Tradition or Traditionalism

The following was preached at Veedersburg and Hillsboro UMC on Sunday, August 30, 2009. The text for this week's message is Mark 7:1-8, 14-15.

While a crowd always surrounded Jesus, he wasn’t particularly liked by the religious elite of his day. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the scribes all appear at some point as opponents to Jesus in his ministry. In fact, his trial, which led to the cross, took place before the high priest. The people that should have gotten it the most were the ones who opposed Jesus’ ministry the most. I know that for me, personally, this is always a reminder that the Lord can work in unexpected ways, and it is important to be open to the different ways that God can be speaking to us, and the new ways that He can work around and through us. In some sense, today’s Scripture is intensely personal because it specifically calls into question the idea that the way it is is the way it should be.

In college, the chaplain once said, “Tradition is the living faith of the dead, and traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.” Probably one of my favorite quotes from working in the chaplain’s office for two and a half years. Think about it for a moment though – “tradition is the living faith of the dead, and traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.” What does that mean? Is anybody else struck by that stark contrast? It blows me away every time I think about it, and I’ve been thinking about it on and off for about 7 years. Where is that line between tradition and traditionalism?

There is a big push in the United Methodist denomination right now to “rethink church.” And I think that this push is somewhat intensified right now in the Indiana Conference. I mean, think about it for a second. This time last year, even though both conferences voted to merge, we were still two separate conferences – North Indiana and South Indiana. We had our first Annual Conference as the Indiana Annual Conference just two months ago (and I haven’t forgotten, Jeff and I will be reporting on Annual Conference in a couple of weeks for those that may be a little curious as to what happened). Right now we are in a perfect time to “rethink church.”

We are in a ministry cluster with Montgomery County churches. What does that mean? I have no idea, but we are figuring it out one meeting at a time. We are rethinking what we do as the church. Right here in Veedersburg/Hillsboro, we are learning and rethinking what it means to be the church. Y’all are experiencing a new pastor for the first time in a while. I’m experiencing what it means to be a pastor. Hopefully we are all being challenged by Scripture, and moving closer to who it is that God would have us be. I don’t have a perfect idea of what it looks like, and neither does an individual sitting here this morning. It’s exciting and scary all at the same time.

We have an opportunity to rethink what we have done and what we could be doing in our community. So the question is – are we going to move forward, or are we going to keep looking back? Are we going to assess who we are and listen for what God is doing in our lives, or are we going to go through the motions and just do what we’ve always been doing? Are we going to honor our Wesleyan tradition and, as John Wesley says, “spread scriptural holiness throughout the land,” or are we going to be comfortable as Sunday-only Christians.

In this section of Mark’s gospel, Jesus is calling into question the old traditions that had become a central concern of the Pharisees and scribes. Jesus and his disciples stopped by Burger King to get some Whoppers and didn’t go to the bathroom first and wash their hands before eating. When the Pharisees and scribes see this, they ask Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples do things like we have always done them? Why are they eating with unwashed hands?”

Now, hear me on this one, washing your hands before you eat is important. Jesus and the disciples have been all over the place ministering to those in need, including some who were sick. The best way to prevent spreading germs is to wash your hands. But, the Pharisees were not concerned with physical cleanliness. They didn’t ask, “Aren’t your hands dirty? Aren’t you going to wash them before going to town on that Whopper?” They were concerned that Jesus’ disciples were not following the traditions of the elders. It wasn’t about physical cleanliness; it was about traditionalism.

It’s like the old sermon illustration about the woman cooking a turkey at Thanksgiving. You’ve probably heard it before, but I’m going to tell it again anyway. This little girl grew up helping her mom prepare the turkey for Thanksgiving every single year. One of the things that her mom did was cut off part of the top of the turkey. When she got older, she got married and moved away. On her first Thanksgiving, she started preparing the turkey just like her mom always used to prepare it, by cutting off part of the top of the turkey. Her husband told her that she just wasted some of the turkey, and they had a little disagreement about it. So, finally, she got upset and called her mom to tell her that her husband was being unreasonable about her turkey preparation. She told her mom that she did everything just like when she was growing up, including cutting off part of the top of the turkey. And her mom said, “Well, honey, I only cut off the top of the turkey so that it would fit in my roasting pan.” Tradition or traditionalism? There’s a difference.

Jesus responds to their questioning by quoting the prophet Isaiah. He says, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” He says that the Pharisees are only paying lip service to God. Ouch. Whoever said, “gentle Jesus meek and mild,” didn’t necessarily read all of the gospels. Jesus cut right to the heart of the matter and called out the Pharisees and their lack of faith. Their faith wasn’t something they lived out; it was part of their ritual. Going through the motions of faith just doesn’t cut it.

Now remember, the Pharisees were the holiest people around. They kept the Mosaic Law to the letter. They were the ones who even kept the laws that were put in place to form a protective hedge around the Mosaic Law, some 600+ commandments. They were the first round pick in the Fantasy Holiness Leagues every fall. They were the superstars. They were the perennial Holiness Oscar nominees. Whatever analogy you want to use, they were legally blameless. There was no doubt whatsoever that, according to the letter of the Mosaic Law, the Pharisees were without fault. But Jesus calls them out. He says that they are only paying lip service to God, just as Isaiah was talking about hundreds of years before. Their hearts were not in the right place.

How does this apply to where we are today? As mentioned before, it is a matter of the heart. Are we doing things simply because it is what we’ve always done, or are we doing them because our heart is in the right place and we are trying to reach out to the community around us? If somebody were to come in here today, somebody that hasn’t been here before, or maybe somebody that hasn’t come in a long time, and they are wearing jeans and a T-shirt, is your first thought going to be, “Oh, I’m so glad he/she is here this morning,” or “I can’t believe he/she is wearing that to church.” One of those thoughts is tradition-driven and one is traditionalism at work. Hospitality to newcomers is a good tradition to maintain. Judging what others are wearing is traditionalism because it is more concerned with how one should come to church instead of focusing on the fact that this person is at worship. So, how do we distinguish between the two? How do we know when we are not celebrating the living faith of the dead, but focusing on the rituals that, quite frankly, don’t really matter?

About three times each year, I am required to be at retreats for fellow clergy who are not full members of the conference yet. At the last retreat in May, we did an exercise where we started off with the question, “What is the purpose of the United Methodist Church?” In other words, why are we here? Well, as good Methodists, we came to agree on the answer that can be found in the Book of Discipline – to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Then the fun started – why?

And that is what this exercise was all about: asking why six times. It was like talking to a four year old. Each time we would come to a conclusion on something, we would have to ask “why?” all over again. The point of the exercise is to get down to the very core of what it is that we are doing. Why are we doing what we are doing? Are we doing it just because that’s “the way it’s supposed to be”? Or is it because that’s the way we’ve always done it? That’s traditionalism. At some point, if we are only doing things because it’s the way we’ve always done them because that’s how we’ve always done it, then we are missing something. We are starting to just pay lip service to God. It’s just like what Solomon and the Israelites did, which we talked about a few weeks ago, “No thanks, Lord. I’ll take it from here!” It didn’t work out all that well for Solomon or for the Israelites, and it didn’t work out too well for the Pharisees; what in the world makes us think it is going to work out for us?

Allow me to let you in on a secret – it won’t. If we aren’t growing in our spiritual lives, it will not help us to keep doing the same things we’ve always done. It just doesn’t work that way. Something has to change. If we aren’t who we think we should be as a church, then something has to change. The world around us is changing and to reach those who are outside of these walls is going to take us doing something different than what we’ve done in the past. We can’t rely on the “traditions of the elders” like the Pharisees did because it took them off course. The one who they were anticipating was in their midst, and instead of following Jesus and learning everything he had to teach, they were asking why the disciples weren’t following their traditions. Something had to be radically different in order for them to be changed; that something was Jesus.

Jesus picked up all their assumptions about what religion was supposed to look like, all their traditions that they had collected and passed down through the years, and all of the rituals that they had put so much stock in, shook them up and scattered them all over the place. He blew up their expectations and tried to turn them back to the most important thing – where is your heart? It is what exists in our hearts that really matters; everything else is just for show. So the question that we have to wrestle with this week is – where are our hearts? Are we more concerned with the show than the reality? Because if that’s the case, then we need to stop and re-evaluate the situation. Jesus tells us that it is not what is on the outside that matters. How we look to those around us isn’t as important as who we are on the inside. Are we going to blindly rely on the traditions that have been handed down, or are we going to celebrate our tradition while being true to who God has called us to be at this point in our history?

Difficult Sayings

The following was preached at Veedersburg and Hillsboro UMC on Sunday, August 23, 2009. The text for this week's message is John 6:56-69.

We are jumping back into the gospel of John today. We are heading back to the conversation that Jesus has with the people about the bread of life. With the end of Chapter 6, we see an important turn in those who are following after Jesus, as they are faced with a difficult decision. Ultimately the decision that they had to make is a decision that we have to make as well. What Jesus says is difficult and the question is not “is it true,” but “will we allow ourselves to be affected by the truth?”

Some would say that today’s passage is a type of Last Supper scene for John’s gospel. As we read through the gospel, we don’t actually see the details of the Last Supper laid out like we do in the other gospels. John is the gospel where we read about Jesus washing the disciples’ feet, but he doesn’t say anything about the meal itself. Why is that? I don’t know for sure, but all I can say for certain is that it does make some sense for this portion of the gospel to be John’s way of alluding to the Last Supper. John’s was the last of the four gospels to be written, so it is very likely that his audience knew the story of the Last Supper, which is why he didn’t include it in the narrative.

Remember the context of this passage. The day before this conversation, Jesus feeds 5,000 men with five loaves of bread and two fish. He goes off to the mountain to be alone for a while, and the Twelve go out to the sea. It gets stormy out, and Jesus is walking on the water. He gets in the boat with the disciples and they go across to Capernaum. The people follow after them and meet up with them on the other side of the sea. Jesus tells them that they need to believe in the one that is sent from God, and they want a sign to show that he is from God. I can only imagine what Jesus was thinking when they said that – “What do you want me to do? Feed 5,000 people with this kid’s lunch? Oh wait, I just did that.”

Thankfully, Jesus has a less sarcastic response for the people than I would. He tells them that he is the living bread that has come down from heaven, and that they must partake in this bread in order to have eternal life. To say the least, their initial reaction to this saying of Jesus is not favorable. They seem to be taking his words very literally here, which is clearly a mistake.

The initial reaction that Jesus gets from the people here is, “This is a hard saying, who can listen to it?” Verse 60 says that some of the disciples were saying this, and I think it’s important to point out here that it was not necessarily the Twelve who were saying it, but the people in the crowd who were following after Jesus. It seems like Jesus couldn’t go anywhere without there being a huge crowd surrounding him. We read all throughout the gospels about the crowds that were always following him. But on this occasion, it seems as though the crowd got a little thinner. Again, what did they say? “This is a hard saying, who can listen to it?” When I read their response to Jesus’ teaching, it got me thinking about some other hard sayings in Scripture. Using today’s passage as a launching pad, I want to look at just a few of the difficult sayings of Scripture and ask the question, “How will we be affected by the truth?” For example:

Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” The question is not whether or not it is true, but whether or not we will choose to be affected by it. If God is the one who created the heavens and the earth, what are the implications for us, as created beings? One implication is that we are not the masters of our own domain. We like to think that we are. We like to think that we own the things that we have in our lives. But is that the truth? What do we have that God hasn’t given to us? If God is the creator of all things, then we are the creator and owner of nothing. If we are truly honest with ourselves, that is a difficult pill to swallow, isn’t it?

We want to believe that we are in control of the world around us. We want to believe that we have certain rights and privileges, and that we are entitled to certain things in our lives. And maybe that is what we have been taught to believe by our society, but that’s not what Scripture tells us. All the earth and everything in it belong to God, not us. We are entrusted to take care of the earth, but we are not owners of it. Everything we have belongs to God; everything we’ve been given comes from God. We aren’t owners; we are stewards. It’s not a matter of whether or not it is true; it’s a matter of whether or not we are going to be affected by that reality.

What are some of the implications? How can we be affected by this truth? Well, first off, we have to realize that we are entrusted with the things that we have in this life. We are charged with taking care of the world around us, being ecologically responsible. There is a big movement these days to “go green.” As Christians, who believe that God is the creator of all things and who recognize that we are just stewards of what we’ve been given, we should be leading the way in this movement to take care of the world around us.

When it comes to our possessions, and yes, I’m going to say it, our money, are we being responsible? It’s about stewardship – taking care of the things we’ve been given. I’m not saying this as a way to pad the bank account for the church. I’m saying it as a matter of spiritual growth. When we give, we are recognizing the source of our gifts. We are recognizing that everything we have has been given to us in the first place. That’s true if we give of our time, our possessions and our money. If God is the creator and sustainer of life, then we owe Him everything. How are we going to be affected by that reality?

Or, how about Deuteronomy 6:4? “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Israel was the only nation in the ancient world that proclaimed one God, instead of many gods. In the ancient world, the gods were not figures to be loved, but figures who were to be feared. It was the gods that controlled everything that happened in the world. They could be bribed; they could be coaxed into doing certain things, but they were certainly not figures with which one could have a relationship, especially not a loving relationship.

But Israel was God’s chosen people. He didn’t demand that they love Him because He needed more attention. This call to love the Lord comes out of a recognition that the Israelites were God’s chosen people. They were the ones who were taken care of by God. They were chosen not for their own sake, but for the sake of the world. They needed to love and be faithful to God because God loved and was faithful to them. It was about a relationship with the creator of the heavens and the earth – something that was unheard of in the ancient world.

What would our lives look like if we really loved God? What would they look like if we were genuinely concerned with our relationship with God and it took the priority in our lives? We worship a God that is totally unlike the gods of the ancient world. We worship a God who has chosen us and has shown His love for us. We read all throughout Scripture about the love that God has for us. Again, it’s a matter of whether or not we are going to be affected by it. How will our lives be different - not if it is true, but because it is?

How is your life different because of your relationship with God? How is your day affected because you believe in a God who loves you? Has it changed from what it was like two years ago, or are you still the same person? If someone who didn’t know you went to church saw your everyday life, would they see something different about you compared with other people? Can somebody look at your life and see the fruits of the spirit? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. How has your life been affected?

How about this: Numbers 22 – Balaam, a pagan prophet who is sent to curse the Israelites, has his donkey talk to him. Okay, I know that I have not been around animals as much as some that are here this morning, but I have never once had an animal speak to me – at least not in a way that I could understand exactly what it was saying. But that is exactly what happens here. Balaam’s donkey isn’t all that crazy about walking up to an angel of the Lord. Twice it tries to turn around, and Balaam hits it. Finally, it just sits down and says, “Why are you hitting me? Have I ever given you a reason to hit me?” What I love most about this story is that when the donkey starts talking, Balaam just joins right in on the conversation. It doesn’t seem to strike him a weird in the least bit that his donkey just talked to him.

But, anyway, what I find to be important about this story is the fact that God can speak to us through a variety of means. God is not limited when it comes to communication. Can God use contemporary, or even secular, music to speak to us? Yes. Can God speak to us through movies and television? Yes, absolutely. Can God speak to us through familiar hymns, sermons, the call to worship, the prayer time? Yes, of course, God is not limited in communicating. We may be limited in our hearing, but God is not limited in how He talks with us. Again, it’s not a question of whether or not it is true, but how will we let ourselves be affected by it. Will you be open to hearing God’s voice in unexpected ways?

Finally, we have Jesus - conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary. The Son of God born in a stable. His teaching – the Sermon on the Mount; his emphasis on caring for the poor and downtrodden and his habit of ignoring the religious elite. I remember reading somewhere along the way that some people would argue that the Sermon on the Mount isn’t supposed to be taken literally because it is “too hard.” Are you kidding me? Shouldn’t we be raising the bar instead of lowering it? I honestly believe that people would rather rise to challenges than lower themselves to just get by. Yes, Jesus’ teachings are difficult, but that does mean we shouldn’t take them seriously? No, absolutely not, and that brings us back to John 6. When the people hear Jesus’ teaching on this topic, they can’t take it. It’s too hard for them. Jesus’ teaching is too difficult, and they turn away.

So, here’s a question. Will we allow ourselves to be changed by the Word? The truth is that the Word can change us. Scripture can affect us, if we let it. It can alter us, if we allow it to enter into our lives. If we come to the Word week after week and we are not challenged and changed by it, then we are missing something. If reading Scripture hasn’t instilled in us a desire to draw closer to God, then something isn’t right. The Word goes against our human nature. It is counter-cultural; it goes against what society tells us is right. And the bottom line is, if we come to Scripture and are not changed by it, then we’re either sticking to the “safe” parts, or we don’t understand what we’re reading. We cannot come to God and not be moved. God will challenge us and change us if we let Him.

The people that left Jesus on that day didn’t want to be changed. They didn’t want to be challenged. So, they left. Not all of them did. When Jesus asked the Twelve if they wanted to leave, Peter replied, “Where are we going to go?” The Twelve walked with Jesus daily, and even though this particular teaching may have been really difficult, they knew that they had to stick with Jesus. They may not have understood everything that Jesus was teaching, but they knew that they had to stay with him. Peter says that they believed and have come to know that he was the Holy One of God. When you know Jesus in this way, you realize that maybe, just maybe, the boxes that you’ve put God in aren’t big enough.

When it is all said and done, we have a choice. We can stick with Jesus, or we can turn tail and run. Where are you today? Are you going to look at Jesus’ difficult teaching and decide that it’s too much? Are you ready to walk out on Jesus because you don’t want your life to be affected? Or are you like Peter? Are you ready to keep following Jesus, even though you may not know exactly what he is saying to you in your life? Are you willing to be challenged and changed by the grace of God? The simple truth is that following Jesus is not always easy, but we always have a choice. Jesus has the words of eternal life, but we have to be willing to listen. It’s not a matter of is it true or not. It’s a matter of whether or not we will be affected.

Summer Movie Tour: G.I. Joe

It always worries me to see at the beginning of a movie when it says that it is based on toys. Consequently, I did not have high expectations for G.I. Joe, even though I have a bad full of them somewhere in the garage at this very instant. G.I. Joe was movie #2 on the day, and the first one (District 9) was so good that (again) I wasn't expecting much from this one. However, I was pleasantly surprised.

G.I. Joe is about an elite group of military professionals from all over the world. It is a top secret outfit that most officials around the world don't know about. The saying that I caught a couple of times in the movie is, "When all else fails, we don't." And that is the type of attitude that this unit is supposed to portray. Basically, the plot is as follows:

In the "near future," a case of warheads containing nanotechnology that is capable of destroying an entire city is stolen by a mysterious group which is known as Cobra. Two characters (Duke and Ripcord) are part of a team who are initially charged with transporting the warheads, but they get attacked by superior, technologically advanced enemies. In comes G.I. Joe to stave off the enemies and save the today, temporarily. What follows is a series of collisions between both sides, and some revelation of characters' pasts come out as well.

My assessment: Much better than expected. I have to be honest, in case you haven't picked up on it by now, I expected this movie to be total junk. I thought it would be over the top and completely unrealistic. Now, don't get me wrong, a lot of what happens is unrealistic by today's standards, but (some of) it is not totally unreasonable in the "near future" when this movie is set. There are a couple of cheesy lines that cracked me up: "Yo Joe!" and "Knowing is half the battle." But come on, given 'em a break, those were classic G.I. Joe lines. I think there may have been more of an uproar if they hadn't been included. It is definitely a fast paced, high action movie with plenty of fighting, killing and things blowing up. That's kind of what we're looking for in a summer movie anyway, isn't it?

My recommendation: If you're looking for just a good time watching a movie, then go see it. It is a lot of fun to watch, even though parts of it are kind of cheesy. It's not nearly as bad as other movies that I've seen, and it had enough action to keep you moving from scene to scene.

Summer Movie Tour: District 9

I know that summer is quickly fading, and that it has been a while since the Summer Movie Tour has made a pit stop. It's been a rough couple of weeks and movie-watching hasn't been on the agenda. However, that did change this week. I was able to take an afternoon and catch a couple of movies. First off, District 9.

District 9 is an unusual alien movie. It begins, and ends, in a documentary style. Interposed throughout the movie are news-channel reports as well as a fair amount of action. The story begins twenty years ago when the mothership comes to rest over Johannesburg, South Africa. The ship is opened up and thousands of aliens (who come to be known as "Prawns") are living inside and severely malnourished. With the world watching, the South African government established shacks as temporary homes for the aliens. Eventually, the random alien violence and fear of the aliens led to District 9 being established. The temporary shacks have become slums and have been closed off from the rest of the city with a significant military presence "keeping the peace." The city of Johannesburg has established a new tent city to which they are attempting to relocate the aliens. In the midst of serving eviction notices, something goes terribly wrong for one of the employees.

My assessment: District 9 is great... if you can get pass the pervasive "f-bombs" and violence. One more than one occasion, alien technology is used that, basically, explodes some people - what should remain on the inside splatters all over the place, including, sometimes, the camera itself (accompanied with obligatory sound effects). The violence is not limited to alien-to-human, there is also a fair amount of human-to-alien violence as well. What perhaps strikes me most about the film is the fact that about halfway through, you start to wonder who the true monsters are. There are some aliens that display more humanity than some of the humans. It is striking, and makes me wonder about the setting of the film given the apartheid government that was so horrible in South Africa.

My recommendation: If you can handle the violence and the language - go see it, right away. It is a fantastic movie. This is definitely one that will end up on my DVD shelf someday.

You Must Choose, But Choose Wisely

The following was preached at Veedersburg and Hillsboro UMC on Sunday, August 16, 2009. The text for this week's message is 1 Kings 3:1-14.

Today we are going to spend some time looking at the story of Solomon. But before we dive into this part of Solomon’s story, I want to take a few minutes to give you the broad-brush strokes view of Israelite history to this point. In the story of the exodus, which is found in the second book of the Bible. The descendants of Jacob, who is also known as Israel, start off as slaves in the land of Egypt. They have been slaves for nearly 400 years in this foreign land, when along comes Moses, who through a long series of events, leads the people of Israel to eastern border of the Promised Land, but not into it.

Moses passes away, and the mantle of leadership is passed to Joshua. He leads the people across the Jordan River, and they start conquering the land. You can read about the initial invasion in the book of Joshua, which is the sixth book of the Old Testament. By the end of Joshua, the Israelites have made a good headway into the land of Canaan, which is another name for the Promised Land. They divide the land into different territories and each of the tribes of Israel has its own section of the land. They are told to continue the campaign to conquer the land they had been given.

If we look a little more closely at Israelite history, we realize that they never obeyed this command to continue driving out the inhabitants of the land of Canaan. It’s almost like they got their land, and then they get caught up in the day-to-day business of living. “Thanks, God. We’ll take it from here.” Anybody do that before? They forgot about their original task, about what God had done for them and what He had given them. And it ended up costing them dearly over the centuries. That’s an important point that we will come back to in a little bit.

As we move on to the book of Judges, we see a period in which the Israelites were in this cycle of turning away from God, being oppressed by a neighboring nation, turning back to God, who would then raise up a leader to end the threat, and then, as the shampoo instructions tell us - lather, rinse, repeat. That’s basically what the book of Judges is about – this continual downward spiral that displayed a need for godly leadership. We then head into a very important time for the nation of Israel in 1 Samuel. Samuel was a prophet, and is sometimes considered the last judge of Israel.

Samuel spends some time as the judge of Israel, but as he gets older, he allows his sons to be the judges of Israel. To say the least, his sons are nothing like their father. In fact, the writer even says, “Yet his sons did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice.” Because his sons were such terrible people, the people come to Samuel and say, “You are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” By the way, you can read all this in 1 Samuel 8. Samuel warns them what will happen if they have a permanent king instead of intentionally following after the Lord, but the people insist that they want a king just like all the other nations around them. Be careful what you ask for because you just might get it.

The Lord says, “All right. They can have their king.” And the first king of Israel is Saul from the tribe of Benjamin. He is reported to be the most handsome man in Israel. I can’t verify that, but it’s what the writer of 1 Samuel says. Saul’s kingship is confirmed in three ways. 1) Samuel anoints him as king of Israel. 2) Saul is chosen as king by casting lots (which I’m pretty certain is a game much like Yatzee). And 3) his kingship is sealed with a military victory over the Ammonites at Jabesh-gilead.

Saul started out to be a pretty good king. He led Israel in military victories and the people were pleased with him; however, prior to one particular battle, Saul was told to wait on Samuel to perform the sacrifice. But Saul got impatient and ended up performing the sacrifice himself. He no longer wanted to wait on God, but wanted to do things his own way. This was the start of him being rejected by the Lord, who wanted a “man after His own heart,” and that man ended up being David.

We are much more familiar with the story of David, so just a few details will get the point across here. David is most well known for killing the Philistine giant Goliath. Saul became irrationally jealous of David and tried to kill him, so David lived in hiding for quite some time. David had opportunities to kill Saul, but never did. Eventually, Saul was killed in battle, and for a brief time there actually was a struggle for power. David came out victorious and was anointed as the king of Israel.

David’s reign as king is looked at as the golden age of the nation of Israel. David ruled Israel well, for the most part. His most public failing was committing adultery with Bathsheba, getting her pregnant and having her husband killed in battle to cover up his mistake. The prophet Nathan, however, called him out on it, and David was repentant. If you ever read Psalm 51, keep in mind that it was written as David’s response to his sin with Bathsheba. David kept Bathsheba as his wife, and they had another son – Solomon, who David named as his successor after reigning as king for forty years.

Solomon is attributed with writing three books of Scripture: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. He is widely considered to be the wisest person to have ever lived. During his reign, the Temple was built in Jerusalem. And while David’s period as king may have been seen as the golden age, it was during Solomon’s reign that Israel really began to prosper. In today’s Scripture, we come to Solomon at the beginning of his reign. He isn’t known as the wisest person in history just yet. In fact, he is barely known at all on an international level at this point.

Let me ask you a question to get the wheels turning on this passage. If God came to you and said, “Ask me for anything that you want and I’ll give it to you,” what would you ask for? All sorts of things can come flooding to our minds. This is a completely wide-open request. God, the creator of everything, is offering to give you whatever you ask for. What do you say? Do you just go for whatever pops into your head? Well, maybe, but that’s not always the best option.

Have you ever seen Ghostbusters? It’s one of my favorite movies, and it’s been on television lately. I always love the end when Gozer tells them that they will decide what form the Destructor will take, and before anybody says anything, this voice says that it has been decided. They are trying to figure out what happened because none of them said anything, and then Ray apologizes. He says, “I couldn’t help it. I just popped in there.” And then the giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man can be seen walking down the street. One thing I learn from that movie is that you never know what will just pop into your head at any given moment. Including, sometimes, sermon illustrations. Okay, so if saying the first thing that comes to your mind is not the best option, what should we do?

I think it’s good to look at Solomon’s approach here. It is a very simple, two-step process. Step One: evaluate the situation. The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man is nowhere to be seen here. Solomon didn’t just ask for the first thing that came to his mind, he took a look at the situation in which he found himself. He had just become the king of an entire nation. He thinks back to the faithfulness and love that God showed to his father David. He knows that God is trustworthy. He knows that David was blessed as long as he walked in the ways of the Lord. Solomon wasn’t being selfish with this request from God. In fact, he treated it as the honor and great responsibility that it really was. He looked at his situation and what it was that he was charged with doing. This wasn’t Aladdin rubbing a lamp and getting three wishes to make his life better.

When we ask God for something, we need to do so in light of his love and faithfulness. It is not about getting what we want for our own benefit, but it’s about how can we glorify God with our lives. Evaluate the situation. Who is God? What responsibilities has He given you? How can you glorify Him with the gifts He has given you? What tasks lay ahead of you?

The second step in this process: make a decision. Do you know how many things don’t happen simply because somebody doesn’t make a decision? I’m guilty of this in my own life. There are times when I’m not sure which decision to make, so I don’t make one, and, not surprisingly, nothing happens. I read a quote from Roberto Clemente, a Hall of Fame baseball player, who said something along the lines of, “You get three strikes, don’t waste them with the bat on your shoulder.”

Strategically, in baseball, there are times when you need to take a pitch, but his point is that you can’t give away a strike. Considering that Clemente is one of a relatively small number of players in the 3,000 hit club, I’d say he knew what he was talking about. Evaluate the situation, and then make a decision. Don’t waste all that time you spent evaluating by being paralyzed by indecision. Solomon didn’t say, “No thanks, God. I’m all right. I don’t need anything right now.” He evaluated his situation and told God what he needed. And what did he ask for? Wisdom. He wanted wisdom to govern the people and to discern between good and evil.

And what is God’s response? He is pleased. In fact, God was so pleased that He decided to give Solomon wisdom to govern and understand right from wrong, as well as great wealth and great honor. God doesn’t say, “No, Solomon, you don’t need that. Ask for something else.” No, God is pleased by the fact that Solomon realized he couldn’t do it on his own. This tells me that relying on God for all things is important. We can’t trust in our own abilities in the place of God. No matter how smart or talented we think we are, we cannot stop relying on God every step along the way. How often do we rely on God to get us through the day? How often do we ask God for the wisdom to live right? If you are anything like me, then it’s not very often. We forget about it. More often than we would like to admit, we forget that we need to rely on God each and every day. As great as a positive example as this is, I think there is one more thing that we can learn from Solomon in today’s passage.

In the larger context of the passage, we do see a change in Solomon. Just a chapter before, Solomon uses the sword to secure his place as king. David named him as his successor, however, Solomon perceived threats from a couple other fronts and eliminated those threats violently. After he asks for wisdom, we are told of a story of two women who had a dispute as to whose baby was alive and whose was dead. Solomon once again used the sword, but this time it wasn’t in violence, but as a result of his insight into humanity. He threatens to cut the living baby in half so that each woman would have half a baby. He does this to elicit a reaction that would help him determine who was the true mother of the baby, and the people saw that the wisdom of God was with him.

However, we also see the seeds of Solomon’s downfall in this chapter. And as we continue through the story of Solomon, we see him more and more relying on his own wisdom instead of relying on God. In verse 1 it is said that Solomon “made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt.” It seems like a fairly harmless sentence, but as we dig into all the implications of this sentence, we start to see something very harmful to Solomon and the nation of Israel.

In Deuteronomy, the Israelites are warned against “returning to Egypt” in terms of making relations with that nation. Egypt was the sight of their worst oppression. The Egyptians held the Israelites in brutal slavery for 400 years. Why would Israel want anything to do with Egypt? And yet, in the very first verse of this chapter, Solomon makes a treaty with the Egyptians. What is also important is that the Hebrew word translated here as “marriage alliance” is translated as “intermarry” in Deuteronomy 7:3. In that context, it is a warning to avoid marrying outside of the nation of Israel because such marriages would lead the Israelites to serve other gods.

Here is where we jump back into the history. Remember how the Israelites came into the Promised Land and didn’t completely drive out the other nations? They began to be influenced by those other nations. It was those other nations that caused them to turn away from God, which led them into idolatry. That warning was just as good when Solomon was king as it was on the day it was given to Moses, but Solomon still took on a bride from Egypt. And, much like how the nation was led astray by ignoring this warning, Solomon was led astray by ignoring it as well. It was a practice that Solomon maintained throughout his rule as king. He ignored the wisdom of God and began relying on his own wisdom. What is the point of asking for wisdom to govern and discernment between good and evil if you are just going to ignore it? That’s what Solomon did. He ignored what he had been given by God and Israel was much worse off because of it.

Solomon ends up with hundreds of wives and concubines who lead him away from walking the ways of his father David. He turns away from God, and is eventually rejected by God for his unfaithfulness. He doesn’t use the wisdom that God granted him, he ruled by what he felt was right instead of relying on God. That is a danger that we all face in our lives. God gives us something, and then we, like the Israelites in the Promised Land and like Solomon, think that we can handle it on our own. We say, “Thanks, God. We’ll take it from here.” Doesn’t that seem just a little backwards? What are we thinking when we do this?

When God gives you something, use it, and don’t forget that God is the one that gave it to you in the first place. God has gifted you in a particular way. Maybe you know it, maybe you don’t. If you don’t know it, let me tell you – God has gifted you in a particular way.

Don’t rely on yourself to make the best use of those gifts because you will fall short every time. Rely on God. He is the one who gave you those gifts, and He will be the one who puts you in positions to use them in such a way that He is glorified. If we strive after our own glory, we are nothing more than a dog chasing its tail, and do you know how ridiculous that looks? It doesn’t do any good, and when the dog finally does catch it, it hurts. It doesn’t do us any good to seek after our own glory. And the truth is, once we do get our own glory, it’s not as satisfying as we thought it would be. Often it hurts.

Pray that God will show you what He has gifted you with, and look for opportunities to use those gifts for the kingdom of God. It’s a matter of stewardship. Use what God has given you for His glory, not your own. Solomon may have been the wisest person in the world, but that didn’t keep him from making major mistakes in his life. And if Solomon made some major mistakes that pulled him away from God, how much more will do we need to rely on God in our lives? We can learn from Solomon’s good choices, but the truth is, there weren’t a whole lot of them. We can learn a whole lot more from his mistakes, and the biggest mistake that he made was that he started trusting in himself, and not in God. Don’t make that mistake with your life.

Inglorious Plumbers...

...an epic movie coming soon.

A Sense of Entitlement

I've been kind of following a couple of stories in the sports world lately. Given all that's been going on lately, I haven't kept up with them nearly as much, but they are similar stories in different sports. So, here's a couple of brief summaries on the situations, as I understand them, and my reflections follow afterwards.

1) Stephen Strasburg. Strasburg was the #1 pick in the MLB amateur draft. The Nationals, but virtue of being terrible, got the #1 pick and used it on the person who was widely considered to be the best pitcher available in amateur baseball. Strasburg spent last season as a junior at San Diego State University where he went 13-1 with a 1.32 ERA. He also pitched for the U.S. Olympic team at the most recent summer olympics. He, as of August 13th, has not been signed by the Nationals. The deadline for draft picks to be signed by the club is August 17th. If Strasburg hasn't signed by the end of the day on the 17th, he can play independent league baseball, go back to college (although, I'm not sure if he can since he has an agent), or sit around picking his nose until next year's draft. Some reports put the contract that Strasburg and his agent, Scott Boras, in the $15-$20 million number.

2) Michael Crabtree. Crabtree, the WR out of Texas Tech, was the #10 overall pick by the San Francisco 49ers. All of the pre-draft boards had him as the #1 WR in the draft, Al Davis, in his increasing insanity, decided to use the #7 pick that the Oakland Raiders had to draft a different WR. Crabtree is apparently listening to his cousin, who insists that he get a contract in line with the pre-draft rankings instead of the actual draft position. In other words, even though Crabtree was drafted 10th overall, he wants a contract better than the guy that was drafted 7th overall. To top it off, he is threatening to sit out the entire season unless he gets this contract.

First thought: Who in the world do these guys think they are?

Neither one of them has been on the roster of a professional team for a single day. Neither one of them has earned a single penny as a professional athlete, but they seem to have this sense that they deserve more than some veterans make in a single season. It's just not right. I'm starting to think that all players should only get the league minimum for the first two years of their professional career. After that, they can sign a new contract that is based on what they have done on the field, and not on their potential or projections.

People in all professional fields start at the bottom and work their way up, no matter how good they are. Why should professional athletes be any different?

Sometimes, Life Just Sucks

Tuesday, August 11, 2009. A day I don't think I'll ever forget. It's the day that our excitement and dreams were crushed. It's the day that we lost our baby.

I was doing my office hours at Hillsboro, and when I came home, Katie started feeling a cramp in her abdomen. She had been spotting again, but I wasn't too concerned just yet. Then the cramping started. We got in the car and went to St. Clare in Crawfordsville. I think I knew what was going to happen, but I didn't want to admit it to myself. Then it did, and I couldn't stop crying.

I'm sitting at home on Wednesday morning, and I don't know what to say. I'm grateful for all the support that we have received from friends and family. I know that God was with us every step of the way. But, honestly, I feel like crap. Maybe it's because I didn't sleep well last night (you'd think that for as much as the hospital is going to charge us, they'd have better sleeping accomodations!), maybe because it took us four years to get pregnant in the first place... I don't know. I still think about how Katie got to hear the heartbeat in Atlanta a few weeks ago, and my eyes start to tear up because I never did. We were getting ready to start on the nursery...

I know that God is with us, but sometimes, life just sucks...

Team #2

I spent a little bit of time talking with my brother-in-law last night about his fantasy football team on ESPN. He's doing a league with a bunch of his friends and they're doing a live draft, and that got me thinking about signing up for a second team on ESPN and doing a draft. So, that's what I did. I just finished my first live draft, and I'm pretty happy about my team - apart from not having Manning on my team for the first time in eight years.

So, without any further build-up, here is my #2 team for this fantasy football season.

QB: Rivers, Roethlisberger

RB: Peterson, Westbrook, Addai, Hightower, Maroney

WR: Wayne, Ward, Walter, Hester

TE: Tony Gonzalez, Kellen Winslow

DEF: Chicago, New England

K: Rackers

I don't have a back-up kicker, but I figure when the off week comes, I'll just pick one up off the waiver wire. In this league, I can play either 3 RB's or 3 WR's each week. With 5 RB's one of them will probably be trade-bait or end up on the waiver wire. We'll see how it shakes out.

All in all, though, I think this is a pretty strong team, but we'll see how it shakes out.

Can You Hear the Call?

No, this isn't a sermon or a devotional thoughts blog, in spite of what you may think from the title of the post. It is a post to announce the most glorious news that I have heard since I found out I was going to be a father (by the way, if you haven't heard.... I'M GOING TO BE A FATHER!!!!!).

In checking in on some of my blogs in Google Reader, one of the categories that I have set up is "Wii". I like to see what's coming up and read some of the reviews for the Wii and its games. Anyway! CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE IS COMING OUT ON THE WII!!!!!! It is scheduled to be released on November 10th in conjunction with the launch of Modern Warfare 2 for other game consoles.

After playing through Call of Duty: World at War, I bought CoD4 for our computer at a Half Price Books, but our computer doesn't have the necessary video component to play the game. I've wanted to play it, but just haven't been able to do so. With any luck, this one will also have an online format similar to CoD:WaW.

So, if you were wondering what might end up on my Christmas list.... well, there you go....

On ICEE's and Foam Cups

I got an ICEE yesterday. Okay, it wasn't really an ICEE, but it was a "frozen drink" similar to an ICEE. Some call them slushies, some call them ICEE, I say call me when you're getting them. When I lived in Noblesville, I couldn't go more than five days without this frozen, delightful treat. The best one that I have had is the Mountain Dew one found at most Speedway gas stations. Unfortunately, the one thing that I have not liked about living in Veedersburg is the lack of Mountain Dew frozen drinks. I know, I know, it's rather trivial, that's why I haven't complained to my district superintendent yet.... yet... Anyway, all of this has gotten me on an unexpected tangent. The purpose of this post is to discuss the need for a revolution in the frozen drink world.

You see, some places feel the need to have styrofoam cups for these frozen drinks. On the surface, it makes sense. After all, who wants their frozen drink to melt all over the place. The "Polar Pop" idea works great for fountain drinks, and I am a strong advocate of it because it does make your fountain drink stay colder, longer. This is advantageous because the ice in the fountain drink does not melt and thereby water down your fountain drink. But notice the key modifying word here - fountain drink, not frozen.

When you place a frozen drink in a foam cup, it also keeps it colder longer. Again, this would seem to make sense; however, there is a very important flaw in the system. What makes ICEEs, slushies, or whatever you call these heavenly drinks so good is the fact that the slush stays in a slush-like state. Once it begins to become more frozen, all of the joy of the frozen drink gets sucked up in the syrup, and all you have is a cup full of packed ice. It's very disturbing.

Drinking a frozen drink is an art form. The slush needs to stay slush-like, not hail-like, so you can't drink it too fast (not to mention the fact that drinking it too fast causes a major freeze in my apparently huge brain; it must be huge because it extends to the roof of my mouth). However, the slush also needs to not melt too quickly so you end up with some kind of cold soda that has been left on the counter overnight, so you can't drink it too slow either. But the foam cup kills any kind of drink-timing that goes along with frozen drinks in the first place. It's very disturbing, my friends... very disturbing.

So, I want everyone to come together and raise up a single voice in support of the non-foam cup slushie, or ICEE, or whatever you call it! Stand up, my friends! Stand up against the tyranny of foam cups! Stand up against the crime of packed ice frozen drinks! FREEEEDOOOOOOMMMMmmm!!!

Lead a Life Worthy of Your Call

The following was preached at Veedersburg and Hillsboro UMC on Sunday, August 2, 2009. The text for this weeks is Ephesians 4:1-16.

This is our fourth and final week in Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus. Today we move into the more practical portion of the letter. The first three chapters have been laying a foundation, and now in chapters 4-6 some of the practical instruction starts to kick in. So far, throughout the letter, it has been “because of this” and in chapter 4, it switches to “therefore, do this.” And from chapter 4 through the rest of the letter, we see more of an imperative, or instructive, tone to the letter.

Paul begins by something that was mentioned briefly last week. It is a reminder of his current circumstances. At the time of writing, Paul was in prison. Paul’s words here carry more weight because of his circumstances. Paul has taken these words that he is going to share with the Ephesians so seriously that it has led to his imprisonment. He is not just urging the reader to do X, Y and Z without understanding the potential consequences for following through on his instructions. Setting an example by your life is powerful. We may not think that others are watching, but I can guarantee you that they are.

Parents. Now, I’m not going to assume that just because I have a child on the way now that I can tell anyone how to raise his or her children. I’m sure that it’s always easier to raise someone else’s kids. However, there is one thing that I do know, and you can take this to the bank. Your children are watching you. Whether you think they are or not, and whether they will admit it to you or not; your children watch what you do, they know how you live and they will take their cues from you. Are you setting an example by how you live?

Now, some of you may be thinking, “I have set a good example for my children, but they are still just horrible, horrible people.” Okay, you may not be thinking that exactly, but the truth is that there are times when parents can set incredible examples and, as the saying goes, the apple falls very far from the tree. Yes, that absolutely happens, more often than we would like. But if you have set the example, they know when they are going the wrong way. People can look at the world’s best examples and still fall way short. However, grace has to come into play. If they see grace in the midst of their shortcomings, you’ve once again set an example for them to follow.

In the same way, for those who are not parents, or for those who think that this part of the message is only for parents, I hope you’ve been listening as well because other people are watching you. People who know that you go to church on Sunday morning, and people who know what you are like outside of church during the rest of the week. They are watching you. They are learning about your character and about who you are. And if the day comes that you start to witness to them, and your life has not matched up with your witness, then you will hold no credibility with them.

Last week I was able to watch a movie that I have been putting off for a long time. Some of you may have seen it, it came out a few years ago. It’s called The Prestige and it stars Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale as rival magicians. Early on in the movie, they are working for the same magician, who wants them to figure out a trick that an older Chinese magician has been doing for quite some time. He acts as if he does not have the strength required to complete the trick, but in reality he does. He sells the trick by how he lives out the rest of his life. People were watching him even when he wasn’t performing, and that is how his trick became so unbelievable.

Now, in this case, the Chinese man was living a lie so that he could amaze people with this magic trick. We can’t fake it. Yes, we can be on our best behavior and say all the right things from time to time, but to authentically live out your faith, that’s something that can’t be faked. Sticking with the same terminology here, you sell your faith by how you live, even when you are not on stage. Your life has to flow out of your relationship with God. It has to, because if it doesn’t, then people have no reason to believe it when you talk about the difference that Jesus has made in your life.

And here’s the other thing. Even if you are good enough to fool everyone around you, even if you say all the right things, even if your performance is flawless, there is still One who you cannot fool. There is still One who won’t be amazed by the show that you put on. There is still One who knows where your heart is. Is anyone else uncomfortable yet? You can fool everyone that you have ever known, but in the end, at the end, you cannot fool God. So, which is the better option – putting on a show for everyone else, or authentically living out your faith?

I’d say that’s a pretty easy answer. And I think that is the call that Paul is putting forth in the first few verses of this chapter. He tells his readers to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Humility, gentleness, patience, love, unity and peace – all are characteristics of one who is living a life of authenticity before the Lord.

We talked about unity a little bit a couple weeks ago. But I think it’s important, once again, to understand the importance of unity in the Christian life. Unity does not mean that every single person has to agree on every single thing. That’s not unity. Unity for the sake of everyone agreeing is not healthy, nor is it beneficial. The important thing for us to remember is exactly what Paul says here. “There is one body and one Spirit… one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all...”

Ministry is never about lifting up our own name, but about lifting up everything to the Father. I think we have a unique opportunity in our community to work together with different denominations and truly make an impact for the sake of the kingdom of God. But it’s important that our focus is in the right direction. And that has to start right here. I don’t know how to do it, but I know that if the churches in this area worked together to share the gospel, then amazing things can happen. We already do some things with other churches. Some of that foundation has already been poured. But what can we do to take it to the next step? That’s the question that we need to wrestle with. How can we join together with what God is doing? It has to start with us living out our lives in a manner worthy of our calling.

In the process of living out our faith, we become aware of the grace that God has given us. And I think it’s important to point out that the grace we receive is not necessarily revealed in the same way as the grace that others receive. Now, this doesn’t mean that the grace one person receives is better or more extensive than the grace that another person receives; it’s just different. In other places, Paul talks more specifically about gifts of the Spirit. This is a manifestation of God’s grace in our lives. Each person is gifted in a different way and all of these gifts have their purpose in the kingdom of God. There isn’t one that is better than another; they are just different, and this is where we get a better understanding of unity.

Unity is not about conformity. Everyone doesn’t need to look the same, act the same and say the same thing in order for there to be unity. Unity is about those who are gifted in different areas working for a common goal. This, I believe, is the reason why so many organizations go through a long process of developing vision statements and core values. It helps to focus all of those involved in a common direction. It helps to give very diverse people some sense of unity. I think they are important, and it is something that we, as a congregation, need to be praying about.

Remember what I said a while back – when your memories exceed your dreams, the end is near. I want to know what your dreams are. I want each and every person here to stop allowing their memories to push them forward, and start allowing their dreams to lead them forward. Is that scary? Yeah, I think so. We’re talking about uncharted territory. We’re talking about fully relying on God to guide us into an uncertain future. But God doesn’t ask us to understand everything right away. He asks us to trust in Him and be obedient to the calling that He has placed in our lives. I think one of the places that we need to start is with what Paul is talking about in the second half of this part of the letter.

Paul mentions specifically five different spiritual gifts and he discusses their purpose in the body of Christ. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers are the five that Paul mentions. There are people in this congregation who are gifted in these particular roles. Sometimes others notice them before we do, but each one is a way that God’s grace is working in our lives. These particular gifts have a purpose that is mentioned by Paul in this section.

Their purpose is to “equip the saints for the work of ministry” and “to build up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God.” The purpose of these gifts is so that people can be equipped for ministry and so that they can mature in their faith. I think one of the biggest problems that we see in today’s Church (and that’s big “C” church) is that people come to faith and go on with their lives as though nothing happened. They profess their faith and continue on with life as normal. But the problem is, that when God breaks into our lives, there is no such thing as life as normal.

When we put our faith in Christ, we are only children. We think that the public profession of faith is the end, but the truth is, it’s just the beginning. Our faith journey never ends, it continues to progress. Sometimes you hear language of coming to faith as a “new birth.” In a sense, that captures the concept that Paul is trying to get across in verses 11-16.

What happens when you are born? You enter into a new phase of life in which you grow and, hopefully, mature. You aren’t the same person that you were on your first birthday. You aren’t the same person you were on your thirteenth birthday. You get the point, don’t you? Every day you grow just a little more, and as the days turn to weeks, weeks to months, and months to years, there have been some significant changes that have occurred in your life. I can’t imagine that there is a single person that hasn’t changed in however many years you have been alive.

But is it like that in our life of faith? Do we constantly grow and change in our faith? I think there are a lot more people who are still in their infancy when it comes to their faith. Now, don’t get me wrong here, I’m not calling out anyone in particular here. I’m not thinking about some of the interactions that I’ve had with people sitting here today when I say this. I’m saying it in very general terms as a part of what I have seen and heard through the years. I’ve been going to churches since I was a little kid, and over time, you can just how spiritual immaturity has affected people.

Do you ever hear stories about how a church got into a big fight because of the color of the carpet in the sanctuary? That’s spiritual immaturity. In fact, most of the problems that face a church stem from some sort of spiritual immaturity. When we allow our own preferences and selfishness and desire for control to lead us, then we have an issue of spiritual immaturity. And don’t get me wrong here, leaders are not immune to it either. I’ve known a few pastors and a few church leaders who have let their spiritual immaturity get the best of them. And I’m sure there will be times when I do it as well. But the key is that we continue to grow; that, as Paul says, “we my no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” This comes by embracing spiritual growth as an essential part of our lives.

How do we do this? Well, by taking the time to listen to God - spending time in prayer, taking that 15 minutes a day to read your Bible, sharing your faith with others by how you live and by how you act, learning from those who are further down the road and discipling those who are further behind you. Don’t be satisfied with where you are spiritually. I read somewhere this week that when you stop growing, you start dying. Never be satisfied with your spiritual condition. Always strive to be closer to the heart of God. Live your life in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.