From Here to There

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Oops - A life pursuing meaning or fulfilment is never finds it. the meaning of a thing is often not the thing at all. wires, pipes, roads, planes

Tomorrow morning at O dark thirty, Joshua will drive Monica and I to the airport so we can fly to Nashville Tennessee.

Her company is sending her there to help with a file audit, and I’m tagging along for a week of study, prayer, and a week of date nights and live music.

I remember my first flight. It was an event all to itself. What an experience!

But I’ve reached the point in my life, and I think Monica has as well, where a flight is not longer an event to itself. It is the necessary conduit in order to get to the event or back to home.

The flight can still be fun, but the point isn’t the flight.

My Father-in-law gave me a hand changing, fixing, and tuning my sprinkler system.

This involved the addition of a few dozen feet of half-inch pipe.

The thing is, the pipe isn’t the point. The project wasn’t done so I could have more digging obstacles in my yard. The point is water where I want it, when it’s needed.

The pipe, like the plane, is a necessary conduit to get the water from it’s source, to my plants.

Wires do this for electricity. Roads do this for our jobs, birthday parties, dinners with friends, church. While we can often go for a drive just to enjoy the drive, the car was not invented for itself, but to make everything else possible.

Pipes were not invented so water could flow through pipes, but so at the end you could fill a glass, or wash a dish, or prepare a meal.

So am I implying that those things have no purpose or value? Of course not. But in a cartoon world where everything can think and talk, could you imagine a road that was upset because no one ever came just to see them?

Pipes annoyed because the only time anyone comes to visit is when something is wrong?

I was listening to a podcast last week with Seth Godin, who is kind of a work guru. Written many books, super smart, and highly influential.

He told the story of a day shortly after his fourth book had come out. He was giving a seminar in his office for about 25 business leaders when his agent, whose office was down the hall came in with a fax.

It was the New York Times bestseller list.

He said: “and my book was on it. And I started to cry. And I didn't start to cry because I had made best-seller. I started to cry because I felt nothing.”

He goes on to say that was the day he stopped looking at that list. Getting to that place had been his reason for writing, and when the reason was fulfilled it was empty.

He had been trying to make the wrong thing the point. And was broken when it didn’t fulfill. He decided that day that his measure of success would not be how many books sold, but every person who told him how one of his books had impacted their lives.

The plane not finding satisfaction in the people flying, but what they get to experience on the other side of it’s part.

We’re not so different from pipes and planes it turns out.

Ugh - This is even true inside the church and what we do for God

I have learned this is just as true inside the church. From Sunday School teachers to senior pastors.

I’ve worked with administrators over the years who saw their jobs as doing all the things. Printing, answering phones, etc. And I’ve worked with those who saw their jobs to allow other people to accomplish all God’s best. (we have one like that here) I don’t have to tell you which ones found joy...

My first full time ministry job was as a youth pastor in Roseburg. The senior pastor who hired me had reached a point of seeing his job as writing and delivering sermons, doing the visits, and filling the role until it was done.

He volunteered in other places to get fulfillment, and openly told me he believed this church would never have an impact on the community, so he found his reasons in other places.

This absolute lack of joy and passion was the biggest factor for me of saying, if that is full-time ministry, I don’t want it. And I quit.

And God took five years to show me that what I had seen, wasn’t the way it had to be.

This is just as true for teachers, elders, deacons, and every other role paid or volunteer in a church.

We get so into doing something, and then realize the thing doesn’t fulfil.

At the heart, it’s the same issue as the plane and the wires, and the roads, and the pipe. We forgot why we were made and what our purpose is.

Aha! - Jesus says the one who tries to hold life…loses it. The opposite is a life that gives itself away. Love. Last week we read Peter telling them to love one another, and then he used hospitality, the invitation to come as one key expression. moving just one verse forward we get our “one another” for this morning which reflects this truth.

In Mark 8, Jesus uses the phrase I have repeated a dozen times in this series, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”

Which sounds like a suicide mission. And a pretty miserable one.

Deny yourself. Ignore your wants and what you think you need.

Take up your cross. Like if a prison asked the prisoner to build their own electric chair. Choose to give up your life.

If we think this is hyperbole by Jesus, the apostle Paul nips that in the bud.

Romans 6:6 “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin,”

Romans 6:11 “So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

Not to mention in Philippians:

Philippians 1:21 “For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

But if we go back to Mark, Jesus adds some words to his call to cross bearing that point us toward a truth that will help us a lot.

Mark 8:35 “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me and the gospel will save it.”

If you are tying to preserve yourself, you lose yourself. But whoever gives themselves away, finds life.

This is at the heart of the One Another series. That Jesus’ command to love one another is a restoration to our design. That we were made not to preserve our lives, but to preserve others. And that only in that kind of living do we find real life.

Last week we were in 1 Peter 4, and Peter said, Above all, maintain constant love for one another, then gave us an example, “Be hospitable to one another without complaining.” And I told you we’d be coming right back.

Peter’s main point is love, hospitality was one facet of that gem. Verse 10 and 11 give us another.

1 Peter 4:10-11 “Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve others (one another), as good stewards of the varied grace of God. If anyone speaks, let it be as one who speaks God’s words; if anyone serves, let it be from the strength God provides, so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.”

Long wind up to get there, but there’s the pitch.

To use the picture of my irrigation system, to ourselves, if we are going to live happy, fulfilled, meaningful lives, we can’t be the end goal. We’re the pipes delivering water to a destination.

We’re the plane, which won’t be joining Monica and I on the dance floors of Music Row, but enabled us to be there.

We’re the roads that didn’t compete in the world bible quiz meet or share in the fun, but took the Merchant and Wallin family all the way to Indianapolis and brought them all the way back home (or soon will)

As long as we try to make ourselves, our fulfillment, growth, healing, knowledge, and so on the point, we will find ourselves like Seth Godin, weeping when he sees his name on the bestseller list…not because he achieved the goal…but because it wasn’t enough.

All those things are good things. That God promises will come when we follow him…but following him, following the way of Jesus, living as a part of the kingdom of God means learning to recapture our design as conduits, tools for God to use to get blessing from here to there…and trusting God to use others to do the same.

Have I mentioned before that this series is asking us to do hard things? I have…but I’ll do it again.

This is the gospel, that we find our salvation, our live, our freedom and joy, eternal life that begins today, not when we acheive, not when we earn, not when we win, but when we trust God’s story. We trust his love. We trust that He loves us so much he sent his son to die that we might have life.

Too often I find myself like my kids learning to swim when they wouldn’t trust the water. I’d hold them up, floating on their back with my hand under them. And then ask them to trust the water as I pulled my hand away.

Immediately they would start to try to fight to stay up… and immediately they would start to go down.

There hasn’t been a time in my life when I’ve been floundering in life, feeling like I was going down, that I couldn’t have found peace by just letting God be God, and trusting his story.

And praise Jesus, every time I kicked and screamed, he gently put his hand back, gave me stability, pointed out that God was still God, and then kept teaching me to swim...

Do you know Jesus? I hope you do.

But returning to the point, Peter is saying, you have gifts…you are to use them…for one another.

From here to there. Trusting God is bringing what you need from there to here.

Whee! - Stewardship, speaking gifts - his words, serving gifts - his strength

From Here to There

As Stewards

1 Peter 4:10 “Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve others, as good stewards of the varied grace of God.”

Here is the first key.

A steward is one who is given something that belongs to someone else in order to accomplish their purposes with that something.

Peter says, you have been given “the varied grace of God”

The grace you have received in salvation, in spiritual gifts, in talents, in experiences, even in pain, have been given to you by God.

They were his, and he handed them to you, and you are to use them. But use them how?

To serve others.

That would make for an interesting Christmas tradition…parents with kids at home, think about this.

What if this Christmas, every gift you gave, you picked gifts for your kids that weren’t for them to play with, but for them to serve with?

Becca loves to read. And it has always been a blessing to her. But I’ve never seen the impact be like what it was during the first weeks of the pandemic when she read the Narnia stories over Zoom to HCC’s kids.

And the investments in drums for Josh have always been for his enjoyment, but in football games and church services the gifts real purpose has always been in what others receive from him.

We went to a friend’s birthday party just last night where the celebrated one was the one who gave away all the presents. Put a ton of work into an amazing party and then gave others gifts. Silly, totally not normal…and wonderfully beautiful and a picture of kingdom life.

If Jesus is Lord, then we are not. We are stewards.

In our offering times we talk about stewardship. Of our finances, our calendar, and also our skills and our stories. Or as we like to put it, Time, talent, treasure, and testimony.

God’s gift is for you, for others.

And Peter gives us two broad categories with some powerful advice for actually doing this hard thing.

Speaking

1 Peter 4:11a “If anyone speaks, let it be as one who speaks God’s words...”

Illustration A is in front of you.

If you hadn’t noticed, I am speaking. Hopefully that isn’t a surprise to anyone.

But preaching is only one way God gifts us with words for others.

Just to list out a few, some of which we will be talking…about in the coming weeks.

Evangelism. Francis of Assissi was credited with saying, preach the gospel always, and if necessary use words.

Here’s the thing. It always takes words. His point was to make sure your life was aligned WITH your words.

Be the gospel and share it.

We won’t have the impact in this community that God desires until we are far more free with the good news of Jesus. There are some with the gift of evangelism, but all have the calling of the evangelist.

You know Jesus because someone told you. Someone spoke good news.

If our focus as a follower of Jesus is on ourselves, what we get from church, our devotions, etc… we can’t be conduits. We’re building reservoirs instead of streams.

Our church picnic is the first Sunday in August…We do baptisms then. Who could you share good news with before then? Not to get a tally mark (got one), but to use the gift of your words to pass along life…from here…to there…?

Encouragement. We’ll hit that twice coming up…but wow can this be powerful

Comfort, teaching, exhortation, loving correction, leadership… All ways we can let our words be conduits of God’s grace.

And key is the way Peter finishes that thought: If anyone speaks…let it be as one who SPEAKS GOD’s words...

You don’t have to try to be clever or wise. Be faithful. Invest in putting God’s word in so that in the time of need, it can come out.

In addition, that guards us from using our words to look smart, to prove ourselves right, to minimize others, to manipulate or control…instead we surrender our mouths to Christ for his uses.

I’ll confess, just last night, in a conversation with a friend, I decided to be clever at his expense. God dealt with me on it, and I’ll be doing the work to ask his forgiveness.

I wasn’t speaking as though they were God’s words…they were all mine. Praise God for grace, because our words are gifts from God, and those words are to serve others…not ourselves.

Second category

Serving

1 Peter 4:11b “...if anyone serves, let it be from the strength God provides...”

When I drove past the church on the way to that party last night, Kurt was mowing the lawn.

During the lead up to Joshua’s graduation open house, my life group came to our house and pulled weeds, moved stone, and cared for us with their strength.

Actually… It wasn’t their strength.

That is another gift from God. Our ability to do things.

A few years ago, the school district asked if we would clean up the nature trail at Hockinson Heights Elementary. We had a great day of work up there. Using strength, that God gave us, to meet the needs of another.

The new grounds guy Dave, is asking if we might do it again, and maybe take it on as an ongoing service.

Our men’s ministry and leadership team are working on that. I’m excited.

Why? I was up there for that work day. I never saw the look on a third grade face as they walked through the trees and by the creek. I never experienced the fun of being a kid running along the newly smoothed and barked path...

But I’ve been a kid running on paths and experiencing nature trails that someone else laid down so I could enjoy it.

My cousin Nick, who we lost to an avalanche when he was about 30 spent his life building trails for the forest service so others could experience the places he loved.

The tagline on the funeral bulletin, was a life well lived.

He got what Jesus was saying.

If you live life to preserve it, you’ll lose it. But a life surrendered and given away is a life found.

When we do it in our own strength and for our own benefit, we ultimately find ourselves empty, disappointed, will probably lament that we are unappreciated, and will end up bitter.

But Peter says to do it from the strength God provides.

If it is a gift we have received that we are then giving away, we will find life and joy and peace and fulfill the call to love.

Last bit. Let’s read the whole section once more:

What changes? - So God is glorified. Once more we reflect his image when our lives become about others. SHAPE…not ultimately for you. This service reflected perfectly at the cross.

For His Glory

1 Peter 4:10-11 “Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve others, as good stewards of the varied grace of God. If anyone speaks, let it be as one who speaks God’s words; if anyone serves, let it be from the strength God provides, so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.”

NEXT SLIDE

His words…his strength…SO THAT

God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything. TO HIM be the glory and the power forever and ever amen.

Life is good when it isn’t about us.

A life lived for God’s glory and to serve others might be the most self-serving thing you can do.

Not self-serving…but certainly to best, most full life, is on the other side of ourselves.

God’s glory is the reflection of who he is. And when we serve others through his words and strength, we reflect him best.

We didn’t end up having the SHAPE seminar yesterday due to not enough sign-ups, we’re going to try again in the fall.

One of the key things I point out in that seminar is that even though we are trying to help you find the place where you will serve according to your gifts and passions, in a way that is fulfilling and brings you joy…

The biggest key is that you serve in the first place. In fact often there are needs, things to be done in the life of the church that no one feels “called” to do.

But they still need to be done. And the risk in doing a SHAPE course, is that we accidentally communicate that you only should serve where you “feel” something, or in ways you like.

The truth is the most satisfying days of my life looking backwards were days I did things I didn’t enjoy…that weren’t for me.

Sifting through ash in the ruins of Paradise California to find keepsakes spared from the blaze

Sitting with teens broken-hearted by the world as they wept

Passing buckets of concrete from one hand to another to help build a church in a little town in Guatamala

Sifting through bank statements to try to help a widow find her accounting errors

British missionary to China, CT Studd’s famous poem rings truer today than when it was penned:

"Only one life,’ twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last."

Or as Jesus said, he who tries to preserve his life will lose it.

We all will. In all of human history, minus one case, life has proven to be terminal. You can’t hold on to one day, you can’t preserve life. You can’t make blessing, love, and joy come…you can only give it away…and somehow in God’s economy...

He who loses is life for my sake finds it.

This morning, do you know Jesus? I asked this before…Because there is no greater question. Have you surrendered your life to the one who gives it back in greater measure?

If you have, ask yourself this question this morning. Where am I fighting to preserve my life? Where am I keeping God’s gifts for me and ending up surprised at how empty it leaves me?

Will you, this week, commit to taking a step to give the gifts of your words and strength away? Maybe it’s helping a neighbor with yardwork. Maybe it’s sitting with someone who is hurting.

But will you find one way to stop looking for how your time and efforts can improve your life, and instead look for how your time and efforts can improve anothers?

If you will, I promise two things. It won’t be easy…in fact it will probably hurt. But it will be worth it as you become what God always intended you to be.

Someone who partners with him in bringing his life and love from here to there.