Sermon from May 3, 2020

We are reminded of the glory of God and what it means to worship God.

Sermon for May 10, 2020.

Sermon from April 26, 2020

Sermon from April 19, 2020

If you are alive and have any contact with any other human being on the planet, you know that we are struggling with a new pandemic. Everyone has heard of Covid-19. People are scared. People are reacting in fear - it is difficult not to do that.

Faith is easy when life is good. That doesn't make sense, does it? If life is easy, is faith really possible? We began this morning by hearing an illustration from Pastor Steve. early Christianity, when disease was rampant in Rome, people would literally throw their relatives out the door when they came down with the sickness so that it did not spread to anyone else. They were trying to prevent the spread of disease.

It wasn't until Christians stepped in and stepped up - that this behavior actually changed. People were dying, not from the sickness, but from the elements. This sickness wasn't an automatic death sentence, but being out in the elements, being exposed to weather, animals, and generally things in the environment was killing people. The other religions of the day had people running from this sickness by throwing people away. Christianity ran toward people. We are called to go out to people. We are called to reach out. We are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

This might be where it gets somewhat difficult. As a species, we automatically switch over to fight or flight mode. We become afraid. The limbic system in our brains switches on and go into action - the action of fear. It is easy to be afraid. We get caught in the "what-ifs" of life. What if this happens? What if that happens? We don't know what is going to happen in life. This week has proven to us that we don't know what it is going to happen within a week. We never know what is going to happen. Faith is difficult.

Yesterday, we heard the story of Esther. Esther had a decision to make. She could lay low and protect herself. Her family would die, but she would not die at the hands of the king. Or, she could risk everything, go before the king, knowing full well she could die, and save her people. Her uncle confronted her saying, sure, she could protect herself, but, what if she was born for such as a time as this? What if this is for what she was made? She risked everything. She went before the king. She told him what was going on - she saved her people.

Faith is difficult. When things are going south, how do we proclaim the name of Christ? When our world falls apart, what do we do? A.W. Tozer said that God never uses a church greatly before testing it deeply. For a long time, we have been talking about the fact that we are Made For More. Maybe we were created for such a time as this...

Have you ever heard the turn or phrase, “you have arrived”? We associate that phrase with success. We hear it from our phones when we arrive at our destinations that we plugged into Siri or Google Maps. The phrase denotes that we are at the pinnacle of our lives. We’ve reached the top. We are successful. We are leaders. We like to be seen as successful people. We may even like to be seen as leaders. Success in the eyes of the world means being rich, having that nest egg saved up for retirement, having the fancy car, the fancy house, the fancy boat. The ones who have those things are seen as leaders in our culture because we tend to equate money with success—and equate having things—with money and success. 

There is a quote by Cooley that goes, “I am not who you think I am; I am not who I think I am; I am who I think you think I am.” Think about that for a minute. It’s kind of a brain twister. It insinuates that we place value on ourselves depending upon what we think others think of us. Isn’t that the current disease of today? As individuals, we worry about all of this, don’t we? Why else would we focus so much on the appearance of being successful? If we’re not careful, we, as the church can fall into the same trap we fall into as individuals.

John Wesley once said, “I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power.”

What would the church look like if we did fall into that trap? What would we look like if we wanted to appear successful instead of existing to love God and one another? I’ve seen churches fall into this, and the ones who have either do not exist anymore, or are on their way out. These poor churches are the ones that become museums for holy artifacts. Sometimes I drive by these places and wonder what ministries used to take place inside these churches when they were active and thriving. And then I wonder when their sense of calling and wonder ceased. The doors didn’t just close on these churches. It was a process. It was a series of decisions made over a long time that closed the doors of these churches. I just wonder at what point they finally lost that holy spark.

If the church is not careful, we tend to mirror the world around us instead of reflecting the Image of God onto the world. And these poor churches become museums of history for themselves instead of MASH units for those in the world who are hurting. You’ve probably heard the turn of phrase that churches should be hospitals for the hurting—but I’m taking it further. We cannot afford to be simply hospitals. We have to be MASH units.

Have you ever watched that TV show? MASH? Most of you have probably seen it. It is about a MASH Unit—a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital and life there at that unit—the 4077^th. The point is that with MASH units, the wounded do not go to them—they go to the wounded. With a MASH unit, they are out in the field going and picking up the wounded in helicopters and jeeps and bringing them back to the operating room.

Last week, Steve pointed out that we are one of the largest churches in our district. We are doing something different here. In this church, callings and dreams come to life because we believe that we were made for more than the every day drudgery that life can bring. We believe that you were made for more than just paying bills and appearing successful to the rest of the world. We were made to love and glorify God by loving others instead of paying attention to what others may think of us.

Because we believe that we were Made for More than where we are right now, it is a good practice for us to ask ourselves where we actually are—are we going out into a hurting world and giving them Jesus? It is easy for us to stay comfortable within our four walls and expect people to come to us. We are creatures of comfort. Everyone loves to be comfortable. There is not one person in here who would celebrate if one of the springs came through their mattress—“Oh yay! Back pain until Mattress Warehouse delivers my new Serta!” No, we like comfort and we tend to quickly remedy the situation if we are uncomfortable. There are times in life where we can’t do that though.

Last week, we talked about different phases in our faith—the childhood phase, adolescent phase, and finally the adult phase in our faith. In the childhood phase, it is all about number one. It’s all about me and am I loved and am getting enough attention, etc…?—it is a person who is dependent upon others in faith and whose faith would most likely die on their own. In the adolescent phase, we think we do not need anyone. We pray to God to simply get what we want. We think of God more as Santa Clause instead of a loving Father who wants the best for His children. When the adolescent doesn’t get what they want, they either say, well there is no God, or, they say that God does not love them or is not powerful because they did not get what they wanted.

We also talked about the adult phase in Christianity. This is the phase in the Christian life where we are loving God for who God is and loving others in the faith. We are caring for others who may not be able to care for themselves. It is moving from being the lost sheep to being more of a shepherd. I like to use the term, sheepdog. We follow the shepherd ourselves, and help guide the sheep as well. So, our goal is to reach that adult phase in our faith. We want to grow and mature in our faith. Part of that growth is perseverance when life gets difficult.

Our Scripture this morning comes from Matthew 20, verses 20—28.

20Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favour of him.

21 ‘What is it you want?’ he asked.

She said, ‘Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.’

22 ‘You don’t know what you are asking,’ Jesus said to them. ‘Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?’

‘We can,’ they answered.

23Jesus said to them, ‘You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.’

24When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers.

25Jesus called them together and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.

26Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,

27and whoever wants to be first must be your slave –

28just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’

In this Scripture, we see a few things.

We see the mother of Zebedee’s sons come to Jesus asking a giant favor. “Grant that one of these two sons may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.” Notice that Jesus does not answer her. In fact, he doesn’t answer in the affirmative or the negative—he doesn’t answer her at all. He addresses these two brothers. Can you then drink the cup I’m about to drink? They do answer in the affirmative. “Yes, we can.” It is my belief that they had no idea what they were saying “yes” to. Have you ever done that? Have you said “yes” to something that you didn’t really know what it meant?

When I was a teenager, I was in a karate class. We were practicing throws. We were shown how to do it and then we were paired up with other students in the class to practice. I was paired with this guy who was smaller than I was. It was his turn to try to throw me. I was thinking to myself, “I can take this guy. He’s not going to be able to throw me.” You know, that teenage arrogance was definitely in place. Next thing I know, I was flying through the air with the greatest of ease. I had no idea what I had said “yes” to. I did not know that at that point in time, I could not take that guy. I couldn’t sit for a week after that. Sometimes we say “yes” to things, but we have no idea to what we just agreed. I believe that is part of our growth experience.

So, they said “yes, we can do this.” Jesus replies with, “You will indeed drink from my cup.” But he says that granting them places to His right and left aren’t really for Him to say. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by the Father.

We also see that after this whole thing goes down, we see that the other disciples were quite upset with the request here. After all, what made these two extra special? So it says they were indignant. Jesus gathers them all together and says guess what? You want to be great? Greatness in the Kingdom looks different than greatness in the eyes of the world. The greatest among you must be a servant. The Son of Man did not come to be served, but rather, to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. So here are three things to take away today: 

1.     Jesus says that they will drink that cup regardless of whether they get those prime seats for eternity or not. That’s not what life is about.

2.     No one can drink the cup for them.

3.     Whoever wants to be first must be your servant.

Here is where we get to the piece about being an adult in faith. The cup that Jesus was talking about was a cup of sacrifice. James and John had no uncertain clue to what they were saying yes. In their minds, it could have meant anything. Jesus knew what was coming for him. He knew that the cross was ahead. Last week, Steve referenced John 15:13—“No greater love has a person than they who give their lives up for their friends.” We are so used to action movies where someone is being pushed out from in front of a bus or something jumps in front of a bullet for another person. We like to take this scripture and run to clean martyrdom. But what if it means more than simply giving up one moment in time for another person? What if it means to keep giving? What if it means to keep sacrificing? Self-sacrifice is so much more. It’s about making time for the other. Today, time is a commodity. It’s about taking the time out of our busy days to go visit people in hospitals, prisons, etc.

No one can self-sacrifice for you. No one can grow up for you. No one can be the Christian you are meant to be. This is a path that you must walk—not alone—with God and with others. However, no one can walk it for you. Part of growing into an adult Christian is taking responsibility for your own growth. You’ll hear some people say after a worship service, “I didn’t get much out of that,” or, “I wasn’t really fed today.” When I hear that, there are several replies that come to my mind. One of them is, “What did you put into it?” Where have you worked on your own growth lately? Have you worked on your own growth lately?

Being an adult and being mature in faith means that you have upped your game in humility. Humility does not mean you do not think much of yourself. In fact, it means the opposite. Humility means that you know where you stand in relation to God and to others. In that knowledge, you are equipped as a servant of God and a servant to others. The greatest of all is the servant of all. Think of a parent. While the parent has a life of their own, they are dedicated to raising that child and want the best for their child. Because of this, they serve the child by raising them. They care for them and teach them. They love the child. Maturity leads to helping raise up others.

We are all on different parts of the path to Christian maturity and adulthood. It’s a difficult road. Some may struggle more than others. We never know where someone is in their journey. Be kind to them. Be kind to you too.

Have you reached The Summit? Are you an Adult-Christian? Or, are you still in the stages of childhood and adolescence? As members at Mt. Pleasant UMC and as Christians, we have responsibilities. All of us have responsibilities. Lots of people think church membership is simply about coming once in a while or even every week and getting your weekly dose of holy or get your "get out of hell free" card punched. It is so much more than that.

It's all about discipleship. It's about growing up in faith. Growing up in faith involves responsibility on our part. If you have already taken that responsibility, good for you. We all know people who are chronicalogically older than their maturity level. These are the ones who will blurt out anything that is on their minds without thinking about how it will affect someone else. They are the ones who are self-absorbed and may think that their actions are on the adult level, but they are still in kindergarten, on the playground...

What's missing from your faith? Could it be compassion?

We are the Legacy Holders of our church. We inherited the good things from our predecessors here at Mt. Pleasant. And with that gift comes responsibility...

What you do every day matters much more than what you do once in a while. It's easy to look at someone making an impact and wonder how they got there. We often assume impact is instant, but more often it comes from the small daily decisions we make where we get about the Father's business. We begin to experience true and lasting fruit in our lives when we take life one day at a time...

You make your choices, then your choices make you! Choices, tiny though they may seem, determine your life, your destination and your happiness. Sooner or later, everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences...

Maybe you've been trying so much and trying for so long that you don't know why you're trying anymore. It happens to all of us. It most definitely happened to Elijah...

Something Greater Awaits

·      God is calling us to greater things. Why settle for mediocrity when we can do better?

·      We procrastinate. Resolutions are just another form of procrastination.

·      Procrastination is another form of fear

Luke 5 New International Version (NIV)

Jesus Calls His First Disciples

5 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret,^[a] the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. ² He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. ³ He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

⁴ When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”

⁵ Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”

⁶ When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. ⁷ So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

⁸ When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” ⁹ For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, ¹⁰ and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.

Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.”¹¹ So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

It’s a new year. It’s nice because it can feel like a blank slate. We have 360 some odd days to fill with activities, accomplishments, failures, etc. Some of you have goals you want to accomplish this year and then some of you don’t. I saw this meme on Facebook around Christmas time that says: “I hate it when people ask me if I’m ready for Christmas. No, Susan, I’m not even ready for today.” Maybe this applies to some of you for the New Year. Maybe you haven’t really planned it out. Maybe you are simply just coasting along, and hoping for the best. If you look at social media at all and have enough people on your social media, you will see a plethora of posts talking about goals set and resolutions made for the new year. It is the beginning of a New Year and a lot of you have probably made resolutions. You’ve made resolutions for everything from losing weight to saving money to getting up earlier. The question I have to ask you is how is that working out for you?

Unfortunately, most of those resolutions and goals fall by the wayside. If you’ve already relented on your resolution, you can take comfort in the fact that you’re not alone. New Year’s resolutions are infamously difficult to stick with long-term and more than half of us give up on our resolutions long before January 31^st. Why do we do this to ourselves? It only ends in guilt.

I think the reason we make goals for the new year and set resolutions is because we know that we can do better. I think it is part of that divine spark in us that is calling us to something bigger. In the Scripture we read a few minutes ago, we see Jesus telling Simon Peter to put out into deep water and to let the nets down. Simon Peter responded with something like: “Well, we already tried that, but okay, since it’s you, I’ll try again.” Not only did they catch so many fish that their boats started to sink, but Jesus was saying that they were going to fish for more than just fish—they were going to fish for people! 

Why settle for mediocrity when we can do better? We’ve all heard that saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” We can apply that everywhere from our toasters to our spiritual lives. If my current prayer life is working for me, why should I change? I’m going to church every Sunday. For the most part, I listen (or at least pretend to listen) to the message. I participate. I leave feeling pretty good about my life overall. Sounds good, right? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it… But what if it is broken and we just don’t have the insight to see that it is broken? What if God is calling us to more and through God, we would be able to do so much more if we didn’t have the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” attitude?

There are no perfect systems or ways of doing things. There are only improvements we make over time. God is calling us to do this with our spiritual lives—with our relationship with God—our relationship with ourselves—and our relationship with others. As the church, we are called to be in all of these relationships as we are called to make disciples.

But it is easier for us to settle for what we have right here and right now. It is easier for us to settle into the mundane—it is easier to settle for mediocrity.  It’s easier to say, “I kind of know God” or “I have been baptized; got my ticket punched—just have to wait for heaven now.” It is easier for us as a church to say, “Well, the pews are almost full.”

And I believe that we really do want to do better. But we procrastinate. If we set New Year’s resolutions, we are buying into the false belief that delaying the start date of whatever it is we’re trying to accomplish will somehow help us. I love these cartoons by Nathan Pyle. It is about aliens living life. In this cartoon, one of the aliens basically says “I’m going to become a better person.” His friend asks, “When?” He responds, “In a few days.” His friend asks, “On the day we traditionally become better people?” “Yes—but until then, I’ll probably get worse so I look even better when I actually try to be better!” Don’t we do that?

Say you set a time for a diet. Meanwhile, you have all this sweet stuff in your house. Well, it has to go somewhere… Wouldn’t want to waste it, right? Have to get all of that stuff out of the house somewhere. And the diet doesn’t start until tomorrow… but then tomorrow never really seems to get here. Setting times in the future for us to focus on our relationships with God, ourselves, and others is just like that. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying that goes, “Why put off until tomorrow what you can do today?” But then sometimes when it comes to things in our faith, we flip it. “Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?” The goals we fail to set and stick to today become the baggage we carry with us into the future. But the goals we set today and stick with become the reward we have in the future.

Goal setting and keeping take intentionality. It takes living intentionally to accomplish anything. Most of the time, we are so unsuccessful with our New Year’s resolutions because we don’t have a clear plan to work toward them. What if we intentionally set time aside every day to pray or read Scripture so that every day we are worshiping instead of only on Sunday? What if we spoke with friends of family about what we read and about what we prayed about so we could intentionally share it with others? About halfway through the week, you could look at the Luke 5 passage again that we read this morning to see if you see something different when you read it—see how the Scripture speaks to you. What is holding us back from doing that?

There might be something deeper to our procrastination. Oftentimes, we blame one another or ourselves for procrastinating—and we call it laziness. But I believe it goes deeper than laziness. I think it permeates our souls. I believe that the core reason for procrastination on most things is the fear that we won’t get it right—the fear that we won’t be good enough—or even the fear of the unknown. What if we go deeper with God? I think some of us have the fear of what will happen if we get closer to God. It seems like the closer one draws to the divine, the more likely they are to hear God’s call on their own lives. In C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, Mr. Beaver is talking with Susan about the lion, Aslan, who it was prophecied would come to free Narnia from the control of the witch. Susan asks of Aslan, “Is he quite safe?” Mr. Beaver responds with this perfect quote: “Safe? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

Sometimes, we don’t want to be called out of our hidey-holes. We like our comfort zones. Lots of people like the same comfortable pew they sit in every week and the same comfortable worship service and then to go back to their same comfortable homes. But what if God is calling us to more? What if God is telling us right now to lower our nets into the water? What if God is telling us that we are made for so much more than where we are right now? What if something greater awaits? I have many favorite quotes and this is one of them, “If it excites you and scares you at the same time, it probably means you should do it.” 

I challenge you this week to look deeply at your life and your walk with God. Spend time in prayer. Ask God if He is calling you to something greater. If so, don’t be afraid. Don’t procrastinate. If God is calling you to greater things, you might be tempted to be afraid, because of course he isn’t safe. But one thing I can assure you, God is good. Amen.

Is this the end of a season or just the beginning of something new? Find out more by listening to the podcast!

What would happen if we all gave it all when God called? That's what Mary did. She was up against a lifetime of ridicule and finger pointing. She gave up a good name to bring into this world the Savior.

Names mean everything. In Matthew's Gospel, he lists the genealogy of Jesus. He does this on the side of Joseph instead of Mary. Joseph is descended from David--that is King David. Because of Christ, we have the ability to become Children of God. What if we really knew we were royalty? Would it influence how we lived our lives? Watch for more!

Yesterday, we explored the life of Ebenezer Scrooge. How did he come to be the way he is? Some things in life have the tendency to make us bitter people. How do we not end up like Ebenezer Scrooge? What if we already are? And finally, if we are, how do we break the invisible chains of ignorance, apathy & indifference, and slavery? Where are you keeping faith, friends, and strangers at arm's length? Where are you pretending?

For answers to these questions, watch the video above!

The first thing we ask each other around early November is, "Are you ready for Christmas?" People mean all kinds of things by this question, but mostly, what people mean by this question is, "Are your decorations out and is your tree up? Have you bought presents?"

But really, are we ready for Christmas? I mean spiritually. For the last couple of weeks, we have been talking about the book of Job and talking about suffering. If you missed it, run back and check our Sermon Archive or our Sermon Podcast.

Suffering doesn't sound exactly like a great Advent topic, right? We're all used to the nativity story with shepherds, sheep, kings, and camels. But, the story of Jesus begins long before that. The story of Christ in the lives of humanity begins in Genesis, and it begins with God.

At the fall of humanity and creation, suffering would be a given. There would be pain and death. Romans 6:23 says that the wages of sin is death. With death comes an assortment of pain and grief.

Prophecies of Christ's birth come in the midst of darkness, pain, suffering, and death. Jesus was born into the chaos of the world to be light and life of humanity. My favorite Christmas hymn is 'O Holy Night.' In the second verse is the line,

"The King of kings lay thus in lowly manger,

In all our trials born to be our Friend.

He knows our need-- to our weakness is no stranger.

God comes in the midst of our suffering. God comes in the dirt and grime of life. God reaches out to a hurting world and offers life in the midst of death. In our series on Job, we talked this week about how Job wants an encounter with God. He wants to know exactly why God is letting all these bad things happen to him. And Job gets an encounter with God--it is an encounter for which he was not prepared.

When Job encounters God, ready to put God on the spot and demand answers, God comes to Job and asks Job some questions. God asks Job, "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand." In other words, if you know everything, why don't you try telling me who I Am.

This fixes it for Job. This is the comfort that Job needs. We have the privilege of a backstory to Job's suffering. Job did not have that privilege. We don't have reasons for our own suffering. But, what we will have, if we allow it to happen, is an encounter with God. That is what the Season of Advent is all about. It is about encountering God, lots of times, in ways we do not expect, and also in ways we have not encountered God before.

So in this season, I wish you warmth, and I wish you a heart that searches for an encounter with God.

We all have those friends. Ever heard that saying, "With friends like you, I don't need enemies"? Job had those kinds of friends. If you've been following us, you'll already know we've been going through the book of Job...