Sermon Video: "Where is your faith?", Luke 8:22-25

Today is a good day, things are fine, but there’s no guarantee it will end that way.  Life is like that, one moment you’re floating across a calm sea on a sunny day, the next you’re being battered by the winds and the waves and just hoping to live to see tomorrow.  For the disciples, that scenario literally played out as they went across the Sea of Galilee with Jesus as their boat was in danger of being swamped by a sudden storm.  The disciples, certain that death was imminent, awaken Jesus who rebukes the wind and the waves and saves their lives. 

As the storm subsides, Jesus asks them, “Where is your faith?”  Most preachers or commentators would then talk about how the disciples needed to have more faith, needed to ignore the danger and trust God.  While that is true, it doesn’t answer the difficult questions about our doubts and fears, nor does it tell us what to do while we wait for God to calm our particular storm, or what we should do if God chooses to let us endure through our trial, even if it costs us our life.

We know that God is capable of calming any storm, Jesus’ power over nature is only a glimpse at what God can do, but we also know that God chooses, from our perspective at least, to intervene only a minority of the time.  The explanation that we’ve been given for this discrepancy by Paul’s words in Romans 8:28-29 may partially explain some of the difficulties that we go through in life, (that they’re part of refining our character and helping us become Christ-like) but still leaves us with many unanswered questions.  Ultimately, the only answer that we can obtain in this life is the answer that God gave to Job, in essence, you’re not capable of understanding the answer to your question, you need to trust me.

What is the purpose of faith?  It isn’t to get my own way and protect me from all harm, nor is it to keep us from having to go through hardships and suffering.  The purpose of faith is to allow us to continue to trust in the love of God through the dark times so that we can hold on to the hope that God has promised those who love him.

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Take Time to Be Holy

This past Sunday we sang an old hymn, "Take Time to Be Holy", written by William Longstaff, that begins with this phrase in its second verse: "Take time to be holy, the world rushes on"  Those words stuck with me because they seem even more true today than when they were written.  Our world rushes on at a frantic pace.  We have things planned days, weeks, months, even years in advance; our calendar seems to fill up before we even get to each day.  On top of our general business, we’ve now added smart phones and social media that keep us connected to everyone 24/7 and fill up those moments that in the past may have enabled us to slow down and think about what we’re doing.  Time flows by and we’re too busy to see it passing, we may not stop to take a breath for weeks at a time.  How, in this sort of environment, can we be a holy people?  The hymn has it right, we need to “take time”.

What does it mean to “take time to be holy”?  Holiness doesn’t just happen on its own, it isn’t something that God does through us whether we’re part of it or not.  Holiness is deliberate and it needs considerable time and effort on our part.  To be holy means to be set apart for God’s use.  The tabernacle and the ark were holy because they only had on purpose, the worship of God.  Likewise, things like communion and baptism are holy because they are only used in our fellowship together and worship of God.  So, how can you or I, as individual followers of Jesus Christ (and part of the larger body of Christ) BE holy?  The only way that we can hope to accomplish this is to set aside parts of our lives for the use of the kingdom of God.  This includes time, resources, and talent, and it needs to be something that we consciously choose to do.  We all have commitments and responsibilities, God wants us to honor those, and we all need to take time to exercise and rest both our bodies and our minds, but we need to make sure that we’re not squeezing God in when we have a few extra minutes.  We need to take the time to be holy, make it a part of our lives, a regular and expected part, because it is the only way that we will be able to make progress in our mission of becoming like Christ.  Take a look at your calendar for the next week, the next month, where is the time in there for you to be holy?

Sermon Video: The Sower and the Seeds - Luke 8:4-21

The teachings of Jesus are far more difficult to live by than they are to understand.  When Jesus taught the parable of the Sower, he utilized an analogy about farming that his audience would have readily understood.  The focus of the parable is on the variable types of ground that the seed falls upon and how receptive it is to the seed.  There are four types of ground mentioned by Jesus: path, rocky, weeds, and good soil, only one of which is capable of nurturing the seed and allowing it to grow to maturity and produce a harvest.  The first three types of soil all have external or internal issues that are detrimental to the seed and thus fail to produce.  The fourth type is called “good” in that it actually multiplies the seed in the end by giving the farmer a harvest.

            Jesus explained this parable to his disciples and reminded them that not everyone who hears his message is actually listening to it.  This episode touches about a difficult subject for us: Why do some people accept the Gospel while others reject it?  On the surface one person may seem as likely as another, but one accepts the message and continues in it while another either fails to maintain that commitment or outright rejects it.  The parable gives reasons why the three types that rejected the offer of God’s grace did so, but in the end excuses won’t help because they all equally failed to reproduce the seed.

            What is our purpose as Christians?  How do we ensure that we are creating a bountiful harvest for God?  The conclusion to Jesus’ parable is contained in his response to the arrival of Mary, James, and his other half-brothers, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.”  The harvest that God requires is nothing new or surprising, it is simply obedience; to hear the word of God and obey it.  This is, we know, a process that can only be done by faith and the power of the Holy Spirit, but it must be accomplished.  If we are to be good soil, if we are to fulfill our purpose, we must obey the word of God.

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Sermon Video: Those Forgiven Much, Love Much - Luke 7:36-50

The intro and first 1/2 of the initial Scripture reading were inadvertently not taped, the message proceeds as usual from that point...Do you appreciate what you have?  Most people tend to do so only when they've had a taste of what it is like to do without.  In this passage from Luke, Jesus explains through a parable of two debtors that forgiveness from God is treated the same way by us.  Those of us who know how much we have been forgiven, because we realize the depth of our sins, have much to be grateful for, but those who consider themselves to be only minor sinners can be tempted to view the forgiveness they receive with scant appreciation, and perhaps even look upon those forgiven great amounts with scorn.  The woman of ill repute, who crashes the party of his host the well regarded Pharisee Simon, turns out to be the own approved of in the sight of God because she recognizes her sin, has sought the forgiveness of God, and has found it by faith.  Faith is always the answer, whether our sins be a hill or a mountain it doesn’t matter, our only hope to escape their cost is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on our behalf.

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Sermon Video: The Limits of Apologetics, Luke 7:24-35

The term apologetics comes from the Greek word, apologia, which means “speaking in defense”.  The most famous Greek apologia was that of Plato who wrote in defense of his mentor Socrates in the famous, Apology.  Socrates was innocent, and if Plato’s retelling of the tale is accurate, his defense was brilliant, but the mob sentenced him to death by Hemlock anyway.  A well reasoned and delivered argument can work wonders, but it has limits.  Humanity cannot always be persuaded by the truth, even when it is well presented.

            Jesus explains this same truth in reference to the people who were willing to accept both John the Baptist’s message as well as his own, and those who had rejected John’s message and subsequently rejected Jesus as well.  The significance of this double acceptance and double rejection is made clear by Jesus when he recounts the objections that were made by those who rejected both messengers: They rejected John as being too fanatical, too serious, and at the same time rejected Jesus for being too friendly and open to the needs of the ‘sinners’.  The approaches of John and Jesus were nearly opposite in their style, yet they were both rejected by the same group of people with the excuse that style was the problem and not the substance.  Jesus is making it clear that it is the substance of the message that is being objected to, not the form.  The actual content of John’s message of repentance, and Jesus’ message of repentance, is the same.  It is not the messenger that is being rejected, but the message, and because both of these men were sent by God, it is ultimately God who is being rejected.

            Does form and style matter in evangelism, outreach, and worship?  Of course it does, we should always strive to be the best version of the Church and individual Christians that we can be in order to showcase the Truth of the Gospel, but we must also realize that these things have limits.  To those willing to listen to God, the Truth will speak in a variety of settings and styles, but to those whose hearts and minds are close to God, it won’t matter how many different church styles they try, the substance is being rejected behind all of them.  In the end, it is the grace of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, that is necessary to break through the barrier of a hard heart and melt away the resistance to the Gospel.  We must do our part, God will do his.

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