I had a conversation this week about the purpose of the church, it's mission and even about its ability to help us make sense of our lives in the confusing, chaotic world in which we live. It seems that we're all a bit confused, perhaps even conflicted, by the relevance of our faith and the church to make life better. At it's core this debate calls into question whether the life and death of Jesus was really all that necessary. After all, if we're all basically good people and we're all going to Heaven, then is the Cross of Christ, Christianity and Church really all that necessary? Judging by the decline of the church in the US, most people have already answer "NO" and voted by their lack of participation and commitment. For the most part, Americans are comfortable where they are and see no reason to change the course we're on, spiritually.
So I thought I would begin with a new perspective on the importance of the Gospel for understanding where we are, how we got here and where we're going. The Gospel answers the big "Why" questions that swirl around in our heads.
I want to begin with a simple premise. Life is going somewhere. There is a purpose to it, a spiritual journey we struggle to connect to. Why is that?
What if our view of life was so skewed that our definition of "GOOD" just didn't jive with reality, at least from God's perspective. (read Luke 18:19) What if, according to the Gospel,
(1) We aren't good or even on the right path,
(3) We aren't able to see the truth let alone do it if we did, so
(3) We aren't all going to heaven and live in harmony with God and others!
The Gospel seeks to make clear our condition, and then provide the one and only solution.
This is exactly what happened with the religious leaders of Jesus' time. They were so confident in their goodness (as demonstrated by their power, wealth and position) they were not at all concerned or self aware as to their true condition. they had boiled down spirituality to three steps:
(1) Keep doing what we've always done.
(2) Try to be essentially good, or at least better than others.
(3) Wait - God will come get you eventually.
Does this sound like your church experience? If it does you're in for a bit of a shock. This is NOT Christianity.
Let's start over and see where we get.
Our story begins with a curious study in the 1920's of how easy it is for all human being to go off course, to stray, when blind folded and asked to walk in a straight line. We will be using this video to reflect on our tendency to be off course and never know it, until it's too late.
The Gospel begins with our awareness that we are horribly off course and unlikely to change on our own.
[youtube=http://youtu.be/dIl4ZPy-USY]
This video reveals that without some external point to guide us we wander aimlessly in circles. We can't help it and we all do it. The same is true when it comes to the spiritual areas and moral choices. Without a right, true reference point to guide us, our character, our faith, our relationships, and our future get twisted around and we end up in places we never imagined we would be. What we need is a fixed point to keep us on course.
This week we'll take a look at the Scripture verse found throughout the Bible that declare rather vigorously that we're off course and need to face up to the fact. This is where world collide. Let me know what you think.
Scripture: Matthew 4:12-22
Sermon Notes: Sermon Notes 09.09.12 The Gospel pt1
Sermon Slides: Worship 9.9.12 Here to There
Sermon Audio: The Gospel_Walking Straight 9.9.12E
The Gospel_ Walking Straight 9.9
Sermons for going Deeper: Doctrine of HellEmail Subscription:
One of the things I have learned by listening to Pastor Steve’s sermons and while participating in the various Bible study classes that Pastor Steve teaches is how much I don’t know and how much I would not know if I were not able to listen to Pastor Steve’s sermons and if I were not able to participate in the various Bible study classes that Pastor Steve teaches.
Pastor Steve rarely if ever pontificates nor does he merely disseminate information with no substance and/or purpose, he teaches — teaches for a specific reason, teaches with a goal in mind — teaches so that he doesn’t just “give us a fish from which we can eat for a day,” but “teaches us to fish so that we can live for a life-time.”
I surmised but now have been taught by Pastor Steve for sure 1) that eternity is an eternity-long; 2) that “the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to [heaven]”; and 3) that hell is a “clear and present danger” for each and all of us.
If I were a student — high school, college, grad school — and I chose to “skip” class the day that the teacher taught information that would determine if I graduated, the fault would rest squarely on my shoulders when I did not.
If I were a student — high school, college, grad school — and the teacher, knowing the crucial nature of the information needing to be taught, chose to “skip” class or chose not to teach the graduation-enabling information, the fault for my not receiving my diploma would rest squarely on his or her shoulders.
Pastor Steve, the teacher, does not “skip” class…I, the student, do not “skip” class…the end result for both of us is the same: graduation into God’s Kingdom.
Pastor Steve is not a teacher of “warm fuzzies” nor a teacher of the extreme: “hell-fire and brimstone”; he is a teacher of and devoted to the teaching of God’s Truth.
We both have our own responsibilities: him, to teach God’s Truth as often and as continually as he can in as many different venues as he can…me, to attend church every Sunday and to participate in as many Bible study classes as possible in order to hear and study God’s Word and Truth…and both of us, to live the Truth in order — as our church mission reads — that we “make disciples and make a difference.”
I don’t know about you, but knowing how consternating the Truth can be and is to many sitting in the pews on any given Sunday morning and knowing how much I don’t know — as well as how much others, like me, don’t know — but need to and must know because eternity is a long time, the gate is small and the pathway narrow, and we are constantly going in circles trying to find “the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” I am both glad and extremely blessed that Pastor Steve is a pastor who not only sees the Truth and knows the Truth but is willing and devoted — no matter what — to teaching “the Truth and nothing but the Truth” to all who choose to sit in the pews on any given Sunday morning and to all who choose to participate in any or all of the various Bible study classes he teaches with humility and great passion, knowledge, wisdom, and purpose.
Supoose you have a dear, cherished, trusted, and valued friend who has a drinking problem, a drug problem, a gambling problem, or any of the various and numerous “addictions” called sin, yet that friend is “blinded” to its pervasiveness in all aspects of his or her life. Would you choose to be a dear, cherished, trusted, and valued friend and tell your friend the truth? Upon peril of the death of your friendship, would you choose truth over placating warm-fuzzies?
Suppose you choose to do so.
Time and time again, you choose to do so as your friend continues spiraling out of control.
Do you tire of telling your friend the truth?
Do you stand as a lighthouse offering shelter and protection in the midst of your friend’s storms?
Do you stand as a lighthouse offering your friend the light of truth and a rock-solid and supportive friendship?
Do you stand as a lighthouse offering a fixed point where your friend can come when seeking life-saving and life-transforming advice?
Do you, metaphorically speaking, “lay down your life for a friend”?
Christ did.
God does — through the gift of His Son and the gift of His Word, God does — “The Gospel seeks to make clear our condition, and then provide the one and only solution.”
Do you remember Genesis? Chapter 1: the Creation story — “…and God saw that it was good…”
Who defined “good”?
Clear back in the first chapter of the first book of the Bible and 38 books before the first Gospel we are told that God is the Definer of what is and is not “good.”
Don’t you figure that the entire book which He and His Spirit wrote will, in one way or another, stand as a lighthouse offering to each and all of us the light of Truth and, thus, shelter and protection in the midst of life’s storms?
The Bible is not a bunch of empty words.
It is a book of stories; a book of experiences; a book of real-life people making mistakes, of real-life people making “good” choices, of real-life people being forgiven, of real-life people forgiving, and of real-life people seeking and finding redemption, salvation, and reconciliation.
The questions are — Why do we choose not to “…seek ye first the Kingdom of God” by reading God’s “play-book”? and… Why do we choose not to learn from the mistakes and successes of others; why do we choose to enable history to repeat itself?
…still in the Old Testament…Exodus.
How ’bout it? Who do you see in the above video? Just one person “horribly out of control” meandering aimlessly in circle after circle after drifting-further-away-from-the-destination circle?
What about the Israelites — for forty years — meandering aimlessly in circle after circle after drifting-further-away-from-the-destination circle?
Before God brought His people to the Jordan River and determined that they should cross over into the promised land, what did He ask of and demand from them — dependence upon Him, surrender of all to Him, complete and total trust in Him…and…love of Him — “placing no other gods before Him”? In other words, be relational with Him.
So much God offers and gives to each and all of us…so little, so often, we choose not to return to Him, least of all, love and a willingness and desire to enter into relationship with Him.
We choose to be in control of our own lives rather than asking and inviting the Creator of the universe, the Creator of life, the Creator of all that there is and ever will be to guide and “direct our paths.”
At what point in time in our lives do we realize that we can do nothing? That we can do nothing ALONE.
At what point in time in our liives do we stop — dead-stop in the middle of what we are doing — and say in honesty, sincerity, and total and complete surrender to our loving and grace-offering Father, “I can’t do it, God; I can’t do any of it! Please help me”?
Consider the people in the above and included video.
Consider not so much what they did, consider what they didn’t do.
1) They didn’t consider and/or realize that they could not accomplish the assigned task on their own.
2) They did not ask for help.
3) They did not, could not, and would not stop — dead-stop — in the midst of their futility when they realized how “horribly off course” their pride and self-righteousness had taken them.
4) They did not ask for help.
5) They did not realize that no destination can be reached in the dark, that only the Light can illuminate the way, even in the brightest light of day.
6) They did not realize that there is reward, forgiveness, and admiration in admitting that you are wrong, growing from and because of your mistakes, and asking for help.
How easy, yet how extremely difficult and humbling would it have been for each of the people in the video to dead-stop, remove the blindfold, admit that he or she could not reach the destination alone, and then ask for help?
How easy, yet how extremely difficult and humbling is it for each of us to dead-stop in our lives, remove the blindfold, admit that we can not reach the destination alone, and then ask for help?
How easy, yet how extremely difficult and humbling is it for you to dead-stop in your life, remove the blindfold, admit that you can not reach the destination alone, and then ask for help?
How easy, yet how extremely difficult and humbling is it for me to dead-stop in my life, remove the blindfold, admit that I can not reach the destination alone, and then ask for help?
How easy, yet how extremely difficult and humbling is it for each of us to pray?
How easy, yet how extremely difficult and humbling is it for each of us to say, “Forgive me, God, a sinner”?
How easy and not, in the least, extremely difficult for God to “…see that [this] is ‘good'”; to respond as did the father at the return of his prodigal son; and to say, “Come, follow Me”; and I — through and with My Word — will show you “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
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