New Year, New Opportunities
Notes
Transcript
Tis The Season!
Tis The Season!
Tis the Season! What season you ask?
Well, we went from the Halloween season, to Thanksgiving season, to Christmas season, to New Year’s Season to this one.
It’s resolution season!
Time to make all those promises to ourselves about improving our lives that we probably won’t keep thru MLK Day. Jan. 16.
Certainly, the New Year is a time to reflect. Look back at what didn’t go as well as we hoped. Figure out what changes we can make. And work to improve our lives. Do better.
I want to play more golf. Get my handicap down a little bit. I didn’t play as much as I wanted to this past year.
I had let my membership go when they added the remodel fees. That was out of my budget.
The elders were gracious enough to make my year-end bonus reactivating my membership. Just a social membership. I still get to play golf.
The golf course is right here and I can stop and play 18 holes on my way home from the church late afternoon and still be home for supper.
I have the opportunity, I want to play more.
The weather didn’t cooperate last summer and we got out into the forest in our RZR only once or twice. At first, the forest was closed b/c it was too dry. Then, we had an above average monsoon season and it was too muddy and too lightening-y. Driving around w/ a metal roof and antenna is just asking for a lightening strike among the trees. Not to mention, we’ve been caught out in the rain before and it gets cold. 25-30 mph, pouring rain, cold air, wind chill. Not fun.
I hope the weather works out this year so we have the opportunity to spend more time in the forest. It’s great therapy. W/ the Rough Riders, or just me and Sara w/ a picnic lunch, or supper. Out in the evening and maybe catch sight of some elk.
These are fun things I hope get to do more and plan to what I can to make them happen.
We all come thru the holidays, our pants fit a little tighter, feeling the affects of gravity a little heavier.
We ate too much, but the prime rib was so good. Too many sweets. But you were all so generous by sharing your goodies w/ us. Sara made bread and bagels.
So, once again, here we are, time to lose what I added just in the last few weeks, since Thanksgiving.
I used hate this time of year when we were members of a gym. In LR, there was a gym in the neighborhood. You know what would happen.
All year, we’d have access to the machines we preferred at any time we wanted.
Jan. 1 rolls around and the place is packed.
The women got a new outfit for Xmas. Fancy, $150 shoes. Matching top. Sweatbands around their wrists and forehead. Ear buds. Like Olivia Newton John in the 80s.
The guys, they got new shoes and ear buds, too. But nothing matches. Old sweatshirt w/ the sleeves cut off. Droopy socks. Sweatpants. A towel around their neck. Like they’re actually sweating or something.
They still found a way to sit, or stand, on the equipment, pick on song from their playlist, check their texts and emails, work out till it hurts, get up and walk to the next piece of equipment, rinse and repeat.
BTW, it starts to hurt about 30 seconds in. They’d do this for about an hour, spend a few minutes on different pieces of equipment, occupying it so those of who were serious about it couldn’t, then leave and complain about how hard that was.
2 weeks, tops.
It happens again in the springtime. Swimsuit season. The shoes come out a little more worn. The ONJ outfit hadn’t been worn since. There might be a new old sweatshirt w/ the sleeves cut off.
I kid b/c I care. I get it.
It was about 5 years ago I had a doctor tell me I needed to get serious about my diet and exercise. I didn’t need a resolution. I needed for him to show me my BMI, body mass index, it wasn’t good. My weight, cholesterol, bp, psa were all up. It was ugly. I was ugly. More than usual.
There are times in our lives when we face the reality that if we don’t make real, permanent changes, things can go bad quickly. This was one of those for me.
We have a couple of members of our church who are going thru some serious things right now.
Ken VanDoorne was diagnosed w/ cancer about a month ago. He will tell you, he knows, lifestyle choices played a role in his disease. It’s bad. He smoked for over 30 years.
Quitting was hard. Eventually, he did. But the time bomb in his lungs was already set.
Bill Gibney had a fairly serious heart attack at Thanksgiving. At dinner up here at the Spains. Bairds were there. He didn’t feel good. Not horrible, just bad.
They went down the hill to his doctor who sent him right away to the hospital where they immediately scheduled a double bypass. Cracked his chest open did the work.
I was texting w/ Cheryl shortly after. She told me they now know they have to make some lifestyle changes. She said she didn’t know why they hadn’t been exercising or watching their diet before. They were going to start now. Bill had to.
I laughed out loud reading one of her texts. She’s telling me about their convo and how Bill adamantly said he was not getting a Peloton bike.
I was sitting on my Peloton bike while reading that text, waiting to start my work out that day.
If we are fortunate, we get the opportunity to choose our pain. We get to choose what hard we want to got thru.
Quitting smoking is hard. It will drive an addict crazy.
Exercise hurts. There is no way around it. I have to hurt my legs, lungs, and my core for at least 30 minutes 4 or 5 days/week.
Dieting is hard. It hurts to watch everyone else eat all that good BBQ from Agee’s.
Maybe, some of us enjoy adult beverages a little too much. Do you know how much sugar is in your favorite cocktail?
Don’t look if you’re not ready to cut back.
We get to choose our pain and the hard stuff we go thru. We either choose these things, or we choose the heart attack and open heart bypass surgery.
Now might be the right time for all of us to choose to do something different.
Do something for your own health and the health of the important relationships in your life. But, you have to take advantage of opportunities in ways that work and last.
New year, new opportunities.
Look at your life. Look back. What didn’t go as well as you wanted to to go and what do you need to do differently that will work and last? Are we insane? Trying the same things expecting different results?
Be relational, not just religious.
Cooperate more, compete less.
Believe in, don’t just believe that.
Do the hard things that lead to lasting changes that will make you healthier and your life better.
We are back in the series that is the Words and Works of Jesus. The bible addresses these very things in the passage we are looking at today in John 3.
First, be relational w/ Jesus. Engage your head and your heart. Don’t just be mindlessly religious.
Be Relational
Be Relational
After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptized. (This was before John was put in prison.) An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing.
They argued over religious practices. Ceremonial washing. A religious activity.
The belief was, by washing w/ running water it would wash the contamination and corruption from a person’s sinful actions away.
Lie. Wash away the guilt.
Cheat. Sleep w/ another woman. Wash your hands. Everything will be okay w/ God.
Murder. Which would be your what your wife does b/c you cheated on her. Wash away the consequences. Win/win/Lose.
Specifically, the argument was over being baptized. Immersed in a river of running water.
What did it accomplish? And did different baptizers accomplish the same things for the baptizees?
If John the Baptist baptized you was it as effective as if Peter, or Andrew baptized you.
Jesus didn’t baptize anyone, his disciples did it for him.
They were arguing over a religious practice. We do it today, too.
Immerse v. sprinkle
Speak in tongues, or not.
Liturgies v. conversational prayer
Choirs v. rock bands
We’re all religious. Every one of us here is being religious right now. Religion or religiousness is almost a dirty word in churches today. But, religion is simply how you practice what you believe.
Belief is most important. Believing the right things. Then, how you practice what you believe in the way you worship is being religious.
The problem then was, they didn’t believe the right things. They just behaved, or practiced religious rites and rituals. And they believed in the rites and rituals to do what only God could do.
Their religion and religious practice was the priority. Not a relationship w/ God.
They engaged their heads and hearts in the practice. They focused. It was important to them. But they focused on the wrong things and the wrong things were too important.
Jesus was like, look, the water is symbolic. It does not wash away your sins nor your guilt. That will get taken care of at the cross. Still, you have to believe the right things.
God gave them practices to remind them about what He was going to do to save them. Annually, each family had to slaughter an animal for their sins. They participated w/ the temple worshipers when the priest would send a goat into the wilderness to take the guilt of the ppl w/ it. These religious rites were part of their worship experience.
These practices were impactful. They made an impression on those who participated.
But they did not accomplish what they need done for them.
God wanted them, and us, to engage w/ him on a relational basis. When we come to worship God wants us to engage our heads and hearts w/ Him using the music and message to to do that.
When Linda and the team lead us in music. It is our corporate prayer time. Think about the words. Mean what you. Let the music affect your heart and the way you feel about God, not the music being sung or the style being used.
When I’m preaching, teaching God’s work, engage w/ the words intellectually and emotionally. God’s word, not my words, into your life in such a way it makes you feel something for God. We all learn more about Him and ourselves when we engage the word of God like this.
Who cares if other churches do things differently. We do them the way God is leading us to do them. Which leads us to the next point.
Cooperate more, compete less.
Cooperate More
Cooperate More
They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”
To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.”
You are blessed to be able to attend the biggest, most successful church in Munds Park. Nobody else in MP does it as good as we do it.
We get a little competitive w/ the other churches in the area. Every town that has more than one church, they compare and compete.
Baptists vs Methodists.
Catholics vs. Protestants
Lutherans and Episcopalians vs. Charismatics and community churches
That other guy is getting some of our ppl! They are leaving us and joining him! What’s up? Do we need a new marketing campaign?
We forget. We are on the same team. Until every person in the country, at least if not the world, is a Xian and a member of a church, we are not competing w/ other churches. We want them to succeed. And, maybe even, do better than us. That’s okay.
A few weeks ago, the Republic newspaper had a front page article, pic and everything, of an interview w/ a pastor from a prominent church in the Valley. Got my interest right away.
Almost immediately, I was disappointed, even mad. Not at the paper necessarily. They did do the article and print it. And, they were supportive of what the pastor was saying.
I was angry at that pastor b/c he was being extremely critical of a few other big churches in the valley and their political position. Okay, politics. Some churches lean left, some right. Either way, same team.
The article went on, and on, and on. Continued on p.6, p.7, and p.8.
It made that pastor look small and hurt the public image and reputation of the church he was being critical of.
It can happen inside churches, too when we become too competitive w/ others who like to do things differently in the same church.
There was an article in a journal I used to subscribe to that was titled, “The Berry-Bucket Theory”.
The point of the article is to help educate churches and help them prepare for conflict in a specific situation.
The berry bucket theory goes like this. Every church has 2 buckets. When a pastor leaves a church and a new pastor comes, the new pastor brings a bucket w/ him but it’s empty. The other bucket is full.
Each berry represents a person who attends the church and is on board w/ the pastor, or the previous pastor. Hence, the empty one b/c the new guy hasn’t had the chance to get anyone on board w/ him.
As new ppl come to the church, they are known as new berries, and go into the new pastor’s bucket and it begins to fill up. Some of the old berries, who were on board w/ the previous pastor jump into the new berry bucket as they appreciate and prefer what the new guy is doing.
Most of the old berries, stay in the old berry bucket and prefer what the previous guy did.
Friction, division, conflict begins and grows in intensity when the number of berries in the new bucket grows close to the number of berries in the old bucket. The new berries are excited b/c they are growing in influence and things are happening the way they like them.
But, the old berries are becoming increasingly disgruntled b/c the are losing influence, control.
Competition. Who’s in charge? We argue and conflict when our pride gets the best of us and our priority is winning, getting our way, not Jesus winning and His influence growing in the community.
What JB said was everything we have, everybody we have, is given to us from God. We are given what we can handle. No more, no less. We may not believe, or be aware of it. We may think we are capable of more. Or we may think we accommodating too many.
God knows what we can handle, He knows what’s coming, and has equipped us to do it.
We do the same things w/ our friends. We should cooperate more. Encourage more. And compete less.
In our insecurities, we tend to knock ppl down a peg to two thinking it will make us look better and feel better.
Truth is, it makes us look little and feel horrible.
Be happy for those around you are are doing well.
John’s example of the wedding. Your best friend is getting married. He’s happy. Be happy for him. Don’t try to steal his bride.
When your friend gets a better job, has their next grandchild, hits the lottery, whatever, be happy for for them. Con’t compare your situation to theirs. God has blessed you beyond measure and given you all you can handle.
Arrogance causes our insecurities. We think we’re worth more, capable of more. So if we don’t have more, it must not be our fault. It must God’s fault. Or someone else’s fault.
So, let me point out their faults.
We tend to think of arrogance as thinking too highly of ourselves. That’s true. But, it’s also thinking too little of ourselves.
“I am so uniquely horrible. No one is as horrible and incapable as me.” Pride.
Be you. Your ID is yours, given to you by Jesus. It’s perfect for you. It lacks nothing no matter what you think or anyone else.
Humility. Accept what God has given you as a gift.
If you’ve never memorized scripture, start w/ v. 30.
“He must become greater; I must become less.” In my mind that is.
Elevate, exalt Jesus. Lift Him up. Don’t lift yourself. Let Jesus lift you.
If Jesus wins, we all win. If the the churches in Flagstaff grow and do better, we all do better.
We will celebrate their successes w/ them just like we will celebrate the successes of our friends w/ them.
As I said earlier, belief is the most important thing. And believing the right things is vital. A few weeks ago I addressed this very issue so this may be a bit of a review for some of you.
John addresses it here. He coined a new phrase. 2 words that had never been put together before. They appear together nowhere in the OT. But, John got a lot of use out of this phrase in his NT writing.
The phrase? Believe in, not believe that...
Believe In
Believe In
The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.
Believe in, don’t just believe that. Believe in Jesus. Don’t just believe that there was or is a Jesus who is the Son of God who was crux’d and rose again.
Remember, even the demons believe that. They don’t believe in Jesus.
John had a point to make. A new point required a new phrase.
In the Greek, it’s “Pistuo en”, or believe in, have faith in...
This is much more that simply believing that...
The best illustration is my stool. Remember the stool illustration?
I can believe that the stool exists and will hold me up.
I can do that and still decide to sit in a chair.
Sitting in a chair is not believing in the stool.
To believe in the stool, I must sit on it w/ my full weight.
Halfway is not faith in the stool.
One cheek on, one cheek off; not faith in.
One foot on the bar, one foot on the ground; not faith in.
All on is all in. That’s what saves us.
We must believe more than that Jesus existed. We can’t halfway believe.
We can’t hedge our bets. We’ve got to be all in w/ Jesus.
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son, who only believes that there was a son will not see life.”
Rules, rites, and rituals over a relationship w/ Jesus won’t get you what you want.
Competing more than cooperating won’t make you feel better.
Believing that there was a Jesus and not believing in Jesus won’t get you saved.
These things are like resolutions that don’t last. They won’t help you get healthy.
Relationships are hard work. Rules are easy.
Cooperating can be painful when we set our egos aside.
Believing in Jesus is the first of many dominos that need to fall to get us right w/ God.
These work.
What else works?
Do you want peace in the new year?
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Joy. Choose joy in everything. Rejoice in what you have. Don’t regret what you don’t.
Be gentle, always.
Choose not to be anxious, but pray in every situ and be thankful.
If you do these things, then the peace of God that makes no sense, is irrational and un-understandable will fill your heart and mind.
Do you want God to continue to mature you and improve you from the inside out?
And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe.
The Word of God will do this for you. The Word of God is constantly at work in you when you are constantly in it.
The Psalms are emotional as David faced down his enemies. Our enemies may not be soldiers. They may be discouragement, health issues, frustration and depression. The Psalms will calm you and change you.
These are just 2 examples of what opportunity you have for something new this new year.
New year, new opportunities.
Like Dorothy in Oz who had those ruby slippers on the entire time and could have gone back to Kansas before she had to tangle w/ the flying monkeys, you have always had access to these opportunities.
Maybe what’s new is making the most of them this year.
Applications
Applications
Relationship
Relationship
First, believe in if you never have taken that step before. Don’t just believe that Jesus was born, existed, died and was raise. Believe in Him and He will save you.
He will also provide for you until you get to heaven.
Engage your head and your heart in your relationship w/ Him, too.
We’re glad you’re here worshiping w/ us. But please make sure you are engaged w/ the words and music on emotional and intellectual bases while you are here.
Focus on the relationship. Not just being religious.
Cooperate
Cooperate
What good is going on in a friend’s life that you can celebrate for them and with them?
Don’t tear anybody down. It does not make them smaller, it makes you look small. All positive stuff said about everybody else.
Don’t compete. It’s not a competition to be won.
Be on their side in how you treat them and talk about them to their face and behind their backs.
Change
Change
Be changed.
Let your friends and family wonder what happened to you. You are more at peace than you ever were before. Why? How?
Partially unexplainable. It doesn’t make sense.
Choose joy. Choose to not be anxious but ask God for help in every situ you face. Be thankful for what you have, don’t regret what you don’t.
Is that enough to apply starting this week? There ought to be something there for everyone.
Do something for your own health and the health of the important relationships in your life. But, you have to take advantage of opportunities in ways that work and last.
New year, new opportunities.
Look at your life. Look back. What didn’t go as well as you wanted to to go and what do you need to do differently that will work and last? Are we insane? Trying the same things expecting different results?
Be relational, not just religious.
Cooperate more, compete less.
Believe in, don’t just believe that.
Do the hard things that lead to lasting changes that will make you healthier and your life better.