God

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You Want ME To Do WHAT!?

I imagine the silence was deafening.  The meal was prepared.  The table was set.  The food was spread before them.  Yet everyone knew one thing was not yet done.  One thing so simple, yet no one wanted to do it.  No volunteer stepped forward and said, “Let me.” 

You’ve been there, right?  In the middle of a group, surrounded by awkward silence because everyone is avoiding the one thing that needs done and no one wants to do it.  To bring it up seems so trivial because all eyes become focused on you with one question, “If it is so important to you, why don’t you do it yourself?” 

And so the waiting game begins.  Who will break first?  Will anyone break at all?  Will we finish what we gathered for and leave — with the one obvious task left unaddressed and undone?  Don’t look at me, I brought the drinks!  . . . Well, I made arrangements for the banquet room!  . . . Is that right?  Well, I’m actually comfortable the way I am so I don’t care if we leave this whole matter undone!

Is it possible for deafening silence to get even more silent?  If so, what happens next had to silence not only the words, but the very inner-most part of this gathering.  Let’s listen in:

“Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.  After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.”  (John 13:3-5)

What!  This can’t be!  Someone needed to do this task, but not Him!  I mean, this is Jesus . . . Son of God . . . Messiah!  The one person in the room that I acknowledge as above me and better in every way.  Why is He doing this?  He should have picked someone, I mean, I would have even done this if He had asked and I knew I was doing it for Him!  But do it Himself?  This can’t be right!  Why?

Why?  It had to be the question in each person’s mind around the table that night in the upper room.  In the midst of the silence and questioning, Jesus points that out as He concludes washing their feet and asks the disciples, “Do you understand what I have done for you?”  He evidently knows that they don’t understand, and without an explanation we wouldn’t get it either.  So He explains.

“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.  Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.  I have set you an example that you should do a I have done for you.  Very truly I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them.  Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”  (John 13:13-17)

Jesus wanted His disciples, and us, to understand that living the life of a servant was mandatory for His followers.  If Jesus would humble Himself and become obedient, even to death on a cross — and to serving His disciples — how willingly should we imitate His example and serve others?  We’re not greater than our master, are we?  We’re not above the one who sent us, are we?  As workers for God, how much more should we adopt the attitude of Christ who came not to be served, but to serve? 

I pray that the next time that you or I are in the midst of a group, or even by our self, avoiding something because no one wants to do it, we would remember the example of Jesus and step forward to serve!

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Who Are YOU Looking Out For?

As I continue the study series this week, “God Says I Am A Worker”, I’m reminded of a line I heard last week as my daughter was watching a recording of a “Seventh Heaven” episode.  Throughout the series, the oldest son, Matt, seems to struggle with the concept of getting and keeping a job.  This was the case in the episode I overheard.  At one point, the dad, Rev. Camden, tells his son that there is an important lesson about work that he has yet to learn.  After getting a job and getting fired and/or quitting it on the same day, Matt is curious about what this secret lesson might be.  The answer is simple and straightforward:  “Being an employee means that your number one goal is to make your employer look good.”  To which Matt quickly responds, “I guess I’ll have to do a better job of selecting an employer next time!”

As I thought about that conversation, I couldn’t help but think of today’s text in this study series, Philippians 2:19-24.

“I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you.  I have no one else like him, who will show genuine concern for your welfare.  For everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.  But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with a father he has served with me in the work of the gospel.  I hope, therefore, to send him as soon as I see how things go with me.  And I am confident in the Lord that I myself will come soon.”

We see that Paul’s interest in how the Philippian Christians are doing causes him to make plans to send Timothy to get a first-hand report.  Timothy is chosen because of those around Paul, there is no one like Timothy.  Paul understood that Timothy would go, not to see what benefit he could gain or how he could be helped along in ministry, but with the purpose of concern for those he would visit.  As I read this passage, it could have been written today — “For everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.”  Our society is filled with messages that command us to “look out for number one”.  We are told, “if you don’t take care of yourself, then nobody will”.  So as a society, we raise up individuals who know nothing of genuine concern for another’s welfare. 

Timothy had learned on a larger scale that lesson Rev. Camden wanted his son to know — As a worker, your number one priority is to make the one you work for look good!  As a Christian, the One we work for is God.  Who issues your paycheck and what you do occupationally isn’t the issue as much as who is really in charge of your life?  Paul knew that Timothy was different than everyone else around him.  Paul knew this because Timothy had learned those lessons of putting Jesus first and the needs of others ahead of his own from Paul himself.  Timothy learned as a son to Paul, eager to imitate and please this “father” in his life. 

Timothy’s diligence in serving with Paul in the work of the gospel, and even in serving Paul as a son, serves as an example for us.  Will you and I allow God to transform our life in such a way that someone would write of us, “I have no one else like him, who will show genuine concern for your welfare.”?  For that to happen, we must refuse the trap of “looking out for our own interest” and wholeheartedly pursue the interests of Jesus.

I pray that you and I will be genuine workers for God, striving above all else to make the One we work for look good to our community, nation, and world.

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A Worker Sent By God

I had the privilege of preaching tonight in our church’s study, “A View From The Top: What Does God Say?”.  This week’s topic is focused on the subject, “God Says I Am A Worker”. 

As I thought about this idea in preparation for tonight’s sermon, I kept thinking about the words of Jesus that “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  Pray, therefore, to the Lord of the harvest that He would send forth workers into His harvest field.”  It is interesting to see the response to this request of Jesus.  When Jesus makes this statement at the end of Matthew 9, He is addressing His disciples.  I have to assume that since Jesus was asking, that they did as instructed and prayed that the “Lord of the harvest would send forth workers into His harvest field.” 

So, what happens?  To those that were asked to pray, Jesus says, “You’re it!”  The next chapter begins with Jesus sending out the twelve into the countryside and villages proclaiming the Kingdom of God, healing the sick, and casting out demons.  The scene is repeated in Luke 10 with a larger group.  Luke 9 records the sending out of the twelve that Matthew wrote about and then Luke 10 begins with Jesus appointing seventy-two others and telling them to ask the Lord of the harvest to send forth workers.  The exact same response . . . Jesus says, “You’re it!”  The seventy-two are then sent out in pairs to be the workers in the harvest field that they had just been instructed to ask for.

When God says that I am a worker, He says that I am a sent worker.  I looked at this tonight, using SENT as an acronym for the kind of worker God has called His followers to be.

First, a worker sent by God is surrendered.  John 9 opens with the disciples of Jesus asking Him a question about who was at fault for a man’s blindness.  The response of Jesus is that no one is to blame, this man was blind for the purpose of bringing glory to God.  He then makes this statement in John 9:4:  “As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me.  Night is coming, when no one can work.”  Did you catch that?  It wasn’t just Jesus who needed to be about the work of His Father.  Jesus addressed His followers and said, “We must do the work of him who sent me.”  To do the work of our Father means that our will must be surrendered to Him.  As a worker sent by God my plans, my desires, my logic, my comfort, my will must be surrendered so that my work is done in a way that brings glory to God.

Secondly, a worker sent by God is equipped.  Ephesians 4 tells us that God called some to the work of apostles, some to the work of prophets, some to the work of evangelists, and some to the work of pastors and teachers for a purpose.  That purpose is to equip the body for works of service.  God does not expect us to do the work He calls us to unprepared.  In fact, He set up a system of leadership designed to equip every follower of Jesus for works of service.  How often do Christians find themselves unprepared as a worker sent by God because they have failed to submit to the work of the leaders that God placed in their life to equip them?  God doesn’t expect His followers to naturally accomplish all the work He calls us to.  He expects us to be equipped so that He can accomplish through us all the work He has called us to.  To effectively accomplish the works of service God has called us to, we must be equipped according to His plan.

Thirdly, a worker sent by God is needed.  Continuing in the passage from Ephesians 4, we see that “from Him [Christ] the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”  The accomplishment of the task of building the entire body of Christ as He desires requires each part to do its work.  It doesn’t matter how well we understand the function or purpose of the other parts around us, they are necessary.  Each person is needed.  Often time within church congregations, there appears to be a lack of workers when more often than not, it is simply a lack of people feeling needed.  Their part seems unimportant, so they don’t do it.  If we treated our vehicle like we often do people in a church, discarding parts that we deem unimportant, we would not have a functioning vehicle very long.  Is it any wonder why many congregations do not seem to function in a way that bears much fruit?  For the body to be what God desires for it to be each person is a worker, and each worker is needed.

Finally, a worker sent by God is transformed.  The purpose behind the equipping and each part doing its work is so that we would “all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”  I don’t know about you, but that is mind-boggling to me.  It is incredible to try to wrap my mind around God pouring the complete measure of the fullness of Christ into you or me.  It won’t happen in the flesh and dirt we live in — it simply can’t.  A transformation is required.  A worker sent by God is transformed from being flesh-led to Spirit-led.  Our entire life is changed.  Paul describes it as a transformation from being an infant to a mature adult.  We’re the same person, but we’re not.  We’ve matured and developed.  Our life no longer centers around our needs, but on trusting the one we serve.  Our work isn’t about us, but about the One we work for.  Our life is lived with a completely different motivation.  We’ve been transformed from the inside out and have become true workers sent by God.

God says that you are a worker.  Are you living as “A Worker SENT By God”?  I pray that you live life Surrendered, Equipped, Needed, and Transformed as “whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.”(Colossians 3:23)

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What Am I Here For?

What was the purpose of that?  Why did that happen?  What am I here for?

These questions, and many more just like them, seem to constantly roll around our mind as we try to figure out reason and purpose.  So many times, we think we finally have it figured out, only to have something else happen that makes it clear we don’t really know.  How often do we turn to God and simply listen?  Not listening for the “why?”, but listening for the “what’s next?”.  Listening in order to trust more than to understand.  As we listen, more often than not, we will find that our feeble attempts to make sense out of, and explain, a situation falls short of being what really is.

I see this in today’s text from Acts 1:6-8,

“So when they met together, they asked him, ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?'”
“He said to them: ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.'”

The disciples had been on a roller-coaster of emotions following Jesus.  They had experienced the highs and lows of learning and ministering.  They had been there when Lazarus was raised from the dead.  They had watched the crowds hail Jesus as their king and messiah.  They listened to the words of Jesus about His purpose on earth, and often just didn’t get it.  They fought and they argued.  They loved and they served.  They slept as Jesus prayed and they ran as He was arrested.  They heard the crowds cry, “Crucify Him!”  They watched as He was led up the hill and nailed to a cross.  They hid in fear and they doubted they would ever see Jesus again. 

Yet they did see Him again!  They walked with Him.  They talked with Him.  They ate with Him.  They rejoiced with Him.  And in the midst of all that, they tried to figure out the “why?” — the purpose behind all Jesus had gone through.  And so we come to the first chapter of Acts, to the last physical meeting of the disciples and Jesus here on earth.  The disciples come to Jesus asking about their take on what had occurred and what was to happen next.  And so they ask, I believe anticipating a yes answer — the only answer that would make sense out of what they had seen and heard.  “Jesus, is now the time you will restore Your Kingdom here on earth?”  “Do we finally get to see the fruit of what You’ve gone through, the results of all we have worked for?”  “The cost was so great, this has to be why!”

So, the response of Jesus probably comes as a surprise.  It shouldn’t have.  It is what Jesus had been saying throughout His ministry.  It was why He had invested time and energy into making disciples.  Jesus says, “No, this isn’t about restoring the kingdom here on earth, it is about you being my witness throughout the earth!”  There it is.  We know the ultimate purpose of the death, burial, and resurrection was to bring salvation to mankind, but did He really need to have disciples like He did to accomplish that?  The purpose — if the disciples were asking, “What am I here for?” — was made clear.  All that they had seen and heard, all they had endured and experienced, was to prepare them to be witnesses for Jesus to the ends of the earth.  Jesus had accomplished what He had come to earth for.  Now it was time for the disciples to begin doing the work they had been prepared to do.

How about you and I?  When life is full of joy, sorrow, challenges, fear, excitement, and everything else life throws our way, what do we do with it?  Often times, like the disciples, we try to make sense out of it using our own logic and wisdom.  Many more times, I think God would give us the same answer that the disciples got — you’ve gone through what you’ve experienced so that you can be My witnesses throughout the world.  Each experience we have in life gives us an opportunity to see Jesus at work in us personally.  Every incident has the potential to prepare us to be a better witness.  Our trials and our joys are not about us — it is all about Him!

Whatever we go through — when you and I try to figure it out, may the question constantly be at the top of our mind, “How does this help me be a more effective witness for Jesus?”  When we’re in the midst of life asking, “What am I here for?”, may we hear God saying clearly and directly, “You are My witness!”

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Climbing the Ladder to Greatness

Ahh . . . Christmas.  That time of year when “peace on earth, goodwill toward men” prevails.  From the streets to the malls . . . from the department stores to the supercenters . . . from the check-out lines to the parking lots . . . from office parties to family gatherings — wherever you turn, mankind is at its finest.

Okay, you may be thinking, “Where is this guy from?”.  While there are bright spots that can be found among people in the midst of the Christmas hustle and bustle — more often than not, the public response of people to one another is far less than ideal. 

While the result is far from ideal, it really shouldn’t be a surprise.  Much of the confrontation and tension of the season has its root in an age-old pursuit — the pursuit of greatness.  We don’t want to wait in line, we want to be first.  Wherever we are, it becomes all about seeking our place — a place that we are not willing to step back from to benefit another.  We need to move forward, not backward.  We get caught up in the clamor to determine “pecking order” in all of our Christmas gatherings.  We go to work parties, church functions, and family gatherings and try to figure out where we belong and how to “move up the ladder” to greatness.

As I mentioned earlier, this is an age-old problem.  A problem that we find existing throughout scripture and addressed by Jesus.  One of those times is recorded in Matthew 20 when the mother of James and John want special status for her sons.  Jesus responds by telling her it is not His place to grant her specific request.  The real response comes from Jesus as the other 10 disciples get word of this “special request”.  The Bible says the other disciples are “indignant”.  Their response does raise the question, “Why?”.  The response of Jesus indicates to me that they were probably “indignant” because they each wanted to be in a “top” position.  Matthew writes about it with these words in Matthew 20:24-28:

“When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers.  Jesus 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.  Not so with you.  Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave — just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.'”

You see, there is a ladder to greatness.  The only problem is that the vast majority of us get it wrong.  We are taught and believe that we obtain greatness by climbing to the top of the ladder.  Jesus teaches quite the opposite — we obtain greatness by climbing to the bottom of the ladder.  It is a ladder we climb down to serve others.  Not just any others, all others!

How Christmas would change if all Christians remembered this as they drove about this time of year.  If they thought of others and served them as they do business in the stores and as they attend various work, church, and family gatherings.  If each of us would climb down the ladder of success to reach greatness as defined by Jesus.

I pray that you and I would commit to climbing the ladder to greatness.  May we learn to truly serve this Christmas season.  May others know of Jesus and His great love because we are becoming great in the kingdom of God — great because we are learning to wholeheartedly serve God and the “least of these His brethren”.

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I Am The Lord’s Servant

This week, my writings will look at another attribute of being a Christian — God says I am His servant! 

What first comes to your mind when you hear the word, “servant”?  Is it a positive mental picture, or a negative one?  In the American culture that I live in and write from, being a servant is not a popular goal.  As children go around a group stating what they want to be when they grow up, you never hear someone say, “I want to be a servant.”  Unfortunately, in the average life, good role models in being a servant are hard to find.  Those that do serve well are filled with humility that makes them shy away from attention or being noticed.  Others serve with a motive of being noticed and it often comes across as fake and self-serving — because it is.  Yet many others simply don’t serve.  It’s beneath  them.  They are too good, too important, too busy, to have the time or desire to serve someone else.

Even in the church, many times it is hard to find every-day examples of servants for the same reasons.  A genuine servant is often un-noticed and un-recognized.  Others serve with an arrogance and pride that serves themselves much more than serving others.  Yet, many simply do not serve.  Church after church that I have visited reflect the same problem.  Not a necessarily a lack of members or attenders, but a lack of servants.  You’ve heard it and seen it — perhaps even said it — right?

  • “What, me shovel snow and spread salt?  I thought we paid someone to do that!” 
  • “You want me to work in the nursery or teach a children’s class?  I’m too old, young, busy, or already “served” my time!” 
  • “You want me to serve communion and take up the offering?  I come to church to sit with my family!” 
  • “Visit the nursing home on a Saturday morning?  I work hard all week and deserve to sleep in!” 
  • “Give items to the food pantry and help make sure hungry people have what they need?  I work hard for what I have, so can they!” 
  • “Call and visit shut-ins, the elderly, and the sick?  I don’t have the time and I have nothing in common with them!” 
  • “Work a week of church camp so young people can learn about Jesus in a incredibly intense environment?  My vacation time is too valuable to waste doing that!”
  • “Walk across the room and say hello to a visitor or stranger or someone who looks down and lonely?  I don’t know them and wouldn’t know what to say!”
  • “Give up my rights, desires, and preferences to benefit someone else — someone I may not even know or like?  What planet are you from?  Let them accommodate me!”

I could go on, but hopefully you get the point and have even seen yourself in some of this dialogue — I know I have.  Serving is not natural.  Serving says that the needs of someone else are more important than mine.  Serving is about honoring and caring for the one we serve.  Serving seeks to be invisible while at the same time accomplishing everything the “master” desires.  A servant would never detract from or subvert the will and direction of his master.

That is why Mary’s response to the news that she was to carry and give birth to the Messiah, is so remarable.  It is the genuine response of a servant; “I am the Lord’s servant.  May it be to me according to your word.”  Wow!  Mary understood that as a follower of God, she was His servant.  It didn’t matter if the task seemed difficult, demeaning, questionable, or even impossible — whatever God asked her to do, she would do it.

What would your life and mine be like if we sought God in everything?  What if when the youth leader, director, or minister asked you to serve in the church nursery, your response is to God — “Lord, I am your servant, what do you want me to do?”  Or when you see that lonely and hurting person, you said — “Lord, I am your servant, what do you want me to do?”  Or in any of the other situations listed above or the myriad of possibilities encountered in life you and I said — “Lord, I am your servant, what do you want me to do?”  What if we said it, and meant it, and acted as a servant in obedience.

A servant of God seeks to please only his master.  I pray that you and I continually grow in our obedience as servants.  God says that I am His servant!  I pray that I constantly remember that and live up to His view of me.

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I Have A Hope!

Knowing that God says I am His child helps me to see things in a proper perspective — God’s perspective.  Particularly when things are not going quite the way we would like —  when we’re not what we want to be — it is comforting to know that as God’s child, I have a hope.

One of the biggest struggles for Junior High students is that they rarely believe that whatever part of their body they don’t like at the time — and there is always something — will ever change.  They fear that they will always be too tall, too short, too awkward, too quiet, too loud, too “pimply”, too something that will cause them to be overlooked or mocked their entire life.  They think that what is has always been and there is no hope for change.

Many times, followers of Jesus end up with the same attitude.  The growth process of a Christian takes time and during those inevitable delays, it is easy for our adolescent faith to begin to feel hopeless.  Every stumble feels permanent.  Every sin drives home a sense of failure.  Doubt begins to grow instead of faith.  It is at these times that we need a reminder of the hope we have as God’s child.

John puts it this way in 1 John 3:1-3:

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  And that is what we are!  The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.  Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.   But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.”

John says that as God’s child, you will feel like a misfit because that is what you are.  You won’t fit into the world.  The world won’t know or understand you because they don’t know or understand our Father.  As children of God, we are adolescents.  It is not yet known what we will become.  Yet even with the unknown, we are assured that we will be like Jesus — the image of our Father. 

As we struggle with our identity and what we are becoming, we have hope.  This is a confident hope that our sin is dealt with and removed.  We are becoming like Christ — and will be like Him — so our hope is assured that we are purified because He is pure.  We can take courage in being God’s child as our hope puts to death and rejects sin and the work of evil.  God says that our hope in Him purifies us so that we accomplish deeds of righteousness and relationships of love.

As God’s child, I have hope because I know I don’t have to stay the way I was, or even the way I am.  My hope in God purifies and refines me into who I will become — like Jesus.

I pray that as God’s child, you recognize the hope you have.  May that hope compel you to grow up into the image of Jesus.

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I Have An Example!

I’ve been writing this week about things that I have because I am a child of God.  Our study text today reminds me that as God’s child, I have an example! 

“Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”  Ephesians 5:1-2

Whenever I am in an unfamiliar setting, I love to be with someone who is accustomed to the situation.  Someone who knows what to do and say and what not to do and say.  When I visit a new church to preach or share in some way, I pay attention to the people of that church and how they do things.  I watch them.  I study them.  I learn from them so that I can reduce my uncomfortableness and limit my embarrassment.  They become my example.  I follow their steps, their gestures, their words, their responses.  I become what I need to be because someone models it for me.

The Christian life should be like that.  Paul writes in his letters that people should imitate him as he imitates Christ.  That whatever people hear from him, whatever they observe or learn or receive from him, they should put into practice.  Paul understood the value of an example in living the Christian life.  In the verses above, he commands us as children of God to imitate our Father.  We have a perfect example of love that is seen in our Father, therefore we need to walk in the way of love.  This example of God, seen through Jesus, is one of giving and sacrificing our self for the benefit of someone else.

As God’s child, I have an example to follow.  The more closely I follow it, the more I look like I belong to my father.  I have a number of tendencies that people from my hometown recognize and immediately say, “You’re a child of your father.”  They know where I belong — what family I fit into because in many areas I follow the example of my father.    The bigger question when people observe me is, “Do they recognize I belong to the family of God?”  Am I walking in the way of love in a manner that resembles the example of my Father? 

As a child of God, you have an example.  Are you following it?  Can people see the family resemblance when they watch you?  I pray that you and I will “walk in the way of  love” as we faithfully follow the example of our Father.