Apr 29, 2007: Romans 12:1-2

Romans M 10 Message

Text: Romans 12:1-2

BIG IDEA: We become people who focus on the “line of eternity” through the Word, beauty, people, and what we do.

Introduction

Michael Gelb wrote a book called How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci. Among the points he listed were have an insatiably curious approach to life, a commitment to test knowledge through experience, a willingness to embrace ambiguity, paradox, and uncertainty.

D.A. Benton has written a book called How to Think Like a CEO. She interviewed over 100 CEOs and weaves their thoughts throughout her book. Benton speaks about 22 "vital ceo traits," including being honest, courageous, attentive to details--which are analogous to climbing tiers of a terraced mountain…

We tend to think of sports as physical, but so much success is mental.

As a skinny football player in high school, I was encouraged by reading a book called Quarterbacking by Joe Theisman, a successful professional football player who had been a physically small high school player and a diminutive college player at Notre Dame. He said 90% of football is mental. 95% of being a quarterback is mental.
I found that my performance as a quarterback rose and fell based on the quality and lack thereof of my mental state as a quarterback.

How we think in art, business, and sports is crucial.

It’s also crucial in our faith.

This is why Paul says what he does about our mind in Romans 12:1-2.

The apostle Paul in Romans 12:1-2 says:
A Living Sacrifice
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is true worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Paul in Romans 1-11, as we have seen, has shown us the gospel or “good news” of what God has done for us in Christ.
Paul has explained how God, in his great mercy, has become a human being in the person of Jesus Christ, to absorb in his body our sins, those spiritual toxins that separates us from God, so that we could be forgiven, restored to God, and receive the very spirit of God, and, as a result of that, new life…resurrection life. Paul says that in view of this mercy of God, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is true worship.
In our current world, when people think of religion, they tend to think of a systematic way of viewing reality and a code of ethics to live by. But in the ancient world, people tended to think about religion as sacrifice. Paul would have known that his hearers would have associated religion with some kind of sacrifice. And so, drawing on that assumption, the apostle Paul urges his listeners, in view of God’s mercy toward them, to respond by offering their bodies, their very selves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This, Paul says, is true worship… truly acknowledging God’s worth.
Paul in keeping with all of Scripture urges his listeners to offer every part of themselves to God.
Part of offering our bodies to Christ would include exercising them, resting them, not abusing them with junk food, not misusing our bodies sexually, using for God’s holy purposes…
But offering our bodies includes more than this, when Paul speaks of us offering our bodies to God, he is calling us to offer our whole selves to God.
Paul says. “Offer your bodies to God as living sacrifices.” He is encouraging us to offer every part of ourselves to him…
And Paul says in vs. 2 we are to offer our minds to God. He says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
When Paul talks about the fact that we are not to be conformed to the pattern of this world, the Greek word that he is using here can be literally translated “don’t be conformed to this present age.” Paul uses the same word in Galatians 1:4 when he talks about this present evil age.
Like many of first century Jews shaped by the Old Testament, Paul believed that history was divided into the “present age” characterized by separation from God, confusion, despair and death and the “age to come” in which God would give new life to the world and to human kind, bringing justice, joy, peace and eternal life once for all.
When Paul don’t be squeezed into the mindset of this temporal, passing world, Paul is referring to the fleeting, passing, temporal value system of this world, this age.
So when Paul speaks of not being conformed this present age, he’s talking about not being conformed to the fleeting, passing, temporal values of this age…
And then Paul says, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…
A significant part of what it means to be transformed is to take on, in contrast to most of the people of the world, an eternal perspective.
How do we become people who are not fixated on our temporal “dot” of our existence on earth, but on the “line” of eternity?
(By the way, as C.S. Lewis the Oxford scholar has pointed out the paradox is that history shows that those who are focused most on the next life have done most in this life for the peoples’ of this earth. People like William Wilberforce have fought against slavery, like Amy Carmichael who have rescued children from child prostitution, missionaries like Dr. Samuel M. Zwemer who either built or inspired others build hospitals for the poor.)
How does this happen?
One of the ways this happens is by exposing ourselves to the eternal perspective of God in his word…
How do we do that?
If you’re a regular here or are part of a community of faith somewhere that seeks to faithfully expound the word, you’re exposing yourself to an eternal perspective by hearing the word preached/taught.
Another way to receive an eternal perspective is by exposing our selves to the Word of God is by reading the Bible. If you want to get through the Bible in a year or two, you might consider getting the ONE YEAR BIBLE. But this approach is not for everyone (hold up prop).
Richard Foster, a respected writer on the spiritual life, recommends reading a large section of Scripture a day or two a week. He believes that a longer shower once or twice a week may be better for some than a daily sprinkling.
In the Taste of Community small group we’re hosting in our home, we’re going through the ancient practice of meditation called the Lectio Divina.
In Lectio Divina you simply take a small passage of Scripture… you read it not once, but several times reflecting, savoring, praying, contemplating one word or phrase… you allow the word to sink from your head to your heart.
Another way to get the eternal perspective of the Word is to memorize part of it.
I often use part of my vacation to memorize (or re-memorize) a passage of Scripture, like Psalm 1, 103, 139 or Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount, parts of John 15, Colossians 3. This has been a wonderful way to let the Word become part of me… Sometimes, as I sleep I recite Scripture…
The Word can help us move from focusing on the “dot” of this life to the “line” of eternity…
Other kinds of spiritual reading can also help us focus less on the dot and more on the line…
C.S. Lewis, Thomas Merton, and Henri Nouwen are authors that have pointed me godward.
Another thing we can do that moves us from a mindset on the “dot” to the perspective of the “line” is exposing ourselves to beauty.
There’s something about being exposed to beauty that makes us aware of finiteness and exposes us to the power and creativity of God.
C.S. Lewis in the Weight of Glory says that the beauty we find in nature, music, books can move in us a longing for an eternal beauty…
Lewis says the eternal beauty is not located in these things, but only comes through them…

Lewis says the eternal beauty that comes through these things arouse in us the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited….

Beauty on earth can make us long for an eternal beauty.

When I am running through a wooded trail or sailing on the water off the coast here, sometimes I have a longing for this eternal beauty.

A pastor I know in NYC named Tim Keller says that when we meet Jesus, his face will remind us of everything beautiful we’ve ever experienced… and conversely beauty can remind us of the beauty of Jesus…

If this feels soft and subjective to you, let me cite an interesting study done by a Japanese mathematics scholar named Masahiko Fujiwara (not a Christian) on how genius emerges.
This scholar researched people who were widely regarded as being geniuses in fields such as mathematics, science, literature, art, music, etc. In each case the person who was widely regarded as a genius as a child was exposed to beauty in his or her surroundings. He thought that there was one exception in his study of a famous economist who much of his life in a poor part of India that clearly was not beautiful, but as he traced this economic genius’s history, he discovered that indeed as a young child he had lived in a place of great beauty. A second characteristic that this Japanese scholar identified in his study of people who were widely regarded as geniuses was that they know their hearts knelt in reverence to something higher than they were. The third characteristic of the genius was that they lived in an environment where spirituality was regarded as being more important than money or tangible things.
It is as we allow ourselves to be exposed to beauty in the Word, but also in nature great novels, movies, through music, and, perhaps most important, through our relationships…and as we kneel in submission to God and value the things that are spiritual and eternal above, the things that we can see, touch and feel, our minds will be renewed. We will take on a more eternal perspective, and then we will be able to test and approve what God’s will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.
A third way we become people who focus on the line of eternity (vs. the dot of this life) is through relationships.
Alan Deutschman in his book Change or Die points out that 90% of people likely will not change. Information alone doesn’t generate change in most people. Scaring people with facts doesn’t cause people to change. The only thing that causes a person to change is having a relationship with a person or a community that inspires hope.
If we want our minds transformed from the present age so that our focus is not on the “dot” but on the “line”, we need to be with people whose energy orients us that way.
I’ve a had a number of people do that for me.
One person I think of is my mother. She re-dedicated her life to God not long before I gave my life to Christ as a teenager.
When one of us five kids was about to make a big decision, she would often encourage about the consequences in 10 years and in eternity. When of us kids would fail at something or experience something disappointing, she would encourage us to look in light of 10 years and in light of eternity.
When I was a high school senior I remember applying to schools and hoping to go to one of top two choices. And I remember my mom, my IVY leagued educated mom, saying don’t put a school at the top of your list just because it’s prestigious or because their graduates command a certain salary, pick a school that will help you fulfill your life purpose, what God wants for you. If you pick just because of its brand you may rely on your education more that God… that’s eternal perspective.
I have a wife, mentors, friends who orient me to the eternal.
Frankly, I have many wonderful people in my life who don’t, they are people who orient to the here and now…
But I want the people who orient me to the eternal to be my core influencers.
I am aware that it’s not a high percentage of people of younger generation who have this eternal orientation.
So, if you can’t find a friend like this, go back in history. Considering becoming friends with William Wilberforce, the Christian politicians who fought to dismantle the slave trade (as featured in the the movie Amazing Grace), or Eric Liddle the Olympic runner who went to serve in China (featured in the movie Chariots of Fire) or Mother Teresa or Amy Carmichael, the missionary to India.
Another way to live for the line and not the dot is by what we choose to do (this points comes to us at slightly different angle).
What we do affects our perspective.
As I said when we looked at Romans 6 several weeks ago, we not only change from the inside out, but from the outside in. What we do affects our perspective.
Richard Rohr has said we don’t think ourselves into new ways of living, we live ourselves into new ways of thinking…
When I was working for as part of part of big corporation in Tokyo, once in a while a young woman would swing by the work area to let me know she was going on vacation. She’d be giddy with laughter and say I’m going on this trip… it’s going to be so great… I’m going to go shopping by some a Prada purse, a Louis Vuitton bag and some Cartier Jewelry.
I’d say something that’s not my idea of an ideal vacation, but have a good time!
If I knew the person better, I might ask aren’t you embarrassed by that? She’s say, no what’s there to be embarrassed by? I’m going to have a great time!
The brand-name shopping spree vacation will tend to tie a person’s heart to things that will not last.
In contrast, this past week someone was telling me about how his daughter spent part of her vacation serving an orphanage in China. He said, this really opened her heart in powerful way to these children and to missions in general. She wanted to bring kids home and she going back to China next summer to serve in an orphanage.
Jesus says, 19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Jesus says where our treasure is our heart will follow. So, if we our treasure is here our heart will be here, it’s in heaven our heart will be there.
We can become a person whose mindset is on the “line of eternity” and not the "dot" through the Word, through beauty, through people, and through what we do.
Then as Paul says in Romans 12:2 we will be able to test and approve what God’s will is. His good, pleasing, and perfect will.
In his book, The Great Divorce, writer C.S. Lewis recounts a welcoming celebration held in heaven honoring a follower of Jesus who has just died. The book’s narrator, being shown around heaven at the time, sees this welcome celebration with boys and girls dancing around her and asks, “Is this person being honored is some great celebrity?
But his guide tells him, “It’s someone ye’ll never have heard of. Her name on earth was Sarah… Fame in heaven and fame on earth are two quite different things.
‘And who are all these young men and women on each side?’They are her sons and daughters.’ ‘She must have had a very large family.’ The guide says, ‘She had no children of her own… Every young man or boy that met her became her son--even if it is was only the boy that delivered meat to her back door. Every girl that met her was her daughter. ‘Wasn’t that a bit hard on their own parents?’‘No. There are those that steal other people’s children. But her motherhood was of a different kind. Those on whom it fell went back to their natural parents loving them more.
And now the abundance of life she has in Christ from the Father flows over into them.’"
Sarah Smith lived consciously or unconsciously in way that was oriented to eternity.
I am want to live that way too.
I want to live the kind of life today in light of my life “tomorrow.” I want to make my decisions today in light of the world to come.
What about you?
If so, live for the “line of eternity” (and not for the "dot") by exposing yourself to the Word, beauty, people who orient you to the eternal and through what you do.
Pray

(The sermon can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)

22 Apr. '07: Romans 9-11

ROMANS M 9 MESSAGE

Text: Romans 9-11

Introduction

I grew up in a fairly large family. As is often the case, I suppose, when you have a fairly large number of kids in a family, we siblings fought quite a bit. Sometimes we would fight verbally; sometimes we would fight physically. Sometimes we would even break up into teams to scrap with each other.

Although we kids fought like kids in other families, and though the homes that we grew up in were not particularly fancy, it seemed that one distinctive of our home was that kids in the neighbourhood and kids from our school wanted to hang out at our place. It was very common for us to have our friends in for dinner, we’d pull an extra chair or two at the dinner table. It was also not unusual for our friends to stay the night at our house. And once in a while, our friends, even though they may have come from very good families, would ask us at our dinner table say, “I want to be adopted into our family.”

We’d always say something like, hey “Bobby Brady” you’re white!”

I remember there was this kid who I got to know in my high school, who came from a good family and that lived in beautiful home. But, he ended up spending a lot of time at houses. We lived on a fairly large lot and some of our evergreens needed to be cut down. It was my job to cut the evergreens into logs, then chop the logs into firewood and stack them in our garage. But this friend from my high school ended up doing up doing some, well most of the work for me. He ended up staying at my home for weeks, chopping wood with me. My siblings complained to me from time to time, assuming I was forcing him against his will do my work.

When I would ask this guy if he wanted to go home, he would simply say, “I like chopping wood. I like it.. I’m getting a good work out…”

He’d stay for another week or two, and I would say, “Are you sure you want to stay?” And he’d say, “I haven’t finished my job yet…”

I don’t know if he really enjoyed chopping wood as much as he claimed, but I think he enjoyed hanging out at our house and with our wacky family.

I don’t know if you have ever had a yearning to be part of a particular family… Perhaps a family that you projected ideal qualities onto and idealized in some way. If you have ever had that yearning, you need to know that God, the only perfect father and mother in the universe (I’m using the words mother and father metaphorically)… the only one who is perfectly loving, wise and strong is raising up a family for himself.

Re-cap

Last Sunday, we talked about the identity of a son or daughter of God. A number of you were running in the Sun Run or attending the women’s retreat in the Fraser Valley so let me let me just give a brief re-cap of some of the things I said in that message.

I talked about how if you came from a family where your parents or significant people in your life… tried to script your life with ideas that reflected more of their own ambitions and insecurities, rather than the ecology of your personhood, that you may have been socialized to become a person whose significance is defined by what you do, what you achieve, what you have, what others think of you… The apostle Paul, as we found last week, describes this kind of person as a kind of “slave.”

In contrast to the slave, the person with the mindset of a son or daughter of God knows that he or she is defined not so much by what they do, or what they achieve, or what they have, or what other people think of them, but by the simple fact that they are deeply loved by God.

We talked about how a person can reborn into a family of God re-parented by God in a way that brings healing and freedom.

Many people think that being part of God’s family must be restrictive, but when we really become part of God’s family and realize how deeply we are loved by the one person who really matters, we set free to become our true selves and to pursue our true calling.

Paul in Chapters 9 through 11 builds on the concept of the family and describes how he creates his family…

(I’m not going to address every verse in these three chapters--that would take a very long time--but I will attempt to offer a sweep of some of the key images in these chapters. The image of family tree, the potter and clay and the wild olive branch being grafted into the tree. These are fairly difficult chapters in the book of Romans so stay with me).

As Paul writes Romans 9-11, he makes all kinds of allusions to the Old Testament. As writes, he is assuming that his listeners in Rome are familiar with the Old Testament. I know that many of you here are just beginning to explore Christianity but I would encourage you, if you really want to come to know the full scope of God’s plan, to make a commitment to read the entire Bible perhaps in the next year, and knowing the whole Bible, will help read the particular books.

When Paul in Romans 9:5 refers to a group called the patriarchs of the people of Israel, he assumes that his readers will know the patriarchs of Israel refer to… Abraham, his son Isaac, and Isaac’s son Jacob who would later be called Israel...

Paul points out that the Messiah Jesus Christ, who is God over all (vs.5), descended from these patriarchs. Why does Paul point this out? Paul wants to make it very clear both to his fellow Jews and to the Gentiles that the gospel that he is preaching about the faithful work of Jesus Christ on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins that enables people to receive the forgiveness of their sins and enter God’s family is not some fringe, radical teaching that is a departure from the Old Testament. Paul in Romans 9-11 is showing how God used the faithful work of Jesus Christ, the faithful Israelites, to fulfill the Old Testament prophecy that through the family tree of Israel God would create a family of his own.

As we trace Abraham’s family tree, we get a window into how God creates his family tree.

Abraham is the spiritual forefather of this family tree that God uses to bring Jesus Christ the one through whose sacrifice on the cross for our sins opens the way for people to be adopted into the God’s family… The line begins with Abraham and Sarah, then goes through Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Leah…

Abraham was chosen for a very special vocation by God and so why did God come to choose Abraham in the first place? We may assume was that Abraham was this person of extraordinary character and religious devotion, and would therefore he was singled out by God. But there is no evidence in Scripture that Abraham was this extraordinarily virtuous and religious person before God approached him. We know he had a tendency to lie under pressure, that he was willing to allow his wife to be “thrown to the wolves” in order to save his skin.

Abraham was not perfect--but for some reason that cannot be reduced to mere logic… God chooses seems to have chosen Abraham. We could God choose Abraham just because….

Then God chooses to continue the family tree through whom the world would be blessed through Abraham’s son, Isaac… who was miraculously born to Abraham when he was 100 years old and Sarah when she was 90 years old…

Why does God choose Isaac who is not Abraham’s first born, but his second born, in a culture where the first born son received all the privileges—including the entire family inheritance?

Again we can offer reason as to why, but the reasons cannot be reduced to some rational airtight set of arguments, God chooses Isaac just because…

Isaac marries Rebecca and through Isaac has twins. God again breaks the cultural convention of the time by choosing to continue the family line through whom the world would be blessed not through the older son Esau, but the younger Jacob…

Esau was the first-born; was more athletic, was his father’s favorite, yet God does not choose Esau, the first-born. He chooses Jacob, the second-born. God chooses Jacob just because…

Then again, as we move to the next generation, Jacob marries two sisters, Rachel and Leah. Rachel is the beautiful one. She was the one who could have been chosen as “the bachelorette” for the TV show or might have been cast as Juliette in a play, but Leah was homely… she apparently had some kind of defect with her eye… Leah was not popular with the boys. But when God chose to continue the line through which he would create his family, who does he choose? He doesn’t choose the one that looks like Halle Berry…he chooses the homely one…he chooses Leah just because…

And so the way that God chooses is very mysterious. He seems to break convention by often choosing the one we not expect, the second-born, the less beautiful of the two sisters, the outsider… he seems to choose just because.

Moses tells the people of Israel in Deuteronomy 7 "The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you." He choose you just because…

If God has chosen you, the fact that you are even in this room right now choosing to worship God in a secular city like Vancouver where there’s no big social advantage to being in church, it is a sign that you have been chosen…. Why has God chose you, just because…

Even though we pride ourselves in being rational, there are many things in our life that we cannot explain logically… why do you did like one song and not another this morning… just because… Why do you like salmon more than tuna… just because… or coffee more than tea just because… Why does a woman love a particular man… he may or may not be the handsomest man, or may or may not be the smartest man, and may or may not even be the most virtuous, she chooses him--just because…

Why had God chosen us… just because…

Then some of us ask the question, why are some chosen and why are others not chosen (chapter 9 vss. 16-18)?

In chapter 9 verses 20, 21 Paul describes God as a kind of potter and we people as the clay... People object to this image because it seems that God is capriciously showing mercy on some and judgment on others.

It bothers people to read that God shows mercy to some, but hardens others.

Paul in vs. 17 uses the example of Pharaoh. We read in the book of Exodus about how God through Moses called Pharaoh to free his people from slavery and let his people go and to worship God. And in Exodus read that Pharaoh obstinately refused again and again, and we read that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Though it is not completely explicit in the book of Exodus, it seems as though Pharaoh’s being hardened by God coincided with Pharaoh by choosing to harden his heart in the face of God’s command to let his people go.

We do know in scripture that the consequence of sin is typically not dramatic—zap—judgment from on high. But the consequence of sin is typically more sin. If we choose to harden our hearts before God, one of the judgments may be that God allows us to go our own way and to experience hardening of heart...

People object to the image that God is a potter and we are clay, but we have understand the context of these images drawn from passages about the potter and the clay from Isaiah 29,45 and 64 and Jeremiah18. They tell us of a period in Israel’s history when God is working with a rebellious Israel, like a potter working with clay that simply refused to go into the right shape…

When Paul speaks of God being a potter and us being clay as a metaphor, he is not intending to describe human beings as being passive, lifeless lumps of clay in hands of a God who simply shapes clay as he desires. Rather, Paul is alluding to texts in Isaiah and Jeremiah that describe what God will do if the people of Israel, like a lump of clay, fail to respond to the gentle molding of God’s hands.

Yes, there is a mystery of how God chooses his people and shapes his people. Romans 9-11 describe in very powerful terms that God is all-powerful and sovereign, and that he chooses whom He wills... But the Bible also speaks of how God doesn’t want any to perish and that human beings are responsible to respond to God’s call upon them… This mystery of how God is sovereign and all powerful and yet that human beings are responsible to for choosing whether they respond to God or not is a mystery---that will never be completely comprehended by us human beings (especially those of us from the northern hemisphere and the West—who can be frustrated if things don’t fit together in a way that is perfectly rationally and logically explainable).

One of my New Testament professors explained it this way. He said, “If you take a Shakespeare play, you could obviously argue that Shakespeare is the sovereign author of the play. But from a different perspective, as you read about one of Shakespeare’s characters, walking across a branch on a tree and then, as you read, the branch snapping under the weight of this character, you could also say it was the character who broke the branch. From a higher perspective, you could say it wasn’t the character who broke the branch, it was Shakespeare. That would be true. But it would also be true that the character’s foolish decision to walk across the branch, coupled with his weight, caused the branch to break. Novelists will talk, of course, about how they will write novels and their characters become these living beings who take on a life of their own. And so, as we think of this in terms of a play or a novel, I think that we can understand, at least at some level, it is possible for a playwright or a novelist to be sovereign and all-powerful over the story, and yet the characters truly do have a life of their own.

And so it in scripture, the scriptures talk about how God is truly sovereign, all-powerful, and that people come into his family, not because of their merit, not because of their effort, but because of a sheer act of mercy from God. The Bible also clearly indicates that the people of Israel and the people of the world have an opportunity to respond to the mercy of God and justly judged for failing to respond to that mercy. The paradox is that people are only received into God’s family because God shows them mercy, and yet, people seem to have the role in whether God’s family by whether they choose to respond to God’s mercy or not.

Do you sense have an object of God’s mercy? If so, have you responded?

So we have the image, first, of the family tree and God’s mysterious choices, and, second, of the potter and the clay.

Finally, I want to draw your attention to an image in Chapter 11 of a wild olive branch being grafted into an olive tree. Paul, in Romans 9, 10 and 11, is arguing that God’s intent was to raise a people for himself through the people of Israel. And yet, as Paul and his listeners are well aware, many Israelites have not responded to the opportunity to be adopted into God’s family through the faithful work of the faithful descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel… Jesus Christ.

So Paul asks in Romans 9:6, “Has God’s plan failed (since many Israelites have not responded to the opportunity to become part of God’s family through Jesus Christ)? He says, “(No because) Not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.” What does he mean buy this?

We read in Galatians 3:7, the true children of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, i.e. the true people of God, are not necessarily the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, but those who have been adopted into God’s family through the work of Jesus Christ.

Paul says the physical descendents of Israel who put their faith in the faithful Israelite Jesus Christ are part of the spiritual Israel, the family of God. He says that those who are not the physical descendants of Israel, and but their faith in the faith Israelite Jesus Christ become part a spiritual Israelite, i.e. a part of God’s family.

Paul in Romans 11: 17-24 describes the Gentiles who become part spirit Israel as wild olive shoots.

Paul in Romans 11 tells us family of God in the end will be composed, not of just of Jews, not just of Gentiles, but of both Jews and Gentiles—as one family of God… this is the true Israel, the spiritual Israel, Paul says, and of all the true Israelites will be saved.

When a person puts his or her faith in Jesus Christ, that person becomes a spiritual child of Abraham, which means that they have become a son or a daughter of God. When the terrorists in Pakistan were about to execute the North American journalist with the Wall Street Journal, Danny Pearl they made him say, “I am a Jew, and my father is a Jew.” And if you have been joined to God through Jesus Christ, you can also say, “I am a Jew, and my father is a Jew.”

I personally am Japanese, and I am Canadian, and I like to think to think I am Scottish because I admire a lot of people in Scotland’s history, but I am also a Jew, spiritually, in that I am a spiritual son of Abraham because I have been joined to Abraham’s family, the family of God through Jesus Christ…. Whether you are German or Chinese or Nigerian or Columbian or Australian, if you are joined to God through Jesus Christ, you are also Jew spiritually, a spiritual son or daughter of Abraham.

This past summer I had a very special experience. My mentor from North Carolina, an older minister now in his mid seventies, came to Vancouver with his wife and daughter, his granddaughter and some of his close friends from Charlotte.

Some of you met them here as they worshipped here on a Sunday morning in July. One night when they were here, my wife Sakiko and I had dinner with my mentor and his family and some of his close friends from Charlotte at a restaurant downtown near the beach.

As we walked into the restaurant and as they stood to welcome us to the table, as we shared the meal, and later as we spent that evening with them later in the apartment where they were staying near Stanley Park, I just felt this extraordinary sense of welcome and affirmation and love. Though it is very hard to put into words, I felt that night that I had a kind of second family.

As I alluded to earlier in the message, I am very grateful for the family from which I’ve come, but I feel that this family has received me with such warmth and openness and love. …They have walked with me through my joys and heartbreak, successes, as well failure. I really feel that I have been gifted with a kind of second family and that my life has been deeply changed and deeply blessed because of it.

If you will allow the faithful descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Israelite, Jesus Christ, to bring you home, I want you to know that you can also be part of a second family… a family with a perfect father and a mother, (and God being both perfect father and mother), where his children are of not perfect, but they are being perfect—sometimes very slowly)

As a result of being part of this family, you are going to connect with people in a deeper way than you would ever have otherwise, you are going to connect more deeply with people of other social backgrounds and races than you ever would otherwise.

Your life on earth--and your life in eternity--will so infinitely richer.

Pray…

(The sermon can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)

Apr 15, '07: Romans 8:14-17: Fear to Freedom

ROMANS M 8

TEXT: ROMANS 8: 14-17 From Fear to Freedom

Big Idea: Move from fear to freedom through being a son or daughter of God.

Introduction

Peter Senge, the founder of the Centre for Organizational Learning at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, and the author of the book, The Fifth Discipline, tells a story about a woman who as a young child dreamed about doing something to further peace and harmony in the world. But as she grew up, her parents encouraged her to do something “practical” with her life, and so this person pursued a career in finance.

Even though she was very successful in her finance career, she felt an emptiness inside and continued to yearn to do something to further the cause of peace and harmony in the world. She left her secure position in the business world and ended up pursuing a career that would enable her to foster peace in the world. She became a special envoy to the United Nations under President Clinton.

Like that woman, each of us wants to live the kind of life where we are free to choose what we were meant to do. If at all possible, we want to avoid the kind of life that is lived by a script that someone else has written for us, but doesn’t reflect the ecology of our personhood.

One of the keys to becoming a truly free person is to know God and to know ourself, and the two are intimately related. John Calvin said in his opening to his great work The Institutes of the Christian Religion wisdom consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and the knowledge of self. As Augustine also affirmed the two are intimately related: in knowing God we know our self and in knowing our self we know God.

It is as we come to know our self, in light of God, we become people who understand who we are and, as a result of that, we become people who are able to discern and live out our true calling.

Romans 8: 14-17 offers us a very clear description of who we are, and who we become when we enter into God’s family and if we grasp this we can live with freedom:

If you have your Bibles, please turn to Romans 8: 14.

14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Review

Let me take a few moments to set up the context here. We are going through a series here at Tenth on the book of Romans.

In Romans 7 (as we saw a few weeks ago) we see a description of a person who at one level really wants to follow the way of God. This person has the law of God, and apparently a devout Jew. But the person described in Romans 7, as much as he tries, is not able to follow God’s way. He finds himself under condemnation. He is living a life dominated by what the Bible calls his “flesh,” the part of him that is in rebellion against God. As a result, he finds himself “under condemnation” because he cannot keep the way of God. So, he seems to be someone who is very religiously devout, but outside of Christ.

And, in contrast, in Romans 8 we read of a person who is not under condemnation (Romans 8:1).This person described in Romans is not under the condemnation of the law for failing to keep it, but is connected to Christ and therefore under the grace or favor of God. The person described in Romans 8 isn’t living primarily on the energy of his “human flesh,” but living by the energy of the Holy Spirit. This person is not so much tied as much to the legacy of Adam, who brought the “sin virus” into the world, but who instead is tied to Jesus Christ, who deals with “bad virus” of sin that came through Adam and who brings the “good virus” of God’s Spirit into the world.

Paul describes the person in Romans 8 who is under grace, in Christ, as one who walks in the Spirit, and thus fulfills the law of God.

In Romans 8 vss. 14-17, the apostle Paul describes this person as a son or the daughter of God. And Paul (in vs. 14) says that the children of God are led by the Spirit of God (vs.14).

Then in verse 15 Paul describes the work of the Spirit: 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship or daughter-ship. [h] And by him we cry, "Abba, [i] Father." Abba is most personal word a person can use for God.

Paul here is describing the identity of two kinds of people. One kind of person Paul describes in Romans 8:15 is the one who has the identity of a slave.

If you can imagine what it would like to be a slave (or servant), you might be able to picture yourself as someone who is living in fear (vs. 15). A slave (or servant) tends to have the mindset of fear because he or she does not have real security in the household (or in the organization) in which he or she works. If the slave screws up, doesn’t perform up to par, the slave is on the way out—sold, let go. So the slave lives with this fear.

Second, serves out of the sense of duty. They serve because they have to serve…it is their job…their livelihood depends on it.

Third, this slave, or the servant, serves out of self-interest… he/she knows that he or she must work in order to go on living, so the motivation is that of self-interest…survival!

In contrast, the son or the daughter in a healthy family does not serve out of fear. The son or the daughter in a healthy family knows that he or she is secure in their father’s and mother’s love.

They are not motivated by fear. They are secure.

So their life and work is not motivated out of duty, but out of gratitude.

The son or daughter who knows that he or she is loved doesn’t serve merely out of self-interest, but out of love for his or her parents.

Most of us have not been slaves or servants in the traditional sense, but many of us know what it is to have the mindset of a slave. Some of us here have been in families where our parents have had unrealistic expectations of us. They have written scripts for us that reflect their ambitions and their insecurities rather than the ecology of our personhood.

I have a friend who comes from a family where her father had very high expectations for her and her sister (she’s OK with me sharing part of her story).

Her father and uncle won the Nobel prizes in physics. My friend’s father has very high expectations of her, as well as her sister. When her sister received her PhD in French, her father remarked, “Your dissertation isn’t good for anything, except perhaps to be used as toilet paper.”

And though my friend is very talented…very smart…went to one of the best universities in the world… is quite accomplished, but has never felt she’s lived up to her dad’s expectations…

When you start trying to live for someone else’s approval, when you live to try to honour someone else’s script for your life, when it doesn’t fit you, you start living outside of yourself. You experience this hollowness inside…you feel more like a human “doing”, than a human-being.

If you grow up in a healthy family, however, and you sense the family and you sense the love from your parents and you sense the security that comes from that, you are more likely set free to pursue that path that you feel called to pursue. In so doing, you can become your true self….

If I may say personally, though our family is far from perfect, I am very grateful to have had very loving, supportive parents.

Even though they are originally from Japan from families that really emphasized the importance of education and a certain kind of career track, they have really loved me and my four siblings unconditionally. Because of that we have felt the security that helps put on a path we believe we are supposed to be pursuing. When you feel deeply loved by a significant person, you become secure in that love and as a result you are free to become your true self.

If we are really God’s children, we will come to know that God is a Father who loves as Paul points out in vs. 15 that cries: “Abba! Father!” Abba is the most intimate word that a person could use to describe his or her dad. It was a word that Jesus used when he spoke to his father. In certain cultures (e.g. Hebrew culture, Indian culture, my Japanese culture), there is a certain word for “dad” that you can use to describe only your dad. E.g. in Japanese that personal word for dad is “chi-chi”. You can’t use it to describe someone else’s dad because it is too personal and familiar. And the word Jesus uses to describe our father in heaven is the kind of word you can only use if you are a son or a daughter of God. So it is a very personal word…a very intimate word…it is word that suggests that we are truly close and dear to God.

And if you can experience a sense of God’s love for you on your heart in a new way, it will free you in your relationship with God, and it will free you in your relationship with yourself, and it will free you in your relationship with other people.

I have a mentor in my life who’s been very successful in the ministry and accomplished in leadership…

When I first met this person through the Arrow Leadership Program, I felt as though I needed to earn this person’s approval by demonstrating that I was eager to learn, that like a good “stock” in a company was worthy of his and this program’s investment . But as I grew to know this person more deeply and came to understand that this person really cared for me (not because of what I could for him or for the brand of the leadership organization), but simply cared for and loved me as a human being, then my motivation changed. I no longer was motivated out of a sense that I needed to perform in order to be accepted. Then I was able to grow and serve and become out of a sense of gratitude.

When we realize that we are loved and accepted by our father in heaven, we don’t need to be motivated any more by fear, but we can be motivated from gratitude knowing that God loves you.

Are you motivated by the sense of gratitude that God loves you?

What does it look like to be motivated by the mentality of a slave who lives in fear vs. by the mentality of a son or daughter who’s loved?

The slave a slave’s security and significance based by what they do, what they’ve accomplished, and what others think of them.

The slave is motivated by fear.

It’s possible to motivate by fear not just in your so called “secular”, but in your “spiritual life”—and define your worth by what you do for God and by how people rate your spirituality.

The son or daughter’s security and significance is being rooted in being deeply loved by God.

The son or daughter is motivated by gratitude.

Which are you? Slave? Son or Daughter? Or part way in between? I am often part way in between…


So how do we become that this way?

The first step in becoming a person who really is able to receive Gods’ love as a son or daughter is to be born again into God’s family…

My wife is from Japan and was recently telling me a true story about a girl (7 or 8 years old with a slight mental disability) who was living in an orphanage in Japan.

Adoption is not very common in Japan, in general, but if a child has some kind of disability it is far less likely for that child to be adopted.

My wife was telling me about child in Japan who was 6 years old had who had been abandoned by her parents because of a slight mental disability she had and put in an orphanage. She had also been passed over by prospective adoptive parents because of her disability. (Prospective adoptive parents naturally prefer children who are healthy and preferably beautiful.) MiYuki, was neither of these so she had been passed over.

The staff of this orphanage realized MiYuki might not be picked by anyone and so she sought out some parents who had adopted children from their orphanage before. They were not wealthy people at all, but they were deeply loving people. These parents agreed to adopt Miyuki this girl with a slight mental disability. As the relationship developed between the adoptive mother and Miyuki, Miyuki began to act like a little baby. Even though she was 7 or 8 years old, she said, “I want to wear diapers.” Even though she was old enough to eat solid food, she asked to be able to drink milk from a bottle. And Miyuki had this strange habit of clinging on to her mother and sliding head first down her mother’s torso (stand up) and saying I was born of you.

MiYuki’s adoptive parents became concerned about her baby-like behaviour so they sought the counsel of a psychologist. As the psychologist observed Miyuki wearing diapers, drinking milk from a bottle and sliding down her mother’s body across her torso toward her womb, the psychologist pointed out that Miyuki was experiencing a phenomenon which in Japanese is described as “aka-chan gairi”, which translated into English means “the child is experiencing a kind of return to baby syndrome.” This apparently can happen to babies who have not gone through the normal passages of being a baby, an infant, a young child with loving parents. The psychologist explained to the adoptive mother, “As Miyuki sliding down your torso toward your womb, what she is expressing is a desire to be born through you. As she expresses desire to be in diapers and to have milk and as she slides down your body, she is saying she wants you, and not her natural mother, to be her real mother. She wants to be born through you . She wants to come through your womb.”

So the adoptive mother was very glad that her adoptive daughter wanted her to be her real mom. After a few months of Miyuki wearing diapers, drinking milk from a bottle and sliding down her mother’s body, she stopped doing that, as she felt that she had been mothered as a baby by her new mother and become her daughter.

People, perhaps not at a conscious level, but at a subconscious level, want to be adopted and received by the perfect father and mother, none of which, of course, exists, other than God.

We yearn that love of perfect father and mother… sometimes that shows in an ache to receive approval of some person, or through something we do, some we achieve..

But we can be born again into God’s family adopted by God and re-parented in a way that brings healing to our spirit. And as we are adopted unto God’s family, as the text says, we really do become God’s children…

Verses16-17 tell us: The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

If we become God’s children by being joined to Christ, we are not loved simply some warm, but intangible way, but we become beneficiaries of all of God’s riches.

In the Roman world, when you adopted someone, you typically adopted an adult child. And that child experienced all their debts being cancelled, as their adoptive parents would have paid off all those debts. And all the parents’ wealth would have become the wealth of the adoptive child. When we are adopted we experience forgiveness of our sins and receive God’s wealth as co-heirs with God’s son Christ and Paul says later in Romans we will inherit the very cosmos, the redeemed universes.

One of the ways that we can be freed from the fearful mentality of a slave is to become the adoptive son or daughter of God.

And if you have already taken that step and entered God’s family, do you
realize that you are an adoptive son or daughter of God?

If you are, have you take the 2nd step of realizing that you are loved unconditionally and you are immensely wealth in the most important ways because you are part of God’s family?

The priest Henri Nouwen has said the greatest temptation is not sex, money, power, or the even approval of others, but self rejection…

One of the ways that we can be healed of our compulsive need to perform is to realize whose child we are. In the powerful movie, Blood Diamond, with Leonardo Di Caprio, Solomon Vandy is a black African father who has a 9 or 10 year old son named Dia.

The son is captured by rebel soldiers and he is brain-washed into believing that his father and mother and family are enemies. Dia becomes a boy soldier and is re-programmed by these rebel mercenary soldiers. His father and character played by Di Caprio, Danny Archer, end up rescuing the son Dia who reluctantly goes with his dad and Archer

At one point in the movie as Solomon the father and Archer are looking for the enormous blood diamond that Solomon has hidden in the ground, Dia points his rifle at his father, then at Danny Archer, and back and forth, as if they are his enemies.

The father looks at his son who is holding a machine gun pointed to him and says, “Dia, look at me. You are Dia Vandy of the proud Mendee tribe. I know they made you do bad things, but you are a good boy. You are a boy who loves school and loves to play soccer. Your mother loves you and she waits by the fire, making stew with your sister and the new baby.”

And the father moves a little closer to Dia and says, “The cows wait for you. And the wild dog Babu who minds no one but you, waits for you.” And he steps even a little closer, and he says to his 9-year-old son, “And I am your father who loves you and you will go home with me and be my son.”

He walks right to his son, ignoring the gun, and he wraps his arms around his son. His son goes limp, begins to weep and falls into the embrace of his father.

And it is as we come to understand that we are God’s sons and daughters loved by God that we can discover what our true identity is, and we can live as free people.



Prayer of confession and ask God to help us realize who we are.


(The sermon can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)

Easter Sermon: Romans 8: Apr 8, 07

Easter Sermon April 8, 2007 Romans 8:1-11

Big Idea: Through Christ we experience of more of life now and in eternity.

A magazine carried the story of a newlywed couple who had just arrived at their hotel on the first night of their honeymoon. They checked in at the hotel counter, took the elevator up to their room and to their great disappointment they found themselves in tiny cramped room. Frustrated and angry the new husband picked up the phone and called down to front desk, “Several months ago I reserved a honeymoon suite and I got stuck in this tiny room. I think you assigned us to the wrong room.” The front desk clerk said we’re terribly sorry, but we can’t move you because our hotel is completely full. The groom discovered that the couch in the room did pull out and become a bed, but not a very comfortable one. The next morning the bride and groom woke up tired, having not slept well. The groom went down to the front desk and give the hotel staff a piece of his mind. He slammed his fist on the counter, and said I booked a deluxe suite months ago for our honeymoon, and I ended up in tiny room last night, I want to see the manager right now… The manager came to the desk, the man expressed his frustration about being stuck in tiny room… when he had reserved a much better room. The manager said, what room were you in? The man gave the number… the manager said, “Would please come with me… they went up to room to room together… and walked in. The said did you ever open that door? The groom said no… we too tired to hang our clothes in the closet… the manger walked over opened the door which led not to a closet but to a huge room overlooking water. The room had a large ensuite bathroom with a Jacuzzi. It had a King sized bed, atop of which was a box of chocolate truffles, and bottle of champagne and two glasses and not congratulations on your wedding!

When the man arrived at the entrance to his room, he thought is this all there is? I wonder if as he and his bride were trying to sleep on the little sofa bed, they were thinking there’s got to be more, there’s got to be more…”

Like this groom we go through life saying… There’s got to be more… There’s got to be more than I am presently experiencing…

I was talking to a family recently… who have a lovely home, good job, 2 good kids, but the husband is saying… it’s seem like our whole revolves around paying our mortgage and saving for our retirement… there’s gotta be more…

There’s a yearning in the human that longs for more in life: more quality, depth, and meaning…

Easter is the greatest event in history because it has an answer for that yearning.

There’s also a yearning in the human heart for a longer life… it’s like when you to come to the end of a great movie, you long for the story to go on...

When we our mission team was in Cambodia a few weeks ago, we walked into one village where the matriarch and the de factor leader of the tribe was an older woman… and one of the North American staff with the Food for the Hungry in Cambodia said, “In your culture isn’t better to be older, because you more respected… the woman says, “Yes... better to be old in our culture.” The North American staff member then asked, “So why did you die your hair black?” “Because younger is better…”

There a force in people of every culture--even those that revere the aged--that makes people want to re-capture the fountain of youth and live forever… that why the whole anti-aging cosmetic and plastic surgery business is a multi-billion dollar deal…

People have a yearning for more of life in terms of quality of life and more of life in terms of quantity…

The great message of Easter is that there is more to life…more in terms of quality and meaning and more of truly longer lasting…

J.R.R. Tolkien, author of Lord of the Rings, explained that every great story has the pattern of catastrophe…something bad happens and then eu-catastrophe something goods happens that undoes with the effects of the catastrophe…

In Star Wars movies, Darth Vader personifies the catastrophe that casts darkness, but Luke Skywalker and the Jedi warriors personify the eu-catastophe that casts light…

Tolkien explained to his friend and colleague C.S. Lewis that all the great myths and stories had this pattern of catastrophe and eu-catastrophe, but the Gospel was the one true myth or true story that actually happened in history… all the other myths and stories are simply echoes of this great, true story, that actually happened..

As a church we’ve been going through the book of Romans. The book of Romans describes the catastrophe that came into world as sin.

The Bible tells us in Romans 5 and other texts that this catastrophe of sin came to us through one person name Adam. As Adam made the decision (with Eve) to turn way from God, the one true of source of life in the universe, they contracted this spiritual virus called sin which separates human beings from the God, (as result of separating us from God sin) causes breakdown in relationships with ourselves, each other, the earth, despair, and death itself…

Like HIV or Sars comes into the world through a person (or some living being)… the sin virus came into the world through one person, Adam… that was the big of catastrophe for the human race… from which spring all the other catastrophes…

But the eu-eucatastrophe that we celebrate on Good Friday and Easter is the good catastrophe through Jesus Christ…

In Romans 5 we read that the sin virus came into the world and spread through Adam, but where sin spread increased the grace of God in increased even more through the work of God’s son Christ…

Through Adam the bad virus of sin spread that led to breakdown, despair and death, but through Jesus Christ came the good virus that leads to healing, hope, and life…
.
Adam served as the first member and representative of the human race and the sin virus flowed through him to the whole world, but Jesus also called the second Adam was also a representative of the human race and through him healing, and life followed…. (change powerpoint)

Jesus Christ lived the perfect life which we humans beings were called to live, and then when he was 33 years he died on a Roman cross bearing in his body the punishment for the sins we deserved--so we could be set free from our sins and so we could receive what Jesus deserved eternal life now and in the future….

When Jesus died on the cross for our sins… he was acting as a representative of the human race and on the cross he was bearing all sin of people who lived on what come to be known as Africa, Asia, the South and North America, Europe, Australia and Antarctica…

When Jesus died he wasn’t just dying as an individual, but Jesus as our representative was dying for us…

When Jesus rose from the dead… since Jesus was acting on behalf as Jesus the individual, but because he was the one who represented representative of the human rac---it was a sign that all who unite their lives to Jesus would rise from the dead as well.

Because Jesus represented us as part of the human race….. it meant that when he died on the cross it meant that he bore our sins on the cross that he was bearing our sins… and when he rose again, because he was representing the human race, it meant that not just Jesus, but all who join their lives to Jesus would on the final day of judgment would rise from the dead…

A number of years ago a rookie playing for the professional basketball team the Chicago Bulls was interviewed by a reporter after the game. The reporter said, this evening your teammate Michael Jordan scored 66 points and you scored one point… how would you asses this game? The rookie replied, I will always remember tonight as the night where Michael Jordan and I combined for 67 points…

As the rookie saw it that Michael’s victory had become his victory, so it is with Christ’s victory… because Jesus represented, the human race… when he died he was able to bear our sins in his body, but when rose again it guaranteed that if we join our life to his we will one day rise again from the dead…

The book of Daniel 12 at end of the age, at the final judgment people will rise from their graves and those who belong to God will experience eternal life… If our life is joined to Jesus we will rise at the end of time and experience eternal life…

So Easter answer the yearning for more of life… longer life, eternal life.

This is why the apostle Paul says in Romans 8
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
Paul is saying those who join their lives to Christ are not under condemnation from God, because God allowed the sin of the world to laid on Jesus Christ, God condemned sin the sin of the world that Jesus bore in his body, so through his sacrificial death we’ve been set free from sin’s power to condemn and damn us before God.
And vs. 2 tells us through the work of Jesus Christ we’ve been set free from death itself because if the Spirit of God comes to live in us, the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, we too will be raised from the dead.
11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
Later in Romans in Romans 8 Paul talks about Jesus’ resurrection being a kind of first among many who would be resurrected and glorified.
Easter promise we will live longer… eternally…

But resurrection life, is a life animated by the Spirit of God which raised Jesus from the dead, is a new kind of life that we can begin to experience NOW…
Jesus said in John 5:24 24 "Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.” One of the clearest signs that we have truly experience homecoming is that we are experiencing resurrection life NOW…
There is a difference between resuscitated life and resurrection life.

There are times when people have near death experience and are resuscitated… There are very rare occasions when people die and like Lazarus are miraculously raised from the dead… but when a person resuscitates physically, there life may largely go on like before…

But when a person experiences the Spirit of entering their lives as a result of being joined to Christ, they are not just resuscitated, but they experience a new quality of life… a life animated by the Spirit of God… and New Life doesn’t just happen way out in the future… but it begins to happen now…

I know this has been true for me…

When Jesus first came into my life as teenager, my over-riding priorities were two fold and related: one was to excel in sports and second was to be in the tough and cool crowd…at school… Whenever a someone not cool tried to sit with our clique… a person in our group or me would walk up to kid tell to leave our space…

When Christ came into my life, Christ began to heal the insecurity that made me like that turn a person into a snob… and I began… spending with a kid who was not considered very cool that we used force our circle who tried to sit with us… but who was on spiritual quest…

One day a student in our school named Vincent approach me in the stair well look both ways and then whispered, how come you’re not hanging with the tough and cool crowd?

The only explanation for myself in that moment was that Christ was in my life… so I’ve become a Christian….

The Bible when the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you… you come to life in a new way and the fact that the Spirit lives in you is a guarantee that you will rise from the dead!

And the good news of Easter is that that new life can begin now…

And I’ve invited a couple of people in our community who are experiencing that new life, this Easter life to come and share now…

Joe Scale:

It was one year ago today that I was baptized hear at tenth publicly committing my life to Christ, so when Ken asked me to share today about the changes which have happened in my life since I became a believer, my gut reaction was, “oh bugger, they’re keeping tabs on me”. How ever it’s turned out to be just what I needed because it’s forced me to do a lot of praying and to take the time to actually reflect on the work that God has done and is doing in my life. You see lately I’ve been doing a bit of the old Vancouver “I’ll make my self busy so I feel important” trick, so just like would happen in any relationship I’ve felt a bit distant from God.

Any way, when I first became a believer in Christ the changes in my life were quite dramatic. Up until that point I had been completely focused on rugby, you could say that rugby was my God. I was playing in a professional league in England which was a great achievement for the standard I was at. But I still had I huge drive to play at an even higher level for an even better team because at the end of the day, it wouldn’t have mattered how well I did I was just chasing a fullness that rugby obviously wasn’t going to give me. I was so hungry for success in fact, that like a lot of aspiring athletes I took steroids to give me that extra advantage over my competition. Also, as often goes hand in hand with rugby, I was a big time binge drinker, going out and getting hammered most Saturday nights, some times getting into a scrap and always looking for a random girl to spend the night with. The thing is that for nearly all the time I was living this way it didn’t feel right, even though it was very much the accepted thing to do in the culture I was in, I still knew inside me that there was some thing missing but I didn’t know any thing else. I even tried to stop that life style on several occasions but was unable to. How ever back in July 2005 when I gave my life to Christ it did stop, just like that. I had no more emptiness to fill so steroids, drink, and sleeping around weren’t needed any more. I had finally accepted gods love and there really is nothing which can compare to that so all the other highs I’d been chasing were shown to be the empty vessels that they are.

I’d really like to say “that’s it, I’ve become a reformed character and life is perfect now” but I don’t think that would be very honest of me. The fact is that although God did give me the strength to turn from the really destructive aspects of my life, I do still sin. I really hate sinning, the guilt I take on makes me feel further from God. I’m sure I read some where in the bible that we have the holy spirit so there is no more reason to sin, well I know I have been given the holy spirit because I felt it when I first believed and have done other times since but like I said I do still sin. This is the struggle that I have been dealing with for a while, a slight self resentment because of my inability to be Christ like in my life, thankfully during these last few days of reflection I was able to get a bit of perspective on where I am. I mean the sins I’m worried about are things like disliking people I meet, being short tempered with my fiancé or being judgmental about guys in sport cars. These are all wrong thoughts or actions and far from the glory of God, but the fact that I see these as wrong and desire to change, where as two years ago I wouldn’t have given them a second thought, I think that does bring glory to God.

Ken asked me what was the biggest change with in me that I have experienced since I gave my life to Christ, I think I would have to say that it is my desire. I no longer desire worldly success, recognition or alcohol. All I really desire is to be the person God created me to be, unfortunately it doesn’t happen often enough but when it does happen it’s like I can feel God’s pleasure and for that period of time I’m truly alive. I have to be careful of what I say coz there are a lot of people here who know a lot more than I do but I wonder if that’s what the holy spirit does, gives us that desire, I don’t know, but it’s brilliant.


Leila Larsen:

For those of you who don’t know yet, I was baptized here last week. I mentioned that I was first introduced to God by a boy that I really liked. I think at first I was trying to get to know God because I wanted to get closer to this guy. So when I finally turned to God and gave my life to Him, I felt a little ashamed, like I hadn’t done it properly, like I’d used God just to get closer to this person. So I would always hesitate in telling others my testimony, because I thought it was weak and girly, and just kind of silly. But then I realized that that couldn’t possibly be God making me feel this shame. He knew that that was the way to get me to pay attention and see His love. So that brings me to my first big change. I think one of the most important changes God has made in me is showing me who I am. I am the body of Christ
“I think one of the most important changes God has made in me is showing me who I am. I am now am a daughter of God and Christ’s Spirit lives in me and I am free in Christ. I don’t need to be embarrassed or ashamed; instead I can embrace my differences and feelings because God made me this way for His purpose. Something I have been talking a lot about with my roommate lately: the way I used to feel like I always needed to be who everyone else wanted me to be. It’s hard to wear a mask but it is so much easier to be who God made you to be. I can throw away that mask I used to put on for everyone, and just shine. And I just fell like it’s such a weight off my shoulders, its so freeing.

I feel like God by joining me to the strong, shameless, awesome person of Jesus Christ, has freed me to become my real self.

Another big moment for me happened a little while ago: I was sitting on the bus and I had just read about how God had made us His image, and I looked over at this girl sitting across from me and I just felt this overwhelming love for her, it was so weird, I’d never felt anything like that before. I mean who ever just spontaneously feels love for a stranger? But I think that’s so exciting, how God brings us to love one another and share His Love.One of the things I struggled the most with, when I first met God, was forgiveness. I had gotten myself into a really ugly situation with a person last April and by November I still hadn’t forgiven them or myself really for all the horrible things we had done to each other. And no matter what anybody said to me or how hard I tried to forgive, and I tried in many ways, I just couldn’t do it. And I was so bitter about it. So at the end of last year, in my Alpha course, all the girls for together to pray for healing for each other. I remember sitting on that floor, and they were all praying for me and for my heart to forgive, and I was crying, but through all that I realized that that is how you are given strength. It is not through what other people tell you or how many ways you try to accomplish something, it’s about what God gives you and asking for that gift in prayer and in believing in Christ. Shortly after, we forgave each other and I remember that night as the happiest night, not only because I had retrieved a friend, but because I knew that God was good and God was with me, in this community of Love.

As God has worked in Joe and Leila bringing new life now, it’s sign that they will experience resurrected life in then. So it is you… if you join life to Christ… you not only longer life, eternal life in the future, but eternal life now… that is the promise of Easter.

Word re: Alpha…and baptism

(The sermon can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)