Just as most individuals would describe themselves as a “spiritual person,” so it’s not likely to get challenged if you say, “you gotta have faith.”  Or, “don’t stop believing.”

But what does it mean?  Is faith a steel rod that runs through your back to keep you strong?  Is it a sticky substance in your veins that holds you to a task?  Is it the rough equivalent of optimism?

Along with love and hope, faith is one of the cardinal virtue that marks a mature church in the New Testament epistles.  In this series, we’ll examine the nature of faith, great faith, little faith, strong faith, weak faith, and any other kinds we can turn over.

May yours increase as the Holy Spirit takes this truth to heart!

(click on the links below for sermon audio)

Faith’s Victory Faith1

A Wish and a Prayer  [sorry--essential information now lost for all time ]

Dead Faith and Demon Faith Faith3

Little Faith  Faith4

My God, by grace I am beginning to see,

that whatever good there is in honor and joy

the one who gives and may withdraw them is better;

that blessedness is not so much in receiving good from you

but in being a bold display of your glory and virtue;

that it is an amazing thing to see your life in a creature

speaking, acting, filling, shining through it;

that nothing is essentially good but you,

that I am near good when I am near you

that to be like you is a glorious thing:

If I am attractive, this is why.

You are every bit my good in times of peace,

my only support in days of trouble,

my one sufficiency at life’s end.

Help me to see how good your will is in all things,

and even when your will crosses mine

teach me to be pleased with it.

Grant me to feel you in fire, taste you in food, experience you in every providence,

and to see that your many gifts and blessings

are only the comfort of your hands on my shoulders

Inexhaustible fountain of all good,

I give myself to you out of love,

for all I have or own is yours–my possessions, family, church, self,

to do with as you please

to honor yourself by me, and by all that’s mine.

If it is consistent with your eternal designs,

the purpose of your grace,

and the great ends of your glory,

then bestow upon me the blessings of your comforts;

If not, then settle me down in your better judgment.

(adapted from The Valley of Vision)

If a past experience is having a controlling, or undo influence in our lives–we need to get over it!  It might be something happy, and now we’re constantly trying to live up to it.  It could be something horrible, and now we’re constantly trying to live it down.

Even if you could change it, you wonder if you would!  After all, to some extent it has defined you.  Is wanting to change it a denial of yourself?  If you “get over it,” does the event get minimized?

Any event can be redeemed when it is integrated into God’s story for you. You’re over it when you have, by God’s grace, punched a hole in the clouds and hope is streaming in.  Those clouds may return, but you have gotten a glimpse and you know how to clear the skies again.   You’re over it when you can sing praise to God without reservation.  You’re over it when you can tell your story in a way that honors the revealed truth about God’s impeccable character.  You’re over it when you’re living with freedom and hope!

Click on the links below for sermon audio

Over It! OverIt1

Over It! 2  OverIt2

Over It!  Failure  OverItFailure

Over It!  Guilt  (sorry, recording failed)

Over It!  Trauma  OverItTrauma

Over It!  Injustice (Forgiveness)  OverItForgive

Over It!  Whining OverItWhining

Over It!  Depression  (sorry, no recording)

Over It!  Anger  OverItAnger

Over It!  Worry  OverItWorry

Over It!  Addiction OverItAddiction

I hoped that someone had found a voice to say:  “We welcome everyone.  Being gay is not an unpardonable sin.”  I was disappointed.

Rev. Erick Elnes, pastor of Countryside Community Church has collected signatures from area clergymen for “The Heartland Proclamation,” calling for an end to religious and civil discrimination based on sexual orientation.  He was quoted as saying, “we were just fed up with the popular notion that the Christian point of view is anti-gay.”

Personally, I wish we would acknowledge the fact that, in the wide sense, there is virtually nothing that qualifies as “the Christian point of view.”  Under the umbrella of “Christian,” we can’t even agree whether Jesus Christ is the only doorway to heaven.  Maybe that’s the nature of Rev. Elnes’ comment.  He doesn’t want to get lumped in with other so-called Christians who believe such and such.  I’m okay with that.  There’s a lot of diversity under the “Christian” label.  If the Heartland Proclamation makes people more aware that all “Christian” churches are not setting dates for the rapture or disrupting soldiers’ funerals, I welcome the consequence.

That diversity within Christianity is apparent even in relation to the term “anti-gay.”  Does Rev. Elnes mean “set against people who consider themselves homosexual?”  Or does he mean “opposed to the political agenda and personal lifestyle of homosexuality?”  I’m confident that he would refuse the distinction.  To me it’s critical.

According to the article, the Heartland Proclamation declares:  “We believe homosexuality is not a sin.  It’s not a birth defect or a choice.  God created people this way.  and if God created them this way, they need to be honored for who they are, and fully included in church life and wider society.”

There are at least two problems here.  First, nowhere in the Bible does it say that God created people homosexual.  Therefore, this statement does not bear the authority of Christianity.  It bears the authority of the Omaha area ministers who signed it.  For those of us Christians who believe the Bible alone is God’s Word, the Heartland Proclamation is nothing more than a clergy opinion press release.

I also take exception to the claim that homosexuality is “not a choice.”  Whether some people are somehow hardwired for homosexuality is not even the issue.  Jesus said:  “I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”  That statement alone should dispel the myth that God does not hold us accountable for what “feels natural.”  A homosexual disposition may not be a choice.  A GLBT lifestyle most definitely is.

At least, that’s what this “Jesus is my example,” “the Bible is my authority,” “Christian” believes.

GLBT people should come to church on the same terms as we all should.  Not because acceptance is offered by outmoding sin.  But because grace means God did for us, in Christ, what we could not do for ourselves.

Here’s my clergy proclamation of inclusion:  Homosexuals Remain Important Subgroup of Sinners Being Forgiven Every Day.

Commentator Frederick Godet described the Epistle to the Romans as “the cathedral of the Christian faith.”

That imagery has stuck with me as I have been meditating on the message of Romans.  It is truly a cathedral.  Everywhere you look your eye is met with intricacy, beauty and majesty.

But I’ve imagined a particular cathedral, one that is also a refuge.  Romans describes a real and present storm of God’s wrath.  It describes a way of escape–justification by faith.  And it describes a life of security from God’s temporal wrath within the gospel cathedral.

I invite you to join us in this exposition of Romans with a sense of urgency, as we Run In!:  from under the wrath of God to shelter in the Cathedral of His Grace.

Theme

Run In!  (1:16-17)  1RomRunIn

God’s Righteous Storm

Maelstrom!  the Storm that is God’s Wrath (1:18)  2RomMaelstrom

The Great Put Down:  2 Causes of God’s Wrath (1:18-23)  3RomPutDown

The Storm Breaks:  3 Effects of God’s Wrath  (1:28-32)  4RomSentence

What Won’t Save You When God Gets Angry

The Holier Than Thou Experiment (2:1-16)  5RomHolierExp

Egg Storage Tips (2:17-29)  6RomEggStor

(parenthesis answering Jewish objections 3:1-18)

Which Monster Are You?  (3:9-20)  7RomMonster

The Doorway to Shelter:  Imputed Righteousness

The Great Escape (3:21-26)  8RomEscape

The Implications of Faith (3:27-4:17)  9RomImplications

Heaven’s Impossible Odds (4:18-25)  10RomImpossibleOdds

Three Cheers!  (5:1-11)  11Rom3Cheers

The Many and the One (5:12-21)  12RomManyOne

From Mis to Triophe (6:1-14)  13RomTriomph

What’s the Legal Limit?  (6:15-23)  14RomLimit

Escape from Hotel California (7:1-12)  15RomHotelCA

Ordinary or Normal? (7:13-25)  16RomOridnary

Jailbird to Solid Citizen (8:1-7)  17RomJailbird

Kill or Be Killed (8:8-17)  18RomKillBeKilled

Agony of Victory (8:18-27) 20RomAgony

Break the Pity Habit (8:28-30) message not recorded

Fight Fear with Faith (8:31-39) 22RomFightFear

Unfathomable His Ways (9) 23RomUnfathomable

Grace Ethic (9:30-10:4) 24RomGraceEthic

Saved Like That (10:5-13) 25RomSavedLikeThat

The Missing Link (10:14-21) 26RomMissingLink

No Take Backs! (11) 27NoTakeBacks

I Do (12:1-2)

Pecking Order Problems (12:3-8) 29PeckingOrder

Besties and Beasties (12:9-21) 30BestiesBeasties

With Liberty, Justice, and Subjection for All (13:1-7) 31LibertySubjection

Deep in Debt (13:8-10) 32DeepDebt

Up and Dressed (13:11-14) 33UpandDressed

Trick or Treat 34TrickTreat

Liberty’s Leash

Extra-Strength Christians 36XStrengthXstian

Doubt Your Hopelessness 37DoubtHopeless

Bragging Rights 38BraggingRights

Brace Yourself 39BraceYourself

The story of Moses found in Exodus is great reading just for the story line.  Think of Moses as the original Rocky:  the rise from obscurity to larger-than-life hero with shoulders wide enough to carry the burdens and aspirations of his people.

But Moses has inspired much more than early morning runs in gray hooded sweatshirts.  The life of Moses has been read as national hero and continues to be claimed as the prototype for social or personal reform.  Moses fits into all of those discussions, BUT ONLY AFTER we take at face value what God has revealed about his place in the grand story of God’s redemption.

These are our goals for the Rescue series:

• Celebrate Moses’ fixed place in redemptive history
• Observe God’s heart for freeing people from the slavery of sin by reading Moses through the cross.
• Identify with the bondage of sin and the joy of liberty
• Aspire to be a liberator
• Learn God’s path to freedom

Click the links below for sermon audio:

Promise:  the Backdrop of Bondage 08-08-10

Wakin’ Up in Chains 08-15-10

Bad to the Bone Rescue3

The SHAPE of a Liberator Rescue4

The Critical Choice Rescue5

Who Am I? Rescue6

Knock Your Socks Off Deliverance Rescue7

Remember the Alamo Rescue8

Experience the Best Teacher? Rescue9

Missions:  Rescue on a Global Scale Rescue10

en-cour-age-ment \in-’ker-ij-ment\  n 1: something that almost everybody wants but few know how to give

It’s more than a sympathy card. What the Bible envisions for  church communities is an atmosphere that:

• urges
• admonishes
• exhorts
• cheers
• inspires
• charges
• and yes, comforts.

Encouragement is a multi-dimensional ministry to keep us all moving forward “so that (we) would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls (us) into His own kingdom and glory.”

Have you stopped moving?  How did you get stuck?  Was it grief?  Confusion?  Indecision?  Loneliness?  Rebellion?

Encouragement is just the nudge you need to get out of your stuck-ness!

Listen in by clicking the links below:

Just the Nudge You Need  Encourage1

Who Needs a Nudge?  Encourage2

His Very Name was Nudge  Encourage3

Where to Find Comfort  Encourage4

The Needy Never Nudge  Encourage5

You Don’t Say!  Encourage6

16,000 of What Kinda Words? Encourage7

From the PBS special “The Blues”:
On a lonely night in 1903, W.C. Handy, the African American leader of a dance orchestra, got stuck waiting for a train in the hamlet of Tutwiler, Mississippi. With hours to kill and nowhere else to go, Handy fell asleep on a hard wooden bench at the empty depot. When he awoke, a ragged black man was sitting next to him, singing about “goin’ where the Southern cross the Dog” and sliding a knife against the strings of a guitar. The musician repeated the line three times and answered with his instrument.

Intrigued, Handy asked what the line meant. It turned out that the tracks of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad, which locals called the Yellow Dog, crossed the tracks of the Southern Railroad in the town of Moorehead, where the musician was headed, and he’d put it into a song.

It was, Handy later said, “the weirdest music I had ever heard.”

Readers of the Bible might have a similar experience when they come across Ecclesiastes. Solomon definitely sounds a blue note, but what’s the effect?

I believe as we chase down the the themes of futility with Solomon’s guidance, we’ll also chase away the illusions that alienate us from God.

Life is hard to handle and impossible to hold. Let’s let the book of Ecclesiastes counteract the youthful folly that there’s meaning in life, AND maturity’s cynicism that says because there’s no inherent meaning, there can be no joy!

Chasin’ the Blues (1:1-11) Eccl1.1-11

LIfe’s Grand Buffet (1:12-2:26) Eccl1.12-2.26

Solomon’s Billboard #1 (3:1-15) Eccl3.1-15

Bite Your Tongue (3:16-5:7) Eccl3.16-5.7

Follow the Money (5:8-20 Eccl5.8-20

If You Know What’s Good For You (6:1-7:14) Eccl6-7.14

What You’ve Got Comin’ (7:15-29) Eccl7.15-29

“Da Man” Bringin’ You Down? (8:1-17) Eccl8

If I’d Only Known (9) Eccl9

What a Fool Believes, He Sees (10) Eccl10

Intrepid? or Intimidated? (11:1-6) Eccl11.1-6

Joie De Vivre (11:7-12:7) Eccl11.7-12.7

Who are these blessings for? Originally proclaimed by King Jesus to the Jewish heirs of kingdom promises, these transcendent virtues are directly applicable to believers in this church age who will, because of the cross, also participate in kingdom blessings.  They represent what kingdom citizens look like now, while we continue to wait for the millennial age.

Is the blessing now or in the future? These people are to be considered blessed now for having God’s seal of approval which will ultimately be rewarded.

I’m calling this series:  “Settling on Plan Be” where “Be” stands for the beatitudes.  Plan “A” is where we are strong, and successful, and satisfied in ordinary terms.  It’s the most natural thing in the world.  But it is strangely out of order for a kingdom that’s not of this world.  And so as we sit at Jesus’ feet and listen, I hope we will forget “Plan A” and settle on “Plan Be.”  God’s “Plan Be” is a compelling vision for Christ’s character being formed in you.  It’s you at your best–the glory of Christ shining through the uniqueness of you.

“Settling on Plan Be” planbeintro

“Blessed Desperation” planbepoor

“When God says, ‘Good Grief!’”  planbemourn

“Giant Strength, Gentle Touch”  planbemeek

“Happy are the Hungry” planbehungry

“Merciful Heavens!” PlanBeMerciful

“No Posers” planbepure

“The No Bull Peace Prize” PlanBePeacemaker

“When Outcast is Cool” PlanBePersecuted

“Will I Ever Be Good Enough?” PlanBeGoodEnoughmp3

Things that happen to us only occasionally seem to break the routine.  Even an every third month oil change can seem exotic.  But I guarantee it’s not exotic to the guy in the pit at the local drive-through zippy lube.  And our all-knowing everywhere God has presided over every dropped oil drain plug.

And what about that cool chorus that we haven’t sung at church in three months?  God heard it three million times last Sunday.  I know our worship team does it really well, but still . . . .  How does an infinitely creative God bear the repetition?

I think God finds pleasure when words He’s heard almost endlessly emerge from a soul that speaks them directly, personally, sincerely.  He delights in them when they flow from a “we’re having a moment here” context.

In that sense a new song can be old hat before the lyrics are written down.  BUT its also true that I can sing a new song today with lyrics composed centuries ago!  I hope to bring God a little pleasure today with a new song–just to give Him a little break from the routine.