The Reason – week 2 – You are the reason for the season

What is the reason for the season?  That’s been what we’ve been talking about for the past few weeks, but we’re not the only ones talking about it.  I was watching TV on Thursday while Liz was decorating Nathan’s birthday cake and that show, Community, with Chevy Chase, came on.  I’ve never seen the show, but it’s Christmas time, and it had Chevy Chase, which made me think of Christmas vacation, so I left it on.  The whole show was really about this one question:  What is the reason for the season?  You had the weird Christian lady who passed out W.W.B.J.D. bracelets (what would baby Jesus do), then you had all these other religions represented by other characters, and the way this show answered the question of what is the reason for the season is by saying that it’s about friendship, in spite of our differences.

So far we’ve said that giving is the reason for the season.  And since that’s the case we should be intentional about giving this year.  That’s why we’re doing the gift of toys today, and the Holly Jolly Christmas Offering next week, and the gift of an invitation throughout this month.  Giving is a reason for the season.

Last week we talked about how sin is the reason for the season.  We looked at the story of how the angel came to Joseph and told him to take Mary to be his wife because the baby that she was carrying was going to be special and do something special.  And we read in Matthew 1:21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” What we discovered is that if it weren’t for sin then we wouldn’t have a Christmas to celebrate.  Sin is the reason for the season.  Well, today we’re going to piggyback on that whole idea that sin is the reason for the season.  I’m going to make that whole idea a bit more personal and quite possibly a lot more uncomfortable for you and for me.

The angel wasn’t the only one to talk about Jesus coming to save people from their sins.  There’s another guy that talked about this same thing, that sin is the reason for the season.  His name was John.  Remember Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.  And John, like Matthew, was also an eye-witness to Jesus’ life and ministry.  He saw things happen, and John actually took care of Mary, Jesus’ mother after Jesus died on the cross and ascended into heaven.  He adopted her as his mother and she adopted him as her son.  John also writes about the coming of Jesus but he writes about it in a completely different way.

John didn’t talk about Bethlehem and angels and shepherds and that whole deal.  What John does is he kind of steps back and gives us the 30,000 foot view of God becoming man. Look how he says it in John 1:4-5, this is awesome:  In him (talking about Jesus) was life, and that life was the light of men.  Now sometime’s John’s writing is sort of confusing but here’s what he’s saying.  He says, God looked at the world and from God’s perspective the world was dark.  The world did not have light and the world did not have life.  And even though there was light from the sun, moon and stars, and even though there were people running around with human life, from God’s perspective, there was so much sin in the world that the world was dark.  Meaning, God looked at the world and no one in the world had any reason to forgive anybody because they had never been forgiven.  And the people in this world had no reason to patch up relationships because they had not known what it had meant to have a patched up relationship with their creator.  And God decided, looking at that sin filled, dark and lifeless world, to send light and to send life into the world.

And listen to this next verse, it’s so powerful:  The light shines in the darkness (this is John’s description of that night in Bethlehem) but the darkness has not understood it.  Or in our language, the darkness just doesn’t get it.  And here’s the picture that he paints for us.  He paints a picture for us that some of you have experienced, that some of you are experiencing and in the future all of us will experience.  It’s that experience where you’re living your life and you realize that it’s not working.  You realize that no matter how hard you try you can’t grow up to be the person that you always wanted to be.  As hard as you’ve tried you can’t break that habit.  As hard as you’ve tried you can’t make yourself love your wife the way you thought you should love your wife.  You can’t be as honest as you wanted to be.  You look in the mirror and you think, “I’m not the person I wanted to be.  Life isn’t even working.  On the outside I have it together, but on the inside, I’m a mess.”  And you realized, “I can’t fix me.”  And all of us at one point or another discover that there’s darkness in us.  There’s a lack of light.  There’s a lack of life.  There’s got to be more.   There’s something, more that we can’t find the ability to fix ourselves.

It was that darkness that God saw on a grand scale in each of our hearts when he looked at the world.  Now let me ask you, if you were God, and you looked down and saw all that darkness, what would you do?  If I were God I’d be tempted to start over again.  Well, thank goodness God didn’t respond like most of us would have responded.  His response to the darkness was to send His son into this dark, lifeless world to bring light and to bring life to all those who would place their trust in Him.  That’s the reason there’s Christmas.  It is because there’s sin.  And the reason there’s Christmas is because there are sinners.  Like we talked about last week, sin is the reason for the season.

That’s powerful stuff if you think about it.  It’s not what we usually think about when we think about Christmas, but this is powerful stuff and I need to remember it.  But here’s my problem:  I forget things too easily.  I need a reminder because I’m like, “That’s so deep and that’s so great,” but three days from now, in the busyness and stress and dysfunction of the season I’m going to forget. But I need to remember.  So I came up with a reminder, an idea.  My idea was to do a bumper sticker.  Now I’m not a bumper sticker guy, but I’d make an exception for this.  And the idea was that we’d all put these bumper stickers all over our cars and drive around the community to make this point.  And the bumper sticker would say:  I’m the reason for the season.  I mean we’ve seen the “Jesus is the reason for the season,” but, oh no.  If it weren’t for me he wouldn’t have even come.  If it weren’t for me and for idiots like me there would be no Christmas.

And that way, when you’re driving down the road and you accidentally cut somebody off and people are honking, and telling you you’re number one, you could roll down your window and say “I’m sorry, I’m an idiot and I can’t help it, but I’m the reason you have Christmas.  Merry Christmas.  I’m the reason for the season.”  Wouldn’t that be great?  Or maybe this would be a good bumper sticker:  “You are the reason for the season.”  You’re the reason for the season, right?  Because all those people out there that drive you crazy, aren’t they the reason?  I mean, if is wasn’t for sin there would be no Christmas, and if it wasn’t for sinners there would be no Christmas, so heck, all those people that drive you crazy, as they drive by they’ll look at your car and think, “I’m the reason for the season.”  And you’ll say to yourself, that’s right, you’re the reason for the season.  You just proved it again with your lousy driving.

Or how about this one:  My neighbor is the reason for the season.  Or, my boss is the reason for the season.  Or, my professor is the reason for the season.  And not for me, but maybe for some of you:  My mother-in-law is the reason for the season, right?

This could go on and on and on.  There’s lots of different categories, but it’s true isn’t it?  If what Joseph was told is true, if God’s response to sin and sinners was to send his son into the world, there would be no Christmas if it weren’t for sin.  That means that every time I bump into a dysfunctional person I need some kind of a reminder about the reason for Christmas so I don’t forget.  Well, we couldn’t do bumper stickers, but I came up with an even better idea. Here’s the idea that we’re going to do.

All of you are going to get a strip of labels.  I need a volunteer.

-          This is how this works.  Kevin is my brother-in-law.  Kevin always wrecks Christmas.  I don’t know why he married my sister, but we all have to get along.  I’ve got this sort of negative attitude, so I need a reminder, “How am I going to remember that sin is the reason for the season and that if it weren’t for sin we wouldn’t have Christmas?”

-          So you get these labels and the labels say:  You’re the reason for the season.

-          That way, when Kevin comes in for Christmas dinner I’ll just go over and say, “Hey, I just want to give you a sticker, Merry Christmas.”  And then every time I start to get an attitude towards Kevin I’ll see the sticker and go, “Well, if it wasn’t for Kevin we wouldn’t even have Christmas.”

-          And then if you didn’t want to be that overt you could do what you did when you were a kid, you could just sneak a sticker on his back and then you could walk by him and go, “That’s right, I can’t get too mad at Kevin because we wouldn’t be having this celebration, I wouldn’t get any presents for Christmas if it weren’t for people like Kevin.”

-          So all of a sudden this person who irritated me last Christmas becomes a point of celebration.  “You’re the reason Jesus came.”

-          See how this works.

Now obviously, you can’t use these on people who go to church here.  You’ve got to be careful, but on the way out we’re going to give you these labels so during the season you can pass these out just so that you remember.

Now I know that’s kind of funny, but we’re going to give these to you because it’s true:  With all the junk that’s going on, with all the stuff that we see in the people around us, let’s be honest, with all the stuff I see in the mirror.  I look at that stuff and ask myself, “Jonathan, why do you let that stuff get to you?  Because I’m a sinner.  Why don’t you just forgive?  Because I’m a sinner.  Why do you let those little things irritate you and cause you to lose perspective?

And it’s real simple.  It’s because there’s still some darkness in me, and the life of God that was given to me when I trusted in Jesus, I haven’t allowed it to totally transform me yet.  I’m a work in progress.  See…I…I’m the reason for the season.  If it weren’t for people like me, you wouldn’t get anything for Christmas either.  If it weren’t for people like me, you wouldn’t have the good time you’re about to have in a few days.  If it weren’t for people like me, God would not have sent his son into this dark world.

But it’s because of people like me and it’s because of people like you, and it’s because of your relatives, the functional and the not so functional, that we even have Christmas.

See the great thing about this to me as I run it through the grid of my own life and family and world is that it is a reminder for me of what God did at Christmas.  And you know what he did?  He did the opposite of what I’m prone to do.  See when God saw all the darkness and all the lifelessness and all the sin and all the junk, do you know what he did?  He leaned in instead of leaning away.

See, I’m so tempted to avoid people and avoid situations, but on that very first Christmas when the darkness was as dark as it was ever going to be, when there had never been payment for sin, when there had never been any traction, relationally, to get along, or to patch things up.  When God saw the darkness and the lifelessness, he entered into the darkness.  He didn’t pretend like there was nothing wrong.  He didn’t avoid the obvious.  He didn’t make believe.  He leaned in and he sent his son into the world, and this is the amazing thing, that his response to sin was that he sent his son in.  His response to sin was that he sent his son as a baby into the world.  His response to my sin and your sin was that he sent his son into the world and, get this, for 30 something years his son didn’t say a word about your sin or mine.  He just lived among us and allowed us to get all over him as sin could get all over the perfect son of God.  And then he opened his mouth and said, “I want you to know that my Father is so committed to restoring a relationship with you that he’s sent me here not to simply live among you, but to die on a cross for your sin.  Merry Christmas!  You are the reason for the season.

So when I look in a mirror, when I look around me this Christmas season, and I find myself stressing out or getting mad or avoiding or complaining I need to remember:  No, no, no.  This isn’t the season of condemnation.  And this isn’t the season to try and fix people.  And this isn’t the season to complain.  This is the season in which God leaned in heavy into the world of darkness, and as his follower, how can I do any less?  Because if it wasn’t for my sin he wouldn’t have come at all.

See, sin and dysfunction is not an interruption to Christmas.  Sin and dysfunction is the reason for Christmas.  More specifically, your sin, your dysfunction, is the reason for Christmas.  You are the reason for the season.

I think this is best summarized by going back to the verse that we started this series with:  For God so love the world (the dark and lifeless world), that he gave his one and only son (that’s Christmas), that whoever (that’s anybody in this big dark and lifeless world.  That’s Jew, gentile, American, Arab, your brother-in-law, your ex-wife, your rebellious child) that whoever believes (puts their faith and trust and confidence) in him, shall not perish, but have eternal life.  See, at Christmas, God made his first move to bring into this dark, dead world life and light.  The life and light that has the potential to transform men and women.  The life and light that is working in many of us to continually transform us even now.

So when I see someone who’s not completely transformed, and when I look in the mirror and see somebody who’s not completely transformed, I need to remember, “this is why we have Christmas.”  See, I have something in common with every single person I gather with over this holiday season.  That we, collectively, are the reason for this season.  We are the reason why God sent his son into this world.

And if ever there was a time to find common ground around that, this is the season, and that’s why we can celebrate authentically, without make-believing and without pretending, with all the people that we gather with this Christmas season.  Into the darkness, he sent his light.  And into the lifelessness, he sent us life.  You really are the reason for this amazing season.

Close your eyes.  How does this make you feel?  What are you going to do about it?

Prayer

Father, that’s a lot easier to talk about than it is to live out.  Help me to take the lead to lean in towards those who I normally would lean away from because this is the season you lean so intentionally towards me, in spite of me.  Give us the grace to be grace-givers.  Give us the grace and the confidence and the ability to find common ground with every other sinner we will celebrate with this holiday season.  Thank you for loving us and help us to extend that love to all the people you came to earth to save.

 

The Reason – Part 2 – Sin

I’ve got to start off by being honest this morning.  I’ve been a Christian since I was 5 years old, I’ve been going to church since before I was born.  But, when I was a kid, if you would have asked me what is the reason for the season, I guarantee you that I wouldn’t have been spiritual about it at all.  I would have said, “presents.”

I mean think back to when you were a kid.  It was all about the presents and all about the gifts and all of the expectation leading up to Christmas and what you might get.  And that’s ok.  It’s fun for kids.

But even now, as an adult, what I’ve discovered is I have to be intentional about focusing on the real reason for the season.  I mean, I’m a professional Christian, and I have to intentionally refocus myself on what Christmas is all about.  And I bet if you’re honest, you have to do the same thing.

And I was thinking about that this week and wondering to myself, “Why is it that it’s so hard to focus on the real reason for the season at this time of the year when it should be so easy to focus on the real reason for the season.  And here’s kind of where I’ve landed.  There are so many distractions that keep us from focusing on the reason for the season.  The retailers have a reason for the season that includes you spending your money to buy their stuff.  Your family has a reason for the season which may include travel or having extra guests in your house, or following certain traditions that you’ve been doing for years, and you’re not sure why you do them, but you do them because that’s what you’ve always done, or the craziness of having your family get together.  There are so many distractions that get in the way of you and me focusing on the real reason for the season.

That’s why we’re doing this series, The Reason.  I don’t want us to get to the end of this Christmas season and miss it.  I don’t want us to miss out on the reason for the season.

That’s why last week we started off by looking at John 3:16, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  And what we’ve learning is that really, an umbrella statement could be that love is the reason for the season, but then we began breaking that apart by talking about how that really looks.  So, last week we talked about how one of the reasons for the season is giving.  And I shared with you our church’s plan for giving.  We’re going to give the gift of toys to the haven.  We’re going to give the gift of an offering to the church.  We’re going to give the gift of an invitation to those people we know and come in contact with to invite them to be a part of Hub City.  And then I encouraged you to give yourself the gift of focus, which we’re going to hit on again at the end of today’s message.

Which leads me to what I want to remind us of today:  What is the reason for the season?  But the reason for the season that we’re going to look at today is really everywhere this time of year.

One of the places that it’s illustrated in such entertaining ways is through popular Christmas movies.  I don’t you if you’ve ever thought about it or not, but almost every modern Christmas movie, and I say modern because you don’t see this too much in the black and white ones, and if you do I wouldn’t know cause I don’t watch those kind of movies.  But have you ever noticed that the Christmas movies we all love to watch over and over and over again have the most relationally dysfunctional people and families?   They are filled with messed up people and messed up relationships.  If you think about Christmas movies, you would say that personal or family dysfunction is the reason for the season.  Think about National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.  It has to do with Clark Griswald’s unrealistic expectations of the perfect Christmas.  Elf revolves about an absentee dad.  Both mom and dad in A Christmas Story are highly, highly dysfunctional.  Charlie Brown is filled with all kinds of relational dysfunction.  Even the Grinch had a heart that was three sizes too small.  I mean, if you look at Christmas movies relational dysfunction is everywhere.  I mean, you could go so far as to say that one of the reasons for the season is that it brings out the worst in us.  We see that all the time in Christmas movies, don’t we?

And here’s why I think those movies are so popular.  It’s because they’re relational dysfunctions, kind of remind us of our own relational dysfunctions.  We all have a cousin Eddie.  We all have that coworker who’s a Grinch or a scrooge.  We all have that nagging Lucy, who nags and nags and nags, no matter how hard you try and please them.  For some reason or another, when it comes to Christmas, it seems to bring out the worst in some of us.  It seems like at this holly, jolly, happy time of the year, there’s something that magnifies the relational dysfunction that many of us experience at home, at work, in the mall or wherever.  Wouldn’t you agree?

I want you to give you something profound to think about for a minute though:  If it wasn’t for all the dysfunction, and if it wasn’t for all the junk, and if it wasn’t for all the weirdness at Christmas there wouldn’t need to be a Christmas.  What I mean is:  All the stuff that we hate and try to work around and navigate around and control, and all the things that aren’t going to come true, and all the expectations that aren’t going to become a reality…if it weren’t for all those things, then there wouldn’t be a Christmas anyway.

Or think about it this way:  If it were possible for you to make Christmas as perfect relationally as you imagine it could be, there wouldn’t be a Christmas to celebrate.

Let me explain, if you have your Bibles turn with me to the first book of the New Testament, it was written by this guy named Matthew, so they named it Matthew to make it simple for us.  We’re going to be in chapter 1 starting at verse 18.

Let me tell you about Matthew.  Matthew was a tax collector, who Jesus invited to join  his small group of disciples, and he did, so Matthew is a guy who had a front row seat to the whole life and ministry of Jesus.  And Matthew knew Mary, Jesus’ mom, and so he got all the details filled in, and so years after Jesus left this earth, Matthew sat down and he interviewed people, got all the facts straight, and he wrote this account of how Jesus came into the world.  So, here’s how the whole thing came down…Matthew 1:18.  If you don’t have a Bible and want one we have some for sale, and somebody has volunteered to pay for a Bible for whoever couldn’t afford one through this next month.

Now, this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about:  His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph – Now I’ve got to stop there and talk about that for just a minute, and you’ve heard this before:  They were pledged to be married….  Back in those days, fathers and mothers pledged their children to other parents to marry their kids.  When I think about that I wonder, “Who would my parents have pledged me to?”  Hmm…I’m glad we don’t do that anymore.  But back then, parents arranged these marriages, and so Joseph was pledged to be married to Mary and Mary was pledged to Joseph.  We don’t know how well they knew each other.  We don’t even know if they knew each other at all, other than through their families.  They didn’t date back then.  So we know nothing about their relationship other than she was pledged to him and he was pledged to her.

But, before they came together (that is, before they were actually married and participating in the act of marriage) before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.  Now, we have kind of romanticized this deal and sort of extracted the emotions from it, but let’s just be realistic for a minute.  Here’s a young guy, they were probably both teenagers, Joseph may have been college-aged, who find out, we don’t know how, could have been his sister, could have been his parents, could have been a cousin, but somebody comes to Joseph and says, “Hey, uh, did you hear, Mary’s pregnant.”

Let’s not spiritualize it, but if you’re a guy, what is the first question that you’re going to ask the guy who tells you that your fiancé is pregnant?  What do you want to know?  “Who’s the father?”  It’s not in the text but I’m thinking Joseph didn’t go, “Oh, that’s great!  Mary’s pregnant!”  I’m thinking Joseph is shocked!  I mean, his whole life he’s been pledged to this young lady and then finds out she’s pregnant, I imagine he asks whoever told him, “Well, who’s the father?”  And the answer was:  The Holy Spirit.  And we know from the text that Joseph didn’t buy it.  In fact, probably nobody bought it.  “Go over that again Mary.”  “Yeah, I had a dream, and I woke up and…a week later I found out I’m pregnant.  The Holy Spirit made me pregnant.”  “Right.”  You wouldn’t believe that now, there’s no reason to think they would have believed it then.

So Joseph doesn’t believe her, so he’s got a couple of options on his hands:  One, he could go public, like any guy would be tempted to do, and say “Hear ye, hear ye, you heard about Mary being pregnant, well, it was not me.  I just need to do whatever I need to do to clear my name, but we didn’t get the cart before the horse.  This was not me.”  He could have gone public.  Or he had the option of going to the priest privately, and get this, he actually had to get a written certificate of divorce because this pledge was as binding as a marriage.  And he could go quietly and privately risk his reputation but possibly save both of them some public embarrassment.  So he had an opportunity to go either way, so he had a decision to make, and the text tells us what he did, verse 19.

Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man (which means Mary’s parents made a good choice in who they promised her to) Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.  So, he decides, I’m not going to make a public spectacle.  I may risk my reputation in the community, but I’m going to go quietly and end this relationship because obviously she’s pregnant with another man’s baby and we’re not going to go forward with the relationship.

Verse 20:  But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David (to which Joseph probably said, “Um, I think you’ve got the wrong guy.  My father isn’t David.”  To which the angel would have said, “Well, duh, but that’s not really important because your great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather, his name was king David.  You’re in the lineage of David, and that’s extremely important for what I’m about to tell you.”)  Do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife (in other words, don’t be afraid to go through with the relationship), because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  And the amazing thing is that Joseph bought into what the angel said and believed it.  And I’m telling you, as a guy, the only way for a guy to buy into that is for an angel to appear and say, “It’s true.”  These people weren’t that much different than we are.

Now here we get to the part that brings all that weirdness and dysfunction and dread of Christmas into perspective.  Here is the lens which I am to evaluate things.  This is the lens through which we all should experience Christmas.  This is the lens which we all need to be looking through so that we can survive Christmas.  This can reshape the way you view Christmas.  Here is the reason for the season.  Listen to this, verse 21:  She will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.  That is, the reason I’m sending this baby into the world is because I want to save my people, the people, as we discover later, all people, from their sins.  In other words, if it weren’t for sin, I would not have sent him.  If it were not for sin there would be no Christmas.

And the implication to Joseph is, “Now Joseph, this little baby boy that you’re going to have, somehow he’s going to grow up and do something, and the angel didn’t make that apparent at that time, but this little baby is going to grow up and do something so big and with such magnitude that your people, the Jews, will be forgiven of their sins.”  And Joseph knew that for generations the Jews had been going to a temple and they’d been sacrificing goat and lambs and ox and pigeons in order to have atonement for there sins.  Which meant that God overlooked their sins.  But this baby boy that I’m giving to you and Mary is going to do something of such importance that at the end of the day your people, and the people of all nations can find forgiveness from sin.  I’m sending him into the world because the world is full of sin and the world is full of sinners.

And here’s what’s so cool for us, if it were not for sin and for sinners, that’s the people that show up at your house at Christmas, the people who don’t act right and the people who don’t come and the people who don’t stay long enough and the people that forget and the people that have their agenda and the people that ruin it for you….  If it weren’t for all those people, there wouldn’t even be a Christmas to celebrate.  If it weren’t for sin we wouldn’t have Christmas.  Which leads back to the question we started off with last week:  What is the reason for the season?  Well, I know this sounds weird, and you won’t find it on a bumper sticker, but, sin is the reason for the season.  If it wasn’t for our sin, Jesus would have never come.

We have Christmas because of all the people that mess up your Christmas.  We have Christmas because of your sin and my sin.

Now, I want you to think about that.  Does that not reshape the way we look at the reason for the season?  For me, it gives Christmas so much more fullness and depth.  It makes it more three dementional.  Think about that for you for a minute.  If sin really is the reason for the season, how does that make you feel?  And what are you going to do about it.

Here are four responses:

-          Gratitude and thankfulness.

-          Seek the face of the one who came to save you from your sin.

-          Repent of your sin (it’s why Jesus came)

-          For the first time, allow Jesus to save you from your sin.

So what?  I think the key to Surviving Christmas, in light of the fact that sin is the reason for the season, the key for you and for me is to refocus.  To shift your focus away from those relatives that drive you crazy.  And to focus on Christ, who came because of those people that drive you crazy.

Now what? – I’m giving you something so that might help you refocus your thoughts over the next couple of weeks.  I’m giving you a bookmark with some Scriptures on it that you can meditate on.  There is one verse a day and each verse focuses on Jesus.

What I want us to do is to take the next two weeks to prepare ourselves for Christmas and the way I want you to prepare yourself is to turn your focus to Jesus and meditate on some verses about Jesus.

 

The Reason – Week 1 – Giving

I need to make a disclaimer before you read this.  Part of it might not make a bunch of sense because it was more “outline” than transcript.  But the important part is Hub City’s plan for giving this year.  Read on.  Let me know your thoughts.

I’m not really a bumper sticker guy.  I don’t mind having a Clemson sticker on the back of my car, and because we’re such awesome parents, we have to put the “terrific kids” bumper stickers on the back of our car because we have terrific kids.  But besides that, I’m not a big fan of bumper stickers.  I’m especially not a big fan of religious/Christian bumper stickers.

Show bumper stickers.

Well, it’s about this time of the year that we start to see another type of bumper sticker.

Christmas bumper stickers.

We see this all the time:  Jesus is the reason for the season.  But seriously, what’s the reason for the season?  If you look at TV commercials it’s about going in debt buying the latest toys for your kids.  Some people say that it’s family time.

I asked my oldest, Nathan, what’s the reason for season.  He gave me a really profound and spiritual thought.  He said it’s “give me, give me, give me, lots and lots of presents.”  I know that many of you want to model your parenting after Liz and I now, don’t you?  But what is the reason for the season?

One of the things I love about Christmas is that it’s a time when we can remember some things that we too often forget during the year.  That’s the point of this series.  Over the next four weeks we want to remind ourselves what it’s all about.  We’re going to remind ourselves of the reason.  To do that, over the next four weeks, we’re going to look at three “reasons for the season.”

Each reason comes from the most familiar verse in the entire Bible.  ¹⁶“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Today’s reason for the season is giving.

Notice four things about this gift that God gave:

First, it was motivated by love.  Honestly, there is no greater motivation.

Second, it was sacrificial.

Third, it was personal.  God gave his son for crying out loud.

Fourth, it was for the good of somebody other than God.  God lost out in this gift.

That leaves us with a question:  How can we give this season in ways that are motivated by love, that are sacrificial, that are personal, and that are for the good of somebody other than ourselves?  I want to talk about four ways that you can give this Christmas season.  This is by no means exhaustive, but these are four ways that we, as a community, as a family, as a church, can imitate and model giving the way God showed us in John 3:16.

Give the gift of toys.  The Haven Toy Project – a gift to those less fortunate

Mission: To provide homeless families & women shelter and supportive
services in order to facilitate a transition to a stable living environment.

History: The Haven was founded in 1983 as an outreach mission of Second
Presbyterian Church.  Originally it was meant to provide overnight shelter
to transient men. In 1985, the service focus changed to sheltering homeless
families in order to meet a growing and urgent need in the community.  In
1986, The Haven became a tax-exempt nonprofit organization, however second
Presbyterian Church still provided the building, insurance and significant
portion of the funding. In 2009 (now), The Haven has purchased their own
building to fulfill the increase in number of families & Women seeking
shelter.   They have a variety of programs that they offer people, things like providing shelter and meals and job training and financial management and life skills training and counseling.  It’s a pretty comprehensive program.

They just moved to a new facility where they will be able to house more people.  And we want to do something to help.

Here’s why we’re doing this.  No matter how bad you have it, there’s somebody else who’s worse off than you.  We have the opportunity to show our love by giving toys.  This Christmas, Giving is the reason for the season.  Let’s be generous.

A second gift that you can give is a gift of an offering.  We’re calling it The Holly Jolly Christmas Offering.  This is a gift to the church.  Let me tell you how this is going to go and then I’ll tell you about the offering.  On Sunday, December 20, we’re going to take up two offerings.  One is going to be our regular offering.  The second offering is going to be the Holly Jolly Christmas Gift.  There will be two offerings that day.  I’m just warning you ahead of time.  I don’t want you to freak out when the popcorn bucket gets passed around twice.

Now, let me tell you where this offering is going to go to.  First, 25 cents of every dollar is going to be donated to Total Ministries.  Total Ministries is a local organization that provides food, resources and help to people in need.  Right now they are in desperate need of financial help so that they can help others.  We’re going to give 25 cents of every dollar that comes in to Total Ministries.

The rest of it is going to be used to do some things that we want to do, but don’t yet have the money to do.  First, we want to get some signs for you to put out each week.  Second, we want to improve our lighting.  Third, we want to do some decorating.

Let me tell you why each of these are important.  You know that our mission is to make disciples who make disciples.  Our Sunday Gathering is an important part of that process.  And we want to improve what we do.  The signs are important because I think we’ve got something worth being a part of here.  We want others to know that.  One way to let others know that is by publicizing when and where we meet.  The lighting and decorations are important because they will help us make this movie theater even more appealing.  Having an appealing context helps open the door for people to hear from God and do what he says.

The biggest reason why this offering is important is because it’s going to give some of you, who’ve never given, or who have rarely given an opportunity to take a risk and give.  Giving is a risk.  But it comes with a great reward.  You need to read the Bible to find out what that reward is.  Be a part of the Holly Jolly Christmas Offering.

The third gift that you can give is the gift of an invitation.  I said this a few seconds ago, but I honestly believe we have something worth inviting people to be a part of here.  There are Sundays, when I think, “Man I wish so and so were here to experience this.”

I actually added this section after last week’s gathering.  If you remember, New Moon came out and it was showing at 11:30 in this theater.  There was a line outside of the theater waiting for us to get finished so they could come in and see the movie.  Jason Holden said something to the fact of, “Wouldn’t it be great if they were lining up to come to church.”  I’ve got to be honest, that would be pretty cool and exciting, and it got me thinking.  That’s only going to happen if you and I take a risk and invite people.

Now let me say, It’s not about us getting all big and impersonal.  It’s about us making the most of what the time and the relationships that we have on this earth.  I want my neighbors to become disciples of Jesus who make disciples.  I want the people who work out at Peak’s Fitness to become disciples of Jesus who make disciples.  If that’s the case, then I need to do my part which is to build a relationship with them and invite them.

So here’s how this gift of an invitation is going to work.  I want to challenge you to invite 5 people per week during this series.  It’s not about getting people to come with you.  It’s about making the invitation and then leaving it up to that person and God about them coming to be a part.

Now, who should you invite?  Great question.  Here’s my answer:  Anybody and everybody.  Seriously, your neighbors, your coworkers, your boss, your employees, the person at the checkout line at Ingles.  Let me tell you how simple I want this to be.  I work out at Peak’s Fitness.  I know you can tell.  There’s always the same guy who checks me in every day.  I just took a card in with me and said, “Hey man, I don’t know if you go to church or not, but I just wanted to invite you to Hub City.  We meet in a movie theater.”  He said thanks, started checking out the card, and then left.  It wasn’t all spiritual.  He didn’t fall on his knees and pray to receive Jesus.  It’s just one way for me to do my part.

Let me tell you why now is a great time to invite people.  Studies show that during Christmas time and the time leading up to Christmas people are more likely to come to church than at any other time of the year.  Maybe it’s because they feel like their duty as an American is to come to church at Christmas, I don’t know, but since that’s the case, we should take advantage of it.

Another reason why you inviting 5 people a week is a great idea is that most people who aren’t involved in church in any way, shape or form, indicate on surveys that they would be willing to try a church if someone would just invite them.  Think about it.  There are thousands of people right here in our county who would be willing to check out Hub City Church if you and I would just take the initiative to invite them.  So what are we waiting for?

But let me make this disclaimer.  We’ve given you 5 postcards to give out this week.  If you don’t think we’ve got something worth inviting people to be a part of then please leave your postcards in your seat when you leave.  I don’t recommend restaurants that I don’t like.  I don’t recommend movies that I don’t like.  If you’re not a fan of Hub City then don’t take the cards.  But if you are, if God has worked in your life through Hub City, if you want to see God work in other people’s lives, then I dare you to invite 5 people per week.  Give the gift of an invitation.

Finally, Give the gift of focus.  This is a gift to yourself.  What if, over the next month, you could do something to help you focus on God this season?  What if, instead of being stress out, you were to grow spiritually over the next month?  Give yourself the gift of focus.

Here’s what I’m going to suggest for you.  You got a reading plan that includes some simple reading assignments and some reflection questions.  It’s all to help you focus and connect with God during this special time of year.  I’ve also included some things to pray for.

So that’s an overview of what we, as a church, as a family are going to do this Christmas because giving is the reason for the season, or at least it’s one of the reasons.  Now here’s the challenge:  How are you going to participate?  Let’s give the gift of toys, so much so that The Haven is overwhelmed by our generosity.  Let’s give the gift of an offering, so that we can continue to maximize this hour that God has given us.  Let’s give the gift of an invitation, so that we can continue to connect and reach out to people who are disconnected from God and a church family.  Let’s give the gift of focus so that God can change us this Christmas and grow us as disciples who make disciples.

Have you thought about the potential that we have to make Spartanburg a better place to live this year?  I can’t wait to see how we’re going to respond.

 

Urban Legends – week 4 – There are many ways to God

I’ve got to say that some of you have been hurting my feelings.  Just because you’re gullible doesn’t make me a liar!!!  For those of you wondering what’s going on, the past few weeks I’ve started each of my sermons by sharing an urban legend.  I told the one about how a raw onion sitting in your house can keep you from getting the flu.  I showed some pictures two weeks ago that some of you fell for, and then last week I told an old college urban legend.  And so many of you fell for it.  It was hilarious.  But now you’re calling me a liar.  There’s no respect, no respect.

So today, I decided what I am going to do is expose a few way-out there urban legends that have been targeted at Christians.  ACLU and Cemetary headstones.  Removal of religious broadcasting.

The thing about each of these urban legends, is that when we as Christians fall for them, we just look plain stupid.  We come across as ignorant, uneducated and dumb.  Now if you’ve fallen for any of these please don’t feel bad.  I remember in college, we were at a meeting of the BSU and they were passing around a petition for us to sign that was an older version of the religious broadcasting one, and because I didn’t know any better, I signed it.  Looking back now, I feel kind of foolish for falling for and believing it.

That’s the thing with urban legends.  Believing a lie can make you look stupid.  But as we’ve discovered, believing spiritual urban legends can do more than make you look stupid.  It could harm your faith.  It could destroy you.

Today, I want us to look at a possible urban legend.  Now I say possible to peak your interest a little bit.  I think it’s an urban legend, but I am pretty sure that there are some of you here, who when you hear it, you won’t think it’s an urban legend.  Actually, you’re probably going to think that I’m stupid, that I’m ignorant, that I’m narrow and closed minded for saying it’s an urban legend. So today, I want you to decide if it’s an urban legend or not.

Now, each of the urban legends that we looked at came from the misreading or the partial reading of a certain Bible verse.  But not so with today’s urban legend.  Today we are going to look at one of the most common world-wide beliefs today.  It’s one that comes out of the culture we live in.  And it’s everywhere.  You hear about it on talk shows, television, radio, you can see your favorite movie star talking about this.  It is everywhere.

And I’ll be honest, it’s one that most of us wish were true.  I wish it were true.  Things would be a lot easier if it were true.  But is it true, or is it an urban legend?  You’re going to have to decide.  Now when I say it, some of you may disagree with me about it, but before you tune me out, listen to what I have to say.  I’m going to pose it in the form of a question, here it is:  Do all roads lead to God?  It is very common to hear that there are many different ways to God.  People will say as long as you are sincere, and you are sincerely seeking, all roads lead to God.  This message, it feels good.  It is easy to believe.  What I want you to do is I want you to listen to the evidence and then I want you to decide if today’s topic is true, or if it’s an urban legend.

So it basically boils down to asking one question:  Are there many different ways to God, or is Jesus the only way?  Think about it, whenever you say Jesus is the only way, people tend to write you off as very narrow minded, very judgmental, very close minded.  And you know what?  If Jesus is the only way, then it is narrow minded.  So, what is the truth?  Are there many different ways to God, or is Jesus the only way?

It really boils down to what we do with Jesus.

Now you’ve got to admit, almost nobody debates the existence of Jesus.  Even those who don’t believe in Christianity often have great respect for Jesus. I mean, people who reject the idea that Jesus was God say, “I believe Jesus was a great moral teacher but he wasn’t God”.  It’s not that people dislike His teaching.  How can you?  It’s the best teaching around.  Love people.  Be generous.  So, they don’t debate His teaching.  They don’t debate His existence.

What people debate is the fact that Jesus made the most astonishing claims, not only about God, society and ethics, but also about himself.  Jesus claimed to have the authority to forgive sins, Jesus claimed to be the representative of all humanity who had come to die in order to reconcile man to God, Jesus claimed to be the only way for people to attain salvation.  What people debate is His exclusive claim to be God, the Son of God, the only way to God.

So here’s what I want us to do this morning.  I want us to jump into that debate.  I want to give you some information so that you can decide for yourself if Jesus is the only way to God.  So that you can decide for yourself is Jesus is who he said he was.  And we’re going to start by looking at the claims of Jesus,because Jesus made some astonishing claims about himself.

If you have your Bibles you can open up to the book of John.  We’re going to look at two passages in John this morning.  First look at what Jesus says in John 14:6, I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.

According to Jesus’ own words, he says there’s only one way.  That’s pretty narrow minded.  That’s pretty exclusive.  So, that brings the point of debate.  Is He the only way?  According to his own words, yes.  But let’s look at one more claim.

Not only did Jesus claim to be the only way to God, but he went further than that.  He actually claimed to be God.  Look at John 10:30-33 ³⁰I and the Father are one.” ³¹Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, ³²but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”  ³³“We are not stoning you for any of these,” replied the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”

It is Jesus’ claim to be God that freaks everybody out.

Now think about this:  Muhammad, Buddha, Confucius, the Dalai Lama, none of them claim to be God.  That’s what separates Jesus, and that’s what offends so many people.  I have to say, deciding on the answer to this issue is one of the most important things that we could ever do.  Our eternal destination hinges on the answer.  Are there many ways to God?  Or, is Jesus the only way?  If Jesus is who He says He is, the only way to the Father, the Son of the living God, God in the flesh…  if that is true, then we should surrender the rest of our lives to pursue Him, to live for Him, and to live for His glory in every single way.  If, on the other hand, though, it is not true, you should never, ever come back here again.  You should never waste your time in a Christian church, because we are just kidding ourselves, and this is all a big joke.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.  So, let’s explore it and see.  Urban Legend or truth?

We are going to put Jesus to the test.  How credible was He?  In light of the fact that Jesus made two big claims about himself, that he’s the only way to the Father and that he is God, are his claims credible?

When we’re faced with the fact that Jesus made these claims about himself, there are three things that we might say about him: Either Jesus’ claims were false and he knew it, which means he’s a liar.  Or his claims were false and he didn’t know it, which would make him a lunatic or nut-job.  Or his claims were true, which would make him Lord.

The first thing that we might say about Jesus is that his claims were false and he knew it, in which case he was a liar. If Jesus did not believe that his claims about himself were true, then when he made those claims he was lying.

But think about it, Jesus’ claims about himself were so central to his teachings, that if they were lies then, one, there is no way you can call him a great teacher. I mean, if Jesus set out to systematically deceive people about who he was and how their sins were to be dealt with, then he was among the worst teachers that have ever walked the earth.

But maybe Jesus was a liar, and if He was, you’ve got to admit, He was dog-gone good, wasn’t He?  I mean, He was so persuasive that He got twelve guys, and He talked them into leaving their families, their career, their jobs, and for three years, these guys followed Jesus, who you could say was lying.  At some point, don’t you think one of these twelve guys would have seen through the lies?   And then think about what Jesus’ disciples said with their lives.  These guys followed Jesus around for 3 years.  I don’t know if you know this or not, but 10 out of the 12 disciples died as Martyrs.  Peter, was crucified upside down.  John was the only disciple to die a normal death.  This begs the question:  Would these guys have died for a lie?  Would these guys have given their lives if they didn’t honestly and sincerely belief that Jesus was who he claimed to be?  It’s possible, but not probable.  So Jesus could have been a liar, but I don’t think the evidence is there to support that position.

And then think about this, if He was lying, you would think that at some point He would break.  He’d have to.  Like maybe when they were beating Him in the face over and over and over again, and His face became so disfigured you couldn’t tell if it was a person or an animal, He probably would have broken then.  Or it could have been when they stripped Him down naked, and they took a whip, and they beat Him again and again on the back, until all his skin and muscle was ripped off and His vital organs would be exposed.  He’d probably break then, but if He’s really stinking tough, maybe about the time when they put His bloody back on the cross and take the stakes, and they’d be about to drive them through His hands, don’t you think about that point He’d say, “Okay, sorry guys.  This was all a joke.  I’m just messing with you.  Okay?  I was bored as a carpenter.  I just thought I’d just mess with you.”  Don’t you think at some point He would have said, “It was all a shame, a joke.”  If Jesus was a liar, you would think that he’d break sometime during his crucifixion, but he didn’t.  Jesus believed he was who he said he was.  I don’t think the evidence is there that he was a liar.

The second thing that we might say about Jesus is that his claims were false and he didn’t know it, in which case he was a lunatic. Like, if Jesus believed that his claims about himself were true, and they weren’t, then he was a delusional egomaniac. Think about it, if an ordinary person believes himself to be God, then what do we think about that person?  We think they are insane.

Again, if this were the case, if Jesus taught that he was the only way to God and that he was God, and was mistaken, then there’s no way he could be a good teacher.  He was as bad a teacher as there has ever been.  Maybe Jesus was a lunatic.  Maybe he was crazy.  You think about David Koresh, Jim Jones, Frankie Creel, and others who had kind of a messiah complex.  They believed they were God, or the messiah, or some sort of deity.  But they all had a history of disturbing behavior.  But, you think about Jesus, the most loving, most generous, most perfect person.  Not even his enemies said he was crazy.

Look at Matthew 27:54, When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!” Okay, they looked on and they said, “Wait a minute.  This has got to be the Son of God.  He is who He said He was.”  You don’t say that about a guy you think is crazy.  Nobody thought Jesus was crazy.  The religious leaders didn’t even think Jesus was crazy.  It’s possible Jesus was a lunatic, but I don’t think the evidence is there.

The third thing that we can say about Jesus is that his claims were true, in which case he was, and is, Lord.  If Jesus believed that his claims about himself were true, then Jesus was more than a great human being, he was who he said he was.  God with skin on and the only way to the Father.

Now here’s where I think we struggle with this:  If we take Jesus’ claims about himself seriously then that makes him awfully exclusive and narrow minded.  And that’s not really accepted in our culture.  It’s kind of fanatical, and none of us wants to be a fanatic.  But I think, when you think about who Jesus was, what he taught, and how the number one distinguishing characteristics of his followers should be love, then it’s not all that fanatical.  It’s actually pretty simple and extremely gracious.  Another reason we struggle with this is because of the implications if it’s true.  If Jesus really his who he said he was then the only logical choice for you and me is to submit and surrender our lives to him.  And many of us don’t want to do that.

So what do you think?  Is he whole idea that there are many ways to God an Urban legend?  I mean, it feels right.  It feels safe.  It is not offensive.  Yet, Jesus makes a very exclusive claim, and He says, “There’s no other way to the Father but through me.”  So in light of his claims, either he’s a liar, he’s a lunatic or Lord.  What do you think?

Here’s the deal, I think there are really two groups of people here today.  There are those of you that really believe that Jesus is the way, and there are others of you that say, “Yeah, I’m not quite there yet.”

Let me talk to those of you that, first of all, believe that Jesus is God’s Son and that He is Lord.  Ask yourself this.  Have your actions reflected that you believe that?  Does you life reflect the fact that Jesus is who he said he was?  If not, what do you need to do to align yourself under His authority?  Spend time with him?  Hear his voice and do what he says?  May we live lives that reflect that we believe that Jesus is who he says he is.

But there’s a second group of people here this morning.  You’re like, “I’m not quite there yet.”  And that’s ok.  But you have been presented with some information today, and you need to wrestle with it.  I think there are some of you here who have something going on spiritually in your life.  After hearing this you are feeling drawn to the ways of Jesus.  That is the work of a very loving God speaking to you.  God has been working in your life for a long time, and he wants you to know about the good news of Jesus and what’s he’s done.  See, the bad news is we are separated from God because we are sinful beings.  The good news is, God so loved you that He became one of you.  He sent His Son, Jesus, who was without sin, to die in your place as a substitute for your sins on the cross.  The good news is that Jesus came to die as a substitute in your place so that your sins could be forgiven, so that you could have a right relationship with God.  And today, God is calling some of you to turn away from your sin and turn to Him.  Scripture says that anyone who calls Jesus Lord will be saved, will be rescued.  If that’s you, you can begin a relationship with God today by praying,   Pray with “Heavenly Father, I give You my whole life as Jesus gave His life for me.  Because You died for me, empower me to live for You.  Forgive me of my sins.  Make me new.  Make me like You.  Be my Savior, and be my Lord.  In every way, I give my life to You.  Thank You for new life.  In Jesus’ name I pray.”

There are those of you who are being drawn to Jesus.  Who do you say that He is?  Are there many ways to God, or is Jesus the only way?

 

Urban Legends – week 3 – God will never give you more than you can handle

Did you see the paper this morning?  Did you see the article on what they found on Furman’s campus this morning?  It’s awful, really.  There was a female student who went back to her dorm room late last night to get her books before heading to her boyfriend’s room for the night. She entered but did not turn on the light, knowing that her roommate was sleeping. She stumbled around the room in the dark for several minutes, gathering books, clothes, toothbrush, etc. before finally leaving.  Well this morning, she came back to her room to find it surrounded by police. They asked if she lived there and she said yes. They took her into her room, and there, written in blood on the wall, were the words, “Aren’t you glad you didn’t turn on the light?” Her roommate was being murdered while she was getting her things.

Does that freak you out?  It’s not true, it’s an urban legend.

We’re in week 3 of Urban Legends and what we’ve been doing over the past two weeks is really debunking some spiritual myths or some spiritual urban legends.  See, not everything that we believe is necessarily true, and what we’ve said is that we need to make sure we test everything we hear against what the Bible actually says so that we can know the truth.  Because believing Urban Legends can harm our faith.

Let’s, today, deal with another urban legend.  It’s a very common one that we hear all the time.  Before I tell you what it is I want to ask you a question.  I am curious as to how many of you often feel overwhelmed with life.  You feel there is too much going on.  You feel stressed.  You feel busy.  Raise your hand.

What’s interesting, if you ask anybody, “How are you doing?” one of the most common answers you are going to hear is, “Oh, busy.”  “How are you doing?”  “Well, I’m busy.”  “What’s been going on?”  “I’m busy.”  “How are you?”  “Busy.”  And in our culture, it’s almost as if it has become more acceptable and normal to be busy and overwhelmed than it is to do life at a more sustainable pace.

If you feel overwhelmed, if you feel like there is too much going on, if you feel like you are at the tipping point, where just one more thing could put you in the crazy bin, then today’s Urban Legend is for you.  I’ll tell you what it is in a minute.

The Bible is filled with people who found themselves overwhelmed, and in over their head.  One of my favorite examples is Moses.  If you know anything about Moses, he was the guy that God chose to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and into the promised land.  But I don’t know if you realized this about Moses or not, but being the leader of these Israelites:  He was the leader of 2 million people.  Can you imagine?  There are 5 people and a dog in my house and it’s overwhelming at times, but Moses… the dude was responsible for 2 million people!  Talk about being overwhelmed.

But not only was he responsible for 2 million people, if you know any of that story, you know that the Israelites were some of the most ungrateful, complaining people around.  They complained about everything.  “We don’t have meat, we don’t have bread, we don’t have water, are we there yet, we’re going to die out here in the desert…” you name it and they complained about it.  Moses was a busy man.  Always trying to solve problem and appease the people.  He was overwhelmed.  In fact, after one period of complaining, Moses said this in Numbers 11:14-15 – I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. ¹⁵ If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now.

I bet many of you feel like that at times.  Overwhelmed.  Over-stressed.  The burden is too heavy for you to carry, and you’re ready to give up.

But something interesting happens as soon as we talk about being overwhelmed.  Some well-meaning Christian comes in and says this:  “Oh, don’t worry.  It’ll be okay.  Remember, God will never give you more than you can handle.  It’s going to be all right.  Don’t give up.  You can do it.  You can make it.  God will never, ever give you more than you can handle.”  Well-meaning Christians will say this common urban legend, “God will never give you more than you can handle.”  The problem is, scripture never says that.  It is a spiritual myth.  It is an urban legend.

Let’s see where this urban legend comes from.  Just like with the other urban legends, people are misquoting another very important verse in scripture.  Let’s take a look at it.  It’s 1 Corinthians 10:13.  The apostle Paul wrote and said No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.  Now, when most people use that verse to say that God will never give us more than we can handle, they usually leave off the first sentence and start with, And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. And from that they get the urban legend that God will never give you more than you can handle.

But you tell me:  What is that verse talking about?  Temptation.  This verse is clearly talking about temptation, and what it basically says is that all of us experience common temptations.  But God is faithful.  He won’t let us be tempted beyond what we can bear.  But when temptations come our way he provides a way out so we don’t have to give in.

This Scripture never says that God won’t give us more than we can handle.  What this Scripture does say that God will never let us be tempted beyond what we can handle.  There’s a big difference between the two.

According to this verse, it would be ok for people say, when you are about to sin, “Hey, don’t worry.  God will never let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.”  But that’s not how this Spiritual Urban Legend goes.  Its deception is saying that God won’t give you more than you can handle, but that’s not what this, or any other verse says.

The truth is this.  God will often allow you to have far more than you can handle on your own.  Actually, if you look at the whole of Scripture I think it’s obvious that God gives us, or allows us to have, way more than we can handle on our own.  I like to think of it as the gift of too much.  God will often give us the gift of too much.

Now, why would He do this?  Is he a masochist?  Is he some sick and demented kind of God who likes to see us stressed out and overwhelmed?   I don’t think so.  I think the reason he gives us the gift of too much is because He wants to teach us to depend on something besides ourselves.

See, the spiritual myth, God will never give you more than you can handle, what that basically says to you is, “Pull yourself up by your boot straps.  If you just try harder, you can do it.”  It’s all about you doing things on your own strength and in your own power.  But the truth is, God may allow us to have more than we can handle so He can teach us to depend on something besides ourselves:  He wants to teach us to depend on other people, and ultimately, most importantly, to teach us to depend on Him.

Let me show you what I’m talking about.  Think about Moses one more time.  If you remember his story, Moses perhaps felt a lot like some of you do right now.

Moses felt totally overwhelmed, and you can hear this almost panic in his words.  Numbers 11:15, he said to God, “If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now …” in other words:  I can’t take it anymore.  ¹⁶ The LORD said to Moses: “Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the Tent of Meeting, that they may stand there with you. ¹⁷ I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take of the Spirit that is on you and put the Spirit on them. They will help you carry the burden of the people so that you will not have to carry it alone.

Notice what God says here to Moses.  He says, “Moses, you need help.  You need help carrying this burden. It’s too much for you.  You can’t do it on your own.”  Why?  Because, you were not designed to do it on your own.  This completely messes with the urban legend that God won’t give you more than you can handle.  Moses had way more than he could handle.  The truth is, God will often allow you to have more than you can handle, He will give you the gift of too much.  Why?  To teach us to depend on others.

Depend on others.  We find this all over the New Testament.  I just want to show you one verse.  In Galatians 6:2, Paul says to Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.  This is a simple command to obey.  Look for a brother or a sister with a burden, and help them with it.  It isn’t complicated, and it doesn’t take a huge program or infrastructure to do it.  Just look for a burden to bear and bear it!  The law of Christ is to love one another.  We fulfill that when we bear one another’s burdens.  We need each other.  We need relationships.  We weren’t meant to try and make it through life on our own.  That’s why we have a slogan around here that says no one stands alone.  You’re supposed to carry my burdens.  I’m supposed to carry your burdens.  We’re supposed to carry one another’s burdens.

But here’s the deal.  That doesn’t just happen.  Moses had to go out and find 70 leaders to help him.  Do you know what you have to do?  You have to be in intentional relationships with other people for that to happen.   It’s only through relationships that we can get to know people’s burdens and allow them to get to know our burdens.  And for us, the place where those relationships develop is in our Hub Groups.

But I thought, that instead of me telling you about why this is important and good that I’d let some other people share.  Watch this.

Video.

God often gives us the gift of too much, and the reason he does that is to teach us to depend on others.  But God doesn’t stop there.  Not only do we need to learn to depend on others.  Most importantly we need to learn to depend on and trust God.

Moses’ life was characterized over and over again by a dependence on God.  Did you notice what Moses did when the people were crying out to him and complaining to him?  The first thing Moses did was to turn to God.  He knew he was in way over his head.  He knew that he couldn’t handle this on his own.  He knew he needed God’s help.

The Bible is a book that screams over and over and over again for us to depend on God, trust in God, to depend on him.  Here are just a few examples of what I’m talking about:

Psalm 55:22 – ²² Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.  (Cast = To hurl or throw.  Like a quarterback throwing a pass.)

Proverbs 3:5-6 ⁵ Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; ⁶ in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

John 14:1 Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.

1 Peter 5:7 – ⁷Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Matthew 11:28-30 – ²⁸“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

God will allow us to have more than we can handle, but it’s so we can learn that we need to depend on him.  Actually, over and over and over again in the Bible God is clear that one of the distinguishing marks of his followers is that they trust him, they depend on him.  God knows we can’t do it on our own.  We need to depend on him.

For me, I have to daily go before God and say, “You know what?  I can’t do it.  I don’t have the power.  I’m overwhelmed.  Thank You for giving me the gift of too much. It teaches me to learn and to depend on others and on You.”

See, there’s an enemy who wants you to believe that God won’t give you more than you can handle.  But that’s an urban legend.  It is a spiritual myth.  The truth is, God often allows you to have more than you can handle so we can learn to depend on others and him.

Today God is speaking to some of you, and some of you right now, if you were honest, you would say, “You know what?  I am barely hanging on.  I find myself in survival mode over and over and over again, and it’s just not right.  It’s just not healthy.  I’ve tried to do it all, and I’m recognizing now, maybe God has allowed me to have too much so that I could learn to depend on others and depend on him.

If that’s you, if you would say, “You know what?  I’m overwhelmed.  I feel like I’m drowning.  I am in a season where God has allowed me to have the gift of too much.  I need some help from others.  I need some help from God.”  If that’s you today, would you lift your hands high right now so I can pray for you?

“Father, I pray in the name of Your risen Son, Jesus, that You would guide us.  God, thank You for the painful gift of too much.  God, may Your Holy Spirit speak to us, and show us how to depend on others and you, and God, destroy our pride that gets in the way of our dependence on other people and you.  God show us how to ask for help and give us the courage to ask for help, and God, we will humble ourselves and let somebody else be blessed by helping us.  And God, there are so many things, so many burdens right now.  By faith, we hand them to You.  We need your help in our lives.”

I know we showed Amie and Bryan’s stories about Hub Group, but if you’re overwhelmed you need to put yourself into some intentional relationships.  Get in a Hub Group.  You can find out more at the Hub Table.

I need to say this, because remember, believing spiritual urban legends can harm you.  One of the biggest dangers of believing this urban legend is that it leads to self sufficiency and to you thinking that you can do things on your own.  You can make it through what you’re going through on your own.  You can even make it to God on your own.  We can end up thinking, “If I do more good things, or stop doing more bad things,” and we try to clean ourselves up before we come to Jesus, but I want to remind you of what Jesus says to you today, and that is simply this, “Come to Me, Jesus says.  Come to Me all who are weary and worn out and over burdened.  Come to Me,” He says, “And I will give you rest.”  There are many of you, you’ve never had internal rest.  You’ve never had spiritual rest.  You’ve never had a peace that just says, “I have a relationship with God and I am right with Him.”  And you want that.  And you’re wondering how do you find rest?  It comes from a relationship with God.  And you can begin a relationship with God by saying, “Jesus, forgive me for everything that I have done wrong.  I want to trust that You are enough to save me.  Save me from my sin.  Forgive me.  I no longer want to strive in my own power.  I want to trust You for my salvation.  I surrender my whole life to You.  Jesus, be first, the Savior and the Lord of my life.  I am not going to do another moment without You.  I surrender to You as the Savior and the Lord of my life.  Make me new.”

If you want to begin a relationship with God today then pray this prayer, “Heavenly Father, I am a sinner who needs a Savior.  Forgive me.  Change me.  Make me new.  Fill me with your peace that comes from being right with you.  I surrender my whole life completely to You.  In Jesus’ name I pray.”

God wants you to learn to depend on others and to depend on him.  He will give you more than you can handle.

I will tell you, next week, the one that we talk about next week is absolutely one of the most important spiritual myths that must be debunked for us to be successful as followers of Christ.

 

Urban Legends – week 2 – God wants you happy

Welcome to week 2 of Urban Legends.  Last week I started off by giving you a little public service announcement for the flu, which some of you fell for.  Today I want to show you some pictures and you can tell me it they are real or fake.  This should be fun.

(Couldn’t post pictures here)

So here we are on our second week of urban legends.  What we started off saying last week is that there are all kinds of urban legends in our culture.  They are everywhere.  And some of them are clearly false, but often times, many of the urban legends that we run into are sort-of believable.  They sound like they could be true, and the reason why is that they do contain some truth, like those pictures we just looked at.  There was authenticity in each of those pictures.  Some of them were just photo-shopped.

But we also discovered that there are such things as Spiritual Urban Legends.  We said last week that a spiritual urban legend is just like a secular urban legend.  It’s a belief, story, assumption or truism that gets passed around as fact.  The source can be a friend, Bible study or even a sermon.  And because they sound so plausible and come from a trusted and reliable source, spiritual urban legends are often accepted without question.  Eventually, they begin to take on a life of their own, and it’s difficult to refute them because “everybody” knows they are true and anyone who questions their truth gets attacked.

But what we’ve said so far is that believing spiritual urban legends is dangerous.  Believing spiritual urban legends can harm are faith. and as we’re going to see today, believing spiritual urban legends can end up destroying us.

Today, I want to talk to you about a spiritual urban legend that I think is one of the most dangerous, and yet, one of the most common spiritual urban legends in the American church today.  It’s actually an Urban Legend that strikes at the very heart of what it means to be an American.  That’s why it’s so prevalent.  We hear people talk about this all the time.  You will hear it on TV today with TV preachers.  You’ll read books about it, and you will hear it over and over and over again, and it is a message that feels very good.  Here is the urban legend.  It goes something like this.  God wants you happy.  Or it’s said in other ways:  God has good things in store for you.  God wants you to enjoy your life.  God wants you to prosper in every single way.  The bottom line is, God wants you happy.

It is very subtle, and yet very seductive.  And it’s believable.  And it’s everywhere.  We read it in the declaration of Independence where it states:  We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  You can see it even permeating our children’s stories.  Read any fairy tale, any story to a kid, and you will always hear it close out with the same famous line … “And they all lived,” what?  Say it with me, “And they all lived happily ever after.”  But is that true?  Check this out:

[Video, Jonathan with children starting in the middle of the story]  Papa bear said, “Who’s been eating my porridge?”  And mama bear said, “Who’s been sitting in my chair?”  And baby bear said, “Hey, somebody’s sleeping in my bed.  It’s a little girl.”  Well, papa bear had had a really bad day, because his house taxes went up, and because his boss was mad at him.  So, papa bear lost his cool and went to the little girl and grabbed her with his paws.  Then mama bear grabbed the little girl and pawed her across the face, and blood shot on the wall.  And the little girl screamed, “Help me.  Help me.  I’m only a little girl.  Somebody save me!”  But mama bear and papa bear showed no mercy.  They clawed the little girl, and threw her little blonde head up against the wall like a rag doll until the little girl slowly bled to death, and baby bear went up to the girl and said, “That’ll teach you to sleep in my bed.”  And baby bear ate the little girl for dinner, and the three little bears lived happily ever after.  The end.

For those of you who wonder what kind of parents we are, in my wife’s defense, she was at work when we shot that, and she’s seeing the video for the first time today.  She was wondering all week long why Levi started to freak out every time we sat down to read a story, so … anyway, the truth is, sometimes, stories don’t have a happy ending, but yet, the positive message that God wants you happy, it just feels so good, and it is so right.

What I would love to tell you is that if you just come to God, you will have the best year ever!  Everything will work out and you will always be happy.  Because God wants you happy, God only has good things in store for you.  The problem is, though, that’s an urban legend.  It’s not true.  And not only is it not true, it’s dangerous.

There is serious danger in believing this urban legend.  One of the dangers is that it elevates us to the point where God is there to serve us, rather than the truth, and that is that we are here to serve Him.  The last part of Colossians 1:16 says, all things were created by him and for him.  In other words, you and I exist for him.  God doesn’t exist for or revolve around us.  We exist for him.

When we believe that God revolves around us, we reduce a holy God of the universe into a cosmic Coke machine.  What we do is, we put our quarters in, and we say our little prayer, and we press the button choosing which we want, and we expect God to deliver.  And if what we pray for doesn’t come out of a slot, we blame God, because there’s something wrong if God wants me happy, and yet, I’m not.  Therein lies the danger of this very subtle and very seductive urban legend that God wants you happy.

If God wants me happy, and I’m not, then God failed.  If God really desires for me to be happy, but I am miserable, then God didn’t deliver.  God didn’t do what I needed Him to do to make me happy.  So, as much as everyone I know wants to believe, “God wants me happy,” and as often as you will hear, “God wants you happy.  God wants you prosperous.”  As often as you will hear that, today I want us to see what the Bible really says.

I think a lot of the confusion comes because we misread a very popular verse.  In fact, most urban legends come from the misreading or partial reading of select verses, but they leave out the whole of Scripture.  It’s very dangerous to take one verse out of context and to have it say what we want it to say.  That’s what happens with this urban legend.  People take one sentence that Jesus said and get from it that God wants us to be happy.  Let me show you the verse.  Jesus is talking here in John 10:10 and he says this:  ¹⁰The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Now let’s talk through this verse for a minute.  This verse comes in the middle of a teaching that Jesus is giving about who he is.  He says things like he’s the good shepherd.  He says that his sheep hear his voice and follow him.  He says that he is the gate and the only way to salvation, which we’ll talk about in a couple of weeks.  But then we come to this very familiar verse which seems to imply or say that God wants us to be happy.

First, notice that it says there’s a thief and the thief comes to do three things.  What are they?  He comes to steal and to kill and to destroy.  Jesus is describing a real enemy that’s out to steal, kill and destroy.  I just want to say that there is an enemy who is out to destroy you.  There is an enemy that’s out to destroy your family.  There is an enemy that’s out to destroy your faith.  There is an enemy that’s out to destroy Hub City Church.  And the easiest way for him to destroy us is by getting us to believe the urban legends, by getting us to trade the truth for a lie.  And he has destroyed many people by convincing them that God wants them to be happy, because then when they’re not happy, they end up getting mad at God and turning their back on God because he didn’t do what they thought he should do.  And the enemy wins.

But it’s the last part of the verse that gets manipulated into the urban legend that God wants us to be happy.  I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.  Some of your translations might use the word abundant, or to have life more abundantly.  Let’s talk about that for a minute because that’s where the confusion comes from.

Now in our selfish little world, when we hear that, when we hear, life to the full or life more abundantly, we think about being happy, having all of our needs, wants and wishes met.  But is that what this verse is saying?

That phrase, have it to the full, or abundant, means way beyond what is necessary, or life beyond what we can imagine.  What Jesus is primarily talking about here is a life that happens after we die.  It’s a life that’s beyond what’s necessary in this one life in that it’s an eternal life, an everlasting life.  See, we believe that this life isn’t all there is.  We believe in life after death.  And for those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus that life after death is what Jesus is talking about here.

And yes, I do think that following Jesus, being a disciple of Jesus does help us to fulfill our purpose during this life, but that’s a long way from saying that God wants us to be happy.  It means that God wants something more for us than our happiness.

But there’s another problem with focusing just on that verse.  It leaves out a lot of other things Jesus said.  Later on, in this same book of John, Jesus said this in 16:33 –  ³³“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Does that sound like God wants you to be happy?  Not at all.  It sounds like Jesus is being realistic.  Life is hard.  You will have trouble.  But what Jesus wants for us is not happiness.  It’s peace in the midst of trouble.  And that comes from placing our trust in the one who overcomes.  Jesus says, in me is peace.  We’re never promised a life without problems or without pain.  We’re not promised a life of happiness.  But what we are promised is a God who will be with us through the problems or pain if we’ll just trust in him.

Or think about the beatitudes for a minute.  Have you ever read through those?  Here are just a few:  ³“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  ⁴Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.  ¹⁰Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Does that sound like God wants you to be happy?  Not really.  Nowhere in the beatitudes does it imply that God wants you happy.  It sounds, however, like God might want something more for you than happiness.  So if that’s the case, what does God want for you?  What does God what for you?

God wants for you to want him more than he wants for you to want happiness. We see this all throughout the Bible.  God wants for us to want him more than he wants for us to want happiness, or anything else for that matter.  That’s what the first and second of the Ten Commandments is all about.  Exodus 20:3-4 – ³ “You shall have no other gods before me.  ⁴“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. Wanting something more than God is called idolatry.  God wants us to want him more than anything else, including happiness.

That’s also what Jesus was getting at in the great commandment found in Matthew 22:37-38 – Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment.  God want us to want him more than he wants for us to want happiness or anything.

But here’s the really cool thing.  Flowing out of this idea, that God wants you to want him more than he wants you to want and pursue happiness, is a reward.  It’s that if we’ll want him first, he’ll give us something or we’ll receive something better than happiness.  1 Timothy 6:6 says, But Godliness with contentment is great gain.  The reward is contentment.  And here’s how the equation works.  We want God more than we want happiness.  God, through that relationship, grows us in Godliness, and as a result of that Godliness we find contentment.  Repeat.

You know what it means to be content don’t you?  It means to be satisfied with what you have, to be satisfied with your life, to not want more.

Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament, who most of us would put on a pedestal as a super Christian wrote something else about contentment in Philippians 4:12 – I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

The secret of being content is to want him more than you want happiness or anything else.

Does that describe you?  Too often it doesn’t describe me.  You can’t be content without making Jesus your priority.  I heard Rob Bell say one time that when you’re obedient to God you won’t want anybody else’s life.  When you’re pursuing God more than anything else then you’ll find contentment.

So let me ask you:  Have you bought into this urban legend and been burned by the lie?  Has believing the urban legend that God wants you to be happy distorted your view of God?  Do you feel like God owes you happiness?  Have you become so disgruntled with life because it really hasn’t turned out like you thought it should turn out?  God wants you to want him more than he wants you to want happiness.

A way we often see this played out in this part of the country is the thing where people hop from church to church to church.  They think that the church is supposed to meet their needs and make them happy, and when the church doesn’t deliver they leave in search of the perfect church.  I hate to break the news to you, but there’s no such thing as a perfect church.  But here’s the deal:  Church is like a family.  And when I think about my family, my job as a parent is not to make my kids happy.  I love it when they’re happy.  They are much easier to live with when they’re happy, but my job isn’t to make them happy.  My job is to give them a relational environment that loves, accepts and disciplines them so that they can be all that God created them to be, so they can grow into healthy, productive contributors to society.  The same is true with our church family.  God didn’t make the church so you could be happy.  We don’t exist to make you happy, but to help you grow into the disciple who makes disciples that God created you to be.  Buying into the urban legend that God wants you happy will keep you from growing into a disciple who makes disciples.

Now I want to ask you another question for you that may be hard to answer, but I want you to be just gut-level honest.  Are you pursuing happiness more than you are pursuing God?  Remember, God wants you to want him more than he wants you to want happiness.  So, are you pursuing happiness more than you are pursuing God?  Now, I will be really, really honest with you.  I’d like to say, “Man, I’m just, you know, I’m pursuing God, and all that kind of stuff, but when I’m really honest and I look at my life, I’d have to tell you that there are more seasons and longer seasons of my life where I’m honestly pursuing things, and what I want, and happiness more than I am pursuing God, and I want that to change.  If you relate and you are being really honest and say, “Man, I am.  I am off track here, and God, I want You to forgive me.  I want to pursue You more than anything else.”  If that is you today, I want you to lift your hand.  Just lift them high, and there are hands going up all over the place, maybe more hands than I’ve ever seen before.  “God, I ask that You would forgive us for being so easily distracted and pursuing the selfish things that are temporary and don’t matter to You.  God, we pray that we would be more focused on You than ever before, that we would put You first.  God, the moment we start to drift, and that would probably about five minutes from now, and later on today, and tomorrow and every day, bring us back, God.  We pray that You would bless us with whatever it takes to keep us close to You, even if it’s the very thing that we never want.  God, do whatever it takes to keep us close to You.  God, we want to know You intimately.  We want to serve You.  We want it to be about You.  We want to worship You.  We want to put You first, in every single way.”

 

Urban Legends – Week 1 – Everything happens for a reason

Subject: Fwd: Fw: ONIONS FOR COLLECTING THE FLU VIRUS

In 1919 when the flu killed 40 million people there was this Doctor that visited the many farmers to see if he could help them combat the flu. Many of the farmers and their family had contracted it and many died.

The doctor came upon this one farmer and to his surprise, everyone was very healthy. When the doctor asked what the farmer was doing that was different the wife replied that she had placed an unpeeled onion in a dish in the rooms of the home, (probably only two rooms back then). The doctor couldn’t believe it and asked if he could have one of the onions and placed it under the microscope. She gave him one and when he did this, he did find the flu virus in the onion. It obviously absorbed the virus, therefore, keeping the family healthy.

Now, I heard this story from my hairdresser in AZ. She said that several years ago many of her employees were coming down with the flu and so were many of her customers. The next year she placed several bowls with onions around in her shop. To her surprise, none of her staff got sick. It must work.. (And no, she is not in the onion business.)

The moral of the story is, buy some onions and place them in bowls around your home. If you work at a desk, place one or two in your office or under your desk or even on top somewhere. Try it and see what happens. We did it last year and we never got the flu.

If this helps you and your loved ones from getting sick, all the better. If you do get the flu, it just might be a mild case..

Whatever, what have you to lose? Just a few bucks on onions!

Now, I want to begin today’s sermon by asking you a question:  How many of you, by show of hands, believed the story I just told?  Come on, don’t be ashamed.  I hate to tell you, it’s not true.  It’s a folk remedy, and urban legend.  It’s a story that’s been passed around on the internet as truth, but it’s not true.  A raw onion sitting out in your house won’t keep you from getting the flu.  It’s a myth, an urban legend.

Our culture is full of urban legends.  We’ll share some of them throughout this series.  Some will be obviously false, others, well, you just might find out that you’ve been suckered into believing something that wasn’t completely true.

You know what an urban legend is, right?  It’s a story that seems true, that’s pretty believable, that supposedly happened to a real person.  They get passed along by second hand witnesses until they are widely known and believed.  We tell them around campfires.  They get passed along through the internet.

Well, I don’t know if you know this or not, but there are such things as spiritual urban legends.

A spiritual urban legend is just like a secular urban legend.  It’s a belief, story, assumption or truism that gets passed around as fact.  The source can be a friend, Bible study or even a sermon.  And because they sound so plausible and come from a trusted and reputable source, spiritual urban legends are often accepted without question and then quickly passed on.  Eventually, they begin to take on a life of their own, and it’s difficult to refute them because “everybody” knows they are true and anyone who questions their truth gets attacked.

Now, some spiritual urban legends aren’t all that harmful.  Like is someone mistakenly believes that the Bible teaches that God helps those who help themselves, or a penny saved is a penny earned or that Jesus was some sort of efeminite, white guy who walked from town to town in an old bathrobe with a blue sash hanging off of his sleeve.  These things might throw us off a small bit but they aren’t going to destroy our faith.

But, as we’re going to discover over the next few weeks, far too often, the consequences of believing spiritual urban legends can be devastating.  They can destroy our faith.  They can lead us to being mad at God.  They can hurt us.

My hope, over the next four weeks, is that you’ll start to question everything you hear, and test everything you believe against the actual words and teachings of the Bible.  Question what you hear me say and test it against what the Bible says.

Today, I want us to look at an urban legend that when you hear it, especially if you’ve grown up in the church or have any church background, you’re going to say, “that’s not an urban legend.  That’s true, and I have proof.”  But is it really true?  Let’s see.

This urban legend is one that usually comes up in the midst of a tragedy, a difficult time, a death or a loss, a breakup or a divorce.  Like have you ever had something bad happen to you and people come up to you, and they’re well intentioned, they mean good, they’re trying to be helpful, and they say things like:

-          God must be up to something.

-          God doesn’t make mistakes.

-          You must be very special for God to trust you with this.

-          Won’t it be great to see how God uses this?

-          Isn’t it good to know that everything happens for a reason?

Basically each of these statements contain this Urban Legend:  Everything happens for a reason.  Everything happens for a reason.

Now on the surface that sounds good, doesn’t it.  It’s supposed to bring comfort when bad things happen.  Actually, that’s usually when we hear this statement.  Your dad dies:  Everything happens for a reason.  Your boyfriend or girlfriend breaks up with you:  Everything happens for a reason.  Your dog runs away:  Everything happens for a reason.

This is a statement made by well-meaning and well-intentioned people who are trying to help you make sense out of the difficult time you find yourself in.  But is that really true?  Does everything really happen for a reason?

Now, in one sense, when people say these things to us they are absolutely right.  No matter what happens, God is in control.  He is the King of the universe.  He’s a good God.

But that in no way, shape or form means that he’s the direct cause of everything that happens.  It doesn’t mean that everything that happens in our lives is something that he wants to happen.  It certainly doesn’t mean that everything that he allows to happen is good.

Think about it:  God did not cause Satan to rebel.  God did not cause Eve to eat the forbidden fruit.  God did not cause David to sleep with Bathsheba.  God did not force the Roman soldiers to kill Jesus.  Or think about this: When the Nazi’s killed 6 million Jews, did that happen for a reason?  When the Tsunami killed 150,000 Indonesians, did that happen for a reason?  Did 911 happen for a reason?

Let’s make it more personal.  Did you’re parents getting a divorce happen for a reason?  Did your breakup with your boyfriend or girlfriend happen for a reason?  Did the abuse that happened to you when you were a kid happen for a reason?  Was God behind all of that?  Does everything that happens happen for a reason?

Now I know what some of you are thinking.  There’s a verse that’s in your head right now that you’ve got as proof for saying that everything happens for a reason.  This verse is really the basis of this Urban Legend.  It’s found in Romans 8:28.  This is a verse that is used in funerals, or when tragedy strikes, to bring comfort to those who are suffering.  But does it really say that everything happens for a reason?

I believe that this verse gets misquoted all the time when it comes to working our way through life’s difficulties.  Christians and non-Christians who have just a little bit of Bible knowledge quote this verse.  It’s on coffee mugs, t-shirts and all kinds of other stuff that you can buy at a Christian bookstore.

But Romans 8:28 doesn’t say or mean what most people think it does.  In fact, as we’re going to see, it doesn’t even apply to a large percentage of those who turn to it for comfort.

I think that some of the confusion comes because most people who quote Romans 8:28, quote the old King James version of the verse.  It says,  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Isn’t that a great verse?  On the surface this seems to imply that everything that happens is part of God’s greater plan.  It appears to say that, in time, everything that happens prove to be good or necessary.

But the KJV translation is more confusing than accurate.  A more accurate translation of Romans 8:28 is, And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Now look at those two translations for a minute.  Do you see the difference?  It doesn’t say that everything that happens is good.  It simply says that God is at work in all things.  In other words, what Romans 8:28 says is that there is nothing that can thwart God’s ultimate plan.  God can and will accomplish his good purposes no matter what.  But that’s a big difference from saying that everything that happens is good or necessary.

Think about it:  If every disaster, death, financial problem, infideltity, hurt or abuse that comes our way are sent directly from God, then what does that say about God?  If these are a reflection of God’s goodness then we would have seen them in the garden of Eden or in the descriptions of a perfect heaven.  But that is not the case.

Notice something else from the verse that gets overlooked.  Let’s read it again.  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  This verse is not a promise for everyone.  It’s not even a promise for every Christian.  It’s a promise for a specific kind of person.  It’s a person who’s supposed to meet two important criteria.  What are they?  They are to be someone who (1) Loves God, and (2) has been called according to his purpose.

Now who is that?  Who are those people?

Jesus is pretty clear about what a person who loves God is.  Look at this verse in John 14:15, this is Jesus talking:   If you love me, you will obey what I command.  So you tell me, what characterizes somebody who loves God?  Obedience.  So first, this verse applies to those who are obedient, because that’s what it means to love God.

Second, that phrase, who have been called according to his purpose, refers to those people who have become followers or disciples of Jesus.

That leaves out a lot of people.  That may leave you out.

It leaves out the person you work with who has no interest in spiritual things but just found out she had her third miscarriage.  God loves her, yes.  God has a preferred future for her if and when she turns to Jesus.  But Romans 8:28 has nothing to say to her present heartache.

These conditions also leave out the really nice guy who lives next door to you, who you’ve been trying to witness to, you’ve been inviting him to church, who lost his job a month ago and may have to foreclose on his house.  When you tell him that God must have something better for him, it might make both him and you feel better, but it’s wishful thinking.  God doesn’t promise that to those who aren’t followers of Jesus, no matter how nice they are.

Some Christians are even left out of this.  Like, if you are living in deliberate disobedience to God in some area of your life, God doesn’t promise that he’s going to step in and fix the mess that your disobedience has created.

Think about David and Bathsheba.  Sure, David was forgiven for sleeping with another man’s wife and killing her husband.  Sure, God used David in an incredible way to write Scripture after his sin.  And eventually God brought some good out of David’s union with Bathsheba with the birth of Solomon.  But things would have been a lot better if he’d never laid eyes on her.  Their firstborn died in infancy.  David spent the rest of his life at war.  His family was the poster family for dysfunction.  None of these things really sounds as if it qualifies for God’s wonderful plan for his life.

I know this sounds harsh.  It is kind of harsh, but it’s what the verse says.  And remember, like we said at the beginning.  Believing spiritual urban legends can destroy your faith.  I’d rather you get upset with the truth than to be destroyed by a lie.

There is beauty and promise in Romans 8:28, but it’s not that everything that happens to us is good and is from God.  It’s that no matter what happens to us or how bad things get that God’s ultimate and eternal purposes won’t be foiled.  And for those who love God, who are obedient to him, and who have been called according to his purpose, God can take tragedy and bad things and overcome them.

I think the real issue we struggle with is between what God causes and what he allows.  The Bible does have instances where God does cause difficulty, tragedy and hard times, but the Bible is clear that there are a number of times where dark, difficult and hard times have nothing to do with God’s wonderful plan for our lives.  I’ve come up with a few:

Sinful choices – Sometimes the trials and hardships we face are the result of sinful choices.  That’s not God’s doing.  That’s our doing.

Life in a fallen world – Sometimes bad things happen because we live in a fallen world.  All of us are suffering from the consequences of Adam’s sin.  You’ve got bad people doing bad things that hurt people.  You’ve got mother nature who seems to always have a bad case of PMS somewhere in the world.  You’ve got Murphy’s law which says that if something can go wrong it will go wrong.  We all live under the consequence of the fall and when it comes to its consequences, none of us are immune.

Foolish decisions – Think about it, sometime we just make dumb decisions.  They don’t even have to be sinful, just foolish, dumb decisions.  It’s crazy to blame God for every idiotic decision that we make.

Sometimes difficulties come as the result of sinful choices, or because we live in a fallen world, or because we make foolish decisions.

Well, so what?  Why is this urban legend all that important?  I want to tell you why believing the right thing in this area is so important.  The reason this is important is because wrong beliefs are dangerous.  They can lead down paths that produce great spiritual harm.

Think about it, if everything is God’s fault, then what’s your first emotional response to that?  I’ll tell you what mine is.  It’s anger.  If it’s God’s fault that all these bad thing are happening to me, then he can’t be that good of a God.  He’s just a jerk.  Most of us know someone who wants nothing to do with Jesus or God because of some tragedy that happened in their life for which they blamed God.  But if everything happens for a reason and God’s behind everything, then they have a right to be angry.  Wrong beliefs about this can lead us to a distorted view of God.  That can be damaging to our faith.

Another unintended consequence of assuming that there’s a God-ordained reason behind everything is that we can begin to gloss over sin.  To say sin’s not that big of a deal because God’s causing everything anyway.  It would be like saying it was ok to have an affair because it resulted in a happy marriage or that it was ok to split a church because a new church was birthed or that it was ok that the guy committed murder because he came to know Jesus while in prison.  Most of us would say that kind of thinking is crazy, and you’d be right, because it is.  God never, ever, never approves of our sin.  He doesn’t cause it.  He doesn’t even use it.  He overcomes it.  That’s grace!  We’ll come back to that in a minute.  But it’s dangerous if we start to gloss over sin.  That will lead us down a path that none of us want to be on.

All of this leads to a big question:  If the statement, everything happens for a reason, is an urban legend, then can a bad thing ever be a good thing?  Can a bad thing ever be a good thing?  There are situations in the Bible where God takes something bad and uses it for good.  My favorite example is the story of Joseph, whose brothers sold him into slavery, but who eventually became the number 2 man in charge of Egypt.  But here’s the thing about that story:  I’m not sure we can blame God for causing Joseph to be enslaved.  What we do discover, however, is that God used it for good.  God overcame what happened to Joseph.

And that leads us to the most important thing we need to remember.  What’s important to remember in the midst of difficulty is not that God causes everything that comes in our lives, but that he can overcome it.  And the key to his overcoming is our obedience.  It goes back to what we learned from Romans 8:28.  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  God works for our good when we live in obedience to him.

So I’ve got to ask:  Do you qualify?  Do you love God?  Are you living in obedience to Jesus’ commands?  To do that you need to know what he says.  Spend time in this book.  There is incredible value to that.  One being that you will know the truth, that you won’t fall for the Urban Legends, and that the truth can set you free.  Another being that obedience opens the door for God to bring good out of the bad.

Next, are you called according to his purpose?  Are you a follower of Jesus?  If not, you can do something about that today.  Just say, “God, I’m a sinner.  I need your forgiveness.  I believe Jesus died on the cross for my sin and rose from the dead.  I want my life to be lived for you and your purposes.  Save me.”

 

Fool Proof – week 6 – The Best Decision Ever

Let’s be honest, none of us wants to make a mess out of our lives.  None of us wants to get to the end of our life and look back with regret.  None of us want to get to the end of the year and look back with regret.  All of us want to get the most out of life.  All of us want to get the most out of our relationships, out of our finances, out of our jobs, out of our time.  Each of us wants to get to the end of our lives and have something worth looking back on.

But the problem is, if we’re honest, if we look at our lives, all of us live with some kind of regret.  We all live with some kind of baggage that we wish we could go back and change, that we wish we could go back and undo.

Well the goal of this series is to try and figure out a way that we might be able to foolproof our life.  To discover if there’s a way to live a life with little or no regret.  And we have said that the way to fool proof our life is to ask the best question ever about every decision, every opportunity, every invitation.  And we said that the best question ever is:  What is the wise thing to do?  In light of my past experience, in light of my current circumstance, in light of my future hopes and dreams, what is the wise thing to do?  That really is the best question ever.

Well, this morning I want to talk about what comes before you get to the best question ever.  Asking the best question ever is one thing, but before you get to the best question ever you need to make the best decision ever.  And this is really a principle that you might push back against at first, but I believe it’s a principle that we all follow on a daily basis so that we can get the most out of life.  The principle is this:  To make wise decisions I have to acknowledge and submit to the body of knowledge that allows me to make wise decisions.  Now let me explain that, in all of life there are laws or rules that govern how things work.  If you’re not aware of the rules or the laws it is impossible for you to make the wisest choice.  So, to make wise decisions each of us has to acknowledge and submit to the body of knowledge, the rules, the laws that allows us to make wise decisions.

Now, if you’re like me, when you hear the word “rules” a wall starts to go up.  I’m not a big rule person and I especially don’t like dumb rules.  You know what I’m talking about.  Dumb rules, stupid rules.  Rules that are useless and a waste of time:  Take your shoes off before you play on the playground in McDonalds (go ahead, get a fungus), I don’t like dumb rules.

But even though I don’t like dumb rules I am really a rule person.  I am a stickler about following the rules that aren’t dumb rules.  I know that makes me a subjective rule follower, but I think that we should follow good rules.  Don’t you?

But the interesting thing is that, no matter if you like rules, or laws or principles or not, each of us intentionally submits ourselves to rules, laws, principles on a regular basis because of the benefit that it brings us.  Let me illustrate it this way:

Each of the past 8 years, around March, I have taken all of my income statements to my accountant and I say, “Steve, here’s the stuff.  Prepare my tax return.”  And the reason I’ve given that stuff to Steve is because Steve knows the rules.  Steve knows the laws and Steve understands accounting.  And there are a lot of decisions that need to be made and I know that he will make those decisions better than me because the wisest decisions that are made in that context are made by people who understand tax rules and understand the boundaries.

I have renovated and re-roofed a number of houses in my life.  And when I’m in those situations I submit to the coordinators who are in charge because they understand, they know the codes.  They know how to put a roof on the right way.  They know what tools we need to use.  They know how the job should be done.  If I were to step in and start making suggestions they would probably throw me off the roof, because I don’t have training, I have no idea what I’m doing.  See, I differ to their judgment because the people who make the wisest decisions when it comes to construction are the people who understand the principles of construction.

These people are drawing from a body of knowledge that I don’t have.  They know the rules.  They know the limits.  They know the principles.  They understand the context in which they need to make decisions.

The same is true in medicine.  The same is true in art.  The same is true in music.  The same is true where you work.  You have the education or training so that you know the laws or rules, and as you draw from those you are able to make wise decisions in whatever area or arena that you work.

This is true in sports as well.  The people who are champions, the teams that win, are the teams that know the rules, the regulations, the options of their particular sport, so that they know what is best to do in whatever situation they are in so that they might possibly win.

It’s true in every arena of life.

Now the interesting thing about this principle, and we’re all impacted by it every single day in whatever we do and wherever we work and in whatever kind of family you have, the interesting thing about this is that knowing the limits and knowing the laws and knowing the rules of any particular arena or any job or wherever, does not make the decisions for you.  What it does is it narrows the scope of the decisions.  Simply knowing the rules, knowing the laws, understanding the contexts of any area, it doesn’t automatically make decisions for you, but what it does is it limits the options.  You know immediately what can and can’t be done.  You know that there aren’t ten options, there are only three options.  You know there are things where there’s no point in even trying because you know better than to try those things.

This is a principle that works for us or against us all the time.  Many of us, isn’t this true, have tried to make decisions without knowing the rules and the laws, and have paid for it, haven’t we?  Have you ever tried fixing your car or trying to fix a leaky pipe?  After trying to be the hero and failing miserably you go find a mechanic or a plumber because you realize you weren’t an expert and you realize that they know something that you don’t know.  There’s a body of knowledge, there’s some rules, some ideas, some principles that they are able to draw from that I don’t have.  So we say to other people, “You fix my car.  You repair my plumbing.  I’m going to trust you to make those decisions for me because you know the rules.”

There are always options in any of those arenas, but by understanding the principles, the laws, the rules of any arena you understand how many options there are and you know what things aren’t options.  Are you with me so far?  This is somewhat common sense.  These things impact our lives everyday.

Let’s take it one step farther.  It’s not just a matter of being aware of the rules, the laws, the limits in whatever discipline you work in or whatever field you work in.  Being aware of the rules, being aware of the principles is not enough.  What we do, even though we don’t use this word, in order to make wise decisions in any arena of life, not only are we aware of the principles and the values and the laws, but we submit ourselves to them.  When the surgeon walks in to the operating room to perform surgery, it’s not that he’s just aware of how the body works.  They’re not simply aware of how medicine works.  They’re not simply aware of how to do surgery.  They actually submit themselves to all that knowledge.  They submit themselves to those principles and rules, and by submitting themselves they are able to make a wise decision.  The same is true in fixing cars, the same is true in teaching, the same is true in engineering.  It’s not simply a matter of what we know, it’s a matter of are we willing to submit ourselves to what we know, to make decisions under the umbrella of that authority.  When we do that, our ability to make wise decisions is enhanced significantly.

Here’s what’s really puzzling to me.  That even though, every day of my life and every day of your life, we are constantly submitting ourselves to all kinds of authority and man made rules to get things done.  Even though most of us acknowledge that there’s a creator out there somewhere who’s given us the laws of physics and given us an understanding of how the body works.  Even though that happens every single day, all the time, there is still something in me as there is something in you that resists the notion of surrendering in total to the God who’s behind all of that.

In other words, there’s a God behind physics, there’s a God behind gravity, there’s a God who’s created the people who’ve created the systems that we follow.  And even though I’m willing to submit myself to many of those people, and even though I’m willing to follow the rules in all kinds of other areas.  When it comes down to it, that even though I believe there’s a God behind all of that, even though there’s a creator behind the creation, for some reason is it so hard for me to submit to his authority.  When it comes down to submitting to the one who created all of that, I resist.  There’s something that’s scary about saying, “I surrender all of my life to God and I’m going to submit to his authority.”

Think about it this way:  Whenever I go to a doctor I trust that the doctor to knows everything he or she could possibly know about the human body, that God created by the way.  I trust them to know the body inside and out.  I trust that they have explored and read up on and have been educated in all the latest techniques and how the body works and how certain medicines impact certain chemicals.  And I trust that when they’re telling me I need medicine that I am getting the best advice possible.  And as a result of trusting them, I am willing to submit myself to their counsel, their authority.  But at the same time I resist submitting myself to the counsel of the one who gives them counsel.  I resist submitting myself to the one that’s behind all that I’m submitting myself to when I come to them to fix me.

We’ll listen to our doctor, We’ll take all kinds of advice from a doctor, but when it comes to God telling us what we should do we resist, don’t we?

Is it any wonder that we make some of the dumb decisions that we make?  In other words, if there’s a God of all wisdom.  If there’s a God of creation.  If there’s a God who understands and knows the laws and the principles of life, not just medicine, not just business, not just law, not just art or music, but if there’s a God who knows, and who has created the rules and the principles and the context for all of life, and I am unwilling to acknowledge he is there and I am unwilling to submit to that body of knowledge that would inform my decisions and allow me to make wise decisions, is it any wonder that we do the dumb things that we do?  Is it any wonder that we get ourselves into trouble and say, “How did I get into this?”  Is it any wonder that we have regret?  Is it any wonder that we have guilt?

In all of life we understand this principle:  To make wise decisions I have to acknowledge and submit to the body of knowledge that allows me to make wise decisions.  But then when it comes to our lives and life in general, we ignore, we resist.  And we say to God, in so many terms, “Go ahead and do your own thing, but leave me alone.  I want to do what I want to do.  Granted, I need the wisdom of doctors, granted I need the wisdom of accountants, granted I need the wisdom of all these other people, but I don’t need your wisdom. Because I will call my own shots.  I will do my own thing.”

And what many of us are discovering, what many of us have discovered, that just as you lose in any arena of life where you ignore the context and the principles, you lose in life when you ignore the wisdom, and you refuse to submit to the father of all truth and all wisdom.

It was this principle that I just described, in part, that drove the author of the verse we’re going to look at today to write what he did.  He was said to be the wisest man in the world.  And if you know anything about Solomon you know that even though he was the wisest man in the world he laid aside that wisdom and sought satisfaction in sex, money, alcohol and really anything else he could think of under the sun.  And he came to the conclusion that all of that was meaningless.  In other words, there is no satisfaction in any of that stuff.  When he tried out everything in life and ignored the God who was behind it all he came to the conclusion that it was all vanity, meaningless, a waste.  There is no fulfillment, there is no satisfaction in life outside of the context of submission to the God who’s behind all that I have seen and all that I’ve experienced.  And so, with that in mind, look at what Solomon writes in Proverbs 9:10:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…  in other words, wisdom begins, wisdom begins, in terms of all of life just like wisdom begins in any arena.  God says that wisdom in general, wisdom in life begins with the fear of the lord.

Let me give you a definition for the fear of the Lord:  The fear of the Lord simply means recognition and reverence that leads to submission. The fear of the Lord is recognition and reverence that leads to submission.  That is:  I recognize the You’re God and I’m not, which means you’re always smarter than I am, which means that even when you ask me to do something that I don’t understand that there’s something behind it that I will understand, therefore, I’m going to say yes even before I understand.  And not only do I recognize You for who You are, I’m going to revere you, that is, I am going to reverence you and I’m going to do what anyone would do who recognizes that there is a God.

You know what you do when you come face to face with the fact that there is a God in heaven?  You know what the natural, ordinary, normal thing to do is if you really believe that there is a God who controls all things and is behind all things?  What else can you do but submit?  How do you resist God?  How do you say no to God?  How do you argue with God?  How do you try to outsmart God, or prove to God that he’s been illogical?  See, the natural thing to do when you come face to face with the fact that there is a God is to submit and surrender.  It’s just a natural response.  The fear of the Lord that is the beginning of all wisdom is to recognize that He is God and you are not.  And to respond like anyone would respond who recognized that there is a God and they are not him.  And that is simply to submit to Him as we submit every single day to all kinds of rules and regulations and laws for the sake of the result or the return we get from submitting.

And Solomon says, “I’m here to tell you:  the beginning of wisdom as it relates to all of life, the beginning is the submission to, the recognition of the fact that God is God and you are not.  That it’s not about what.  It’s about who.  It’s not about what he asks.  It’s about who is doing the asking.  That the beginning of wisdom is not consideration of God.  The beginning of wisdom is not contemplation of God’s will.  The beginning of wisdom is to say “Yes, yes, yes.  Now what is the question?”  To say, “God, because You’re God, I’m going to say yes regardless of what you say because, after all, you’re God.”  Solomon says that’s the beginning of wisdom.

He goes on to elaborate in the second half of the verse:  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.  That is literally, knowledge of God brings understanding to all of life.

Here’s what Solomon discovered:  As I feared the Lord, that is, as I have revered and submitted to God, I’ve gained great understanding.  All of a sudden I have these A-ha moments where I say, “No wonder you said that God, no wonder you require that God, no wonder you ask me to do that God, no wonder you said no to that God, no wonder your standards are so high God.  A-ha, now that I have submitted to You I am beginning to understand.”  Submission comes first, understanding comes later.

And he goes on to say that as your understanding of the Holy One increases it leads to wisdom.  Just like in any other arena, as you approach life you begin to understand God’s rules, God’s principles, God’s regulations, and as you understand and submit to them you are then liberated and freed up to know what your options are, and you’re liberated and freed up to make the wisest choices possible.  Because in your submission and your understanding, there you find wisdom for life.  Isn’t that powerful?

This takes us back to our premise:  That in every arena of life there are rules regulations and principles and if you discover and submit to them you are able to make wise decisions.  God says, “the same is true in the broadest sense of life, that if you come to me, and you submit to who I am, if you submit to what I want you to know, you will gain understanding, and from your understanding you will be freed up to make the wisest choice possible.

Isn’t it interesting, that for most of us, maybe all of us, but at least most of us, our greatest regrets were at a time when we were consciously running from God?  Isn’t it interesting that in those moments when you decided to move in, when you decided to say yes, when you decided to move, you decided to go there, you decided to stay late, whatever the deal was, isn’t it interesting that there was something in us that we think of as conscience, but for many of us it is more than conscience.  It was a God thing, and you decided, “I’m not going to listen.  I’m going to do my own thing.  God, the answer is no.”  And we look back and wonder why it didn’t work out.  We wonder why that’s the chapter in our lives where there was the most regret.  And it’s because of this principle.

And Solomon says, “I’m telling you, the beginning of wisdom isn’t experience.  The beginning of wisdom is when I say yes.  It’s when I submit to the God of all wisdom.

Can I tell you something?  Your heavenly father wants you to have a regret free life.  But you and I cannot create that on our own.  And if we’re honest, we all know that we have enough tears, enough scars, enough hurt to know that when we try to do things on our own and tell God to “stay out of my life, I’m going to do what I want.”  We don’t end up with the life that we hoped we’d get.  That’s because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

None of us in here this morning wants to end up with a life that’s a mess.  None of us wants to end up with a life that’s filled with regrets and disappointments.  But as long as we cling to our pride and say, “I’m going to do things my way.  And I’ll leverage your principles when they fit into my agenda.  And I’ll follow your principles when they get me to where I want to go.  And I’m willing to submit to all kinds of people that you’ve created.  And I’m willing to submit to all kinds of systems that have been established by people that you’ve created, but when it comes to just wholeheartedly selling out and submitting to you, forget it, because I’m going to do what I want to do.”

If that’s you, can you understand why your heavenly father’s heart breaks?  Why he’s not angry, but why he’s sorrowful?  Because He knows what together you could become, and he stands on the sidelines honoring your freedom, refusing to interfere, and watches instead what you’re becoming.

Now, everybody got a box of matches, I want you to get it out.  I want you to hold it just like this.  This is how we come into the world, isn’t it?  My life.  My money, my relationships, my morality, my evenings, my spring breaks, my college freshman year, my, my, my, my, my, my, my.  I want you to know, that as your pastor, my heart’s desire, and I believe the heart’s desire of our heavenly father, is I want us to be a community of people that says, “It’s yours.  I’ve seen what I can do on my own.  I’m ready to see what you can do as I submit and recognize who you are and give you the opportunity to guide and direct and protect me.”

See isn’t it true, and if you’ve been here for the past few weeks you know we’ve been talking about what is the wise thing to do?  In light of my past experience, in light of my current circumstances, in light of my future hopes and dreams, what is the wise thing to do?  That I am a unique blend of past, present and future, so it’s not enough to say, “What is everybody else doing?”  It’s not enough to say, “What does the Law say?”  It’s not enough to say, “What’s moral?”  The best question of all is what is the wise thing for me to do?

Isn’t it true that at times when we try to apply this, the reason we don’t ask, what is the wise thing to do, is because I already know what the wise thing to do is.  My problem isn’t that I don’t know what to do in light of my past, present and future.  The problem is that I don’t want to ask what the wise thing to do is because I already know the answer.  That’s why this issue is the most important issue when it comes to wisdom.  The beginning of wisdom is not asking the question.  The beginning of wisdom is saying, “God, regardless of the answer, I’m available.  In light of my past experience, my current circumstances, my future hopes and dreams, I really do want to know what the wise thing to do is, and I have pre-decided to say yes to you my God and my king.  Now, what is the wise thing for me to do?”

The desire of your heavenly father is that you would foolproof your life.  The desire of your heavenly father is that you would ask the best question of all.  But the beginning is not the best question of all.  The beginning is the best decision of all. To pre-decide.  That is, you guide me in wisdom and I’m going to say yes, because I trust you.

Now I want you to hold on to your box of matches one more time.  Some of you have been a Christian for a while and I want to ask you this:  Who’s holding your life?  I know you believe in your head that Jesus died for your sins and rose from the grave.  You’ve got that knowledge in your head, but have you ever made the decision that whatever the question is the answer is yes?  Have you pre-decided to say yes?

Some of you who are Christians have done that.  You’ve made the best decision ever that the answer is yes, but you’re not sure what that means.  I mean, there are so many issues.  There are so many choices.  There are so many opinions out there.  So here’s my question for you:  Where are you going to find out what this means?  Here are two things you need to do:  One, you need to spend time praying and reading your Bible every day.  Two, you need to be in a Hub group.  Those two things, practiced consistently, will provide you with some handles for this.

Some of you have felt God kind of knocking on the door of your heart and you’ve been saying, “Ok, ok, ok, and today you’re sitting there like this.  You are so close to saying, “God, I’m just going to surrender control of my life to you.”  Well, in a moment we are going to close with a song and I want you to, in the quietness of your own heart, to say to God, today’s my day.  I’m surrendering control of my life to you.  The answer is yes, yes, yes.  I’m no longer afraid to ask what is the wise thing to do, because I’ve pre-decided to say yes, as I surrender to you.

Others of you, you’re not a Christian, you came for the free donuts, you thought you were coming to see Paranormal Activity and instead you got us, you’ve got questions, you’re still struggling with this whole God thing, if there is a God, who is God, and if you could just figure out if this whole God/Jesus thing is for real then you would want to want to open your hand.  You don’t want to, but you want to want to.   “I want to want to, but I don’t want to yet.”  Here’s what I want you to do.  As we sing in a minute, I want you to just tell your heavenly father that.  You don’t even have to believe that he’s there, but tell him honestly what’s going on in your mind.  Ask that he’d bring you to the place where you can make the best decision ever and then just see if he shows up.  Be honest and tell him what’s in your heart.  He can handle that.

In all of life we submit to rules, regulations, principles in order to make wise decisions.  In life in general the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.  Isn’t it time to submit to the God who wants to take your life and make it foolproof?



 

Fool Proof – week 5 – A little help from our friends

Here we are in part five of this series we’ve titled:  Fool Proof.  And a few weeks ago when we began this series we said there was one question we need to ask of every decision, every opportunity, every invitation that comes your way.  What we said was that this one question has the ability to fool proof your marriage, fool proof your finances, fool proof your career, fool proof your life.  We called this the best question of all, and I want you to say it with me:  What is the wise thing to do?

In light of my past experience, current circumstances and future hopes and dreams, what is the wise thing to do?

This morning we’re going to take a little bit of a detour and ask this question:  What happens if you really are committed to doing the wise thing, but you don’t know what the wise thing is?  What if you’re at a point where you’re willing to say, “God, I really do want to do the wise thing, I’m ready to quit pretending, to quit playing games, I’m ready to quit deceiving myself and to quit doing what everybody else is doing, and asking where’s the line instead of asking, what is the wise thing to do?  I really do want to know what the wise thing to do is, but I don’t know what the wise thing to do is in this particular relationship.  I don’t know what the wise thing to do is in this particular arena of my finances.  I don’t know what the wise thing is to do professionally.  I don’t know what the wise thing to do is in light of what’s going on in my marriage.  I’m going to ask the question, but I’m not sure what the wise thing to do is.

I think there are two main areas where most of us struggle with figuring out what the wise thing to do is:  The first is in arenas where there’s a lot of emotion.  Emotion is like a fog in the decision-making process.

It can be a positive emotion like, “I’m in love.”  I mean, love is a fog, isn’t it?  “Five bedrooms.”  “No money down.”  There are all kinds of emotions that impact and fog our decision making process.  And when there’s a lot of high emotion it’s difficult to see straight and make wise decisions.  It’s difficult to know what the wise thing to do is.

It can be a negative emotion as well.  You’re really, really angry, or you’re jealous, or you’re very, very resentful, you’re not getting your way, and suddenly you find yourself about to make a decision, and even in those moments when you realize there’s all this stuff, uugghh, going on inside of you and you know you need to ask, what is the wise thing to do, but in that fog of emotion, it is very difficult to see straight.  It’s very difficult to discern, what is the wise thing to do.

In fact, I bet this, I bet your greatest regret, whether it was a night, or a season of life, or a marriage, or a weekend or a spring break or whatever it might be, I bet your greatest regret has to do with decisions you made when there was a lot of emotion.  It might have been anger.  It might have been lust.  It might have been somebody who was trying to sell you something and they pressured you into something.  See, your greatest regret, and mine, were unwise decisions that we made when our emotions were swirling around and we just couldn’t see straight.

A second environment where I have a hard time discerning what the wise thing to do is, and maybe you can relate to this, it’s when I’m asked to make a decision within a realm that I don’t really have enough expertise to make a decision in.  Maybe it’s a lack of education, training or experience.

Maybe it’s because I’m the leader or I’m the father, or whatever the situation is, I’m asked to make a decision and I just don’t have the background or the education or the experience to make a wise decision.

If you’re a leader, if you own your own company or you’re a manager you understand this, when you’re the point person you feel as if, “I’m supposed to know, and whether I know or not I need to at least look like I know.  And I need to say something intelligent,” so you ask them to give you a minute and you run to a back room and say, “Oh God, I don’t know what to do!”

But you’re supposed to know.  You’re the manager, you’re supposed to know.  You’re the dad, you’re supposed to know.  You’re the president, you’re the head of the student body, whatever, you’re supposed to know.  But when you don’t have the experience or the expertise or whatever, how do you make a wise decision in those realms where there’s a lot of emotion or where you don’t have the expertise you need?

I want to tell you a secret this morning.  This is the secret of all wise people.  Every wise person you know, knows this secret.  In fact, this is how they became wise.  In fact, when I tell you this secret you are going to realize that they weren’t as wise as you thought they were.  But they sure seem to be wise, because here’s what every wise person knows:  Wise people know when they don’t know, and they’re not afraid to go to those who know.  Wise people know when they don’t know.  That is they don’t deceive themselves, they don’t pretend, they don’t act like they’re smarter than they are.  Wise people know when they’ve reached the end of their knowledge.  Wise people know when there’s too much emotion.  Wise people know when they don’t know and they are courageous enough, they’re not afraid, and oohh, that takes a lot of security to say, “I’m in charge, and I have no idea.  I’m your father, and I don’t know either.  I’m your mother, we need to think about this.  I’m in charge, I’m the manager, I’m whatever.

Wise people know when they don’t know and they are not afraid to go to those who know.  Every wise person you know, the people you consider wise, you talk to them and they’ll probably say it in a different way, but here’s what they know:  Every wise person knows when they reach the end, when it’s not a good time to make a decision, when they don’t know and they are not afraid to go to people who know.  Wise people seek wise council.

Now that’s not intuitive, because you think, “If they’re wise then they don’t need wise counsel.”  That’s wrong.  They get counsel, that’s why they are wise.

The most amazing insights into the Bible is that the wisest person in the whole Bible, other than Jesus, the wisest man who ever lived was a king named Solomon.  And God gave him the gift of wisdom.  He had more wisdom than anyone who had ever lived.  He was the wisest man in the world.  And the wisest man who ever lived had more to say about seeking counsel than anyone else who wrote in the Bible.

Now you would think that the wisest man would say nothing about seeking counsel.  Why would the wisest man in the world say so much about seeking counsel?  Because, he’s the wisest man in the world.  Because wise people know when they don’t know, and they’re not afraid to go to those who know.

Let me just throw a few of these verses up on the screen.  A wise man will hear and increase in learning (that is, they will listen), and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel. Proverbs 1:5.  Now you say, “Wait a minute, they are a man of understanding or a woman of understanding, why would they aquire wise counsel?”  How do you think they became a man or a woman of understanding?  That even with all they know, they are not afraid to increase what they know by asking other people.  Look at this second one.

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes (that is, “I don’t need anyone telling me what to do.  I’ve got it all figured out.  I’m 18, I’m a freshman in college, I just graduated from college, I own my own company)  The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man (no age, no matter what age) is he who listens to counsel. Proverbs 12:15.  In other words, this is what characterizes wise people.  A wise person never gets so wise that they don’t need counsel.  A wise person is always listening out for wise counsel.  That’s how they became wise.

Wise men and women know when they don’t know and they’re not afraid to go to those who know.

Now let me tell you why this is so important and we’re going to look at an Old Testament story that illustrates this in a minute found in Genesis 41.  You can go ahead and find it, put your handout in there or something and we’ll come back to it in a minute, but here’s why this is so important.  These few insights could possibly change your whole perspective on getting counsel.  Here’s the deal, I’m going to make three statements:

First:  The decisions, in fact I would say many or most, many or most of the decisions that you make privately and independently, that is the decisions you made in the quietness of your own heart, independent of any outside advice, the decisions you make privately or independently will later on become public knowledge, right?  You privately decide to buy a house, before long everybody knows where you live.  You privately and independently decide to lease a car, everybody knows what you drive.  You privately and independently decide to ask here out, before long everybody knows you’ve asked her out.  You privately and independently decided to take this new job, before long everybody knows you have a new job.  Most of the decisions we make privately and independently eventually become public knowledge, right?

Secondly, and this is the tricky one, most, or at least many, of the decisions you make privately and independently are judged by the people around you.  I don’t know if this is just me, but Liz and I talk about our friends….  We do.  We just lost some of our friends with that statement…but we hear stuff and say, “Did you know that he just asked her out?  Did you know that they’re moving?  Did you see their new house?  Did you see, did you know?  Maybe it’s just us but we talk about the decisions our friends make.  Don’t you?

And isn’t it true, and maybe we’re not supposed to do this, but it’s just human nature, but isn’t it true that in some way, shape, or form you pass judgement on the decisions that your friends make.  “I can’t believe she’s doing that.  I can’t believe he’s marrying her.  I can’t believe they’re splitting up.  I can’t believe….  I mean I know we’re not supposed to judge, but isn’t it true, and if you’re a teenager you do this all the time, at every area of life, don’t we pass judgment on the decisions that people around us make?  I don’t mean we’re negative or critical, but we do this.

Well, the same is true of you.  You have a public.  It may be 20 or 200 people, but people are constantly passing judgment on the decisions you make privately and independently.

Third statement:  For many of us, the decisions that we make privately and independently are not only known by the public, not only judged by the public, but the decisions that we make privately and independently effect other people.  As a pastor, every decision I make about Hub City effects a lot of people.  I can make it privately and independently, but the effects are felt publicaly.  Every decision that I make as a father in our home, I may make it privately or independently, but the effects are felt by at least four other people.  The decisions that you make privately and independently, the effects or the results of those decisions are felt publicly.

So here’s the question:  If your decisions, as you’re trying to discern what’s the wise thing to do in a certain relationship, what’s the wise thing to do financially, what’s the wise thing to do professionally, what’s the wise thing to do here, if the results of those decisions are number one, going to be known publicly; number 2, are going to be judged publicly; and number three, are going to effect other people, then why not get other people in on the decision making process before the decision is made because it’s not going to be a secret after the decision is made?

That just makes sense.  This is how wise people end up making so many wise decisions.  Because they do not make big decisions independent of counsel.  And there’s a hesitancy about this, I understand that.  You say, “It’s really none of their business.”  Let me just give you a big clue, it will become their business, because they’re going to know, and they’re going to judge and they might even be effected.  You say, “But it’s still none of their business.”  That’s irrelevant.  They are going to know.  They are going to judge.  They might even be impacted.  Since that’s a reality, wouldn’t it make sense to involve wise people in on the front end of the decision making process?  Because what is done privately and independently eventually becomes known and is judged publicly.  See, wise people know when they don’t know, and they are not afraid, they are secure enough to go to people who know.

There are so many stories in the Bible about people who sought advice or got advice.  Some got bad advice, some got good advice.  I mean, there’s so much you could say about this, but this morning we’re going to look at a familiar Old Testament story in Genesis 41.

And it’s the story about a guy named Joseph.  He lived 1900 years before Jesus.  This is 1900 BC.  Joseph was the son of a guy named Jacob.  And just to give you kind of a big picuture, there was Abraham, who was the father of the Jewish nation, and he had a son named Isaac, and Isaac had a son named Jacob and Jacob had a bunch of sons and one of them was named Joseph.  Well, Joseph gets sold by his brothers into slavery in Egypt.  He spends some time in the house of this guy named Potiphar, who was the captain of the whole Egyptian army.  While serving there he gets accused of trying to rape Potiphar’s wife.  He didn’t do it.  He was innocent, but she accused him and he was put in prison in Egypt.

Now when we get to this story, Joseph has been in prison about 10 years.  He’s 30 years old and he’s in jail when this story begins.  This is an incredible story about listening to and seeking wise counsel.  And for all the men here today, this really slaps right up against our ego and pride issues.  Because one of the reasons we’ve made some really dumb decisions men, is because we would not listen.  We would not listen to our wives.  We would not listen to people who didn’t have the same expertise as we thought they should have in order for us to listen to them.  We get ourselves into trouble because we’re not wise enough to know what we don’t know, and even when we know what we don’t know we’re too afraid, we’re too proud to ask the people who know.

Here’s an amazing story about a king who had enough sense and security to listen to the most unlikely source of wisdom imaginable.  So here’s what happens:  Pharoah, who is in charge of Egypt, the power center of that part of the world, Pharoah has a dream.  Now you tell me, those of you who know anything about Egyptian history, Pharaoh was considered a what? – A god.  He was considered a god.  He was thought to have eternal life.  He did not have to keep the law, he was the law.  I mean, at 9:00 in the morning if something was illegal it was illegal.  At 10:30, if Pharaoh changed his mind, they erased that law and wrote a new one.  He was just the law in motion.

And when you were in the presence of Pharaoh you were very, very careful because if Pharaoh was having a bad day, that could be your last day.  He just had that much power.  His word was law because he was thought to be related to the sun god so he was god.

Now, 1900 BC, around that time, Pharaoh has a dream.  And he dreams something that he thinks has significance so he asks the people around him, “Hey can you interpret the dream?”  They all sheepishly said, “Uh uh.”  But he wants to know the interpretation of the dream and there’s this guy that serves Pharaoh his wine who says to him, “you know what, you may not remember this, but I was in prison for a while when you were mad at me, and while I was there I ran into a Jewish lad, and he interpreted a dream for me, in fact he predicted that you would restore me to this position.”

And Pharaoh says, “Let’s find him.”  So Pharaoh sends the people down into the dungeon to find this Jewish boy, who’s now 30 years old because he’s been there so long.  They shave him, they dress him up and they get all the prison smell off of him and bring him, in a presentable way, to Pharaoh.

Now you’ve got to understand.  Joseph isn’t even from their country.  They’ve never met before.  And Pharaoh says to Joseph, “Hey, what was his name again?  Joseph?  Hey Joseph, here’s my dream.”  And the idea is, I’m going to tell you my dream and you interpret it and then you’re out of here, back to prison.

So he tells Joseph the dream and Joseph interprets the dream.  And the interpretation of the dream was this:  “Oh Pharaoh, may Pharaoh live forever, there are going to be seven incredible years of plenty in the land of Egypt.  You’re going to have so much grain and such good crops you’re going to have extra.  After those seven years there’s going to be seven years of famine.  Everything is going to die.  And everybody who hasn’t saved grain from the seven previous years, they will die as well.”

So Joseph interprets this dream.  That’s all he’s there for.  And at that point, Joseph should shut his mouth, turn around and head down the hall.  But Joseph does an unthinkable thing that could have cost him his life.  Joseph decides to give some advice to Pharaoh/god/the law in motion/the most powerful man in the world.  And that’s where this story picks up.  And we can’t fully understand these circumstances, but this was way out there for anyone to do.  And look what Joseph does, verse 33 of chapter 41.

Joseph’s just finished interpreting this dream for Pharaoh and here’s where Joseph’s supposed to make his exit but he keeps going:  And now (dun-dun-du-nah.  And now for a little editorial comment on the dream interpretation.  I’m not finished yet.)  And now, let Pharaoh (Now, no-one’s ever said that before to Pharaoh.  No one’s ever told Pharaoh, “Now let me tell you what I think you should do.  After all, I’ve been in prison for 10 years.  I’m not even from this country.  We’ve only known each other for 20 minutes.  You’re the most powerful man in the world.  You think you’re god.  Let me tell you what you ought to do.)  Now let Pharaoh look for a discerning and wise man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt

Implication:  Pharaoh, this job’s too big for you.  You’re going to have to find somebody else to take over.  I know you’re supposedly god, and I saw you’re building out there, it’s neat and all.  But I’m telling you what Pharaoh, because I’m a Jewish guy from a different country and I’ve been in prison for ten years, this job’s too big for you.

Can you imagine?  I mean, isn’t it true, especially men, isn’t it true, doesn’t something, when somebody starts to tell you your business, let me tell you, when someone who doesn’t understand or work in my world starts to tell me how I ought to be starting a church, oohh, the walls start to go up.

Isn’t it true, in your business, especially if somebody doesn’t know your business, if somebody starts telling you what you need to do, or how you can improve, ooohhh.  How about if somebody tells you how to raise your kids, how to discipline your kids?  “You know, I realize I’m 16 years old, and I’ve never had kids, but I am your babysitter, and I’ve got a few suggestions.”  Aren’t you open, “Oh yeah, tell me.”  Isn’t it true, when somebody comes into our realm and they start speaking into our profession, into our world, into where we have authority to tell us what to do, don’t the walls just go up?

This is unbelievable, Pharaoh, for whatever reason, decides to listen to what Joseph has to say.  He says, verse 34, Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land to take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt during the seven years of abundance.  They should collect all the food of these good years that are coming and store up the grain under the authority of pharaoh, to be kept in the cities for food.

This is brilliant, if you’re in business you need to go back and read this in detail, but he gives them this unbelievable plan and the plan is this:  Over the next 7 years take 20% of everything that you get and store it.  Every year you store a fifth of it.  You keep storing it and storing it and storing it.  And Joseph tells pharaoh, I want you to store it in your name.  In other words, pharaoh, you claim authority, this grain belongs, not to the nation, this grain belongs to you.

Verse 36:  This food should be held in reserve for the country, to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt, so that the country may not be ruined by the famine (In other words, during the good years save 20% and then when the bad years come, not only will you be fine, but you’ll be the only nation around that’s fine.)  The plan seemed good to pharaoh and all of his officials. You’ve got to understand, all of the officials are kind of looking at each other going, I can’t believe that pharaoh is listening to this guy an allowing this to go on.  So Pharaoh asked them, “Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?”  Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has made all of this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you.  You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders.  Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you.”  So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.  (Pause)  Then Pharaoh took a signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph’s finger.  He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck.

See, I would have thrown him out.  “Fine, fine, fine.  I know, you’re an economic genius.  I’m so sure you can tell me how to run the whole nation.”  But Pharaoh listened.  Wise people know when they don’t know, and they are not afraid to find and listen to people who know.  Wise people know when they are hearing what’s true, wise people aren’t afraid of hearing what’s true, and they don’t discount the source because they know truth when they hear it.

This plan was so brilliant, I just want to take a few seconds to tell you the details of the story.  Seven years of plenty come so now Pharaoh owns 20% of all the grain, so when seven bad years came and all the people in Egypt were out of grain and guess who owns all the grain?  Pharaoh.  So all the people in Egypt have to come to Pharaoh to buy grain, not from the nation, but from Pharaoh himself.  So at the end of the seven years Pharaoh is not only in charge of everything in Egypt, he owns everything and everybody in Egypt.  It’s unbelievable.  He owns all their cattle, all their land.  He personally owns it all.  And not only that, the surrounding nations had to come to Egypt to buy grain, so without ever firing a shot Pharaoh basically takes control of all the economies of all the surrounding nations.  Unbelievable!  Because he knew what he didn’t know, and he didn’t discount the source and he took the advice of a foreigner who was a slave in his own dungeon.

Three things I want us to pull from this story:

Number 1:  No one is so successful that he or she no longer needs wise counsel.  No one is so wise, no one is so successful that they no longer need wise counsel.  Nobody.  Solomon wasn’t too wise to listen.  Pharaoh wasn’t to powerful to listen.  If Pharaoh needed it, if Solomon needed it, then I need it and you need it.  No matter how successful you are.  No matter how educated you are.  No matter how much smarter or how much greater your IQ is.  No matter how much you own or how powerful you are.  Nobody ever gets to the place where they don’t need wise counsel.

And the temptation is to think, once I’m here, I am the wise counsel, people must come to me, I am the source of all things.  No one, no one, no one, because every wise person knows the end, every wise person knows the limit, every wise person knows when they don’t know and they are not afraid to find the people who know.

Number 2:  You will never reach your full potential without utilizing the wisdom of others.  You will never reach your full potential without utilizing the wisdom of others.  You just won’t.  You know when we think we will?  When we’re 16, and we think we will when we’re 17, and we think we will when we’re college freshmen because now we’re so much smarter than our parents, we knew we were smarter, but now we’re in college and they just haven’t been exposed to what we’ve been exposed to.  You know when else we think we will?  When we don’t have kids yet, but we know how to parent.  Or when our kids aren’t teenagers yet, but we know we’re going to have it together when they become teenagers.

And there’s something in all of us, in some realm, and is certain areas of life where we think all we need to know is what we already know and that we’re beyond getting the counsel of other people.  Here’s the deal:  You may do well, but you will never reach your full potential without outside input.  Tiger Woods has a coach, and I be he’s a better golfer than his coach.  But he knows you don’t reach your full potential without outside input.  Every professional athlete knows that.  But somehow, when it comes to parenting, somehow when it comes to running our business, somehow when it comes to our spiritual life, somehow when it comes to our dating relationships, somehow when it comes to our marriages, somehow we think, “I can be all I need to be, I don’t need anybody to tell me what to do.”  But every wise person knows when they don’t know and they are not afraid to go to the people who know.  You’ll never reach your full potential without going outside of what you know.

The third one is this:  Wise counsel may come from unlikely sources.  Wise counsel may come from very unlikely sources, and here’s the temptation:  The temptation is to say, “Well, if I’m here financially, or I’m here in terms of success, or I’m here in terms of being a parent, or I’m here, then the only people I can go to for wise counsel have to be ahead of me, above me or beyond me.  They have to be peers who have excelled more than I have.  And that is absolutely wrong.

And if anything comes from the story of Pharaoh and Joseph is this:  Pharaoh was wise enough to know that sometimes wisdom comes from unlikely sources.

Who knows the source that God wants to use to speak into your relationships, to speak into your marriage, to speak into your business, to speak into your finances.  Because wise people know when they don’t know and they are wide open.  They don’t think, “Well if you are going to speak into my life you’ve got to be a peer who’s a year ahead, or who’s financially ahead or professionally ahead.  Hey, I’m at the end, I am wide open”

Let me tell you when I struggle with this principle.  My tendency is to listen to the messenger and if there’s something in their life, or there’s something in their past, or there’s something that’s going on in their life right now, I have a tendency to use that as an excuse not to listen.  After all, if they’re so smart why didn’t they?  And I just by-pass that advice.  Hey, if they’re so wise then I wonder why they?  And I just by-pass that advice.  Maybe you’re a teenager and your parents are trying to give you some advice, and you say, “well they didn’t follow that advice.”  Maybe there’s someone who’s trying to speak some wisdom into your life and you allow something in their past or something in their life that you don’t agree with, you use that to discount what you know in your heart is good advice.  It’s a tragic, tragic mistake.

And fortunately for Pharaoh, and for the people of Egypt and for the whole world, Pharaoh understood:  It doesn’t matter how long he’s been in the dungeon, it doesn’t matter where he’s from, but there’s something wise in his counsel, so everybody, shut up and let the new guy talk.

Do not discount the unlikely sources of wisdom.  Wise people know better than to do that.

Now, part of this is just commons sense, I realize that, but do you know why we push back on this?  Part of the reason we push back is because we don’t really want to know what the wise thing to do is.  And you’ve got to deal with that, and hopefully at the end of this series you’ll deal once and for all with that.  But often times we don’t want to hear what other people have to say because we already know what they are going to say.  The other reason we push back is this excuse that it’s nobody else’s business, but you just remember this:  Your private, independent will become other people’s business because people know what we decide, so why not take advantage of their advice on the front end of the decision making process?

Let me ask you:  Are you in the midst of an emotionally intense situation where you’re trying to figure out what the wise thing to do is?  Maybe it’s love, maybe it’s anger, maybe it’s jealousy, maybe it’s something you’re about to buy; you’ve got your heart set on it, you’ve got your heart set on him, you’ve got your heart set on that.  Get somebody in the mix.  The emotions make it difficult oftentimes to discern what’s wise.  In the middle of making a decision where you’re really just out of your league, but people expect you to know, you’re the leader, you’re the dad, you’re the mom, you’re the CEO, you’re the whatever, but people expect you to know and you feel this internal pressure:  “I ought to know and if I don’t know I need to fake it and I need to confidently say here’s where we’re going and if people aren’t sure I’ll say it louder because if I say it loud enough people will say “he knows.””  But in your heart you know you don’t know.  Then the smart thing to do, what wise people do, don’t pretend.  Wise people know when they don’t know and they are not afraid to go to those who know.

And if you’re coming to the understanding that this really is the best question ever:  What is the wise thing to do?  Then when you don’t know, ask.  And that doesn’t mean you lack wisdom.  That is evidence of wisdom.

 

Fool Proof week 4: Managing your dead Presidents

When we began this series a few weeks ago we said that we’ve all done dumb things.  There are decisions we wish we’d never made.  Dates we wish we’d never gone on.  Money we wish we’d never spent.  We’ve all got something or some period in our past that we look back on with regret.

And the goal of this series is to figure out a way that we could live a life with no regret.  To figure out a way to foolproof our lives.  And the way we said to do that is not to ask where’s the line, where’s the ledge, what’s legal, what’s moral, what’s right?  The way to foolproof our lives is for us to begin asking of every decision, every opportunity the best question ever:  What is the wise thing to do?  What is the wise thing to do?

And we need to ask this question at three different levels:  In light of my past experience, what is the wise thing to do?  In light of my current circumstances, what is the wise thing to do?  And in light of my future hopes and dreams, what is the wise thing to do?  And the reason this question is the best question ever is because no one has the unique past, present and future that you do.  So in light of your past, in light of your present and in light of your future, what is the wise thing for you to do?  Of every decision we make, we need to ask:  What is the wise thing to do?

And then last week we talked about our time.  And the question for us isn’t, what time is it?  The question for us is:  How are we spending our time?  Are we making the incremental investments of time into the things that will bring value to our lives in the long run?  What do we need to begin doing on a regular basis that over time would have cumulative value?  What do we need to stop doing because it’s not the wisest way for us to spend our time?  What is the wise thing to do when it comes to how we spend our time?

Now last week I asked you to take off your watches and hide them for the entire sermon to orient us to the fact that how we spend our time is important to God.  This morning I want to do something to make you more uncomfortable.  I want you to get out your wallet.  Go ahead, get it out.  Maybe you need to reach down to your purse and grab it or pull out your money clip.  Whatever it is that you have on you where you keep your cash, or wish you had cash or keep your credit cards, go ahead and get it out.  What I want you to do is, we’re going to pass a bucket around and I want you to put your wallet in that and after the service we’ll give it back.  Just kidding.

Now I know that freaked some of you out a bit because that’s one of your worst fears about coming to a church gathering.  The last thing you want us to be talking about today is money.  You were worried that people were going to hassle you about money and then you show up today and we’re talking about money and some of you are going to leave mad because we’re talking about money and I just want to acknowledge that here at the start, and get that out in the open.

Which leads me to these three chairs.  We talked about these two weeks ago and what they represented and I think it’s important to remind ourselves of what we talked about.  We said that if your not going to be wise in your decision making that you’re going to find yourself sitting in one of three chairs:  The Naïve, the fool and the scoffer.  Now, in light of us talking about money this morning, many of us in this room are sitting in one of these three chairs and you’re probably going to have one of these responses to what we talk about and I just wanted to acknowledge that up front.  Because remember, there’s a consequence for sitting in these chairs, not just for you, but for those who are closest to you.  So if you just blow me off, you’re going to reap something from that attitude.  If you just don’t care, there’s going to be a consequence.  If you get mad and want to cuss me out and never come back again, that’s cool, just remember, there’s a consequence.  And some of you could stand up and vouch for those consequences right now.

So let’s jump into this.  If you’re not a Christian you might not agree with this or think this is something weird about God, but we as Christians believe that the Bible teaches that God owns everything, including your money.  It’s all his.  And as a result of that, your Heavenly Father has entrusted you with some of his money.  Now, the question that most of us ask about money is how much money do you have in your account, or how much money do you make?  But that’s the wrong question.  The question I want you to focus on this morning is, are you being wise in how you manage the money that your Heavenly Father has entrusted to you?

Or, let’s ask it this way:  In light of your past financial experience, in light of your current financial circumstances and in light of your future financial hopes and dreams, what is the wise thing to do with God’s money?

Now, let me tell you what I know about you.  None of us wants somebody to tell us how to spend our money.  None of us wants somebody poking their head into our financial business, especially some preacher.  Because isn’t it true that when you think about a sermon on money you think of some TV preacher begging for money or some pastor begging for money so the church can stay in business, and just the thought of a sermon on money makes some of you want to check out of this sermon.  Some of you already have a wall up.  You don’t want to hear about money.  You’re already mad and have made up your mind never to come back again.

But let me tell you what you know about yourself:  You already know that you would have more money in the bank and greater peace of mind if you had managed your money more wisely.  You know that one of the greatest struggles you have is living with the money you have.

And chances are, if you had been evaluating your financial decisions through the grid of the best question ever, you might live in a slightly smaller or older house with slightly less expensive furniture.  You would be driving a slightly older car.  Your television wouldn’t be quite as big.  Your closet wouldn’t be quite as full.

On the postitive side, your 401(k) would be maxed out, your credit card balance would be zero at the end of the month, and you would feel free to generously support those organizations that are making a positive difference in the world.

Believe it or not, if you had been managing the money you’ve been given the way I am about to suggest, you would actually be richer and happier.  Not that you would be happier because you are rich, but you would be happier because you would be free from the unnecessary pressures that come with poor money management.

See, I want what’s best for you financially.  This morning I’m not going to ask for something from you.  This morning I am going to share with you what I want for you financially, and what I believe God wants for you financially, because I want what’s best for you financially and I believe that God wants what’s best for you financially.

Now I’m not saying that God wants you to be rich.  By international standards, you are rich.  The average college student in America makes $11,200 a year.  That’s more than 96% of the world’s population makes.  According to most of the world, we are rich.  But if I were to sit down one on one with you and ask you this question you would have a hard time answering, “How does it feel to be rich?”

You know why you would have a hard time answering that?  Because there is a difference between being rich and feeling rich.  The reason none of us feels rich is because we don’t actually have any extra cash.  It’s all spoken for.  You’re like me:  There’s more month than money at times.  There are more bills to pay than bills to pay them.  We don’t feel rich because we owe more money than we have in our checking account.  We don’t feel rich because, financially speaking, somehow we’ve gotten upside down.

Think about it.  If suddenly, something happened and you had to come up with all the cash to pay off everyone you owe, including your mortgage lender, you would be out on the street.  And as long as this is the case for each of us then we will never feel rich.

Instead, we’ll always feel stressed.  Let me say this again, as long as we are upside down financially, it won’t matter how much money we make.  We will never feel rich.  Never.   I mean the guy who makes $350,000 a year but spends $375,000 a year and has a bunch of debt will never feel as rich as the single woman who make $30,000 a year and lives on 75% of it with no debt.  She is free.  He is not.  She is wise.  He is foolish.

Now let me just say this:  Logically, of all the areas of life that require wisdom, the arena of our finances should be the easiest for us to get a handle on.  I mean, the other decisions that we make about career, relationships, and time requires us to use the subjective, intangibles of passion, fear and God’s calling.  But money is simple:  A certain amount comes in and you tell it what to do.  That’s it.  It’s simple.  A certain amount comes in and you tell it what to do.

See, your problem and my problem financially is not low income.  Your problem and my problem is poor financial management.  How do I know this?  Just look at the two biggest crisis that Americans face today:  Obesity and consumer debt.  We eat too much and we spend too much.  Neither of these problems is caused by earning too little.  We don’t see the poor people in Kenya struggling with these issues.  These problems are actually uniquely American and the result of us being one of the wealthiest nations on earth.

So what’s happening?  What’s our problem?  Why is it so easy for us to abandon common sense in the one arena of life where it is easiest to monitor and predict the outcomes?  Why do we spend so foolishly?  Why do we finance things that lose 10 to 20 percent of their value as soon as we leave the store or drive off the lot?  Why do we make ourselves slaves to financial institutions that don’t even know our names?  Why do we intentionally strap on the unnecessary pressure that comes from debt and then complain about it?

Are we greedy?  Maybe.  Are we stupid?  I don’t think so.  Are we all just consumed with keeping up with the people around us?  That may be part of it.  But I think there’s something else that keeps us on stressed out financially.  We have allowed the current of culture to influence the way we manage money by teaching us to ask all the wrong questions.  Can I afford it?  What will the monthly payment be?  How much can I borrow?  Is it on sale?  Is it cheaper to lease?  How long do I have to pay it off?

See, when it comes to spending money we all make assumptions:  The assumption is that if I can make it work financially, I should make it work.  If I can afford it, I should afford it.  If I can borrow it, I should borrow it.

The reason we so easily get upside down financially is because everybody who has anything to sell is working overtime to get us to buy, to get us to flip our financial world upside down.  The only person looking out for your best interest financially is you!  And if you are going flip your finances right side up you’ve got to ask a different set of questions.  The questions we listed out a minute ago are fine for conventional people, but you don’t want to be a conventional person, do you?  A conventional person is standard, typical, normal.  When you look at the normal, the typical, the standard people that you work with, that you live with, that you live next to, do you want to be like everybody else in America or, financially, do you want to live by a new standard?  Do you want to be enslaved to the typical way of doing things or do you want to experience financial freedom?

But what would happen if we began evaluating all of our financial decisions through the lens of the best question ever?  In light of your past financial experience, your current financial picture, and your future financial hopes and dreams, what is the wise thing to do with God’s money?

Just imagine.  Where would you be now if you had been asking and applying that question to all of your financial decisions?  The best question ever frees you from the conventional approach to finances, an approach that has robbed so many of us from the freedom that could be ours if we would simply live on what we make instead of what we can borrow.  Asking, what is the wise thing to do, allows us to be content with more of what we have and less of what we want.

But here’s the problem:  Asking the right question is one thing, but trying to discern the right answer is another thing altogether.  So how could this look for you and for me on a regular basis?  How does asking, what is the wise thing to do financially, really look?  It’s all about reordering our financial priorities.

There are basically three things we do with our money.  We’ve talked about this before, but basically we do three things:  We Live on money, save money and give money away.  There may be one or two or three other categories that you might come up with but all our money basically goes to three places:  we live on it, save it or give it.

And two things determine how much money goes into each of these categories:  Priorities and self control.

The problem with most of us is that this is usually our priority:  First we live, then if there is any left over we save some and occasionally, we reach into our wallets and give a little away.

Now you may be more intentional about saving and giving, but if you’re like most people you save and give from what’s left over.  But here’s why that’s a problem.  If saving and giving are afterthoughts for you, if saving and giving are you last priorities what that means is that you are robbing from your own future, and if you are a Christian, robbing from God’s kingdom.  Think about it.  When you put saving and giving last you hurt yourself in the future and withhold from God’s kingdom now.  Is that the wise thing to do with God’s money?

Let me just say something to Christians this morning, and this is really going to tick some of you off, but….  It’s bad enough to chip away at our family’s future financial security by refusing to prioritize saving, but to give God our leftovers is really insulting.  Liz, my wife, is an amazing cook.  I love good food, and Liz is always fixing good food.  Many times we have stuff left over.  I love eating leftovers from what Liz cooked.  I look forward to looking in the fridge at lunch time and seeing last night’s leftover’s there.  My insides scream, “YES” when I see leftovers.  In spite of that, Liz has never prepared an awesome meal the day before we had company with the intent of serving our guest leftovers.  She wouldn’t dream of doing that.  Instead, she pulls out all the stops and fixes some of her best dishes when we have guests.

Here’s the deal:  If we wouldn’t serve our guests leftovers, why would I give God my leftover money?  The same is true of you:  If you wouldn’t serve your guests leftovers, why would you give God your leftover money?  It’s like saying to God, “Um, sorry, Lord, I wish I could do more, but I can’t because I spent all of it on me.”  When we, as Christians, as followers of Jesus, refuse to prioritize giving, it’s like praying, “Heavenly Father, I don’t really need your involvement in my finances.  I can handle that arena all by myself.  Amen.”

On the other hand, when we give to God’s kingdom it is an invitation for God to involve himself in our finances.  Don’t take my word for it.  Throughout scripture God promises to respond to generous people.  Look at a few of these passages:

Jesus said, “Give and it will be given to you.  A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap.  For the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Luke 6:38).

In Malachi 3:10 it states:  “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.  Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”

God responds to generosity.  Now let me say this:  I’m not saying that if you give, God is going to make you rich.  I already said that I don’t think you being rich is really a priority to God, but giving is an invitation for God to become active in the world of our personal finances.

How we manage God’s money is also a heart issue.  That’s why Jesus said in Matthew 6:  ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

So how does a wise person respond to this?  How does a wise person reorder/reprioritize their finances in light of this?  What is the wise thing for you to do with the money God has given you?  A wise person flips the order.

If you have your Bible’s open them up to Matthew 6.  This passage we’re going to look at this morning is part of what is called Jesus’ sermon on the mount.  In it Jesus gives really the basics of what it means to be his follower.  And if you’ve ever read this, Jesus’ expectations seem so unrealistic, so impractical.  We’re left asking, “How in the world can I live this way?  This is too hard Jesus.  Did you really mean this?”  But really, if you really believe God is who he said he is and that he will do all that he’s promised to do, then Jesus’ words make perfect sense.

What Jesus talks about in this passage we’re going to read is a different perspective on money.  And let me warn you, this might be hard to swallow.  But if we take what Jesus says seriously, then I believe these words have the ability to completely reorder our thinking about money, our finances and our pursuit of wealth.

Our Heavenly Father, your Heavenly Father, the one who loves you and made you and wants to have an intimate relationship with you cares very much about our needs and our desires.  In fact, what we’re about to read shows that God is committed to meeting our practical earthly needs.

²⁵“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Be honest.  Your tendency and my tendency is to worry.  We worry about finances and paying bills and getting this or that.  We worry about money.  Did you know that worry stems from a lack of trust in God?  Worry and trust are polar opposites.  You can’t worry and trust God at the same time.  It’s not possible.  And when we worry about money it’s like we’re saying,  “I know you’re God and I’m supposed to trust you, and I do to go to heaven, or I do want you to keep me safe, but about money…I just can’t.”  And so we worry because we don’t trust God.  This lack of trust shows itself in the way we prioritize our finances.  So what we do is we live first, save second and give third.  We prioritize our wants, wishes and needs and if there’s anything leftover we give it to God.  See, I think one of the reasons people get mad when we talk about money is because we have a trust problem.  We trust our ability to handle our finances instead of trusting God to meet our needs.  But Jesus says, “do not worry.”  And then come some examples:

²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Worrying isn’t going to help you any.

²⁸“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear? Now check this out, this is like a below the belt punch from Jesus:

³²For the pagans run after all these things, The pagans were those people who didn’t know God, they didn’t know that he made them and loves them and cares for them and wants to know them. and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But here’s Jesus prescription, here’s where we find the answer to “in light of my past financial experience, current financial situation and future financial hopes and dreams, what is the wise thing to do with God’s money?”: seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Did you catch that?  Seek first the Kingdom of God.  Jesus is telling us that we need to reverse our order.  Instead of putting the kingdom of God last, Jesus commands us to put it first, and if we do that, if we prioritize giving to God’s kingdom, he makes a promise, “and all these things will be given to you as well.”  Do you know what “all these things” are?  They are all the stuff of life that we pursue to the neglect of God’s kingdom.  “All these things” is what we eat, where we live, what we wear.  It’s all the stuff that consumes the majority of our financial resources.

Essentially, Jesus is offering you and offering me a deal.  He’ll take care of our needs if we’ll prioritize His kingdom.  If we transfer our concern to what’s important to him, he will take responsibility for what is important to us.  Can you see the significance here?  Seeking him first with our money is an invitation for his intervention and involvement in the financial arena of our lives.

So what does this look like?  If you’re here this morning and you want to experience financial freedom.  You want to be the recipient of Jesus’ promise that “all these things will be added to you as well.”  If you want to know, what is the wise thing to do as it relates to my finances?  Then here’s how you do that:  You need to flip the order of what you do with your money:  You need to give first, save second, and live third.

Number 1:  You need to give first.  Since giving to God’s kingdom invites God into your finances then the first check you ought to write after you get paid is to support God’s kingdom.  I call this priority giving.  The first check we write should be to God’s kingdom.  It should be a priority.  This is how you seek first his kingdom with your money.  When you give first it’s like saying, “Heavenly Father, I want to make sure your kingdom is fully funded so I’m going to give to you first and then I’m going to live on the leftovers.”

Give before you spend.  But you ask, “how much?”  Jesus never gives us a percentage, but Jesus came from a tradition where a percentage was expected.  That percentage was called a tithe.  A tithe is 10 %.  10 % is a small price to pay to get God in the mix, besides, as I said earlier, it’s all His anyway.  But let me say this, maybe your unsure or unconvinced about 10 % or you think it might be too much of a stretch.  Well, then pick a lower percentage, start off with 1%, but make sure you choose a percentage.  It’s important that we are percentage givers.

Now some of you in here right now are really struggling financially.  Every month you can barely make the minimum payment on your credit cards.  And what you’re wondering is:  Should I wait to begin giving until after I’ve paid off all my debts?  Here’s my answer to that question:  Do you want God to help you now, or after you’ve paid off all your debt?  Remember, being generous is an invitation for God to get involved in your finances.  And what if, what if you were to prioritize giving, what if you were to commit to giving a percentage, right off the bat?  What could God do with your debt?  Don’t you think that the God who created the heavens and the earth just might be able to help out in the realm of your finances?

Give first.  Make giving a priority.  Give a percentage.  Some of you can and should give more than 10%.  And if you think I’m just after your money, then here’s my challenge:  Don’t give to Hub City.  Pick another church.  But give first.

Second:  What’s the wise thing to do once you have funded God’s kingdom?  Fund your own.  Save.  The second check you need to write every month is a check to yourself.  Specifically, you need to put some money in savings.  Again I would tell you to pick a percentage, even if it’s just 2 or 3 percent.  Pay yourself second.  You know this, but when you put money into savings, you take it out of circulation.  Circulating, easy to get to money quickly evaporates.  That’s why we rarely have any money left over to save at the end of the month.  So what is the wise thing to do?  Fund your future at the beginning of the month.

Third:  Live.  Finally, we get to the item that we usually do first.  Once you have given and saved then you get to live off the leftovers.

Now before you start throwing things at me and before you decide you’re never coming back here again let me ask you this:  What if you had been prioritizing this way for the past five years?  Think about how much money you would have saved.  Think of the extra cash you would have if you weren’t constantly juggling credit card bills.  What I’m sharing with you isn’t the easy thing to do, but it is the wise thing to do.

In light of your past experience, in light of your current circumstances, in light of your future hopes and dreams, isn’t it time for us to reprioritize our finances?

Let me tell you what I want you to do.  Try it out for three months.  Just three months.  Write your first check to God’s kingdom.  Write your second check to yourself and then live on the rest.  Give it three months and at the end of three months evaluate the results.  If you do this I believe that you will discover that God is true to his promise.  If you seek first his kingdom, if you walk wisely, then all the other things we have a tendency to worry about will be taken care of.