Monthly Archives: September 2010

What Does God Require?

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One of the questions that is asked a lot in the prophets is what does God require of His people?

Through the Old Testament, the Law is given. The people are told, you are commanded to this,  you are commanded to do that.

The Law was given and the people were told to follow.

And that’s all that God requires, right? That’s all that He wants, right?  Follow the letter of the Law and it’s all good.

We see that addressed today in Hosea:

6For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

God wanted the people to follow the Law. God wanted the people to do what He had commanded.  God wanted the people to be the people that He had called them to be.

But, it all starts first, not with following the Law. It starts with a broken heart.  It starts with a heart in love with God.  It starts with a spirit that willing to grow and be devoted to God.

God wants your actions, yes. God wants everything you do to glorify Him and serve Him.

God wants you to live for Him fully each day of your life.

But, God knows that the only way you will live for Him and follow His law is for Him to have your heart.

What does God require?  What does God want?

He wants your heart.  He wants your devotion.  He wants your spirit.

And, if He has that, He will have your actions.

May He have all of our hearts today.  And in that, He will have all of our actions.

Equality

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There was a phrase from seminary that’s always stuck with me.

It was something that Dr. Barry Bryant, my professor of United Methodist Studies shared with us in one my classes.  I don’t remember the class, and I don’t remember what brought the statement about.

He was talking about John Wesley. And he said Wesley believed that everyone was equal.  But, their equality was not based on their “worth” but on their sin.

The logic flowed like this.  Everyone is equally sinful. Everyone is equally in need of a savior. Christ died for everyone’s sin.  So, we are called to love everyone the same.

Because God did.

We are all the same, because we all need a savior. We are all the same because we are all equally in need. Each of us. There are no “better thans” in God’s family. We are all equal, for we are all equal in sin and in our need for salvation.

We need to remember that, so that we never become like the Pharisees:

30The Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, saying, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’ 31Jesus answered, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; 32I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.’

They thought they were better than the tax collectors. They thought they were better than those sinners. They though they were not as needy as they were.

They didn’t see their sin. So, they needed see their need. They didn’t see they were just as needy for a savior as those they regarded as sinners.

Today, let’s not forgot our need for Christ. Let’s forgot our need for a savior. Let’s not forget that we are each in need of forgiveness and salvation.

You are.  I am.  We each are.

Even those folks that we think that we are better than. We are not better than. There are no better thans in God’s kingdom. We are all equal in sin.  We are all equal in our need for salvation.

And God loves each of us.  May we love each other just the same.

Something Worth Living For

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In life, there’s got to be something that gets us up in the morning.

Other than coffee, that is.

It could be the duty of work or family.

It could be the need to do something.

It could be the requirements of life.

And those will get us up, those will motivate us, those will get us going, but only for a little bit.

In life, we need something to be passionate about. Something to really transform us, push us, pull us, something to live for.

And something to die for.

We see something happen to Paul today in Acts:

12When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. 13Then Paul answered, ‘What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.’ 14Since he would not be persuaded, we remained silent except to say, ‘The Lord’s will be done.’

Paul knew, the people knew that if he went to Jerusalem it was not going to end well.  He knew he would be bound, he knew things could get ugly.

But, he was motivated to do it.  He didn’t have to.  He wanted to.

He had something worth living for.

What?  Jesus.  Telling folks about Jesus.  Living for Jesus.  Loving for Jesus.

Showing all that he could meet the power of the transforming love of Jesus.

Paul was motivated by that through his life. It was what he lived for.

Today, what are you living for? What is the purpose of your life?  What motivates you?

Is it Jesus?  Or is it something else?  Everything else but Jesus will fade away.

Issues will fade.  Money will fade.  Duty will fade.

All this will fade away.

Jesus will not.

We all need something worth living for in our lives.

May it be nothing but Jesus.

Not What We Would Have Done

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One of the things about Jesus is that He doesn’t always do what we expect.

He doesn’t always play by our rules.

He doesn’t always ask us to things that make sense to us.

Sometimes He wants us to do things that just not what we would have done.

We see that happen in Luke’s Gospel today:

3He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’ 5Simon answered, ‘Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.’ 6When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break.

These guys were fishermen. They did this for a living.  They knew what they were doing. They had problem had many nights like this before when they didn’t have a catch. They knew what they should do.

And Jesus comes with a different solution.  He tells them to do something that was not what they would have done.  And they did it.

And they caught more fish than they could have ever imagined.

Sometimes, Jesus calls us to do something that do not want to do.

Take a step out on faith.

Forgive someone.

Say a kind word.

Share our faith.

Something that was not what we would have done, if we were doing what we would have done.

But, when He asks to do these things, remember.  They are for His glory.  And for our good.

He knows what He is doing.  He knows what He is doing.

Let me say that again, He knows what He is doing.

Trust. Even when what He asks doesn’t make sense. Trust.

It’s for our good. And His glory. Trust.

Even when it was not what we would have done.

Just Do It – Scripture Podcast

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The sermon podcast for Sunday, September 26 is up on Asbury Church’s website.  This is the first sermon my series “Just Do It.,” and it’s about “Scripture.”  The text is Psalm 1.

You can listen to it by clicking here, or you can listen to it here on this blog by clicking below. And, as always, you can subscribe to my sermon podcasts through iTunes.

What Do We Need to Hear?

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What is a true friend?

We talked earlier this week about the friends and companions that made the great things that happened in Acts possible.  Paul needed Barnabas, Barnabas needed 12, etc.  Sometimes the role of a friend is to be there, to support, to care, and to help give strength.

That’s also what Jesus does for us in our daily lives.  He is the one friend that we can always count on, that is always there.

Sometimes, the role of a friend is very different.

Listen what happens today in the Gospel of Luke:

28 When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. 30 But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

Ok, go back and reread that. They wanted to throw Jesus off a cliff. By the way, the image to you left, that may be the actual cliff they tried to throw Him off.

He wasn’t universally beloved as He walked upon the earth. Some folks didn’t like what He said and did. Some folks, like we see in the text, even wanted to throw Him off a cliff.

He was nailed to a cross and died.

He said things that people didn’t want to hear.  He challenged them to grow. To reexamine. To look at things differently.

That’s what a friend does, too.

So, today, what do you NEED to hear that you don’t WANT to hear? What is the truth that you need to hear from a friend that you might now want to hear?

A true friend will tell us the truth.  Even if that truth is something we don’t want to hear.

We need that. As a pastor, I’m thankful for those friends that have been willing to tell me the truth, and that has helped me to grow as a pastor, husband, and father.

I’m thankful for a wife that is willing to tell me the truth.  I’m thankful for those that love me enough to tell me what I need to hear.

Today, be listening for the truth. Be it from a friend. From the Lord. From wherever. Be listening for that Word we may need to hear.

Sometimes, it’s hard to be a friend. Today, may we be thankful for those that are.

It’s Coming

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One of the things that is true in life is this – that trouble is coming. There will be times of trial, there will be times of temptation. Rough patches of water will be coming. That’s a reality of life.

So, we know that temptation will be coming.

Let me ask you a question then this morning.

Are you ready when temptation comes to you this morning?  Are you ready for when the time of trial comes?

Let’s look today at Luke 4, when Jesus faces His time of temptation.

Oh, but first, really, temptation is coming. If Jesus Christ was tempted, what makes us think we won’t be tempted?  It’s coming  Let’s look at Jesus’ this morning:

5 Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And the devil said to him, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’ ” 9 Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ 11 and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’ ” 12 Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”

The thing I’ve always liked about this passage is that Jesus was ready. He had been praying and fasting, and He was ready for when the temptation.  What did He do?

He quoted the Bible back to the Devil.  He relied up on the strength of the Word to give Him that strength to resist when temptation came around.

That’s why things like reading the Bible, praying, and, yes, going to church, are important. These things give us strength, give us grace, refresh our soul.

So, that when the time of temptation comes, we’ll be ready.

Today, you will be tempted. I’ll be, you’ll be, we’ll all be.

What will do?   Are you ready?  May the example of our Lord give us strength to resist the coming temptation.

A Little Help from My Friends

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One of the things I really enjoy seeing in the book of Acts is to see all the folks involved in the spreading of the Gospel.

It starts off with the 12 Disciples. Then we see Stephen.  Then Paul. But, Paul is not the end.

Barnabas strengthens Paul. Paul goes all over the world preaching. Timothy enters in. Silas.  John Mark. So many people.

Priscilla and Aquila, so man others.

The cool thing about this, to me, is that none of the people in Acts that God uses to spread the Gospel could have done it alone. They each needed each other’s help. The each needed the encouragement that they could receive from each other.

And, they each needed to encourage one another. We see this play out today in Acts 18:

26 He (Apollos) began to speak boldly in the synagogue; but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained the Way of God to him more accurately.

Apollos was doing some great things. But, it wasn’t until Priscilla and Aquila helped him out a little, that he was able to do greater things for God.

And, Priscilla and Aquila would not have been there if not for Paul. Paul would not have been there if not for Barnabas. Barnabas would not have been there if not for the work of the Disciples.

They needed each other.

So, today, two questions. What are you trying to do today that you simply can’t do by yourself?  What are you trying to do that is going to take help?  These burdens get heavy if we don’t have help.  What do you need help with today?

And second, who do you need to help?  Who is carrying a burden that you can help lift? Who is doing something that you know you can help them with?

In Acts, God used the people working together. Today, how does God want us to work together, for His glory?

This is the Day

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One of the concepts of scripture that has always meant a lot to me was the notion of God’s time.

What do I mean by that?

God has a way of working all things out, just at the right time. Time is a big deal in Scripture. For example:

Jesus was born in the fullness of time, according to the Gospels. That means at just the exact and precise moment, He was born.

He appeared to be late to the tomb of His friend Lazarus, but in fact, He arrived at the exact moment He needed to.

Forty days on the Ark (Noah), Forty years in the wilderness (Moses), Forty days being tempted in the desert (Jesus).

Notice a theme here?  Notice how God works things out at the just the right time?

One of today’s readings hits on that as well. This is from Ester 4:

Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.”

Esther was the queen of Persia and her people, the Jews, were about to be destroyed.  At great peril to her self, she came the king and told him of the plot, and her people were saved.

God had placed her where she was for just that moment.  At just the right time, she was where she needed to be. God had worked the time out just perfect.

It is not accident you were are you are today.  Perhaps God has you in the job you have, with the people you are around, with the status you have, with the influence you have, for just this time.

Perhaps God has something amazing for you today, that no one else could accomplish.

Perhaps this is not all by chance. But, in fact, God is at work.

It was for such a time as this, God has you here.

What are you called to today? What steps does God have for you today? Where are you being called today?

Today is no accident. This is not fluke.  It is for this moment you are here.

Let us be faithful in all God has called us to be!