As we dig into the Scriptures, we are making our first attempt at creating a Live Event on You Version for smart phones and computers.  As soon as we make this successful, we will add more and more info to the event, including sermon scripture references and notes.

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Athens Vineyard Live Event

In the spirit of watchfulness, I submit to you some ‘lightly modernized’ words of Jonathan Edwards, who ministered in the midst of some profound revival.  Here’s a warning he offered to those who catch the kind of evangelistic fervor I have been praying for and teaching about :

Spiritual pride is the main door by which the devil comes into the hearts of those who are zealous for the advancement of Christianity.

It is the chief inlet of smoke from the bottomless pit, to darken the mind and mislead the judgment.

It is the main source of all the mischief the devil introduces, to clog and hinder a work of God.

Spiritual pride tends to speak of other persons’ sins with bitterness or with laughter and levity and an air of contempt.  But pure Christian humility rather tends either to be silent about these problems or to speak of them with grief and pity.

Spiritual pride is very apt to suspect others, but a humble Christian is most guarded about himself.

He is as suspicious of nothing in the world as he is of his own heart.

The proud person is apt to find fault with other believers, that they are low in grace, and to be much in observing how cold and dead they are and to be quick to note their deficiencies.

But the humble Christian has so much to do at home and sees so much evil in his own heart and is so concerned about it that he is not apt to be very busy with other hearts.

He is apt to esteem others better than himself.

—Jonathan Edwards, “Thoughts on the Revival,” Works (Edinburgh, 1979), I:398-400.

As I drove on to work, the incident made me stop and think seriously about my death.  Don’t think me too morbid.  I had a NT professor once who confessed that he lay awake at night thinking of his death on a regular basis.  He was 38 at the time.

I listened to the song over and over as I drove, imagining the band at the Vineyard, with all the electric guitar players stepping up to play various solos.  The song tells the story of a friend who had died too young, but whose work would live on.  Here’s the pertinent line in the song:  “Ascend may you find no resistance, Know that you made such a difference, All you leave behind will live to the end.”

What on earth am I doing that is really making a difference?  And especially, what am I leaving behind that will live to the end?!?  Now I understand the sentimentality that accompanies the experience of telling your friend goodbye, and the emotion of wanting to say to them that they mattered.  I’ll let you say those words without protest.

I spoke on the parable of the talents this past weekend.  That story will get you thinking about your life, and meeting Jesus when you die.

It does you (us all) a world of good to pause on a regular basis, and ask whether you’re living the life you were created to live.  And when your master returns and meets with you to settle up, will he refer to you as ‘good and trustworthy’ or ‘evil and lazy/irksome’?

For one thing, it will be pretty hard to answer that if you don’t know what you’re for.  Spend time thinking about what you’re made for.  What’s your life mission?  Or, what’s the fire that burns in your core?  If you could really be known for something, what would it be?  What do you want to be remembered for?  What if you really could make a difference?  What would you want that to look like?

A friend once told me that he wanted to live such a life that when he died, no church in town would be able to hold the crowd.  His intention wasn’t to be famous, but to be that well loved, which required him to live well.  That’s a noble goal.

I’m not sure that’s quite what I’m digging for here, though. I’m not talking about simply being a quality person (which IS worthy) but what are you called to DO?

As I imagined that band playing my funeral, I wanted to think that what I had started in my short days was so important that someone would think, “We can’t let this work stop.”  Frankly, I don’t want to waste my life.  I have no need to be famous, but thinking about my funeral has been a real motivator to know what I’m for, and not to waste my life.

But in case I’m near the end, we’ve got to get Blackbird covered.  Let’s see,

Derek and Taylor should do the vocals
On electric guitar, I want Ryan, Matt, Jonathon, and Chris
Ian and Tim can carry all the percussion
Matt and Josh can carry the bass . . .

This article got me thinking about happiness and our unquenchable thirst for it.  The article is about online dating, and how it can be risky, esp. since it feeds our insatiable need to follow unrealistic feelings which are built upon scary foundations. Here’s a quote from the article:

We are living in a “Have it your way” culture. When we want it we got it, from on-line shopping with next day delivery, to bootleg movies being sent to our cell phones before coming to theatres. We have created a culture in which we expect to get what we want when we want it, and in the way we like it. It is no wonder then that on-line dating has exploded as a means for finding that special someone. Just log on to the site and search through a menu-list for your perfect soul mate.

What we do, however, is find this perfect soul mate, and a few years later, dump them for a more perfect soul mate.  After all, I haven’t been happy for a long time!

But such we are.  We have been trained in our world that we deserve happiness and have the right to pursue such happiness, regardless the cost to others around us.  J.P. Moreland does an outstanding job of pointing out, in several places, that our definition of happiness is  a pleasurable feeling, specifically, a sense of pleasurable satisfaction.  He goes on to demonstrate that due to its fragile and volatile core, we can never keep this feeling going.  We’re left with longings, tied in with a disconcerting feeling that we’ve been cheated, and we go on our journey in the pursuit of happiness, which we can never ultimately find – at least not the way we understand it.  We actually end up depressed in the midst of abundance.  I cannot recommend highly enough the two books linked above.  You see, people of old (like those who first wrote about the pursuit of happiness during our country’s founding) defined happiness as a life well lived, a life of virtue and character, a life that manifests wisdom, kindness, and goodness.

The implications of our current pursuit of happiness are at least 2 fold.  1) we’ve been duped.  Our goal is impossible to attain.  2) it makes us self-centered and selfish.   If we had grown up with the classic definition of happiness stated above, we wouldn’t be living selfish lives pursuing feelings of happiness, but we might have a shot at living the kind of life that yields a deeper sense of a life well lived (and feelings of well being, satisfaction, and – happiness?)

Honestly, look at your life, and think of how many decisions you make based on what will give you those pleasurable feelings we call happiness.  How often do you feel cheated by life because you don’t have those feelings more often.

Working in the field I do, I am constantly torn by this dilemma.  You see, I have a really merciful disposition, so when someone is in my office telling me how unhappy she is with her husband, or he’s explaining why he doesn’t like to sacrifice for people who have less than he, because . . ., well, I feel their pain.  I find myself identifying with them and their pain.  It’s how I’m gifted.  But if I give in to it, I cheat them out of redemptive truth.

Someone close to me recently left her husband for a wealthy man.  She’s “happier than she’s ever been.”  It’s those fragile pleasurable feelings that make us do whatever it takes to find happiness.  She’s being duped.  She has left a lot of hurt people in her wake.  She doesn’t understand why I’m not happy for her.  After all, we’ve been trained to believe that someone’s happiness is what we should wish for them above all else (A major talk radio host has interviewed hundreds of people over the last few years by asking the question, “What did your parents want most for you – success, wealth, to be a good person, or happiness?”  85% said “happiness”)

Would it surprise you to find out that I believe the pursuit of happiness is wired into our very being, and that God passionately wants us to devote our lives to finding it?  John Piper explains it well in Desiring God.  The difference between our current pursuit of happiness and the biblical call to pursuing happiness is that the scriptures direct us to finding our happiness in and through a relationship with Jesus.  In that relationship, Jesus will direct us to lose our life to find it, and take up our cross (die!) and follow him.  In studying Jesus’ call to life and happiness, we find out that the ancients got it right.  Their understanding of a good life was one lived well, not one lived selfishly.

Jesus designed the world such that in pursuing happiness through him and living like he insists, we find that well spring of life and satisfaction, AND we don’t leave a scattering of hurt people and shattered lives in our path.  Instead, we GIVE life, and FIND life.  And happiness.

Go get it.

Do you want that responsibility???

In some ways, I’m glad to know it.  I’ve heard Calvinists and Arminians argue about what role we humans play in people’s salvation, and it can leave me feeling uncertain.  I mean, is God in complete control over who gets in?  Or are we going to be standing at the judgment some day, and people on their way to the hot place turn and scream at us, “Why didn’t you tell me?!?!?”

Well, this passage teaches that, mysterious as it may be, when we properly open the door, we find that God was there all along, directing the whole thing.  If we use our keys, he’s working alongside us.  And yet, if we mishandle the gospel, people will be hindered from entering.  Somehow he’s designed it so that we work together with him.

What are you doing with your set of keys?

Now don’t roll your eyes at me, I’m not trying to be manipulative.  It is the honest question that I am asking myself. I honestly doubt most of you have really considered the fact that you have that big of a role to play, that you have keys to the kingdom of heaven.  But I believe you do.

How are you going to use them?  Well, I think God wants all of us at the Vineyard to step up and use our keys to reach children in our city.

I believe in the sovereignty of God enough that I am confident he has put in our midst (our church family) who he wants to be here.  Since he  is calling us to prepare a place and program for children, I have to believe that he has a role for each of us to play in this work.  Doesn’t it make sense that you could use your gifts/talents/energy/time/etc. in joining the effort to reach children in this city?  You don’t have to evangelize.  Just look at your gifts and think about how they could be used as keys for opening the door to the kingdom.

I’m also influenced by these points:

• 1/2 of people in the world are children
• 85% of people who become Christians do so between the ages of 4 and 14
• look where God is working and join him (such as saving children)
• Jesus said to let the children come to him and not hinder them
• He also said that the kingdom belonged to such as these (children).  I guess that means he wants to let them participate
• And he said to receive a child was to receive him
• AND he said (referring to a child) that the least was the greatest

Come one Vineyard!  Get your keys out!

But we do.

It’s hard to let God be in charge.  That’s what being Lord is all about, but most of us want to control our lives, our circumstances, etc.  And we try to control God.  We even insist that he come through for us in certain ways, or that he perform a certain kind of miracle, prove that he cares, prove that he heals.

It’s the attitude that Jesus identified as the leaven of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herod.

Oh, we may call it faith.  “I’m believing God for ______ miracle.” Or making a deal.  “If you’ll do this, THEN I’ll do what you say.”  Either that, or we are trying to make sure it’s God we’re hearing and not just our own thoughts, so we try to make him answer in some specific way.  But any way we turn it, we’re trying to control him so that we can  – feel secure? – feel power?

Any way we cut it, Jesus called it leaven – or yeast.  You know how yeast is.  Just a dab ‘l do ya.  A little will permeate through your whole being, affecting how you interpret life.

I’ve recently had the opportunity to deal with a really difficult person.  He did something to me that was wrong, and it hurt me financially.  I’m having to forgive him.  That’s plain enough.

But what about my life philosophy?  God is in control of my life.  How do I interpret this situation?  Shouldn’t I be able to expect God to protect me from things like this?  Haven’t I been serving him?   When I am faithful, shouldn’t I expect people to give me favor?  On and on it goes.  The yeast of the PS&H is insidious.  I want to control how God deals with me.  But he’s God and hasn’t invited me to be in charge.  He has the remote control (except he’s not so remote).  (I know some of what he’s wanting me to learn through this!)  So, ultimately, I say, “Thank you God for being in control.  I can’t imagine how life would be if you weren’t.”

The most overriding one is how God fills us with his Spirit in our time.  Through his presence in us, he transforms us, guides us, heals us, prompts us, speaks to us, and leads us.

But we leak.

I guess I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit this week.  Shouldn’t we be ashamed that we leak?

I noticed several people on Sunday talking about being Spirit filled and apparently didn’t feel the need to get filled again.  Honestly, if I don’t get filled, like at least daily, then I can really tell a difference.  I mean, I’m more fleshly, more prone to sinful thoughts and actions, more irritable, less patient, less obedient, on and on.  Am I really worse than everyone else.  you wish

In Eph 5:18, Paul gives an order – “be filled with the Spirit”.  That tells me at least 2 things.

1. You need to be filled again and again – one filling doesn’t last forever.
2. You need to know how to make it happen – or else he wouldn’t have told you to do it.

Well, at least I need not be ashamed when I leak.  Nor should I pridefully pretend I am when I’m not.  AND neither should I pretend I’m not when I am.

What works for you?  What do you do to get filled?  I’m thinking at LEAST ask.  Jesus said God gives the Spirit to those who ask.  You may want to wait after you ask.  You don’t necessarily have to feel anything, but I do believe that he gives us those occasional powerful experiences partly so we will know what being full of him feels like.  Go after it.  Does music work for you?  Reading the Word?  Getting alone?  Getting around contagious Christians? Listening to message podcasts?

It’s too important.  It’s how God is working in our time. Get filled with the Spirit.  At least every day.

1. Stay filled with the Spirit.
2. Read the Word very regularly.
3. Hang around people who have lots of faith.
4. Then hang around people who have no faith in God and constantly ask God what he’s doing in their lives.
5. Pray for them, and ask God how he wants to use you.

Be missional.

I was fasting a couple of times recently (not that I’m talking about it) and I found myself having a really hard time getting along with this guy I was hanging out with.  Well, even a couple of months ago, I would have simply excused my irritation because I was fasting.  But I remembered something Richard Foster said about fasting in one of his books.

More than any other Discipline, fasting reveals the things that control us. This is a wonderful benefit to the true disiciple who wants to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. We cover up what is inside us with food and other good things, but in fasting these things surface. If pride controls us, it will be revealed almost immediately. David writes, “I humbled my soul with fasting” (Psalm 69:10). Anger, bitterness, jealousy, strife, fear–if they are within us, they will surface during fasting. At first we will rationalize that our anger is due to our hunger; then we will realize that we are angry because the spirit of anger is within us. We can rejoice in this knowledge because we know that healing is available through the power of Christ

Wow.

I grew up thinking that, of my parents 4 children,  I was the most like my dad.  Emotionally, Dad was very stable, controlled, kind, and gentle.  I never heard a cuss word pass his lips.   In order to meet the personal expectation to be like him, I have layered myself with external controls  to demonstrate my emotional gentleness and stability.  So, throught the years, whenever I have found myself struggling to control feelings of irritation or any other feeling that threatened the calm, it has both surprised me and shamed me.  “What?!?  That’s just not like me!  It must be because I’m fasting.”

No, I’m just not as perfect as I thought I was.  The fasting was just another tool to get at the real condition of my heart.  It was like opening the hood of the car so the heart gauge could be connected.  Or rather, fasting forced me to turn down the loud radio I had playing (my layers of control) so I could hear/see what was really going on.

For me, the whole experience has added to my desire to fast.  It helps me see who I really am, which is really important in my journey.  I need some transformation.  Otherwise, my presentation of myself as a Christian would be inauthentic, fabricated, based on a faulty heart.  I’ve already seen that one around.