service.
1 – what Christ gives to the church (apostles prophets evangelists pastors-teachers).
2 – what the church gives to Christ (works of service). Nobody can do everything but everybody can do something.
3 – what Christ does with what we give to him. My 3rd point from last week that I didn’t have time for.

Today I want to speak about growth. What Christ does with what we give him – our works of service. Let me set the stage.

5-fold offices

1. quick review:
* apostles – start things
* prophets – stir things up
* evangelists – share Christ
* pastor/teachers – shepherd people toward Christ

These 5 are charged with preparing/equipping God’s people for service. These leaders are the equippers for ministry. Those in the church are the doers of ministry.

A few prepare – many do. This is the way the church is supposed to be. What happens when a few prepare & many do? Paul lays out 6 outcomes.

6 outcomes

1 – We will experience spiritual growth (12)

When apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor-teachers empower people for works of service. When empowered people serve. Something happens that is supernatural – spiritual growth.

The best way to define spiritual growth is to look at the next 5 outcomes. They are the stuff of spiritual growth.

2 – We will achieve unity in doctrine (13)

Unity in the faith = theology, doctrine, the body of truth embraced by God’s people. The 7-fold creed of 4:4-6 = 1 body Spirit hope Lord faith baptism & God the Father.

Here’s my observation – statements of faith in the Scriptures are far shorter & simpler than those the church has created over the years. The longer & more detailed our statement of faith, the harder it becomes to find theological & church unity & the more Christ-followers who are fenced out.

Example – The Christian & Missionary Alliance. Our doctrinal statement declares that we believe in the pre-millennial return of Christ. That Jesus Christ will return to earth before the 1000 year millennium

This means that the following people could not join The Christian & Missionary Alliance – St Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Francis Schaeffer, John Stott, J.I. Packer, R.C. Sproul, Charles Colson & many others. They hold to a different view.

This is why I like The Apostles Creed – it simply says, he shall come again to judge the living & the dead. That does it for me.

It's sad when our theology divides us when most of what divides us are secondary matters – not issues of Christ or salvation.

Leaders equip & Christ-follower serve UNTIL unity of the faith is achieved.

3 – we will experience a fuller experience of Christ (13)

1. Paul’s word for knowledge in this statement goes far beyond intellectual accent. He means growth in our personal relationship with Christ, our experience of Christ.

2. Paul is not high-lighting how much we know about Christ – he is pointing to experience of Christ in our daily living.

3. a number of years ago I became curious about the Kennedy family. I read a number of books about the Kennedy’s. I found out all kinds of juicy, fascinating & tragic stuff. Joseph Patrick Kennedy married Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald.
§ 1st son Joe Jr. died on a secret mission in WWII
§ 1st daughter Rosemary was born mentally impaired. After a failed lobotomy she was sent to a convent in the Midwest to live the rest of her life
§ 2nd daughter Kathleen died in a plane crash over France during WWII
§ President John F Kennedy was assassinated in 1963
§ Robert Kennedy was assassinated in 1968
And on it goes. After a while I knew a lot about the Kennedy family.

4. But I didn’t know the family. I had knowledge about them but none of them.

5. our knowledge about Christ, gained from studying the Bible, is meant to become knowledge of Christ. As we invite him into our lives. As we seek to love, obey, worship, serve & follow him.

4 – We will grow to become more like Christ (13,15,16)

1. now Paul unpacks this a step farther. It’s all about becoming like Christ. The gospel. Discipleship. Is about transformation of our character, about Christ being formed in us.

2. the whole point of the gospel is to be transformed into the image of Christ:
§ Romans 8:29 – to be conformed to the likeness of his Son
§ Galatians 4:19 – until Christ is formed in you

3. this means that we come to:
§ believe what he believed (mind)
§ live the way he lived (character)
§ love the way he loved (relationships)
§ serve the way he served (service)
§ lead the way he led (influence)

4. 4:7-16 is all about Christ:
§ Him who gives ‘serving’ grace to each of us (7)
§ Him who gives these 5 gifted people to the church (11)
§ Him whose body is built up (12)
§ Him that we know & experience (13)
§ Him whose fullness becomes our own (13)
§ Him we grow up into (15)
§ Him who is the Head of the Body (15)
§ Him who is the source of the church’s unity & growth (16)

5 – we will be saved from doctrinal instability (14)

1. take note of the contrasts between 4:13 & 4:14:
§ maturity (13) vs. infancy (14)
§ Christ (13) vs. men (14)
§ the faith (13) vs. every wind of teaching (14)
2. works of service includes a teaching ministry of some kind that nails down the theological essentials & gives people a firm foundation on which to base their faith.

6 – we will live in truth & love (15)

1. instead of being deceived by false teachers Christ followers are to speak the truth in love to one another.

2. truth without love is harsh & bruising. But love without truth is wishy-washy.

3. Paul is not pitting love & truth against each other. The 7-fold creed of 4:4-6, ‘the faith’ of 4:13 under which we are to unite, the ‘truth’ of 4:15 establishes a clear sense of boundaries, of what we believe. There is content to our belief.

4. but that content must always be communicated in love. Truth is not to be used as a hammer to pound the gospel into people’s heads.

5. speaking the truth in love. I want to focus on the preposition in. To be in Christ is to be in a relationship with Christ. In is a relationship word.

6. Tod Bolsinger of the San Clemente Presbyterian Church puts it like this in his blog, speaking the truth that is anchored in Christ, in relationships that reflect the love of Christ.

7. love is the pre-eminent relationship word in the Bible. The closer we are to each other, the more natural it will be to speak the truth to each other. If we have a relationship built on the love of Christ, we must speak the truth. If we can’t speak the truth, we’d better build the relationship.

8. truth & love are the twin towers of spiritual growth, of Christ-likeness = we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.

Ministry Morphs into Maturity

1. 4:11-12 is all about ministry & service, action & movement, expressing your love for Christ in works & deeds.

2. 4:13-16 is all about maturity. The results of ministry. Service turns into growth. The church as a whole develops. Individuals ripen.

3. the bottomline? I need your ministry for my maturity. And you need my ministry for your maturity. Together we are the Body of Christ. United in him for service & transformation.

4. Christ is Who holds this all together:
§ Him who gives ‘serving’ grace to each of us (7)
§ Him who gives these 5 gifted people to the church (11)
§ Him whose body is built up (12)
§ Him that we know & experience (13)
§ Him whose fullness becomes our own (13)
§ Him we grow up into (15)
§ Him who is the Head of the Body (15)
§ Him who is the source of the church’s unity & growth (16)

5. our focus must not be – the apostles prophets evangelists pastors-teachers, or, equipping & empowering, or, works of service, or, the 6 outcomes that our service creates. All are important. All are to be valued & desired.

6. but our greatest value & our greatest desire must be Christ Himself. Our ministry, our service, our growth, our maturity grow best out of our intimacy with Jesus.

7. is Jesus the center of our lives? Mike Steele (email that Mike Higgs sent to the elders this week), it strikes me that focusing on the heart relationship with Jesus (learning to hear his voice & do what he says) is truly organic and reproducible. How could a person who is intimate with Jesus not have his heart for the world?

8. my challenge to you? Get close to Jesus. Learn to hear his voice. Commit to obey his voice. Pick up his heart for our community!