Last Sunday, Nov. 24, was the first Sunday of Advent. The word, "Advent" means "coming". Advent is the season we remember the first coming of Jesus, who is the Light of the world. It is also the season we anticipate with eager expectation, Jesus' coming again. To help us understand and celebrate Advent, we have made our sanctuary dark in order to increase our desire for the light of Christ.
Pastor Matt taught us that when Jesus came the first time, it did not happen as people expected. Many, even the religious leaders were caught off guard and missed out on what God was doing. (By the way - this Sunday we will look at two reactions to God doing the unexpected. Read Luke 1:1-38 so you will be prepared). The same will be true of Jesus' return, he is not going to come like or when we expect. Jesus himself said He would come like "a thief in the night" and many will be caught off guard. So the question becomes, "How can we who look forward to Christ's return, be prepared?" If Jesus' first coming was not as expected and if His second coming will take many by surprise THEN we can be certain of this: We won't be ready if our faith is based on what we expect God to do rather than on what He says He will do. God's people missed Jesus' arrival because they were not carefully listening to God's word. THEREFORE God's people will be caught off guard at the second coming if we are not people who study, listen to and surrender in order to live according to God's word. This warning from the book of James' comes to mind, Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says (James 1:22). The people of Israel decided to fit God into their lives, they expected God to endorse their thinking and their lifestyles and they missed out. Only those who hear the word and surrender all by giving control of their lives, their wills, their schedules and their service to Christ, only these will be prepared and longing for the second Advent of Jesus Christ. Will you give 6 minutes to God right now. Here is a link to a six minute video of excellent teaching on how to live Under (surrendered to) the Word of God. CLICK HERE http://www.breakpoint.org/reseries/articles/entry/53/23761
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Christianity is everything we don't want it to be, if we surrender too deeply. This is what Jonah learned. At the end of the book of Jonah he confesses the reason he ran from God in chapter one, “That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people.” (Jonah 4:2,NLT) Imagine God said to you, "I am going to get rid of some bad people. I am going to squash the person who has hurt you. I am going to humiliate those who are causing you trouble." Our response would be, “Go God!” Then God says, “But first I want you to share the good news of my Son with them.” All of a sudden we want to get away on Southwest Airlines. That’s too much work, frightening work and we don’t want it to work for certain people.
In chapter one of Jonah God uses a wind and a whale to get Jonah to reverse course from disobedience to obedience, but his obedience was not complete. In chapter four God uses a weed, a worm and a wind to help Jonah reverse the condition of his heart from apathy to compassion. Something was wrong with God's prophet. After the Ninevites repented, Jonah left the city, climbed a hill, built a box office seat and waited for the annihilation to begin. When it doesn't happen, Jonah is angry. God tricks his prophet. He causes a plant to grow that shades Jonah from the intense heat of the sun, Jonah is happy. Then God sends a worm to kill the plant and a wind to cook the prophet, Jonah is miserable. God asks, "Are you upset about the plant dying?" Jonah (taking the bait) replies, "Of course I am, you'd be upset if your air conditioning broke in the middle of the dessert." Then God springs His trap, "So it is okay for you to be upset about the death of a weed you didn't even plant but I can't be upset about the death of over 120,000 people I have cared for longer than you can imagine?" It is at this point the careful reader realizes she too has been drawn into God’s trap. We’ve been thinking, "Really, Jonah, how could you, whose life was saved, be so selfish?” As soon as the thought comes to mind the Holy Spirit convicts us that we, like Jonah, have shown more concern for the transient cares of this life than for those who are perishing? Are you willing to take a look at your heart? Jonah’s heart was filled with the wrong pronouns. In chapter two he praised God, “YOU hear, YOU save, YOU are worthy of sacrificial service.” In chapter four Jonah focuses on his condition, “I am angry, I am hot, I am happy/not happy.” Christianity calls us to the worst imaginable sacrifice for a people who love our “I-lives.” Followers of Christ are called to “YOU-Lives.” (the “YOU” being Christ). The YOU-Life surrenders hurts, forgives enemies, love others, sacrifices time, treasure and talent in order to serve God’s mission wholeheartedly so that those who are perishing may be saved. Prayer: Lord, put our hearts in sync with YOURS. Give us hearts for YOUR mission, filled with YOUR compassion. Help us give up our I-lives live the YOU-Life. Amen. [Uncle John is a 90 year old man in our church who loves Jesus, is full of infectious joy and has Alzheimer's. Although he doesn't remember me from week to week, he recognizes me as the minister and has a word of encouragement to give me when I greet him after the service. What he says, I always need to hear. I've taken to writing it down so I'm encouraged throughout the week. I share it with you here]...
Sunday, March 24. "Keep on, keep on, keep on. Keep on ministering the word. God is with you always, he will never leave you, he will never forsake you." - Uncle John
Prayer is work. It requires commitment, it requires time, it drains us, it is necessary to provide spiritually for ourselves, our families and our church. It is both commanded and expected by our Boss (Jesus), to not pray is to be an unfaithful employee.
Prayer is supernatural work. Physical work rewards us with a paycheck (or direct deposit), sense of a job well done, promotion, praise and that internal joy that comes from checking off an item from our "to do" list. The supernatural work of prayer does not reward us in any of these ways. The reward of prayer requires faith. We'll get the job done if we believe God is present when we pray, if we are confident that He hears us and we trust He will answer. We are encouraged to pray when we realize there is no hope for our burdens without prayer (this is being forced to our knees). We show up to pray when we are confident that our prayers will make a difference in the eternity of others, in the situations we bring to God and even at highest levels of power in our world ("Pray for kings..." 1 Timothy 2:2). The reward of prayer is the tiredness that comes after pouring out our hearts to God, the peace that results from giving our burdens to Him and the joy that is present when we know we have obeyed our Lord. The hope of the Christian mission in this world depends on prayer. Christian, its time to show up to work and get to work. by Chris Rollins, Steve Howard, Frank Robinson, Tim, Tyler and Trey Kirkes (fellow hikers)
One of the saddest events in Jesus’ life happened when He went to visit His childhood home. He had returned to Nazareth to teach and minister and received a hostile welcome. The story is told in Mark 6:1-6. Some who showed up to hear Jesus teach in the synagogue were amazed, but the majority was offended. Their scoffing, chiding and insulting can be boiled down to one phrase: “He’s nothing special.” To them Jesus was an ordinary guy people should not be making an extraordinary fuss over. “A prophet is not honored in his hometown.” This was Jesus’ reply to the scoffers and it gets to the heart of the situation. Prophets deliver God’s word, they relay God’s message to human beings. The majority of Nazarenes didn’t want to hear God’s will; they didn’t want God to interfere with their lives. Their justification for not listening: “Jesus appears to be an ordinary guy.” They missed the opportunity to hear God speak through His Son. 2000 years later we who call ourselves followers of Christ know who He is. But do we act differently? We say Jesus is extraordinary, but do we treat Him as ordinary? Do we take the opportunity to gather with Him every week (Jesus is present, Matthew 18:20) or miss it because we think, “It happens every week, I’ll go some other time, it is ordinary.” When we hear or read the Bible and God is speaking to us do we pay attention or miss the opportunity because we think, “I’ve heard that before, it doesn’t apply to me, it is ordinary.” When we pray do we pray earnestly and sincerely, believing the God of the universe is listening or do we think about our grocery lists, who’s playing or how much longer will this prayer go on? When we treat lightly the real, extraordinary presence of Christ in the gathered community, when we treat as ordinary the sacred word and corporate prayer, we have missed that opportunity to be with and be transformed by our Lord. You may have seen the news from Springfield Illinois: "Thieves nabbed a 3-foot-long copper sword atop Lincoln’s Tomb in what is believed to be the first theft at the site in more than a century." Copper theft has become pretty common, why did this one make headlines? Because it’s the tomb of Abraham Lincoln whose life and sacrificial leadership gave us a country free of slavery. To steal from Lincoln's tomb is to desecrate the ideals of the United States of America. This means the thieves were either anti-American or they were ignorant of history - either way they are guilty of irreverence, that is, taking lightly those things which are heavy. We’ve all been guilty of this. In the Old Testament the Hebrew word for God’s honor and glory is “kabod.” It means “heavy.” When we treat lightly the truly weighty things of God we lack reverence for Him. American Christianity has been guilty of this by being both anti-“take up your cross” and ignorant. We treat lightly the command to gather regularly, we treat lightly the instruction to listen to the word AND obey, we steal from God by not tithing, we refuse to be like our Lord and hold grudges instead of forgiving. We have turned the command to love others into an attitude of the heart when it is actually a call to action. We call ourselves followers of Christ, followers of the one who said, ‘Take up your cross daily and follow me,” (Luke 9:23), but we have remade that cross into recliner. The tomb we have stolen from is the empty tomb, the from which Christ rose to give us new Life, capital “L.” Irreverence is thinking our life, small “l” is of more importance than His. Here's a link to an article by Ben Witherington that contains some sound advice to churches that closed their doors on Christmas, 2005. http://benwitherington.blogspot.com/2005/12/churches-closed-on-christmas.html
In 2005, the last time Christmas was on Sunday, the stories of mega churches closing on December 25 made headlines. The irony of the world telling the church to be the church couldn't be missed. But the greater irony may have been missed: Christians would rather stay home than gather to worship the One who left His home to be with us on Christmas.
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I can plod. I can persevere in any definite pursuit. To this I owe everything.
- William Carey AuthorMy name is Tim Kirkes. I am honored to be the a child of my heavenly Father, the husband of Lisa, the father of two boys and the pastor of San Dimas Wesleyan church. Archives
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