Sermons

Monday, June 2, 2008

Story and a Makeover

A well told story can capture the imagination, and inspire a people. There is evidence of this from long ago and now. It doesn’t take much to capture the imagination of the American people. The new Indiana Jones movie released in theatres last month, is breaking records and will stand to be among the top grossing films for a long time. It is a fairly simple story; a professor/archaeologist seeks to save his friends and family from the evil antagonists’ plot to gain infinite knowledge and use it against capitalist America for the sake of communism. I watched it, marveled at it, and left the theater feeling like a kid again.

The new Indiana Jones movie won’t be the last blockbuster movie to enter theatres this summer. More movies will tell gripping stories of love lost, struggles overcome, battles fought, and all will inspire, captivate and motivate us in ways that little else can.

We love stories. We fell in love with stories at an early stage in life. We would sit on our parent’s laps and hear stories of green eggs, and Horton’s hearing things. We simply love a good story.

People are as captivated by a story today as they were thousands of years ago. The Old Testament is predominately a story. It is in these stories we hear about people who were faithful to God and how he changed their lives because of it. Within the Old Testament, we see the unfolding of God’s redemptive plan throughout history. We see a God who is active, and participating with his creation.

These stories in the first testament often go forgotten, and neglected. I thought that since many of us would be spending time this summer enjoying inspiring stories on the big screen we also ought to enjoy life-altering stories in our fellowship. The communion crackers won’t have anything on the popcorn, but the stories have the potential of changing our lives.

I will be spending the summer preaching throughout the Old Testament sharing inspirational, faith-filled stories about people who loved God.

Many of the stories will be familiar, some less, but all will be beneficial. God working through faithful people is a wonderful thing, and I pray that we might aspire to be the same kind of faithful people that God uses today. The world needs people who love God. In times of economic woes and widespread warfare, a people who trust in God with all their heart, soul and strength is crucial.

So the question is: will the Etna Green Church of Christ be that people? Will a church rise above its culture, out from the depths of uncertainty and skepticism and declare that its God reigns? Will people be faithful and trust in God like never before seen? It is very simple, we need to know where we came from to understand how strong we can be. Please join us throughout the summer in this faith training series about loving God more, and trusting him with all that we are. We have shining examples of people throughout scripture, let’s hear their story.

For me Mum

A Mother’s Day Promise

It was the second semester of second grade when I made the single most important promise I would ever give to my mother. It would change my relationship with her forever. I would continually walk through the house with my shoes on and that didn’t bode well for me because mother was a stickler for clean carpet. With three boys and a dog, clean carpet was a difficult task. After continual lectures to take my shoes off upon entering the house, and seeing how upset my mother would get after neglecting her wish, I decided I would try my best to make certain I took my shoes off upon entering the house. The opportunity to seal my commitment came when my class was asked to write a promise in the local newspaper to our mothers out of recognition of Mother’s day. I thought it appropriate to reveal my newfound commitment through the newspaper. With thousands reading my promise, I spent the rest of my days trying to fulfill it.

I did fairly well with it too. To this day, the first thing I do upon entering my home is take off my shoes. I made the promise to obey my mom’s wishes because she struck fear into the depths of my soul. I wasn’t going to walk through the house anymore because, at that age, my mom was my world. She cooked, cleaned and loved me like any wonderful mother would and walking through her house with dirty shoes would risk losing everything, possibly my life.

I have been thinking a lot about the New Life and the commitment we should have to God because of it. The current sermon series deals with the New Life in Christ and because of it, my eyes and heart are open to a whole realm of scripture that challenges and causes great conviction. In the early portions of Deuteronomy, the Israelites are going to enter into the land God promised them. This is after the wanderings in the desert and Moses recaps their story to remind them how they got to where they are and what they need to do. The message is quite simply, “have no other gods, and love the one true Lord God Almighty.” Obedience and trust in God was at the heart of the message for the Israelites. Moses stressed obedience and trust because it was disobedience and failure to trust in God that caused so many problems before and after the Israelites entrance into the Promised Land. It doesn’t make sense to us why they could be disobedient after all the miraculous things God revealed to his people, but it was a continual problem for them.

You might be wondering what this has to do with me not taking off my shoes. I bring that story to light, because it’s an example of love causing obedience. I obeyed because of fear and love. I don’t know if I truly thought I was going to be kicked out of the house for not taking my shoes off, but I certainly wasn’t going to try her on the threat. And that, fear and love, is quite simply the type of attitude we need to have towards God. We struggle with obedience and trust in the New Life in Christ because we have lost the sense of fear and awe in God. We are told so much about a gushy lovey-dovey god who serves our every need and somehow we come to think the New Life is all about getting what we want, when we want it. This, in spite of the truth, has wreaked havoc on our faith and fellow Christian’s faith around the world. Obedience and true trust seem to be at an all time low. We trust God to do what will best suit us, but fail to trust in him to help us with drastically making known the kingdom of God. By that, I mean we offer up prayer for sicknesses of friends and family, which is fine, but we neglect prayer for the diligence, strength, and faith to turn the other cheek, walk the extra mile, and give the shirt off our back.

God wanted the Israelites to be faithful, obedient and trusting because He had plans of using them as a witness to the world. This witness was through a nation that was different, set apart and holy, unlike any nations of the world. People would come to know God through the reverent obedience of this faithful people. This position is now held within the Church, only as more than a holy nation, we are a holy people who are salt and light to the world and witnesses of the kingdom of God. This is no easy task. If as God’s holy people we fail to fear and love God with all that we are, I worry obedience and trust in God will never rebound. In a world where there are so many different ways to supposed happiness, we know there is only one way to a life with real meaning, and true joy. But the world tries convincing us otherwise, with false gods and prophets, telling us to trust and worship in things of this world and time (Fortune & Fame). Moses says in Deuteronomy 13:3-4 “The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.”

We hold fast to our God and his ways. The New Life in Christ isn’t about what our God can do for us, its what he has already done to invite us in to live life belonging to him. I ask one thing: make a promise to love God with all that you are and make appropriate steps to commit to that promise. We have a difficult task before us, but we must prove faithful, and be the true exemplars of fear, love, trust and obedience.

- Jordan

New LIFE

Your New Life Now

April is an interesting time of year, there is evidence things are changing yet there are still remnants of the past. We experience the pleasant, warm, and gleeful feeling of summertime one day and the next day, sometimes within the same day, have the cold, gloomy and rainy days reminiscent of previous months. We all hope for better weather in April, but gloomy days are still very much present.

Our spiritual lives are much the same. It seems like our new life in God is in a perpetual state of April; our lives are at the crossroads of new and old. As evidence of our past life, our old selves linger like piles of snow and discourage us with rainy dreary days, while at the same time we see hope of a new life evident in the sun-laden days with cloudless skies and greening grass. Our old selves linger with occasional glimpses of the new.

Is this true for you? Do you wonder when this new life will happen that the preachers always preach about? Maybe I am wrong. Maybe there isn’t anyone in limbo concerning their spiritual growth and relationship with God. Maybe all Christians are living the new life now… I have a sneaking suspicion that I am not wrong (it happens, but not now). Every day is marked with opportunities to turn from God, to live for self, to promote ourselves, and live the old life, while at the same time, within the same day, in every situation we can live for God, praise God and promote his Kingdom. Every day is a day we can live to gratify the desires of our heart or God’s. So what do we do? What’s wrong with us that our old selves loiter? When does our new life begin?

In a world that tells you that you can have your best life now, we know better. We know that as long as this world exists as it is, with its hate, its debauchery, anger, lust, selfishness, envy and sin, it doesn’t mind rearing it ugly face in our life. As the people of God, we are to rise above the temptations of this world and live for God. But in this fast changing, and always misleading world, it always seems to find newer and better ways to bring down the people of God. There are continual reminders of a fallen world all around us, the question is, what will the Church do to reveal the new life now?

Spring prepares for the summer. We aren’t gearing up for winter at spring time. We clean up the house, prepare fields for sowing and get a fresh new wardrobe. We might all be in a perpetual state of April in our spiritual life, but what are we gearing up for? Are we preparing for the summer of Salvation? Are we cleaning our spiritual house? Are our fields prepared to hear and understand the word of God? Are we clothing ourselves with Righteousness? A new sermon series is beginning this month: “Your New life Now!” It is for those of us who long for the day of Jesus’ return, who need encouragement in the days to come; helping us realize we can live the new life now. The cornerstone verse is 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, 6:2:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God…I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.”

Christ died for all. This is our hope; this is the beginning of new life. Christ is our future hope, today!

New Year

Every New Year is accompanied with new resolutions. We resolve to do better in the many aspects of our life. We say we will try to lose weight, spend less money, save more money, work out, run a mile every day, read more, stop smoking, stop drinking, or something as simple as watch less television, yet our New Year resolutions most often fail.

The same seems to happen with our spiritual life. Every New Year is joined with a desire to pray and study the Bible more. We try reading through the Bible in a year, get to Exodus and the enjoyable task turns toilsome. Much like the physical resolutions, the spiritual are hard to make habitual. If you are anything like me, failure always seems lurking around the corner. We try hard to change things that need changing, but most often we fail to reach our mark.

So what is your resolution this year? Is it to stop smoking? Or get out of debt? Every New Year is connected with a sense of new beginning, and hope that the year to come will bring more blessing then hardship, less pain and more joy. But the truth is, we don’t know what the year will actually bring. If we all came together and talked about the past year, we could find things we did well, along with things we could do better. What are you going to do to make this year different then the last? We all could use some help in the coming year. The beauty of a community of believers is you can find such help. It is hard doing anything on your own. God understands our frailty in this regard and finding strength in the faithful is what being a part of a community is about.

As a community of believers, we are beginning a new series on Wednesday nights that will prove extremely beneficial for those who attend. Andy Stanley is a respected communicator, who will bring us to a new level of understanding of what God has given us, and how we use it. If you are stretched to the max, and your wallet feels the same way, Stanley stands to provide helpful insights into the world of finances, time management, and most importantly, Godly living. If you don’t have time for this, you need to come.

Resolve this year, to commit to 8 Wednesday nights in the new year, beginning on January 9th. Spend 8 weeks with us, it’s the best possible way you could start the new year.

May God Bless you this New Year, and May we continue to grow in our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ

December Newsletter

Christmas is just around the corner. We stuffed ourselves with the turkey, and are ready for the holiday ham. There are those staples of Christmas; food, family and gifts. They are certainly a mainstay in Christian homes throughout America.

When I think about Christmas, it is really hard not to think about gifts. I always like to think back to different Christmas’ and what all my brothers and I received. I remember one of my favorite gifts being a basketball hoop. The frozen ground kept us from using it for awhile, but we horsed around on that thing for a long time. We liked lowering the rim and taking turns dunking on it. We went through quite a few rims.

Another year, my brother and I received football pads and helmets. It was a great gift because we loved to play football, but the pads were more an outfit than equipment. In other words, it was something to be worn, not used. They looked good. The strong caution not to use it for hitting, which came from the manufacturer, went unread and unheeded, and we proceeded to tackle and hit each other in the yard for the next few months until the pads were, well, worn. I don’t remember us ever getting hurt because of it though. It could just be I suffered multiple concussions, causing memory lapse.

I remember those gifts more so than many of the other gifts, because I was excited about them. There is nothing to exciting about getting underwear and t-shirts for Christmas. A necessary evil of my family Christmas was to receive undergarments. (Santa had a real knack for picking out the right sizes; of course it’s hard to mess up socks!) While I didn’t enjoy receiving those clothing items as gifts, they were entirely necessary. I wore out all my other clothing, and it was perfect time for Santa to replenish my stocking full of “necessary” items.

As the holiday checklist is now upon the fridge, and the list of things to do grows and grows, let us take the next four weeks in our busy schedule to look back to the wonderful gifts that God has given us. My first message looks at the gift of life. We often look at the gift of life being when God created the world in Genesis. Well, we will bel looking at t life through the lense of John 10. The gift of life; our life under the shepherd’s care. We will follow with messages around the gifts of love, repentance and the Messiah. All of which we need reminders of, and replenishing of in this busy season, where the meaning of Christmas can be lost in consumerism and business. Let us, turn for the next month, and look at what God has given us, through his Son.

We can often look at these gifts, and forget why we need them, grow accustomed to having them or just plain not realize the necessity of these gifts. With a fresh new look at who our God is, and what he is asking of us, let us turn and look at the gifts of the Father, through the Son, in a different light.

Considering the time of year, I feel it appropriate to look at some of the “gifts” that God has given us through his Son. Our first look will be at “The Gift of Life: Life under the Shepherd’s care.” We will then look at the gifts of love, repentance, and the Messiah. These may not be the flashiest of gifts. They may not be the latest and greatest video game system for the kids. But for the people of this world, we were gifted with many blessings from God. I could spend the next year preaching on the many gifts we have received from God, but I have selected four, that tie into our life as Christians, and how we live for God. While some of these gifts may go unnoticed, maybe quite often, unused, they are entirely necessary. These are gifts we just can’t live without. Please, join us each Sunday, as we look at each of the different gifts that God has given us, through his Son.

New Blogger

I didn't think I would ever do something like become a blogger, but i guess i am going to give it a try. I will upload some of my newsletter articles as well as general thoughts and things going on in Etna Green