Maybe I'm the only one in the world who hasn't seen this yet, but this is an amazing video.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Get Ready to Cry
If you haven't checked out Rick Reilly's story yet about the football game between Grapevine's Faith Christian School and Gainesville State School, you should read it now and have a tissue handy.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Real Jesus - Part 4: Christian Jesus
The following is from The Crossroads Community Church message series "Real Jesus" by Pastor Shawn Kemp.
Today as we finish out our series "Real Jesus". We’ve been looking at some of the popular images of Jesus that are out there and comparing those images with the real Jesus. And why have we been doing this? Because your understanding of who Jesus is impacts your whole life. Jesus once confronted his disciples with the question of who he was:
Today as we finish out our series "Real Jesus". We’ve been looking at some of the popular images of Jesus that are out there and comparing those images with the real Jesus. And why have we been doing this? Because your understanding of who Jesus is impacts your whole life. Jesus once confronted his disciples with the question of who he was:
“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ They replied, ‘Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ ‘But what about you?’ he asked. ‘Who do you say I am?’” Matthew 16:13-15
Who do you say that I am? It’s a really important question. So, we started out by looking at “Jesus Is My Homeboy: Jesus in pop culture”. Then we looked at Santa Claus Jesus. Last week we looked at Sweet Little Baby Jesus in a Manger. Now, this week, we look at our last image of Jesus, and this one hits a little closer to home, because this one is Christian Jesus.
You see, as Christians there are images and ideas that we have about Jesus, and some of them are correct and some of them aren’t. But before we go any farther, let me say, I’m not out to bash other Christians. I’m like Paul, who said in Philippians 1:18: “The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.” My goal, today, is simply to point out some dangers that we need to avoid in our understanding of Jesus. Now, we don’t have time today to look at every image and idea about Jesus that is out there among Christians. So, today, we are going to look at one particular image of Jesus that is very common among Christians and that is an easy trap to fall into. And, maybe a better name for this image of Jesus than Christian Jesus is Religious Jesus.
During Jesus’ time here on earth, his biggest confrontations, the people he had the harshest confrontations with, the people who ultimately condemned him to death were religious people, the people who were the religious leaders of the Jewish people. They were called the Pharisees, and Jesus’ biggest battles here on earth were with them. Now, here’s the thing, even as followers of Jesus Christ, we can have a tendency to become Pharisees, to see Jesus as someone who came to start a religion rather than as coming to change the world and free us from sin and self and self-righteousness and religion.
So, let’s take a look at some wrong ideas about following Jesus. And all of these come from Matthew 23, one of Jesus’ interactions with the Pharisees. So, the first wrong idea is that following Jesus is about knowing the rules. According to this idea, the goal of being a Christian is attaining more knowledge, studying more, knowing all the intricate details and minutiae of the Christian faith.
The Pharisees had this kind of attitude about religion. In fact, many of the Pharisees were what was known as scribes. They were the experts at religious law. They were lawyers for religion. Doesn't that just sound warm and friendly? And they had the rules memorized. They knew all the interpretations of religious law. They studied what other people had to say about the Bible and could quote them at random. They spent hours and hours in Bible study, in classes, with their nose in a scroll. Look at what Jesus said about the Pharisees:
You see, as Christians there are images and ideas that we have about Jesus, and some of them are correct and some of them aren’t. But before we go any farther, let me say, I’m not out to bash other Christians. I’m like Paul, who said in Philippians 1:18: “The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.” My goal, today, is simply to point out some dangers that we need to avoid in our understanding of Jesus. Now, we don’t have time today to look at every image and idea about Jesus that is out there among Christians. So, today, we are going to look at one particular image of Jesus that is very common among Christians and that is an easy trap to fall into. And, maybe a better name for this image of Jesus than Christian Jesus is Religious Jesus.
During Jesus’ time here on earth, his biggest confrontations, the people he had the harshest confrontations with, the people who ultimately condemned him to death were religious people, the people who were the religious leaders of the Jewish people. They were called the Pharisees, and Jesus’ biggest battles here on earth were with them. Now, here’s the thing, even as followers of Jesus Christ, we can have a tendency to become Pharisees, to see Jesus as someone who came to start a religion rather than as coming to change the world and free us from sin and self and self-righteousness and religion.
So, let’s take a look at some wrong ideas about following Jesus. And all of these come from Matthew 23, one of Jesus’ interactions with the Pharisees. So, the first wrong idea is that following Jesus is about knowing the rules. According to this idea, the goal of being a Christian is attaining more knowledge, studying more, knowing all the intricate details and minutiae of the Christian faith.
The Pharisees had this kind of attitude about religion. In fact, many of the Pharisees were what was known as scribes. They were the experts at religious law. They were lawyers for religion. Doesn't that just sound warm and friendly? And they had the rules memorized. They knew all the interpretations of religious law. They studied what other people had to say about the Bible and could quote them at random. They spent hours and hours in Bible study, in classes, with their nose in a scroll. Look at what Jesus said about the Pharisees:
“The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.” Matthew 23:2-4
Jesus encouraged the people to listen to what the teachers of religious law had to say. The problem was their studying of the law did not produce a change in their lives. They tied up heavy burdens on people. The Pharisees had spelled out over 600 laws that people were to observe. And the Pharisees taught that knowing Scripture took precedence over obeying it. So, studying Scripture was the most important thing.
The problem is that study does not have the power to produce a changed life. Now, don’t get me wrong, I believe there is tremendous value and importance to studying the Bible. I mean, I spent eight and a half years after I got out of high school in college and grad school studying the Bible. I spend hours each week studying and preparing for the message. The problem is when studying becomes a substitute for living out the teachings of Scripture. Some people know an awful lot about the Bible, but it doesn’t impact the way they live their lives. They are like the person described in 1 Corinthians 13:2: “If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I knew all the mysteries of the future and knew everything about everything, but didn't love others, what good would I be?” The value of your study is demonstrated in the impact it makes on the way you live your life.
You see, you can study and not let it impact your life. There are a lot of things I studied throughout my years of school that have little impact on the way I live my life. There are a lot of things that I learned to take a test, and I aced the test and had a 4.34 gpa when I graduated from high school, and I couldn’t tell you the first thing about some of those things today. It's like Sam Cooke’s song “A Wonderful World” says, “Don’t know much about history, don’t know much biology, don’t know much about a science book, don’t know much about the French I took, but I do know that I love you, and I know that if you love me, too, what a wonderful world it would be.”
You see, knowledge alone is not enough. It has to impact the way you live your life. Look at James 1:22: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” Here’s what can happen. You can use studying as a way of covering up for the fact that your life is not in keeping with the teachings of Jesus. "Well, I’ve got this one area of my life that I’m ashamed of, that is a dark secret, that I don’t want anybody to know about, so I’ll cover it up by acting super religious and really studying the Bible."
But the problem is that knowledge by itself produces arrogance. “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God” (1 Corinthians 8:1-3). Studying without application, without love in your life, causes you to think you are better than everybody else. In your Christian life, inspiration without application leads to constipation. Let me be really honest with you, the last thing a lot of Christians need is another Bible study. They’ve already got so much knowledge that they are about to pop. What they need is to get plugged in to a ministry team, go on a mission trip, serve our community, do something with what they know, apply it to their lives.
It’s not about knowing the rules. It’s about a relationship. It’s about knowing God and being known by God. It’s about falling more and more in love with him. It’s not about knowing the rules. It’s about knowing the God who gave the rules, understanding his heart, and living and loving the kind of life he wants us as followers of Christ to live. The goal of study is not knowledge. The goal is to become just like Christ.
So, the first wrong idea is that following Jesus is about knowing the rules. Then, the second wrong idea is that following Jesus is about appearances. This one is a little different from the first one. Whereas the first one says knowing the rules is what is really important, the second one says it’s all about what’s on the outside, what other people see, your appearance that really counts. One of the dangers as a Christian is that you think that what Jesus is concerned about is just making you a good person. Or you think, as long as I am good on the outside, nobody will know about what’s wrong on the inside. Or as long as I’m good around certain people, as long as I’m a good person on certain days of the week, as long as I keep up the illusion that I’m a good Christian, then I’m okay.
Well, take a look at what Jesus says about the Pharisees. “Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long” (Matthew 23:5). Everything they do is done for men to see. There are a lot of different variations on this one. There are religious profiteers, pastors who are using Christianity as a way to make money. So, they preach good sermons, and they look nice, and they treat people kindly. But it’s all with impure motives. It’s all to gain monetarily for themselves. Then there are people who use Christianity to gain standing with other people, to increase their business contacts. Then there are people who just want a pat on the back. They want other people to tell them about how good they are and what a wonderful person they are.
The problem with all of these motivations for “being good” is that they only go skin deep. It’s kind of like the way I used to clean my room when I was a kid. My brother and I shared a room together, two teenage boys, so you can imagine. My mom didn’t even dare try to go in there very often. But every once in a while, she would decide that we had to clean our room. So, we would go through and shove stuff in the closet and under the bed and on shelves, just enough to get Mom off our case. One day later, it’s back to the same or worse condition than what it was in. It wasn’t really clean. It just looked that way with a casual glance. It’s like what Jesus said about the Pharisees:
The problem is that study does not have the power to produce a changed life. Now, don’t get me wrong, I believe there is tremendous value and importance to studying the Bible. I mean, I spent eight and a half years after I got out of high school in college and grad school studying the Bible. I spend hours each week studying and preparing for the message. The problem is when studying becomes a substitute for living out the teachings of Scripture. Some people know an awful lot about the Bible, but it doesn’t impact the way they live their lives. They are like the person described in 1 Corinthians 13:2: “If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I knew all the mysteries of the future and knew everything about everything, but didn't love others, what good would I be?” The value of your study is demonstrated in the impact it makes on the way you live your life.
You see, you can study and not let it impact your life. There are a lot of things I studied throughout my years of school that have little impact on the way I live my life. There are a lot of things that I learned to take a test, and I aced the test and had a 4.34 gpa when I graduated from high school, and I couldn’t tell you the first thing about some of those things today. It's like Sam Cooke’s song “A Wonderful World” says, “Don’t know much about history, don’t know much biology, don’t know much about a science book, don’t know much about the French I took, but I do know that I love you, and I know that if you love me, too, what a wonderful world it would be.”
You see, knowledge alone is not enough. It has to impact the way you live your life. Look at James 1:22: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” Here’s what can happen. You can use studying as a way of covering up for the fact that your life is not in keeping with the teachings of Jesus. "Well, I’ve got this one area of my life that I’m ashamed of, that is a dark secret, that I don’t want anybody to know about, so I’ll cover it up by acting super religious and really studying the Bible."
But the problem is that knowledge by itself produces arrogance. “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God” (1 Corinthians 8:1-3). Studying without application, without love in your life, causes you to think you are better than everybody else. In your Christian life, inspiration without application leads to constipation. Let me be really honest with you, the last thing a lot of Christians need is another Bible study. They’ve already got so much knowledge that they are about to pop. What they need is to get plugged in to a ministry team, go on a mission trip, serve our community, do something with what they know, apply it to their lives.
It’s not about knowing the rules. It’s about a relationship. It’s about knowing God and being known by God. It’s about falling more and more in love with him. It’s not about knowing the rules. It’s about knowing the God who gave the rules, understanding his heart, and living and loving the kind of life he wants us as followers of Christ to live. The goal of study is not knowledge. The goal is to become just like Christ.
So, the first wrong idea is that following Jesus is about knowing the rules. Then, the second wrong idea is that following Jesus is about appearances. This one is a little different from the first one. Whereas the first one says knowing the rules is what is really important, the second one says it’s all about what’s on the outside, what other people see, your appearance that really counts. One of the dangers as a Christian is that you think that what Jesus is concerned about is just making you a good person. Or you think, as long as I am good on the outside, nobody will know about what’s wrong on the inside. Or as long as I’m good around certain people, as long as I’m a good person on certain days of the week, as long as I keep up the illusion that I’m a good Christian, then I’m okay.
Well, take a look at what Jesus says about the Pharisees. “Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long” (Matthew 23:5). Everything they do is done for men to see. There are a lot of different variations on this one. There are religious profiteers, pastors who are using Christianity as a way to make money. So, they preach good sermons, and they look nice, and they treat people kindly. But it’s all with impure motives. It’s all to gain monetarily for themselves. Then there are people who use Christianity to gain standing with other people, to increase their business contacts. Then there are people who just want a pat on the back. They want other people to tell them about how good they are and what a wonderful person they are.
The problem with all of these motivations for “being good” is that they only go skin deep. It’s kind of like the way I used to clean my room when I was a kid. My brother and I shared a room together, two teenage boys, so you can imagine. My mom didn’t even dare try to go in there very often. But every once in a while, she would decide that we had to clean our room. So, we would go through and shove stuff in the closet and under the bed and on shelves, just enough to get Mom off our case. One day later, it’s back to the same or worse condition than what it was in. It wasn’t really clean. It just looked that way with a casual glance. It’s like what Jesus said about the Pharisees:
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” Matthew 23:25-28
You see, Jesus wants more than just Bible study, head knowledge, and he wants more than just outward obedience. He wants your heart. Again, this really is about following Jesus, loving him, developing a relationship with him, and allowing him to change you from the inside out.
So, the first wrong idea is that following Jesus is about knowing the rules. The second one is that following Jesus is about appearances. Then, the final wrong idea is that following Jesus is about me. And this is a really common idea, that following Jesus is about my comfort and my wants and desires and my pleasure and achieving my goals and my fame. It comes out in the idea that church should be about making me comfortable. It comes out when people feel like they aren’t getting patted on the back enough. It comes out when we feel like life is not going our way.
And that’s the attitude that many of the Pharisees had. In the end, their religion was about making them look good, achieving fame for themselves, getting glory for them.
“They love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them 'Rabbi.'” Matthew 23:6-7).
"Beware of these teachers of religious law! For they love to parade in flowing robes and to have everyone bow to them as they walk in the marketplaces. And how they love the seats of honor in the synagogues and at banquets. But they shamelessly cheat widows out of their property, and then, to cover up the kind of people they really are, they make long prayers in public. Because of this, their punishment will be the greater." Mark 12:38-40 (NLT)
The notion here is that the point of Christianity is to make much of me, to glorify me, to exalt me. And nothing could be further from the truth. The point is it’s all about God. It’s not about me. Following Christ is about making much of Christ and little of me. It’s all about giving God all the glory and honor and fame. And there are two ways you can do that. First, by serving other people. A priority in the kingdom of God is not status, but service, giving myself away for other people. Jesus says, in Matthew 23:11-12, “The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” God’s system works completely different from the way the world’s system works. In God’s system, the leaders are the servants, the greatest are those who give themselves away, those who will be promoted are those who intentionally debase themselves for the sake of others.
Then, the second way you give God all the glory is by pointing other people to him. Lk. 5:31-32: “Jesus answered them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’” When I start thinking the point of following Jesus is all about me, then I have completely missed the point. When I start thinking the focus of my Christian life and the church and my relationships with other people is about me and my comfort and my needs and desires, I have lost sight of what Jesus’ whole purpose was about. He came to call sinners. The best way for me to take the focus off of me is by pointing other people to Jesus. Go on a mission trip, help us hand out hot chocolate at the Christmas parade, help us give away breakfast to commuters, develop a relationship with a friend at work and invite them to The Crossroads, tell them your story of life in Jesus. Point other people to Jesus.
So many people settle for a substitute Jesus, a Jesus who just doesn’t measure up to the real thing. You can receive the real Jesus today.
Then, the second way you give God all the glory is by pointing other people to him. Lk. 5:31-32: “Jesus answered them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’” When I start thinking the point of following Jesus is all about me, then I have completely missed the point. When I start thinking the focus of my Christian life and the church and my relationships with other people is about me and my comfort and my needs and desires, I have lost sight of what Jesus’ whole purpose was about. He came to call sinners. The best way for me to take the focus off of me is by pointing other people to Jesus. Go on a mission trip, help us hand out hot chocolate at the Christmas parade, help us give away breakfast to commuters, develop a relationship with a friend at work and invite them to The Crossroads, tell them your story of life in Jesus. Point other people to Jesus.
So many people settle for a substitute Jesus, a Jesus who just doesn’t measure up to the real thing. You can receive the real Jesus today.
Chase the Lion - Part 7: Looking Foolish
The following message is from The Crossroads Community Church message series "Chase the Lion." The messages are inspired by and adapted from the book In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and the accompanying messages by Mark Batterson, pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C.
Today, we are closing out our series called “Chase the Lion.” And “Chase the Lion” has been all about answering the question “What if the life you really want and the future god wants for you are hiding right now in your biggest problem, your worst failure … your greatest fear?” God wants to use those challenges in your life, and he doesn’t want you to back down from them.
Today, we are going to look at the last characteristic of being a lion-chaser, and that is looking foolish. Each week we have been looking at the same story from the Bible through these seven different lenses: defying odds, facing your fears, overcoming adversity, embracing uncertainty, taking risks, seizing opportunities, and now looking foolish. This all comes from 2 Sam. 23:20-23:
Benaiah was one of David’s mighty men, his elite forces. There are three instances recorded in 2 Samuel 23 about Benaiah’s life. He faced off against two mighty Moabite warriors, he took on a giant Egyptian who had a spear with only a club, and one snowy day, he chased a lion into a pit and killed it. And as a result of all those feats of strength and courage and daring, he eventually becomes captain of David’s bodyguard, and eventually commander of all the army of Israel.
But I want you to imagine, what if Benaiah had encountered the lion, chased the lion, the lion falls in a pit, Benaiah jumps in after him, and the lion kills him. What would everybody have thought? Would he have been remembered as a valiant warrior? Would he have been considered a mighty man? No. He would have been thought a fool. His tombstone would have said, “Here lies Benaiah, a complete idiot.”
But, you know, I believe deep down inside every follower of Jesus Christ, there is a primal desire to do something crazy for God. We want to chase a lion like Benaiah. But our fear of looking foolish keeps us from attempting some amazing things for God.
Poll after poll shows that most people’s number one fear is the fear of speaking in public. Death ranks number two. That means there are a lot of people who would rather die than speak in public. Why? It’s the fear of looking foolish.
But, the willingness to look foolish is one of the key facets of faith. Throughout history, the people who God uses most are the people who are willing to look the most foolish. Noah looked foolish building a giant boat in the middle of the desert where it had never rained and nobody even knew what rain was. Sarah looked foolish buying maternity clothes when she was 90 years old. The Israelites looked foolish when they laid siege to the fortified city of Jericho by marching around it and blowing on trumpets. David looked foolish as a teenage boy attacking a giant with a sling shot and a stone. Benaiah looked foolish chasing a lion. The wise men looked foolish following a star for thousands of miles to find a baby. Peter looked foolish stepping out of a boat in the middle of a lake. And Jesus looked foolish hanging half-naked on a cross dying for the very people who were executing him.
But Noah was saved from the flood. Sarah gave birth to Isaac. The walls of Jericho came crashing down. David killed Goliath. Benaiah killed the lion. The wise men found the Messiah. Peter walked on water. And Jesus rose from the dead. Do you know why so many of us haven’t killed a giant or walked on water or seen the walls come tumbling down? Because we aren’t willing to look foolish.
Now, today, I want to show you two hindrances that you have to let go of to be able to embrace looking foolish for God, or how to look foolish. Now, look, it’s easy to look foolish. Literally, any idiot can look foolish. The key is, being willing to look foolish for God so that you can embrace the life God has for you. You see, following God’s purpose and plan and God’s will for your life will often look foolish to other people. Look at what 1 Corinthians 1:27 says, “God deliberately chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise.” God delights in using things that look foolish from a human perspective, because when he does amazing things through foolish things, two things happen: he gets the glory, and human wisdom gets confounded.
So, let’s take a look at how to look foolish, two hindrances to you being willing to look foolish for God. First, you have to let go of the need to conform. The need to fit in, the need to be like everybody else, the need to do what everybody else is doing, the need to go with the flow, to follow the crowd. The refusal to stand out from the crowd. We are often hindered from our ability to chase lions that God puts in our path and embrace the life that God has for us, because we don’t want to be different. We don’t want to stand out from the crowd.
The essence of Jesus’ teaching here on earth is the Sermon on the Mount, this sermon Jesus preached one day on a hillside by the Sea of Galilee. And, kind of the theme verse for the sermon on the mount is Mt. 6:8: “Do not be like them.” Jesus wants us to be non-conformists. Don’t do what everybody else is doing just because everybody else is doing it. Don’t think or act or be like everybody else.
There’s this thing educators call divergent thinking. And divergent thinking is intellectual originality. It is creativity and counterintuitive thought. It is creative thinking. It’s seeing things from a different perspective, doing things your own way. Between the ages of three and five, ninety-eight percent of children score in genius category for divergent thinking. Between the ages of eight and ten, the percentage drops to thirty-two percent. By the time they are teenagers it drops to ten percent, and after age twenty-five, only two percent of us score in the genius category for divergent thinking. Gradually, we are taught and pressured and trained to be like everybody else and think like everybody else and act like everybody else.
But I think divergent thinking, divergent spirituality is one of the keys to spiritual maturity. Rom. 12:2 says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” We are supposed to proactively resist conforming. And not just that, we are supposed to be transformed, continually being reshaped and refashioned. And, we are supposed to be tranformers ("more than meets the eye"). We are supposed to actively bring about transformation in the world around us.
Somewhere along the way, I think we may have missed the point. Christians are supposed to be non-conformists. Yet, somehow, Christians have become the most conforming group in our society. We look the same, act the same, talk the same, vote the same. We are the most conservative people in our nation. But we are supposed to be the change agents. We should be dangerous to be around.
Hello, have you read the Bible? God tells Ezekiel to cook his food over dung for a year. He tells Hosea to marry a prostitute. He speaks to Balaam through a donkey. One time, just for kicks, he afflicts the Philistines with a plague of hemorrhoids. His Son was born in a barn. None of that is normal. But here’s what I’ve learned. There’s no such thing as normal. As soon as we get over our need to conform to whatever normal is, we will be much freer to do what God has called us to do with our lives.
Look at John 8:36: “So if the Son makes you free, you will be truly free.” As Christians, we should be the freest people in the world to be the person God has called us to be. To stop trying to be like everybody else, and be the person God has called us to be. I believe Christians should be the most creative people in the world. I believe we should be the best artists, the best musicians, the best writers, the best scientists, the best thinkers the world has ever known, because we are free to be who we really are. When you have experienced the freedom that comes from knowing Christ, then you don’t worry about looking foolish.
Then, the second thing you have to do to look foolish is let go of pride. You see, another reason we are afraid to look foolish is because we are afraid of what other people will think of us. We have to let go of the need to be cool, the need to be accepted, the need to be popular. We have to let go of ego, let go of self. When you are more worried about your self-image than pleasing God, you can’t be used by God. In fact, when you begin to exalt yourself over God in your life, it won’t be long before God does something to humble you. “God sets himself against the proud, but he shows favor to the humble” (James 4:6). When you try to protect your own ego at the expense of what God wants you to do, in other words, when you aren’t willing to look foolish for God, you cut yourself off from being used by God in a significant way.
One of my favorite stories in the Bible is when David brought the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem. The ark was this gold-covered box that represented God’s presence among his people. It had originally lived in the tabernacle, the place of worship for people in the Old Testament. But it had been hidden away for the last hundred years. So, David decides to bring it back to Jerusalem, and has some trouble along the way getting it there. Finally, he gets the ark to Jerusalem. And the Bible says that as the ark is entering the city, that David leads the procession and he strips down to his underoos and dances before the Lord with all his might. Well, his wife, Michal is watching, and when David walks through the door, she says, dripping with sarcasm, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls.” And I love David’s response.
Today, we are closing out our series called “Chase the Lion.” And “Chase the Lion” has been all about answering the question “What if the life you really want and the future god wants for you are hiding right now in your biggest problem, your worst failure … your greatest fear?” God wants to use those challenges in your life, and he doesn’t want you to back down from them.
Today, we are going to look at the last characteristic of being a lion-chaser, and that is looking foolish. Each week we have been looking at the same story from the Bible through these seven different lenses: defying odds, facing your fears, overcoming adversity, embracing uncertainty, taking risks, seizing opportunities, and now looking foolish. This all comes from 2 Sam. 23:20-23:
“There was also Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant warrior from Kabzeel. He did many heroic deeds, which included killing two of Moab's mightiest warriors. Another time he chased a lion down into a pit. Then, despite the snow and slippery ground, he caught the lion and killed it. Another time, armed only with a club, he killed a great Egyptian warrior who was armed with a spear. Benaiah wrenched the spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed him with it.”
Benaiah was one of David’s mighty men, his elite forces. There are three instances recorded in 2 Samuel 23 about Benaiah’s life. He faced off against two mighty Moabite warriors, he took on a giant Egyptian who had a spear with only a club, and one snowy day, he chased a lion into a pit and killed it. And as a result of all those feats of strength and courage and daring, he eventually becomes captain of David’s bodyguard, and eventually commander of all the army of Israel.
But I want you to imagine, what if Benaiah had encountered the lion, chased the lion, the lion falls in a pit, Benaiah jumps in after him, and the lion kills him. What would everybody have thought? Would he have been remembered as a valiant warrior? Would he have been considered a mighty man? No. He would have been thought a fool. His tombstone would have said, “Here lies Benaiah, a complete idiot.”
But, you know, I believe deep down inside every follower of Jesus Christ, there is a primal desire to do something crazy for God. We want to chase a lion like Benaiah. But our fear of looking foolish keeps us from attempting some amazing things for God.
Poll after poll shows that most people’s number one fear is the fear of speaking in public. Death ranks number two. That means there are a lot of people who would rather die than speak in public. Why? It’s the fear of looking foolish.
But, the willingness to look foolish is one of the key facets of faith. Throughout history, the people who God uses most are the people who are willing to look the most foolish. Noah looked foolish building a giant boat in the middle of the desert where it had never rained and nobody even knew what rain was. Sarah looked foolish buying maternity clothes when she was 90 years old. The Israelites looked foolish when they laid siege to the fortified city of Jericho by marching around it and blowing on trumpets. David looked foolish as a teenage boy attacking a giant with a sling shot and a stone. Benaiah looked foolish chasing a lion. The wise men looked foolish following a star for thousands of miles to find a baby. Peter looked foolish stepping out of a boat in the middle of a lake. And Jesus looked foolish hanging half-naked on a cross dying for the very people who were executing him.
But Noah was saved from the flood. Sarah gave birth to Isaac. The walls of Jericho came crashing down. David killed Goliath. Benaiah killed the lion. The wise men found the Messiah. Peter walked on water. And Jesus rose from the dead. Do you know why so many of us haven’t killed a giant or walked on water or seen the walls come tumbling down? Because we aren’t willing to look foolish.
Now, today, I want to show you two hindrances that you have to let go of to be able to embrace looking foolish for God, or how to look foolish. Now, look, it’s easy to look foolish. Literally, any idiot can look foolish. The key is, being willing to look foolish for God so that you can embrace the life God has for you. You see, following God’s purpose and plan and God’s will for your life will often look foolish to other people. Look at what 1 Corinthians 1:27 says, “God deliberately chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise.” God delights in using things that look foolish from a human perspective, because when he does amazing things through foolish things, two things happen: he gets the glory, and human wisdom gets confounded.
So, let’s take a look at how to look foolish, two hindrances to you being willing to look foolish for God. First, you have to let go of the need to conform. The need to fit in, the need to be like everybody else, the need to do what everybody else is doing, the need to go with the flow, to follow the crowd. The refusal to stand out from the crowd. We are often hindered from our ability to chase lions that God puts in our path and embrace the life that God has for us, because we don’t want to be different. We don’t want to stand out from the crowd.
The essence of Jesus’ teaching here on earth is the Sermon on the Mount, this sermon Jesus preached one day on a hillside by the Sea of Galilee. And, kind of the theme verse for the sermon on the mount is Mt. 6:8: “Do not be like them.” Jesus wants us to be non-conformists. Don’t do what everybody else is doing just because everybody else is doing it. Don’t think or act or be like everybody else.
There’s this thing educators call divergent thinking. And divergent thinking is intellectual originality. It is creativity and counterintuitive thought. It is creative thinking. It’s seeing things from a different perspective, doing things your own way. Between the ages of three and five, ninety-eight percent of children score in genius category for divergent thinking. Between the ages of eight and ten, the percentage drops to thirty-two percent. By the time they are teenagers it drops to ten percent, and after age twenty-five, only two percent of us score in the genius category for divergent thinking. Gradually, we are taught and pressured and trained to be like everybody else and think like everybody else and act like everybody else.
But I think divergent thinking, divergent spirituality is one of the keys to spiritual maturity. Rom. 12:2 says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” We are supposed to proactively resist conforming. And not just that, we are supposed to be transformed, continually being reshaped and refashioned. And, we are supposed to be tranformers ("more than meets the eye"). We are supposed to actively bring about transformation in the world around us.
Somewhere along the way, I think we may have missed the point. Christians are supposed to be non-conformists. Yet, somehow, Christians have become the most conforming group in our society. We look the same, act the same, talk the same, vote the same. We are the most conservative people in our nation. But we are supposed to be the change agents. We should be dangerous to be around.
Hello, have you read the Bible? God tells Ezekiel to cook his food over dung for a year. He tells Hosea to marry a prostitute. He speaks to Balaam through a donkey. One time, just for kicks, he afflicts the Philistines with a plague of hemorrhoids. His Son was born in a barn. None of that is normal. But here’s what I’ve learned. There’s no such thing as normal. As soon as we get over our need to conform to whatever normal is, we will be much freer to do what God has called us to do with our lives.
Look at John 8:36: “So if the Son makes you free, you will be truly free.” As Christians, we should be the freest people in the world to be the person God has called us to be. To stop trying to be like everybody else, and be the person God has called us to be. I believe Christians should be the most creative people in the world. I believe we should be the best artists, the best musicians, the best writers, the best scientists, the best thinkers the world has ever known, because we are free to be who we really are. When you have experienced the freedom that comes from knowing Christ, then you don’t worry about looking foolish.
Then, the second thing you have to do to look foolish is let go of pride. You see, another reason we are afraid to look foolish is because we are afraid of what other people will think of us. We have to let go of the need to be cool, the need to be accepted, the need to be popular. We have to let go of ego, let go of self. When you are more worried about your self-image than pleasing God, you can’t be used by God. In fact, when you begin to exalt yourself over God in your life, it won’t be long before God does something to humble you. “God sets himself against the proud, but he shows favor to the humble” (James 4:6). When you try to protect your own ego at the expense of what God wants you to do, in other words, when you aren’t willing to look foolish for God, you cut yourself off from being used by God in a significant way.
One of my favorite stories in the Bible is when David brought the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem. The ark was this gold-covered box that represented God’s presence among his people. It had originally lived in the tabernacle, the place of worship for people in the Old Testament. But it had been hidden away for the last hundred years. So, David decides to bring it back to Jerusalem, and has some trouble along the way getting it there. Finally, he gets the ark to Jerusalem. And the Bible says that as the ark is entering the city, that David leads the procession and he strips down to his underoos and dances before the Lord with all his might. Well, his wife, Michal is watching, and when David walks through the door, she says, dripping with sarcasm, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls.” And I love David’s response.
“David retorted to Michal, ‘I was dancing before the LORD, who chose me above your father and his family! [Just a little dig there.] He appointed me as the leader of Israel, the people of the LORD. So I am willing to act like a fool in order to show my joy in the LORD. Yes, and I am willing to look even more foolish than this.” 2 Samuel 6:21-22
David didn’t care what Michal or anybody else thought. He was willing to put his pride on the line to totally give himself in worship of the Lord. He says, you think I acted like a fool today. Well, I was doing it all for the Lord, and when it comes to what I’m willing to do to show my love for the Lord, you ain’t seen nothing yet. I’ll become even more foolish than this. That’s the kind of life God uses, people who are willing to lay it all on the line for God. Look at what Jesus says about following him, Matthew 16:25: “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.”
The fear of foolishness paralyzes us in life. I can’t share my faith—I might look foolish. I can’t pray for a miracle—I might look foolish. I can’t get involved in a ministry—I might look foolish. I can’t seek out counseling—I might look foolish. I can’t change majors—I might look foolish. I can’t quit my job—I might look foolish. I can’t ask them out on a date—I might look foolish. I can’t raise my hand—I might look foolish. I can’t be baptized in front of everybody—I might look foolish.
But if you will be willing to look foolish for God, if you will embrace the incredible life God has for you, you just might find that there is some amazing stuff God wants to do in your life. Look at 1 Corinthians 1:25: “This ‘foolish’ plan of God is far wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God's weakness is far stronger than the greatest of human strength.”
So, what lion is God calling you to chase? Let me give you a lion chaser’s manifesto: Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Grab life by the mane. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Keep asking questions. Keep making mistakes. Keep seeking God. Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop repeating the past and start creating the future. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Expand your horizons. Accumulate experiences. Enjoy the journey. Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can. Don’t let what’s wrong with you keep you from worshipping what’s right with God. Burn sinful bridges. Blaze a new trail. Criticize by creating. Worry less about what people think and more about what God thinks. Don’t try to be who you’re not. Be yourself. Laugh at your-self. Quit holding out. Quit holding back. Quit running away. Chase the lion!
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Chase the Lion - Part 6: Seizing Opportunities
The following message is from The Crossroads Community Church message series "Chase the Lion." The messages are inspired by and adapted from the book In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and the accompanying messages by Mark Batterson, pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C.“Chase the Lion” is all about answering the question “What if the life you really want and the future God wants for you are hiding right now in your biggest problem, your worst failure … your greatest fear?” God wants to use those challenges in your life, and he doesn’t want you to back down from them.
Now, today, we are going to talk about seizing opportunities. We all love Starbucks. Starbucks is literally a worldwide phenomenon. It is synonymous with coffee and coffeehouses. It seems like there is a Starbucks on every street corner, every mall and every hospital in America. Pretty soon there are going to be Starbucks in Starbucks. But it didn’t start out that way.
When Howard Schultz purchased Starbucks on August 15, 1987 it was a small chain of coffeehouses in Seattle. Nothing more. Nothing less. Howard Schultz said his big, audacious goal was to open a store in Portland, Oregon. A few decades later, there are 15,000 stores in 44 countries with approximately 35 million customer visits every week! And for what it’s worth, Starbucks opens 5 new stores every day 365 days a year.
But Howard Schultz almost passed up the opportunity because it seemed too big. Schultz said it felt like a case of the salmon swallowing the whale. In other words, it seemed like a 500 pound lion. The asking price was $4 million. Schultz describes it this way in his autobiography, Pour Your Heart Into It:
“This is my moment, I thought. If I don’t seize the opportunity, if I don’t step out of my comfort zone and risk it all, if I let too much time tick on, my moment will pass. I knew that if I didn’t take advantage of this opportunity, I would replay it in my mind for my whole life, wondering: What if?”On June 26, 1992—less than five years after Howard Schultz seized the opportunity—Starbucks’ stock went public. It was the second most active stock traded on the NASDAQ and by the closing bell, its market capitalization stood at $273 million. Not bad for a $4 million investment. Schultz saw an opportunity and he seized it.
So, today, we’re going to talk about how to seize opportunities in your life. Benaiah, the guy in the Old Testament that we are looking at, seized the opportunities that were put in front of him.
“There was also Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant warrior from Kabzeel. He did many heroic deeds, which included killing two of Moab's mightiest warriors. Another time he chased a lion down into a pit. Then, despite the snow and slippery ground, he caught the lion and killed it. Another time, armed only with a club, he killed a great Egyptian warrior who was armed with a spear. Benaiah wrenched the spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed him with it. These are some of the deeds that made Benaiah almost as famous as the Three. He was more honored than the other members of the Thirty, though he was not one of the Three. And David made him commander of his bodyguard.” 2 Samuel 23:20-23 (NLT)The biggest dangers, the scariest moments, the most challenging times, the biggest lions, become the doors of opportunity for Benaiah.
There’s this verse, tucked away in Colossians 4 that maybe you have missed. Colossians 4:5: “Make the most of every opportunity.” This Scripture doesn’t specify how many or how few opportunities. It doesn’t quantify how small or how large the opportunity. We simply need to make the most of every opportunity. The word translated opportunity in Colossians 4:5 is the Greek word kairos. It refers to a serendipitous window of opportunity.
During the holidays, a lot of times you will see signs in advertisements that says “for a limited time only.” You could post that across so many of the opportunities that God places in our lives, “for a limited time only.” So, you have the seize moment, take advantage of the opportunities while they present themselves.
Seeing and seizing opportunities is an underappreciated dimension of spiritual maturity. We are surrounded by God-ordained opportunities—opportunities to love, opportunities to laugh, opportunities to give, opportunities to learn, opportunities to serve. Seeing and seizing those opportunities is at the heart of what it means to follow Christ and be filled with the Spirit.
So, how do you seize opportunities by the mane? How do you take advantage of the opportunities that come along in life? And, listen, before we go any further, it’s important to understand that I’m talking about the opportunities that God gives you to make a difference in the world, not just any old opportunity.
Well, you do three things. First, be alert. You’ve got to be alert to the opportunities that arise in your life. A lot of the opportunities that come along in life, we don’t seize them because we don’t see them. We get so tied up in our own worlds and in the things that we have to do, that we miss the things that God wants us to do in life. So, we have to change our focus. I love the Message translation of Colossians 3:2:
“Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that's where the action is. See things from his perspective.”
What causes us to miss opportunities so often is that we can’t see past what we have to get done right now. It’s the tyranny of the urgent. The urgent stuff in our lives keeps us from being able to do anything else. There’s all this stuff that has to get done, so we miss out on what needs to be done. So, you have to go through life with eyes open to see what is happening around you that has kingdom significance. See other people through the eyes of Jesus.
Look at Ephesians 5:16-17: “Make the most of every opportunity for doing good in these evil days. Don't act thoughtlessly, but try to understand what the Lord wants you to do.” You see, the Bible teaches us that God is always at work around you. God is always working all of history to bring about his purpose and his plan. And you’ve got to be ready when your moment arrives. You’ve got to be on the lookout for where God is at work. To do that, you have to give consideration to what God is doing in your life. You can’t be thoughtless. But let me tell you a little secret from the life of Benaiah. Most of the life-changing, world-changing moments in your life don’t look that way in the beginning.
They usually appear in one of two ways. Either, they are a mustard seed. They’re tiny, just a little dream that you may have. A casual conversation with someone where God stirs something in your heart. Several years ago, I went on a mission trip to Mexico doing Vacation Bible School during the summer. While I was there, the missionary told me that each year, hundreds of people die in the city during the winter because of exposure or because they build little charcoal fires to keep warm and die of carbon monoxide poisoning. Their lives could literally be saved by a blanket. Just a little conversation. But it stirred something in me. And when I got back home, I talked to our church about it. That first year at Christmas we delivered 150 blankets to Mexico. Three years later, we delivered 1,400 blankets to Mexico. You’ve got to be alert to see those opportunities.
Then, the other way God’s opportunities come into our lives is disguised as 500 pound lions. They present themselves as huge problems, challenges, difficulties. I’m guessing that when Benaiah saw that lion on a snowy day, he wasn’t thinking, “This is my opportunity to rise through the ranks and become commander of Israel’s army.” You take on each of the challenges, each of the opportunities God gives to you, and he gives you greater ones.
So, how do you be alert to see those opportunities. You have to be in prayer mode. Look at Colossians 4:1: “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” The word watchful is a throwback to the Old Testament watchmen whose job it was to sit on the city wall, scan the horizon, and keep watch. They were the first ones to see an attacking army or traveling traders. People who live in prayer mode are watchmen. They see further than others see. They see things before others see them. And they see things other people don’t see. Look at Psalm 5:3: “In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.” When you live life in prayer mode, you expect God to respond, you expect God to do something. And as a result, you are more attuned to what God is doing. Think of it this way, if you are thinking about buying a new car. And you shop around, and you find one car in particular that you really like and you start to think about buying that car. All of a sudden, what happens? Everywhere you go, you start seeing that car. You are attuned to seeing that car. That’s what prayer does in our spiritual lives. As we pray for God to give us opportunities, it creates an awareness in us of those opportunities in life. So, you have to be alert, and prayer is how you do that.
Second, be available. A lot of times we miss opportunities that God gives us to make a difference because we are not available, because we have too much going on. We see the opportunity, we know what we are supposed to do, and we say, “Hey, God that’s great, but I just don’t have time right now. Can you call on me when it’s more convenient?” But the more convenient time never arrives.
Listen, I’m pretty sure that Jesus had the most important job that anyone has ever had ever in the history of the world. I mean, he came to save humanity from their sins. And yet, he was always available to do what the Father wanted him to do. The last week of his life, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, and there was this blind guy who wanted Jesus to heal him. And the guy is calling out to Jesus and making a commotion. And the disciples tell the guy to be quiet. Jesus doesn't have time to mess with him. The story is found in Luke 18:40-41: “Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’” Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to die on a cross for the sins of the world. But for a moment, all of human history is put on hold, because there’s a blind guy who needs a touch from Jesus.
So, here’s what you do. Say, “God, I’m ready to be used by you. And God, I’ve got my schedule, and I’ve got the things that I want to do, and I need to do, but God, at any time today, if you’ve got something you want me to do, feel free to interrupt my schedule at any time. I’m available.” You see, here’s another thing about opportunities. God’s opportunities most often appear as interruptions. Look at Jesus’ life. Most of his miracles, most of his healings, came as a result of an interruption. Healing the blind man, healing the lame man, healing the woman with the hemorrhaging disorder, bringing Jairus’ daughter back to life, they were all interruptions.
Take a look at Benaiah’s life. I’m pretty sure that none of the three stories listed there, the two mighty Moabites, the big Egyptian with the spear, and the lion on a snowy day, I’m pretty sure none of those were on his schedule for the day. They were interruptions.
I don’t think that God takes delight in interrupting our lives. I think it’s that most of the time we don’t leave any space for God, so he has to interrupt our lives. But you’ve got to be ready and available when he does interrupt. Respond like Isaiah did, Isaiah 6:8: "Here am I, Lord, send me." Many of us would respond, “Here am I, Lord, I’m too busy.” People who seize opportunities are people who are ready at a moment’s notice. God wants to use you in amazing and incredible ways. God wants you to make a difference. And God has some opportunities for you that are more amazing than you can imagine, but you have to be available.
Third, to seize opportunity by the mane, take action. When the moment comes, when opportunity arises, don’t just talk about it, don’t stand around and wait, do something. It’s not enough just to be alert. It’s not enough just to be available You’ve got to take action. Take action when the moment arrives. Get into gear and act. Look at Ecclesiastes 11:4: “If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.” If we had waited for perfect conditions to get married, to have kids, to start a church, we never would have done any of those things.
Benaiah seems like the kind of guy who takes action. I mean, chasing a lion into a pit on a snowy day and then jumping in the pit with the lion, not the most logical thing in the world to do. Some people would say, it wasn’t prudent. And maybe there was a voice in the back of Benaiah’s head that said, “Wouldn’t be prudent.” But the Bible doesn’t describe Benaiah as prudent. It says he was valiant. Benaiah could have done what was prudent and run away and maybe he would have survived. But lion chasers aren’t the most prudent people on the planet. They aren’t focused on avoiding problems. They want to chase them down and overcome them. They seize God-sized opportunities by the mane and wrestle them to the ground.
Look, there are times when you should be prudent, do the logical thing, do the responsible thing. But at the end of the day, when it’s all said and done, and they put you in the ground, what would you rather it say on your tombstone, “a prudent person” or “a valiant warrior”?
Take action. James 4:17 says, “Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.” Once you know what you ought to do, do it. The moment you know what God wants you to do is the moment God wants you to start doing something.
The English word opportunity comes from the Latin phrase ob portu. In the days before modern harbors, ships had to wait till flood tide to make it into port. The Latin phrase “ob portu” referred to that moment in time when the tide would turn. The captain and crew would wait for that one moment, and they knew that if they missed it, they would have to wait for another tide to come in. Shakespeare uses this idea in the following lines from Julius Caesar. He says,
Are you going to take the opportunities that are placed before you in life, or are you going to miss them and be bound in shallows all your life, waiting on another opportunity to come.“There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune
Omitted, all the voyage of their lifeIs bound in shallows and in miseries
On such a full sea we are now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.”
Spiritual maturity is all about seeing and seizing opportunities. And that is how our spiritual journey begins. It begins by seizing the greatest opportunity we’ll ever be offered—the opportunity to spend eternity with God. John 1:12 says, “But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.” All we have to do to seize the opportunity is to receive Christ.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Link
Check out Ed Stetzer's blog for an honest evaluation of what we have to do to stem the tide of decline in our churches: http://blogs.lifeway.com/blog/edstetzer/.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Real Jesus - Part 3: Sweet Little Baby Jesus in a Manger
The following is from The Crossroads Community Church message series "Real Jesus" by Pastor Shawn Kemp.
We’ve been looking at some of the popular images of Jesus that are out there and comparing those images with the real Jesus. Now, today, we are going to look at sweet little baby Jesus in a manger. Remember, the first week, I told you about this scene from Talladega Nights where Ricky Bobby is saying the prayer with his family, and he says, "Dear little baby Jesus in the manger..." And he continues to address Jesus throughout the prayer as "Dear 8lb 6oz baby Jesus ... Dear tiny God ... use your little baby Jesus powers." Well, at one point in the prayer, his wife gets frustrated and says, "Ricky, I don't know why you keep referring to Jesus as a baby. He was a grown man, you know. He had a beard, for crying out loud." To which Ricky Bobby responds, "I like the baby Jesus best. When you say the prayer you can pray to teenage Jesus or grown up Jesus or whichever Jesus you like best." He likes sweet little baby Jesus in a manger the best. And a lot of people do.
Now, this image of Jesus is just what it says. It is the image of Jesus as an adorable, peaceful, serene little baby, lying in a manger, just as sweet as he can be.
Now, there’s certainly nothing wrong with this image. There are just certain sights and smells and sounds and experiences that we always associate with Christmas. And one of the most familiar images of Christmas and certainly the most important is a manger scene, a nativity, Joseph and Mary, the baby Jesus lying in a manger, a feed trough, in a stable, surrounded by livestock, shepherds surrounding them.
So, it’s an important image, it’s just not all there is to the story. The Son of God has come, and He is born in a stable and laid in a manger.
We’ve been looking at some of the popular images of Jesus that are out there and comparing those images with the real Jesus. Now, today, we are going to look at sweet little baby Jesus in a manger. Remember, the first week, I told you about this scene from Talladega Nights where Ricky Bobby is saying the prayer with his family, and he says, "Dear little baby Jesus in the manger..." And he continues to address Jesus throughout the prayer as "Dear 8lb 6oz baby Jesus ... Dear tiny God ... use your little baby Jesus powers." Well, at one point in the prayer, his wife gets frustrated and says, "Ricky, I don't know why you keep referring to Jesus as a baby. He was a grown man, you know. He had a beard, for crying out loud." To which Ricky Bobby responds, "I like the baby Jesus best. When you say the prayer you can pray to teenage Jesus or grown up Jesus or whichever Jesus you like best." He likes sweet little baby Jesus in a manger the best. And a lot of people do.
Now, this image of Jesus is just what it says. It is the image of Jesus as an adorable, peaceful, serene little baby, lying in a manger, just as sweet as he can be.
Now, there’s certainly nothing wrong with this image. There are just certain sights and smells and sounds and experiences that we always associate with Christmas. And one of the most familiar images of Christmas and certainly the most important is a manger scene, a nativity, Joseph and Mary, the baby Jesus lying in a manger, a feed trough, in a stable, surrounded by livestock, shepherds surrounding them.
So, it’s an important image, it’s just not all there is to the story. The Son of God has come, and He is born in a stable and laid in a manger.
“And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. … And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.” Luke 2:1-7 (KJV)
I think we tend to romanticize what happened that night. Our manger scenes are a lot more peaceful than it probably was that night. Mary is obviously pregnant. She is eight months, 29 days, and 23 hours pregnant. Do you know what I mean? I mean, I’ve had a wife who has given birth four times. I have some understanding of what this point in pregnancy is like. There is nothing about Mary that is comfortable at this point. Her feet are swollen; her back is hurting; she’s not getting much sleep at night. They’ve been on the road for the last couple of weeks as they have traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem. And now, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. You know what that is? That’s a pretty way of saying “she went into labor.”
And can’t you just imagine the conversation at this point?
And can’t you just imagine the conversation at this point?
Mary: (in labor) Joseph.
Joseph: Yes, dear.
Mary: It’s time.
Joseph: It’s time?
Mary: It’s time.
Joseph: Now, by “it’s time” you mean …
Mary: (growing more irritated) Joseph!
Joseph: Okay, okay. I just wanted to make sure. I’ll start looking for a place.
Mary: Joseph, if you don’t pull over right now and find a place for me to have this baby, I’m going to have it on this donkey!
Joseph: Okay, honey. But I don’t know where I’m going to stop. All the hotels say, “No vacancy.”
Mary: Just stop at the next place and ask them if they have anywhere that we can stay. Surely they won’t turn away a pregnant woman who’s about to have a baby!
But that is exactly what happens! Joseph comes to the inn looking for a place to stay, but he is turned away because there is no room left. Can you imagine? I mean, it’s no secret to anybody what Mary’s condition is at this point. But they can’t find a place for her. Nobody is willing to give up their space for the night for a woman in labor, about to have a baby. And so, Joseph, I’m sure, is frantic at this point and finds the best place he can come up with on short notice.
Now, we’ve kind of white-washed the story at this point. Most of the images of the manger have it in a stable, a barn. But according to tradition, the manger was not in a stable, but in a cave on the outskirts of town. And that’s how the Son of God came into the world, born in a cave because nobody would make room for him, and laid in a feed trough.
Now, if you are going to understand Real Jesus, then you have to understand why a manger. Why would God choose this way for His Son to come into the world? Why was the Son of God born in a cave and laid in a manger? If Jesus is as we believe, the one and only Son of God, why was He born in such humble circumstances? I mean, it seems like it should have gotten a lot more attention. I mean, it seems like it would have had more impact if it had been an internationally televised event, with billions of people watching. And Jesus could have come down on a lightning bolt right through the hole in the roof in Texas Stadium with an entourage of angels dressed like Secret Service Agents with the black suits and shades and earpieces surrounding Him. And then He could have said in a loud, booming voice, “I am the Son of God.” And the crowd would go wild, and everybody would worship Him.
But that is not how God did it. So why was the Son of God laid in a manger? Why did the angels announce His birth to shepherds and not the powerful rulers in Jerusalem and Rome? Why was He born into the family of a peasant carpenter and his wife instead of in the home of a king or a rich man?
Well, to understand how it is that Jesus Christ, the Savior, the Son of God was born in a cave and laid in a manger first requires that we understand why there was the need for a Savior at all. And to understand that, we need to go way back in time to the very first man and woman and see how it all began. In the very beginning, in Genesis, there was a man and a woman in love. And God said to them: “You can have it all.” Genesis 2:16-17: “The Lord God commanded him, ‘You may eat the fruit from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat the fruit from the tree which gives the knowledge of good and evil. If you ever eat fruit from that tree, you will die!’” Then the woman met someone who came along named Satan who said, “You won't die! God knows that your eyes will be opened when you eat it. You will become just like God, knowing everything, both good and evil.” This is actually where the Christmas story begins: Eve reached up and took a bite of the fruit, and then gave some to her husband and he ate as well. And Adam and Eve who had enjoyed a perfect, personal relationship with God (can you imagine it?) suddenly ran to hide themselves from their loving Father. And God Himself came to walk with them and called out: “Where are you?” And Adam replied, “I heard you, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.” And guilty and full of remorse and anxiety, all things Adam and Eve had never ever experienced before.
But instead of making them pay a price that day, because God had said, “On the day you eat thereof you will surely die,” God had mercy on them, took an animal, probably a lamb and killed it, and with its fleece made clothing for Adam and Eve. Now don’t miss this—Adam and Eve though they had sinned did not immediately die. But their sin DID cause a death, that of the lamb. The first lamb of sacrifice. Right there, right in the Garden, that soon.
So, what happened next? Well, let’s skip forward in time a little bit to a man named Abraham. Abraham and his wife, Sarah, had no children. He had all the sheep he wanted, all the flocks and herds, all the wealth. But he had no children. And he was obeying God; he was walking with God. And one day God said to him:
Now, we’ve kind of white-washed the story at this point. Most of the images of the manger have it in a stable, a barn. But according to tradition, the manger was not in a stable, but in a cave on the outskirts of town. And that’s how the Son of God came into the world, born in a cave because nobody would make room for him, and laid in a feed trough.
Now, if you are going to understand Real Jesus, then you have to understand why a manger. Why would God choose this way for His Son to come into the world? Why was the Son of God born in a cave and laid in a manger? If Jesus is as we believe, the one and only Son of God, why was He born in such humble circumstances? I mean, it seems like it should have gotten a lot more attention. I mean, it seems like it would have had more impact if it had been an internationally televised event, with billions of people watching. And Jesus could have come down on a lightning bolt right through the hole in the roof in Texas Stadium with an entourage of angels dressed like Secret Service Agents with the black suits and shades and earpieces surrounding Him. And then He could have said in a loud, booming voice, “I am the Son of God.” And the crowd would go wild, and everybody would worship Him.
But that is not how God did it. So why was the Son of God laid in a manger? Why did the angels announce His birth to shepherds and not the powerful rulers in Jerusalem and Rome? Why was He born into the family of a peasant carpenter and his wife instead of in the home of a king or a rich man?
Well, to understand how it is that Jesus Christ, the Savior, the Son of God was born in a cave and laid in a manger first requires that we understand why there was the need for a Savior at all. And to understand that, we need to go way back in time to the very first man and woman and see how it all began. In the very beginning, in Genesis, there was a man and a woman in love. And God said to them: “You can have it all.” Genesis 2:16-17: “The Lord God commanded him, ‘You may eat the fruit from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat the fruit from the tree which gives the knowledge of good and evil. If you ever eat fruit from that tree, you will die!’” Then the woman met someone who came along named Satan who said, “You won't die! God knows that your eyes will be opened when you eat it. You will become just like God, knowing everything, both good and evil.” This is actually where the Christmas story begins: Eve reached up and took a bite of the fruit, and then gave some to her husband and he ate as well. And Adam and Eve who had enjoyed a perfect, personal relationship with God (can you imagine it?) suddenly ran to hide themselves from their loving Father. And God Himself came to walk with them and called out: “Where are you?” And Adam replied, “I heard you, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.” And guilty and full of remorse and anxiety, all things Adam and Eve had never ever experienced before.
But instead of making them pay a price that day, because God had said, “On the day you eat thereof you will surely die,” God had mercy on them, took an animal, probably a lamb and killed it, and with its fleece made clothing for Adam and Eve. Now don’t miss this—Adam and Eve though they had sinned did not immediately die. But their sin DID cause a death, that of the lamb. The first lamb of sacrifice. Right there, right in the Garden, that soon.
So, what happened next? Well, let’s skip forward in time a little bit to a man named Abraham. Abraham and his wife, Sarah, had no children. He had all the sheep he wanted, all the flocks and herds, all the wealth. But he had no children. And he was obeying God; he was walking with God. And one day God said to him:
“As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. … I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come.” Genesis 17:3-7 (NIV)
Now, Abraham was 99 years old when God made this promise to him, and he still didn’t have a son, but God promised him that he was going to make him into a multitude of nations through a son that He was going to give him. And the Bible said that Abraham believed God.
Now, not much later God came to Abraham and again said, “I am going to give you a son.” And do you know what Sarah, Abraham’s wife, did? She fell down laughing! Because she was 90 and Abraham was 100. “Are you kidding? What are you saying, God?” But God said, “You and Sarah really are going to have a son. And not only are you going to have a son but through him, through his line, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” Remember, Sarah’s 90.
But you know what? Nothing is too hard for God. And Sarah had a son, and they named him Isaac. Well, more time passed. Isaac was now a young man. And God came back to Abraham and said, “If you trust me, you’ll take your son up on Mount Moriah and offer him to me as a sacrifice.”
Now, not much later God came to Abraham and again said, “I am going to give you a son.” And do you know what Sarah, Abraham’s wife, did? She fell down laughing! Because she was 90 and Abraham was 100. “Are you kidding? What are you saying, God?” But God said, “You and Sarah really are going to have a son. And not only are you going to have a son but through him, through his line, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” Remember, Sarah’s 90.
But you know what? Nothing is too hard for God. And Sarah had a son, and they named him Isaac. Well, more time passed. Isaac was now a young man. And God came back to Abraham and said, “If you trust me, you’ll take your son up on Mount Moriah and offer him to me as a sacrifice.”
“Later on God tested Abraham's faith and obedience. 'Abraham!’ God called. ‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘Here I am.’ ‘Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will point out to you.’” Genesis 22:1-2 (NLT)
Isaac? Sacrifice Isaac? This is the promised son. This is the son through whom God is going to bless the whole earth. This is the son that Abraham loves and cherishes, the son who means everything in the world to him. And yet Abraham continued to believe God, and he got up the next morning to do what God asked him to do. And Abraham, Isaac and some servants headed up toward what is now Jerusalem to Mount Moriah. And the Bible says after a three day journey they could see it. Now three days from their starting point would have brought them near to Bethlehem making their last stop near what is now Bethlehem.
And the Bible says that Abraham and Isaac left the servants there and went on alone. Father and son begin to make the journey from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. Now Abraham put the wood for the sacrifice on the shoulders of his son. The boy’s father laid the wood across the shoulders of his only, much loved son and Isaac carried it himself. Abraham, the father, carried the fire and the knife. And Isaac said, “Here’s the fire. Here’s the knife. Where’s the lamb?” And Abraham replied, "God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." And Abraham went straight ahead and bound up Isaac, laid him on the altar, raised the knife. And we are told in this incredible story that the voice of the Lord said, “Don’t lay a hand on the boy! Because you have believed me enough to offer your only son, you will be blessed beyond what you can imagine.”
So the ropes are cut loose. And as Abraham and Isaac are embracing each other and weeping together, they hear something in the thorn bushes. It was a ram, and his horns were caught in the thicket. And the ram was taken and sacrificed instead of Isaac. Just like Abraham predicted: “God Himself will provide the sacrifice.” Again, don’t lose sight of this fact: Isaac’s life was spared, but not without cost. The ram still died to complete the sacrifice!
And really, that summarizes the belief of the Jewish people throughout the Old Testament: that all those lambs, and goats, and turtle doves, tens and hundreds of thousands of sacrifices offered to the God of Israel, covered the sins of those who disobeyed God. In fact, in the New Testament, the book of Hebrews says, “Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.”
There are countless other instances of lambs of sacrifice. We could talk about the Passover lambs whose blood spared the lives of the first born of the Hebrews in Egypt when the first born of the Egyptians all died. And all the sacrifices around Mount Sinai and all the sacrifices before the tabernacle and still later, all the sacrifices before the Temple of the Lord on the Temple Mount on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem.
Now consider this: At the time of Solomon’s Temple Bethlehem was the location of what was known as the Migdal Eder, the Tower of the Flock. It was the center of the raising of the sacrificial lambs. In fact, all the perfect, first born male lambs, born to the Temple flocks around Bethlehem were KORBAN, set apart from birth to be sacrificed in the Temple. Consider such a lamb, less than a year in age, perfectly formed and completely innocent, taken up to Jerusalem retracing the steps of Abraham and Isaac taken to the great Temple to be sacrificed for sin.
Now, I come to the temple to offer a sacrifice, and I buy one of those lambs and I come to offer it for the forgiveness of my sins. I take the lamb and I hand it to one of the priests at the temple. But the last thing I do before they sacrifice that lamb is I lay my hands on that pure, innocent lamb of Bethlehem, and I confess my sins, my faults, my guilt, my remorse, my separation from God, and He forgives me. But don’t miss this, the lamb still dies in my place.
Now listen to Luke 2:6-7 again, “While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” God Himself looked at the pastures and fields of Bethlehem and remembering all the clues, all the hints, all the foreshadowing, all the prophecy, He brought it all to fulfillment that night. The perfect lamb, the first born male, born in Bethlehem set apart from birth to be The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
The Son of God was not born in a palace not even in a cozy birthing room with a cheery fire but in a stable; a lambing cave. Why? Because where else would the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world have to be born? And what is the confirmation that this conclusion is correct? To whom was the miraculous birth first announced? To the shepherds, keeping watch over their flocks by night, the shepherds of the Temple flocks, the keepers of the lambs of sacrifice who saw, not a newborn lamb lying on the straw but a human and divine baby, lying in the manger. And scripture says that they spread the story everywhere! No doubt they carried the news up to Jerusalem with the next flock of lambs.
Thirty-three years later He walked that same road – the same road of Abraham with Isaac – the same road as thousands of lambs of sacrifice… to the Cross!
WHY A MANGER? It makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? Because Jesus came to be the sacrifice for our sins.“God will provide for himself a lamb for the burnt offering.” “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” What a price? What it cost God for the blood of His only beloved Son to cover our sins… to pay for our salvation!
Now, what is your response to that sacrifice? Come to the manger. Claim the gift of God’s Son. Claim that lamb; that perfect sacrifice; as your own. Lay your hands on him and say, “I accept this great gift of your love and salvation.” No matter who you are…. No matter what you have done… no matter what your life is… no matter what your doubts are… You can receive the gift of God’s love and forgiveness and you can be a part of His family. Why a Manger? The Son of God was born in stable and laid in a manger as the perfect lamb of sacrifice… for you.
And the Bible says that Abraham and Isaac left the servants there and went on alone. Father and son begin to make the journey from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. Now Abraham put the wood for the sacrifice on the shoulders of his son. The boy’s father laid the wood across the shoulders of his only, much loved son and Isaac carried it himself. Abraham, the father, carried the fire and the knife. And Isaac said, “Here’s the fire. Here’s the knife. Where’s the lamb?” And Abraham replied, "God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." And Abraham went straight ahead and bound up Isaac, laid him on the altar, raised the knife. And we are told in this incredible story that the voice of the Lord said, “Don’t lay a hand on the boy! Because you have believed me enough to offer your only son, you will be blessed beyond what you can imagine.”
So the ropes are cut loose. And as Abraham and Isaac are embracing each other and weeping together, they hear something in the thorn bushes. It was a ram, and his horns were caught in the thicket. And the ram was taken and sacrificed instead of Isaac. Just like Abraham predicted: “God Himself will provide the sacrifice.” Again, don’t lose sight of this fact: Isaac’s life was spared, but not without cost. The ram still died to complete the sacrifice!
And really, that summarizes the belief of the Jewish people throughout the Old Testament: that all those lambs, and goats, and turtle doves, tens and hundreds of thousands of sacrifices offered to the God of Israel, covered the sins of those who disobeyed God. In fact, in the New Testament, the book of Hebrews says, “Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.”
There are countless other instances of lambs of sacrifice. We could talk about the Passover lambs whose blood spared the lives of the first born of the Hebrews in Egypt when the first born of the Egyptians all died. And all the sacrifices around Mount Sinai and all the sacrifices before the tabernacle and still later, all the sacrifices before the Temple of the Lord on the Temple Mount on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem.
Now consider this: At the time of Solomon’s Temple Bethlehem was the location of what was known as the Migdal Eder, the Tower of the Flock. It was the center of the raising of the sacrificial lambs. In fact, all the perfect, first born male lambs, born to the Temple flocks around Bethlehem were KORBAN, set apart from birth to be sacrificed in the Temple. Consider such a lamb, less than a year in age, perfectly formed and completely innocent, taken up to Jerusalem retracing the steps of Abraham and Isaac taken to the great Temple to be sacrificed for sin.
Now, I come to the temple to offer a sacrifice, and I buy one of those lambs and I come to offer it for the forgiveness of my sins. I take the lamb and I hand it to one of the priests at the temple. But the last thing I do before they sacrifice that lamb is I lay my hands on that pure, innocent lamb of Bethlehem, and I confess my sins, my faults, my guilt, my remorse, my separation from God, and He forgives me. But don’t miss this, the lamb still dies in my place.
Now listen to Luke 2:6-7 again, “While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” God Himself looked at the pastures and fields of Bethlehem and remembering all the clues, all the hints, all the foreshadowing, all the prophecy, He brought it all to fulfillment that night. The perfect lamb, the first born male, born in Bethlehem set apart from birth to be The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
The Son of God was not born in a palace not even in a cozy birthing room with a cheery fire but in a stable; a lambing cave. Why? Because where else would the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world have to be born? And what is the confirmation that this conclusion is correct? To whom was the miraculous birth first announced? To the shepherds, keeping watch over their flocks by night, the shepherds of the Temple flocks, the keepers of the lambs of sacrifice who saw, not a newborn lamb lying on the straw but a human and divine baby, lying in the manger. And scripture says that they spread the story everywhere! No doubt they carried the news up to Jerusalem with the next flock of lambs.
Thirty-three years later He walked that same road – the same road of Abraham with Isaac – the same road as thousands of lambs of sacrifice… to the Cross!
WHY A MANGER? It makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? Because Jesus came to be the sacrifice for our sins.“God will provide for himself a lamb for the burnt offering.” “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” What a price? What it cost God for the blood of His only beloved Son to cover our sins… to pay for our salvation!
Now, what is your response to that sacrifice? Come to the manger. Claim the gift of God’s Son. Claim that lamb; that perfect sacrifice; as your own. Lay your hands on him and say, “I accept this great gift of your love and salvation.” No matter who you are…. No matter what you have done… no matter what your life is… no matter what your doubts are… You can receive the gift of God’s love and forgiveness and you can be a part of His family. Why a Manger? The Son of God was born in stable and laid in a manger as the perfect lamb of sacrifice… for you.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Mexico Mission Trip
Just got back from a mission trip to Mexico. It was a really amazing time. We took a group of eleven to deliver blankets, stuffed animals, toys, and candy. As we gave away the gifts, we also distributed copies of the Gospel of John.
We went to a little fishing village on the coast called Las Higuerillas. The village is very poverty-stricken and there is little gospel witness there. One day, we traveled by boat to an island in the Gulf where few mission teams have been.
We had one decision for Christ, saw some beautiful people, made some new friends, and shared the love of Christ. I hope to post some pictures this week.
We went to a little fishing village on the coast called Las Higuerillas. The village is very poverty-stricken and there is little gospel witness there. One day, we traveled by boat to an island in the Gulf where few mission teams have been.
We had one decision for Christ, saw some beautiful people, made some new friends, and shared the love of Christ. I hope to post some pictures this week.
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