The Gift of Example

 

So many are seeking something to put under the tree for the kids this time of year.  Times are tight. Many are enslaved by the world’s hype and bury themselves in debt by giving beyond their means to impress someone who won’t be impressed.

The smartphone or watch glitters in the children's eyes for a week, maybe longer, and then it’s on to something else. So many people get caught up in the gratification of themselves and others.  We generate a frenzy around things we suddenly can’t live without. Wow! Problem solved with a single click.

We hurt when we can’t give our kids more. We feel that we fell short. Actually, the only place you fell was into opportunity.  Opportunity for what?

Give the gift of example. That sounds a little cliché but think about being an example of joy every morning. The world might be angry and bitter, but joy abides in you.

Think about being an example of peace. Controversy rules in the world, but you are at peace. You have peace that only God can give, and you share it.

Think about being an example of a praying person. Lead your children to and in prayer.

Lead them to worship services and classes. Teach them reverence.

Lead them to help a neighbor in some way.  Teach them compassion.

Lead them to do their homework. Show interest in the subject even if you know little about it. Model learning.

Lead them to a good vocabulary. So many problems with vulgarity come from having a poor lexicon—a group of words at our ready disposal. Model expression with a good vocabulary.

Teach them to think, not just to repeat the common gossip, but to analyze and understand something before reaching conclusions or defining an opinion. Lead them by your example of sound thinking.

Lead them to courtesy. Teach them to open a door for another person, greet someone with polite words, or help someone be seated or stand.

You may not have the cash to buy the latest video game or smartphone, but you are rich with opportunities to be a great example to your children and to others.

Be the example! Give your children the gift of example. It is priceless.

Merry Christmas.

Anxious for Nothing!

 Read Philippians 4:6-7

There are two short verses today, but they pack a big punch.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Which brings us to restraints & constraints. That’s how Paul paired these verses. Restraints are things that we must not do. Constraints are those things that we must do.

We will take the first part in this service—the restraints.  Don’t do this.  There seem to be a bunch of those in the Bible. Don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t cheat on your spouse, don’t covet what others have should sound familiar, and I am still in the top 10.

Go to Leviticus if you need some more, thou shalt nots. But this restraint doesn’t sound like a command. It doesn’t feel like a don’t even think about having other gods directive.

It is part of a coupling of what to do and what not to do, with the end result being peace, which is more than we can comprehend.

In the middle of this very conflicted world, we have peace, and it is more than we can comprehend.

Consider the words of Jesus from John’s gospel.

 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

That’s a good place to land, in a peace that guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

So, let’s look at the restraints proffered in Philippians. Do not be anxious or be anxious for nothing. It’s a familiar tact.

·       Don’t be anxious.

·       Don’t worry.

·       Don’t’ be afraid

·       Don’t rely on your own understanding.

·       Don’t store up treasures on earth.

·       Don’t think that your anger can bring about God’s righteousness.

·       Don’t run with scissors.

·       Don’t spend it all in one place.

That’s a good list, but it doesn’t include the how. That’s in the second part of the verse, which we will discuss more in the next service. For now, consider that if you can worry, then you can pray. I first considered this thought years ago when I read The Purpose-Driven Life.

If I become anxious, pray.

If I start to worry, pray.

If I am afraid, pray.

If I am selling myself on my own understanding, pray.

If I am starting to feel self-righteous in my anger, pray.

If I am running with scissors, walk.

The prayer part is the constraint part—the must do part. To have any degree of efficacy in the second part, we need to master the first part.

These two conditions should create dissonance in your hearts and minds:  Worry and Trusting God.  We either trust or we don’t.

These two conditions should create dissonance in your hearts and minds: Anxiety and Assurance. We can either be anxious or rest in the assurance that all of God’s promises are true.

These two conditions should create dissonance in your hearts and minds: Fear and Faith. It’s one or the other.

Paul’s counsel is to get rid of the obstacle and pursue relief in prayer.

The promise is that if we abide in the restraints and constraints, our problems will go away. No, the promise is that we will have peace even in the middle of the world’s conflict, confusion, and continuing controversy.

It’s a peace not reliant upon what happens to the circumstance that is elicting anxiousness or worry. It’s one of those, the numbers don’t add up but I still have peace.

If we consider the syntax further, we see that nothing is excluded from the category. Be anxious for nothing.  Nothing means nothing. There is no thing, no circumstance, no force excluded here. Nothing is too difficult or too complicated for God.

Nothing!

I used to run about 7 miles a day, 5 or 6 days a week.  It was a good distance. I could run it, get showered and back in uniform, and finish my day.

I wanted a little more challenge but couldn’t give up more time for more mileage, so I got an old, metal-plated flak vest to run with. It added a few pounds and was good for kicking my workout up a notch.

Had I opted to add a hundred-pound pack to my back, the debilitating effects would have outweighed the benefits. No question.

You can run with a hundred-pound pack for a couple of miles and not have any ill effects. At the end of a long hike in full gear, we would often run the last mile or two.

But trying this for much more than that works against you.

It’s the same for holding on to your anxiousness while you pray to God. You can carry a little burden while you give things to God, but not a lot.

You are still working on the problem or circumstance but not debilitated by it. You still have peace. You might not understand how you can have peace, but you can.

Quit holding on to your anxiousness first, then let God do the heavy lifting.

Be anxious for NOTHING!

Amen.

 

In Everything

 Read Philippians 4:6-7

We begin in Rome where Paul was imprisoned. Paul wrote to the first church that he planted in Europe. That church was in Philippi.

The letter begins with a standard salutation: This letter is from Paul, except the text notes that it is from Paul and Timothy. Most scholars agree that the style of the letter suggests that Paul was the sole author.

It’s sort of like your Christmas letters that some families send out. It’s from the Smith Family or the Jones Family, but we all know that Mom wrote it.

And we note that Paul gave thanks for these believers in Philippi. He called them partners in the gospel. Paul is telling his modern-day readers that these guys got it from the beginning.

He didn’t have to reiterate time and again that salvation flows from grace, not law. He didn’t have to counsel them on leaving some believers on the outside while enjoying the benefits of fellowship with a select group.

He didn’t have to chastise them about something getting in the way of their faith. There is no, you were running a good race, who cut you off verbiage.

I think Paul enjoyed writing this letter. He enjoyed thinking about this group of believers he met by the river years earlier.

It’s in the first part of this letter that we see words we hear and use again and again: Confident that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.

For the believer who struggles with life, not because life is tough, but because he or she realizes that they can’t hit the mark every time, Paul provides comfort in his counsel.

 You stay the course and do your part, knowing that God will get you where you can’t get yourself.

I will borrow Isaiah’s words for a moment and ask if you can see what is happening here in the first part of this letter.

Do you not perceive it?

Perceive what?

Fellowship. Can you not perceive it? Can you not taste it?  Do we know it?

You might be wondering, what fellowship? Paul was writing from prison.

It is a fellowship that comes in doing things greater than themselves. That’s a nondescriptive descriptor by itself. I’ll try it this way.

When we do things that are too difficult to do alone, but we do them with other believers, we know a fellowship that doesn’t visit people in their comfort zones.

Taking this gospel to a world that did not have a relationship with God was impossible. That world had a relationship with gods they had created for themselves but they did not know the one true God.

Paul was on a mission from God to take the gospel to this world. Paul noted that he became all things to all people so that some might be saved.

He planted churches and wrote most of his church plants letters of counsel and correction. Paul sent joy and rejoicing to these Philippian believers. Sure, they had much to learn, but they were partners in the gospel.

There was fellowship in doing great—even impossible things—together. It is a fellowship that I long for us to know better.

The Marines have a saying when asked about doing the impossible: We do difficult things every day; the impossible just takes a little longer.

Doing things together that are too difficult, even impossible, and then knowing the camaraderie of accomplishing those things through Christ produces a fellowship few know. Paul and the Philippians had this fellowship.

The gospel was going into the world. Paul had a big assignment, but now he had a partner. Timothy was his protégé and partner, but Philippi was a whole congregation planted in the middle of Rome (East) and they were partners.

When we consider the church at Philippi, we see that they had genuine fellowship. Let’s move on for the moment.

Philippians brings us the words: to live is Christ and to die is gain.

We note words often repeated in the Christian world: Every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

We stop there too often and make these verses a sword of revenge. Christians sometimes say these words, wanting to share in God’s righteous anger. Oh, yeah, one day God is going to get you!

The words that Paul penned say that this reverence and profession will be to the glory of God. Don’t get caught up in trying to share in God’s righteous anger. I know there are Christians and even Christian preachers teaching that if God’s wrath could be poured out on it, then it’s OK for us to be angry with it.

That's a good argument, unless you want to be biblical. We have two examples: Jesus and Satan. Jesus set aside his equality with God, humbled himself, and became a servant.

Lucifer, on the other hand, wanted what God had. He wanted to be God. Being an angel wasn’t enough.

Jesus lived and died for us in humility. Satan wants to steal, kill, and destroy. Don’t let righteous anger have you take the yoke of Satan instead of Jesus. Our anger does not get us to righteousness.

Moving on. Paul told the Philippians and he is telling us to work out—live out our salvation with fear and trembling. Live the rest of your life for God. Bringing glory to his name in everything we do is now our daily standard.

Paul wrote elsewhere that we should live a life worthy of the calling that we have received.

Paul noted that he counted all of his worldly status and accolades as loss. He didn’t throw them away. He used them in his ministry—even his Roman citizenship—to advance the gospel. He encouraged the Philippians to press on towards the goal.

We finally come to Chapter 4. We note Paul’s familiarity with the congregation, telling two women who were very much working to spread the love of God through the gospel to sort out whatever was getting in the way. He didn’t pick a side. He said, you took yourself out of the game. Put yourself back in.

Then we come to joy and rejoicing. Paul said to rejoice, and he said it twice. That one is on the test. At last, we come to the scripture for today.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Which brings us to restraints & constraints. That’s how Paul paired these verses. Restraints are things that we must not do. Constraints are those things that we must do.

We discussed the restraints in the first service. Now, let’s examine the second part of this coupling.

It begins: In everything.

In everything!

That’s all the time and in all circumstances. That’s a lot. That’s everything. That’s always. That is governing in the whole of our lives.

What is?

Coming before God and talking it through. Paul lists three things—prayer, petition, and thanksgiving. I begin with thanksgiving. If you have been paying attention over the past couple of decades, you might note that I begin a prayer with thanksgiving about 99% of the time.

Even when someone is going through the loss of a loved one, I give thanks to God first. I am thankful that this whole loss thing doesn’t revolve around me. God’s got this, and I thank him for it even when it doesn’t seem to be a time of thanksgiving.

Paul did not prescribe an order or even a ranking. Thanksgiving just fits up front when I pray. It shows up again and again later in my prayers, but it is where I start.

Then we come to petition. These are the requests that we put before the throne of grace. We come boldly before the throne of grace. We ask for what we need and we need what we ask for to accomplish the mission given to us.

We ask our Father in heaven for what we need and do it without any anxiety. We are his servants. We desire to take whatever we are given and put it to work immediately to produce a return for our Master.

So we are thankful, and we ask for what we need.  Anything else?

How about prayer?

Isn’t that what we have been talking about?

Yes, but prayer is more than thanking and asking. It’s conversing with God almighty as if he had called you friend, son, or daughter. It’s just talking to the One who loves you more than anyone else, and we should keep the conversation going all day long.

It’s like getting to work with your best friend and talk about anything and everything all day long, and not worried about the boss telling you that you talk too much.

Prayer, petition, and thanksgiving should be our daily constraints. We should not do them only because we are instructed to, but because we recognize the value of doing them. This is a twofer: We obey and we understand. We get it.

When we couple this with being anxious for nothing, we have a balanced approach to Christian life.

This would be the perfect place to wrap up, except that I wanted to share something with you that I have shared with the session once or twice over the years, and it might have been included in a First Light sermon somewhere along the way.

It is also a topic that bores people to tears each time. What is it?

Front-end analysis, and no, that has nothing to do with your vehicle. It’s about working more on the front end of a process so that corrections are minor instead of addressing things later on when they might have grown into a larger issue.

What?

What if we started the day setting aside anything that caused us to worry, then went into prayer, petition, and thanksgiving?

Start with prayer, that’s nothing new. Most of us start our days with a prayer oif some sorts.  True, but let’s not stop there.

Let’s say you start to worry about something an hour or maybe ten minutes later. Fix it then—at once—now. Make the correction immediately. Don’t drag it out.

I’m worried—what can I do?

Pray. If you can worry, you can pray.

If you are getting angry, then stop and pray.

If your eyes are not on Jesus, stop, pray, refocus on the target.

When? Now!  Do it as soon as you detect that you are off course.

Consider the whole front end of the process business. Visualize a fifteen-degree angle. Why not a two-hundred-degree angle?

The first angle is a cute angle (acute), and using the second angle in my example would be obtuse.

Let’s look at the small angle. There is not much space between the initial side and the terminal side where the angle begins, but there is a whole lot of space between the lines the farther from the initial vertex you get.

Fixing something early—near the front end—is a smaller task than later on. I understand that we want to do things and get them going and over with and that working on the front end of things adds time when we think we should be on to something else.

But it also keeps us on course. I will use an example from Stephen Covey. It deals with leaders and managers, but it applies here as well.

Imagine a well-organized company hired to cut a path through thick Jungle vegetation. Strong men with sharp blades hack away, while others are ready to take their place when the blades get dull.

Men and women are behind them, sharpening blades. The rotation of the cutters and the work of the blade sharpeners look like a well-oiled machine.

The leader climbs a tall tree to get the overall picture. He notes the company is getting off course and shouts down, “Wrong direction!”

To which the managers reply, “Shut up. We’re making good progress.”

This front end of the process and course correction business applies to more than a couple of verses in Philippians, but today, we keep our focus there.

·       Anxious for nothing

·       Prayer

·       Petition

·       Thanksgiving

Let’s return to where we started: fellowship and doing things more significant than ourselves.

See if these apply to you in some way:

·       I want to do God’s will.

·       I want to put his words into practice.

·       I want to be known as belonging to Jesus by my love.

·       I want to fulfill the commission that Christ gave me.

·       I want to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.

The list could continue, but these will likely fit most of us. I start my day wanting to do all of these, and the next thing that I know, I say something that I shouldn’t have, or my mind drifts to something that causes me to worry or get angry. I get off course. I take my eyes off Jesus.

Don’t put that course correction on hold. Fix it now. Thank God now. Ask him for help now. Let him know you want to get back on course and press on towards the goal.

Don’t procrastinate. I was going to set up a Procrastinators Anonymous group to help with this, but I haven’t gotten around to it.

Don’t wait until you get around to it!

A week or two ago, I gave everyone in the session meeting and everyone at the First Light Service a Round Tuit. It’s a coin-sized reminder to do things now. Don’t delay. Don’t wait until your get around to it.

Paul’s counsel is simple. My guidance from the full biblical witness might bore you, disrupt your comfort zone, or seem like a pain at the time, but the time invested at the front end of things—most often our days—produces dividends for us, and we produce better dividends for our Master.

Let’s begin our days with Paul’s counsel and continue to address our constraints and restraints with the same counsel as the day progresses.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

OBTW—you get a peace that is more than we can comprehend.

I want you to know this peace—one that goes beyond what we understand.  I also want you to know the fellowship for doing incredible things with other believers and the fellowship it produces.

Amen.

She gave all that she had

 Read Luke 21

If you read Luke 21 and Matthew 24, you get the short course of the End of the Age—Revelation revealed in miniature.

Advent means arrival, but in the church, it is a time to prepare for the arrival of the King, the Second Coming of Christ. That’s going to be something of a big deal.

At the next service, I will talk a little about signs of the end of the age. Now, let’s think about what preceded the eschatological verses in this chapter.

As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others.  All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

We all know this one. We sometimes dub it The Widow’s Mite.

Jesus called the disciples to consider this woman. They probably were not paying much attention to her. She wasn’t making a scene, and she would not bring a load of gold or silver.

She did not make a show of making her offering. She did not parade herself in self-righteousness. She gave what she had.

Jesus noted that she gave more than all the rest. She gave all she had.

We—anchored in our own understanding—ask, “How will she live?”

Jesus saw no need to address that unspoken concern. He knew that his Father in heaven provided for her.

She had no earthly treasure but surely had a huge account in heaven.  Could you imagine giving all that you had in the offering?

That’s some crazy stuff, but it is precisely what we are called to do.

OK, sure. Are we passing the collection plate again? I have to run home and get my car title.

Does the church pick up the payments on my mortgage? How does this work?

It’s a scam, right?

No, we are to give all we have and all we are to the Lord. Paul called it a living sacrifice.

But is that even possible? I know that Paul said it, but he didn’t have a mortgage, two car payments, a houseful of hungry kids to feed, and a water bill to pay.

I’m already making my tithe. Give me a break! How can I give all that I have? Do I just endorse my check over to the church?

For those who don’t know, a check is a piece of paper that promises to pay an amount written on it to the recipient. I know people don’t use checks much these days. Ask an older person about a thing called a counter-check. That will blow your mind in this age of account hacking. 

Enough for ancient banking practices… Who will pay my mortgage? You will, and you will pour yourself into making your house into a godly home.

Who will make my car payment? You will, and you will do your best to drive safely and respectfully. When the light is red, you live by the law not grace.

As we are on the topic, is it legal to make a right on red in Oklahoma?  Only when posted.

The rest of the time it is legal to make a right on red after stop, unless otherwise posted.

That’s my public service announcement for the day brought to you by my daily view of out my office window.

Back to giving it all to God—what about my food bill? How many have a monthly grocery bill that’s more than your car payment? More than your mortgage?

Hopefully, that grocery bill will get better. Right now, when I go to buy my olive oil and peppers, I feel like I am in chapter 6 of Revelation.

Back to giving it all to God. Whatever I eat, I eat to fuel this body that serves the Lord. I’m not a glutton and a slave to food. I eat to re-arm and re-fuel to continue my mission and fulfill my commission.

We can give God all that we have. It funnels through our lives and provisions us to serve the Lord.

Think of the servants in the Parable of the Talents. The money their master entrusted to them was put to work immediately and produced a return, but they didn’t have to get a second job to feed their families.

They put everything they had—knowledge, skills, and abilities—into producing a return for the master. They had no desire to do anything else, and their master provided for them in the course of their duties.

That was true of the first two servants. They understood this living sacrifice thing before it was a thing.

They were not accumulating personal wealth. They were producing a return for their master. Welcome to New Testament living.

How does all of this relate to Advent and the coming of Christ?

We don’t know the day or the hour, but we do know the season. For that part, read to the end of Luke 21.

The best way to prepare for the Lord's return is to live our lives fully for him every day.

We are saved from sin and death, but I believe that in our DNA as new creations is the desire to do the best we can with the lives, resources, thoughts and attitudes, and fruit we produce for the Lord.

We should strive to live as fully as possible, with each breath bringing glory to God.

That’s how we give all that we have. That’s how we prepare for the return of the King.

Amen.

Signs and Readiness

 Read Luke 21

Anyone ever heard  of the 5 Man Electrical Band?

And the sign said,

"Long-haired freaky people

Need not apply."

So I tucked my hair up under my hat

And I went in to ask him why.

He said, "You look like a fine upstandin' young man.

I think you'll do."

So I took off my hat and said, "Imagine that.

Ha, me workin' for you."

Today, business owners hire long-hair freaky people if they will show up and work. Back in the mid-80s, I was in London. The ship had pulled into Portsmouth Harbor for a couple of days, and I took a day trip by train to London.

I saw the sights and stopped in a store to buy some souvenirs. I was about to check out when I saw this guy with the spiked rooster hair look. The hair was green and some other color. He had some bling hanging off of various parts of his face and head. This was before bling was a word in the common vernacular.

We were both approaching the same check-out register. I thought I would just let this guy go first. He was taking the long-hair freaky people thing to a new level, and I was surprised at something else hanging off of him every time I looked.

Yeah, you can go first. He walked towards the register and went behind the counter to ring up my purchase. There was no sign reading, "Long-hair freaky people need not apply."

  They applied and got jobs!

Whoa, sign, sign.

Everywhere a sign.

Blockin' out the scen'ry.

Breakin' my mind.

Do this. Don't do that.

Can't you read the sign?

One of my favorite signs was displayed at a taco joint in 29 Palms, California. It read:

Tacos

3 for $1

Limit 8

I usually make my Math for Marines jokes with that one. But then, on a street far away from any Marine Corps Base was the sign that read:

2 Hour Parking

6-7 pm

Whoa, sign, sign.

Everywhere a sign.

Blockin' out the scen'ry.

Breakin' my mind.

Do this. Don't do that.

Can't you read the sign?

The song "Signs" was actually a protest song, not against the War in Vietnam but against the ubiquitous onslaught and apparent authority of signage.

We look at chapter 21 in Luke’s gospel. The disciples remarked on how magnificent the temple was. It was an impressive structure and adorned with gifts dedicated to God. The disciples were impressed by the structure and thought their Master might be as well.

Jesus didn’t play the adore the temple game. He said that this thing would be rubble one day, and not one stone would stand upon another. That’s some serious stuff. This is the same temple where Jesus taught the scholars when he was 12 and where he fashioned a whip and turned over tables later in his life because his Father’s house had been turned into a den of thieves.

 

The disciples ask, “When” and “How will we know the time is near?”

What will be the signs of the end of the age?

Jesus told his closest followers to be on the lookout and not to be deceived. Many would come in his name and be imposters. Don’t play their games.

Some things must happen first. There will be wars and rumors of war. It will be nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom. We read this as there will be some isolated wars and some between and among alliances.

In addition, there will be some really big earthquakes, famine, and even pestilence. Some of you are thinking seals will be opened, and horsemen will be dispatched.  

You may very well be the target of persecution. You should expect it. If you are persecuted because of Jesus, Jesus will count that as fruit to your credit.

If you are persecuted because you are doing stupid stuff, then stop doing the stupid stuff. That’s a horse of a different color. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot, and admire your marksmanship.

One of the unsung benefits of being a pastor is I get to work with people who shoot themselves in the foot, admire their marksmanship, and when you think it couldn’t get any crazier, they reload.

But when you are persecuted because you follow Jesus, that’s counted to your credit. You are welcomed into the company of the prophets.

There will be times when God rescues Jerusalem from invaders and times—such as near the end of the age—when desolation is near. Yes, there will be some run-for-the-hill times.

These will be some very bleak times. The world won’t understand them and will surely construct stories without what it understands without God. What is coming to this world is not the stuff you put on the travel brochure.

OBTW—welcome to the first Sunday of Advent. Advent is about preparing for the coming of the King. We prepare to celebrate his birth into this world as a baby born in some meager surroundings, and we prepare for him to come to claim us.

We return to the lectionary briefly for this season of Advent. We note that Jesus will come as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and it will be the biggest event in history. You can’t miss it. You won’t miss it.

You can't miss it but will you be ready for it?

My prayer is that you are ready for it. Advent is a time to prepare for the coming of the King, and he is coming for us. When? Soon.

We have had wars and rumors of war, but they had those in the first century too.

We have had hurricanes and earthquakes and some terrible weather events, but they also had those in the first century.

Famine and pestilence have occurred in various places over the centuries. They are not unique to our time.

We have seen many of these signs in our time and have read about them in history.

So, does soon mean by the end of the year or end of the decade?  Could it be longer. How will we know?

“There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

There will be:

·       Cosmic Disturbance.

·       Nations will be at a loss as to what to do about anything and everything

·       People will pass out from terror.  They will be afraid.

What should we do?

·       Hold your head up!

·       Know that redemption is coming.

·       Know that Jesus is coming on a cloud and he is coming as King this time.

·       Know that the King of Kings and Lord of Lords is coming for you. Your room is ready.

While the world trembles, we anticipate what we have waited for all of our lives. We cry out for Jesus to come and rescue us from this world. He will.

The world will be caught up in the drama, terror, and fear of not knowing what is to come.

Not us. We know what is coming and are getting ready to celebrate who is coming.

Yes, we may have to endure much, but we know who is coming for us, and that’s a big deal.

So, let’s consider what is ahead in the manner prescribed by Paul. The stuff that we will go through now is nothing in comparison to what God has in store for us.

So, when we know the time has come, and it will be evident in the heavens themselves, hold your head up. Know that your Lord is coming to redeem you out of this world.

The work to accomplish that has been accomplished. It is finished.

All that’s left now is for Jesus to claim us and take us home.

Hold your heads up!

Amen.

Give Thanks!

 Read Psalm 100

Read Psalm 136

Like it or not, November will say goodbye shortly. Thanksgiving Day seems late this year. It’s almost December, and then a New Year.

I talk about being thankful all year long, but you get an extra dose at this time of year. We should have a surge effort of thanksgiving and praise on occasion or multiple occasions.

So many people think that when my life settles down—whatever that means—I will be ready to give thanks.

When my bills are all paid, and the kids have new shoes, then I can be thankful.

When the doctor says that I am healthy again, then I will praise the Lord.

When I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, I might be ready to thank God.

When I can afford an impulse buy every now and then without breaking the budget, I will be thankful and praise the Lord.

I will be thankful when I get around to it, and I have a lot to get done on my list first.

Let’s take a cue from the psalmist. We will look to Psalm 136 for the moment.

Give thanks to God. Why?

He is good.

His love endures forever.

He is the God of gods—the only true God.

He does great wonders. This whole creation thing has to be near the top of the list.

Heaven, earth, land and water, sun and moon, and other heavenly bodies all came into being by his breath. He spoke these into existence.

He delivered his people from bondage in Egypt. That was a series of mighty acts.

He parted the Red Sea and his people crossed it on dry land.  The same parted Red Sea did not treat the pursuing Egyptians so nicely.

He led his people through the wilderness until they were ready to enter the land that he promised Abraham as an inheritance. This took a while.

He struck down mighty kings that his people might prevail. He liberated his people.

God remembers us, even amidst the vastness of the universe.

He is the God of everything and remembers us even in our humble estate.

OK, the people back in the day had a lot for which they gave thanks. That was a long time ago.

I’ve got bills and medical appointments and parent-teacher conferences and have to work for some young guy with no experience and…

You can’t expect me to just give thanks because God rescued some people from slavery almost 3,500 years ago.  I have problems today.

There is a meme-related thought circulating online that goes something like this: Instead of focusing on what is happening to us and feeling helpless or wronged and feeling pitiful, focus on what God has already done for us. Focus on your blessings.

What then?  We should be better inclined to thanksgiving.

Give thanks to the God of gods. His love endures forever.

He made everything in creation. It all—including us—belongs to him.

Give thanks to the God who provides for everyone and everything.

OK, those always apply, but we need a Red Sea parting somewhere in our recent history.

Give thanks to the God who blessed you to be born in this most wonderful nation. We have our problems, and more are on the way, but we are blessed beyond what most of the world knows or imagines.

Give thanks to the God who blessed you to be born in this part of this most blessed nation. We still speak openly of our God and worship freely. We might face a mean comment or two when we express our faith online, but nobody is trying to kill us for professing Jesus as Lord.

Give thanks to the God who put us in the land of plenty, the land of everything modern, the land of modern milk and honey, and who loves us with an everlasting love.

Give thanks to the God who loves us so much that he gave his one and only Son that we might know real life and eternal life in him.

Give thanks to the God of gods who chose us to take his message to the world.

Give thanks to the one true God who is love.

Give thanks to God who is the Potter and shapes us in the likeness of his Son as if we were clay.

We must give thanks for our blessings, trials, and even the Lord's discipline. If it is from God, it is good for us. We may not understand it in the moment, but we should be thankful for it.

Our story goes back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as did the psalmist’s, but our story continues today with God's mighty acts in our time.

He is working with billions now, but he still knows us by name and has called us to him for his purposes. We don’t see Red Sea crossings but we see many saved from the slavery of sin and death. We see healing. We see the body of Christ helping the least of these brothers and sisters.

So many of God’s blessings are administered through the body of Christ in our time, including our own blessings.

We are blessed beyond our problems of the day, week, year, or decade.

We are blessed, and we should be thankful.

It’s not how big our problems are. It’s how big our God is, and that’s something for which we give thanks.

Give thanks.

Amen.