Life in the Grove

Passion. Everyone has it. We love someone or something, we pursue a sport or hobby or person. We have a desire that feels like suffering unless we are engaged in finding joy in the object of our passion.

Consider some Scripture for a moment:

Psalm 42:1,2
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?

Psalm 63: 1-5
O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

Can you feel the passion? Can you taste the joy?

Now compare these passages:

Genesis 3:6
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

Joshua 7:20, 21
Achan replied, “It is true! I have sinned against the LORD, the God of Israel. This is what I have done: When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”

Can you see the passion? Can you taste the… disappointment, fear, shame? … no joy in sight for these passionate people.

Everyone has a passion for something. It is where we have decided joy is to be found. We will pursue something to that end. If our passion is in God, we find joy. If our passion is directed elsewhere, we miss out.

God created us to be passionate. The plan of God is that we would be passionate about knowing and loving him and then make a life style out of that love. This is where joy is to be found in God’s economy.

You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. (Psalm 16:11)

Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell. Then will I go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight.
I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God. (Psalm 43:3,4)

It seems clear that if we are going to protect our joy, we will need to protect our passions. Passions, like vectors, have magnitude and direction. As such, passions can become misdirected and weak. Passions directed toward God and lived out “full bore” result in joy unspeakable.

This Sunday morning we will be looking deeper into joy, and passion, and how to protect those valuable treasures. In fact, we will look at how to increase the magnitude and focus the direction of our passion so that all God wants us to experience can be ours.

Yes it’s Father’s day and Dads need to protect their joy.

Imagine, finding joy though loving God and others. That’s something to get passionate about.

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Mine has gone from good to middling, especially as my kids have become more active. I don’t always remember, for example, where I put my keys, my wallet, my phone, my sunglasses, or some combination of all of them. I sometimes forget whether or not I’ve paid a bill, or made a call. There’s only so much RAM available in my head, so sometimes things just leak out.

But you know what I do remember?

I remember my mentor, Jeff, a man who showed me what loving God and loving people looks like. I remember long conversations with him as he shared his wisdom and experience with me. I remember watching him deal with all kinds of ministry issues with grace and truth. I remember how he consistently served others sacrificially, and I remember how he dealt with his flaws and mistakes. His life is, in many ways, a roadmap for my own.

Why do I remember Jeff? Because he took the time to make sure that his life impacted mine. Because he gave me a vision for what life and ministry can be. Because he passed his legacy on to me.

When I mention the word legacy, many people think first about death or the reading of someone’s will. What will the inheritance be? How much money will I get? Who will get the house? Each of the definitions of the word in the dictionary have something to do with property or money that is handed down from one generation to the next.

Let me suggest, however, that our legacy actually has very little to do with stuff. Our legacy is about the kind of person we are becoming. It’s about our ability to impact the lives of people, to show others what following Jesus looks like. What is the sum total of our legacy when we subtract all of our material possessions?

The Apostle Paul was aware of his legacy. In Acts 20:17-38, right before he boarded a boat for Jerusalem where his life was going to end, he made time to stop and meet with the elders from the church he planted at Ephesus. After spending a total of three years working with these guys, he called them together to sum up his legacy. With great emotion, Paul speaks to these church leaders so that they can learn from his life and take up his legacy as they move the church forward.

This week, as we celebrate Graduation Sunday, it’s a great time to consider what kind of legacy you and I are building right now. What will we be remembered for? How are we impacting lives? What are the elements of our legacy that we should work on now? Let’s talk about these questions together on Sunday.

In addition, we will be honoring all of our graduates from all of the major milestone educational levels. It’s an especially special time for our high school seniors, who will be recognized in a special ceremony. It’s also Communion Sunday. And, to top it all off, our Summer Kick-off All-Church Picnic begins right after second service.

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One of the bedrock principles of our capitalist society in America is the idea of property. We can own things, and with that ownership comes certain rights, one of which is that no one can steal something that you own from you.

If you’ve ever been the victim of a robbery (or if you know someone who has), you know how deeply unsettling and violating it can be. No one wants to be stolen from.

Throughout history, the basic reality that people can both own property and have it stolen from them has been widely accepted. The Bible refers directly to this reality by laying out very serious consequences for a thief, including cutting off of hands, stoning, and of course, crucifixion (the thief on the cross next to Jesus). If you own property, you want it to be protected.

How seriously do we take stealing today? I mean, obviously we can look at the people who break into homes and clean them out as criminals. We can also easily identify the Bernie Madoff’s of the world as especially heinous in their ability to take money from people in cold blood. But is that all there is to it?

Consider these examples:

1. The clerk at McDonald’s gives you too much change and you don’t return it.
2. You take a pen from work and use it at home.
3. You indicate more for your charitable giving for tax purposes then what you actually contributed.
4. You have an expense account that gives you up to $25 per day for meals, you spend $3 and keep the $22.
5. You read personal emails at work and play internet games while you are on the clock.
6. You take longer than your hour lunch break for lunch.
7. Someone drops a $20 in front of you in line at the store, and you pick it up and use it to pay for your groceries.
8. You copy a CD or tape of your favorite music.
9. I order the all you can eat crab legs and you order a salad, but when my crab legs come, we share.
10. You do not give God back the first 10% of all He has given you.

How many of these examples would you say apply to that commandment which says, “You shall not steal” (Ex. 20:15)? And, more importantly, how does our response to stealing demonstrate what’s most important to us?

This Sunday, we’ll spend some time discussing these concepts. There are some significant questions about one’s relationship with God that need to enter into any discussion about property and theft, and my hope is that we can think deeply together about what our attitudes are about our stuff. If you have time, read Luke 12 before Sunday to get Jesus’ perspective on these issues, and let’s pray together that God’s Word and His Holy Spirit can transform the way we look at material things.

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Do you remember the game of Clue? Solving the mystery of murder with skill, cunning, and the logical process of elimination. “I accuse Mr. Green, in the kitchen, with the lead pipe.”

Have you participated in a murder party? Great fun can be had dressing up in costumes and then enjoying an evening of role-playing, dinner, and practicing to be the next Sherlock Holmes.

As long as murder is part of a game, we can tolerate it. But when it enters our experience, we recoil in horror at what one human being can do to another. We resent the intrusion into our consciousness of news stories involving the loss of precious life at the hands of a selfish killer.

Murder happens quickly in the development of humanity. It didn’t take long for Cain to become so angry with God and his brother that he killed Abel.

Following the flood of Genesis 6-9 God made it very clear that life was so valuable that no murder would be tolerated. In fact, if someone was guilty of murder, his life was to be taken. Reason: People are made in the image of God. Life is to be respected.

When it came time for God to lay down the law for His chosen people Israel, to equip them to be a strong and healthy society, murder made the top ten list of laws. “You shall not murder” (Ex. 20:13).

It was the 6th commandment that we will study on Sunday morning. It will be my purpose to convince us all that we need to take this commandment seriously.

“Seriously? Come on Pastor Keith, I’m not going to kill anybody,” I hear you say. “Yes, seriously,” I respond.

There are more ways to kill someone than to end their physical life. We can use our stare to carve a hole in someone’s confidence. We can assassinate someone’s character with our words. We can emotionally abandon a spouse or a friend stealing their hope and leaving them lonely and empty.

“You shall not murder.” There is much more to this command than meets the eye. Once you start down the road to understanding “murder”, you quickly realize that the seeds of sin that lead to murder are resident in us all. No I’m not worried that you will kill someone tomorrow. I am concerned that we see life from God’s perspective.

Jesus reminds us to take good care of our heart. “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander,” said Jesus (Matthew 15:19)

Jesus also compares the seriousness of murder with the sin of hatred (Matthew 5:21-24). Now that is getting a little too close for comfort. “Can we talk about something else?” No…

A little reading for this Sunday:

• Matthew 5
• Eph 4

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Mother’s Day is here! For many, this is a wonderful day. For some it is a hard day. Moms deserve to be honored on this day and every day. Thank God for your mom today. If this is your first Mother’s day without your mom, you need to know of our sympathies and prayers on your behalf. If broken relationships have placed a divide in a relationship that should be a source of joy know that we care about that too.

Our Sunday morning study entitled: Loving God and Living Well has advanced to the fifth commandment that speaks of honoring our parents. God’s command comes straight from the heart of His sovereign plan. Honor your father and mother. It is unmistakable as to intent. It is clear as to responsibility. It is silent on all the hard issues that must be faced as we try to love our mother and father in a broken and fallen world.

Ex: 20:12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

Deut 5:16 “Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

Eph. 6:1-3 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”–which is the first commandment with a promise– “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”

God’s expectation of how we relate to our parents didn’t change much from the days of Moses to the time of the Apostle Paul. We have the great privilege and, in some cases, the difficult task of honoring our parents even if our parents made choices that didn’t meet with God’s approval.

This Sunday we will look into what it means to follow the honoring parents commandment. We will discover how trusting and obeying God frees us to live well. Jesus, himself, will be our guide into fuller understanding and obedience to this calling of God.

Between now and Sunday take time to honor your Mom. Openly appreciate her. Release any bitterness that might hinder your celebration of the day. Someday, you will not be able to tell her that you love her.

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