I'm convinced to get better at doing this, but I just can't seem to get it down on a regular basis, haha. My apologies. =)
I get to update you all on three weeks worth of CSF's! Today's your lucky day! ;)
Luckily, two weeks ago, the CSF on September 19th was led by the CSF leadership team. They put together a Bible scavenger hunt as a community building activity night. It went really well and each of the members on the two teams that tied received gift cards to Sheetz.
The very next week I was back up to preach, and we tackled the lie, "This wouldn't be happening if you were a better Christian." We began by realizing that things can happen to us because of sin in our lives, but more often than not, things just happen to us because we live in a fallen world and they are no direct result to an action on our part (i.e. a family member gets diagnosed with cancer..etc...). Sometimes things will happen to those of us who are disciples of Jesus because of that very fact. In fact, Jesus left us with some warnings and encouragement:
“Then Jesus told them, “The voice was for your benefit, not mine. The time for judging this world has come, when Satan, the ruler of this world, will be cast out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself He said this to indicate how he was going to die.” (John 12.31-33 NLT)
“I
have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will
have many trials and sorrows. But
take heart, because I have overcome the world.” (John 16.33 NLT)
“If
the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. The world would love you
as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the
world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you.” (John 15.18-19 NLT)
To hammer home the point that the rough times you may be going through is not a result of you being a 'bad Christian,' but instead because you are a Christian. We first looked at Paul. Paul had a huge impact on the New Testament as well as the rest of Christianity as a whole. Yet he went through A LOT of tough times:
"Are they servants of Christ? I know I sound like a madman, but I have served him far more! I have worked harder, been put in prison more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again. Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. I have traveled on many long journeys. I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not. I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm. Then, besides all this, I have the daily burden of my concern for all the churches." (2 Corinthians 11.23-28 NLT)
The second case study we looked at was of the only person who could ever claim to be the perfect Christian, Jesus. Yet Isaiah described His persecution with these words:
"He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. Unjustly condemned, he was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream. But he was struck down for the rebellion of my people. He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man’s grave." (Isaiah 53.3-9 NLT)
I would have loved to been a fly on the wall if someone were to tell either Paul or Jesus that none of these things would have happened to them if they had just been better Christians.
I ended by sharing words that God spoke to Israel through the prophet Hosea, to bring encouragement for those who might be suffering from some sort of hardship due to a sin in their life (I even put the sin/bad addressing parts in red, and then put the last part in white to show a visual representation of what the text was saying...yes I'm cheesy, but that stuff gets the point across). =)
"Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for your sins have brought you down. Bring your confessions, and return to the Lord. Say to him, “Forgive all our sins and graciously receive us, so that we may offer you our praises. Assyria cannot save us, nor can our warhorses. Never again will we say to the idols we have made, ‘You are our gods.’ No, in you alone do the orphans find mercy.” The Lord says, “Then I will heal you of your faithlessness; my love will know no bounds, for my anger will be gone forever. I will be to Israel like a refreshing dew from heaven. Israel will blossom like the lily; it will send roots deep into the soil like the cedars in Lebanon. Its branches will spread out like beautiful olive trees, as fragrant as the cedars of Lebanon. My people will again live under my shade. They will flourish like grain and blossom like grapevines. They will be as fragrant as the wines of Lebanon." (Hosea 14.1-7 NLT)
Finally we get to last night. Last night we had 49 people show up. It was once again a pretty packed night. We covered the lie, "It's okay not to love certain people." Since God's word is even more explicitly clear on us loving our brothers and sisters in Christ, all I did to make sure we were all on the same page of how we are called to love all other Christians, period, was show a quick collection of verses from 1 John.
“Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them.” - 1 John 3.15 (NLT)
“If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?” - 1 John 4.20 (NLT)
Since it's pretty obvious we as Christians are expected to love other Christians, period, I spent the rest of the night taking a look at loving non-Christians too. The very first thing that we all have to constantly remember, is that non-Christians do not have the same world view or standards as we do, so we can't keep acting surprised when they act in sinful manners. Another way of saying this, is that we need to expect sick people to act sick. Non-Christians are still enslaved to sin and evil, and so they don't know anything else. They are still horribly sick with the infection of sin, because they haven't received the cure yet. In fact, when we look at it in this way, we're closer to seeing people the way God see's people.
In Romans 5, Paul explains the situation like this:
"When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God." (Romans 5.6-11 NLT)
Paul explains how no one in their right mind would risk their life to help/save a person, even if he/she is good. Now if that person were exceptionally good, helping those in need, showing kindness to everyone, etc, someone might then contemplate risking his/her financial security or even life to help him/her. You want to know the shocking truth? WE DIDN'T EVEN MAKE THE LOWEST RUNG ON THE 'GOOD LADDER'!!! Yet despite this horrifying fact, God still risked His life, in fact gave His life to save us! Every human being is on the same field and at some point in his/her life is classified as evil. Just two chapters earlier, Paul explains this very fact, and as he does this, he quotes two Psalms. One of these Psalms is Psalm 53, and the first three verses of this Psalm are disturbing:
"Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; not one of them does good! God looks down from heaven on the entire human race; he looks to see if anyone is truly wise, if anyone seeks God. But no, all have turned away; all have become corrupt. No one does good, not a single one!" (Psalm 53.1-3 NLT)
Paul sums this up in one of the most famous verses from Romans:
“For everyone has sinned; we all
fall short of God’s glorious standard.” (Romans 3.23 NLT)
We are all sick and enslaved to sin and evil until we encounter Jesus. Until then, the only thing we know how to naturally do, is mess up (sin) and act selfishly, hurting others and ourselves (evil). It's when we take a step back from our selfish perspective and start viewing people as God views them, as lost sheep. And when you get here, realizing that we all fall into the category of sick, lost, people in need of Jesus, that Romans 5 becomes all that more powerful. It's then that you can answer this question: "How in the world can I love someone who insults me, ridicules me, insults my God, and wants to rip me apart?" The simple answer... because God did it first! It doesn't matter if you feel like it's unfair for you to respond to hate with love, because in reality you should be thankful. If God acted in our human view of fairness, repaying hate with hate, Jesus wouldn't have come. Instead, God saw sick people, in desperate need of a cure, just sneezing/coughing/running fevers, and showing other symptoms of the disease (sin). He had compassion, and showed the ultimate expression of love!
I ended with giving three practical ways that we can look at our lives and try to rearrange ourselves so we can see people from God's perspective instead of our own:
1. Read the Bible
(The ultimate case study to look at and learn from is Jesus Himself... [i.e. Look at Jesus' handling and reaction to a man who was quite visibly showing the symptoms of a person enslaved an infected by sin/evil in Mark 5.1-15])
2. Pray for them
(Jesus Himself advised us to do this in Matthew 5.44-45)
3. Serve them
(This is the HARDEST of all! There's not much motivation to serve someone who doesn't like you, let along love them. But once again, Jesus Himself did it first! [Mark 10.45]...besides, here's some food for thought... if Jesus came to serve/save us, and it's His kindness that leads us to repentance and the cure, wouldn't one of our responsibilities as co-workers with Christ to be to let our service and kindness lead others to the kindness of God that will then lead them to repentance and the cure?)
Welp, that will just about get all of you caught up! =) Thanks for hanging in there and reading through the whole thing! (If you skipped to the bottom... shame on you... ;)... just kidding). This weekend we have a group of students going on a retreat to help out with a camp for mentally and physically disabled campers. I'd appreciate your prayers for their safe travel to and from the camp, as well as an experience that will help them grow closer to God and develop a great love for other people. Thanks! =)
Pat
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