Double Minded Doubters

Read James 1

Stuff happens!  People don’t always use the word stuff; they say things happen.  They do and they are not always fun or enjoyable.  Sometimes what happens to us seems barely tolerable.

So just who is this nutcase who says consider it joy when you face all sorts of trials. 

The microwave died.  The convenience store was out of coffee.  Who runs out of coffee?  Isn’t there some sort of law?  I need gas but two of the pumps don’t work.  I’m running 15 minutes behind to get to work and now I’ve got to go to the bathroom.  I don’t know if I can make it.

But through all of this, I’m singing:  Rejoice in the Lord Always.  Again, I say rejoice.

Are you kidding me?   What was James smoking?  It sure wasn’t medicinal.

James begins his letter, after the salutation to what he called the diaspora, with this challenge.  Oh, by the way, this is just the first of many challenges.

Consider it joy, is that what James said?  No.  He said consider it pure joy when you have to face all sorts of trials.  Pure joy?  Not some joy and some cynicism, but pure joy—is that what he said?

Right away James tells us to do something that goes against our nature.  Some of us get angry when things go awry.  Some are stoic, thinking they can ride everything out on their own.  Some become cynical and even depressed.

So, what James is telling us to do goes against our very nature—at least against our basic human nature.  This brings us to living and existing.

If we are just existing, then things that go wrong or don’t fit into our plan for the day, or are just annoying or are messing with our status quo:  They ruffle our comfort zone.  We don’t like them.

But if we are living with purpose—to please God and live fully for him—it a different story.

Who in their right mind would go through their day looking around and thinking, That looks heavy,  I think I’ll pick it up?

But the person intent on getting stronger goes into a weight room and starts lifting and pressing and curling heavy things.  That person knows that to get stronger, he needs to work at overcoming resistance. 

James tells us that the testing of our faith produces perseverance and that produces maturity. 

Think to what the Apostle Paul said in the fifth chapter of Romans.

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

So as provocative as James sounds, he is not the Lone Ranger. Think to the proverbs.

A friend loves at all times,

    and a brother is born for a time of adversity.

Not only am I going to be joyful in my trials, I am going to bring this attitude to my friends and family plan.  I am going to help you remain joyful in your trials.  It’s not that I am running short of my own trials.  It’s that I am my brother’s keeper, at least as far as dealing with adversity goes.

Adversity is part of life.  Some run and hide and some move to the sound of the gunfire.  Some will be your friends in times of adversity.  You may be someone’s friend and an example to many as to how you handle adversity.

Will you consider it part of your lifelong training to become more like your Lord and Savior or will it just mess up your day?

OK, Ok, Ok… I will give it my best shot, but I don’t expect much.  I understand some Bible.  God’s ways and his thoughts are not the same as mine.  His ways are higher and I’m just poor, poor pitiful me.  What can he expect me to do?

Ask for help.  That’s right, ask for help.  In this case, ask for God’s wisdom.  It’s not found on the shelf in the local market, but it is available to you just for the asking.

God will not judge you when you ask.  He’s not going to say you don’t deserve it even when you don’t.  He wants you to have and use his wisdom.  He wants to give it to you and give it generously.

So, I just ask and I will receive?

Your part is to ask and not doubt that God is good to his word.  It’s not, OK God, I’ll ask.  It’s not going to help but I will jump through your hoops because you said so.  I guess it’s better than spitting in the wind.

That person should expect nothing.  James uses the example of a wave tossed about the sea.  This is not the wave approaching the shore that you enjoy when you are lounging on the beach.  Those waves you can pick up in the distance and track them to the shore.

At sea, one wave quickly disappears into another or is absorbed in a swell.  It has no existence.  It is swallowed up in its surroundings.

When you ask and doubt, you are content in your surroundings.  You say that you are not but by not trusting in God for answers, you are trusting in the very situation that you say that you can’t stand.  You act like a victim.  You are saying: There’s really nothing that you can do for me God.

If that’s your attitude, then you should expect nothing.

This is also called double-mindedness.  Being of two minds is what the medical world would diagnose as a form of schizophrenia.  We understand that we don’t want to be schizophrenic, but we routinely ask God for something and are sure he’s not going to do it.

So, how do we ask and believe without doubting?  Train your heart and your mind to ask God for the things that he wants to give you.   Seek first God and his kingdom and his righteousness and then expect God to deliver.

God loves to give us good gifts.

James next gives his version of storing up treasure in heaven.  If you don’t have much in this world, it’s easier to put your hope in the next life.  If you have a whole bunch in this life, you might find that you are not thinking about your eternal life.

There is nothing wrong with money.  There is nothing wrong with riches.  The question is: Does your money and wealth work for you or do you serve your money?  Who serves whom?

No matter how good you have it here, one day this will all be gone.

So as we look at what we have—money, stuff, and other forms of wealth—is it treasure or is it fuel.  Is it potential energy or kinetic energy?  Do we bury it in the ground or put it to work?

If you don’t have a lot, be thankful.  If you do, be purposeful with what you have or what you have is all you will ever have.  Both can be a blessing.  It’s easier to negotiate this world owning fewer things—maybe having fewer things that own you.

Let’s go back to trials again.  Are trials and temptations the same thing?  Being tempted can be a trial, but the temptation to do evil is not from God.  Being asked to sacrifice your own son—a son that God promised would produce many heirs—is a trial.  God tested Abraham.

Being tempted to shoot up a school, sell drugs, spit in the grits, or live a lackluster life does not come from God.  God doesn’t do evil and he doesn’t do lukewarm.  Most of our temptation comes from our sinful human nature.  This is a nature that we were to have left behind when we received Jesus as Lord and Savior.

The old creation-new creation is mostly Paul’s discourse, but James reminds us of how sin has not given up on us.  Sin may not be able to overcome the gift of God which is eternal life, but it can sure kill our abundant life. 

But for the person who perseveres, there is more than just eternal life, there is the crown of life.  There is victory in seeking God first, seeking his kingdom first, and in trusting him and living his way.

We are the first fruits of God’s creation.  That’s cool beans.  That’s amen and hallelujah stuff.  So:

Let’s face our trials with joy.

Let’s ask God and expect the good things he has in store for us.

Know that what we have or do not have can be a blessing.  Does it help us focus on eternity or is it given to us to put to work at once?

Know that nothing evil comes to us from God.

Know that God made us to be a sort of firstfruits of his creation.  That’s some cool stuff.

Amen and Hallelujah!

Parable of the Talents and our Spiritual Gifts

Read Matthew 25:14-30

You have heard this parable many times from me.  I hope you have studied it on your own as well.  Many times I have used this parable in conjunction with stewardship, asking the question, What did you do with what God gave you?

It’s a good question.  We should examine ourselves with this question on a recurring basis.

Often when I preached or taught this parable, I would divide our stewardship up into three areas:  time, talent, and treasure.  It is a good dissection of some basic areas.

After a time, I included time, talent, treasure, and added the gospel.  Now there’s a trust that we have been given.  What did we do with what God gave us, in this case, the gospel?

Have we buried it in the ground?  Have we invested it in others?  What did we do with this precious gift from God that we call the good news?

That’s about as far as we can dissect this parable, right?  What about, what did we do with the gifts that God gave us?  What about our Spiritual gifts?  Did we put them to work at once?  Did we bury them in the ground?

Time and treasure are easy to quantify.  We understand count and measure.  We get that.

Talents are a little different but we find them when we look for them and then, we either put them to work for our Master or we don’t.

Spiritual Gifts are similar to our talents, but the return on investment is multiplied.  We produce a return not only for our Master but for the Body of Christ. 

I am challenging you that to not put your Spiritual Gift or Gifts to work is the same as burying them in the ground.  Think to the words of the master in the parable as he addresses this third servant—the one who buried his talent in the ground.

His master replied, You wicked, lazy servant!

The servant had his reasons.  He was afraid.  The master was a hard man.  The master expected returns even where he had not invested. 

And the master’s reply was you should have at least done the minimum.  You could have gone to the bank, opened up a savings account or even a CD, and I would have received some interest upon my return.

You should have at least put your gift to work every few weeks, at least you would have something to show for it.  It wouldn’t be the same as the first two servants, but it would be something.

Let’s go to the beginning of the parable.  The master trusted each of the servants in accordance with their ability.  The master did not give any of them more than they could handle.  Each servant could have produced a return.

Do you think that God has given you more gift than you can handle?  The God who knew you before you were formed in the womb knew exactly what you could handle.

So why would we not use our gifts?  The answer is also in the parable.  Most of the time, fear is the culprit.  Fear is always there.  The first two servants were not pulled off course by it.  The third servant was stopped dead in his tracks.

But what is there to fear from a Spiritual Gift?

What if I fail?  What if I guessed wrongly and evangelism or leadership or service is not my gift?

Then you scratch those off your list and move on to something else.  Do you think the first two servants didn’t have setbacks?  You can’t double your money without a little risk and nobody bats a hundred for the whole season.

If you fail, then learn and move on.

Perhaps the bigger fear is the fear of success.  What if this is my gift?  What if God has gifted me to be a missionary or to preach?  I can’t stay in my comfort zone if I find out that I have the gift of evangelism.  I’m going to have to talk to people.

Before God gifted you with whatever it is that you have as a gift, he already accounted for your fears, your nature, and the obstacles that you would face.  He made your gift bigger than your obstacles.

Once we get to the book of James, you will find that those obstacles may be exactly what you need not only to grow your faith but to cause your gifts to blossom.

By all of the standard tests of the world, I am an introvert.  That means, I could spend the next two or three years by myself writing books or articles and emailing them to someone for publishing and never have to talk with anyone.

But here I am week after week and you are wondering when will he shut up?

God already factored in my nature and the obstacles that I would face in my life.  He has not short-changed you.

Put your Spiritual Gifts to work.  Produce exceptional fruit for the Lord and for the Body of Christ.

There is a Well done good and faithful servant in store for you if you will just trust that God gave you the exact gifts that you need.

Put your gifts to work and expect that one day you will hear, Come and share your Master’s happiness.

Amen.

After a long time...

Read Matthew 25:14-30

How many of you remember getting 13 Record Albums for one cent as long as you agreed to buy 8 more at regular price over the next year?  It took forever for those albums to arrive.

Maybe it was cassettes or CDs for you.  Our youngest folks don’t have a clue.  Why would you order something and have to wait?  Why didn’t you just download it?

Anyone ever mail in their S&H Green Stamps?  Now that was some stuff right there.  You waited until you had enough stamps to fill 6 or 8 or however many books, put them in the mail, and some time—a long time—later you got that all-in-one blender-salad spinner-flashlight combination item.  It seemed like it took forever.

Sometimes on military deployments, you would see lines of Marines and Sailors lined up to use a phone.  Again, I have lost some young folks, who never used a payphone.  Some have only seen pictures of them online.

Most of the time you didn’t have to wait unless you were in a group of 5000 servicemen and there were 3 phones.  Then you waited a long time.

We have talked before about the farmer having patience.  You don’t plant on Monday and harvest on Friday.  Things take time, sometimes a long time.

I’ve been aboard a naval ship for 6 months that turned into 7 months, then got home and let on the same ship for another month.  I have been assigned overseas twice for a year at time.  I had one unit deployment for 6 months.  That’s like being on ship except they fly you to where you to other side of the world.

I know what it’s like to be away for a long time, but I really don’t.  Think about World War I and World War II and the young men and women, mostly men, but women served too, who were gone until the war was over or they came home under a flag.

People from that time knew what a long time was.  The people they left behind had to continue with their lives while they were gone.  They knew it would be a long time.  Any return before the end of the war usually came with bad news.

In the parable of the talents, what does it mean that after a long time the master returned?  Was that like waiting on you 13 record albums or like a soldier to come home from WWI?  The words just say, after a long time.

I don’t know what the interest rates were back then, but these days to double your money—which is what the first two servants did—it would take 10 years if the interest rate was just over 7 percent.  It’s been a while since we have seen interest rates like that.  Again, the young folks have never seen interest rates like that.

If you can get 3 percent today, you hit paydirt. 

But we believe that the first two servants didn’t put their master’s money in the bank.  They put it to work in some other way.  They produced a fantastic return.

I would think that they didn’t go to the track or the casino either.  Their master gave to them in accordance with their ability—something they already had and had already demonstrated.  But even if they bought and sold commodities, or invested in some up and coming business, or were just good traders; you don’t double your money—or in this case your master’s money—overnight.

As we consider this parable, consider that the master was probably gone for a year or two at the least, perhaps for much longer.  He might have been away for a decade.

I like to look at different perspectives on this parable, and today we are looking at the fact that the master was gone for a long time.  But I don’t want to leave out some of the basics that we should consider every time we come across this parable.

I will truncate what you have heard before in longer messages and use the Acronym that I developed a dozen years ago:  TURN.

T is for trusted These were trusted servants—all 3 of them.  The master knew what they were capable of and trusted them accordingly.

U is for urgency.  All 3 servants acted with urgency.  The first 2 put their master’s money to work at once—immediately.  The third servant surely wasted no time in digging a hole and burying this trust given to him in the ground.

R is for return on investment.  Each servant knew that the master expected a return.  The first and second servants put their master’s money to work right away to produce a return.

N is for No Fear.  All three surely experience fear.  We are talking thousands of dollars, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars, that were entrusted to them.  If that doesn’t give you a knot in your throat for at least a moment, you are not alive.

But only the third servant was debilitated by fear.  He was the only one who made fear-based decisions.  The other two surely recognized fear for what it was and desired to please their master much more than they feared him.

While they surely experienced fear as all people do, fear did not govern them.

Let’s apply this to our lives in this modern century.  Let’s use the question, that I often proffer.

What did we do with what our Master gave us?  What did we do with what God gave us?

I hope that we realize that every good gift is from God and that it is entrusted to us to be put to work.

I hope that we put what we have been given to work without delay.

I hope that we take what we have and do our best to produce our best return for our Master—who is Jesus.

I hope that fear gets kicked to the curb as we make our decisions and navigate what we are doing for our Master.

TURN:  Trusted, Urgent, Return on Investment, and No Fear.

Many times I have asked you to divide the question, not as you do in parliamentary procedure, but in how you answer the question:  What did you do with what God gave you?

I asked you to look at three areas:  Time, talent, and treasure.

Do we use our time to produce a return for our Master?  Have we learned to number our days?  A tithe of our time would be 10%.  That would be about 17 hours a week.  That doesn’t seem like much if you want to please the Lord.

Somehow, it often becomes a challenge.  Giving almost three-fourths of one day to the Lord seems like a bunch to give up but it’s hardly enough time to binge-watch something on Netflix.

I also asked you to consider what did you do with the talents that God gave you.  These are the abilities that you have.  Do you use them for the Lord or just to get good grades in school or make money or pass the time?

Then comes treasure.  Yes, this is your money and stuff.  It comes from God.  Yes, I know that you put in a 40- or 60-hour week and your paycheck reflects that, but it comes from God.  There are countries in this world where people work 40, 60, or 80 hours and get very little for themselves for their effort. 

Some places are just poverty-stricken.  Some must surrender most of what they have to the sovereign of that nation in whatever form that takes.  Work does not always translate into wealth elsewhere in the world.

All good gifts are from God and we are blessed to live in a place where the least among us has more than three-fourths of the world’s population.  But what do we do with it?

We are called to tithe.  Tithe means 10% and to give it to the Lord—which in this age is to your local church body—and to give it without restriction or stipulation.  It’s just 10% without any strings attached.  Your salvation does not hang in the balance but it’s important to understand its two-fold premise:  God’s blessings to the tither continue and are more than we might think and the totje funds the church to accomplish its mission.

I have often said that if every believer tithed, we would have no need for any government programs for the disadvantaged in this country.  I don’t know who gives what around here with the exception of when people come directly to me with some money for something other than the title, but I know we have a lot of tithers.

One of the things that we have shared over the years at ministerial alliance meetings is that we have never helped a tither with a bill or financial need.  It’s not that we have a policy against it.  It’s just that we have never encountered such a need from a person who faithfully tithes.

Most are called to give beyond the tithe to produce an even greater return.  There are children’s homes, and family care centers, youth centers, and pregnancy centers, and so many more ways that we can use our treasure to produce a return for our Master.

So, in addition to the acronym TURN, we also look at what we did with what God gave us in terms of time, talent, and treasure.

What else could there be?  Over the past few years, I have asked you to add the gospel to the list of things that we consider when we answer the question:  What did I do with what God gave me?

What did we do with the good news—the best news ever for this broken world?  What did we do?

Did we share it at once?  Did we bury it in the ground?  What did we do with the gospel?

You don’t have to have a lot of money to share the gospel.  You don’t need top-notch knowledge, skills, and abilities to share the gospel.  You don’t need extra time in your day or your week to share the gospel.  You can share it wherever you are at whatever time you happen to be there.

I don’t suggest that you go knocking on doors at 2 am.  If you do, make sure you understand that to live is Christ and to die is gain.  You might get shot or you might find some gamer or binge-watching person without purpose who needs the gospel at that very moment.

But in most cases , we have more than enough opportunities in the course of our day to share the good news.

What did you do with the gospel that God entrusted to you?  What did you do with your commission?

That about covers all perspectives on the parable of the talents, well, except for, perhaps the Gifts of the Spirit.  In addition to the time, treasure, talents, and the gospel which has been entrusted to us, we who have received Christ have the Holy Spirit within us and at least one Gift of the Spirit.

If you were in the First Light service, you were challenged with this question:  What did you do with the Gifts of the Spirit that God gave you?

These are more than talents and abilities.  These are gifts that produce abundantly because they are manifested not in our human nature but in God’s holy nature.  We spent—invested is a better term—a year talking about the Gifts of the Spirit in our First Light service.

The question now, as it has always been, is: What will we do with what God gave us?

Now let’s get back to the fact that the master was gone for a long time.  When he returned he settled accounts.  We know how that came out—two well done good and faithful servants and one you wicked lazy servant. 

We know that part and know which we want to hear when we give account.  That’s a no-brainer.

But what about life when the master is away.  We know that our Master will come like a thief in the night.  The world will be caught off guard.  We will likely know the season—though we may not know how long that season will last—but we won’t know the day nor the hour.

We know that he is coming back and we will give an account.  So what do we do now?  What do we do while our Master is away?

Here is the answer for the 9-weeks test.  We take what we have and do what he told us.

Think to Exodus 35.  God has commanded Moses to build a place of worship—we will go with the word tabernacle for now.  It’s not the temple that one day Solomon would build, but this is no simple lean-to in the desert.

The people will work 6 days and rest 1.  There will be no exceptions and no overtime.

The people will bring from what they have—gold, silver, bronze, yarn, fine linen, olive oil, incense, and fine stones.  The people will bring what they are willing to bring—read that as the Lord loves a cheerful giver.

They also brought their knowledge, skills, and abilities.  That’s a human resources term (KSA) but it fits.  Putting these to work took time.

So, we see people willingly bringing and offering their time, talents, and treasure to do what the Lord has commanded.

Now turn a few pages to your left in your Bible.  Stop when you get to the fourth chapter of Exodus.  God is sending Moses back to Egypt to bring his people out and Moses thinks that God picked the wrong man for the job.  Moses started making excuses.

He is not equipped for what God is telling him to do.  What does God ask Moses?

What is that in your hand?

Realize that it’s not that God didn’t have a good view from the burning bush, he was working with where Moses was in his life—struggling with his inadequacy.

Moses replies:  It is a staff.

In the mind of Moses, he is probably thinking, what else would it be?  I’ve been out here in the wilderness caring for sheep for decades, of course I am going to have a staff in my hand.  That’s standard equipment.  What in the world does this have to do with what God is asking me to do?

God told him to throw it on the ground.  He did.  It turned into a snake.  Moses ran.  He ran!  I’m thinking Moses was wondering why God would pull such a dirty trick on him.

God told him to come back and pick it up—ok, grab it by the tail.  He did and it returned to being his staff.

There’s more, but for now, just realize that God worked with what Moses had.  God took what Moses had and made it work for his purpose.

So, what about the master being gone a long time.  It seems that our Master has been away for some time.  We do have his good deposit of the Holy Spirit but the Master himself is at the right hand of the Father.  He will come again.  We will give an account.

But what do we do until then?  What do we do during this long time that our Master is away?

I once trained Marine reservists.  During the month, they worked slinging burgers or making tires or were salesmen or lawyers.  Once a month they would come for reserve training.  This was an infantry unit so I took them to the field—rain, snow, or summer heat. 

I was not heartless.  Demanding training is how you love your Marines.  I often asked some of the younger Marines how they were doing, especially if I had operations running through the night.  Most would tell me that they could do anything for a weekend.

Before the end of my tour there, a young lady named April Glaspie inadvertently invited Saddam Hussein to invade Kuwait.  The reserves were mobilized.  I went with them to camp Lejeune for two weeks then sent them to the sandbox.  I went back to my headquarters and awaited my orders.  Active duty officers would not accompany their reserve units.  The reserve officers were afraid that we would just take over.

So a couple weeks later, I am back at Camp Lejeune going through the same refresher training that I had just taken my reservist through.  Most of the officers there had been on active duty like me and were just looking to see where they were sent, but the enlisted Marines were a different story.

They had done their time and now had a couple years left before their obligation ran out.  They didn’t have to do anything other than be subject to recall.  They got called up and many couldn’t believe it.  They were in shock.

On one hand I had reservists that could do anything for a weekend.  On the other hand, there were these young Marines who thought they would never see a Marine Corps base again.  Going back in for an indefinite amount of time weighed heavily upon them.  Some cried.

A short time, a long time, or an indefinite period of time all mean something different to us, but in the perspective of the eternity that awaits us, all of our time here is but an instant.

But what will we do with what God gave us while we await his return?  I talked last week about being on fire for the Lord without burning out.  What do we do?

Take what you have.  Give it freely to God be that time, talent, or treasure, and do the things which he has commanded.

Take what God has given you—the gospel—and deliver it with urgency.

Take what God has given you—Spiritual Gifts—and produce good fruit for the Kingdom of God and the Body of Christ.

Put what you have to work for the Lord and expect God to work miracles in the things that you might regard as common or ordinary.  Do it willingly.  Do it joyfully.  Do it expecting God to take what you have and make it enough for what he told you to do.

 In everything that you do, do it as if it were for the Lord.  It is the Lord, Christ whom we serve.

What do we do while our Master is away for a long time?  Let’s do our own accounting.  Let’s ask ourselves now and answer honestly for nothing is hidden before God.  What are we doing with what God gave us?

Time?

Talents?

Treasure?

The Gospel?

The Gifts of the Spirit bestowed upon us?

My prayer is that we will live  so purposefully for God with all that we have been given, that we all be as eager as the first two servants to give our account to the Lord.

Our Master has been gone a long time but he will come again.  Will our account be a source of great joy or great regret?

I pray that you all hear, Well done good and faithful servant.

Amen.

Do the things that you did at first

Read Revelation 2:1-7

Last week we examined Paul’s words to the elders in Ephesus.  He told them that he had given all that he was and could be to them while he was with them.  Now it was their turn to lead and shepherd and defend the gospel against all attacks.

We consider the church in Ephesus and get a snapshot of this body’s life at some point after Paul’s counsel.   We will leave the angel of the church and the seven churches of this letter for another day and proceed directly to Christ’s counsel.

So let’s get to it.  What about Ephesus?  They had good deeds, they worked hard, and they persevered.  It sounds like they were running a good race.

On top of that, they did not tolerate wickedness.  They defended the gospel against those claiming to come with authority but who twisted the words of the Christ.  There were even some really bad actors out there called the Nicolaitans and the church sized them up as enemies of the Lord and stood against them.

It’s not that they hated these people but they hated what they did.  Jesus said, “Me too.”

As you read this first part, it sounds like the beginning of the citation for a meritorious service medal and then we come to what we translate as the word yet. Yet, I hold this against you.

That sure messes up the award ceremony.  Yet, I hold this against you.  Hold what against them?

You have forsaken your first love.

Think of the days and weeks and months after you were saved.  Some would say that you were on fire for the Lord.  Everything somehow was about sharing the love of God that you knew in Christ Jesus.  You were singing and living, All to Jesus I surrender.  All to him I freely give.

You were in love with the Lord.  The story varies some with each person, but there was something very special in the beginning.  It’s something that is hard to sustain and easy to lose or let atrophy.

It’s something that can move from passion to intellect almost unnoticed.  A church body can go from passion to programs and think they are doing just fine.  Programs are great until they leave the passion for loving God and each other behind.

It seems like a church can be doing everything the right way without doing the right things.  A church without love for God and love for each other at its core is hollow, but not hopeless, for there is counsel.

Repent and do the things you did at first.

We have been talking about repentance for a few weeks.  Most of the time we think of repenting and turning away and leaving behind the evil ways of the world. That’s exactly what we should do.  I think most here have done that and are on their journey of discipleship striving to please the Lord.

We want to please the Lord.  We want to love the Lord.  He first loved us!  He sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  We live in the mercy and grace and favor of the Lord and we want to passionately respond in love.

 But do we sometimes just get into a, drift into, find ourselves in more form than function?  Are we saying the right things and doing good things but leaving out the passion we had at first?  How would we know?

Is Sunday worship where you are supposed to be or where your heart tells you that you have to be?

Do we rejoice with everyone who comes through our doors?

Do we see the face of God in everyone we meet, even the ones ranting against him?

Do we long for people to know the peace that we know?

Do we have a contingency plan if this Jesus stuff doesn’t work out or all we all in?

When we say The Lord’s Prayer together, is it rote recitation or does knowing the words help us communicate?  Does knowing the words help us commune with the Lord?

Do we ever just go through the motions in worship, or on Wednesday night, or in life?

Do we try to put God’s word into formulas?

Do we try to fit God into a box?

Do we want everything to fit into our own understanding?

Have we forsaken our first love and exchanged it for some equation about life?

Do we take life for granted or have we learned to number our days?

What if, we find ourselves drifting away from the passion that we once had?  We are told there is a cure.  Repent and do the things that you did at first.  These are not new things to learn but resumption of the passion you had in the beginning.

We have a consciousness about us that warns us about sin.  We try to stay away from those things that are not pleasing to God.  But what about the less than obvious stuff.  What about one day becoming like another?

What about just wanting to get through the song instead of making it an offering to God?  Is there a dichotomy between what your lips are singing and a joyful sound?

What about, “Oh man, another Wednesday night?”

What about, “Gotta have that dollar for Martha or a for a goat and two chickens?”

What about, “Gotta make my tithe?”

What about, “Gotta read my Sunday school lesson?”

How many times do we just go on to the next thing?

There is something special about life.  There is something special about love.  There is something special about God’s love for us and how we respond to it.

If we have lost what is special, then get it back!  Repent and do the things you did at first.

Is there a reward in the age to come?  Of course, there is.  Your will enjoy paradise!  That’s cool beans.  We know that part.

But what about now?

I will tell you from experience that life lived with purpose and passion far exceeds one lived just to make it to the next day.  We are designed for so much more than existence.

God knew us before he formed us in the womb.  We are fearfully and wonderfully made and we know what to do.  Do the things we did at first.  Do the things we did when we first came to Jesus.

I like to prepare for worship.  I send out the worship bulletin at the beginning of the week so others can prepare as well.  Being prepared for worship does not deprive us of spontaneity, it facilitates it.  Preparation facilitates passion.

I like to look for blind spots.  I can’t always see my own blind spots but God has put us together as a body so we can help each other, not to condemn our shortcoming but to help us navigate out of them.

I love an editor.  They will challenge you.  I remember about 25 years ago; I sent an article to the U. S. Naval Proceedings.  It is the premier professional journal for the Navy and Marine Corps.  This was the best article that I had ever written.

The editor called back and said we like it.  Cut 250 words.

What?  There was not a wasted word in the whole thing, or so I thought.  I took the challenge and discovered how much better it could be after cutting out those words.  Realize that you don’t just pull out words here and there.  You rewrite and rewrite and review and rewrite.

That would suck the life out of you unless you had a passion to write.  The second and third and twenty-third rewrite had as much passion as the first.

I love a real editor who knows his stuff.  They renew the passion that led you to write in the first place.

Jesus gives us life and life abundant and life eternal.  If we need to rewrite something in our lives, we do it with the same passion that we wrote the first draft of our response to his grace.

The result is that we are on fire without burning out.  The passion for our Lord and for each other continues.  There is no form over function in our programs.  Their function is to share the love of God.

Some of you may not relate to my writing illustration.  I get that.  There are few of us with that passion, but most of you can relate to some form of athletic competition.  You played football or basketball.  You ran track or played baseball or softball.

In the beginning, you had an eagerness to learn and do better, but at some point, you felt comfortable about your skills.  You went from game to game with confidence but without improvement.  Thank the Lord for that person who is losing both their hair and their voice known as the coach.

Praise the Lord for the person who sees what we need to work on and challenges us work on it with renewed passion.

I know that you have all seen terrible coaches that can only scream at you when you make a mistake.  Move those images out of you mind and replace them with one who sharpens your skills, who challenges you to do the best that you can with your skill set.

You don’t always have to learn something new.  You just need to apply the same passion you did at first to those basics that come into play game after game.

Sometimes we have bad habits.  What do we do?  Repent and do the things you did at first.  Sometimes it takes a coach to see those habits.  Drop the bad habit and get back to basics with the passion you had when you started.

How many of you have ever played on a team that the day before you called and cancelled the game because your opponent was too tough?  Who does that?

Nobody does that.  Some teams probably should do that if all they can do is worry about how badly they are going to lose.  Many, and I would venture to say most, take to heart what their coaches say and put passion into improvement.

It’s not that you have a bad team or a bunch of bad skills; it’s that you need some passion on some of the basics—passion like you had at first.

We have been saved from sin and death.  We will spend eternity with our Lord. This life that we live now is our discipleship or the fullness of our salvation.  We need counsel more than we need condemnation.  We need coaching more than we need counsel. 

So when we hear, you have lost your first love, we don’t hang our heads and mope around.  We get ready for the correction.  In this case, it’s drop the bad habit do the things that you did at first. 

We are teachable.  We are coachable.  We hunger for being able to live every day with passion without burning out.

Let’s love one another with the same passion that kids go camp with.

Let’s spread the gospel with the same passion that we share when school is closed for weather.

Let’s hunger for God’s word with the same passion that we have for a steak dinner.

Let’s learn to live each day with the same passion for the Lord that we did at first.

Let’s turn away from things that we are only doing in form and return to the things we do with passion.

Repent and do the things we did at first!

Love like we first loved!

Amen.