LISTENING: Character Quality # 20

Over the next five weeks I want to answer the question: “How do I learn about my Christian faith?”

The first aspect of learning is to listen.  If you can’t or won’t listen, you can’t learn.  Definition of LISTEN = to hear something with thoughtful attention.

The first aspect of listening I call “decluttering.”

We clutter our ears with noise…others talking, music, television, city noise, babies crying or cooing, dogs barking, cows mooing, the car engine running, the cell phone ringing, the furnace humming, the rustling newspaper, etc.  Can you think of other noise that clutter your ears?

          There is another obstruction to hearing before we move on to listening – and that is thought.  Have you ever been so deep in thought that you literally did not hear what someone said to you, even though the sound made your ear drum vibrate?

When listening, don’t be putting together your next response.  Do you know people who are more interested in a response then they are in what you have to say?

James 1:19  My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen and slow to speak.

When listening, be intentional.  A perfect example of this in scripture is Mary of Bethany.     Luke 10:38-42

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.  She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said.  But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

          Her posture was sitting where?  At the feet of Jesus.  I call that intentional listening.  How do you learn by listening at the feet of Jesus? Declutter the noise, listen intentionally: to what?  To God’s word, to others, to circumstance, to his creation.  Sit at his feet and listen, learn, worship.

Proverbs 4:20-22

My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words.  Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them  and health to a man's whole body.

Matthew 17:5

While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!"

          Can you think of a time when you really sat at the feet of Jesus and listened to him?  Can you think of practical ways to make this type of listening a greater part of your life or the lives of others?  Go ahead and share, we’re listening.

From the Heart,

Pastor Jeff

DEPENDABILITY: Character Quality # 19

This Sunday’s scripture: Psalm 62:5-8     Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.   He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.  My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge.  Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.

            Below is a great illustration I found concerning dependability.  I have added two questions at the end you may answer on the blog as a way to encourage others.  With this blog, I depend on you to read it and give a thoughtful response so we can grow together in the Lord.

When the Swallows Come Back . . .

“Yes, the sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young” (Psalm 84:3)

Church members tell me that, like their fabled cousins of Capistrano, the barn swallows come back each spring. As Jeremiah the prophet said, they know their “appointed time.”

Rapidly darting blurs of color, they busily built a nest of mud and twigs under the eaves near the main church door. One Saturday, a work-day crew member knocked the nest from its perch with water from a carefully aimed hose and then washed away the debris. “That should take care of that,” he said.

It didn’t. A week later, on Sunday, worshipers noted the nest had been rebuilt. Again, a church member destroyed it.

Within a week, the industrious birds had built a third nest. This action put the birds on the church executive board’s agenda. Some objected to the way the birds decorated the wall beneath the nest. Others said the bird’s chatter during worship was distracting. Still others argued that, as God’s creatures, they were entitled to build a nest wherever they chose.

The nature-lovers carried the day. It was agreed the barn swallows should be left undisturbed and a notice to that effect was posted beneath the nest.

I suspect that if we kept destroying the nest, the dependable swallows would spend the entire summer starting over. They had chosen their spot and, like Jesus when he “steadfastly set his face to go up to Jerusalem,” they were not to be turned aside.

If there’s a bit of contemporary jargon the church can embrace and employ, it’s the phrase, “Hang in there.” Too many in the church give up too soon. “We tried that once and it didn’t work…” is an easy excuse. “I don’t think that will work with our people…” has stopped more than one good proposal on the launching pad. To a generation wired for fast food and quick results, the 19^th century poet’s admonition, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again,” is both quaint and antiquated. The words of Edison, after another failure in creating a filament for his envisioned light bulb – “but I know a thousand ways it CAN’T be done” – no longer challenge us.

Consider the Scriptures: “Who endures to the end, will be saved” (Matt. 24:13); “No one who puts hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62); “Be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing your labor in the Lord is not wasted” (1 Cor. 15:58); “Do not be weary or lose heart in doing right” (2 Thess. 3:13); “Let us hold fast without wavering the hope we cherish…” (Heb. 10:23); “We count them happy who endure” (James 5:11); “[Do not] fall from your own steadfastness” (2 Peter 3:17); “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life” (Rev. 2:10).

          Can God depend on you?  Give an example how God has depended on you or on someone you know.

          Can you depend on God?  Give an example of how you have depended on God.

From the Heart, Pastor Jeff

AVAILABILITY: Character Quality # 18

Joshua 24:14-15

"Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.  But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."

Jonah didn’t make himself available – ended up in the belly of a fish

Made himself available and an entire city was spared destruction.

Moses didn’t make himself available and argued with a bush in the dessert

Made himself available and led a nation from slavery to the promised land.

No one in the Israelite army (including King Saul) made themselves available.

Little David made himself available and brought down the giant!

Can you think of other leaders who made themselves available and what the resilts were from such availability.  Not just those who went from unavailability to availability but those like Joseph who kept making himself available to whatever ways God would use him as a leader.  Or Joshua who made himself available and the walls came a tumblin’ down.

Joshua 24:15-18

But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."    Then the people answered, "Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods!  It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our fathers up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled.  And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God."

From the Heart,

Pastor Jeff

ENDURANCE - Character Quality # 17

Sermon title for this week:  “Pastor to compete in Ironman Event”

The Ironman name has become synonymous with the pinnacle of athletic endurance. Ironman finishers proudly lay claim to being among the fittest athletes in the world.  Ironman events consist of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112-mile bike and a 26.2 mile marathon run. The Ford Ironman World Championship is held in Kona, Hawaii every October.

Philippians 3:7-14

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ — the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.  I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

          Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

en·dur·ance     –noun

1.     the fact or power of enduring or bearing pain, hardships.

2.    the ability or strength to continue or last, esp. despite fatigue, stress, or other adverse conditions.

Proverbs 27:17     As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

Jesus is the ultimate ironman, having had his hand and feet and side pierced with a metal object (like iron).  He endured the opposition of sinful men even to the point of death.  Jesus is the only one capable of leading us into the presence of almighty God.  He gained that ability by enduring.  To be successful in any area of life, to be the best leader you can be, you must be able to endure through all kinds of trials.  Name a leader who has not had to endure through struggles.  Consider how many people are not leaders because they lack this one Christ-like quality, the ability to endure.  People become a victim and everything wrong becomes someone else’s fault.  Those who would lead well have learned how to endure based on the fact that God has always seen them through before and know he will do it again.  No questions this week.  Just thoughts about leadership and endurance.  To endure or to give up – the choice is yours.  I pray you will endure and lead others to Jesus who will in turn lead them to our Father in Heaven!

From the Heart,  Pastor Jeff Cooper