Going Back to Better Than Normal (Week 2)

Welcome

Welcome to Emmanuel! I am so glad you are worshipping with us this morning. Some in person, others joining us online. Regardless of where you are, today is the day that the Lord has made and we choose to rejoice in it! As we get started with our service, listen to these brief announcements to help you enjoy our time together.

Encourage families to stay together to allow for social distancing during our services.

If you would like a mask, we have provided ones that you can wash and reuse each weekend with us. They are located in the back.

Please continue to utilize our sanitize stations and practice good hygiene to protect yourself and others.

If you or someone in your family is sick, we ask that you join us for our LIVE service ONLINE and recover from home.

Our time of giving and communion will also be a little different. We encourage you to setup automatic giving through Tith.ly or during worship there will be a time to request a envelope for your gift. You can place your gift in one of the buckets in the back. This will do this rather than pass them each week.

Well, now that all of that is out of the way, let’s get to what we really came for…to worship the almighty God, Creator of Heaven and earth. Would you stand with me this morning as we worship the Lord together!?!

Worship

Song #1

Song #2

Song # 3

ETC.

Sermon

Last week, I started a new sermon series titled, Going Back to Better than Normal. Like you, I have seen the memes, heard the cliches, and am just trying to navigate my life and family the best way possible. With all the jokes aside, opinions over the virus or economy, I want us to listen to God’s Word together. I want us to hear what He is saying to us in this spiritual hour. I don’t expect the specifics of what He is saying to you and your family to necessarily be the same as what God is saying to someone else. There may be some specific things that God is wanting both work in your heart and as well as through your life.

SIDEBAR: with that being said, something important to discern is what God is doing in you may be different than what God is doing in someone else. I am not encouraging uniformity, but instead growth. I am not encouraging conformity to one another but instead to Christ, and Christ alone. There are universals that apply to all people at all times, but applying situational theology to crisis will not help you or anyone around you. We need to offer grace to ourselves to allow the work that God is doing in us to deepen, but also extend grace to others around us for God to do in and through them what He is doing in them…not in us.

This is one of the most difficult things to learn in relationship, especially those relationships most close to us. Take marriage for example. I happen to have one of the greatest spouses anyone could every have. She is entirely too patient. Patient to a fault if that were possible. But if she decided that she wanted to make me into her image or better yet into the image of what she wanted me to be if even different for her, it wouldn’t work. It wouldn’t work because I am stubborn at times, but it wouldn’t work because true transformation and lasting change doesn’t occur because someone else forces their mold onto your life.

As we mentioned last week, the heart transformation that God is after in our lives will be sustained by the habit transformation we are also making. One supports the other, it isn’t an either/or deal.

FUNNY VIDEO: Can I share with one of my favorite rap songs when I was a kid. I was into DC Talk as a boy, especially when they were a rap group and not an alternative band. I listened to that cassette tape over and over, and my favorite song on this one particular album was called Nu Thang. I know all the words, inflections, grunts, and beats. There is even a ridiculous video out there of a boy rapping to it, there very well could have been me.

Watch this...

VIDEO

That’s ridiculous. Ridiculously awesome! Ridiculously amazing! “God is doing a brand new thing, and since began He remains the same. Faithful. Forever to His Word.” So good....

But in all seriousness, God is doing a new thing, and I am so glad that God is in the business of making all things new. He redeems, restores, and renews. He saves, delivers, and heals.

This is what happens when we come into His presence, whether here during worship or at home or in your car. When we encounter God, the residue in our life will be of His redemption, His restoration, His renewal in our life.

There are some common things though. There are some common things that the Lord has in store for all of us. He wants all of us to know Him. He wants all of us to bear fruit for His glory. We know that the fruit of His Spirit at work in our life is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We know there are moral laws in place in all of our lives because of who God is.

Let me clarify this right quick so that everything else we look at in Scripture will make sense and have a good foundation.

Everything we understand about God and who He has created us to be comes back to the uniqueness of being designed in His image. Imago Dei. The image of God. This defines everything else for me. This defines my understanding of the rest of Scripture, of morality, of even eternity.

The rest of Scripture are then written through this lens, understanding that what was created was to represent His image, and then after the fall, restore His image.

Morality: in the sense that rather than understand do’s and don’ts, or rights and wrongs, it boils down to His image, who God is. I am relieved of the burden of performing, of doing, and can slide into my purpose as a created being in His image, and it comes down to being. Know. Be. Do. We can’t get away from it. So the laws take on a new light, the teachings of Christ, the stories of the Old Testament, all reflect for me through this prism of Imago Dei.

His image is Better than Normal.

Eternity: I then can understand eternity in the scope of Imago Dei. It isn’t about an angry God casting people to a place of torment that He created for them all along. Instead, it is a grieved God, who desired relationship but as a gentleman didn’t force Himself upon His creation. So, Heaven, which is His throne, becomes the place where He dwells, lives, and welcomes us into His holy presence. But Hell is the absence of God, the absence of where He is, lives, moves or has His being. It is merely the absence of God, and is thus a torment to anyone there.

So, understanding this original design, original purpose, helps us gauge and perceive what He is doing now, in this hour.

This week, the direction I had intended to go with our time looking at Going Back to Better Than Normal took on a completely different perspective. We may get to what I was going to talk about this week in coming weeks, but in light of current events (which I don’t always do), I want us to hear a few key points that will help us in our understanding, our call, and our response.

Many of you couldn’t miss some of the most recent events that have occured.

GEORGIA: A man goes for a run, as was his habit, but doesn’t make it home. Ahmaud Arbery

NEW YORK: A lady lets her dog off its leash in an area of Central Park marked for bird watchers. When a man (bird watching) asks her to put her dog on a leash, she confronts him and calls the cops with a false report of harassment. Amy Cooper no longer has that Cocker Spaniel or her job.

MINNESOTA: Then most recently, George Floyd was murdered by police officers in Minnesota. Their reports of resistance don’t line up with video surveillance. There are issues with abuse of power in our society. There are issues with women not fairly treated or given equal rights. There are systemic issues of minorities not provided the same opportunities, treatment, or worth because of the color of their skin.

I know what it is like to look over you shoulder when you have done something wrong. What I don’t know what it is like is to have to look over your shoulder when you haven’t done something wrong, but instead have to worry about how others perceive you simply because of the color of your skin.

There are so many different ways this topic could be approached, and I may not get it 100% correct today, but for white Christians to stay silent is to remain complicit with an unjust system and way of operating in our nation. Racism has no place in the Kingdom of God. I don’t expect this message to earn me brownie points with anyone; I don’t expect it to cause our offerings to go up. What I do hope is that we will all take a few things to heart, allow them to change us, and use what we do in influence, voice, vote, and power to make an impact for good in our world.

So, in light of these most recent atrocities, what do we learn, what is our call, what is our response as people of faith?

1. Imagio Dei

It is imperative that we have a deep understanding and appreciate for the fact that we are all created in God’s image, in His likeness. This is a theological idea, that doesn’t give God human characteristics, as if it were speaking anthropomorphically. Instead, it gives humanity Divine qualities in our original design. These unique qualities make humans different than all other creatures: rational understanding, creative liberty, the capacity for self-actualization, and the potential for self-transcendence.

The term Imago Dei refers most fundamentally to two things: first, God's own self-actualization through humankind; and second, God's care for humankind. To say that humans are in the image of God is to recognize the special qualities of human nature which allow God to be made manifest in humans. In other words, for humans to have the conscious recognition of their being in the image of God means that they are the creature through whom God's plans and purposes can be made known and actualized; humans, in this way, can be seen as co-creators with God. The moral implications of the doctrine of imago Dei are apparent in the fact that if humans are to love God, then humans must love other humans, as each is an expression of God.

Genesis 1:26–27 NIV

26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

In these verses, we see community and relationship; we see creativity and ability; we see dominion over certain aspects of creation but not over other humans.

We also see the image of God in diversity. God created ‘mankind’, literally adam, man, humanity, humankind, literally fashioned after his own likeness. We were created to reflect Divine aspects. The problem lies when we believe to have gained superiority over others in human creation, and take on a false god-like complex of power. The abuse of power and authority lies in warped, evil identity issues. It is attempts to rectify voids felt from not having completeness in understanding the Imago Dei in each of us.

2. Love the Other

There are a variety of reasons that when God created something in His own image it was completed entailed in one thing (meaning just man or just woman), but instead had to be appreciated and understood in something created outside of itself. Man had to see woman and recognize the image of God in the uniqueness, prowess, and strength in the beauty of woman. The image of God can’t be fully appreciated in our uniformity or similarities as much as in our harmonious diversity. It is in our differences that we learn, grow, and appreciate.

Philippians 2:1–4 NIV

1 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

When I am operating and living with selfish ambition, feeling like I am better than someone else around me, whether it is because of their gender, race, or ethnicity, I can’t fulfill this Scripture. If our agenda of keeping things the way they always have been simply because we are not effected by being black, then we will never be able to act on behalf of someone else. We will never be able to operate in humility to value others above ourselves. Instead, our own interests, what serves us, will remain our god instead of the image of Christ. But if we are united with Christ, have been comforted by His love, if any tenderness and compassion, PAUL WRITES TO US, then BE LIKE MINDED, HAVING THE SAME LOVE, BEING ONE IN SPIRIT AND OF ONE MIND. God is asking us if we will sacrifice as He did for the betterment of someone else. Will you be willing to lose face, lose friends even, invest time, resources, and energy into seeing God’s Kingdom come to our nation in this hour, in this way?

My black pastors and friends don’t want another ‘reconciliation prayer service’ where we merge praise bands and choirs, share preaching time, and even eat together. They want us to use our voice and begin to help change the system that cripples those that are black and brown.

3. Advocate for Mercy

Micah 6:8 NIV

8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

In sermons like today’s, it is common to hear verses like this. Micah 6:8 and following are regarded as some of the most memorable and timeless expressions of OT ethical religion. We see the NT counterpart in what James writes:

James 1:27 NIV

27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

These are verses that we can’t and don’t want to remove from the full-counsel of God in His Word.

In this first verse, the prophet Micah reminds the people of God that requires certain things of them. His requirements were also based on His character and thus also ingrained in the image we bear. They were to act with justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly before God.

“To love mercy” is to freely and willingly show kindness to others. John writes in 1 John:

1 John 4:20 NIV

20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.

It is of the greatest hypocrisy to confess love for God whom we have not seen while show disdain or hate for those whom He has created in His image whom we can see.

Micah is not saying that sacrifices do not have their place. Nor is Micah saying that these acts will lead to forgiveness or some means of salvation. Rather, Micah is saying that sacrifices in and of themselves without a proper relationship to God and neighbor is USELESS.

James would expound upon this idea in 1:27 by saying that you say you have faith but show me by how you live.

Let’s look at what Micah says though in the verses just before God tells us what He does desire.

Micah 6:6–8 NIV

6 With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

The prophet was not indicating that sacrifice was completely ineffectual and that simply a proper heart attitude to God would suffice. In the preceding verse he painted a caricature, a purposefully exaggerated picture, of the sacrificial system to indicate that God has no interest in the multiplication of empty religious acts.

It is not enough for us as Christians, especially white Christians, to sit by, come to church, raise our hands, worship the Lord, even give our tithe and do nothing about the injustices surrounding us.

God has never been impressed with lip services, not with Israel, not with us. We have to return to a better than normal. We will have to make sacrifices to see something better than what we have always experienced in our nation and world. And if we can sit by, laugh at jokes that have a minority as the butt of them then we are still part of the problem. We don’t get it. I am not condone certain responses, but I am seeking to understand them. What has driven people to go this far? Our nation was literally founded upon riots when their voices weren’t being heard or represented any longer. The water of Boston will remind us of the riots of our ancestors to demand justice, equal representation, and better normal for themselves, their children, and their children’s children.

Benjamin Franklin is accredited as saying this:

Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.

God is calling us to life out our faith, values, and Biblical worldview in a bold manner. We cannot stand by or be silent. He is not interest in our forms and our figures, our religious jargon and habits do not bring Him joy, when we blindly ignore what Jesus considered the weightier matters.

Matthew 23:23 NIV

23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

Jesus made it clear that we are to love God and love others. Others that looks like us and don’t look like us. It is not work to love those like myself. It requires the Spirit to truly love as Christ did those who are unlike myself. Then I lay down my agenda, selfishness, and priorities for the sake of someone else. I begin to life for more than myself wholly. I begin to prefer, put ahead, and exhibit the image of Christ being formed within us.

Colossians 3:10 NIV

10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

There is no place for racism in the Kingdom of God. There is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised…white or black, Farragut or East Knoxville,

“but Christ is all, and is in all.”

Colossians 3:11b

4. Demand Justice

As we respond to God’s clarion call for all of humanity, throughout all of time, it remains to defend the cause of the defenseless. We are called to “act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with your God.”

To begin the steps towards justice:

We must first listen with our ears, use our minds and our hearts to process so that we cannot only think and feel what they have for so long but can respond with our mouths, hands, and feet in a way that is appropriate and responsible to the measure of freedom that we have received to right the wrongs and bring justice about.

This is not something we talk about or focus on for a brief moment in our social feed but instead have to make a priority and part of our ongoing conversation until change is realized.

How will we use our words, our vote, our proactive abilities to sacrifice even our ability to attain some sort of America Dream so that everyone has the freedom to attain their dreams too.

You will all remember the great Martin Luther King Jr, and his speech from our nation’s capital calling for the promissory note for all people, white, black, male, female…to be able to be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. He was not able to see his dreams fulfilled. People are still judged by their color rather than their conduct or character. Join me church is acting with justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God and our brothers and sisters.

Join me for something better than what always has been regardless if it directly benefits you or not. Join me in calling others out on injustice, jokes that discriminate, conversations that alienate. Let’s become more than a response but a movement. Join me in putting your faith in action.

PRAY