sermon 10-31-10

Well today we are in chapter 10 of Zechariah. This week we are going to look at the condition of the church with regard to Pastors and elders or what the passage calls shepherds. This passage is a little confusing at the beginning. At least it was confusing to me anyway because it starts out by saying: Ask rain from the LORD at the time of the spring rain-- The LORD who makes the storm clouds; and He will give them showers of rain, vegetation in the field to each man.
I mean that sounds good but it goes from there to saying: 2For the family idols speak iniquity, And the diviners see lying visions And tell false dreams; They comfort in vain Therefore the people wander like sheep, They are afflicted, because there is no shepherd. And that segue confused me at first.

Here’s what I think is going on; I think in the first verse the scripture is quoting what the false gods and family idols are saying. In the time when it is supposed to rain the false idols, are saying ask for rain now. It’s like saying ask for rain on a rainy day and God will send rain for everyone. Or it’s like the guy who is getting ready to get a paycheck to ask for money to be put into his account. It’s more than likely going to happen anyway. Does that make sense? So there’s a bit of sarcasm being used here.

The false gods and their leaders are playing it safe. They are hedging their bets. Then verse 2 begins to tell things the way they really are: the false gods, the family idols, the so called diviners of truth are telling lies. They are seeing lying visions and false dreams.

We have people like this in our own country. They’re called politicians and economists. They give us a vision of the future that cannot possibly come true. They tell us to pretend that the economy is going to get better if we just go deeper into debt. They print paper and say this will make everything alright. They say they can turn a deep hole of debt into a well of prosperity. The sad thing is for the most part the people believe them. Sure we don’t call them diviners anymore, we call them experts, but there really is no difference. We turn to the experts to tell us the future in the same way the Israelites turned to false Gods and diviners. We expect them to tell us when it’s going to rain and they say it’s going to rain in the rainy season and we just plug along like everything is just Jim Dandy.

But we are being fed false visions, false dreams; we are being comforted in vain. Can you see that? We will feed you this load of bull to make you happy and then give you a new season of sitcoms and sports along with some new toys so you won’t notice what’s really going on. And we will feed you the same stories from every area of life, even in church so that you can be happy and everything will be ok. But everything is not ok. The lies won’t stop the destruction when God gives the word of judgment.

Why is it this way? Well, this passage seems to indicate that it is this way because there is no one to lead the people. The People need a shepherd. I think the people know this deep in their hearts. I think that is what all the gaga was about over Obama getting elected. The people didn’t want things to change really, they want more of the same, they want to be taken care of from the womb to the tomb by the false god of government but they thought they saw a leader, a leader that could make it happen. Now there are a lot of disgruntled people out there because Obama couldn’t do what they wanted him to do. To be honest what they are looking for is the same thing the Germans were looking for in the 30’s: Someone with the force of will and plan that will make everything seem alright.

See I think we are at such a place of desperation in our failings that we would hop on board the Hitler train if he would put money in our pockets and create jobs for everyone. Human nature doesn’t change apart from the grace of God. Technology, education, rational thinking cannot change our nature. The Germans had the latest and best of all of these things and they followed their leader into hell.

In my opinion, the truth is that we have no leadership in government in either party because we have no leadership in the church. For the most part the pulpits in this country are filled with very good intentioned men and women who are trying to comfort in vain. They are not leading the people to the victory that God has for them, they are not leading them in humbleness, rather they are leading the people to slaughter. They are blind guides leading the blind. When the times get tough they lead the way by saying; it’s a good thing times are tough because it means Jesus is coming back sooner. Or they tell us that everything will be ok because grace is all you need. You don’t have to do anything except wait and read your bible and Jesus will take care of the rest. They tell us that we should just be religious and not get tangled up in the evils of politics that’s the devil’s work –Never mentioning (except in passing during a Christmas story) that the Government of all things is meant to be on Jesus’ shoulders. They tell us God doesn’t want us to be free from bondage now; you have to wait until heaven. They tell us that God doesn’t want us to think Christianly, thinking isn’t our job that’s the public schools job, that’s the governments job.

If that method of shepherding doesn’t suite your fancy then we have leaders in the church that will tell you to hate the wicked, picket and spew hatred at soldiers funerals, burn Korans, beat up the gays, stock pile weapons and do it all in the name of Jesus. It’s no wonder we are in the mess we are in: Nobody is leading down the path of life.

I want you to understand that pastors who do not proclaim faithfully the whole word of God are going to be in a world of hurt on the last day. Listen to what God says to the shepherds: 3"My anger is kindled against the shepherds, and I will punish the male goats.” God is angry with the leaders of his church because they are not leading the people of God down the path of life. The majority of pastors, at least in our culture, don’t even believe that the path of life is meant for us. They tell us the law doesn’t apply anymore and then leave us to make a path for ourselves. In essence, we have thrown out the map and then said you’re free to find your own way. In fact, you can go anyway you want except by the old map. Is it any wonder that the church is floundering?

Now the phrase, I will punish the male goats can be understood in a couple of different ways. The word for male goats can also be translated Chief ones or the most important leaders. God says he will pour out punishment on those who are the main instigators in leading his flock off course. But another way to look at it is to see that the leaders are goats and not sheep. They truly are false leaders leading the people astray. I am reminded of Jesus saying that he will separate the sheep from the goats. Here the goats are trying to lead the sheep where they should not be going. Either way the meaning is the same: God is going to punish the shepherds who refuse to lead the flock rightly.

I think it is important for us to remember who Zechariah is proclaiming this message to. It is people who have come back from captivity in Babylon. They are struggling to rebuild the temple and they are discouraged. They’ve been back in the land a few years and already they have shepherds, leaders, who refuse to lead them rightly. Zechariah has come to encourage them over the course of a few years in the middle of somewhat frustrating times. They know that God has brought them to the place where they are at. He has freed them from the Babylonian captivity but now, even though they are in the place that God has called them to; things are not going all that well. Life is hard. It seems like every time they take a step forward someone is there to push them back 4 or 5 steps.

I’m finally starting to figure out that it’s not how far you make it on the path of life that matters. It is staying on it that matters. Progress from God’s perspective is learning to stay on the path of life regardless of what direction you are going. See it’s not advancing that matters it is enduring the terrain without getting off the road. Tripping and falling on the road is not big deal. Sure it hurts but that hurt is a part of what takes us deeper into life.

It is when we take a detour off the path that we find destruction awaiting us. The truth is as it says in verse 3: For the LORD of hosts has visited His flock, the house of Judah, and will make them like His majestic horse in battle. 4"From them will come the cornerstone, from them the tent peg, from them the bow of battle, from them every ruler, all of them together. 5"They will be as mighty men, Treading down the enemy in the mire of the streets in battle; and they will fight, for the LORD will be with them; and the riders on horses will be put to shame.

Here is Zechariah’s encouragement for the people of God: God has visited his flock and he promises to build us up until we becomes like a majestic horse in battle. As he strengthens us, the cornerstone will come from us. Christ, who is the chief cornerstone will arise in our midst. People will be able to see Jesus in our lives and we will once again be little Christs to the world or as we like to say: Christians.

From the flock will also come the tent peg, now I think that this metaphor can be seen in two different ways. The first is that the tent peg is the foundation of a sturdy tent just as a cornerstone is the foundation of the temple or it could be a reference to the kind of victory that happened in Judges chapter 4.

I think the best thing to do is just read it to you: 1 After Ehud’s death, the Israelites again did evil in the Lord’s sight. 2 So the Lord turned them over to King Jabin of Hazor, a Canaanite king. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-haggoyim. 3 Sisera, who had 900 iron chariots, ruthlessly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years. Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help. 4 Deborah, the wife of Lappidoth, was a prophetess who was judging Israel at that time. 5 She would sit under the Palm of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites would go to her for judgment. 6 One day she sent for Barak son of Abinoam, who lived in Kedesh in the land of Naphtali. She said to him, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: Call out 10,000 warriors from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun at Mount Tabor. 7 And I will call out Sisera, commander of Jabin’s army, along with his chariots and warriors, to the Kishon River. There I will give you victory over him.” 8 Barak told her, “I will go, but only if you go with me.” 9 “Very well,” she replied, “I will go with you. But you will receive no honor in this venture, for the Lord’s victory over Sisera will be at the hands of a woman.” So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh. 10 At Kedesh, Barak called together the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali, and 10,000 warriors went up with him. Deborah also went with him. 11 Now Heber the Kenite, a descendant of Moses’ brother-in-law Hobab, had moved away from the other members of his tribe and pitched his tent by the oak of Zaanannim near Kedesh. 12 When Sisera was told that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, 13 he called for all 900 of his iron chariots and all of his warriors, and they marched from Harosheth-haggoyim to the Kishon River. 14 Then Deborah said to Barak, “Get ready! This is the day the Lord will give you victory over Sisera, for the Lord is marching ahead of you.” So Barak led his 10,000 warriors down the slopes of Mount Tabor into battle. 15 When Barak attacked, the Lord threw Sisera and all his chariots and warriors into a panic. Sisera leaped down from his chariot and escaped on foot. 16 Then Barak chased the chariots and the enemy army all the way to Harosheth-haggoyim, killing all of Sisera’s warriors. Not a single one was left alive. 17 Meanwhile, Sisera ran to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because Heber’s family was on friendly terms with King Jabin of Hazor. 18 Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come into my tent, sir. Come in. Don’t be afraid.” So he went into her tent, and she covered him with a blanket. 19 “Please give me some water,” he said. “I’m thirsty.” So she gave him some milk from a leather bag and covered him again. 20 “Stand at the door of the tent,” he told her. “If anybody comes and asks you if there is anyone here, say no.” 21 But when Sisera fell asleep from exhaustion, Jael quietly crept up to him with a hammer and tent peg in her hand. Then she drove the tent peg through his temple and into the ground, and so he died. 22 When Barak came looking for Sisera, Jael went out to meet him. She said, “Come, and I will show you the man you are looking for.” So he followed her into the tent and found Sisera lying there dead, with the tent peg through his temple. 23 So on that day Israel saw God defeat Jabin, the Canaanite king. 24 And from that time on Israel became stronger and stronger against King Jabin until they finally destroyed him.

I must admit I like this reference to a tent peg arising out of the flock of God the best. I long for the day when God raises up men and women who are not afraid to fight against the spiritual wickedness in high places in our culture. I don’t know if you noticed it or not but the rest of the things that God promises back in Zechariah deal with the people of God being mighty weapons in the hand of God against the enemies of god: From his flock God will raise up a war bow to use against his enemies; From them the bow of battle; from his flock he will raise up those who will oppress the enemy as a whole. Yes, Christ is all of these things but we are the body of Christ. In fact, verse 5 is plural: Those whom God raises up will be as mighty men, Treading down the enemy in the mire of the streets in battle; and they will fight, for the LORD will be with them; and the riders on horses will be put to shame.

These things are promises of God to us. He promises to raise us up so that we can defeat the enemy, tread on the enemy, put a tent peg in the temple of the enemy IF we humble ourselves before him: If we stay on the path of life.

I hope you can see that there is nothing here that God hasn’t laid out in his covenant in Deuteronomy 28 which reads like this: "Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2"All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the LORD your God: 3"Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. 4"Blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. 5"Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 6"Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. 7"The LORD shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways. 8"The LORD will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you. 9"The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. 10"So all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will be afraid of you.

You can play word games with this stuff if you want to but I am here to tell you that these are the promises of God for us. This is not about salvation by works this is about living life after you get saved. Salvation puts you on the path of life. Walking on the path of life brings forth these blessings in a nation. God PROMISES that to be true.

He promises to raise up mighty men and women of the faith who will conquer the enemy wherever it is found. He promises that the church will be the head and not the tail, the lender and not the borrower. I realize we have no reference point from which we see a strong and mighty church – they don’t exist in our day and age. I saw this week where the Chrystal Cathedral filed bankruptcy recently. That is the epitome of the condition of the church in our culture: recipient of covenant curses, becoming the borrower and being forced to bow the knee to the lender because we have left the path of life. No, no debt isn’t a sign of covenant curses. The bible doesn’t know what it’s talking about. Those things don’t apply to us. Why shouldn’t the word of God apply to us? Where does it say that those things don’t apply? It doesn’t.
You see thinking that the word of God no longer applies is nothing more than laying the path to destruction. The Chrystal Cathedral going bankrupt is just the tip of the iceberg of what we are going to see in church bankruptcies and failures. The church today is built upon a faulty foundation that will crumble quickly when judgment begins to unfold in our land.
Brothers and sisters it should not be this way. We have thrown away the path of life and as a result we are lost in the wilderness as both a nation and a church. We are the blind leading the blind because we have refused to believe the IF THEN promises of God. IF you humble yourself before God and his commands THEN he will exalt you and lift you up. Over and over again we see that in scripture. Over and over again we want to make it mean less than what is says because we don’t believe God is really that strong. We don’t believe that God can really do what he says. We don’t believe God really expects us to do anything.

I would encourage you to immerse yourself in the promises of God until they become a part of who you are. Until they become the air that you breath and the food that you consume. I know that is hard to do. Trust me I know. It is so easy to get discouraged in the midst of life. We are in such a hurry to get somewhere but you know what? I’m beginning to understand that the goal is not to get somewhere. It is not to get to the end of the race the goal is to stay on the road. That is all that matters.

In some sense, it is as if the path of life is one of those automatic walking paths at the airport. You know what I mean? The ones that are like a flat escalator? You get on and you can walk if you want while you’re on it but regardless of whether you walk or not you are going to get to the end, but you have to stay on the path to get where you’re going. The Christian life is like that. If you are in Christ Jesus you are going to make it to the end: IF YOU STAY ON THE PATH. Grace is the thing that puts us on the path of life every time we jump off. Our main focus in life is not the end; it is staying on the path of life. Unfortunately, the church today doesn’t even believe in the path of life anymore. They think that grace is the path of life. But grace is not the path of life it is simply the means by which we get put on the path.

Listen to the promises of God that apply to us because we are of the house of Judah in Christ Jesus the Lion of the Tribe of Judah: I will strengthen the house of Judah, And I will save the house of Joseph, And I will bring them back, Because I have had compassion on them; and they will be as though I had not rejected them, For I am the LORD their God and I will answer them. 7"Ephraim will be like a mighty man, and their heart will be glad as if from wine; Indeed, their children will see it and be glad, Their heart will rejoice in the LORD. 8"I will whistle for them to gather them together, for I have redeemed them; and they will be as numerous as they were before. 9"When I scatter them among the peoples, they will remember me in far countries, and they with their children will live and come back. 10"I will bring them back from the land of Egypt and gather them from Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon Until no room can be found for them. 11"And they will pass through the sea of distress and He will strike the waves in the sea, so that all the depths of the Nile will dry up; and the pride of Assyria will be brought down and the scepter of Egypt will depart. And I will strengthen them in the LORD, and in His name they will walk," declares the LORD.

I know it’s easy to get discouraged. I know many of us wonder how long am I going to be the mess I am? We wonder sometimes if we are too bad for God to change. I mean we must be right? Because he doesn’t change us. Like pigs, He just lets us go back to the slop over and over again.

I will be honest I do not know why God does things the way he does BUT I do know that he promises to strengthen his people. He promises he will strengthen you. I know it’s easy to get frustrated. But I want you to stop focusing on the now, stop focusing on how you are messing up and start focusing on how God is strengthening you. Remember what you used to be like. Look back at yourself 20 years ago and then look at the you today and see the difference Because if you are in Christ Jesus there is one. We are just easily distracted by the now and we get so caught up in what is going on in front of our eyes that we forget what God has been doing all along.

If you are in Christ Jesus YOU WILL BE Strengthened. You will, by God’s grace, be placed on the path of life against your will until it finally sinks into your head and heart that the path of life is where life is at: EVERYTHING ELSE IS DEATH.

God has not and he will not abandon you. Our call, our duty is to humble ourselves before our maker that he may keep his promises. IF my people who are called by my name WILL HUMBLE themselves and Pray THEN I will forgive their sins and heal their land. Let us do the IF so that the then will surely come to pass. God is faithful to keep his promises. He is keeping them now.

Let’s pray. Oh father, thank you for your faithfulness toward us. Pour out your grace upon us that we might be able to do the ifs of covenant so that we may receive the thens of your covenant blessings. In Jesus’ authority, upon whose shoulders the government of all things rests, we ask these things. AMEN.


Hear the word of the Lord from James chapter 4:
What do you think the Scriptures mean when they say that the spirit God has placed within us is filled with envy? 6 But he gives us even more grace to stand against such evil desires. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but favors the humble.” 7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. 9 Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.
Go in peace.

Learing to Fly

Morning,

I’ve been listening to the sound track to the movie Crazy Heart the last week or so. I thought the movie was excellent and I would have to say the sound track is too, if you like old style country music. Most of the songs are new but they are written in that old country style of guys like Buck Owens and Waylon Jennings. T Bone Burnett is the man behind the scenes on this one and like the Oh Brother sound track he has shown himself to be a master of genres creating a sound that will only be played on radio against programmer’s wishes (like the 8X platinum O brother).

The song I can’t get out of my head is called Fallin’ and Flyin’. The chorus goes: It’s funny how fallin’ feels like flyin’ (for a little while). That is so true. And yet the more I think about it (which is a lot these days) the more I understand that flying often times feels like falling (at least to me). Even though I don’t like the phrase leap of faith, when we do take that step out onto the great unknown, into the will of God that step more often than not feels like we are going to head into the great abyss below. The step of faith onto what we can not see (which is the substance of faith) can be extraordinarily scary much like my one and only ride on the Hellavator at six flags Louisville before someone lost their legs riding it and they closed the park forever. That drop is the test of all tests. It is God testing you and you testing God. God tests you to see if you’ll take the step. You test God to see if he will really catch you, or really let you begin to fly.

As Tom Petty sings: Well, some say life will beat you down Break your heart, steal your crownSo I've started out for God knows where I guess I'll know when I get there. I'm learning to fly but I ain’t got wings, coming down is the hardest thing.

It is the hardest thing, and I say that as one who has crashed and burned multiple times. That is part of the reason that I find myself hesitant to repent, to change, especially on the big stuff or should I say the stuff that seems important to me. I’m learning a lot of things these days and one of the most important is that the verse from proverbs which says: there is a way that seems right unto man but the way thereof is death. I think that was written just for me. I find myself holding onto ways that I am absolutely sure are the right way and then I wonder why everything falls apart at the seams.

Just because it seems right to me doesn’t mean it is. Now I’ve been holding on to some of these ways of doing things for a long, long time and to take the risk of no longer doing them is scary as hell. In some sense it is hell to me. I mean I made up all these rules, these plans in order to protect myself from pain and to come to the place where I am beginning to see that they are killing me softly, and painlessly is not something that I want to really acknowledge all that much.
As stubborn as I purport to be the truth is when the time is right, when my heart is in the place where God says it’s time to change I usually step off the edge. It just takes a long time to get me to the place to be willing and able to do that. I had someone ask me, no actually I had a couple of people ask me why it takes so long to change. My profound answer was: I don’t know.
But as I ponder that with regard to my own situation I have come to realize that the thing that we notice, the thing that we want to change isn’t really the problem. It is simply the bloom of the problem. The problem is like a deep growing root that has wrapped its way around our hearts, around all of our vital organs. It is the way that seems right to us but whose outcome is death – and it is killing us.

Sure we could just snip off the bloom and pretend everything was alright but unless that root comes out we are destined for death. The root has to be removed and like most complicated surgeries one wrong move and you’re dead. So God takes his time. It seems like the process takes forever to us but to God it’s nothing at all- the time isn’t important to him, the outcome is.
So I find myself this week with both feet over the edge of the cliff waiting like Wile E. Coyote to either fall down into the cavern or be amazed as the ACME wings of grace take me to new heights. It could go either way.

As T Bone wrote in fallin’ and flyin':

I was going where I shouldn’t go, seeing who I shouldn’t see, doing what I shouldn’t do and being who I shouldn’t be. A little voice said it’s all wrong. Another voice said it’s all right. I used to think that I was strong but lately I just lost the fight. It’s funny how falling feels like flying for a little while. It’s funny how falling feels like flying for a little while.

I got tired of being good. Started missing that ole feeling free. Stopped acting like I thought I should and went on back to being me. I never meant to hurt no one. I just had to have my way. If there’s such a thing as too much fun this must be the price you pay. It’s funny how falling feels like flying for a little while. It’s funny how falling feels like flying for a little while

You never see it coming til it’s gone. It all happens for a reason even when it’s wrong (especially when it’s wrong)

I was going where I shouldn’t go, seeing who I shouldn’t see doing what I shouldn’t do and being who I shouldn’t be.
----
Hope I’m not hanging around too long trying to figure out if this is falling or flying.

Trying to be who I'm supposed to be

Your's Truly,

Wile E. Coyote

I hope I see you in heaven

Hey everyone,

Well, it’s 6:30 and still pitch black outside. Seasons change and time moves on. It seems like an eternity but this is only the 51st time I’ve encountered the season known as fall. That doesn’t seem like too many when you think of seasons. It feels like they come around so fast but yet they really don’t. Slow and steady wins the race I guess; unless of course your opponent is fast and steady.

I’ve been trying to straighten out my cd collection the last few days. It’s more work than I really wanted to put into it at this point. Some years back I got a wild hair and thought wouldn’t it be great if I got some of those portable cd holders and got rid of all these cd cases. It sounded good at the time. But now, well I’m finding I miss the visual aspect of music as much as anything. I like to be able to see what I’m listening to. Unfortunately, you need a magnifying glass to see the art work on cd’s.

I’m also pulling out all my albums from the basement. It will be good to have them in the land of the living again. Now there’s art work I can see and feel and smell (ah the moldy basement) to me that is just as important as listening to the music. I miss the days when records were art. I realize that strictly limits my time frame of music enjoyment but what can I say, I do miss it.
I remember holding that Grand Funk Railroad album- Phoenix- in my hands for the first time. My first album; it had been 45’s up ‘til then. (One good thing about cds is they don’t melt in the back seat of the car when you go on family vacation. Let It Be does not sound good after 4 hours in the back window of a car in July in 1972. But I must admit melted vinyl looks cool and it was fun watching the needle bounce all over the place)

I still remember that trip to Indiana (or I remember a montage of trips to Indiana every summer for a few years straight). It was the summer I began to want to learn how to play the guitar. My cousin Kevin was always singing some weird but funny song I had never heard on Illinois radio (back in the days when every city didn’t have the same play list) something about a Dead Skunk in the middle of the road. I didn’t hear that song again until I bought the album as a cut out for under a buck (brand new albums were only $4 bucks at Kmart back then). I was probably the only 13 year old to own a Loudon Wainwright the III album for a hundred miles around.

I still listen to Loudon, even though he was basically a one hit wonder, the rest of his music doesn’t play well on the radio, to many brains and not enough beat. I saw him perform at the Country Music Hall of fame not to long before it flooded. It was really good to see him live. The added bonus for me was getting to see a guy named David Mansfield play several different stringed instruments. I’ve been a fan of his since he was in the Alpha Band with t-bone Burnett and Steven Soles. It was during the time they were all in Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Review. Since then he’s been in Bruce Hornsby and the range and done a lot of soundtrack work. They are all in their sixties now and I still felt like a 12 year old kid in their presence, getting autograph’s and telling them how much their music meant to me.

Sometime after I found Loudon Wainwright III I was introduced to the music of Larry Norman and that completed the desire to learn to play the guitar. The album was Only visiting this planet – and the song that really grabbed me was Why Don’t you look into Jesus. – Sippin’ whiskey from a paper cup drown your sorrows till you can’t stand up, take a look at what you done to yourself Why don’t you put the bottle back on the shelf. Yellow fingers from your cigarettes your hands are shaking while your body sweats – Why don’t you look into Jesus He’s got the answers.

Five years later I would sing that song in front of my entire high school of about 2500 people. Back then I didn’t even know what the questions were and I thought I had the answers. It’s been down hill on the fame scale ever since. I guess I was fighting an up hill battle. Fact is: I hardly ever pick up a guitar any more. I still write from time to time but for the most part lyrics have turned to novels and novels just sit in the back of my head waiting to come out on the page. Surviving is sometimes a full time job and it doesn’t leave room for much else.

I’m wasting too much time rambling today so I will leave you with the lyrics to a Larry Norman song that I have probably sent out before but it is the most meaningful of any of his songs, at least for me where I’m at these days:

When you first begin your journey you're not sure of who you are And the lessons that you're learning, they don't seem to take you far. And you just can't keep from stumbling, though you try so hard to stand, And the truth can be so humbling when it's just beyond your hand.

As though youth were my invention, as though love lay undefined To stay free was my intention, to stay young and unconfined. And so I held my pride above you. Oh yes, what a fool was I, Holding back those words I love you and letting out that word good-bye.

I was wrong to let you go. I was a child and I did not know
about the love that we both could have given.
And now you've gone so far away. I hope I'll see you again some day but if I don't,
I hope I'll see you in heaven.

I was foolish in my younger days to think they'd never end.
Life confused me with it's changing ways and I could not comprehend
All the meaning in those moments, now lost like foot prints in the sand.
And I'm standing here remembering but It's so hard to understand.

I've been sitting in this garden in the middle of my days
And my memories fade and harden as the years they slip away.
I’ve been looking in this mirror at the age around my eyes
Time is such an earnest laborer, precision is his neighbor.
Lay my body in the ground but let my spirit touch the sky.

I was wrong to let you go. I was a child and I did not know
about the love that we both could have given.
And now you've gone so far away. I hope I'll see you again some day
but if I don't, I hope I'll see you in heaven.

Grace and peace,
Brad

The Best is Yet to Come

Hey Y’all,

What would we do if God ever decided to show up in our midst? We are so used to living like deists, saying that we believe he exists but acting like he left us in control while the world winds down around us, that we really think this is as good as it gets. I went and did a bad, bad thing last Sunday. I… and I can’t believe I did this, I spoke about God actually doing something. I said he could change our communities. I went so far as to say that he was more powerful than racism and drug runners.

I understand now why we prefer to be deists because a god that doesn’t do anything doesn’t get your hopes up. There is no chance to be disappointed if you don’t expect anything. I can’t believe I had the nerve to expect God to do something; to expect God’s word to be true and to actually unfold in my community. Was I insane? What if I was wrong? What if God didn’t mean what he said in his word? What if he just wants evil to get worse and worse and worse while the church rolls over and plays dead? What if the wicked are more powerful than God? Then put a bullet in my head please.

I know you don’t hear people ask these kind of questions these days. That’s because we’re deists. God is through doing stuff in our eyes. He is never going to save 3000 people in one day again. Righteousness is never going to be strong enough to defeat evil. The one world government is going to take over and rule the planet because God has left the building and he isn’t coming back to do anything until the curtain falls.

Why did I even bother to open my hopeful mouth? Why did I try to give people hope in a powerful God that intends on actually ruling and reigning over his creation? Why did I try to tell my congregation that God expects us to take dominion over every area of life for his glory? Why did I tell them that the wicked are destined to be defeated?

Why?

Because it’s true. Because it’s time to shake off the lies that we are steeped in and listen to the truth for a change. It’s time to believe in the God of scripture and the promises of scripture. It is time to press on in our lives and in our communities and begin to exalt Jesus as the king that he really is – King of all things; that includes drug runners, political powers that be, racists, and all around sinners like me. He is king of all.

I wish that I would start living like I believe that. More often than not when he answers the prayers I pray so diligently I say: “You must have done something wrong Lord. It wasn’t supposed to hurt like this. It wasn’t supposed to cause me pain. You were just supposed to change them. I didn’t want to be involved. “ But I am involved in the lives of others and their change affects me. My change affects them. We are a body not just lone rangers trying to tough it out all by ourselves. NO ONE IS MEANT TO DO THIS ALONE. (sorry about they internet yelling there).

The truth is God moving in the world is messy. It’s disrupts our happy shiny pretend lives. You know the ones where we think life is smooth sailing and everything is always going to be peachy keen because God is so good? Well he is good but he has this tendency to be anything but peachy keen. He has a tendency to show us our hearts by ripping them out and holding them in front of us so that we and anybody else that happens to be close by can see them in all the gory detail.

I understand that God wants the best for me but his idea of best and my idea of best are worlds apart. I want the best food, the best car, the best house, the best wife, the best children. He simply wants the best heart with the best obedience. Yuk.

He will win the battle you are having with him you know. You don’t stand a chance because he is ruthless. He will do everything that needs to be done to get you where you need to be. He knows where all the weak spots in your armor of self are and he is not afraid or ashamed to go there and wreak havoc until you begin to change.

Since he’s God I don’t know why he doesn’t just wiggle his nose or blink his eye and change us. Wait… yes I do because we wouldn’t appreciate us. If he did it all for us we wouldn’t grow up. If we didn’t have to work through the process of growing up we would never grow up. Trust me as one who refused to grow up as long as he was bailed out of jams: it’s true. I know men older than I who still refuse to grow up. Instead what they do is get bitter and mean and more and more self-righteous. They are frustrated because they want to be free to do what they want but they don’t want to take the risk involved in being free. So they settle for being crotchety old men with no self respect, an over inflated sense of self worth, and a chip on their shoulder they would just love for you to try and knock off.

That’s what happens when we refuse to repent, refuse to grow up: our hearts get harder.
But for those of us who are willing to grow up, to change, to take the risk of actually living life there is hope. God promises us good things even if they cost us blood, sweat and tears to get. I know we are surrounded by cheap imitations that look good on the outside but are really just lead painted covered knock offs made in china. It’s time we began to see with a new set of eyes, discerning eyes that can tell the difference between the real and the fake, eyes that won’t let pity be confused with love. It’s time that we take those eyes and begin to look at the condition of our families and our communities. It’s time we looked at the mess that is around us with those eyes and begin to act accordingly, walking in truth, changing the way things are as we cross paths with unrighteousness.

I believe the wicked will fall in my lifetime. I believe that my community will be humbled in my lifetime. I believe that righteousness will once again reign on the streets of Portland, TN. As Michael Buble sings (yes Michael Buble) The best is yet to come baby won’t it be fine. You think you’ve seen the sun but you ain’t seen it shine. Wait til you’ve seen that sunshiney day You aint’ seen nothing yet.

I look forward to seeing the Son shine brighter than the light of noon in my heart, in my family, in my community. I think God’s going to be pretty busy the next 50 years.

Grace and Peace,
Brad

10-10-10

I am going to continue on in Zechariah 8 today. I know the concept of the believing church and believing Israel being the same thing in scripture is new to a lot of us. I want to read a passage out of the New Testament to remind us that that is true. It is from the book of Revelation chapter 21: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. 2And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, 4and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away." 5And He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new " And He said, "Write, for these words are faithful and true." 6Then He said to me, "It is done I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. 7"He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. 8"But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." 9Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, "Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb." 10And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, 11having the glory of God Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper.

What a glorious passage. We see there that the bride of Christ is the New Jerusalem. There is one people of God and they are all those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ from every tribe nation and tongue. Your nationality is of no importance in being a part of the chosen people. If you are an Israelite and an unbeliever you will end up in hell just like all the other unbelievers only with a stricter judgment because you were brought near to the things of God and you still rejected God. A heart of unbelief will cause you to lose the salvation that you thought you had. The same is true for people who call themselves Christians. If you say you’re a Christian but you live like an unbeliever your actions reveal the condition of your heart and you will receive a stricter judgment on the last day than someone who didn’t have access to the word of God the way you did.

This is what the passage in Hebrew 6 means when it says: in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. 7For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; 8but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.

If you are raised in the church or even if you are raised a Jew you are being rained on everyday by the word of God. Life is near to you, so near you can taste it but if you refuse to humble yourself before God then no matter how close you are to it you are still dead. Grace is there right next to you but you fall away from it instead of towards it. That is a sad thing.
My point is that there is one people of God –those who humble themselves before their Lord regardless of race, nationality or color. If you are humbling your heart before God then you are a part of the chosen nation. You are the beloved of the Lord and he loves no one else more than he loves you.

I say all of that because in these Old Testament passages it is easy to forget that the scripture is talking about those who believe and not just a nation of people.
So when we read in chapter 8 starting with verse 7: "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Behold, I am going to save My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west.’ We must remember that he is talking about the church throughout all of history. God is saving a people for himself from every nation, tribe and tongue. We must remember to think like that as we read the rest of the passage. Verse 8 says: and I will bring them back and they will live in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God in truth and righteousness.'

Now given the way we have been taught, from a New Testament only perspective, it is easy to lose a biblical perspective here. We see the word Jerusalem and we immediately think of the Middle East. But that is not what this passage is talking about. God says he will gather his people back to himself and they will live in Jerusalem, the new Jerusalem, the body of Christ. God is gathering one people to himself from all the peoples of the land to be his Son’s bride. He only has one people and that people includes everyone that he gathers from every corner of the earth. All who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and his redemptive work are Israel regardless of where they are from. All those who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are not Israel regardless of their heritage.

That is important because it affects the way we see God working in the world. God is not on the side of unbelievers even if they are from the physical heritage of Israel. The new covenant has changed everything.

Zechariah continues on in verse 9:"Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Let your hands be strong, you who are listening in these days to these words from the mouth of the prophets, those who spoke in the day that the foundation of the house of the LORD of hosts was laid, to the end that the temple might be built.

I too want to encourage you to be strong. God is laying a foundation for his people right here in our midst. He has begun to grow something that is going to impact our communities and more importantly our families. I know way too often I have very little faith when it comes to God actually doing something in my family. I know those people all too well. I changed their diapers; I know their weaknesses to a fault. I tend to think that they are too messed up for God to do anything about.

Maybe you don’t think that way, I don’t know. But sometimes to me it feels like we have been working all these years raising kids and we haven’t gotten paid for it. We did all that work and this is what we get? What’s up with that? I thought children were supposed to be a blessing right?

Don’t let yourself get caught up in that unbelief. Maybe you’re Isaac and you have a lying, cheating, deceiving son named Jacob. No offense Jake. Don’t take it personally. Do you just give up hope on him when he leaves home and goes onto live his own life or do you trust God is big enough to change that idiot into a man of God named Israel? Don’t let the now take your focus off the bigness of God. God can change anyone at anytime. All you have to do is look around this room to see that. God specializes in saving messes. If there’s hope for me there’s hope for us all. That is the glorious thing about God being sovereign; there is nobody too messed up for God to save.

Our call is to pray, and pray and then pray some more because things are not going to change until we refuse to stop knocking on the door. Until we get persistent in crying out for mercy so persistent that God will act just to shut us up. How many of you want to see your kids changed that badly? It’s one thing to moan and complain about the way God is treating you. It is another thing altogether to pray the effectual prayer of a righteous person until the clouds bring rain. I’m talking to myself as much as anyone. How long until I begin to pester God with my petitions?
We have been and we may still be in the days when there is no wage for man or animal, there is no peace but I believe that time may be coming to an end amongst us. God doesn’t necessarily move on a people all at once. For instance, the economic crash of 2008 affected a lot of people but it didn’t affect everyone. My economic crash took place from 2004 to 2005. I have been in recovery since august of 2005. I’m just now getting back on my feet from that down turn in my economy. David and Anna are still trying to recover from the twenty minutes that severely changed there economic outlook. Jimmy and Rosie, Jim and Carla, Jeff and Tammy, have all been experiencing economic turmoil or at least loss of income. So we are familiar with it. In this passage, however, I don’t think that God is talking about monetary gain.
I mean we are coming to the end of one of the most financially prosperous times in the history of the world but what we are beginning to see is that it is and was an age that has paid us in covenant curses and not blessings. Our prosperity tested our hearts and revealed their true condition. We have been given great monetary gain and as a result have shown ourselves to be poor because we ended up saying: Look at the wealth that our hands have made. We failed the test. Just like God said would happen in Deuteronomy.

The result is a lack of wages or if we have been paid it is the wages of sin - death, there is no peace and all men are set against one another. Sure people cry for peace but there is none. There will be no peace until we soften our hearts and bow before the one and only king of all.
I find it amazing that here in our midst hearts are softening, people are changing that can only mean one thing – God is moving in our midst. God is beginning to treat us differently just as he says starting in verse 11: 'But now I will not treat the remnant of this people as in the former days,' declares the LORD of hosts. 12'For there will be peace for the seed: the vine will yield its fruit, the land will yield its produce and the heavens will give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to inherit all these things. 13'It will come about that just as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you that you may become a blessing Do not fear; let your hands be strong.' 14"For thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Just as I purposed to do harm to you when your fathers provoked Me to wrath,' says the LORD of hosts, 'and I have not relented, 15so I have again purposed in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah Do not fear!
I believe with all my heart that God has purposed to do good to us here at Immanuel Baptist and wherever else he is moving on people’s hearts to open them up to his whole word. God put a calling on my life a long, long time ago. It is a picture of the church impacting the world in a mighty way. It is the picture of a strong and powerful people of God who have great discernment in how to live godly lives in the midst of the world. It is a picture of the people of God leading the communities they live in toward godliness. It is a picture of God turning the church from being a laughing stock to a place where peace flows from; and out of that peace a prosperity begins to grow that is founded upon walking in righteousness. I see that day in our future. I don’t know if it will be in our life times but I know in my heart that we are laying the foundation for that right now. We are preparing the ground for the next generation. Yes, I realize that the next generation doesn’t really give a flip about what we are doing here. Jacob isn’t Israel yet; but he will be.

I’m not talking about changing the world; I’m talking about changing our community. If you look at the great commission, in conjunction with Acts chapter one, we are told that: All authority has been given to Jesus over heaven and earth. Because of that authority we are then told to go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to do all that Jesus and therefore God has commanded us to do.

In Acts 1 Jesus give us some clarification on the going into all the world part of the great commission. He says: but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.

I want you to think about these things in a new way. Our call in the great commission is not to get people to make a profession of faith. Look at what it says: Our call is to disciple the nations so that they do the commandments of God.

When you look at the great commission from that perspective and you look at the world and even the church you can begin to get a better understanding of just how badly we have ignored these commands of Jesus. The church itself wants nothing to do with the commands of God we don’t even need to look at the world.

I believe with all my heart that God has called us to begin to disciple the nations right here in our own communities. I mentioned this last Sunday night in a different context and somebody said half jokingly, not Portland, maybe Whitehouse or, Franklin but not Portland.
Maybe Portland is the end of the earth in some people’s minds but it is our end of the earth. It is where God has placed us for such a time as this. I know the giants are big in the land here. I know that just like in our families we know the junk that goes on here too well. We are very familiar with the giants in the land and we don’t think that they can ever be overcome.
Brothers and sisters God has called us to this community to teach it to do the commands of God. Zechariah tells us in verse 16 that we are to do this by doing the following: speak the truth to one another; judge with truth and righteousness for peace in your gates. 17'Also let none of you devise evil in your heart against another, and do not love perjury; for all these are what I hate,' declares the LORD."

Do we believe that God is strong enough to allow us to begin to judge with truth and righteousness within the city limits of Portland? Do we think that God is big enough and strong enough to take power away from the ungodly and give it to us? Do we think that God is strong enough to bring peace between the races and the classes?

From another perspective, how long will it take for God to make us worthy to lead the community? How long until God stirs up our hearts to begin to take the economic, racial, educational, political, agricultural situations of Portland into our own hands and begin to let God develop it for his glory? I want you to understand that the economy of our communities is not dependent upon our state government or our federal government, or even on people with money and power – or economy is determined by the living God. The things that we can think of to build in order to supply needs are not limited by science or what we currently have. God made everything that is out of nothing but his words. Surely he can once again speak and in doing so lead us to develop new ways of doing things that have never been thought of by puny human brains before.

We have listened to lies for too long. We have been beat down to the point where we think that abuse is the way life is supposed to be. We have been in bondage for so long that we think we are supposed to wear these chains like jewelry. We have been ruled by unbelief both in the church and in the world for so long that we don’t think God is strong enough to really do anything in this world.

I’m here to tell you today that it is time to stop listening to lies and start believing the word of God. God has started moving in our midst. He is changing us. It may seem to be small and insignificant. But was God delivering you from death into life a little thing? Did God soften your hard heart so that you would fall in love with him? If so then he can do anything he wants and he wants to use us, me and you to disciple the nation of Portland and Franklin, and Whitehouse.
I believe that God is going to use us here at Immanuel to disciple the land for sixty miles in every direction. I believe that if we continue to press on into the things of God; if we stay humble before God and walk in his ways then he will give us peace in our seed. Things will start to grow. Godliness will begin to increase. The wicked will flee because of the fear of the Lord. I believe the times of fasting are going to be turned into times of feasting, not eating just to eat but eating together in the joy of the Lord. The communion meal will be a glorious time of celebration; of joy, gladness, and a cheerful feast for the body of Christ; because we will see God moving in new and mighty ways and we will be learning to love truth and peace. I believe that the time is coming when just as it says in verse 20 people will come to us from many other cities saying let us go seek the favor of the Lord; and they will come here to find it. They will come here from all over and beg to go with us because they have heard that God is with us.
I know some of you are probably thinking what has he been drinking this morning? He’s out of his mind. Maybe I am, I don’t know. I don’t have any physical evidence to prove any of this. I just know that this picture of the church has been growing and developing in my head for a long, long time and this is the first time I’ve ever let it out. I decided to take a risk and give you a bit of the vision that I have for Immanuel. It is not a little vision. It is not an easy vision. But it is a vision that I believe encompasses the whole word of God. I believe this is the true context of the great commission.

The question is: are we willing to pester God in prayer enough that he begins to do this in our midst, in our communities? I will go so far as to say this is our only hope. Change has to begin with us. It can’t begin out there somewhere. We can’t expect the gospel to change others if we won’t let it change us. We can’t expect our nation to change if we won’t let God change our communities.

Like Joshua said before they went into the promised land: We need to choose this day, today, who we will serve: a tiny God that doesn’t do anything in this life except give us a ticket to heaven or a big God who rules economies and governments and every area of life. The God of scripture is a big God, bigger than you can even begin to imagine. May he give us the grace to serve him with our whole lives.

Let’s pray. Father, give us the grace to believe in you, the real you, the powerful you and not only to believe but to live out that belief in every area of life. In Jesus name I ask this amen.

Hear the word of the Lord: If my people who are called by my name will HUMBLE themselves and PRAY and SEEK and TURN from their wicked ways THEN I will HEAR from heaven Forgive their sin and HEAL their land.

Go in peace

Things Have Changed

Hey Everyone,

I heard some Bob Dylan on the way to work today – Shelter from the Storm, a great song, but for some reason it made me think of a more recent Dylan song called: Things have changed. Maybe it was my attitude or lack thereof that helped me make the leap from one song to another I don’t know.

One of the bridges to the song says:

Lot of water under the bridge, lot of other stuff too Don’t get up gentlemen, I’m only passing through People are crazy and times are strange I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range
I used to care, but things have changed.

Things have certainly changed, they are changing, but it seems like change is ganging up on me this week. On Monday I think I probably cared but I’m not so sure now that it’s Thursday.
Thankfully my wife went back to work this week. Unthankfully, I haven’t seen her for more than 30 seconds in the last 72 hours. Welcome to life at Opryland hotel. One of my daughter’s is having a baby in 7 short weeks. The middle name is mine and not Marie and I’m sort of excited about that and yet sad because I live 7 hours away. My other daughter – Princess Slaya – made the Roller Derby team this week and that makes me laugh and the day before she and her husband were accepted into the Peace Corp so next year at this time they will be in the middle of Islam Territory either in North Africa or the Middle East and that scares me. I just got one child safely home from there and now another one heads off into danger.

I realize that danger is all around. The unexpected can happen at anytime. This week is proof enough of that and for all you sovereignty of God fans it is absolutely no comfort knowing that God planned it all – none. It is still unexpected to me. It is still life. And if you try to comfort me by saying it’s God’s will I just might punch you in the face. I am still bumbling around in the dark trying to figure out which way I’m supposed to go, surprised I’m still standing at this point in the race. It’s a heck of a plan from my point of view. Certainly not the same as MY plan. In my mind things were supposed to go so much differently. In my plan there is no pain, there is no frustration, there is no risk, there is no working 14 hours a day at two jobs to make ends meet – barely.

I heard on NPR the other day that middle class income is somewhere around 80 grand a year. I didn’t realize that a family could work three jobs and still be considered to be a part of the lower class but I guess it’s true. Today there is a part of me that wants to go back to say 1984 before reality had a chance to catch up with me and Jesus was still going to be stopping by in 1985 so I wouldn’t have to think about life in grown up land. Ah to be young and oblivious again, not.
I have this picture on my bulletin board of my oldest daughter and her husband standing in crowd on the streets of Amman, Jordan. I think they were watching a protestor burn something or someone; I can’t remember these days. I also have a name tag that I found on the floor a couple of days ago that says: Tony B. I had a friend by that name who died in a car wreck a few years back. The last time I saw him he was a personal wreck. I offered to help. He never took me up on the offer. Something always came up. Life got in the way and everything was more important than taking care of his soul, maybe not more important but certainly less painful and a few months later his car was in a ditch and I was attending his funeral. I put the name tag on my wall to remind me that it could all be over in an instant. NOTHING is guaranteed from our point of view – which is the only view that we have.

I have another friend who told me this week that he was having a real rough time. He is taking care of his aging parents with Alzheimer’s, he’s on disability himself and yet in the midst of his struggles he said: “But you know what? Even though I feel so bad and things are so rough I still don’t want to drink.” He lived in a bottle for most of his life. He lives in the wages of that now and yet he doesn’t have the urge to drink. That is salvation to me. God has (at least in this one area) saved him from himself.

I on the other hand feel like running – not far and not permanently- and in fact I won’t do it at all but the feeling is still there: So many things trying to beat me down from every side that I just wanna get away. This is life during wartime. I can still see the turmoil on Tony’s face all these years later. He was hurting, perhaps much the way I hurt but he was too scared of the pain that being truthful and honest would bring to do anything about it. He was ashamed of the truth of his life and so in one area of his existence at least he refused to be set free.
I know that some of you that read this will be concerned about my condition and want to fix me but the truth is there is nothing to fix. Some of you would probably want to fix Jesus since he was a man of sorrows and full of grief but there is a time for sadness in the midst of honesty. It is a sad world at this point in history. We are smack dab in the middle of a culture that is digging its own grave before our very eyes. And yet, I have hope that something great and glorious will rise out of the ashes. But that doesn’t mean that watching Rome burn is fun.

Even as I’m writing this the Supreme Court (if they get out of bed this early) is determining whether or not it is lawful for a group of people to spew hatred at grieving families in the name of Jesus. I grieve over that on a multitude of levels not least of which is the way we have skewered the freedom of speech clause over the last hundred years. The other is the fact that some people can get so bent out of shape over the sin of male on male sex (I refuse to use the H word) but at the same time advance the cause of self righteousness and murder through hatred. You either get to enforce all of the law or none of it. You don’t get to pick and choose.

I realize that spiritual warfare is all around us. We are gaining ground on the enemy even if we have a hard time seeing it. I will go so far as to say that the tide is beginning to turn at some level within the church and thus the reason for the conflict in my heart and life. The enemy knows that if I (we) can be distracted by the little things we won’t have time to do the big things. If I can by God’s grace learn to not care about the little things, the things that don’t matter, then I can spend time focusing on the important things. The trick is being able to tell which is which now isn’t it? I would love to be able to say about the unimportant things in life: I used to care but things have changed. Perhaps they will change. Perhaps one of these days I will be able to say I’m locked in tight to what God is doing. I’m out of range of the enemy. Perhaps.

Oh I know it will happen. I know that there is a happy ending when the story is done. What I don’t want to find out is how much sorrow and brokenness it will take to get there. So to help me focus on the big things I will look at my feet today. I will put one foot in front of the other and I will watch as I put each step down. I will do that because to get to the end of the race you have to take the next step. I can’t be dwelling on the steps I took yesterday or the obstacles that cross my path. All that is important is the next step.

Now if I could just find my feet.

Grace and Peace,

Brad

sermon 10-03-10

I want to go back to Zechariah 8 today and expand upon what I said last week. I’m going to use the New American Standard version this week to get a different perspective. I will start with verse 2: Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'I am exceedingly jealous for Zion, yes, with great wrath I am jealous for her.' If you remember from last week, the New Living translates it this way: My love for Mount Zion is passionate and strong; I am consumed with passion for Jerusalem! The word used there can mean to be jealous or to be zealous.
What the passage is saying is really twofold. First, God wants you all to himself. He doesn’t want you cheating on him with sin and second, he is filled with passion for you, his passion is marked by fervent devotion to you. In some sense it is an unreasonable devotion to you. He loves you so much that even though you treat him like garbage sometimes with your flirtation with sin he remains devoted to you. Now that doesn’t mean that he will just take your abuse forever. Even God has limits just ask all those that were slain in the wilderness, or that went into captivity because of their love for sin. You need to pay attention when the passage in Zechariah says that he is also zealous for you with great fury. He loves you so much that when you cheat on him he will pour out hot displeasure.
God gets emotional about you. He loves you so much that when he finds you cheating on him with sin he gets filled with a hot hot heat. Too often we view such things as abuse in our day and age but really what the passage is saying is that God loves you so much that when you get out of line he will bring discipline into your life to bring you back to him. He is love is not a passive love or a pretend love. He loves us so much that he won’t let us get away with rebellion.
I think God is letting us know that because He is passionate in his devotion toward us we shouldn’t get cocky and say he needs us and think that we can get away with murder. God is not like us; he doesn’t confuse pity and love. God loves us enough to give us what we need to grow up regardless of how painful it is. He’s not worried about you being angry at him or that you will leave him. God doesn’t need you. He is self sufficient. You don’t complete him. He is not lonely or empty when you are gone. But He wants you and that’s a big deal. He is pouring out his love upon you. Reject that love and he will reject you. Embrace that love and he will pour out wonderful things upon your life: Things that you can’t begin to imagine.
Let me read the rest of what we touched on last week and then finish the chapter: 3"Thus says the LORD, 'I will return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.' 4"Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Old men and old women will again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each man with his staff in his hand because of age. 5'And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets.' 6"Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'If it is too difficult in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, will it also be too difficult in My sight?' declares the LORD of hosts. 7"Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Behold, I am going to save My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west; 8and I will bring them back and they will live in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God in truth and righteousness.'
If you remember from last week I spoke about when God humbles our hearts before him he will allow us to grow into maturity and he will cause new believers to be born in our midst. Those things are still true this week. God is going to save his people. He knows who those people are that are his and he will save them. What is our job? To walk humbly with our God in his commands.
Look at what he tells us in verse 9 “This is what the Lord of hosts says: Be strong and finish the task! Ever since the laying of the foundation of the Temple of the Lord of hosts, you have heard what the prophets have been saying about completing the building. 10 Before the work on the Temple began, there were no jobs and no money to hire people or animals. No traveler was safe from the enemy, for there were enemies on all sides. I had turned everyone against each other.
What is he saying here? Think back on your journey to the faith. Was it an easy one? No there were enemies on all sides trying to stop you from becoming a part of the temple of God, the body of Christ. But God put a call out, he made a plan before the foundation of the world and said this person is going to be a part of my temple. He is mine and I will make sure that he or she makes it in.
Now that you’re in is it an easy journey? Are you kicked back by the pool living the good life waiting for the end of the world? I hope not. We haven’t arrived yet God is still working on his building. Now I don’t’ know about you but I get frustrated sometimes because it seems like there is a lack of wages for all the work that I’m doing. I think I’m working really hard at doing what’s right but then the enemy comes and just rips it all down and it gets so frustrating. I get tired of the enemy sticking his ugly face in my business all the time.
I’ll be honest with you sometimes I blame God for what the enemy does. I’ll take a step forward and then find myself taking to steps or ten steps backwards and I will say: God why are you doing this to me? Do you know that feeling? I get so focused on the sovereignty of God and his total plan for all of life that I immediately jump all over his case but that is wrong.
When I do that I am bringing God down to my level and saying his plan comes about the way my planning comes about. I have to do everything and be responsible for everything but God’s ways are not my ways. And I must remember that. That is one of my frustrations with some of the people that call themselves Calvinists they bring the sovereign God’s plan down to the level of man and that is wrong.
We had a bit of this discussion on Wednesday night. And I want to make sure you understand where I’m coming from on this matter: the scripture is clear that God’s ways are so much beyond our comprehension that even though he has planned all that is: He has done it in such a way that he is beyond responsibility. God doesn’t make you sin. In fact, on Sunday nights a while back we came a cross the verse that says that everything is permitted but not all things are lawful. What that means is that you are free to do anything you want to do, EVEN SIN but if you sin there will be repercussions from that. This is God’s world and it runs according to his laws.
The law of God says you will reap what you sow. Covenant breaking brings covenant curses. Covenant keeping brings covenant blessings. If you don’t incorporate all of the word of God into your understanding of the faith then you will make some dreadful mistakes. You might become arrogant and think that you know everything that is important, you might think you know how things really work but that is impossible for human beings. We cannot know the mind of God; we can only know what he reveals to us in his word.
We can see what neglecting part of the word or adding to the word of God can bring about by looking at the theology wars that rage in the church today. Some who call themselves Calvinists would make John Calvin turn over in his grave by the things that they believe. They try to give God the responsibility for people ending up in hell. But the scripture is clear any one that ends up in hell goes their because of their choices. No one will be able to say it’s God’s fault I’m here. Others in that same camp have been known to say we don’t need to do anything because God is going to save who he wants to save. Once again you have to deny the scripture in order to say that. We are called to proclaim the good news. We are called to be ready in season and out of season. We are called to go into all the world with the good news of Christ.
Now those on the other side of the theological fence from Calvinists are just as guilty. The scripture clearly says that God has chosen the elect from before the foundation of the world. It also says that we can make all the plans we want but God determines the outcome. God does not need us to do anything for him but he expects us to do our duty in keeping the commandments. Many times those in this theological camp try to limit the work of God to Salvation as if that is all that God was concerned about but that is not true. God created us to take dominion over every area of life from business to agriculture, education to politics, from nations to local governments God requires every area of life to be submitted to his law word.
The point in all of this is that it is not what you think or your theology says that makes things right. It is what the word of God says. And if the word of God says something that your brain can’t handle trust the word of God over your brain. The word of God is the only foundation upon which all of life can be built. It is the path of life and to stray off of the path of life because it doesn’t make sense to you is to turn from life unto death.
This is where faith comes in. Do you trust God enough to believe his word even if you don’t like it? Even if it makes you mad? That is where the rubber hits the road in our day and age. I say all that because we need to understand that there are enemies about that are trying to destroy the work of God. That is a large part of where our frustration in building the body of Christ comes from. We are being attacked from within and without in an effort to make us turn from the path of life and wallow in death.
We must pray for the grace of God to give us the strength to believe God and his word regardless of what reason says or logic, or anybody says. We must pray to the living God and beg him stop the enemies from disrupting the work that He has called us to do. We must beg him to let us stay on the path of life.
For instance, I knew at the age of 13 or 14 that God had called me to the ministry. I knew that, I can’t tell you how I knew that but I did. It was like a burning ember in my heart. And yet over the course of the next 30 years the enemies of God disrupted the work. Most of that time the work that was done on me was done without pay. By that I mean that there was no real profit for me being a Christian. It was a struggle. It was difficult. I didn’t see many of the promises of God come to fruition. But what God did was use the work of the enemy to stir me up and purge material from my heart that wasn’t suitable for building. God used those thirty years to get me ready to both be the building and to work on the building.
You see ever since you came to the faith the enemy has been doing everything in his power to keep you from making it to where you are supposed to be. Why? Because you used to be on his side and you defected. That makes him mad and he wants nothing more than to show God’s plan to be a failure. His only goal in life is to prove God to be a liar and if he can make you fall down he thinks he’s making headway. Even if all he can do is make you get mad at God for doing all this stuff to you instead of him he thinks he’s won a little victory. I mean he knows deep inside that he has lost the battle but that doesn’t stop him from making as much trouble for you as he can.
I’ll tell you the truth there have been plenty of times in the last thirty years that I turned my back on what I knew God had called me. Life got hard. The enemy played dirty. There was so much pain that I just figured that I had heard God wrong when I thought he had called me into the ministry. But I hadn’t. I just didn’t know what ministry really was. It took thirty years of growing up for me to begin to grasp what God meant when he said he was calling me to the ministry. It took thirty years of him ministering to me in the midst of the attacks of the enemy for me to have a heart to minister to you in the midst of the attacks that you are facing.
I had given up on the ministry. I had turned my back on it. I never wanted to lead a bunch of stupid, hard hearted Christians again. I was finished with the church. I gave away all my books. I tried to get into a new calling. I was done.
My heart was hard toward the ministry and then the funniest thing happened – God softened it. The weird thing was he had to take me all the way to the other side of the world to do it. In 2004 I found myself in Malawi Africa as a maintenance man working on a building for a Christian orphanage run by the Rafiki foundation. It was there in the midst of poverty and deprivation, a nation ravaged by Aids so badly that there were no middle aged people – an entire generation wiped away by sin that I saw joy, the joy of the Lord, and my hard heart was softened. And I was reminded of my calling. I was reminded of who I was meant to be and what I was meant to be. It took three more years and a lot of pain and frustration before I found myself here at Immanuel. This wasn’t on my radar screen. I thank God that it was on his.
Let’s look again at the text starting with verse 11: 'But now I will not treat the remnant of this people as in the former days,' declares the LORD of hosts. 12'For there will be peace for the seed: the vine will yield its fruit, the land will yield its produce and the heavens will give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to inherit all these things. 13'It will come about that just as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you that you may become a blessing Do not fear; let your hands be strong.' 14"For thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Just as I purposed to do harm to you when your fathers provoked Me to wrath,' says the LORD of hosts, 'and I have not relented, 15so I have again purposed in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah Do not fear! 16'These are the things which you should do: speak the truth to one another; judge with truth and judgment for peace in your gates. 17'Also let none of you devise evil in your heart against another, and do not love perjury; for all these are what I hate,' declares the LORD."
I believe that God is in the process of changing our hearts so that he can begin to pour out his goodness upon us and not his discipline. It is the goodness of God that leads to repentance. Now if you want you can chose to look backwards. You can be mad at God for what you think that he has done to you. But let me ask you something: Why would a loving God do something to you just to be mean? You see if God is the God of scripture and you are mad at him because of some injustice or some wrong thing that has been done to you then maybe; just maybe, you need to change the prescription in you glasses so that you can see things from God’s perspective and not your own. If all things work to your good to those who are called according to his purpose and you are mad at God for something you think he’s done then only one of two things is going on either your looking at that event wrongly and therefore missing the goodness of God in your life because you can’t see straight or you’re not called according to his purpose.
It’s time to let go of the grudges you are holding against God because guess what you’re only hurting yourself. You keep nursing that grudge against God but you are the one that’s suffering not God.
Listen to me. God knows if you’re angry at him. How are you going to hide anything from God? Why don’t you take a risk this week and let him know just how angry you are. Why don’t you find a place where you can just let loose on God and scream and yell at him to your hearts content? Quit playing around with God. Quit pretending you’re a believer all the while your hating God in your heart.
I’ll be the first to admit that I had built up thirty years of anger at God while I was doing his work. I had been in church my whole life. I was a good boy who rarely let a bad word out of his mouth, never touched a cigarette or dope, never drank, never caused any trouble for my family. But I was so angry at God on the inside that I could have spit nails at him. I was just like the older son in the parable of the prodigal. I thought I was being good for nothing. Everybody else got to do what they wanted to do but I had to be good.
I couldn’t see straight. I had bad vision. I thought God was bringing all of this bad stuff into my life and I was mad at him for making my life the way it was. His sovereignty was making me sick.
Finally, when I lost everything that I held dear, my wife, my family, my business, my pride and I had nothing left to lose I just started unloading all the anger and hatred I could muster upon the living God. I gave him the what for over the course of several years. In the process I discovered that it was me that was causing all of these messed up things in my life. All God was doing was saving me from myself.
I want you to understand that this is what the scripture means when it says the truth will set you free. You can know all the truths in the world and still be in bondage. Until you embrace the truth about who you are and how you feel inside towards God and others you will never be free. God demands a brutal honesty from us. He demands that we shine the light of his law upon every nook and cranny of our hearts. He demands that the inside of the cup be clean. So if you are only skimming off the top layer of crud and not letting the truth get all the way down to the bone you are never going to be free.
You have got to let go of the precious little lies that you cherish so dearly. I believe with all my heart that this is where God is taking us. If we are to have a victorious future in our personal lives, in this church, in our communities then it must begin by embracing the truth about ourselves and our attitude towards God and the people around us. Scripture is clear how can you say you love God and hate your neighbor? That applies to God and yourself as well. The way we live our lives reveals the true condition of our hearts.
The future begins with each and every one of us learning to embrace the true condition of our own hearts and believing that God only wants the best for us. If that is true then whatever has happened in your past that is making you so angry was sent by God to do good in your life if you are God’s possession. You have to decide if you are going to see that through your eyes or God’s.
What does God want to birth in you with that thing that’s eating you alive? What are you so afraid of?
It is my prayer that as we grow together as a community of believers that you will be able to embrace brutal honesty toward yourself. That is nothing more than letting the light of heaven shine in the dark recesses of your life so that you can give up death and walk in life.

Let’s pray. Oh father give us the grace to be brutally honest about the content of our hearts. In Jesus’ name I ask this. AMEN.