01-31-21 Raise the white flag; I Surrender!

Scripture  Hebrews 10:19-25
The church was a virtual impossibility to continue once Jesus left this earth. For the most part, the church was a group of common laborers at a time when travel and communication were difficult. Most travel was on foot, some on donkeys, camels, or horses for the military. Or by boat for long-distance.. That was it. No planes trains and automobiles! A ragtag group of fishermen, businessmen in the fishing trade, a zealot (who engaged in politics and anarchy, attempting to overthrow the Roman government. Let that one settle in for a moment. He may have been a politician or a revolutionary. HOWEVER, when he joined Jesus, he remained zealous, but with allegiance to Jesus rather than political revolution.), a tax collector and a tentmaker.
All of this was in the midst of two very diverse religious worlds around them – the Jewish world which the first disciples were all a part of and – the Gentile world which contained various false deities or none at all. It could have been very easy for Christianity to simply become a sect of Judaism except that the Jews didn’t want them and neither did the Gentile world.
Therefore we have a group of very ordinary people, with very few means of communicating their message in a world where religious ideas were as common as weeds in a garden.
Today the church is primarily a group of very ordinary people, with so many means of communication that the problem is similar (how do we best communicate the message) in a world where religious ideas are still as common as weeds in a garden.
Just as the church was a virtual impossibility to continue once Jesus left this earth. Today, the growth and influence of the church is a virtual impossibility to continue until Jesus returns to this earth.
So raise the white flag – I surrender – I give up!
Since March of this year, Barna has been closely tracking the well-being of pastors and their people as well as Americans’ perceptions of church. Over the past nine months, data show that pastors’ mental and emotional well-being has suffered greatly as they worked to guide their people through the pandemic and an election year fraught with tension. Researchers also discovered that Christians’ relationships with churches are changing, with church attendance at a low even as new online and hybrid options spring up. Among practicing Christians, weekly church attendance dropped by 28 percentage points from 2019 to 2020, and roughly one in five churched adults (22%) has abandoned attending church altogether.
While Francis Chan acknowledges that these numbers may be discouraging, he urges pastors to prioritize authentic faith over attendance metrics—because that’s what Jesus did. “Christ has always just been interested in those whose faith is going to survive anything because their faith really is born of the Holy Spirit.”
Chan suggests that this time of “pruning” may lead to more fruitful faith in the long run: Empty seats may be hard to see, but they may be part of God’s work.
One person wrote about the church, “We bicker and fight and split. We divorce and cheat like everyone else. We are often hateful. We fail to live out the high ideals we claim as our own.
I don’t think we need to be asking “What is your hope for the Church?” Rather, is there good reason to have hope for the Church?
I say yes: And here are 7 reasons why:
1. Cultural Christianity is melting. In the U.S., it is no longer expected that you know the Bible or go to church or give a rip about religion. This opens space for authentic Christians to live in a way that shows what it looks like to follow Jesus. It’s like a do-over, allowing us to consider our forms of worship, service, and living as disciples. Said another way, It allows us to look seriously and in a fresh way at our Believing, Belonging and Becoming.
2. The Bible is back. Ok, so it never really left. But in this season of re-assessing how we’re living out our faith, we are looking for a standard by which to make decisions. A renewed commitment to the Bible and theological grounding is undergirding growing churches in the U.S. Some would say “how stupid to follow an ancient writing by a bunch of different people written over thousands of years” and yet every word still speaks truth today.
3. Our nation is reeling. From 9/11 to the 2008 Great Recession, to a worldwide pandemic, to an even greater political divide, we are not all as confident as we used to be. We have seen in a new way that we are vulnerable, not always well-liked, and may not be on an eternal upward climb of prosperity. So there is an enormous space in culture for the church to be creative and compassionate offering care and hope to our neighbors, schools, and businesses.
4. We don’t have to do it all.  According to Paul Borthwick, sometime in the mid-to late-1980s, the center of the gravity of the Church shifted from the West to the East and South. Our sisters and brothers abroad are rising up with vibrant faith. We North Americans need to learn from Christians in other lands..
5. The big one. I have a final, big, and good reason to have hope for the Church—Jesus. He loves the Church with the intense care of a groom for his bride. He’s the King of kings, and he has overcome. In the building of his kingdom, he’s accomplishing his purposes and is working for our good and the good of the world.
Hebrews 10:19-25 is a PRELUDE to Hebrews 11 which concludes with Hebrews 12:1-2
19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 
24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Raise the white flag; I Surrender! I surrender to Christ – I give up my will and my way to His!

01-17-21 RECON

Reconciliation & Reconnaissance
Scripture  2 Corinthians 5:16-21

2 Corinthians 5:16-21
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Along with Martin Luther King Jr., let us pray, VIDEO: MLK reconciliation PRAYER

          I want people to know (meaning to experience) the joy that I know – the joy that I experience from having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I realize that joy has a precondition – RECONCILIATION. I needed to reconcile my previous beliefs with those of the bible. I needed to reconcile my inability to overcome sin in my life without help from someone else. I had to come to a point of reconciliation between myself and God.
          I was born, like Adam and Eve “Imago Dei” in the image of God. Like Adam and Eve, I also willfully, knowingly, broke away from that image. God designed us to live in communion with Him and God did not walk away from a relationship with us, we walked…NO, we ran away from HIM & hid from Him (Gen 3:8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden). Don’t wonder why there is evil in the world till you recognize that you are the one who ran away and hid from ultimate goodness. And because Adam and Eve, and You and I have done that, God removed the ability to live forever in our current state. He kicked us out of Eden so we could not eat from the tree of life and live forever.
          If we were ever going to have access to that tree again, God would have to provide a way for us to be reconciled to Him…Thousands of years later he made a way through another tree cut down and fashioned into the shape of a cross. Now that we have experienced forgiveness and new life through the one who died on that cross and have been reconciled to God, we are to become reconcilers.
If we are to win the world for Christ, we must begin by reconciling ourselves with the people of this world. Political divides are the easiest example where we are unwilling to reconcile with others. Reconciliation does not mean being in agreement – it means being in community even with those whom I disagree with.
RECONCILIATION:
1.     the restoration of friendly relations.
2.     the action of making one view or belief compatible with another.
Opposite of Reconciliation:  estrangement, alienation, feud, incompatibility
Reconciliation is not simple: (4 personal examples – 2 without R. and 2 with R.)
MISSED OPPORTUINITY: The guy with a gas can.
UNWILLINGNESS TO RECONCILE Jeff & Lisa (tried shaking hands on Xmas Eve).
AGREEING TO DISAGREE: Baptism in the Holy Spirit.
MISUNDERSTANDING CLEARED UP: Mike Redman (Heather kicked out)
          The goal of personal reconciliation is similar to the goal of spiritual reconciliation. To restore friendly relations between you and another person and the other between you and God. And we must do all we can to seek that reconciliation. Spiritually it brings about our New Birth and personally Martin Luther King Jr. put it this way in his message titled “Birth of a New Nation”: VIDEO: MLK reconciliation

Martin Luther King Jr.
“Let us fight passionately and unrelentingly for the goals of justice and peace. But let's be sure that our hands are clean in this struggle. Let us never fight with falsehood and violence and hate and malice, but always fight with love, so that when the day comes that the walls of segregation have completely crumbled in Montgomery, that we will be able to live with people as their brothers and sisters. Oh, my friends, our aim must be not to defeat Mr. Engelhardt, not to defeat Mr. Sellers and Mr. Gayle and Mr. Parks. Our aim must be to defeat the evil that's in them. But our aim must be to win the friendship of Mr. Gayle and Mr. Sellers and Mr. Engelhardt. We must come to the point of seeing that our ultimate aim is to live with all men as brothers and sisters under God, and not be their enemies or anything that goes with that type of relationship.” [Martin Luther King Jr., "Birth of a New Nation"]
          I can hear God calling out across heaven just before Jesus is crucified, Oh, my heavenly hosts, our aim must be not to defeat John and Ted and Susie and JoAnn and (every name on earth). Our aim must be to defeat the evil that's in them by what my son is about to do for them. Our aim must be to win the friendship of John and Ted and Susie and JoAnn and (every name on earth) so that they may be reconciled to me and once again be able to eat from the tree of Life.
When we serve as Christ’s ambassadors heling reconcile others to Him, we are fulfilling the foundational scripture of Ashland Church: Ephesians 2:19-22   “You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” 
COMPASSION as demonstrated by kindness, humility, gentleness and patience toward one another (Colossians 3:12), being on mission together for the greater good of building Christ’s church in the world.
 
My friend Bryan showed that kind of compassion toward me because he did not want to just be friends for this lifetime, he wanted me to be reconciled with God so that I would know joy in this life, but also so we could be friends forever.
The story of Bob Laurent, Michael W. Smith & Dale.
2 Corinthians 5:17-20 (MSG)    Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We're Christ's representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them. We're speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he's already a friend with you.
 
ALTAR CALL: “Friends are friends forever”

01-10-21 RED LETTER WRAP UP Time to Rock & Roll

 Scripture    Matthew 7:24-27
 We’re obsessed with our phones; a new study has found. The heaviest smartphone users click, tap or swipe on their phone 5,427 times a day, according to research.
Pic - Phones
 

That’s the top 10 percent of phone users, so one would expect it to be excessive. However, the rest of us still touch the addictive things 2,617 times a day on average. No small number.
 “And by every interaction, we mean every tap, type, swipe and click. We’re calling them touches,” it explains.
Pic - phoneaddicts

Averaging out the numbers, the aforementioned figures mean the heaviest users are touching their devices a couple of million times in one year.
... Probably the most interesting thing in all this was that the people surveyed completely underestimated their phone touching. While they were initially shocked by the numbers, 41 percent said “it probably won’t change the way I use my phone.” (Not totally about age - People older do more and my nephew – Matt – does less)
APPLICATION
How many taps, types, swipes and clicks take place between you and God in a day?
If the number of times you were in contact with God on a daily basis could be tracked, would you be shocked by the result? Would it be because of how often, or, how infrequently you reached out to Him?
James 4:8 says, "Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded".
Revelation 2:3-5 says, “You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.  Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.  Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place”.
 
When you think about love, what color comes to mind? RED!  Red is a color that reminds us of the great love God has for us when Jesus shed his blood, which is why bibles began printing the words of Jesus in RED – hence our 2020 theme was RED LETTER EDITION, based on: Matthew 7:24-27  (THE MESSAGE)
Pic – House on the Rock 3

"These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on.
These words I speak to you are NOT incidental additions to your life,
They ARE foundational words,
My words are NOT homeowner improvements to your standard of living.
They ARE words to build a life on.
If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. 25 Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit — but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.
26 But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don't work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. 27 When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards."
 
END OF SERMON ON THE MOUNT
Our theme text is the end of the greatest sermon ever preached. It is Jesus’ conclusion to the sermon on the Mount. Here is a recap of the end – going back a little further than the section of our theme text…
From picturing two ways and two trees, Jesus closed His message by picturing two builders and their houses. The two ways illustrated the start of the life of faith; the two trees illustrated the growth and results of the life of faith here and now, and the two houses illustrate the end of this life of faith, when God will call everything to judgment. There are false prophets at the gate that leads to the broad way, making it easy for people to enter. But at the end of that way, there is destruction. The final test is not what we think of ourselves, or what others may think. The final test is: What will God say?
The test answers are not given in words; not saying "Lord, Lord," and not obeying His commands. It’s easy to learn a churchy vocabulary, and even memorize Bible verses and worship songs, and yet not obey God's will. When a person is truly born again, she has the Spirit of God living within; and the Spirit enables her to know and do God’s will. God's love in her heart motivates her to obey God and serve others.
 
No matter how much we have heard the words of Jesus this year – it means nothing unless it causes us to live by His words. James 1:22-25  Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it — he will be blessed in what he does.
          Doing what Jesus says is what it means to build your house on the rock, which leads to finding an eternal residence which Jesus is building for you right now.
 
The foundation in this sermon of Jesus’ is obedience to Gods Word - obedience that is an evidence of true faith. The two men in this story had a lot in common. Both had desires to build a house. Both built houses that looked good and sturdy. But when the judgment came (the storm), one of the houses collapsed. What was the difference? Not the external look. The difference was in the foundation: The successful builder "dug deep" and set his house on a solid foundation. (I must admit I feel bad when anyone loses a home, but I don’t feel moved to action to help someone rebuild a home that was built on a beach…on the sand. It will only be a matter of time till it falls again.)
 
A false profession will last until judgment (a storm) comes. Many have professed faith in Christ and not withstood the storm. Consider the parable of the four soils…
People used to wonder – are you “once saved always saved”? Of course the answer is yes – God’s salvation is certain. It is the wrong question…the right question is “If I profess Jesus as Lord, is my salvation guaranteed? NO - Matt 7:21  Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
What is his will? To build your life on the rock OR To hear his words and do them!
 
But the judgment illustrated here probably refers to the final judgment before God. We must not read into this parable all the doctrine that we are taught in the Epistles; for the Lord was illustrating one main point: profession will ultimately be tested before God. Those who have trusted Christ, and have proved their faith by their obedience will have nothing to fear. Their house is founded on the Rock, and it will stand. But those who have professed to trust Christ, yet who have not obeyed God's will, will be condemned.
 
How will we test our profession of faith? By popularity? No, for there are many on the broad road to destruction. And there are many who are depending on words, saying "Lord, Lord" - but this is no assurance of salvation. Even activities in a church organization are no assurance. How then will we judge ourselves?
 
The two ways tell us to examine the cost of our profession. Have we paid a price to profess faith in Christ? The two trees tell us to investigate whether our lives have really changed. Are there godly fruits from our lives? And the two houses remind us that true faith in Christ will last, not only in the storms of life, but also in the final judgment.
 
The congregation was astonished at Jesus’ sermon. Why? Because Jesus spoke with divine authority. The scribes and Pharisees spoke "from authorities," always quoting the various rabbis and experts of the Law. Jesus needed no human teacher to add authority to His words; for He spoke as the Son of God. We cannot lightly dismiss the sermon on the mount, for it is God who gave it to us! God is for us – in the end, he wants our house to STAND!
 
          Being dog owners for the first time in 20 years has given me a new way of seeing some biblical principles and I have recently discovered another. There is a new command we are trying to teach Skipper. “Stand” (explain that) The reason we teach him to stand is to examine him and make sure everything is alright.
Ephesians 6:13-14
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
 
Here is how not to “stand”…Robert Duvall’s character gives “sage” advice to his young nephew in the 2003 movie, SECOND HAND LIONS
“Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most.  That people are basically good; that honor, courage and virtue mean everything; that power and money mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; and I want you to remember this, that love…true love never dies. You remember that, boy. You remember that.  Doesn’t matter if it’s true or not.  You see, a man should believe in those things, because those are the things worth believing in.”
APPLICATION
This “sage” advice might sound good in today’s relativistic pop culture, but it does nothing to root or ground the soul. How can anything be worth remembering when it isn't believed to be true? It is nothing more than "second-hand" foolishness.  A wise man will build his house upon the rock of truth, not the sinking sand of relativism. In the words of the great hymn, “On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.”
PIC Phones 2

CONCLUISON
How many taps, types, swipes and clicks will you have with the words of Jesus this year? 2617 a day?  How about no less than 1 a day?  Will you read God’s word daily? I know there is nothing that will boost your spiritual life more than spending time in the Word of God, most particularly looking at the words of Jesus where you will get to know your savior.