(Editor's Preface)
C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia were a staple in our home. We have read them together and individually, listened to them via CD's and watched many on film. We wore one set out and had to buy another. We sent them one at a time to Callie in Madagascar when she was in the Peace Corps. One of our favorite lines has been "the first joke!" from The Magician's Nephew. When Aslan created Narnia many animals were selected to become reasoning and therefore talking animals. The Jackdaw, enjoying his new voice for the first time, spoke out and unwittingly created the first joke. Our family byline became, "It's the first __________" (fill in the blank), which always brought a laugh. So, with a Lemont appreciation for all things Narnian, I present . . . The First Sermon. pll
November 25,1979
When I was asked to be here this Sunday, my main concern was, what do I preach on? I asked the advice of a Nazarene pastor who is attending the Moreland church. He said, "Your first sermon should be on the area in your life where you have struggled the hardest to gain victory." It wasn't long after I talked to this pastor that I read the same thing. This was enough to convince me.
Throughout my life, I have always felt the need to do or experience more than just believe in Jesus, His death and resurrection in order to be saved from sin.
At the age of nine, an evangelist conducted services at my church for a two week period. He was an unusual evangelist compared to the ones I have seen and heard since. He preached the entire two weeks on Revelation and the tribulation. He was an artist and photographer along with his gift of evangelism. He used these gifts to produce imagined scenes from the tribulation -- terrible tragedies, broken-hearted people. The thing that put me under the most bondage I have ever known was his sermon that convinced me my parents were going to heaven and I would be left behind to deal with the tribulation and hell. A new and scary idea for a nine year old to consider.
Towards the end of that two week evangelistic campaign, I went forward to beg forgiveness of my sins. The Lord released me from that terrible bondage and blessed me greatly that night. My problem began the next morning.
When I awoke the next day, I remembered the events of the previous night -- how I had been released from a great burden and blessed. That emotional blessing was, in my mind, the proof that Christ had forgiven me. But that morning I had no great emotional feeling, and in fact, I was kind of on the down side.
To me this was proof that I had "lost" Christ. If I had lost that feeling I must have lost Christ. For a while I tried to get the feeling back by doing good deeds and acting the way I thought a Christian should act. That good feeling didn't come back and before long my act was falling apart.
As I grew older I continued to search for an emotional uplift that would ensure me of my salvation. And from time to time, I would try to earn my salvation back by acting like a Christian. Finally, at about the age of nineteen, I gave the whole thing up and decided I couldn't be a Christian at all.
My life went this way for two or three years until I was married and realized that to have a successful marriage, I must try and find Christ. During this time of search, I met someone who told me that I might never have another emotional experience like I had at nine.
He told me that all I needed to do was confess my sins and believe that Jesus' blood made me just as if I had never sinned. As I believed, there would be a peace that emotional highs couldn't give. As I believed, the good deeds would no longer be an act.
The key has always been faith or believing in Jesus as the Christ, the only Son of God.
As we read in John 3:16, God loved the world so much He sent His Son to die for our sins. This simple verse tells us several great things.
1) It tells us that the initiative in all salvation lies with God. Sometimes Christianity is presented in such a way that it sounds like God has to be pacified. Sometimes it seems people draw a picture of a stern, angry, unforgiving God and a gentle, loving, forgiving Jesus. Sometimes men present the Christian message in such a way that it sounds like Jesus did something to God that changed His attitude toward man from condemnation to forgiveness. But this text tells us it was God who initiated the plan and sent His Son because He loved us.
2) It tells us that the mainspring of God's being is love. The tremendous thing about this text is that it shows us God is acting, not for His own sake, but for ours. Not to satisfy His desire for power, but to satisfy His love. God does not smash men into submission. He woos them with love.
3) It tells of the width of God's love. It was (and is) the world that God so loved: It was not a nation,
it was not good people. It was not only the people that loved God (returned his love), it was the world. All are included as Augustine had it, "God loves each one of us as if there was only one of us to love."
4) It tells us that with salvation comes everlasting life. The word for everlasting is more concerned with quality than quantity. The implication of this is that everlasting life begins when we receive salvation, and that this is a taste of eternity. We believe that death does not end the existence of our soul, no matter what its state. But everlasting life, according to John, begins when we believe, and continues at the point of physical death.
5) It tells us how we come to have this salvation. The verse says whoever believes in Him. According to Webster, believes is a verb which means to have a firm conviction as to the reality of something. This verb does service for two nouns, faith and belief. The difference between faith and belief is the same difference as there is between the two statements believe me and believe on me. We need both faith and belief in Christ. Belief is that part of us that we call our intelligence. We have knowledge in a certain area. This has to come before faith but is not enough by itself. Faith then becomes the decisive action part of believing. It is trusting: It includes understanding, feelings and our will.
Let's go on. "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe already stands condemned" (John 3:17-18, NIV). Here we are faced with an interesting contrast: Salvation and condemnation.
First of all this contrast implies that there are two alternatives for the world -- salvation and condemnation. It does not leave room for anything else. Second, we know that salvation is gained by believing and we know that Jesus was not sent into the world to condemn anyone. Now we find out that we merit condemnation through unbelief. In other words, we pass judgement on ourselves. This always happens when man is confronted with greatness. Let me illustrate this:
A visitor was being shown around an art gallery by one of the attendants. In that gallery there were certain masterpieces beyond all price, possessions of eternal beauty and unquestioned genius. At the end of the tour the visitor said, "Well, I don't think much of your old pictures." The attendant answered quietly, "Sir, I would remind you that these pictures are no longer on trial, but those who look at them are." All that man's reaction had done was to show his own blindness.
The result of Jesus coming to earth as a man is not a Royal Command in the area of redemption. It confronts man with a moral problem. Faced with the alternatives, life or death, light or darkness, evil or truth, man himself has the responsibility of the choice that determines his destiny. If, when a man is confronted with Jesus, his soul responds to that wonder and beauty, he is on his way to salvation. But, if when he is confronted with Jesus, he sees nothing lovely, he stands condemned.
Let's go back to the beginning now. The reason I chose this text for my first sermon is because it explains the way to salvation in the way that I needed to hear it. Salvation it seems, is almost too simple to find. I found it as a young person with an emotional crisis, as can often be the case. But I got my eyes off of Jesus and started looking for the comfort of a big emotional lift. When that didn't work, I began looking for salvation in the doing of good deeds. It got to the point where I had so complicated the plan of salvation that all I could do was despair and give up the idea of ever being a Christian.
I am wondering this morning if anyone here has ever complicated God's plan of salvation. God said through the words of John that He loved the world so much He gave us a very simple way of coming to Him. We must only believe that Jesus came to earth as a man and was crucified as atonement for our sins. Trusting Jesus to take away our sins is all God asks us to do.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
Spiritual Hunger ©
6/13/04
Based on Ephesians 3:16-19
Jennifer Lopez is in the news again. Nevada odds makers are calculating how many weeks- months her marriage to Marc Anthony will last. There is something profoundly tragic about this pattern.
Thirty years ago it was Ali McGraw. In the story of her life she remembers one of the longer romances she had was a five year affair with Steve McQueen. They neither one were "faithful." She blames part of the problem on her "male addiction." She says it caused her to cheat on every man she was ever with.
In the autobiography, she expresses a kind of disgust with herself. In her own words, "This thing about male addiction- I hate all this...but I believe a lot of us feel a kind of hole in our heart. An unfortunate ache that is fixed for some by eating too much. For others with pot. In my case, I'm a romance junkie." I was very interested in her phrase diagnosing her problem as a "hole in our heart."
In terms of human resources, Ali McGraw had every available remedy for a chronic unsatisfied longing. She was attractive, popular, wealthy, influential, and powerful; she did not restrain herself from available pleasures, and they were numerous. Perhaps the only ingredient missing in abundance- was intelligence. But she was not stupid.
And she threw all her many resources at this chronic ache...this hole. Yet she still complained of an ongoing, unsatisfied longing for healing and wholeness. The Bible suggests that each of us have a deep yearning for contact with God. We have a hunger for connection with the authentic supernatural life of God.
The Psalmist expressed it this way, "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God (Psalm 42:1)."For him it was a thirst. The prophet wrote, "My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you (Isaiah 26:9)." For the prophet it is a deep desire. They seem to be expressing some kind of heart hunger.
This is the first issue Jesus faced after His baptism and ordination for ministry. Matthew tells us that the Holy Spirit (with strategic purpose) leads Jesus to a place of solitude. The objective for this retreat is to fortify Jesus' soul for the world saving mission. By the way, this tells us that when done properly, fasting and solitude are a channel God uses to pour grace into our lives. Jesus was here to find resources- not loose them.
After 40 days the devil comes with a test, hoping of course, that Jesus would fail. "Since you are The Son Of God, turn these stones to bread." We can speculate on the right and wrong use of miracles, but the suggestion sounds like, "Enough of God's grace...Now it's time to take care of your stomach!"
Jesus' response speaks to Ali McGraw's unsatisfied longing, her chronic ache, "Man does not live on Bread (or popularity, wealth, beauty, intelligence, pleasure, or romance) alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."
Jesus was making soul satisfaction the priority of His life. Otherwise, physical satisfaction would've been the bigger god. Food has its place, as does money, beauty, and intelligence...but not as "god." They make lousy supreme beings.
The naked truth of the matter is- when any of these qualities become god/idol, that chronic unsatisfied longing becomes a terminal problem. When these issues become god, a healthy relationship with the eternal, authentic God is forsaken. The God-shaped part of our lives, the part He would live in, becomes a vacuum.
This may not be true for your goldfish, parakeet, or collie, but human beings want a reference point that gives shape and hope...and can warn about disaster! We want a value above ourselves that offers healing, and power for living in an uncertain world.
Our culture is currently more aware of spiritual hunger than it has been for decades. We are surrounded with material blessings unimagined a generation or two ago. Yet we are unsatisfied. We are learning that physical necessities are not enough. Many people today are like a person trying to live on three square meals of sawdust, seasoned with whatever spice makes it the most appetizing.
Jesus knew what He was saying when He said, "man does not live on bread alone." False gods are like a filling meal of sawdust. let's look at just one example. A case study of a modern day idol. Paul exhorts the Christians in Colossae, "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature...evil desires and greed, which is idolatry (Col. 3:5)."
Remember, Paul is not talking about money as a god- rather the lust for it! I have in my files story after story of men and women who hit it big playing the lottery- and then life turned sour. I also have many more stories of people who ruined their lives because of addiction to gambling, yet they rarely won anything worth writing home about. But what has my interest -and the interest of others- is the number of winners who have seen their lives take a horrible nose dive seemingly as a result of winning. These people got a stomach full of what they wanted, and in many instances, it ruined them. Sociologists are gathering research that is more than anecdotal concerning the devastating consequences of winning a large amount of money. Apparently there is no promise of spiritual nourishment here. Large amounts of money is no more satisfying than a lot of romances.
It is interesting how often totally godless men are more careful with their greed than people who name Jesus as their Lord. For example: why is it illegal for managers of your 401k portfolio or the mangers of your current mutual fund to take even a very small percentage and gamble with it? Let me be clear, I'm asking why is it they can not gamble with it as an investment option for you? Take one percent each year and ask a professional gambler to multiply it for you.
The Biblical argument for or against gambling is not based on a verse or ten. Some people are "uncomplicated enough" that they need to see it in a straight forward, "Thou shalt not..." If they see it like that they may not like it, but they claim they'll try. Of course that is why some cults don't believe in the trinity- because the word "trinity" is not found in the Bible. Never mind the fact the idea is saturated through the pages of scripture.
Christian thinking on lust for money and gambling is based on the same kind of principled thinking that creates laws for trust fund managers. Jesus enlists each of us to be trust fund managers of the life and the possessions entrusted to us by God. That is why money itself is not a problem. The problem is our lust for it. When the throne room of our life is occupied by Jesus, money or popularity won't drain the life out of us.
The point is I am a trustee, a custodian for God and there are principles to follow so that I don't forget who the real God is...so that I don't return to life with a "hole."
This message is not a tirade against gambling, I hope. It is a case study of idolatry- finding nourishment in sawdust. I thought you may be getting tired of the usual case studies of fornication and adultery. Lusting for the power of money is one way people try to fill that chronic ache, without going to God.
This is like an MD lecturing on healthy lifestyles. She might spend a significant portion of the hour warning about tobacco related disease. She could just as profitably lecture about excessive use of alcohol, food, (or lack of exercise, or the fact that 1 out of 5 adults in America has an STD), or the health problems that come from wearing a red shirt in a Crips neighborhood.
Greed is just one example of a false god failing to heal that unsatisfied longing for kinship with the real God. Otherwise the evidence of lottery "winners" would be overwhelmingly the opposite of what it is. Our message as Christians is that Jesus has filled us with his own nourishing spirit- so the chronic ache is healed. The burden of feeding our starving soul with sawdust is relieved.
It is not our job as a church to create a demand in the world for Jesus. It is our call to be so satisfied with His presence that the false gods are exposed as the sawdust that they are. The hunger for what Jesus provides is all around us. People are looking for Jesus- they just don't know that He is the one they've been starving for.
The Bible does not say that following Jesus is the secret to health and wealth- it is not the way to avoid trials and tribulations. But it is the way to overcome them. In the early church and ever since, people have come to Jesus because they saw their friends and neighbors discover satisfaction for the same hunger they had. They saw the healed lives of people just like them. They met people who were living lives in answer to Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3:16-19.
Based on Ephesians 3:16-19
Jennifer Lopez is in the news again. Nevada odds makers are calculating how many weeks- months her marriage to Marc Anthony will last. There is something profoundly tragic about this pattern.
Thirty years ago it was Ali McGraw. In the story of her life she remembers one of the longer romances she had was a five year affair with Steve McQueen. They neither one were "faithful." She blames part of the problem on her "male addiction." She says it caused her to cheat on every man she was ever with.
In the autobiography, she expresses a kind of disgust with herself. In her own words, "This thing about male addiction- I hate all this...but I believe a lot of us feel a kind of hole in our heart. An unfortunate ache that is fixed for some by eating too much. For others with pot. In my case, I'm a romance junkie." I was very interested in her phrase diagnosing her problem as a "hole in our heart."
In terms of human resources, Ali McGraw had every available remedy for a chronic unsatisfied longing. She was attractive, popular, wealthy, influential, and powerful; she did not restrain herself from available pleasures, and they were numerous. Perhaps the only ingredient missing in abundance- was intelligence. But she was not stupid.
And she threw all her many resources at this chronic ache...this hole. Yet she still complained of an ongoing, unsatisfied longing for healing and wholeness. The Bible suggests that each of us have a deep yearning for contact with God. We have a hunger for connection with the authentic supernatural life of God.
The Psalmist expressed it this way, "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God (Psalm 42:1)."For him it was a thirst. The prophet wrote, "My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you (Isaiah 26:9)." For the prophet it is a deep desire. They seem to be expressing some kind of heart hunger.
This is the first issue Jesus faced after His baptism and ordination for ministry. Matthew tells us that the Holy Spirit (with strategic purpose) leads Jesus to a place of solitude. The objective for this retreat is to fortify Jesus' soul for the world saving mission. By the way, this tells us that when done properly, fasting and solitude are a channel God uses to pour grace into our lives. Jesus was here to find resources- not loose them.
After 40 days the devil comes with a test, hoping of course, that Jesus would fail. "Since you are The Son Of God, turn these stones to bread." We can speculate on the right and wrong use of miracles, but the suggestion sounds like, "Enough of God's grace...Now it's time to take care of your stomach!"
Jesus' response speaks to Ali McGraw's unsatisfied longing, her chronic ache, "Man does not live on Bread (or popularity, wealth, beauty, intelligence, pleasure, or romance) alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."
Jesus was making soul satisfaction the priority of His life. Otherwise, physical satisfaction would've been the bigger god. Food has its place, as does money, beauty, and intelligence...but not as "god." They make lousy supreme beings.
The naked truth of the matter is- when any of these qualities become god/idol, that chronic unsatisfied longing becomes a terminal problem. When these issues become god, a healthy relationship with the eternal, authentic God is forsaken. The God-shaped part of our lives, the part He would live in, becomes a vacuum.
This may not be true for your goldfish, parakeet, or collie, but human beings want a reference point that gives shape and hope...and can warn about disaster! We want a value above ourselves that offers healing, and power for living in an uncertain world.
Our culture is currently more aware of spiritual hunger than it has been for decades. We are surrounded with material blessings unimagined a generation or two ago. Yet we are unsatisfied. We are learning that physical necessities are not enough. Many people today are like a person trying to live on three square meals of sawdust, seasoned with whatever spice makes it the most appetizing.
Jesus knew what He was saying when He said, "man does not live on bread alone." False gods are like a filling meal of sawdust. let's look at just one example. A case study of a modern day idol. Paul exhorts the Christians in Colossae, "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature...evil desires and greed, which is idolatry (Col. 3:5)."
Remember, Paul is not talking about money as a god- rather the lust for it! I have in my files story after story of men and women who hit it big playing the lottery- and then life turned sour. I also have many more stories of people who ruined their lives because of addiction to gambling, yet they rarely won anything worth writing home about. But what has my interest -and the interest of others- is the number of winners who have seen their lives take a horrible nose dive seemingly as a result of winning. These people got a stomach full of what they wanted, and in many instances, it ruined them. Sociologists are gathering research that is more than anecdotal concerning the devastating consequences of winning a large amount of money. Apparently there is no promise of spiritual nourishment here. Large amounts of money is no more satisfying than a lot of romances.
It is interesting how often totally godless men are more careful with their greed than people who name Jesus as their Lord. For example: why is it illegal for managers of your 401k portfolio or the mangers of your current mutual fund to take even a very small percentage and gamble with it? Let me be clear, I'm asking why is it they can not gamble with it as an investment option for you? Take one percent each year and ask a professional gambler to multiply it for you.
The Biblical argument for or against gambling is not based on a verse or ten. Some people are "uncomplicated enough" that they need to see it in a straight forward, "Thou shalt not..." If they see it like that they may not like it, but they claim they'll try. Of course that is why some cults don't believe in the trinity- because the word "trinity" is not found in the Bible. Never mind the fact the idea is saturated through the pages of scripture.
Christian thinking on lust for money and gambling is based on the same kind of principled thinking that creates laws for trust fund managers. Jesus enlists each of us to be trust fund managers of the life and the possessions entrusted to us by God. That is why money itself is not a problem. The problem is our lust for it. When the throne room of our life is occupied by Jesus, money or popularity won't drain the life out of us.
The point is I am a trustee, a custodian for God and there are principles to follow so that I don't forget who the real God is...so that I don't return to life with a "hole."
This message is not a tirade against gambling, I hope. It is a case study of idolatry- finding nourishment in sawdust. I thought you may be getting tired of the usual case studies of fornication and adultery. Lusting for the power of money is one way people try to fill that chronic ache, without going to God.
This is like an MD lecturing on healthy lifestyles. She might spend a significant portion of the hour warning about tobacco related disease. She could just as profitably lecture about excessive use of alcohol, food, (or lack of exercise, or the fact that 1 out of 5 adults in America has an STD), or the health problems that come from wearing a red shirt in a Crips neighborhood.
Greed is just one example of a false god failing to heal that unsatisfied longing for kinship with the real God. Otherwise the evidence of lottery "winners" would be overwhelmingly the opposite of what it is. Our message as Christians is that Jesus has filled us with his own nourishing spirit- so the chronic ache is healed. The burden of feeding our starving soul with sawdust is relieved.
It is not our job as a church to create a demand in the world for Jesus. It is our call to be so satisfied with His presence that the false gods are exposed as the sawdust that they are. The hunger for what Jesus provides is all around us. People are looking for Jesus- they just don't know that He is the one they've been starving for.
The Bible does not say that following Jesus is the secret to health and wealth- it is not the way to avoid trials and tribulations. But it is the way to overcome them. In the early church and ever since, people have come to Jesus because they saw their friends and neighbors discover satisfaction for the same hunger they had. They saw the healed lives of people just like them. They met people who were living lives in answer to Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3:16-19.
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