MANIFESTO- Week 2

Last Sunday we kicked off our MANIFESTO series by looking at the last part of Matthew 5-7, what is commonly referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. The point was simple enough- we need to put this stuff into practice. It' snot just about head knowledge; it's about heart knowledge, or the kind of knowing that had profound effect on our doing.

This is so important because most of us already suffer not from lacking of knowing, but lack of doing what it is we knwo we should do. Let me illustrate.
This weekend I took out our pop-up campuer and set up for the family. Pop-up camping is an interesting thing.
On one level it’s camping. You’re outside, you’re ruffing it, you have the outdoors experience. On the other hand, pop-up camping is like our normal, modern world- we pop this thing up some we can have a home base, a bed to sleep on, electricity, and the truly weird thing is that they pack us in like sardines in a can- I mean, they fit in 10 people per square foot in these camp grounds.

I’ve never known completely if I LOVE pop-up camping, or if it’s the dumbest thing in the world that I’ve ever been a part of. All I know is I was swindled into buying my in-laws piece of garbage old pop-up camper and now I feel obligated to engage in this ritual 2 weeks out of every summer!

Anyways, one of the things about pop-up camping is you have to set the rules. One of them is, don’t run in and our of the camper or you will break something. So I tell the kids- be careful. You’ll break something. I know you kids, I know you can’t contain your energy, nor can this old piece of crap camper. Don’t play in here or you’ll break something.
I tell Robin, you don't understand the nuances of how to set up a camper and use it. Please Robin, don’t mess around with the stuff in the camper or you’ll break something. You’re in charge of the home, I’m in charge of the camper, because I understand it and I won’t break anything.

So guess who’s messing around in the camper and ends up breaking the the overhead light the first night!
(If it's not totally obvious- it was me!)

It’s not a problem of knowing, it’s a problem of doing. Or rather, not doing in this case- not being careful enough not to break something. And so goes the basic human condition- it’s not a problem of not knowing, it’s a problem with doing the things we know we should do, not doing the things we know we should avoid, being the kind of people we want to be.

And that was basically the point last week, and the whole point of this series. It’s not just about us learning and knowing more stuff. It’s about us being and doing things different. Actually putting this Jesus stuff into practice, because it’s only in practice that this stuff truly matters, that it truly makes a difference.

But like we talked about- it a good kind of different. It s tough kind of different, but it’s the kind of different that we need to be, that the world needs us to be, and that, and here’s the thing, the kind of different that Jesus can let us be IF we will do the things he calls us to do.

So, with that understood, that the whole point is putting into practice so we can be a different kind of person. And there’s one word that captures the essence of the difference... Blessed.

Jesus begins his message with this one simple sentence:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Question for your reflection- If you could be anything, what would it be? There’s the obvious: Wealthy, famous, powerful, beautiful, popular, super smart, super strong, musical, artistic...
No matter what else you might want to be or do, you would want to be blessed! Now what do we think is blessed? Probably a lot of those same things- wealthy, successful, popular, stuff like that. But what I’m hoping for today is that we begin to expand our view of what the blessed life really is about, and really looks like. I think that the blessed life is both far deeper than we normally think, but it is also far more wonderful than any of us have fully experienced. The things we might associate with the blessed life are far too shallow, and far too short of where God actually wants to take us.

What is blessed? In the Greek it is simply pronounced "Makarios." Sometimes it is translated as happy, and in truth, and we should here in this blessing a certain sense of happiness. Some have then said that this is something like Jesus’ theory of happiness, that if one can simply embrace these qualities as their emotional attitude, they will be a happy person. And you know, I think that view is not entirely wrong. I have nothing against being happy. But a blessed life goes deeper than just being happy.

We see reading through the list that each "blessed" is even connected with a reward. The poor in Spirit get the Kingdom of heaven. Those who mourn are comforted. The meek inherit the earth...

The blessings also have both a present and future tense. We get a foretaste of what is to come. We experience in part what we will later know is full. We get a bit of the kingdom now, and we get it’s fullness later.

So let's go deeper- this idea of blessing was part of culture and world view of the bible. In Genesis, when God calls a man named Abram to be the father of a new beginning, a new people, he calls him to be the father of a new blessing. God said, “I will make you in a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great and you will be a blessing... and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

Later, in the book of Numbers, written some 1500 years BEFORE Jesus, this promise of blessing becomes a part of the rhythm of life for God’s people. God instructs the Priests on how they are to bless the people, by pronouncing over them:
The LORD bless you and keep you;
The LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
The LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.

They would have heard this literally thousands of times. But by all accounts they people did not see themselves as have seen or obtained the blessing. In fact, nothing further could seem like their peoples experience. Driven out of the Promised Land, exiled to Babylon, exiled to Assyria, returning only to be overrun again, kept under Roman rule. Their lives seemed anything but blessed.

And so, when Jesus opened his mouth and began to speak, he was about to speak to them about blessing. Only now, the priestly blessing would be different. Now it was not to ask for God’s blessing, but to give God’s blessing to them. Not just to ask for God to turn his face toward them, but to turn his face toward them, to show them the very face of God, to show them his grace, to give them his peace.

We can’t grasp the full power of these words unless we grasp the context in which they are spoken, and they are spoken as nothing less than the fulfillment, the very embodiment of the priestly blessing with which they were all so familiar. And so when Jesus opens his mouth and the first word he speaks to them is this word blessed, it would have, in one sense been the most familiar and expected thing he could have possibly said- Well, sounds like Jesus is about to offer us the priestly blessing as a way to start his message.

But while it had the familiar ring of blessing about, it was also something they perhaps had never heard before. For immediately it becomes clear that finally someone was not just going to speak a blessing over them, but was about to explain to them what the blessed life actually looked like.

And so in one sentence, with the very first worlds that come from the lips of Jesus as he sits before this crowd gathered on a mountainside, Jesus turns the world upside down. He begins the difficult process of turning the vision and values of the world upside down, inside out, and on it’s relative rear. One sentence and the Divine Conspiracy to change the world is launched and set in motion. These words launch us into radical new way of seeing God and our participation in life with Him. It’s is our invitation to this divine conspiracy to bring the kingdom of heaven into our lives and into our world. For that is the blessing we all long for, whether we know it or not, and many do not know it, what we all long for, what we all need, is to experience, to taste, to touch, to see and be a part of the kingdom of God- that is the blessed life.

This is the key- the blessed life is intrisically tied to the kingdom of heaven.
What does Jesus even mean, the kingdom of Heaven?

This is perhaps the single most important statement of Jesus for us to understand. This is the heart and soul of the message of Jesus. Jesus taught on the kingdom of Heaven, and it’s counterpart, the Kingdom of God, more than anything else. Let’s take a step back. Jesus goes to his cousin John the baptist, who, we may have guessed by his name, was baptizing people. Jesus is baptized and at that moment we have an amazing trinity moment- the trinity being this understanding that God exists as one being in three persons- Father, Son Jesus, and Holy Spirit. Jesus goes into the water, the Holy Spirit visibly comes upon Jesus, and the Fathers voice from heaven says this is my son whom I love in him I am well pleased. What happens it that the kingdom of heaven actually manifests and comes upon Jesus.

Jesus is then lead out into the desert for forty days where is prays, fasts, and ultimately tempted by Satan to ditch this whole plan, the whole divine conspiracy to change the world. Jesus actually enters the kingdom of Hell. It's like the showdown in the desert- the kingdom of heaven vs. teh kngdom of hell.

Jesus comes through this temptation with flying colors, and he begins to preach.
And his message basically always boils down to one big idea. One major point-

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

That word repent means turn. Turn around, turn from whatever else it is you are doing, turn from the bad things you are doing or thinking or planning, turn from even the good things you are doing, because you have to see that the kingdom of heaven, the place where God is and where God rules and where God meets his people, it’s near. It’s so near you can see it if you want. You can reach and and touch it if you desire. It’s so near that if you turn towards me, you will be in it and a part of it.

The amazing thing is that people actually did. they turned from what they were doing, where they were going, what they were about, and they followed Jesus. Jesus call fishermen to follow him, and they did. Soon they knew why. In the verse just before chapter 5, the verse that tell us why a multitude of people followed Jesus up a mountain to learn from him, was because as he went throughout the land preaching this message, repent for the kingdom of heaven is near, that is was so near in fact, that people began to experience it as they experienced Jesus- the sick became healthy. those where were suffering found relief. The demon possessed were set free. the crippled walked. The kingdom was so near in Jesus that people naturally began to turn towards him, and in so doing they found their lives were being blessed in amazing, transforming ways.

To understand the power and importance of this message, we need to understand something about kingdoms. Now modern communicators will say that kingdom language is really outdated, out of our realm of experience, and out of touch. I’m not so convinced. Has anyone here every heard of a kingdom, or a king or a queen? Yeah, we may not live under the rule of a monarchy, but we get this! I have three kids, and I think my kids get what a kingdom is. My girls love to play princess. My son loves it when I call him prince, but I think they are all striving for crown in my home. They would love to be in charge. To make a decree, and have it happen. To snap their fingers and have servants come running. To send anyone foolish enough to disobey them to the gallows. They would love that kind of power, of control , or reach in their lives.

Our kingdoms are those areas, those places, in which our word is law, our will is done, and things are just the way we want them.

This is the message of Jesus- repent for the kingdom of heaven is near, so near, it can collide with your life right now if you have eyes to see, ears to hear, and faith in your heart. The kingdom is at hand, reach out and touch it.

Ultimately Jesus says I am the king, the Christ, and my kingdom is at hand. The language of the kingdom of heaven is written all over the manifesto and the message of Jesus. In passage after passage of the sermon on the mount we will hear Jesus speak of the Kingdom. He will say to whom it belongs, he will speak of the righteousness of those who enter in, he will tell of of the rewards of heaven, he will teach us to pray God will be done on earth as it is in heaven, he will encourage us to store up our treasures in heaven, over and over he will speak of God as our Father in heaven. And he begins his message by tells us to whom the kingdom of heaven belongs.

It is the poor in spirit. The kingdom of heaven is for those who are poor in spirit.

This is the wonderful flip, the twist, the surprise ending, or in this case beginning, to life in the kingdom. What does it mean to be poor? What is poverty? Poverty may be largely a state of mind and attitude. For there are many who claim to be poor, but who are rich by the world’s standards. There are many who consider themselves well off, but others look at them and think to themselves, dag, they are barely getting by. Poverty is in many many ways a state of mind and attitude and very relative to our place in the world.

But there is such thing as true poverty, and being truly poor. Can I just remind everyone that poverty sucks. Being poor, truly poor, not relatively or subjectively poor, means you don’t have the means to get what you need.
It means you need food, but you can’t get any.
You need clothes, but you can get any.
You need shelter, but you can’t get any.
Being poor means you don’t have options.
It means you don;t have opportunities.
It means that you don't have the means, the means to get anything, change anything.
Being truly poor means that you are truly unable to alter your life situation.
You are unable to help yourself.

Jesus says that when you get to the point where you are poor in spirit, then yours is the kingdom of heaven. When you are at the place in your spirit where you can finally say, I have no options, I have no opportunities, I have no where to go or turn.

You are poor in spirit when you realize that you can not save your soul.
You are poor in spirit when you can’t make yourself good enough.
You are poor in spirit when you can will yourself to be a better person.
You are poor in spirit when you realize you have no resources, no options, no opportunities.

And let me tell you, there is nothing glamorous about it. It’s not fun. It’s not exciting.
It’s simply that moment, or that ongoing revelation, and it can happen when we are young, or old, it can be forgotten and remembered and re-experienced throughout life, it’s that realization that I can’t save my self. I am utterly, helplessly, desperately poor in my spiritual resources, in my means to heaven.

Here is the thing about being poor in spirit- it’s broad enough to include everybody, but exclusive enough to make us wonder, does that describe me?

Everybody, anywhere, at anytime, any age, in any season, from any culture, from any race, from any income bracket or educational pedigree, either sex, anybody can be poor in spirit. But everyone of us must look to our hearts and ask if it does in fact describe us.

I am convinced after prayerful study of this passage, the whole sermon on the mount manifesto, of the amazing brilliance of Jesus- really, he is the most brilliant person to ever live, which makes sense as he’s the only person who was also fully God. But specifically here the brilliance, and of course then the imperative importance of this first blessing. For if one does not embrace their true poverty of spirit in standing before the living God, then nothing else in the sermon really matters or applies. To embrace, embody and begin to live the life Jesus will lay out, one must first put their whole life into the hands of Jesus, we must put our poor spirits into his kingdom of heaven.

Then will find ourselves in living in the push and pull of this sermon. The Puritans and Reformers had an expression- the law of God pushes us to Christ to be justified, just as Christ pulls us back to the law he fulfilled to be sanctified. The law of God, these beatitudes, and this whole sermon, must push us to Christ who lived them perfectly, because their is no way we will. WE can’t do it. We can’t achieve it. We can’t get it right. Only Christ can, and does, and so we go to him to be justified, to have our sins forgiven, to be washed clean. But then in Christ we all pulled back to these laws, these beatitudes, this sermon, to do our utmost to live them out.

Now that may sound like complex theology, but it isn’t folks. WE can get this this. WE can do this. Only Jesus fulfills this new law perfectly, so we depend entirely on him for our salvation. But in him, when we are saved, we come to this way of life seeking to live it out to the best of our knowledge, our abilities and as much as the grace of God is given to us. We can not perfectly fulfill and embody these beatitudes. We can’t do it. They are simply too demanding, to altruistic, to much for any mere mortal to bear. WE can’t do it- and so in realizing our own poverty of spirit we are driven to Christ, to cling to him, to hold to him, to call upon him and receive from him our life and salvation.

Then in Jesus we are pulled back to the beatitudes and back to this whole sermon and back to the whole life and message and teachings of Jesus and then we say by grace Jesus my savior and Lord help me to live this way, to keep these teachings, to love you and love my neighbor and love your world this much.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. If you are poor in spirit, and ready to throw in the towel today, I invite to go to Christ.

If you forget everything said and done this morning, and even if those words don’t mean anything to you today, because you don’t feel poor in spirit, or even understand what that means. Don’t forget those words, because someday, all of us, if it hasn’t ever happened to you, all of us will feel utterly, and completely, unable to save ourselves.

And when that day comes, when you know you are not your creator, nor are you your own savior, nor are you the God of the universe- when that moment comes, I want you to be able to say, “Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

MANIFESTO- Week 1

Matthew 7:24-27
DISCLAIMER- I don't thoroughly edit my messages. I write with the intention to speak. There will be many typos and grammatical errors!

HAPPY Father’s Day! let’s give a shout out to the father’s in the house...
Let me tell you something about being a father that I love- the perfect obedience of my children. How many other father’s here are so happy that your kids always do exactly what you teach and ask of them? I’ve discovered this about kids, its really amazing how easy they are raise. I just tell them exactly what to do, and the do it, without question, without exception ...
I’m telling you, being a parent is SOOOO easy because all I have to do is tell my kids the right thing to do, the best way to live, the safest way to play, the wisest decisions to make- I just download the right information into their little brains and they just instantly DO what is good, best, safe, right and wise! It’s really awesome.

Now how many people are aware that I might not be telling entire truth. My own kids are probably saying, he can’t possibly be talking about us, he must have the whole double life, secret other family or something. Of course I’m not talking about the reality of parenting here. Nor am I talking about the reality of our lives. Because in all our lives, not just the lives of our children, we have an incredible gap between what we know and what we do; what we know would be the best way to live, the right thing to do, the proper response to the situation, the most beneficial attitudes and beliefs and behaviors, and what we actually DO in life.

This is a common human condition that plagues people and institutions. In the business world there is a ton of literature and research that has been done on this knowing/ doing gap. A boss KNOWS that he or she needs to deal with a interpersonal situation at work, but they don’t do it. They just keep putting it off day after day, week after week. A company knows that it has an enormous customer relations issue. The facts are in, the knowledge is there, the remedy is even within their reach, but because of the time, efforts and work that is required, they simply never get around to attending to the issue. It’s not an issue of knowing, it’s an issue of doing; it’s not a knowledge problem, it’s a doing problem.

It’s a parenting issue, it’s a business issue, it’s a people issue, and it’s a spiritual issue. It’s this knowing/doing gap that effects every single person regardless of sex, age, race, culture or belief. Many problems, not all problems, but most I’d say, stem not from a lack of knowledge or information or even the ability to initiate the solution- they stem simply from a lack of doing. Doing the right thing, the wise thing, the best thing, the godly thing, the thing that in the long run that we know we should do.

Now what I’ve just told you I did not make up or just pull out of the air. This is what Jesus teaches us. This comes right out of the bible. It comes right out of the text that we’ll be dealing with all summer long. It’s from Matthew Chapter 7, which is part of a block of teaching found in Matthew chapters 5,6, 7- a section that many of you probably know more commonly as the Sermon on the Mount. A section of teaching from the Bible that we are calling “MANIFESTO.” Or, “The Divine Conspiracy to Change the World.”

A manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature, but may also be life stance related. This stuff is about our life stance. But as a life stance, this will effect everything- politics, economics and all of culture. This is a public declaration by Jesus, and it has public and private implications. This passage of scripture, perhaps more poignantly and poetically than any other concise section os the bible, provides for a blue print for the Christian life. It’s like a road map that lays out for us a foundation of Christian belief, behavior, religion and relationships, attitude and ambition in life.

I am so excited about this series I can hardly stand it! I’m chomping at the bit to tell you everything. But before I tell you anything else, I have to start with a warning. My intention with this series is to rock your world. To change your life. To change our church. To change our community. To literally change our world. This is not about downloading more information into your brains. This is about changing the way we do life- our lives, life together as a church, life in our community and our world.

SO here’s the deal, this is your warning, if you don’t want to be changed, don’t come back, or better yet, quietly slip out now. Say you have to got to the bathroom, and run. Just tell the person next to you it was all the coffee you just had, but you need to excuse yourself immediately. IF you like your life just the way it is, don’t come back, because this is intended to change your life. If you’ve got God neatly wrapped up an in a box and you like the way you understand God, don’t come back. If you like your relationships with people just the way it is and you don’t want to go deeper, don’t come back, because this is intended to take you deeper. If you like your attitude toward life, if you like your value system just the way it is, if you have reached your ideal you, your perfect you, if you are perfectly content with you right now, you don’t want to be changed at all- don’t come back. If you like the world just the way it is, if you think the world is just perfectly fine and dandy and and we should just put our world into a holding pattern as is, then don’t come back, because I’m just going to make you mad, because this is going to mess things up.

Now rest assure, I’m not doing this just to mess things up for me for you for us for our world. I’m not setting out to be offensive or controversial, I’m just telling you, that’s part of the nature of what we are going to get into this summer. In fact, I would be shocked, I will be shocked, if some people don't leave Connections because of this study. When Jesus taught this stuff, people heard him, they understood at least in part what he was telling them and asking of them, and many of those people walked away. That was just a simple fact. Thank you Jesus, you made yourself very clear. I think I get what you are saying. Have a nice life, this is not for me.

Now here’s how we are going to approach the manifesto. I’m going to employ a classic teaching methodology here- to begin with the end in mind. I already have. I’ve begun with the end in mind- this series, this manifesto, is not primary about collecting more information, it’s about changing lives, changing the way we do life, the way we think, believe, behave and interact. Jesus goes through this incredible body of teaching. It’s is literally rocking people’s worlds. It is blowing their minds. Jesus, who normally taught so much in the form of story and turning the wrong questions into the right questions, has been amazing clear and direct. Then, when he gets to the end, it’s almost like he can’t help himself. He says, to get this stuff, to really get what I’ve just been talking about, I have to tell you a story. He ended with this, but I want to begin with it, because I’m not as good a teacher as Jesus. I want to start with his ending, so that next week, when we get into the beginning, you can already start to say, oh, I think I know where this is going. He tells this story...

²⁴"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. ²⁶But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." (Matthew 7:24-27)

Everyone here who grew up in a churched home learned a little song that is now going to be stuck in your head the rest of the day. I tried to get the band to do a rocking version of it today, but they said some things can just be done. The wise man builds his house upon the rock. He digs down, he does the work, he thinks about the future, he looks at his present situation, he knows what going to happen, he understands, and he does something about it. The foolish man build his house on the sand. Well duh, he’s an idiot. Everyone knows he’s an idiot. You do not have to be in the construction business to get this one. I can’t even get a beach umbrella to stand up in the sand let alone a house. This is painfully obvious stuff. So what’s the point?

There are two types of people, Jesus says. But they aren’t the two types of people that we probably want to hear. This is what we’d like Jesus to have taught- There were once two men who went to build homes. The one man build his home, and everything went just perfectly, because he built his home in the Caribbean. He built his home and his life was perfect- there was never any storms, never and winds, never and waves, never any bad weather. It was 25 degrees with no oppressive humidity, a slight breeze, just a few clouds in the sky, and it only rained a night when you went to bed and it cooled things off just perfectly so you could sleep at night. The other man build his house in London, Ontario. It snowed half the year. When you thought it was spring, a another storm would hit. When it finally got hot, the humidity was oppressive. Just when summer seems to get good, it was fall again. Yeah, there were a few nice days in there, just enough to keep hope alive, but really, the weather just stunk.

Now everyone who listens to what I say will have life in the Caribbean- perfect, no problems, a Utopian existence for all of your life. That’s what we WANT Jesus to say. But guess what, and in a crazy way this is supposed to be good news for us- all of us build our homes in Canada. He says everyone builds in London, Ontario.

He says that into every person’s life there is going to come storms. There will be rains, winds and waves that come crashing down on each and every one of us. The two kinds of lives are not one with storms, and without storms. The two kinds of people are determined by how you weather those storms. Are you going to be swept away, or are you going to make it through to the other side.

Jesus says I’m not teaching a path to avoid every storm, every problem, every issue of life. I’m teaching you a way to live so that when the storms come, you are going to ride it through. I don’t know if that’s good news for you today, or bad news, but that’s the news folks. That’s what Jesus teaches us. That’s why Jesus taught us. He said I know that into your life is going to comes storms and I want to build for you a foundation so you will stand rock solid. In fact, Jesus says, some of those storms that you face, some of them, they are actually going to come into you life BECAUSE you have believed me, because you have followed me, because you have build your life on me. Because when you really and truly follow and obey me, when you really open your life up to be used by me in the the world, it’s going to change things, and there will be trouble.

Some of you are sailing through good weather right now. You’re a newly wed and life is like one giant extended date, it’s all cupcakes and sprinkles, the only thing you fight about is who loves each other more. You just had a baby and you are amazed at the miracle of life that God has brought into your life. You found a job, you found a house, things are good. Now I’m not being pessimistic here, I’m just telling you the way it is. No matter how clear the skies are now- a storm is on the horizon, and it’s coming your way, and Jesus says there is NO way to avoid it. Into every life there will be storms. Now we can bring a lot of storms into our lives, that is for sure, but I’m talking about the storms that you have no control over. the storm that you didn’t ask for. the storm that hits suddenly, the storm that hits really without reason or explanation. the storm that just happens- those storms come into all our lives. What is going to happen to your life when that storm hits?

Some of you are in the mist of the storm. You’ve lost your job, your health, you marriage, a loved one, a child, a sister, a friend. You are in the storm, if you have your doubts today, I simply want to tell you that it’s not too late. You can still weather this storm, you can build up your foundation.

If you hear the teachings of Jesus, and you do what he says, you are like the man who build his house on the rocks. If you hear the worlds of Jesus, and don’t do what he says, you are like the idiot that build his house on the sand. Like I told you at the beginning, this stuff is going to be offensive to some people. Jesus says this stuff that I’ve taught you, this stuff that We are going to walk through all summer long, isn’t about gathering more knowledge, it’s about changing the way we do EVERYTHING. But the reason for this is not random or arbitrary. It for a very real and compelling reason. So before you get offended by what Jesus says, please understand this. Jesus says I'm not promising you a life without storms. Now you can live wisely and avoid TONS of stupid, destructive storms in your life. But Jesus says, there will be storms, and when they hit, if you have built your life on the things that I’ve taught you, you are going to come through the other side. If you do the things I’ve taught you, you will make it through to the other side.

Some of you could stand up here and tell us about the storms you’ve weathered. You’ve lost a job in your life, but God brought your through the storm. You lost a child, but God brought you through the storm. You lost your health, but God brought you through the storm. You lost your marriage, but God brought you through. You lost your faith, but God brought your through the other side. Your life was build on the rock and while it looked like everything above the surface was destroyed, everything that everyone else could see was a complete and utter disaster, a state of emergency, completely wiped out, but there was a foundation there, build upon Jesus, and you came through the other side of the storm.

Folks, this isn't about just hearing and learning more stuff. This isn’t just about knowledge. That was so last year. That was so 2008 people, get with the times! This is about doing. This is supposed to change the way you do life.

Here’s what you need to understand. You know what the biggest insult to the follower of Jesus, to anyone who calls themselves a Christian, should be? According to the message that we are going to study all summer it’s this- You are no different than anyone else. You followers of Jesus, you’re just like everyone else in the world.

That is a fundamental betrayal of everything Jesus is working to do in our lives. Jesus gives us this manifesto because our lives are to look different. Not different because we avoid every storm and every problem in life- but different because of how we weather the storm, how we even embrace the storm, how we’ll even use the storm as a opportunity. That’s what makes you Christians so different from the world!

But let me be clear- there is good different, and there’s bad different. There is easy different, and there’s tough different. Jesus wants us to be a good different. All of us have seen bad different. Weird different. The kind of different that just makes you unlikeable, unapproachable. Jesus wants to make us good different.

But good different is most often tough different. It’s costly different. Easy different says well I’ll just go to church all the time and where Christian t-shirts and listen to Christian music and only have Christian friends. And you know, there’s nothing wrong with any of that- I work for the church, I only wear Connections shirts, I have a lot of Christian friends. But guys, that’s like the easy stuff. That the no brainer stuff- of course we need to worship, of course we need Christian friends, of course we need edifying music and stuff in our lives. I’m talking about going the next steps, tough different. Different that changes use in the very core of our being and then effects everything about our lives.

This kind of difference is going to be written all over every page, every paragraph, every teaching of the Manifesto. Your attitude and approach to life is going to be different. Your going to be poor where everyone else seems rich. Your going to bring peace where everyone else is bringing war. You’re going to be pure where everyone else indulges. You’re going to be righteous, where everyone is self-justifying. You’re going to be salt in a world that is rotting with decay. You’re going to be light in places that are consumed with darkness. You’re going to love when everyone else is ready to hate. You’re going to be keep your vows when others are breaking them. You’re going to honor your words when others do not. You’re going to give when others hoard. You’re going to pray when others just put on a show. You’re going to have faith when others a consumed with worry. You’re going to forgive when others hold a grudge. You’re going to by authentic when everyone else is a hypocrite. You’re going to take the hard road when others take the easy road. You are going to be different!

If you do the things that Jesus guides us in doing. If you live the way Jesus instructs us to live, your life will be different. But a good different. A tough different. A kind of different that gets us through the storms, that gets us through to the other side. The kind of different that the world needs. The kind of different that your spouse needs, that your kids need, that your neighbors need, that you boss needs, that your employees need, that your community needs, that the world really does need.

I want to ask you two things this morning- if you haven’t taken a step of faith to give your life to Jesus, to build on Hims as your rock, your foundation, give it a try this summer. Make this the day you break ground. The day you lay that foundation. You can do that so simply, by just praying, Jesus, I’m tired of weathering the storms without you. Take my life. Forgive my sins. Make me yours. And He will.

If you have taken that step of faith, and if you are going to do this with us this summer, I’m asking you to do something very real today. On your way out our ushers and greeters will be handing out these copies of the Manifesto, Matthew 5, 6, 7. I’m asking you to commit to reading this all summer long. All summer long, everyday even. It takes about ten minutes to read through the whole manifesto. And I want so badly for us to be changed by this that I want us to just be consumed in it all summer long. So take the Manifesto, read it. If you have your own bible, you can just use that. Read it first thing when you get up. Read it on a coffee break. Read it as a family before dinner. Read it before you go to bed. Read it. Pray about it. Ponder it. Write about it. Get it in you so that it can get into you.

Let’s pray...

On Purpose, Pt. 2

Good morning. Great to be back. This is my first time going back to back preaching, I feel a little nervous. It is encouraging that those of you who were here last week actually came back, knowing that I would be up here again.

I am also excited to have a bunch of family here, my wife’s siblings and parents as well. So, all the stories I told about them last week, none of them happened. And what happened last week stays there?

Nah.

For those of you who weren’t here last week, or if you were and it didn’t make any sense, let me summarize.

If you recall, We started by briefly reviewing all of history and talking about what God has been doing since the beginning, how we has been loving and saving us.

And then we said, since God has loved us this much, sending himself into history to live and die and pay for our sins, that love compels us. It makes us see people differently, it makes us live differently. We live like missionaries, because God has chosen us to be the spreader of the message. Carrying the story of his Son to our neighbourhoods, schools and Starbucks.

And we said that basically, what is comes down to is God changing your heart so that you might care about someone or something more than you care about yourself. That’s where we went.

And that was sort of it, I didn’t talk a whole lot about how it goes down, or what it might look like in 2009, or how it looks for families or singles or students or retired people.

And I took some shots, if you remember at people who have a Jesus fish on their car and also drive like a maniac. I need to repent of that because on Friday I was mowing my lawn and a dog walker neighbour stopped by who I had previously met, and we ended up talking about God because of the Jesus fish on our car.
Do I like the decal? No. Does God have a sense of humour. Absolutely.

And I want to pick up the threads of last week by reading a verse and a passage from Romans 12.

First Romans 12:1 - I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Vs. 4 - For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually, members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts (encourages), in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

Now who Paul is going to go after here is two different kinds of people and he is going to get after their heart motivations.

Vs. 1 says this, and we majored on it last week: Remember the mercies of God?
Remember how you were lost, remember how as Titus 3 says that we passed our days in malice, hated by others and hating one another. Remember how we were foolish, how we just did dumb things all the time. Remember how we worshiped created things instead of rightly worshipping the Creator?
Remember?

And remember how God, our God Jesus Christ, came into history, lived the life we could not live, died the death we should have died so that we could be forgiven. Remember?

Remember the God who allowed the gospel to spread from Jerusalem to Asia to Europe to North America to Ontario, so you could know it and be saved?

That is the mercy of God, not counting our sin against us because of Christ, despite all of the junk we do.

When we consider that mercy, the rational response is to offer our bodies as living sacrifices in worship to God.

But you are wondering, what does that mean?

The word body in the greek has a connotation that you take your whole life, not just your church life, not just Sunday, not just after work, but you take your whole life and place it before God and say, “whatever you want. Whatever you want.” We pry our fingers off our own life, we let go of our time and our wallets and our energy and say, God, I am on your mission, not mine.

This is the point: If we are missionaries, as we declared last week from 2 Cor 5, therefore it logically and theologically follows that all of life is mission. Or it ought to be.

This is radical thinking. It changes from waffle thinking, to spaghetti thinking. See, in a waffle world, everything has its own box. I can put a strawberry in this one and butter in another one and syrup in a third and gosh I am hungry, but everything has its place. Nothing is connected.

You know what I mean right? That work is here, and at work I work and I shut up about everything else. And when I get home, I am just a father. And at my kids soccer game, all I do is yell at the ref. Nothing is connected. No thread of mission combines all of them.

We ought to be more like spaghetti, yes we have a thread of work, but it touches and winds around mission. That at work, we work to bring God glory, but we are also on the lookout for ways to love people, to share Christ with them in a real, relevant way.

And when you are taking care of your kids at home, and teaching them and taking them to the park, you are open and willing to seize any opportunity to love on other stay-at-home parents. To make connections with them.

For me, in university, I played on an ultimate frisbee team. Yes it actually exists. And we were good.

And one of the popular past times in frisbee is drinking alcohol. Not just one or two, but in a big way. And my team would throw keggers. And as a captain, I was supposed to be there, support the team. But it creates a dilemma, because I don’t want to get drunk, I don’t want to hit on drunk girls and it is a weird environment with lots of opportunities to make dumb choices.

But I realized as I thought and prayed about it that God was giving me an opportunity. So what I used to do is go right at the beginning of the party, 9:30/10pm and bring a six-pack of rootbeer. No joke. And I would drink them and talk to people.

And the best part was, every party, someone would ask me why I wasn’t getting hammered. Every time. And most times, after a few drinks, someone would ask me why I didn’t have sex before marriage. And every party, I got a chance to talk about why I made different choices and how Jesus had affected my life. And they listened. And it made an impact.

Now before you send me a nasty email - Is my life a prescription for yours? No. But did I take a chance that it seemed God was opening for me? Yes. Cause I am trying to live like spaghetti, trying to find out how different parts of my life wrap around mission and evangelism.

This leads me to where I am going:

TWO Wrong approaches to mission
1. Do nothing Danny
a. Some people out of a zeal for their whole life to be mission, end up doing nothing. They hear me or George or a book talk about the freedom offered by the Bible in terms of how we go about evangelism and use it to say, since all of life is mission, since I am constantly engaged in evangelism, I never want to do anything specific.

That is wrong. I mean for a few of us, we can do that and still have lots of opportunities. My wife Jen is a perfect example. She is constantly meeting people, on our street, at convenience stores, at church, on campus and is having coffee with them.

We come home from social activities and she has two coffee dates booked and I am like, how did she do that? All I talked about is the Leafs and the weather and how cool big sledgehammers are. I don’t even know his name.

She has a natural curiosity about people, wants to know them to love them, to connect with them. She actually teaches me a lot about how it is supposed to look.

But that is not me, and it is probably not most of you, until you practice for a while. I am a little introverted, like my privacy, don’t like to bother people. Therefore, I need to do organized things to meet people, to love them, because I don’t function like that intrinsically.

And so, having the view that you can live without intentionally scheduling mission into your life is probably foolish. Not to mention that you miss out on great opportunities, like for instance, one small group here at Connections decided that at Christmas they wanted to help out a family.

So they made a plan, a plan to contact the London NW resource center and get a reference for a family that needed some help. And they did. They gave them some winter clothes, a bunch of food, had dinner with them. It was awesome. Not only did they show them practical love, but they had a chance to share Christ with them, engaging them on a real level with where they were at.

And there are tons of opportunities all around with lots of different organizations, as well as the fact that making a plan helps keep you accountable. If you say, I will hopefully have my neighbour over for dinner someday, that is unlikely to fly. But if you decide that you will invite someone this week, that is a lot more powerful.

So, avoid doing nothing.

2. Do one thing Doris

The other trap we often fall into is that we place all our eggs in one basket by doing just one and then claiming we are done.

What this often looks like is that people will say, I serve at a soup kitchen once a month, that is my mission. Or I give out bulletins at church, that is what I do. Or I build one house a summer with Habitat for Humanity. Or even, I have a Jesus fish on my car and I played Michael W. Smith really loudly with the windows open, in the winter. And once I do that, I am done.

That is a waffle life! You don’t understand that your whole life is mission. That your whole body is a sacrifice. That you ought to be on the lookout for chances everywhere. Yes, schedule things in, but be open to opportunities.

And this wrong approach is especially intoxicating for people with a touch of obsessive-compulsive disorder, like me. I am not bad, but I like having a plan, I like knowing what is coming next. Spontaneity irks me quite frankly. I am often like, “you are messing up the plan!” Why do you want to injure my soul?

So I love to schedule one thing in and then plan the rest of my life so that mission is not present. But that is wrong, and at the bottom of it, I am just trying to remove my guilt, not worship and love God to my utmost. You feel me on that?

We need a balance, not just doing one thing, not doing nothing, but planning and reacting so that we can live a life fully devoted to God.


Two Right approaches
1. Use your gifts (personality, sp. Gifts)

This is where the passage we read at the beginning really comes into play.
We talked a lot about the different gifts people get, and much can be said and has been said about that, and my point is not to break down all of them and help you analyze who you are.

But the point I want to make, which sounds almost silly, is that we are all different. We are different. God gives us different gifts that when we employ them collectively, it looks beautiful.

Think of the Detroit Red Wings who mercifully lost. I hate them. But they understand something. They are not all Pavel Datsyuk. They can’t all dangle. But what you know is that Lidstrom is going to play 38 minutes, be a rock and never give away chances. You know Holmstrom is going to live in front of the net and annoy Fleury to no end. You know Darren Helm is going to skate around like an energizer bunny and never give up on the puck. And Osgoode is going to be good enough.

They each know their role and they perform it well and that is why they are so annoying. They are good year after year because they don’t rebuild, they just reload with the right parts.

And that should be the way the church functions. That in life, we all contribute a part to the whole. And there is this stupid attitude in church that puts the gift of teaching or preaching as more important than everything else. That if you can preach, you are a rockstar, and everyone else better just give out coffee and bring their friends to hear the rockstar. That is wrong and foolish.

We undervalue so many of the gifts. Like hospitality. It is a gift to be able to host people in your home, to make them feel comfortable and welcome, to love on them. That is a gift and it leads so many people to Christ and we treat it like second-class. If you have that, God bless you, please use it.

And other gifts, like giving. Some people just know how to make money. They seem to fall backwards into it. We had a family friend like this a long time ago. Every time he tried something, it just went crazy. He had the Midas touch. He bought a store, wrote a book, did some renovations - didn’t matter what, he just made piles of money. And that is a gift from God so that you can use the money to help others out, to do wild things like give someone a car or drop off a bucket of groceries, or whatever.

And what every gift has the potential for, and each one of you has the potential for is to use your gift for mission, for loving and leading people to Jesus.

For me, I love playing sports. And for a while, I resisted playing them because I should be doing something more holy with my time. But I realize that playing on a team with a bunch of non-Christians or dropping by pick-up sports at the university is a great way to meet people and a natural door to relationship. I become friends with someone by spiking a volleyball in their face. And I don’t have it figured yet, how it all works together, but I am trying to figure out how God has gifted me and leverage that for mission.

You just need to be yourself instead of trying to be like that guy, or that girl or that family. Be you. Try to do what you feel gifted at and stop worrying that you are doing it wrong. If you love Jesus and are trying to serve him and your eyes are open to opportunities, you are so right. That is right.

2. Try lots of stuff (at church, at work, at home)

This is the part where I dump a lot of suggestions on you, because frankly we are a diverse crowd. I love that, and some of these suggestions are going to seem stupid to you and others will seem crazy and some will be so good, that you want to eat them.

I will hijack George’s blog and post all of this stuff online, probably on the new facebook fan page for Connections and potentially on George’s blog. I will also post some links to good articles.

A. Eat with non-Christians.
A. Everybody needs to eat, why not make a habit of sharing those times with non-Christians? Go to lunch with a coworker, eat in the breakroom instead of alone, invite over the neighbours, do a neighbourhood BBQ. Basically flee from always eating alone or only with other Christians.
B. Walk
A. Not only is it good for your health, make a practice of getting out and walking around. But be deliberate! Say hello to everyone. Strike up conversations. If you have a dog or kids, bring them along, it is a natural opener. Garden outside. You would be surprised how many people walk by. Take interest in people. Ask questions. Pray as you go. This has been awesome for Jen and I in our new neighbourhood.
B.
C. Be a Regular
A. This is another one I have been trying to do, but instead of hopping all over the city for gas, groceries, haircuts, restaurants, coffee, try going to the same places at the same time. Be a regular.
B. We just moved into a place where there is a convenience store and hair salon really close. So now we try to rent our movies from there and get our hair cut there, and we have already met one of the cashiers and a hairstylist.
C. Build relationships with the workers. Ask questions, be interested. Thank them. Tip well.
D. Hobby with Non-Christians
A. You may disagree, but I think it is a good idea to play sports in non-Christian leagues. Pick a hobby or sport that you enjoy and find a place to do it in the city. There is this magazine called Spectrum which lists a zillion leagues and clubs and activities, pick one and try it out. And as you go, pray, be intentional, be winsome.
E. Be with people
A. No matter what you do, you can live with intentionality. If you have an office job, go out with people after work once in a while, show interest in their lives. If you are at home most days, get involved in a mom’s group, or schedule play dates with neighbours.
F. Participate in the City
A. Instead of living like a hermit in your basement, focused on a glowing screen, make a practice of going to fundraisers, concerts, clean-ups, shows. Strike up conversations there. Study the culture so that you know how to engage with it. Love our city, pray for our city. Reflect on what you see and hear.

* by the way, we are doing this a church this Sunday. I think we have 3 or 4 run-ins, that is, as a church we are hoping to attend a couple of festivals this summer. Make a plan to come.

G. Serve your neighbours.
A. I know lots of you here have skills, really practical ones. Like I was talking to my friend Dan who goes here and I mentioned how my brakes rotors were warped and my car jiggles as it stops. And he is like, well I could throw some new ones on for you. Wow. Best friend status.
B. But maybe you can drywall or garden or woodwork or clean up, offer to help your neighbour if it comes up. Or if they are outside working, wander over and see if you can lend a hand.

H. At church
A. We cannot overlook the importance of being on mission while we gather for worship. There is something really moving in seeing a group of people worshipping God and hearing His Word taught. In fact some on you here today came to church not believing and were later convinced in your heart that it is all true. Some of you even do not believe but you come to see what it is all about.

The gathering of God’s people, Christians, is so important for mission. Invite your friends, ask them if they want to come. And when they come explain the stuff that goes on. Lots of things we do are weird, they are going to need a guide.

And to bring things to a close this morning, I want to return to 2 Cor 5, and I want to read you vs. 20. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Now let me say this, and I want to say it clearly. Mission must include message. Mission must include message. There should be a time in your relationships and in your living that you move beyond actions and beyond food and beyond smiles and waves and you instigate a conversation about what is going on in their lives spiritually, where they are at with God.

There must come a time for that. When you implore them, if they are not already to be reconciled to God. When you explain who Christ is and what he did. And when you wrestle with their questions with them.

Many of the activities and lifestyle choices I described today are just ways to get into others lives. But please, I beg you, and the text commands you, do not forget to implore them to be reconciled to God. That is not just the job of the preacher, but of the missionary also.

And maybe you just need to develop a question that feels comfortable for you - like, hey do you ever think about spiritual things? Or hey, do you ever go to church? Or, what are you doing Sunday morning - would you like to come with me? Or - simply, what do you believe in?

And I am not laying a guilt trip down - this is going to look different for each person. It will take different lengths of time, and you are going to say different things, but remember the mercies of God, his great love for us, his abiding patience for us. And this morning if you don’t know Christ, but want to, please ask. Ask the person who brought you, or come talk to me or someone from the band.

And if you already follow Christ and want some help, let me recommend a connection group. We are doing some over the summer and amping up big for the fall.

Let me say, from personal experience, one of the best ways I have learned how to be on mission, is to see other people. To watch as people in my small group reach out to their friends. To be at their house and see neighbours come by to chat or borrow something. And to ask for help, knowing I am not there yet, but I am working at it.

This is the road forward. And if you are jammed in your Christian life. If it all seems lifeless and dead, the best way to grow is to engage in evangelism and mission. I am convinced that so much of us are stunted, dwarfish Christians is because we refuse to get off the bench and into the game.

Guys, my heart beats so hard for this. I am convinced that if we step out in faith, God can use us in such ways that we will be floored. I love you guys, I want to see you live fully and freely, so let’s do it together.

Let me pray.

On Purpose, Pt. 1

June 7, 2009
Ben Jolliffe

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake was died and raised.

From now on, we regard no one from according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him as thus no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting men’s trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

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What a great piece of Scripture.
Good morning Connections. What a thrill to be back up here. George couldn’t preach this week, so I will take a swing here.

We are on one of my favourite topics this morning and actually we are just doing part 1 of 2. Next week I will be coming back to finish this topic off.
PAUSE
From 2 Cor 5, we see a description of the mission God has for us as Christians. Paul is breaking down what a Christian life, fully realized looks like. But even before we talk about the implications for our lives, we have to take a step back.

Because any right understanding of the mission God has called us to, as individuals and as a church rightly begins with God and not with us. To start with us is a huge mistake. Because none of us has a clue what is going on. But God, our God, the author, creator, sustainer of our universe has all knowledge grounded in him and in his character.

And when we start with God, we realize this, that we are caught up in a cosmic story stretching back into eternity past, and we are just a little piece. We realize that God has been at work in creation and in history. It shatters a small view of God and His mission. Let me unpack that by briefly summarizing all of history in next few minutes. This is going to be quick.

In eternity past, God purposed in his heart to create the world, to create human beings in his own image, and he did. He created Adam and Eve, our first father and mother, and placed them in paradise. Tragically, they sinned against God, as we all do and because of their sin, death entered the world and men and women and the snake were cursed by God.

But in Gen. 3, we see that buried in the curse was a promise, that some day down the road, though the snake would seek to strike at us and destroy us, a Saviour would come to break the curse, and save humans from their sin.

In the meantime, humanity spiraled downward. People continually invented new ways to do evil, godly people were persecuted, stuff got messed up, it was a bad scene. And eventually God chose one man, Abram, and made a promise, a covenant with him, to make a great nation out of his descendants, and to bless all the peoples of the earth through his family.
God held true to his promise, even as Abram’s descendants grew into a nation in Egypt where they were enslaved and finally freed by God working through Moses.

They came to the promised land of Israel and established a country there, survived through a succession of judges/military leaders, then kings, most of whom were terrible, with a few bright spots. One of the bright spots, was King David, who you may know from such films as Veggie Tales, but was perhaps lesser known as a liar, adulterer, murderer and a man after God’s own heart.

And God loved David, loved him, and promised him that from his line would come the Saviour.

The nation continued to struggle and during this time came prophets, not financial ones, but ones with a ph. Inspired by God and speaking his words, they foretold of a Saviour, where and how he would be born, how he would live, how he would die, loads of distinct specific prophecies that made the doorway so small that it would be impossible for anyone to impersonate the Saviour.

And then all of a sudden, the prophecies stopped, for 400 years, nothing. No word from God, no new prophecies. World powers like Greece, Persia and Rome rise and fall. And then a young teenage girl named Mary is visited by an angel, she is impregnated by the Holy Spirit (which is a great mystery) and gives birth to Jesus, the promised Saviour.

Jesus lives a perfect life, fulfilling all the prophecies, and is eventually tortured, mocked and killed, making atonement, paying for all sin of all time for all people. He rises from the dead, appears to more than 500 people, then ascends to heaven.

And the story really takes off.

The 100 or so people who followed him, all of sudden, at the day of Pentecost are filled by God’s Spirit, they start preaching and proclaiming a risen Saviour. Bam, the first day 3000 new Christians. A little bit later, Rome and the Jewish authorities get nervous, start cracking down, force the Christians from Jerusalem.

The Gospel spreads all over Asia minor, a man named Saul, a famous Jew, is saved by Jesus in a roadside throwdown, he changes his name to Paul and starts preaching the gospel all around the Mediterranean.

By 300 A.D. Despite persecution Christianity is still growing, all of the cities in the Roman Empire are more than 50% Christian.

In the 5th century, St. Patrick goes to Ireland and sees many turn to Christ. As a society, we celebrate his devotion to God and zeal for missions by wearing kiss me I’m Irish t-shirts and drinking green beer until we can no longer stand.

I’m skipping a millenium here for the sake of time, but in the 1500’s, a man named Martin Luther and many of his compatriots like Calvin, Zwingli start the Reformation, returning Christianity to its biblical roots.

In the 1600’s and 1700’s Catholics, Puritans and others begin to establish missions in the New World.

In 1732, the first great Awakening spread across North America, bringing many to Christ.
In 1785, the first church was built in Ontario, in Brantford as an outreach to the Mohawk nation.

In 1844, St. Paul’s Cathedral was built in London Ontario, its first church.
In the 2000’s a group of people began dreaming what a church would like in North London.

And in 2007 George Saylor moved here from the USA and gave leadership to what eventually became Connections Community Church, meeting in the Masonville Movie Theatre.

This is where we find ourselves, 2009, in the scope of History. This is what God has been doing since the beginning. He has been on mission, bringing many to the knowledge of Christ. Out of his love he has been saving many.

And the last book of the Bible, Revelation promises that before the end, every nation and people group on earth will have heard the gospel and that in heaven, it is going to be a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic party with people from all over.

The point of that is that God is in the business of saving people. We have a God who sent himself into history to live and die so that we might be saved. God loved us. He just loved us.

And when we sit back for a second, and think on that it blows your mind. The love of God - 2 Cor 5 says that it controls or compels us. The love that spans millennia, that purposed in eternity past to save you, the love with which Jesus came from heaven, knowing he would suffer and die for the junk in your life. That is the love that controls us.
Not easy-in-easy-out love, not wimpy love, but unconditional, sacrificial, unbelievable, undeniable love. This is the love of God.
And it controls us such that when we look at people, we no longer see them as everyone else sees them.

I recently moved to a street that has quite a diverse population. There are houses of all sizes and the street is ethnically and financially diverse. And the thing that drives me crazy, is that I find myself labeling people without even trying or wanting to. I resist it, but it is there all the same. The guy who doesn’t mow his lawn is lazy, the kid who bikes by screaming at his friend is poorly parented.

The old guy who walks his dog while holding a little baggie of droppings is well...

And this happens everywhere with all of us. We all do it. We all label people.

But we ought to view people differently. The Bible says that when we look at the grand narrative of history, when we look at all God has done, how he arranged things and changed hearts so that the gospel would go from Jerusalem to Asia Minor to Europe to North America to London, and that he arranged it so that I would move onto that street, someone who knows and loves Christ. And when God has done all that so that one person might know him, it takes on a whole new meaning.

That person, that kid, the dog-walker is immensely valuable. Not to mention that they are created in God’s image, they bear his mark. And as my wife reminds me, there is a story behind each person. We cannot know what is going on with them.

And if that is still not enough motivation, check out verse 18.
It says all this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

That means that once God saved you, he saved you not just from sin, Satan and death but he saved you to something.

Are you tracking with me?
Most Christians believe we are saved only from bad stuff. We say a prayer, we believe in Jesus so that we get to go to heaven one day. And in the meantime we try to avoid killing anyone or saying swear words. Right? Wrong.

This passage confirms that we are saved from our sins, but we are saved to a life of mission. You are automatically a missionary. It is not an optional part of the Christian life, it is essential. Because this passage confirms that God has chosen this method, alone. This is how it is going to spread.

Vs. 19 - says that he has entrusted to us the message of reconciliation.
Vs. 20 - that God is making his appeal through us.
Vs. 20 - we are ambassadors

Spurgeon, a famous English preacher once said, “A Christian is either a missionary or an impostor.”

That means that when that Jesus fish car cuts me off, God is being represented there. Unfortunately I keep trying to convince my wife Jen to take ours off the back of our car…
That means if you neighbour knows you are a Christian, and you treat them like dirt, you are reflecting God.

I was reminded of this when we moved into our new house. There were two signs on the door. One said, “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” The other said, “no peddlers or solicitors allowed.” I laughed to myself, it just seemed contradictory. We serve and love God, but if you are trying to do your job, I don’t want to talk to you, and get off my lawn too.

All of us are missionaries. All of life is mission. And at the risk of being too blunt, if you call yourself a Christian, the only question is: Are you a good missionary or a bad one?

Does your life reflect the character and love of God? Does the way you spend your money (we just spend lots of time on that)? Does your house? Does the way you treat the cashier or the mailman? Does the way you parent your kids?

Because if you a Christian, if you follow Christ, you are automatically inducted into the ranks. Yes, you are saved from sin, but you are also saved to a life on mission with God.

And I know some of you get this, some of you are on track, you are living this out, but I know many of us struggle with this. To live it out for real.
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And as far as I can tell, there are two great enemies of evangelism and mission: Pride, Selfishness.

And both are misunderstandings of the gospel. See, the gospel says is that you are more sinful than you ever thought, but you are more loved and forgiven than you ever dared hope because of Christ.

But pride or self-righteousness has the attitude that there are two kinds of people in the world, good people and bad people. We need to be a good person and avoid and look down upon bad people. But the gospel says there is only one kind of person, sinful people. Romans 3 confirms that all are sinful, all of us have fallen short.

There are not two kinds of people, them and us. There is only us. We are shipwrecked, we are all busted up.

1 Cor 4:11 says this, “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast about it as if you did not receive it”

The only reason any of us can grow and develop and become more loving is because of Jesus and what he did.

He is the only perfect one. If life were a Western movie, he would be wearing the white hat and the rest of us would all have black hats. We are outlaws by nature and choice.

And for those of you who are eagerly awaiting the new transformers film this June, think of it this way. You are all decepticons. You are all on the bad team, you are a rebel. Only Jesus is perfect

And if you look down at other people because of their lifestyle or sin, or if you refuse to associate with them then you are acting and living in self-righteousness. You have little or no understanding of God’s love and mercy towards you. You think you have pulled yourself up by your own bootstraps and now you have the ability to look down at others from your elevated position.

Remember the words of 2 Cor 5, that once we are Christians, we regard no one according to our old nature. The world may say that they are dirty, or annoying or hard to get along with, but you need to say, so once was I.

Ask yourself these questions:
1. Are there certain kinds of people I look down upon or judge?
2. Do I refuse to engage with non-Christian people in my life?
3. How do my neighbours think of me?

The other sin we often commit is selfishness. this is where I think many of us including me, are. I tend to be selfish with my time, my energy, my money. It is not that I do not have the desire to love and serve and share Christ with people, it is just that I never get around to it.

It is hard, awkward, time-consuming. It is hard to know where to start.

And if I were to bet, I think this is where most of you are mired. You can’t get past yourself. Your desires are good, your intentions too, but you never get into action.

You can call it apathy, or fear or discomfort, but at the heart is that you will not go outside your comfort zone to engage with people who don’t know God. You tell yourself that at work, you should be about work and never engage with people on a spiritual level. You tell yourself that at home, you want to give people privacy, not bother them.

You don’t want to be the weird Christian guy. Can I just say that out loud? That many of us are held back because we don’t want to be that guy… with the t-shirts and pithy quotes and a lawn mowed in the shape of a fish. You are scared of being that guy. No one wants to become Ned Flanders, I think… No one aspires to be annoying.



But no matter what it is that holds you back, apathy, fear, whatever, it is selfish.

This sort of lifestyle is in contradiction to the gospel. God came to earth, lived and died a painful, horrific death so that you might live, and you take that to yourself and ignore God’s words about living your life as a sacrifice. Your life is focused around your own comfort not about God and his glory.

And if no one has ever challenged you on this, let me. You need to grow up in your faith, quit living for yourself and start living for God. You need to start doing hard things, things that hurt, that cost you.

Listen to me - There is no glory, no courage, no legacy, in wimping out your whole life. Is that the sort of legacy you want to leave your kids and grandkids, that you got by and were pretty comfortable? That on your tombstone they write, “she never bothered anyone.” That is a tragedy.

If you have a view that you can be a missionary and not suffer pain, you are sadly mistaken. Jesus promised us that following him would involve a cross, for you. It will always involve dying to yourself.

I used to think that I could find a way to engage with people on a real level and be cool at the same time. That theory is now shot. Because ‘cool’ people in our society are laid back, stand-offish, unengaged. To be cool is to not care. And if you want to ask people about where they are at in their view of God, or if you want to know what is really going on, then you have to put yourself out there and possibly get rejected. And that can look not cool.

The truth is that you will never act until you care about someone or something more than you care about yourself.

And my prayer for myself, and for you, if you are tracking with me on this issue, that one day by the grace and mercy of God, you will care about other people more than you care about yourself.

In summary, Christ has called us to a life of mission. He himself set the example as the first, and perfect missionary. Coming to us to save us. And we follow in his example in going out to our workplaces and our neighbourhoods, and our families, as missionaries. Spreading the gospel of Christ.

Maybe today, you are not even a Christian, you are simply checking things out. Thank you for coming. I am really glad you are here. Please know that Jesus loves you and that he gave himself for you.

For those of you who are wrestling with this issue, we are going to go deeper next week. We are going to discuss what it might look like for us to engage as a church and as individuals with this issue.

And we all need to engage, because George cannot carry the load. George cannot go to work with you, he cannot talk to your friends. You go to your work, you talk to your friends, that is the way it has to be.

But I want to be super practical and give you something to chew on before next week.

For those of you who desire to be missionaries, here are some starter questions to think through. And the easiest way to do this is to imagine yourself moving across the globe to a new country, a new city, a new neighbourhood and imagining how you would be a missionary there, then applying the same principles to your life here.

What criteria would you use to decide where to live?
How would you approach employment?
What standard of living would you expect as pioneer missionaries?
What would you spend your time doing?
What would your prayers be like?
What would you try to do with your new friends?

I cannot give you the answers and the truth is that I don’t have them. I can’t lay out for you what it is going to look like in your life, because it will look different from mine.

One thing you can do immediately, is start praying. Pray for anyone you know who does not know Christ. Start small.

And pray for us too, if you remember. We are trying to teach Christian university students how to be missionaries and it is a tough environment. They get beat up on a lot by the culture. Pray for them that they would love God and stick it out. The university is the best place and one of the hardest places to be a missionary.

Thank you for having me, I would like to pray for you.

Get a Work

Series: Life. Money. Hope.

* Disclaimer- I don't thoroughly edit my manuscripts. They are written with my intent to preach. There will be many typos and grammatical errors.

Today i want to repent and wrap up this series on Life. Money. Hope. We started with the big picture of how we get a grip on our finances. By now you should be able to teach this to me:

Get a grip: Work- Give- Repay- Invest- Spend
Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Work
Proverbs 14:23 All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.

Give
Proverbs 11:25 A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.

Repay
Proverbs 22:7 The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave of the lender.

Invest
Proverbs 13:22 A good man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children.

Spend
Proverbs 21:20 In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has.

Today we go back to the start, and we end with what me say is most important- our earning, our making a living, our work.

Who here has ever had a crappy job? Come on, this one should be a common denominator in all of our lives. It would be a blast to compare stories of your worst jobs and to see who could win. That can be your topic of conversation during the picnic today. I’m going to confess something to you today as we get started- from an early age I was a master at getting out of work I didn’t like, and I have to say there were a lot of things I didn’t like to do. When I was visiting with my family recently my mom pulled out some old diaries. In reading them she noticed a theme, and she began to read through several passages...

On an on the entries went. I wish I was making that up, but I was a lazy sluggard of a kid! What shocked my parents was that they said they never caught on! Somehow I just always schemed my way out of work. But eventually, i had to experience to rights of passage of horrible jobs. I remember my first job working in a retail store. I didn’t even work the front desk- I was a stock boy for a summer. I went into that job full of youthful enthusiasm and joy. I was young, strong, eager to make some money and have a great summer. Before September arrived I was a broken, lifeless shell. They had sucked the joy and meaning from my existence. OK, it wasn’t that bad, but it was pretty bad. It was the all-to-frequent work environment where the manager was kind of a jerk, and so that jerkiness just trickled down through the system, getting worse and worse until it got to the lowest guy in the food chain.

After my first year of study I got a summer job working in a foundry. Some of you have no idea what that even is. Few people today will ever have that job. I grew up in a little steel town and lucked a job at one of the last running foundries. In many ways it was awesome, it was like experiencing a piece of history that we all knew wouldn’t last much longer. In most other ways, it was hot, dirty, dangerous work. At that point in my life I had a pony tail halfway down my back and all the guys, I mean every one of them, called me Fabio all Summer long. I mean, it was kinda of a compliment, I suppose, Fabio being a sex symbol of the 90’s. I really don’t think any of them ever learned my real name.

Everyone should have the joy of a lousy job at some point in their life. You know, that whole, “it builds character thing.” Why does everything that build character have to be so hard? But the truth is that God made you to work! Work should a source of joy, of delight, of purpose, of fulfillment, of profit in our lives. Simply put, one of the most important goals of your life should be to discover the work you were made to do!

So today I want to talk with you about your work. I want to talk with you, mom or dad who’s full-time work it is to care for your kid or kids, work that isn’t valued or esteemed by the culture, yet is so invaluable that the very fabric of our society would fall apart without you.

I want to talk to you who has recently lost their job for whatever reason- you’ve lost your job, your livelihood, and along with it, a huge sense of your worth and value and purpose and self-esteem. You have no idea what the future holds, made you are afraid of what the future holds, and trusting God right now is the biggest stretch of your life.

I want to talk with the person who hates their job. It is miserable, it seems like it is killing you, but you keep plugging along, because you know it’s better to work that not work, you know that you’d simply do what every it takes to provide for yourself and your family. But you sure hope that God has something better in store for your future.

I want to talk with you, kid, you have no idea what you want to do with your life and work. You just haven’t had enough time, enough experience, enough people speaking into your life to help you figure out what it is you are wired to do. You are hopeful to find a career you love that will make a difference in the world. But you also have fear- fear of going down the wrong path, of not discovering what it is you love.

I want to talk with you who feel like you have discovered your calling in work. You feel like you an in the flow with God, you like or even love what you are doing. Maybe you work is your calling- you are doing something that provides your income and is your ministry. Maybe it’s teaching, or health care,or counseling, or a business, or construction or manufacturing or agriculture or community service. Or maybe you are doing something that provides and income and allows you to pursue your calling and ministry in other areas. You see how God has put things together to use you in a variety of areas and ways to do his work.

I want to talk with you who maybe doubts this whole thing. You are still wondering if there really is a plan and a purpose and a calling on your life. You wonder if what you do matters at all or could matter at all. You would love for your life to be such an integrated whole that all areas flow together into a sense of God’s plan, including, and especially in what we’re talking about today, your work.

I want to talk with all of you about this, because all of us will be in several of these areas at different times in our lives. Let me first dispel what is the most unbiblical understandings of work.

Some people think that the point of life, like me as a kid, is to get out of work. I meet with a new financial advisor the past two weeks. This series served as a spring board for me to completely review my financial portfolio- where am I at, where do I want to go, how an I going to get there. This actually provided me an amazing opportunity to talk to someone about my life goals and values, and to gain much wisdom from this man. One of the big things we talked about was my value of giving, my value of being on a a budget to keep spending in control, but for me, to also have the freedom to enjoy my spending. And of course, and what really becomes a financial advisers primary job, we talked about investing.

It is very interesting to me how the goal of many for investing is to get out of work. In fact, he gave me a mug. Here it is- freedom 55. The goal of work is to get out of work by 55. Or earlier- to put in your 30 years and be then “enjoy” the second half of your life.
Now this will be the case for some. Some will have a job that is so lucrative that they can think about leaving one area of work at the age of 55, and moving on to other things. For most of us, this will not be the reality, and should not be the goal.

The goal should be to discover the work that God has called you to do, and to find meaning in that work. Instead of living for the second half of your life, how about making living something you do right now. In Genesis 1 God creates the man and the woman, they fall in love, God tells them to make babies. And, when they are not making babies, what are they to do? Work! They were designed to work and put into a world where work needed to be done. This is called the cultural mandate- that it part of God plan and design that we would be His workers in the world, cultivating the creation.

I want you to think about two questions:

1. If you could DO anything with your life, what would you do? No concern with money right now, this is not about a job. What would you DO with your life? What would you like to do with your 40 plus hours a week, your 9-5, 5 or 6 days a week?
2. Second, and more importantly, What does God want to do through you?

If the two match up, perfect. Thank God. Celebrate. If they don’t, you have something to really pray about and work through. If you can’t answer either question, you have some serious soul searching and ground work to do. If you are in your teen years, that’s fine. Some of us will discover what we want to do and what we know God wants us to do with our lives from a very early age. Most will have to embark on a journey. Get ready to enjoy the ride. If you are just into your working years, you may have found it- great. More likely, you are now, with your first work experience, learning some awesome things about yourself that you’ve never seen before. If you are middle aged, ore beyond, I hope, I pray, you are in a position where you are doing something out of a profound sense of calling. Or you are now very actively working yourself towards the fulfillment of that sense of calling.

This is what the bible says about our work. Ephesians 2:8-10 a favorite passage of many... 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

The foundation of getting our calling for work in place is first getting our salvation secure. The passage reminds us of the core truth and foundation of our faith- we are saved by grace. God graciously, lovingly, mercifully comes to us with the gift of life and salvation. We can not save ourselves. We are not the authors of our lives, nor are we the authors of our salvation. God has come to us in Jesus Christ; Jesus gives us the free gift of salvation. We don;t earn it. We don;t buy it. We are “good enough” for it. Maybe you hate that- you want it to be a transaction- “OK God, i’ll go to church every Sunday, you save my soul. I’ll read the bible every day, OK, every other day, and you save me. I’ll give a few bucks to charity, you save me.” Should you want to worship God, yeah. Should you want to read his word? Yeah. Should you want to give generously? You bet. Should you want to live a good, moral, virtuous life characterized by the things of god like love, joy, peace, patience kindness, goodness faithfulness gentleness self control? Yes, we should want to do all these things and more out of a GRATEFUL RESPONSE to the GIFT of our life and salvation in Jesus.

With the correct understanding of our salvation in place (Gift), God goes on to say in a very direct way what he does want us to do with the gift- good works. or to break it down- Three things I want you to embrace:
Uou are a masterpiece!
Made for good works- God has a job for you!
Which are already in place for you!

You are God’s workmanship. Any artists in the house? Anyone who like to make stuff? Everyone who likes to make stuff knows the amazing sense of ownership, accomplishment, and love that we have for the stuff we make. The music we write, the clay we mold, the wood we shape, the gardens we cultivate- there is something about the stuff we make, that reflects us and for which we have a special purpose. The story is told of Michelangelo when he was preparing to carve David, perhaps the most famous statue in all the world. For more than 100 years a monstrous mountain of marble lay in the courtyard of the Florence monastery. Numerous other artists has mangled and marred the stone in feeble attempts to tame the beast. Then, in 1505 the young Michelangelo laid on the monster and was captivated. For hours and days he sat staring at the beast, and when finally asked when he was going to get to work, he said he already was. He was actively envisioning the masterpiece that would emerge from the now shapeless form. For three years he worked, day and night he worked. Then the world gazed on in wonder as David finally broke free and into life. It is said that some remarked- “the only thing that it lacks is speech itself.”

Many of us fee like a shapeless chunk of stone. But all of us are God’s workmanship. and out of all of us is emerging a thing of beauty, a masterpiece being shaped by the master artist. he is working us into what it is we will be. Now here’s the thing- he can already see it. He can picture it in his minds eye. But the world might not see it yet, we might not even see it yet. For some of us the work will emerge quickly. For others, it will be a long process with a lot of chipping away. But all of us are God’s workmanship.

Let me tell you something about being God’s workmanship. Our God is a very creative being. Our God is able to come up with some pretty amazing stuff. I’ve stood on the top of mountains and swam inside the coral reefs of the sea and I’ve seen a lot of things in between that make my jaw drop in complete and utter awe at the majesty, the beauty, the magnitude and might of our God. But nothing, nothing at all, nothing else in the world compares to the workmanship in each and every one of you. You are not just God’s workmanship, you are his masterpiece, his image bearers, created before eh foundations of the world with each and every one of your days prepared in advance for you, with each and every one of your characteristics set in place for you.

And how many of us have looked in the mirror, and looked at our lives, and wondered to our selves, why am I not like other people? Why don’t I fit in with the crowd? Why am I so weird? And let me tell you, I’ve hung out and paid visits with a lot of you, and you are a weird bunch of people. You draw pictures of me while I preach that are better than most people could ever dream of doing. You do things like Roller Derby. You do things like NOT live together before your married because you think it’s best the best way for you to start your relationship and honor God. You do things like give money to a church that meets in a theatre. You do things like ask me who’s in need, then make anonymous gifts to those families. You do things like taking in needy children that nobody else wants or loves. You do things like wake up before the sunrise and pray for me, and our church, and our city. You do things like going to other countries to help people learn to help themselves. You do things like practice music for hours so another person can experience a few minutes of praise and beauty. You do things like turn down lucrative carriers to care for your kids.

You, you are weird people. You are strangers and aliens in the world the bible says. You are in the world, but not of the world. You are in the world because you have a role to play, a job to do, a work for God’s kingdom. But you are not of the world- you are now investing in the kingdom of God. You trajectory is now toward eternity. Your perspective is different. Your perception is different. Your place is different. Your lives look different and feel different and they are different because you are different. You are weird, and you are wonderful. And the sooner you can learn that, the better off you are going to be, and the better God is going to be able to use you.

Young folks, right now, let me tell you, you are weird, and that’s just the way God wants you to be. You are weird and you are trying to find that balance between fitting in a finding your unique self. So you are testing it our in safe,fun little ways- I’ll try these clothes, or this music, or these sports, and this stuff. Sometime testing out those things can be lots of fun. Sometimes they can lead down dangerous roads. But young people can I just ask you, embrace what makes you truly unique, not clothes that anyone else can buy or a image that anyone else could fashion or music that anyone else can listen to or anything simply superficial like that- embrace Jesus Christ and embrace that you are God workmanship, you are one of God’s masterpieces, and he made you uniquely you- you likes and dislikes, your skills and your lacks of skills, your size, shape, color and everything about you just the way he wanted you to be. Can you embrace that and accept that you are a stranger and alien in the world and that the world should look upon you as a bit weird and that’s just the way god planned it. Can you have faith that God has you marked as a masterpiece!

You are a masterpiece created uniquely by God and for God and the best thing that you could possible do is to embrace the work that you are so that you can do the work that God has called you to do! Embrace what God has worked in you, so you can do the work he has planned for you!

God has a job for you to do. God has a great work for you to do in the world.
A work of art that only you can craft.
There is a song that only you can sing.
A discovery that only you can make.
A business that only you can run.
There is life that only you can bring into the world.
A life that is broken that only you can touch.
Someone who is looking for God, and you are the one who will tell them about Jesus!

This is perhaps the most exciting truth about our God and faith, and yet the hardest to believe. To believe that not only are you God’s workmanship, but that he has then a work prepared for you to do. YOU are that important. YOU are that vital. YOU are that essential in God’s economy, in God’s kingdom, in God’s plan.

How AMAZING that God has a plan for your life. He has created the blueprint for your work already! And yet the intensity of that revelation is almost too much for some people. They think so little of themselves- Who am I that God should notice. Who am I that I should make a difference. Who am I that there is work that only I can do.

We want to fade into the shadows, but God wants to bring us into the light. Maybe not the spot light, not a pedestal for the world to see, but into the light of his will and work in the world. Into the light of his presence and the knowledge that you are about his work prepared in advance for you.

I want to tell you a story about a family that does an amazing work. It’s not so much their work-work. It’s not how they make a living, though it helps pay the bills. But it’s there work. Right now they are fostering a little boy with special needs. A little boy who nobody else wanted, whose own parents were not able to care for him. The parents have now said that they want to put the boy up for adoption, and child services has asked this family to adopt. Now they are praying about this decision. What will it mean to not just care for this boy, but to adopt him? What does it look like for couple to adopt a child some 50 years younger than they are? What does this mean for the rest of their family? Does this mean that they would deny another couple the privilege, that they word they used, the privilege of adopting this precious child?

Folks, that’s what doing the work of God looks like. It makes you weird. It makes you different. It makes you set apart. It makes you a masterpiece in God’s kingdom. It’s not always clear-cut. It’s more often messy. It messes up your routine. It messes up you comfort zone. It messes up the pre-packaged plans you had for your life. it will mess you up and mess you over, but you won’t want it any other way.

We are God’s workmanship, made for works, works prepared in advance for us to do. That is the promise of God that we must embrace in faith to see it begin to play out in our lives. To wake up each day and say God, what it the work you have prepared for today. What it the big picture of work you’ve created for me? What is maybe that work today that you want me to do? The each day we can be about God’s BIG work, and about the little works. I can be about my big picture of work as the pastor of this church, and God can use me for the works of any given day that I am called to do.

Today, I want you to embrace this reality and begin this journey of fulfilling the works prepared in advance for you. Let me propose to you what might be the three greatest days of your life:

The day you were born- may you celebrate the gift of life given to you.

Second, the day you were born again- may you celebrate the gift of a relationship with God that is so profound, so life changing, that can only be described, like Jesus does, as saying you are born again, born spiritual by the Holy Spirit coming into your life, making Jesus real to you, drawing you into a relationship with God. Maybe you know, or will know, the moment it happens, maybe it slowly dawn on you.

Third, the day you come to understand why you were born again. The day or that season when you gain that revelation, that insight, that deeper sense of calling that makes sense of your life- who you are, why you are the way you are, what you are called to do, the works prepared in advance for you.

But folks, each of those days are only the first step into a great adventure of faith. They are not just a one shot deal. Especially the last one. That is the one we grow into the rest of our days not just on earth, but for eternity.