Thanksgiving 2008

Well, Thanksgiving 2008 was a huge success.  Of course I am not surprised because God cares so much for the lonely and the outcast.  Thank you to everyone that helped make it such a wonderful success....let's do it again even better next year!

Love in Action

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 
 Who, being in very nature God, 
      did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 
 but made himself nothing, 
      taking the very nature of a servant, 
      being made in human likeness. 
 And being found in appearance as a man, 
      he humbled himself 
      and became obedient to death— 
         even death on a cross! 

This is something that God has been showing me and reminding me of over and over again recently, but really since I was saved.  What I am learning is that Love & sacrifice go together and are inseparably linked.  For God so loved the world that He gave.  He sacrificed His son.  

I don’t think we can truly love without actually sacrificing something.  And I don’t think we will truly sacrifice without love.  To me I believe love & sacrifice, or as I more often say, “Love in Action”, is the essence of how we are to live.  Because of God’s love for us He made the ultimate sacrifice of His Son.  Because Jesus loved the Father He did the Father’s will and sacrificed His life for us.  Because we love Jesus we do His will and sacrifice our lives for others.

When Jesus first announced the beginning of His ministry in the Synagogue what did he do?  He read from Isaiah 61: “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor…”  Isaiah 61:1,2  Jesus came with a mission and a purpose and he fulfilled it.  I also believe that we, as the presence of God in this world have the same calling.  You realize that the temple was where the presence of God used to dwell, and that now we are the temple of the Living God.  His presence lives inside each and every believer.  The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is in us, because He has anointed us to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent us to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captive, and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.  Now, how we each walk this out and how it looks in each of our lives will be different for sure, but I believe we are all to be outwardly focused.

I believe there are only really two things that we need to focus on and neither one are ourselves. First we focus on God and then others.  Too often we make things way too difficult, weird or spooky when really all we are called to do is love God and our neighbor; that is your spouse, your kids, your parents, your in-laws, your co-workers, your enemies….you get the picture.  We need to love them not in words, but in deeds.

I have to be careful when I talk about this subject because I can tend to get a little passionate and perhaps a little simplistic.  So, up front I am going to throw out a couple disclaimers.

1.      I do believe that as Christians we have work to do.  The Father is always at work and so was Jesus.  When He went up to heaven He sent the Holy Spirit and it stands to reason that He is always at work too.  And, if He lives inside of us guess what?  He wants to work through us.  Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working." John 5:17  But, we don’t work to gain God’s approval, but are actually working FROM his approval.  It’s because we are his children and children mimic their parents.  And our Father’s work is all about going after and saving the lost.  When I say seeking and saving the lost most people have an immediate picture of going out in public and preaching.  That is NOT what I mean.  I mean having God’s heart for the people you are in contact with each day.  The people God puts into your life.  So, I am advocating love not works, but love I believe will lead to works.

2.      When I say “we” or “the church” I don’t necessarily mean “us” or “this church”.  I know that most of us here are putting God’s love into action in tangible ways.  My goal isn’t to put a burden on people but to fan the fire and help it burn a little brighter.

3.      I tend to think in extremes.  I tend to think in groups and impacting larger numbers. That’s just how I’m wired.  Putting on events and being in a group charges me up.  I like to throw parties and celebrate life and the Giver of Life.  I like to break down the walls between the church and the people in the world.  I’m kind of a weird type of bridge builder between those on the outside and those on the inside.  I don’t fit in anymore with the world and their way of life, and sometimes in the “church” I feel like a round peg in a square hole.  Not everyone has the same passion, nor should they because God uses every different type of person, passion and talent to reach the world he loves.  I just have to try and be faithful to try and live out my convictions.

4.      Disclaimer number 4.  I am not there yet.  I am not living this life of love fully. I have a long way to go, but by God’s grace I will get there.  I am better today than I was when I started following Jesus because I won’t give up when I fail.  I work hard at it but I try not to do is stress about it.  He has promised to finish the work He has started in all of us and He WILL do it!  Guaranteed.  So why worry?  Why not just keep thanking Him for the progress and ask for forgiveness when we fail.  Then keep moving forward.  It’s kind of scriptural.  Paul said it this way, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 3:12-14

Ok, disclaimers out of the way.

So, love in action.  Actually, Love IS action.  The bible is full of verses about loving God, loving our brothers and sisters in Christ, loving our parents, loving the poor, the widow and the orphans and loving our enemies.  And what God is showing me more and more these days is that “talk is cheap”.  I’m good at saying all the right things, but if my actions don’t match my words it’s all a bunch of hot air.  The good thing is that there are only three areas where we have to live out God’s love; our immediate families, the church family and in the world.

Being married and having kids has really helped me to understand better that talk is cheap. Deanna is great at showing love.  She is always thinking about other people and looking for ways to help them practically, both at home and with others.  She is always making sacrifices for me and our family and is an example to me of love in action.

I can tell Deanna all day long how much I love her, but if I never lift a finger to help when she is pressed up against the wall it all just rings hollow.  If I don’t care about the things she cares about I am not showing love.  I can tell my kids that I love them, but if I never show it by stopping my life long enough to listen to them, or play with them, or encourage them, or show interest in the things they care about, they could easily grow up doubting my love. 

What about in the church?   “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” James 2:14-17.   

We all hear of different needs in the body, but are we willing to step up and try to meet those needs?  I am not trying to guilt trip anyone; I just want to fan the flame.  There is no way in the world that a pastor can meet all the needs of the body.  It’s just not meant to be.  God didn’t design it that way.  There is also no way that you or I can or should try to meet all the need in the body.  God didn’t design it that way either.  But, you are supposed to meet some of the needs in the body.  He intends for the whole body to work together to meet the needs of the body. Each one of us has a role to play and none of us are here by accident.  God says that people will know that we are His disciples by our love for one another.

What about Love in action outside of our families and outside of the church walls.  We can’t ignore the world outside the church walls.  God is a God of Love and He is all about pursuing the lost.  If He wasn’t none of us would be here today.  All throughout history he has been pursuing His wayward children.  He is the one who initiates and invites us into a relationship.  This is why Jesus came.  He came to pursue God’s lost children and show the Father’s love by “preaching good news to the poor, binding up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor…”  This was God’s love in action.  God didn’t just tell us we were loved…He proved it!  He came in the flesh to help us when we were pressed up against the wall.  And now he is relying on us to do the same for others by His Holy Spirit. 

I believe that the call to “come follow me and I will make you fishers of men” is still in effect. I really like the whole fishing analogy that Jesus used because to me it conjures up images of both hard work and leisure.  At times during storms or big catches, having to haul up those nets and clean all the fish it’s got to be rough.  But at other times I picture good friends sitting around mending nets or drifting with the current discussing life, perhaps sharing a meal.

That’s what I want to do, I want to fish.  Here comes Disclaimer #3…extremes.

I want to throw out a large net into the ocean as opposed to sitting on Goleta Pier with a line in the water.  I figure you throw out a huge net, grab as many fish as you can and then let the Holy Spirit sort them out.  That was the whole idea behind the coffee house/nightclub ministry we started and it worked.  We drew in a lot of fish but only a few were keepers.  Some will probably never make it into the kingdom, others were simply under sized and not ready.  They’re back swimming in the ocean and when they are ready God will direct them to some other fisherman who will pull them into His kingdom. 

Remember when the disciples had to pay the temple tax?  What did Jesus tell Peter to do?  Go and throw your line in the lake and take the first fish you catch and open its mouth.  The Father brought the right fish at the right time, but Peter had to throw his line in the water.  What about when the disciples were out all night fishing and caught nothing?  Luke 5 “Throw your net on the other side”, Jesus says.  Boom! God brought the fish, but the disciples had to throw the net. 

Jesus wasn’t teaching them how to fish, they were ALREADY fishermen.  He was teaching them how to LISTEN to his voice & direction despite how silly it seems.  He was teaching them to use the gifts and talents they already had for HIM.  One time they threw out a single line and another time a net.  Each one of us is going to fish in a different way.  We all have gifts and talent and we need to be using them for Jesus.  I believe we all need to be fishing, but we need to hear from HIM how to do it.  And, we do it out of love for Him because he is a fisherman and He LOVES all the fish.

Jesus told his disciples come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.  What He was saying was, come, follow me and I will make you like myself…I am a fisher of men.  I’ll teach you to do what I do.  I do what I see the Father doing and you do what you see me doing.  I will make you like ME.  John said it like this, “This is how we know we are in Him:  Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.”  When you look at Jesus he didn’t deal with everyone and every situation the same way.  He listened to the Holy Spirit and discerned how to love that person or group of people.  Whether it was to the masses or the individual he was motivated by love, and that love compelled Him to give His life away and humble himself and serve those that should be serving Him.  This is the common theme throughout the New Testament…give your life away.  This is love.  Love is serving.  Love is action.

But before we can get out there and fish we have to learn to “follow”, to hear His voice.  We have to know Him and love Him.  To really be like Him and live this life of sacrificial love we need to get a glimpse of His love for us and our great need of His grace and mercy.  John said, “We love because He first loved us.”

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritualact of worship.Romans 12:1.  

First we have to view God’s mercy toward us, and then we will gladly offer up our life to Him. When I truly realize all that he has given me and the sacrifices He has made so that I can live, I will gladly climb up on the altar.  The key is keeping His mercy and forgiveness in view so I can extend the same to others, even if they are ungrateful.  Worship is dying and allowing your life to be a sacrifice.  It’s giving back everything to Him because He has given everything to us.

I don’t think we can give our lives wholly to Jesus until we get a glimpse of His love for us and our great need of His grace and mercy.  And we certainly can’t sacrifice our lives for our enemies without understanding his grace and mercy.  There is this progression; He loved us and gave His life for us because that’s what love does.  We love Him and give our lives to Him, because that’s what love does.  Because we are secure in His love, we can give our lives to others because that’s what LOVE (Jesus) does.  We love because He first loved us. 

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I was a pathetic mess when Jesus finally caught me.  I had pretty much ruined everything.  I ruined my home life, my school life, my social life and my spiritual life.  I could go into it but really all our stories are the same except for the details.  We all went astray and lived a selfish life.  We ignored God and went our own way thinking that we knew best and ended up empty inside.  Some of you, like myself had a terrible upbringing that caused insane amounts of pain and loneliness inside.  It pushed me to do a lot of things that I am not proud of, but I chose to do them nonetheless.  The first thing I had to do was quite blaming others for the mess I was in and own up to my own mistakes.  I totally deserved God’s wrath.  I should have been punished.

Others of you grew up in fairly normal homes and still lived a selfish life and ended up empty inside.  You still had pain and loneliness in your life that caused you to do and say a lot of things you are not proud of.  Sooner or later, if you haven’t already, you will need to quit blaming others and take responsibility for your own mistakes and lay your life at the feet of Jesus so he can give you peace. 

The truth is that apart from God it all sucks.  The world is littered with examples of people that “seem” to have it all and have it all together.  The wreckage of their lives is displayed for all of us to see.  What’s wrong with the picture?  I’ll tell you what’s wrong.  They don’t have Jesus.  I’ll tell you what else is wrong.  God opposes the proud, and gives grace to the humble.  The fact is that we all need a savior to deliver us from the sin that so easily ensnares us.  We all need to humble ourselves before Him and beg for mercy and forgiveness.

Do you know how Jesus caught me?  Probably the same way that he caught you.  He was working in my life guiding and directing me even though I didn’t know it.  One day I swam on the right side of someone’s boat.  Then Jesus told some believers to throw in their net on the right side after they had been fishing all night without a bite.  And they caught a fish!

Someone loved Jesus enough to care about the things that He cares about.  They didn’t care about the latest fashions.  They didn’t care about their bank accounts or their status in life.  They weren’t trying to get ahead in the church or grow a huge ministry.  They just loved Jesus and as a result they gave their WHOLE life to Him and became like Him….a servant.  They reached out to me and served me because Jesus was reaching out to me.  They reached out to you because Jesus was reaching out to you.  Were they perfect people?  No.  Did they have a warm and fuzzy love feeling for me?  No they didn’t.  I’ll tell you one thing they did do.  They developed a relationship with me and spoke Truth to me.  They pulled me into their friendship circle and were nice to me.  And when the time was right they told me about Jesus.  They threw their net over on the right side and they caught a fish. 

To tell you the truth I think they were just as surprised as I was.  I was wriggling and flapping inside their boat filled with excitement.  Then they had the job of discipling me.  When you catch a fish your job’s not over. You know, you have to clean the fish you catch and sometimes it can be kind of messy.  Any time you are dealing with people it can get kind of messy and a lot of times people drop the ball when it gets to the messy stage.  But love covers a multitude of sins. That’s where the structure of the church should help; in training, equipping and then sending them back out.

The vast majority of people come to Jesus through a friendship with a believer, not an evangelistic crusade, conference or any other type of meeting. 

The meetings are for those who already believe.  From time to time we catch a fish that happens to wander into our pond if they are ready, but it’s really not the most effective way to fish.  I think that more often than not people don’t know what to make of our meetings.   But if we happen to befriend them and bring them into our friendship circle, they will see Jesus.  They see Jesus by being around people who love Jesus and are like Him.

I realize that not everyone is like me.  We all have different gifts talents and make-ups.  We all fish differently, but I believe we are all meant to at least have a hook in the water waiting to make the most of every opportunity.  Some will enjoy the actual fishing most, either fighting the wind and waves with a net in hand, or sitting on the bank with a pole in the water. Others would rather get down to the dirty job of cleaning the fish and helping to make disciples.  Others are gifted at getting the fishermen together into groups to learn better fishing methods to be more effective…but it’s all about the fish.

We are not fishermen unless we put our line in the water.  This is love in action.  We can talk about loving and caring.  We can pray for people.  We can sing songs to Jesus.  But unless we allow the Holy Spirit to convict us and move us to action we are just spectators and Jesus was never a spectator.

Disclaimer #4.  Sometimes I get and sometimes I don’t.  At times it actually comes naturally now, but more often than not God is poking and prodding me to be thinking about others. Putting God’s love into action is something I am continually growing in because just like the rest of humanity, I tend to be selfish.  I want what I when I want it.  I don’t want to give up my plans for the day to help out a stranger.  Sometimes I blow it and miss an opportunity, and when I do I am often brought back to reality by the love that you and others in the church demonstrate. 

I would urge you, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your body to Him as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.  Decide today to not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind and see the world through Jesus’ eyes.

Love is a choice, and act of the will.  I think that too often what I want is a feeling to overtake me.  I want to “feel” loving.  I pray for God to change my hearts so I can love others, but he already has, I’ve been born again.  He has taken our heart of stone and given us a heart of flesh. His Holy Spirit lives inside us and is continually speaking to us and prompting us to love others….because He loves them from inside of us.   It is up to us to allow the Holy Spirit to love the world through us, and it is a choice.  Very seldom do we “feel” like doing the loving thing, but we usually sense God prodding us to “do” the loving thing.