A Song for your Wednesday!

Note:  See previous post for introduction to this post.


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1.  Jesus will return...just not for you
      This is a lie that has seeped into the church especially traditional, fundamental churches.  This lie says that there will be a return, but you haven't done enough, aren't good enough, or are sinful enough that you won't get to enter into the promised land.  There have been too many people on their death beds, calling in the preacher to assure them of their salvation, for this not to be a lie we have heard and listen to.  The real unfortunate and sad reality of this lie, is that the kind of preaching I heard as a child has contributed to that lie.  The Hell, Fire, and Brimstone preaching has left people scared of God.  In order to motivate people to repentance we created a generation or generations of people who cannot believe that God will ever accept them. TRUTH:  grace is free and gift, not a prize.  Follow Jesus and He will return...for you.

2.  The return of Jesus isn't all that important
      I might get some pushback on this one.  I think we all can say with words and as an intellectual idea that the return of Jesus is important.  However, we live life between Sundays with little to no thought about His return and without any sense of urgency.  When Paul wrote his letters to the churches you get a sense of urgency about Jesus' return.  He is really interested in being ready for a return that will happen before he dies.  Then in his last letters written, you get the sense that Paul has changed his thinking.  He now sees the possibility of dying before Jesus' return.  However, he still stays urgent for Jesus' return.  I'm not suggesting we go out and rent a billboard and begin predicting Jesus' return.  I am suggesting that the life we live is founded on the idea that Jesus will return.  We plan our lives all the way to the end many times.  We plan with an automatic thought that we will die before Jesus' return.  I wonder how it would change how we live if we lived as if Jesus was returning any moment.  Would we serve those in need with abandon?  Would we save less and give more?  Would we savor moments longer?  Would we spend more time in community?  Would we speak of Him more?

3.  What we do now has nothing to do with the end
     Just reading that sentence it almost sounds like we can bring about the end or stave it off.  That is not what I'm suggesting.  The end is coming when God decides it's time.  However, we have lived life with the idea that what we should do with our time now is simply stay on track so that we won't jeopardize our place in heaven.  We may also find that we have been taught that our sole job, here and now is to teach others about Jesus.  We become serial teachers who have no relationship with those who come to faith.  I think that teaching is part of what we do.  If I didn't I wouldn't have much appreciation for my craft and I would be reading my Bible sideways.  I would challenge you to read the gospels with one purpose in mind.  Read the gospels and mark out what Jesus DOES while here on Earth.  It is pretty remarkable what Jesus does during his 3 years of ministry.  Much of what he does is teaching.  As you look at his interactions between teaching moments you find someone who is with His father, the people, and mostly with the people who everyone else think are the least and worst of society.  Jesus was hanging out with tax collectors, prostitutes, cheaters, the angry, those that oppressed others, drunks, demon-possessed, and those that could never give anything back.  So when we look at what Jesus did, he didn't jump in a faith bunker and shy away from the world until his return to heaven.  We need to get out of faith bunkers, our overwhelming ideology that "bad company corrupts good morals."  We need to get out into the world and embrace them and then just like Jesus give them a new story to live.  A story of restoration, life, and abundance of God.  A full life.  Telling that story leads people to Jesus and helps us understand the cosmic battle Jesus is in and why His return is a divine experience for us and Him.

Lies have developed in our faith and we can even justify them through scripture.  remember Satan did this too when he tempted Jesus.  We must seek out truth!  Jesus' return isn't about us going to heaven.  Jesus' return is about the finality of the cosmic battle of evil and good and the final defeat of Satan.  It is about our eternal rescue.  It is about the relationship of the divine and humanity becoming one, marriage of the two.  It is about the restoration of all things.  Listen to the truth.  Look for the truth in scripture.  And anticipate greatly Jesus' return!

Note:  For the last six weeks I have been preaching a series titled, "Star Wars."  You can listen to them here. In this series we have talked about Sin, Satan, demons, Hope, grace, salvation, and Jesus' return.  This Sunday is the last of the series and is on the Holy Spirit.


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          As a young child in church I heard little about grace and much about Hell, sin, and the dangers of Hell. As I entered into High School it seemed that the message began to turn and the ideas of grace, mercy, and love began to take off.  However, I could not get over the idea that I must be good on this Earth so that I can enter Heaven.  Heaven was always the goal and this world is not my home.  Living on Earth has no real benefit and is basically just a testing period.  If while I'm here I learn enough, don't cross the wrong lines, and have near perfect attendance at church then I can leave this forsaken place and get to heaven once I die.  As an adult I realize quickly that there must be more to this world than just a place of testing and maybe even torture.  I realize that grace is a gift, not a prize.  I realize that Heaven will be a restoration of this Earth I'm on now.  I realize that while Heaven waits for me, that earning my spot there is not my soul (pun intended) purpose of my existence on Earth.  And yet, my inner, pew-sitting child fights all of these realizations and calls me to focus on my behavior and attendance, or even worse others' behavior and attendance.

When I read scripture I can see that God,Jesus, Spirit are all about truth.  Satan, his demons, and those enticed by his evil are about lies.  When you read the whole of scripture you are given a picture of a God who cares for other people, especially those who are in the most need.  Scripture cries out for us to focus on this Earth and its creation just as much, if not more, than Heaven.  I have found that completely fixated on the end allows for me to care less about the now.  Fixating on the now allows for me to lose sight of the end.  The now and the not yet must be in relationship.

When I preached on Jesus' return this past Sunday I spoke from studying the idea of the end, the now, and from my viewpoint given through scripture that these are both important.  In the end I think there are lies that Satan is telling us about the end.  Crazy enough, I don't believe Satan tells us that Jesus won't return.  Maybe he tells that lie to those who don't believe in Jesus,  but for those of us who believe and follow Christ that is not the lie he shares.  He knows we won't give into that lie.  Here are three lies (not an exhaustive list) that Satan tells about Jesus' return.

1.  Jesus will return...just not for you
2.  The return of Jesus isn't all that important
3.  What we do now has nothing to do with the end.

Note: In my next post I unpack those three statements.

Every year since my twin boys began Kindergarten Leah and I have written a blessing for them and their school year.  This past Monday they began 3rd grade.  Sunday night we huddled in their room before bed and said these words of blessing over each of them as we laid on hands.  There is something special about saying words of blessing from God over your children and giving them a vision for their school year.






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Here are our words of blessing:

Dylan:
Dylan we are so proud of you and all that are as a young man.  God is using you to His glory at home, at church, and will do the same at school.  We hope for you to have an awesome school year full of fun, learning, and friends.  We know that there will be ups and down during the year.  Remember God at all times and pray to him every night.  Remember that we are here for you and want to love and guide you.  Our blessing for you this year is focused on three words;  Strength, Mercy, and Unity.  May the Lord God Almighty give you strength.  Strength to face anything that comes your way and a strength to use in order to help those who are weak.  May God grant you Mercy.  May He give you mercy when you make mistakes and may you also extend mercy to others in His name.  May the Lord bless you with unity.  May you always feel connected to Him and do your best to bring others together and united to God.  We long to see how your blessing is lived this year.
 
Brody:
Brody we are so proud of you and all that are as a young man.  God is using you to His glory at home, at church, and will do the same at school.  We hope for you to have an awesome school year full of fun, learning, and friends.  We know that there will be ups and down during the year.  Remember God at all times and pray to him every night.  Remember that we are here for you and want to love and guide you.  Our blessing for you this year is focused on three words;  Compassion, Laughter, and Justice.  May God the Father give bless you with His compassion.  May you look for others who need encouragement and love and may you find God’s compassion for your heart while on the journey.  May God give you Laughter.  May you find many times throughout each day to laugh and may you bless others around you with laughter as well.  May The Father bless you with Justice.  God will always look out for what is best for you and may you look to others the same.  May you stand up for what is right and see God’s divine justice in your own life.  We long to see how your blessing is lived this year.


Often I will ask the boys if they were able to live their blessing that day or week.  I can't wait to hear how they live this blessing this school year.

In my current series I have been talking about the spiritual warfare aspect of our lives.  As I prepared my sermon on Satan I quickly began compiling tons of facts and scriptures where Satan is mentioned and what it describes about his character. 

Before I knew it I had more content to pour through and try to preach than I had time.  As I was pouring through it all trying to edit and decide what should go (I didn't want to toss any of it), a certain phrase hit me hard.  It's  a phrase my professor at ACU shared with me, "If the devil can't make you bad, he'll make you busy."  I wasn't really worried about being busy preparing this sermon, but when that phrase hit me, I began to realize that Satan could make my sermon about him so "busy" that anything of great merit would be missed.

I stopped with that phrase resonating in my head and prayed.  Two texts came to the top of the surface that did a great job of describing Satan and his work without glorifying him.  So I decided to toss everything else and preach those two texts.

I knew that being busy in life can lead you away from God, but never thought that my sermons could be made so "busy" that they lead away from the point that needs to be made.

God speaks just as loud in a whisper as He does in a shout!  Simple is not a lack of preparedness, but actually a much more prepared, edited, streamlined message.