a good quote

I know I exist not because I think but because I am loved and I love.

College Group Questions for 5-28-08

Chapter 3/4 – some review and extra questions

What is the sign of salvation (or at least faith) – Holy Spirit à Who gives the sign? Compare to circumsicion and the law à what does this mean for us today?

What is Paul also arguing in Ch 4 in terms of his relation with the Galatians? (fellowship)

OVERVIEW Questions on the LAW

How would you characterize Paul’s view of the law (both positive and negative!)

Ch 4

How would you characterize Paul’s tone in the opening verse? What is he effectively saying?

Why does Paul use the Abraham argument? What does this say about culture and evangelism?

What does it say about the opposing argument?

What would a more traditional argument about this passage say, especially in terms of the Gentiles? How does Paul combat this, especially in relation to the Galatians and their place now? What does this say for us?

Make a chart diagramming Paul’s argument in comparing things, what can you see from it?

Who represents what in a traditional argument? Who represents what in Paul’s argument?

What are possible interpretations of New Jerusalem vs Present one and others? (What might it also stand for? Think of Paul’s confrontation with Peter)

What other things does this argument signify? Think in terms of God and his promise and then our response to that?

What is the significance of Isaiah 54 (v27)? What is the normal (and indeed proper) reading? How does that tie in what Paul is saying (how does it fit now with his argument? What links them (God’s Fulfillment)? What does that say about scripture itself?

So how does Paul end his argument? What does Paul say about scripture? What is he saying especially in light of “slavery” and the “law”? What does freedom in Christ mean?

How do we normally read the OT? How does Paul, who quotes a lot of OT, read the OT? (through the lens of the gospel) Should we ONLY or ALWAYS read it this way?

Paul could have rejected the OT altogether or at least just the law… but why doesn’t he (think in terms of who the Galatians – and we! – are)?

What does this say about normalization of Christian practice?

What could be dangerous about this passage?

Conversation post for the Jr Highers

This Topic thread for use for Jr High guys conversation on the book of Luke

Some thoughts on recent CA policy changes

OK, first off, I know this can get me into some deep water here with Christians, non-Christians, hetero sexuals, and homosexuals alike.  But hey!  What are blogs for?  Besides, no one really reads it haha.

Anyways, some friends’ mom, whom I have known for a long time, asked me maybe a month ago if I would sign a petition to have California’s laws changed to define marriage as between a man and woman.  Only.  Many Christians can probably jump right on and sign it.  But I couldn’t.

Now don’t get me wrong, I do believe that homosexual practice is a sin.  (Sorry if this offends you, but I believe that’s Biblical.  I’ll address the my key stances at the end).  That being said, I find myself at a difficult crossroads when it comes to the law.  I believe there is more at play than just a law.  First, I must ask… Is a law banning homosexual marriage going to stop people from being homosexual?  No.  Absolutely not.  In fact, I don’t think a single homosexual person in CA would become straight based on this.  An abortion law may stop some abortions, but a law against homosexual marriage would not do a thing to stop the actual problem.  But on the other side, you have to ask the question of societal order.  By allowing gay marriage (I will use the term now as its less to type), do you then open the door to other things?  Such as plural marriage?  3-way (or more) marriage?  Beastiality marriage?  Hopefully it would never get quite that far, but the answer is well, yes, the door is open.  Whether we cross that line (its already been attempted in Europe) is another question.

Beyond looking at a moral problem though, one must view this as a rights issue as well.  Indeed, a justice problem.  Is it an injustice to deny homosexuals the right to marriage?  perhaps it is!  In a secular society (and I don’t care how much you argue that the US was founded on Christian values…  I’m sure we all rebelled against our parents…) that is pluralistic and has a separation of church and state, does the church have the right to impose its values on a group that does not claim the same beliefs?  Personally, no, I don’t think it does.  Do I believe that the church has the right way?  Undoubtedly!  But again, if we believe in the separation of church and state (which I do, but other Christians may not, or at least secretly don’t), we must consider the fact that this is a religious value placed upon secular society.  Now I suppose if a majority of people voted (secular and religious alike) and it was banned, well, that’s the way it goes.  But the latest poll showed that 51% of CA opposed a ban on gay marriage.

But this leads to even more questions.  What is the proper church response?  Is cutting off a right of marriage the most loving way to go?  Well, obviously no.  but then again we can’t be fully permissive…  We are trying to protect what we believe to be the social order and the way God planned it.  And I fully support this idea.  Would it ruin the idea of family?  I think in some ways it would.  I do not personally want my future kids growing up believing that having two fathers or mothers is a correct form of the family.  But on the other hand, respecting freedom, I would want him/her to understand that such cases are existent and that they deserve the same respect and Christian love.  (what that looks like, I’m not sure… probably because we haven’t yet seen it practiced!)  But also, heterosexual couples, including Christians, ruin the fabric of family with adultery, divorce, violence, etc.  We are probably just if not guiltier of ruining “family values” (ugh, I hate that term… so gushy feely middle class suburbia)

Going back to the justice question, should a Christian champion the rights of homosexuals regardless of how they feel about homosexual practice?  I’m not sure.  After all, if we believe that God sanctions marriages as a holy covenant (marriage is a beautiful thing!), does not he then choose who that blessing goes to?  Just because 2 people slap rings on each other and get a certificate with a pastor/priest/official/etc. doesn’t mean God gives it the same credence as he does a Christian heterosexual marriage.  Our rules and laws, no matter what they are on Earth may or may not match up with what God recognizes.  But again, that leaves in question how we define it for our society…

Let me propose another question… before the homosexual question became the huge political monster that it is, could the church have prevented the explosion?  Or did it perhaps catalyze it?  Most to all identities (any) come in dialogs with each other (Taylor).  No identity can really create itself.  Identities are formed in contrast and in dialogue with others.  So did the homosexual identity partially get created because they were not allowed a space of their own in society?  As with many counter-culture groups, they were denied a certain amount of social, economic, societal space.  Certainly, the church is guilty of that.  Again, I think it is a wrong lifestyle, but nonetheless, all people, sinners like you and me, are in some fashion the image of God.  Therefore, they deserve respect and love.  (what that looks like, I’m still not sure).

A quote from K. Anthony Appiah, an African American homosexual professor at Harvard (why do I bother including his ethnicity? another question for another time…)- I will comment in brackets – “An American homosexual… takes the old script of self-hatred, the scrip of the closet, the sescript in which he is a faggot, and works, in community with others, to construct a series of positive gay life-scripts.  In these life-scripts, being homosexual, is recoded as being gay, and this requires, among other things, refusing to stay in the closet [gay pride if you will.  An assertion of identity.   One that may have been created as a fight against subjugation].  And if one is to be out of the closet in a society that deprives homosexuals of equal dignity and respect then one has to deal constantly with assaults on one’s dignity.  [And indeed, the church has been a primary perpetrator] In this context, the right to live as an “open homosexual” will not be enough. [Society has done this now] It will not even be enough to be treated with equal dignity despite being homosexual, for that will require a concession that being homosexual counts naturally or to some degree against one’s dignity. [To say that it is unnatural as a concession.  Because it has been viewed as a special class of sorts, a completely different, and ostracized group,  homosexuals may have taken it on as a primary identity, much as many people place race or gender, or perhaps their religion.  People become known by a few identities.  Example, I consider my primary identities to be a seminary student.  This has to do probably with Asian culture placing an emphasis on school and the fact that I try to make my faith the center.  In the homosexual case, it likely started with "different" or "faggot" - as the author points out - which are negative terms, creating a need to assert and find one's own place]  And so one will end up asking to be respected as a homosexual (italics author’s).

If the church had been more accepting and practiced more healing and loving Christ like grace, rather than fear and hate, I wonder if we would be facing the issue today?  I’m not saying we wouldn’t ever, but would it be different?  If anything, I would urge all Christians to consider all these questions when dealing with this issue.  I admire my professor and president of Fuller for his simple question to a lesbian:  “What is it like?”  We must come to understand the needs and feelings, indeed that are probably very hurt, of those that face oppression, regardless if it has a biblical base.  We must be willing to walk side by side.  I won’t say I’d take up the cause completely, but I do think that we have a lot of fixing to do.

So for those that just want to know where I stand on issues (like politics… here’s a brief list)

Is homosexual practice a sin: yes, just as heterosexual fornication and adultery is a sin.  As is lying, cheating, etc

Is being a homosexual (ie attraction to opposite sex, whether short or long term): no

Is homosexuality a choice:  probably in some cases, others it is not

Should practicing homosexuals be ordained ministers: no (but we need some stricter accountability for all pastors for all sins)

Can a homosexual be a Christian:  yes

Should there be a law against gay marriage:  in a perfectly Christian society, yes.  In a pluralistic society, probably not unless the majority of the population still didn’t want it (debatable…. very debatable)

Should Christians take up the cause of gay marriage as a justice issue?  Personally, I would not, but I wouldn’t campaign overtly against it either.  I know this sounds wishy washy, but my reasoning stems from all those questions above.

Should homosexual couples be allowed benefits if they live together:  yes

Is a monogomous relationship between the same sex better than a permiscuious one: yes, just as it is for heterosexual relationships

OK, so I wanted to get that all down.  Things will probably change here and there, but feel free to comment…

(updated entry)

Updated entry on “what I like about Calvinism”

A paper on justice

Below is a post with a paper on justice and evangelism for my Baptist polity class

Social Justice: A Question of Evangelism?
During the late 20th and early 21st century, Christianity saw a large surge in social justice. Recognizing the many injustices in the world, God’s people began a movement towards combating these problems and rescuing the afflicted. While assuredly this is a good thing for the world, questions have been raised by many Christians about the validity of doing social justice. It lies not in the question, however, of whether or not it is a good thing, but whether evangelism is a central component within it. That is, should evangelism and the salvation of souls be the primary motivating factor when doing social justice. What some might call a hyper-spiritualization of Christianity, it raises questions like “should Christians purposefully evangelize those being oppressed?”; “Should social justice be done without it, thereby placing the emphasis not on saving souls, but simply giving aid”; or “Should Christians ally themselves with secular humanitarian organizations”? These questions are wrought with theological convictions on all sides, each with some level of validity. Baptists, with many different theological tensions like associationalism vs local autonomy or community vs soul competency, may find their own churches facing this dilemma. Ultimately, these extremes, salvation as the focus of social justice or social justice for the sake of social justice, need not be in complete tension if one takes a moderate look. Indeed, social justice must be undertaken but evangelism does not need to be out of the question. This is based on the convictions of Kingdom oriented living and God’s call for just living but also that evangelism is of vital importance.
The hyper-spiritualization of the church in the recent past has been, I believe, the problem for the social justice movement. As the church lost its political power in the mid 20th century and adopted the “sinking ship” mentality (whereby the world was lost and we had to rescue as many people with our church lifeboats as possible), the emphasis began to shift towards a single goal: the salvation of souls. The material world was beyond redemption, and all that mattered was the soul. This in turn focused the church inwards, taking care of its own to make sure that spiritual piety was maintained so as not to lose people from its already dwindling power structure. As a result, the church became known for its “pie in the sky” attitude towards itself and people, never really engaging the world except through some line of coercive politics and the arrogant hope that the world would come to it for salvation
This was, I would claim, really a fear of the world itself. As such, the sufferings of the world became another piece of evidence that world was going to hell (to use a turn of phrase). Simply put, redemption of the world and freedom from oppression became a lower priority at best and irrelevant in the middle and only what secular liberals did at worst. The focus was put on spiritual evangelism and the salvation of souls. Of course, the evangelism component is a key issue that all churches must undertake. One cannot minimize the importance. After all, Jesus commands the church to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). There have been churches that have opted not to do evangelism based on a strict Calvinist view. Due to their belief in predestination, they were convicted that because God had already chosen those who would be saved, there was little use for evangelism as God would save those he intended anyway. But probably the great majority of churches today all understand the importance of evangelism, though some may go about it better than others.
Keeping this fact in mind, many churches may also have a strong social justice component. The activist minded Christian has seen a heavy awakening in the midst of the AIDS crises, various wars, famines, extreme poverty, and other social and physical epidemics. This has spurred many churches to adopt different causes. However, not all programs are based solely on social justice. Many are created with the implicit primary cause of evangelism. Focusing on the idea of winning souls to Jesus, these programs may have components like the inclusion of Bible studies, Christian schools, or specific evangelistic training for participating members. On the extreme side, there have been churches that only help those who are interested in faith.
While these are understandable in the grand scheme of a vision of eternity, it creates a number of issues. The first is that activist minded people are forced to carry ulterior motives with them in their service. Not only does this leave a bad aftertaste in the mouths of those who simply wish to serve the oppressed, it also paints the image of people only working for good to force their religion on people. Though this may or may not be the actual case, this can greatly hamper any humanitarian efforts and leave both the Christian and the oppressed cynical. Indeed, it can make the needy wonder if those who come to aid really care or are just doing so to proselytize. This also puts the sincerity of any church action in question in the eyes of the secular community, especially those with activist mindsets. Another problem created is that within the Christian community, choices within social justice become more limited. After all, if the point is to ultimately save souls, then limited church resources should be only used to support organizations and efforts with a salvation oriented evangelistic component. It would be poor stewardship to support humanitarian efforts done by non-believers as it would lack a Christian witness or water-down the vision of the church as a compassionate institution. Most churches will have only some of their finances and manpower devoted to social justice, so any allocation should, in this view, go to something that will have eternal ramifications. As one can see, the broad scope and range of possibilities for working for social justice is restricted, given a certain theology, though this would not be viewed as a negative thing for those of this mindset.
As a counter balance to this more conservative approach to social justice, one must also explore the Biblical mandate for social justice. Though certainly there are many passages (indeed some make the point that there are over 400 instances of economic oppression in the Bible compared to the single-digit mentions of the much more politicized and emphasized issue of homosexuality), I will emphasize a few areas that have particularly impacted my own life. The first would be the many prophetic books in the Old Testament, specifically Isaiah and Amos. Both mention the adverse practices of the Israelites/Jews that have to do with the great oppression they and others caused. As God’s people, they were to free the oppressed, take care of the poor and the widows, welcome the foreigner, etc. In some cases, however, they became part of the problem and God was not pleased with this. Along with turning away from idols and other gods, God called them to take up the mantle of justice, part of God’s nature, and live lives that reflected that. Admittedly, much of the teachings of the prophets were directed at Jewish rulers and their treatment of their own people. However, the principle of God against oppression remains and can be easily expanded to what we see in the New Testament.
God cares for life, and as such, from a social justice point of view, God views the crises of world hunger, AIDS, and malicious corporations and governments that exploit people in the same light as the problems the Israelites faced. We, as the church today, must as well take up this mantle and fight the various forms of oppression of the modern age. Another Biblical point of justice that has definitely impacted my thinking has been the model of Christ. Jesus’ earthly ministry embodied much more than spiritual salvation. Indeed, his practice of redemption leads to a restoration of community and freedom from oppression. Many of his healings simultaneously healed, freed, and restored. For example, in Mark 5 (and passages in the other gospels), Jesus heals a demoniac. This was obvious oppression, causing him physical, mental, and spiritual harm and Jesus’ healing created freedom. It also restored him back to his community as he had to be chained in a cave away from the town during his possession. Other instances of Jesus’ healing restored community or temple worship for the Jews as well such as the healings of lepers. Indeed, Jesus was also the embodiment of redemption as it was He who rescued all mankind from the oppression of sin.
Additionally, when one sees the eschatological implications in visions like Revelation or Isaiah 60, there is indication that there will be a restoration of people, races, and culture. In believing that Kingdom of God is growing towards full competition, I am convicted that we will see God’s work in social justice realized in the end times. As such, we as the church are called to participate in His redemption of the entire world (not just our souls) which then mandates a call for participation in just and redemptive lives. This will, of course, look different for every Christian and every church, but we are all called to respond. Indeed, the hyper-spiritualization of the church may have been the obstacle for the call to justice, but it also, through reactionary forces became the catalyst, as new visionaries in the church heeded the call to reclaim the proper action for the church and combat the image of self-righteousness and arrogance.
But ultimately these two vitally important components of Christian outreach need not be in contention. Social justice itself is a form of evangelism. God’s command to live actively just lives was embodied in the life of Christ. As such, I believe that social justice is a formative part of the gospel. Without going into too much detail here, part of God’s reign in the world (the Kingdom) is the redemption of the world. To fight the injustices of the world and restore people from the oppressions is a way of spreading the good news of the coming Kingdom, indeed showing it rather than just telling. This plays out on two levels. The first is with those who are rescued, released, or redeemed. Christians practicing social justice provide a visible and tangible witness to the Kingdom of God. Their lives, reflected importantly through action, are a testimony to the power of God. To show the influence that God has had manifested through action that actively, and indeed sometimes mightily, rescues the lost must be a compelling witness. Of course, Christians should never force their religion anyhow, so all action must be with “no strings attached”. That is, there should never be any forced (almost extorted) conversions for aid. Indeed, this sort of unconditional help is similar to Jesus’ rescue of us. However, we may live in the hope that the Holy Spirit will bring about an interest in Christianity as a religion that worships a God who is rescuing and redeeming. Though not forced, there can be voluntary education and conversation about the gospel which may indeed lead to the salvation of many souls.
The second level is with non-believing activists. Though I can see the question of resources as valid, I do not believe the church should rule out working with secular organizations for the following reasons. First, Christians who work within the structures of a secular organization have the power to create good working relationships with similarly-activist people. This in turn can possibly lead to spiritual conversations. There can be a transformation of organizations from the inside out. Second, Christians working with non-believers may serve to combat the notion that Christians are adversely separated from the rest of the world. Though we are to be separate, I do not believe that this means we can never work alongside those with different worldviews.
Thirdly, because God calls for social justice regardless, we need not limit ourselves to solely Christian organizations. The fact is that any social justice is still social justice and part of the gospel. Assuredly, no Christian should ever hide the fact the he or she is a person of faith and one must always be ready to see the opportunities to witness for both the spiritual and worldly aspects of the gospel. However, I do concede that anyone who insists on the focus being on salvation of the soul would find reason to debate this argument.
This leads me to conclude with a short discussion on being a Baptist and the issue of social justice. As Baptists, we believe in soul competency. As such, each has a right to his own interpretation of Scripture and all must make a choice to apply their reading as such. Therefore, if one must place salvation ahead of social justice, then that is fine for them. I do not feel I place any less emphasis on salvation, just that it is very contextual and real sensitivity must be practiced when evangelizing. Additionally, Baptists believe in local church autonomy. Therefore, like soul competency, it is up to their own conscience to decide where to put their resources. Support of organizations secular or Christian, where to work and what issues to tackle, and how to use finances are all left up to the individual church (within perhaps some associational or regional advising). Therefore, for Baptists, so long as all sides of the equation recognize the dangers, limits, and benefits to all sides, there can hopefully be a push within the church for justice. Indeed, we must be working for redemption, both of souls and the world. We must love others and to do so means sympathizing and having compassion on them. And very often, this includes a rescue from oppression. And certainly, the church must hope that every aspect of ministry from any action, program, or outreach to worship service, hospital visit, or potluck will lead to the salvation of souls. Therefore I believe we must be willing to explore our options and work within a world that is not a Christian domain, indeed often hostile to Christianity (much of course from the church’s own doing!). Also, we must see the gospel in the grand scheme of God’s narrative. We as the church are to embody the good news in all its aspects. As such, the church must undertake the cause, work with many, and embody the gospel in its holistic entirety.

what i do like about calvinism…

OK, so I’m not a Calvinist as you can probably tell by my last post, but there are some things I can appreciate about it…

1. Total Depravity: This doctrine I do believe in although perhaps not all its stipulation. Sin definitely does affect every aspect of life, from money and education to family to sexuality. It will be different though for everyone and in different places. And perhaps there is some wisdom in saying no good can come without the grace of God (common grace, not necessarily saving grace). Grace (Xapis – pronounced like Car – iss in greek) also means favor, so that would be closer to what they mean. It is God that gives blessings and can make people do good.

2. Now I do not believe in full Predestination. However, I can see the benefits when taken in its proper context. The idea of the elect, as I’ve been told, was meant to be a gift from God. By knowing that you have been predestined for salvation by God, you have the confidence in it. As such, your life should reflect that. Therefore, good works and fruits of the spirit are a good (although not full proof I would say) indication of that salvation. The problem is though that it can be oppressive in a strict community. Without living grace (what I might define as God’s grace being lived out by a community), this need for “proof” can be a huge burden and scary thing. It is good in that it may cause people to act good and attempt to prove their salvation, but it could (and has) scare people into thinking that any mistakes or sin could mean their own damnation. With the idea of predestination in mind, they may come to believe that they were not saved to begin with and leave the community in hopelessness. This is similar to what has happened with some ultra Calvinist communities – if God predestines people, why bother with evangelism. But I do like the fact that Calvinists do desire evidence (ie good fruits) from people. Too often we simply leave it as faith and go on our merry way. It is your faith that saves, yes! BUT we do need know that we have been saved to produce fruit for His kingdom. Because of the hyper-spiritualization of the gospel and a protestant dislike of anything Catholic (and this too I think is often misguided… I think we have a lot to learn from those in the Catholic tradition), we shun the idea of good works. But it is a necessary component of life in a Christian faith! Not for salvation, but then, is, as Kuyper points out, Christianity just about our own personal salvation? Or once again, is that just America talking?

EDIT – 5-21

My professor and President of Fuller, Dr Richard Mouw, is a calvinist and gave a very good point today about Calvinism, specifically creational thinking. I believe that as Christians, we must be doing good, particular in places where the (traditionally) secular realm is. What I mean by that is a person who is a chiropractor, psychologist, fireman, doctor, etc. has a responsibility, if he/she is a Christian, to show the gospel within their context. And by that, I do not just mean telling the gospel of saving grace, but showing living grace to people. Dr Mouw gave the illustration of a Muslim couple going through a divorce reconciled because they went to a Christian marriage counselor. Now they did not come to know Christ, but they reconciled. And that is a wonderful thing! Do we wish for them to be saved? of course! But it glorifies God nonetheless. And in a way, predestination helps to rectify this tragedy. Without it, one may put undo burden on oneself (including guilt especially) should one fail to bring one to Christ. It was glorifying to God regardless of the eternal outcome. Now, I don’t think that’s necessary, but I can see the benefit. I think both sides of the spectrum understand that it is God alone that saves (w/ or w/o human response). But this is still a valid point I think to help understand this thinking…

another rant against “conservatism” and a slight critique of Kuyper

So i just got finished reading a lecture from Abraham Kuyper on “Calvinism and Science”.  Kuyper was a staunch Calvinist, still celebrated amongst Calvinist circles, among other things.  While I agree with some of his points, I have to say that the contemporary experience leads me to contradict a lot of what he says (although that might be attributed to the fact that his language isn’t very clear…)

First of all, Calvinism, according to his view, must create a love for science, that is, a love for discovering God’s world.  From this viewpoint, we should see a continuing manifestation of God’s soverignty and brilliance in the universe, based on the fact that order will be observed.  But we find today that much of science leads to disorder, though I still believe that much of our physics and science leads back to God.  So while I agree in principle, the details have perhaps proven otherwise.  His claim was based more on his on dogmatic presumptions than empirical evidence (which of course is the basis of science).  That being said, the principle that discovery of the world is, I would agree, very necessary and a good thing for faith.  Indeed, science does lead to much of God’s glory in plain natural view.  But it has been my experience that Calvinists and conservatives are the Christians most diametrically opposed to science and its discoveries.  In fact, though I think his knowledge of the subject was far more limited than ours today, he would claim that any person believing in Evolution must therefore cannot believe.  Now, I am not set one way or the other on micro or macro evolution, but I would never go so far as to say God did not create the universe.  Assuredely, it did not happen 6000 years ago literally, nor do I believe it to be 6 exact days (after all, how could there be a day if the sun isn’t there til day 3)… thanks a lot for making us look like idiots hyper-literal Christians… A Christian should attribute creation to God assuredly, but would not evolution, if true, attest to God’s genius?  Again, in my experience, it has been the calvinists and conservatives who most oppose the scientific.

There has been for some time this dualistic nature to Christianity.  There is a spiritual and material.  The spiritual is God’s Word (written as in the Bible) and people’s souls… and that’s about it.  All the rest?  Well, to use a phrase, “to hell with it”.  Because of this, Christianity has focused most on the human soul and salvation.  To be sure, it is vitally important, but we have neglected the rest.   Kuyper actually warns about this, but wouldn’t he be surprised that much of his own Calvinist descendents have fallen into this trap!  This has lead, combined with the rise of the middle class, the religious right, and heavy individualism, to a “pie in the sky” Christianity, a bigoted, complain about the world but do nothing about it religion.  Where we claim to care about our souls (and we do!) we neglect the material matters of the gospel, namely the reclamation of people (mind and body and soul), social justice, and true love for the world, the same as God did.  We tend to love a certain aspect of God and ourselves (and our bodies for that matter… but not others’) but neglect the rest.

Calvinism is supposed to have a basis in creational theology.  Based on a cultural mandate where people are to go to the Earth and subdue it (and spread human culture), this idea is the basis for a love of science (also predestination = soverignty = order).  But where has that gone?  The world now it seems is going down the crapper and Christians have gotten into off the sinking Titanic into our lifeboats to “save” as many people as possible.  But this Fundamentalist type thinking does not fit with Calvinism at all!  Or at least not originally!  What happened?  I think the very culture you claim to try to stay away from has seeped through the cracks and infected you just as you feared, but in a way unexpected.  Rather than keep the devil out by limiting pop culture, science, secular things, dancing, alcohol, and whatever (the Don’ts of Christianity among other things) the devil has waltzed through using a fear of the world, with the lie that God hates the secular world and we as Christians must avoid at all costs lest we be sucked in as well.  To be sure, we should not be sucked in to the many sins of the secular world, but if we do not actively engage with it, we will have done nothing but have held up in our fortress.  We hope that the world will come to us realizing what a crappy situation they’re in, but I hate to break it to you, (common grace!) but there are a lot of “good” people out there in the secular world as well.  We go and DO GOOD, not hold up in our walls.

Kuyper also claims that anyone who looks at him/herself subjectively but then claims to look at the world objectively must voluntarily leave the church.  Uh, I’m sorry, EVERYONE does that.  his brand of calvinism seems to say that because of predestination (which I cannot fully ascribe to), we can look at ourselves in the elected church objectively.  But that is not possible.  I’m sorry, its just not.  But perhaps that’s been the church’s mistake in the past.  We think we can look at ourselves objectively because God’s on our side.  But that simply blinds us from the real truth that we’re not perfect.  Admittedly, while writing I’m not being objective (am I trying to?).  But I’d like to see ONE person look at themselves objectively… Go ahead, I’ll buy you a pizza.

Kuyper claims that a Calvinist must view the world as one, to fight this dualistic paradigm (that has indeed created a rift and caused the world at large to view the spiritual with at best suspicion or at worst irrelevancy and disdain) of spiritual vs material.  He argues that there should be one.  A unity.  And I agree with him.  I believe in creational theology and God does have soverignty over ALL aspects of life!  But conservatives don’t seem to think so.  perhaps their idea soverignty of God has refocused simply on themselves.  Sounds a bit… American?

Message 5-09-08 Thoughts on Prayer

A message given to the youth on 5-9-08 – Done after Bob Aisawa’s Listening Prayer series

How many of you know my sister Lessa? Lessa was born with conditions known as Cerebral Palsy and Short Bowel Syndrome. In short, she was born with less developed brain function which affects movement, speech, and motor control and she was born with only half a set of intestines affecting her digestive system. She must be fed through a tube that goes directly into her stomach.

Now as a Christian what should we pray for? We know God can do miraculous healings. Why not ask god to completely heal her and grant her a normal life? Did you know that the doctor’s didn’t expect her to live beyond a year? And yet she did. That’s a miracle right there. Do you guys know how old she is? 17. She’s 17 years old.

Now my parents’ have been through a lot with Lessa. The hospital, she’s had seizures, the medical bills, an entire life change when Lessa was born. And they’ve prayed and prayed. But God hasn’t healed Lessa completely, she’s still in a wheel chair, can’t eat (although for some reason she really likes if feed her a little bit of steak soup and coke), she still can’t hold things properly, and she can’t really talk. But through that time of prayer, God did answer. And the answer I think that He gave my parents, Lessa, and my family was this: Trust. God said, Trust me, I know what I’m doing.

So obviously, we’ve been doing a lot of praying lately. And I for one have been blown away by what Bob has been doing. And so we wanted to further develop our understanding of prayer, so I thought we’d go right to the source of our teaching, Jesus. Look at your handout and focus on the bold text. The Lord’s prayer. In fact, I’m pretty sure a lot of you know it by heart. So let’s say all stand and say it together. And though I’m not Bob, I’m going to have Kathy come and lead us in the Lord’s Prayer. This is simoultaneously our prayer and scripture for tonight.

What I want to get at today is an understanding of the reasons for prayer, what we should pray for, and how we should pray. I think we all can admit that prayer often can become a burden, another thing to do, a chore. And I am guilty of that as well. But maybe together we can all get a fresh perspective on prayer. And after, I’ll give you some practical prayer things to try with what we learned from Bob with listening prayer – LORD’S PRAYER

Context – Ok, an important thing in understanding the Bible is to understand the context of what is being written. If you were here on Sunday, Brandon shared about 3 different parables and how in Jesus’ time it is the first parable that is the surprising one, whereas today, we would consider the 3rrd suprising. Another piece of context one must understand is what the text around a certain verse is saying.

So here we must look at the verses before and after the Lord’s Prayer. Read 5-8

Right before if you start with verses 5-8, Jesus first tells us how NOT to pray. Hypocrites and showy people pray standing in synagogues and on the streets to be seen by men. Pagans babble on hoping that they’ll hit the right words so that the god’s will respond. What is in common with these 2 is their lack of confidence in God. In the first one, Jesus is pointing mostly at the Pharisees, who were Jews that were very very pious, but tended to do it more for their own glory, rather than God’s. Therefore, when they prayed, they made a big show about it so everyone who walk past would know just how holy they were. Jesus says their reward, whihch would be people’s attention has already been achieved. Their heart was not with the prayer but with themselves. ACT OUT

In the second example, Jesus now turns to the pagans, or those who were not Jewish or practiced Judaism. He says that they babble on, hoping they’ll be heard by their many words. And honestly I think sometimes we all do that. We all kinda pray with a formula, hoping that ok, if I pray this, then God will hear. Oh and have to open it with a Dear God or Heavenly father or maybe he won’t know I’m addressing Him and not like Buddha or Tom Cruise. And I gotta make sure I close with “In Jesus Name”.. Oh and I gotta make sure I have my head down and eyes closed, but not so much that I fall asleep. But see, it really doesn’t matter about all those things. Prayer can be open and free. There’s nothing wrong with those things, but sometimes I think we worry about doing that, which can often place restrictions of our listening and our own honesty in prayer. The pagans would try to list out a bunch of names of their gods correctly and try to pronounce it right to try to get more favor. Like if they mispronounced the name, they wouldn’t get their wish. Now I just took a midterm and I know I didn’t study enough. I always pray before a test, but Often, if that happens, I pray something like “God, I know I didn’t study enough, but would you please give me a better grade?” I keep thinking that well, If I show a little humility and admit that yeah, I didn’t study hard enough, then God will maybe give me information that I forgot to study….

Jesus contrasts these, confidence in yourself and prayer for attention, with what a true follower’s prayer should look like. And its not necessarily a prayer with a formula, like the ACTS prayer (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication), though that’s not a bad thing, or the need to use scripture in prayer, but in my interpretation, a prayer is to show and develop trust in God. To show you this ultimate point, I think that the Lord’s prayer has for us, we must look at what other things are around it. There is a theme that seems to run through it – Trust in the LORD. The section right after the Lord’s Prayer is about fasting. The teaching gives similar instructions as the ones on prayer – fasting shouldn’t be obvious to men to gain credit with them, but rather done just for God. The next section is about material and earthly treasures. Here Jesus tells us not to trust in our stuff or wealth, but rather to serve and trust God. After that, from verses 25-34, it speaks about worry and concern about Eartlhy things. Again, the overall theme here is to seek God and to trust Him.

So all around the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus seems to be saying, “Trust God”. In all these things, prayer, fasting, money, clothes, food, we can trust God. We can. If you remember my last message (which was awhile ago, and most people forget 90% of any message by the next day anyways), I talked about obedience and that obedience isn’t just something you jump blindly into, but really, we have a God who we can trust and that our obedience will be for the good of His Kingdom. I used the illustration of Jesus at the Gethsemane and how He trusted God so much with His life, that He trusted God with His death. He trusted that God would vindicate Him in his going to the cross and indeed, God did by raising Him from the dead.

And if you get one thing from this message today, it is to trust God. Even if you don’t have a great prayer life or if you’re in constant communication with God, know that we have a God that you can trust.

Before getting into the Lord’s prayer text itself, yes, I’m going to delay it even further, I want to spend a few minutes in listening prayer. There are a lot of things that we might have trouble trusting God with. Jesus suggests things like food and clothes. Maybe we can’t seem to trust with our friends or family. Relationships. School. Our futures.

So for a few minutes, I want us to just sit and listen to God and ask Him what we might need to trust Him more in. Maybe you already know something that you need to trust Him with but are having trouble. During this time, listen for Him and ask a way for you to do that, but also be open to something else you haven’t thought of. Just do this individually right now, right where you are. I’ll open us up, but then just spend some time listening to God.

Ok, if you got something, write it down on your papers. If you didn’t get something, that’s ok, but keep listening to Him whenever you pray.

Now the Lord’s prayer is something most of us know. In fact a lot of churches actually have made a song out of it. Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of it as the last few lines seem to have way too many syllables for one line of song. And its sung in hymn fashion which I’m not particularly used to. Not that hymns are bad, but just not my taste. But the big problem I have with it and really any worship song for that matter is that once you know it really well and you sing it almost second nature, the meaning of the words can get lost. I mean, how many times are we really just sitting here blankly while the worship leader is singing their heart out to God. Ya know, like a song could be doing something really deep in our souls, and our mouths are moving and some sounds are coming out, but really, we’re thinking, “Man, I gotta pee.” Or “Hmmm… service is almost over, where should I go get lunch” or “Man, that girl a few rows ahead of me is hot!” or in my case if I’m sitting next to Kathy “Man, this girl sitting next to me is hot! I should like ask her out or something…”

And then we lose the entire meaning of the song. In Israelite times, these songs have meaning and indeed, ours do too. So I encourage you that in any worship set, really listen to the words and let it minister to you. Ask questions, reflect on them, what does a song tell you about God?

You know, as a more contemporary church, we like to be cool, and we’re very suspicious of any sort of liturgy, which is a sort of ordered church worship service. We rarely repeat prayers or hymns cause honestly, they seem a little… well… old or maybe even Catholic. Now regardless of what you believe about Catholics (and I’d be happy to discuss things with you later), I have to say that there is something beautiful about ordered worship. Saying it over and over creates familiarity and comfort. They became a set way of worshipping God. And not only that, everyone is doing it with you and hopefully that’ll create unity. And also, if you really grasp the meaning of the words, you’ll learn truths about God that will grow your faith. The Jr Highers know that I hate Christmas songs. They’re sappy and happy and mushy and I just get suspicious of that stuff. But I did learn something new about them. Christmas is the only time that people can get together, from almost any background, Christian, agnostic, even atheist or another religion, and sing these songs that almost everyone knows. And there is something kinda cool about that. It does sort of produce that sort of unity and harmony that Christmas is kinda sorta supposed to be about.

So, that all being said, its important that we garner some meaning from the Lord’s prayer. And part of the meaning is exactly what we just talked about. Community, doing things together. If you look at the Lord’s Prayer, there’s a community aspect. Our Father, Give Us our daily Bread, and forgive us of our debts. As Americans, we like to keep focused on our own walks as individuals. But Jews in Jesus’ time would not have done this. They saw themselves as part of a whole. A Group. A people of God. And that’s something we need to remember as well. We are the church, the body of Christ, all of us. As such, we should be praying, serving, and living our walks together.

Now when it comes to prayer, there are a lot of questions… 8 Do not be like them [the pagans] for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This brings up a couple of questions in our minds. First, why bother to pray if God already knows what we need? Second, is it okay to even ask God for something? The answers are many. One, the one I’m focusing on, is that prayer will develop and reinforce our faith and trust in Him. Another, is that God invites us to participate. Just as we are called to participate in His kingdom with practices of justice, mercy, compassion, our prayer life is a chance to participate with God. This goes hand in hand with our trust in Him. If we trust in Him, we will be more apt to participate with Him. And when we participate with Him, it will grow our faith. Another idea is that prayer is not really for getting our requests met. God isn’t a genie or anything. His job isn’t to grant our wishes. Now I’m not saying that God never answers the things we pray for, because I’m sure each of us has tales that tell the opposite. But perhaps the purpose of prayer is not to simply ask God to change our situations, like “God, get me through this test” or “Can I win the lottery?” or “Can I please go out on a date before I graduate” kinda thing.

Perhaps prayer is more for changing our hearts. To align our will with God’s. If we are truly following Christ, our requests will be of God’s Will. When we listen to Him, as we grow and mature in our walks with Him, we will hopefully come to understand more and more of God’s character and what he wants for us. If we go back to the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus asks God to change His situation. “Father if, possible, may this cup be taken from me.” Jesus specifically asks God to let him do something else. So obviously, we can present our requests to Him! And that’s awesome! We have a God that listens to our desires and needs. But! But… we must remember that He may not answer the way WE want Him to. He will answer, but it might not be what we expect or want. And that’s where the trust factor comes in. Jesus said, “But not as I will, but Your will be done”. In essence, He was saying, God get me outta here. I do not want to die. But, I trust you Father, because you have been and are forever faithful, that you want me to go to cross and lay my life down for the world. So not what I want, but Lord, what you want.” Jesus was fully human. And like anyone, he didn’t want to die, especially knowing the pain, suffering, and shame involved. But Jesus trusted with His life. And He let God change His will to His. But not as I will. But not what I, Brett, want, but what you, God want. During Your Prayer, open your heart and soften it so that He can mold it to what He wants. Can you trust Him enough to do that? Or instead, will we trust other things like our own abilities? Riches? Technology? Government?

Jesus soon after this text in Matthew 7 gives us one of the oddest teachings. Matthew 7.6 – Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet and then turn and tear you to pieces.

Now I looked at this passage for awhile and its just… well, weird. I wouldn’t want to give dogs and pigs my treasures, but I doubt that’s what Jesus was teaching about. So obviously this isn’t to be taken in its literal sense. So we’ll have to understand the context of when and where Jesus is teaching. The terms dogs and pigs was a common term that Jews might use for gentiles and pagans. You can see the imagery for uncleanliness, which to the Jews, the gentiles were, as they would be unable to go to the temple and worship God. Its important to know that unclean did not always stand for sinful, it often just meant that one could not enter the temple for worship. But that still doesn’t answer the question of giving pearls to gentiles.

Now, if you have your Bibles or the handout, you’ll see this text under the heading of do not judge others. And I looked at this text and wondered, What the heck does this have to do with judging others? It makes no sense in that context! Now its important to remember that most of these headings like Judging others or ask, seek, knock nor the chapter numbers and verse numbers are not actually in the original texts! When the gospel was written, there were no numbers or titles or anything. They’re put in by early church fathers and translators later to help us understand and manage the Bible more easily. So in this case, this verse just kinda dangles in this section like it doesn’t really belong. But what if perhaps it goes into the next section “ask, seek, knock”. This part starts off 7“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. So here, Jesus makes it clear that yes! God does say its cool to ask. In fact he tells us to! Now what might then the verse about pearls to pigs have to do with asking God? It goes back what we’re talking about: trust. Jesus is saying Don’t throw your trust, your allegiance, you hope to the Gentiles and Pagans. Rather, Ask God. Seek God, Knock at His door, and He will give you what you need. You see the Jews were often tempted to try to trust other Gods. Their country had a history of worshipping other gods in the hopes of getting good luck or finding what they needed. But it led to ruin. If you give them your pearls they may trample you under foot. And that’s what happened. The Jews eventually lost their country and were ruled over by the Babylonians, the Persians, and then the Romans. This was all because they did not trust God. This verse also seems to fit better here because it follows a similar literary structure as before. Jesus earlier says for example, “Don’t be like the pagans who pray with a lot of words, but rather pray like this…” and then he gives the Lord’s Prayer, which we will get to…. Here, Jesus says, “Don’t give your trust to the Pagans or things not of God, rather, ask God because He knows what you need.” See the Bible can be looked at in so many ways to figure out meaning. Its crazy!! So I think that the heading Ask, Seek, Knock should actually go above verse 6 instead of 7. Now, We today might put our trust in money, our things, people, but ultimately, they’ll let us down at some point. God however is faithful. We can trust God. We can. Jesus trusted God to the fullest and God through Him saved the world.

Kat’s story – Now This verse of ask seek and knock became one of Kathy’s theme verses. Before she came to Christ when she was starting to seek Him out, this verse played a big role in her life. Ask, Seek, Knock at the Door. And God answered,

I can’t hammer this point home enough. We can trust God. God is a faithful God.

Now we’ve concluded that God is ok when we ask things of him. But as we know He’s not a genie that will just grant our wishes. No, He is God, with infinite wisdom who will answer with what is best for us. After verse 8, it says, “ 9“Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

In Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus gives the teaching to boldly and persistently ask God. Yes, we can ask. God encourages us to do so. And honestly, when God answers, His Will isn’t always so… tricky… I think a lot of times we think about God’s will, we think like Oh crap, if I make the wrong decision, it’ll lead me down this path, and this’ll happen to me, and then I’ll end up in a ditch somewhere, all because I chose wrong and it wasn’t part of God’s will. We agonize over figuring out what college to go to, whether to go here or there. Heck we might even start asking what’s God will on where I go to lunch or which side of the bed to get out of…

You see, God’s already given us a lot of His will. We know God’s character. He’s a God of love, compassion, justice, mercy, serving. He’s a God of righteousness, patience, hope, and trustworthiness. When we know this in our heart, that God is all these things, we already have a good idea about what God’s will is. And that is to grow these in us. So honestly, yeah, we’ll have some big decisions to make in life, but seek first to embody the things of God. Seek to have more of these qualities. Matthew 6 says Seek first the Kingdom of God. Story of “failure” – [wait on God = serve God. No failure in God if you serve Him. Human failure does not equal failure to God.]

Remember that prayer is to trust God and a chance for God to prompt us to participate. To possibly take part in the unfolding adventure that is God’s story as well as grow our hearts closer to His. So for example, if you ask Him say for a lot of money, perhaps He might speak to you and ask you to trust Him more. If you ask Him to help your friend out with a situation, He might prompt you to help your friend yourself and equip you to do so. When I started praying that God would work in the world for justice, He instead changed my heart and asked me what I could do in His name. We are the representatives of God, here to embody the same things He cares about. God does do miracles like healings, raising people from the dead, but He also works through people and I think we often forget that. So when you pray, ask God also how you can serve Him in your request. How can you best embody His character in your situation?

So keep these things in mind. 1) You can Trust God! 2) Prayer can grow your trust in Him. It is an act of participation in God’s story where your faith in Him can develop 3) Pray for things and ask, but also ask how you can show Godly qualities. God may change you for the better. Let me close with Lessa again.

A couple years ago, Lessa had to go to the hospital. One weekend, I stayed with Lessa in the hospital and watched her so my parents could go home and rest for awhile. While I was there, I looked over at Lessa who was working on some craft project and listening to music. She was smiling and laughing despite the fact that she had an couple IV lines, she didn’t get much sleep do to a crying baby next door, and she’d been there for already 2 weeks with maybe another couple to come. I, on the other hand, had been there only a few hours and I was getting antsy. I turned to Lessa and asked, Lessa, how can you be so happy? And I listed things from the entire ordeal. She smiled and gave me a look like “why do you need to ask that?” and she pointed to herself. “Yourself?” I asked, puzzled. She again pointed to herself and nodded. Then it clicked, “You’re happy because you’re alive? Because God has gotten you this far?” She laughed and nodded and went back to her work. There was a child like trust in her that I’d never seen before. She trusts God because it is God that has kept her alive for 17 years, a miracle by any means. God has used my parents’ trust in Him to be faithful and commited to Lessa, to give her care. In Jewish times and in many places today, like Japan, someone like Lessa would be kept in a room, locked away from public eye, a shameful mark for the family. But instead, Lessa is the symbol of our family, the crown jewel, the ultimate gift. So how could I pray for her? Yes, I’d love to see her walk and talk one day, but I could also pray that God could use me to take care of her, to have compassion on her. I could pray for my parents to continue to take good care of her. I could pray for the inspiration that she’s given me to overflow to others. Or that more people would seek to understand people like Lessa and learn to see them as people as well, to take up the cause of disabled people’s rights. And I could pray for Lessa’s continued trust in God and realize that if Lessa can trust with her life, then I can trust God as well.

Now what I want to do is do some listening prayer with you guys using the Lord’s Prayer

Keep in mind that the Lord’s Prayer is a community thing. Our Christian walk is not just alone, but includes other believers as well. As such, pray in terms of community as well as yourself.

Now we’re going to take the Lord’s prayer and use that as a prompt for Listening Prayer.

On your handout, there is the Lord’s prayer divided up into parts. What I want you to do is get into your prayer groups and each person take a section and repeat it a few times. Then I want you to simply listen with a question in mind which are on your handout as well. So for example

12Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Pray for forgiveness of sins. Is there a sin in your life that you’re unaware of or have not confessed? Do you need to forgive others? Is there someone that you know needs to forgive someone else?

An older message 3-28-08 – Reckless Obedience and Sacrifice

Here’s a message that I did from 3-28 at CBC Youth: Straightforward

Reckless Obedience and Sacrifice: The cost of discipleship

Okay, I’m going to start off right off the bat with a juicy story… the story of how Kat and I got together. So girls, you can get ready to “awww” and guys, you can take notes.

- Meet

- Crush

- Mr Sunny Hills

- Prom

- Summer/College

- (more info than the baptism) The decision…

And she said, “I think God wants me to take a fast.” And I’m thinking okay, cool, the Holy Spirit is talking and she’s listening!! So I say, “hey cool, like food or chocolate?” “No, He wants me to take a fast from you.” “Oh…. Oh I see. So how long we talking about? A week or 2?” “No… more like to the end of the school year.”

That’s like 2 months! God was asking us to be obedient and to sacrifice something for Him, namely our relationship.

Well, I’ll tell you how this tale went at the end of the message….. so you have to stay awake through the message to find out.

But that’s what I want to talk about today… Obedience and Sacrifice. So turn with me to Matthew 26:36 and the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane

PRAY

Let me ask you a question. Did Jesus intend to die? Did Jesus plan from the beginning of his childhood to die on a Roman cross for the sins of the world? We tend to think about Jesus in just this light, the death and resurrection. And to be sure, its very important. We just celebrated Good Friday and Easter last weekend. And this is important. But like Pastor Gary said last Sunday, it was not just so we could feel good about ourselves and go to Heaven. Jesus’ mission saved us from our sins, but his death and sacrifice exemplify and make possible our freedom from sin, oppression, and the power of Satan. In the same way, I think Jesus’ purpose was more than simply dying on the cross.

If we look at his life, at the opening of His ministry he begins to cry out to the people “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” Here we see Jesus, 1) Calling people to repent and 2) Announce the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of God. What else does he do? Well, he heals the paralyzed and those with leprosy. And with this, he has compassion on those in need. Where does he get this? Well, from God, but we must also remember he read the Jewish Bible, what we would consider the Old Testament. He teaches the proper way to live out the law, with love, grace, and peace. Jesus understood the overarching themes of the God’s story and so he taught them to the people and most importantly, he lived it out. This was all His mission here on Earth.

But to propose an answer to the question of did He intend to die on the cross? I would probably say not at first. I don’t think as a kid Jesus knew he would die in his 30s, crucified. Joseph and Mary probably didn’t approach Jesus and ask, “So Jesus, what do you want to be when you grow up?” They probably expected him to say, “I wanna be like you dad and be a carpenter”, but instead getting, “I need to get arrested and killed on the cross!” Probably not. I don’t think, as we see in Luke when he’s with the Jerusalem teachers and told them, “Oh hey, by the way, God wants me to be crucified to save people including you guys from their sins”. For one, this type of thing wasn’t even on the Jewish cultural radar and it probably would have freaked out the teachers. And I also don’t think when he was baptized by John in the Jordan river, “Well, alright, I’m baptized, now how am I going to die so I can save people, especially those living in 2008, from their sins”. It’s not all that Jesus did, though that’s what we focus on. As it says in the Gospel According to John, Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. Now I could be wrong, feel free to debate me later, but I don’t personally feel like this was Jesus’ mission right as he saw it.

So then if Jesus didn’t necessarily intend to die, why then did he? Let’s look back at the Garden of Gethsamane in Matthew (start on 39)

3 times Jesus asked God if God would find some other way. He asked if he could avoid the painful death. But ultimately, Jesus obeyed God. He said, “but your will be done”. He was obedient to God. And that’s what ties all of jesus’ actions together. Obedience. He was obedient to what God wanted. What did God want? Compassion. Mercy. Healing. Restoration. He wanted Jesus to proclaim the Kingdom. To show the people how to live. And ultimately, HE wanted Jesus to die on the cross. And Jesus obeyed.

Now I chose the account in Matthew for a very specific reason. I could have chosen Luke or I could have chosen Mark which has the naked dude running away at the end. Its like the Greased up deaf guy in Family guy. “Goodbye Jesus! You’re being arrested so I’m outta here”

But anyways, Matthew shows Jesus begging God 3 times. And I think this shows how human Jesus was. We kinda have it in our heads that Jesus was like a superhuman. But Jesus was fully human and fully God. Jesus can sympathize with our temptations. We see him tempted 3 times in the desert directly by Satan, but I don’t think that its unsafe to say that he faced other temptations during his life that the Bible does not mention. I’ll bet he had hormones raging in His body as a teenager. I’ll bet he was tempted to compare himself to his friends while growing up… Or maybe he was tempted to judge his crazy cousin John the Baptist who had weird eating habits and no fashion sense. Jesus probably faced the same temptations that you are I had to face. Hebrews says in 4:15 – For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin.

And in the Garden of Gethsamane, Jesus was tempted to run away and wouldn’t you be too? Matthew says he begged 3 times. And we do that all the time, “God, can’t I please fantasize or gossip or lie, just this once (which really turns into many time” ,“God, please don’t make me tell the truth about what I did.” “God, do I really have to forgive my friend.” For Jesus, it was “God, please, do I have to die on the cross” “Do I have to go through with this” “Can you please find another way?” But God had a plan and Jesus obeyed. You see, Jesus trusted God would vindicate him. He trusted that God knew what he was doing and he trusted enough to give God his own life. That’s pretty frickin’ reckless! Therefore, we can too. Because as we know God came through and raised Jesus. And we have that same promise

Now I hope none of us ever have to beg God to let us live. But it could happen. Would you obey? And will you obey in the smaller things like forgiving those who’ve hurt you. Doing good to people. Having patience. Being generous. Worshipping with your whole heart. Acting Justly, Loving Mercy, and Walking Humbly with God. Loving God and others. Those who are faithful in the small things will be given more.

See, Christ is the perfect model of obedience to God. He was obedient to the point of death. As His ministry developed, jesus realized that part of His mission was to die. This was all why he was sent.

For us though, it might be a little bit harder. It might take a little, recklessness. Because the world would say, do your own thing! Do what you want! Its about you anyways! I was in a Toys R Us the other day and there was a new brand called “Totally Me!” We prize individualism. And its good to be unique, to be an individual. But not at the expense of disobeying our creator. In the end, it must be Totally God. And so, it would be reckless to obey God, to abandon our desires for ourselves to do the will of an invisible deity. We’ve talked about a lot of reckless stuff in the past few weeks. Reckless imagination. Reckless community. Using your own story recklessly Reckless Time. Reckless Relationships. Reckless Love, Reckless hatred of sin, reckless action, reckless foolishness.

But see, in the end, reckless should no longer be reckless, at least not for you. It shouldn’t be so out of the ordinary. Rather, reckless becomes obedience. Your reckless life is one of obedience. Doing Reckless things for God. God can have you do amazing things for His kingdom! Will you obey? God will ask you to do something huge! It might be crazy, but if He asks, will you do it?

And don’t get me wrong, I disobey God constantly. We all do. But that’s where Grace comes in. Jesus’ death on the cross, as we all know, gives us grace when we disobey. But as a response to that, we need to persevere and continually refine our commitment to obedience. I would challenge you, when God calls, adopt a lifestyle of obedience. If He has a plan for you, then how can you fail. Trust God. Trust Him recklessly.

I think it’s vitally important to know ourselves. It’s okay to have difficulty obeying some things. What is important is that you’re honest about those things. Be honest with yourself. If you’re not, you’ll end up just fooling yourself and end up in a worse spot than you were. Be honest with your friends and family. And most of all, be honest with God. You can trust Him to protect you, to care for you, and listen when you just need to be blatantly honest about your life.

SMALL GROUP BREAK – (okay to disagree with things)

God wants you to show Him who you are, soul bared, with all your strengths and weaknesses, all your perfections and flaws. And He loves you all the same. And He wants to do amazing things through you. Do you want that? I hope you do… but I warn you… great things for the Kingdom of God might require Sacrifice…

Sacrifice goes hand in hand with obedience. As I’ve said before, we need to be obedient in our honesty with one another and carrying each others burdens. We must be willing to sacrifice our own pride and be vulnerable and let others carry us sometimes. And on the other side, we must be willing to sacrifice our own time and energy into our friends that really could use a listening ear or a helping hand.

But most people don’t like the word sacrifice… it means giving something up. It means losing something. And we don’t like to lose things, especially things we like.

But let’s look at someone who sacrificed something of her own accord.

Story of Jesus and the woman (Luke 7)

The woman’s’ sacrifice was huge. She served Jesus. Even though she was wretched and detested by many, she knew Jesus was one worthy of sacrifice. Now we don’t know for certain what her profession or sinful life was, but the most common idea was that she was a prostitute. Probably that jar of perfume was the same one she used to attract customers. So by pouring that out, it was like a sign of giving up that life. She was sacrificing her sinful life. In a way, she gave it her all. All of herself poured out to Jesus. When was the last time you truly poured yourself out to Him?

If you study some Jewish customs, washing feet and serving the guest is what a host would normally do. But Simon did nothing. It was traditional Jewish custom to do this for an honored guest, like Jesus, a traveling teacher. But Simon didn’t… some say this is like giving Jesus the middle finger. But the sinful woman showed true dedication and devotion to Him. And this is how we should sacrifice. Extravegently and with humility. For the woman knew her own sin, her whole life. But she acted in faith. And she was forgiven. This is the kind of life we need to live. Our gifts to Jesus need to be heartfelt and sincere spurred on by our faith. How often are we giving back to God with a grudge or even with anger?

ACT OUT à Rob Bell’s example of old ancient sacrificial religions. Sacrificing if good, sacrificing if Bad. Never knew where you stood with gods. Jesus/God = trust

Now I really don’t want to guilt trip you Christ’s sacrifice and how it was so amazing and humble and now you need to do it out of Asian gratitude. I suppose that’s one way of looking at it, but let me try to focus it another way.

First, I would say that not all sacrifices are huge sacrifices. God doesn’t call everyone to give up all their possessions and wander around shouting Repent for the Kingdom is near. Nor does God call us to give up everything that we like. I think there’s been this idea in the church that if it feels good, God must not want that for us. Like our desires are NEVER aligned with Gods or God has simple made us to suffer. However, we must be WILLING to give up that up if God calls. Let me give you an example.

Story: Kat and I had to be willing to let each other go in case we were called to different parts of the world. Now that we have let go, a huge burden was lifted.

Rather, let’s see sacrifice as a model to live by. Jesus lived a life of sacrifice and indeed died a death of sacrifice. Paul sacrified his original life and reputation for the sake of the Gospel. The Bible is littererd with accounts of people living lives of sacrifice. So more than out of guilt or even gratitude, we should be living lives of sacrifice because that’s the kind of life of the Kingdom of God. Part of kingdom values is the life of sacrifice and sacrifice for others. Jesus modeled that with His obedience. That’s the kind of life we need to live. A life of service. A life of compassion. A life of humility. Generosity. Reconciliation. It’s the same life that Christ lived.

Maybe you have already sacrificed something in life for God. Maybe a relationship. Maybe you sacrifice time for others. Or some of you own money for others. And if you have, God wants to affirm that in you. If he asked you to obey and you did, He is proud that you’ve taken that step of faith.

Or maybe there’s something in your life right now that you know God wants you to give up, but its just hard to… Maybe you love money way too much. Maybe you desire something, like clothes or the latest styles. It doesn’t have to be material. maybe its your pride. Maybe its your jealousy or envy. Or maybe a sin like lust. Whatever it is, I pray that God would work in your life to help you let go. Not for the sake of letting go or “being a good Christian” whatever that means. But know that by letting go, by letting God take over, he will bless your life because of it. You will become more like Christ. Following Christ means sacrifice. Letting go say of your love of money can make you more generous. Letting go of your worry about time can make you more patient

To the world however, following Christ and living a life of sacrifice is.. you guessed it… reckless. Turn to Mark 5. –

See the people in Gerasenes saw that Jesus had sent the demons into the pigs and the pigs ran and died. And that destroyed the livelihoods of the pig farmers. Now Jesus did a wonderful thing! He freed a man from the oppression of demons. That’s good right? Brandon’s mom and Ms Joann and Luini were recently at the Love LA homeless ministry and witnessed an exorcism. Yes. It happens. Now you’d think the people there would say, hey Jesus! Thanks for doing that for our buddy. Come, stay with us, teach us, can we follow you? But no. They say, leave. Why? I’d treat the guy to dinner! I think when they saw that those pig farmers had lost their way of life, the people were afraid. Afraid of the sacrifice they might need to make. Maybe they thought, “Oh man, what about the crazy lady who hangs out in the town bar? What’ll happen if Jesus helps her? What’ll that cost us?” or “If Jesus helps the other demon possessed around town, it might mean we’ll have to give up this or that! I wouldn’t want to follow a troublemaker like that, even if he does chase away demons!”

The cost of discipleship might be great, there is a cost. The Christian life is not supposed to be easy. No it is not. Paul was beaten, stoned, hungry, and eventually killed. Most of the apostles were too. Christianity today is more unpopular than ever. The things we teach make no sense to the world, like remaining abstinent until marriage, little or no drinking, going to church, living lives of compassion and generosity. Makes no sense. Its tough. But its good. And at the end, God will say “Well done good and faithful servant”. There will be cost to following Christ, I’m sorry there will be. Its part of the Christian life. Pastor Ken Fong of Evergreen Baptist called 2 Corinthians 6 the “fine print” of following Christ. It included beatings, imprisonments, hard work, hunger. Man what a downer. I would dare say that if your Christian life doesn’t cost something at some point you’re either always in tune with God’s will so there doesn’t need to be any change or you’re holding on too tight to something. The people chased Jesus away when they realize the cost. We too must understand that there will be cost. But will you ask Jesus to leave? Or follow him wholeheartedly.

But know that those sacrifices won’t be in vain. We already gained so much. God has given us the tools and model to live by to live moral, upright, just lives for His Kingdom. And He’s given us eternal life. All we have to do is follow and God will do amazing things through us. And when we do, not only are we guaranteed those things, but we can trust that God will do the work of His kingdom, and that is the greatest privilege in this world.

End with what happened in the story. (I had to be willing to take that risk, to sacrifice and obey)

Recklessness is sacrifice. To do crazy things for the Lord no matter what the cost. Do you want that? Do you desire God to use you? When you turn recklessness into obedience and obedience as your life, God will do amazing things through you. You have been sent to be ministers of the gospel! All of you. Some of you might end up doing it as a vocation. But most of you will do other things, but still you will be called to embody the gospel wherever you go. And at the end of the race God will say, well done good and faithful servant. God might call you to take a job in ministry. He might ask you to be extrememly generous with your finances. He might ask you to move away and be a missionary to another country. He might ask that you tackle issues of justice like hunger, poverty, or human sex trafficking. Will you listen? Will you obey?

Honestly, its not as hard as you might think. Visiting a friend in the hospital. That’s obedience and sacrifice. Buying a meal. Honoring your parents. Being patient. Putting others before you. These are all good things or commands of God. That’s obedience and sacrifice. And you will have some bigger decisions in life. But when you trust God, ultimately, it will be a lot easier than you might think. We can do this. Living a life of sacrifice is following Christ’s model. Indeed, it is worshipping God and you will bear fruit for his Kingdom. Like the sinful woman, when we express our love for Jesus, we have to give our all. Romans 12:1 says 1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual^[a] act of worship.