Volunteer, It's Good For You!

The ancient philosopher, Aristotle, once said, “What is the essence of life? To serve others and to do good.” And, the ancient prophet, Isaiah said, “Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.” (Isaiah 58:10)

That is why we volunteer, isn’t it? To do good. To push back the darkness of this world in order to make it a little better. To get out beyond the self and gain broader perspective and deeper understanding.

I want people to know that volunteering is good for you. Volunteering is an activity that someone chooses to do without being paid. It can be formal or informal. Informal volunteering includes helping friends and family with things like babysitting, home repairs or caring for someone who is recovering from illness or injury. Formal volunteering usually takes place through a charity or other not-for-profit or community organization. Volunteering makes an immeasurable difference in the lives of others. But did you know how much you help yourself by giving back? From lowering stress to boosting self-confidence, volunteering offers many health benefits. I Googled it, and I found that there are over 19 million articles on how doing good helps people lead better, healthier lives. Here are a few of the benefits enumerated in several of the articles I found:

1.     Volunteering with and for others increases social interaction and helps build a support system based on common commitment and interests—both of which have been shown to decrease depression.

2.     Volunteering gives you a sense of purpose and fulfillment, and increases your self-confidence while you’re at it!

3.     Volunteering helps you stay physically and mentally active. A study released by Johns Hopkins University in 2009 revealed that volunteers actually increased their brain functioning. Volunteer activities get you moving and thinking at the same time.

4.     Volunteering will reduce stress levels. By savoring your time spent in service to others, you’ll feel a sense of meaning and appreciation—both given and received—which can be calming.

5.     When you volunteer, you experience “The Happiness Effect.” You know that feel-good sense you get after a vigorous workout? It comes from a release of dopamine in the brain. Helping others has that exact same effect—so the more you volunteer, the happier you become!

6.     Volunteering can open up opportunities to go abroad, as many organizations and programs put on “voluntourism” trips across the globe. Traveling spurs physical activity and mental planning while providing you different perspectives—literally and figuratively—on life.

Therefore, get on the Volunteerism train. It will do you and the world around you a lot of good. Someone once said, “Volunteering is the ultimate exercise in democracy. You vote in elections once a year, but when you volunteer, you vote every day about the kind of community you want to live in.” I don’t know about y’all, but I vote for community filled with selfless servants.

The Blessing of a Fresh Coat of Paint

         

          On Friday, April 20, 2018, I went with a few of my Soldiers to volunteer with the Augusta Parks and Recreation Department at the Magnolia Cemetery. We were tasked with repainting some park benches and sign posts. As I slowly moved from sign post to sign post I began to see that there was a lessons to be learned through this experience—the blessing of a fresh coat of paint.

          The signposts I painted were in dire need of a fresh coat of paint. It was obvious that many years, decades maybe, had passed since they had been painted. They were a faded gray color mixed with rust that made them blend in with the surrounding trees so well they almost disappeared. They were ugly, and looked almost hopeless. After I cleaned one, and applied a fresh coat of glossy black paint, it looked brand new. One of the easiest, least expensive, renovations that can be done is to apply a fresh coat of paint.

          As I continued painting and reflecting, I realized that the blessing of a fresh coat of paint applies to us as well (metaphorically speaking, please don’t put actual paint on yourself). There I was on a beautiful April morning in a cemetery surrounded by grave markers, trees, and quiet except for the sounds of birds singing, and I am struck by the juxtaposition of life and death; of beauty and sorrow. As I looked at the grave markers some very elaborate, and some merely a stone with a name, date of birth, date of death, and the dash in between, and as I watched how much of difference a simple coat of glossy black paint made on those old, faded, rusty sign posts, I learned the blessing of a fresh coat of paint—what seems like a disaster may be easier to refresh and renew than we think.

We humans are great at making things more difficult than necessary, especially when it comes to the life of faith. Receiving and living the abundant life God offers in and through Jesus is not easy, but it is simple. We simply need to say yes to Jesus, and no to self. We don’t need to “get our act together,” we need Jesus. The Old Hymn by Robert Lowry asks and answers the question, “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” Eugene Peterson paraphrased 2 Corinthians 5:17 this way, “What we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons!” The blood of Jesus shed on the cross is all that is necessary for us to be made whole, and it is better than any paint job because it doesn’t just cover the past; in Christ we are made new. No matter how ugly, faded, and worn out we may feel, we can be renewed. “For in [Christ] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him” (Colossians 1:19-21. NRSV).

Speak Love

Speak Love                                              Matthew 15:10-20

Bicentennial Chapel, Ft. Gordon, GA. 20 August 2017

I am deeply troubled by the events in Charlottesville last week.  I will not wax political, but I cannot ignore what happened.  A young woman, Heather Heyer, died and several people were injured. This is a tragedy. MS Heyer was with a group protesting a group who were protesting the removal of a statue of General Robert E. Lee.  Those in the group against the removal of the statue had a permit to gather at that park for the purpose of protesting the removal of the statue.  Some in that group used the occasion instead to promote their White Supremacist agenda.  That is what the counter-protesters were protesting—the White Supremacist agenda.  Racism is a sin. White-Supremacy is evil. 

It is not illegal to have racist beliefs.  It is not illegal to speak about racist beliefs.  However, just because something is legal does not necessarily mean it is ethical, moral, or Godly.  I heard a speech given by MS Heyer’s mother the other day. She said, “I’d rather have my child, but if I have to give her up, then by golly we’re going to make it count.”  If the Church, the body of Christ, will refuse to participate in hate, and speak love instead; then we can be a part of making that dream come true. 

Racism is not a new problem, and it is not only an American problem.  Racism has been around for a long time.  The tragedy at Charlottesville is just the latest exposure of the truth—left to our own sinful selfishness we human beings tend to focus inward and seek the comfort of gathering with people very much like us without regard for those who may look, sound, think, or worship differently. We can do better. We can be better. We must speak love.

This week, I have seen this famous quote from Martin Niemöller several times:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

This is a very eloquent way of saying, if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. The problem is racism, the solution is love. 

Christians must speak love. This is the third week of our focus on love.  Chaplain Hudgins talked about loving one another, CH Sprecher talked about loving our enemies, and today I say “Speak Love.”

Have you heard the old axiom, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me?”  Well, that is a lie.  A well-intentioned lie to help people get past the hurtful things others say, but a lie nonetheless.  Words do hurt. They can do lasting damage.  Jesus’ brother James said it best in his letter, “no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so.”[1] In our reading from Matthew 15 this morning Jesus teaches how important it is to be mindful of what we say.

In verses 1-9 of Mtt 15, Jesus is in Gennesaret, and encounters some Pharisees and Scribes from Jerusalem—some fired up religious leaders from the center of the Jewish Universe. These folks are experts in the laws and traditions of Judaism, and it has come to their attention that Jesus’ Disciples have not been paying attention to detail when it comes to the traditional ways of ensuring one is ritually clean before eating. Jesus responds by pointing out their inconsistencies and condemns them by quoting the prophet Isaiah: “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’”[2]

Jesus is not advocating for eating with dirty hands, that is gross! Jesus takes this as an opportunity to teach a deep truth that they had missed. Somehow, sometime way back, God’s chosen people got off track a little and now instead of following God, they were wrapped around the axel about following rules. Jesus turns the confrontation with the Pharisees into a teaching opportunity for His disciples. He emphasizes the priority of the heart over external matters, such as handwashing and ritual purity. Jesus' parable raises questions about the understanding of where the boundaries of God's mercies are to be located. Traditional ways of locating what is unclean or outside are called into question as Jesus calls for a new understanding and a new heart as the origin and center of God's ways among us. Yesterday’s lunch is gone forever. Jesus asks, “Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?”[3] It is a crude image. The sewer has carried away any mistakes we may have made by putting into our body things that the dietary laws call unclean. However, the careless words, the evil, the lies, and the fornication continue to be harmful. Our words and actions have the power to defile and hurt, and the pain of those choices is not washed down the sewer like yesterday’s lunch.[4] For Jesus, harmful actions toward others express one’s character and are defiling.

 Matthew is continuing the theme laid out in “The Sermon on the Mount,” where Jesus began his powerful challenge of tradition. Jesus points out that outward tradition and ritual are empty without an inward transformation.  Jesus is asking “do you want to know what is truly motivating someone?”, “pay attention to the message they are proclaiming through their words, actions, and inaction.” I see a call to introspection here. What conclusions can be drawn from my words, actions, and inaction in the face of the evil, injustice, hurt, and loss of this world? And a call to action: Speak love.

What is the greatest commandment? (Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength…and love your neighbor as yourself[5]). We need to be oriented toward God. If the Bible has a Big Dipper, this is it: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but has eternal life." But there's more to the Christian life than just believing. Just as the Big Dipper points us to true north, John 3:16 points us to the much less commonly recited 1 John 3:16: "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.” The journey of awakening is the Spirit empowered, hard fought movement of John 3:16 to 1 John 3:16.[6]

God is love. Therefore, we are called, we are commissioned, we are commanded to reflect God’s nature back to God, and out into the world around us. Church, we must speak love.  Not hate. Not evil intentions. Not murder. Not adultery. Not fornication. Not theft. Not false witness. Not slander. Have you watched the news and been on social media in the last week?  Think through the things Jesus listed, have we not heard or seen most of those things. People I love and respect have added to the hate recently. As a society, we have frayed nerves. We need healing, and we, Church, are called to be instruments of that healing.  We are called to speak love.

If racists wish to spew their own brand of degrading nonsense, that is a price we pay for life in a relatively free society. Christians, however, should speak up in opposition when they encounter ideas inconsistent with the value that God has assigned to human beings–all human beings. We must speak love. We must challenge these ideas. We must drag them into the court of public opinion and make our best case that there is a more excellent way. We must find our voices, unashamed of the truth of the Gospel. And we must do so with dignity, integrity, and intellectual rigor.

Society is very caught up in tribal language—in labeling people. Republican, Democrat, Conservative, Evangelical, Liberal, Traditional, Progressive…, but to be honest, those designations are not very important to me. I don’t care about being conservative, evangelical, Republican, or anything else like that. My identity is in Christ. I want to follow Jesus, and I want to have the courage to go wherever that takes me.

In light of all the divisiveness of late, James 4:17 “Anyone who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it commits sin” is weighing on me. We must speak love. It is important that people speak up to articulate clearly that the views of racist groups do not reflect our values as Americans nor as Christians. Our nation's founding documents note that “all [people] are created equal,” and the Bible is clear that all humanity are children of God, and, as we learned as children, “red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight.” It is particularly important to those who are in the majority population – to those who are Anglo – that we speak up when someone in a minority population is being harassed or threatened, whether by torches and marches, or inappropriate jokes or other comments. Scripture calls us to “speak up for those who cannot speak up for themselves.” That includes those in minority populations when faced with bigotry or activities meant to instill fear.

We need to speak love with our words and actions. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. articulated six principles of non-violence that were pivotal in bringing about change in our country. Here they are as found in the article on non-violence in the King Encyclopedia hosted by Stanford University:

•                First, one can resist evil without resorting to violence.

•                Second, nonviolence seeks to win the ‘‘friendship and understanding’’ of the opponent, not to humiliate him (King, Stride, 84).

•                Third, evil itself, not the people committing evil acts, should be opposed.

•                Fourth, those committed to nonviolence must be willing to suffer without retaliation as suffering itself can be redemptive.

•                Fifth, nonviolent resistance avoids ‘‘external physical violence’’ and ‘‘internal violence of spirit’’ as well: ‘‘The nonviolent resister not only refuses to shoot his opponent but he also refuses to hate him’’ (King, Stride, 85). The resister should be motivated by love in the sense of the Greek word agape, which means ‘‘understanding,’’ or ‘‘redeeming good will for all men’’ (King, Stride, 86).

•                The sixth principle is that the nonviolent resister must have a ‘‘deep faith in the future,’’ stemming from the conviction that ‘‘the universe is on the side of justice’’ (King, Stride, 88)

The problem is sin, the solution is love.  Racism is sin. Purity and faithfulness are shown ultimately by how we, the Church—the Body of Christ, speak and live out the radical hospitality and love of Christ[7] in order to stand against the evil of our sin-sick world. God is love. Therefore, we are called, we are commissioned, we are commanded to reflect God’s nature back to God, and out into the world around us. Church, we must speak love.  Not hate. Not evil intentions. Not murder. Not adultery. Not fornication. Not theft. Not false witness. Not slander.

Our world is sick with sin like racism, but..

There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole,
there is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul.
2 If you can't preach like Peter, if you can't pray like Paul,
just tell the love of Jesus, and say He died for all. [Refrain]

We must speak love in word and deed.

Christians   Must   Speak   Love. Amen.

---

[1] James 3:9-10. NRSV

[2] Isaiah 29:13

[3] Matthew 15:17 NRSV

[4] Bartlett, David L.; Taylor, Barbara Brown. Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 3: Pentecost and Season after Pentecost 1 (Propers 3-16) (Feasting on the Word: Year A volume) (Kindle Locations 12086-12090). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.

[5] Matthew 22:36-40

[6] JD Walt www.seedbed.org

[7] Bartlett, David L.; Taylor, Barbara Brown. Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 3: Pentecost and Season after Pentecost 1 (Propers 3-16) (Feasting on the Word: Year A volume) (Kindle Locations 12016-12017). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.

Thorns, Stakes and Roadside Bombs

2 Corinthians 12:1-10   It is necessary to brag, not that it does any good. I’ll move on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who was caught up into the third heaven fourteen years ago. I don’t know whether it was in the body or out of the body. God knows. I know that this man was caught up into paradise and that he heard unspeakable words that were things no one is allowed to repeat. I don’t know whether it was in the body or apart from the body. God knows. I’ll brag about this man, but I won’t brag about myself, except to brag about my weaknesses.

  If I did want to brag, I wouldn’t make a fool of myself because I’d tell the truth. I’m holding back from bragging so that no one will give me any more credit than what anyone sees or hears about me. I was given a thorn in my body because of the outstanding revelations I’ve received so that I wouldn’t be conceited. It’s a messenger from Satan sent to torment me so that I wouldn’t be conceited.

  I pleaded with the Lord three times for it to leave me alone.  He said to me, “My grace is enough for you, because power is made perfect in weakness.” So I’ll gladly spend my time bragging about my weaknesses so that Christ’s power can rest on me. Therefore, I’m all right with weaknesses, insults, disasters, harassments, and stressful situations for the sake of Christ, because when I’m weak, then I’m strong.

Good morning!  It is my great honor and privilege to be bringing the Word and celebrating our great God in worship with y’all this morning.  Friday was Veterans’ Day.  It was an emotional day for me.  I have always been patriotic, but since I just returned from Iraq, Veteran’s Day took on added significance this year.  

Veterans’ Day began as “Armistice Day.”  World War I ended on November 11, 1918, with the signing of the Armistice by the Allies and Germany. In the first Armistice Day proclamation in 1919, President Woodrow Wilson called for the nation to remember those who had died in their country’s service and to make the day an opportunity for America to "show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nation."

Armistice Day became Veterans' Day by an act of Congress in 1954, changing its purpose and scope. President Eisenhower called on the nation to remember the sacrifices of those who fought in all our nation's wars, to celebrate the contributions of all veterans of military service, and to rededicate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace. It is Eisenhower's call that remains the three-fold purpose of Veterans' Day: remembering those who fought and died, celebrating all veterans, and promoting an enduring peace.  I like that, don’t y’all.

Especially that last part--promoting an enduring peace.  As Christians, as disciples, as apprentices of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace it is important for us to promote peace.  I believe it was Jesus who said something like “Blessed are the peacemakers...”  On this Veterans’ Day weekend I am also reminded of what Jesus said in John 15:12-13 “This is my commandment: love each other just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than to give up one’s life for one’s friends.”  Shortly after Jesus said that, He proved it by going through the shame, humiliation and pain of the cross for all who call on His Holy Name.  What a friend we have in Jesus! Amen!  But that’s not all! On the 3rd day, Jesus rose in victory over sin and death and spent 40 days with His friends.  He was in a new, resurrected body, but he still bore the scars of the battle.  

In our text from 2 Corinthians 12 this morning the Apostle Paul speaks of his on-going problem.  His “thorn in the flesh.”  The battle between the Kingdom of God and Satan’s defeated kingdom of this world and the flesh left Paul scarred.  Throughout human history warfare has left its mark on service members and their families.  As the cliche says, “All gave some.  Some gave all.”  I do not bear any visible scars from my experience in Iraq, but I assure you being in a combat zone, even in the relative safety of our Forward Operating Bases & never going “outside the wire,” makes a profound impact.  I am still discovering the depth of the scars from my time Iraq.

One person who bears visible scars from war is J.R. Martinez.  J.R. is an Iraq war veteran, motivational speaker, an actor on ABC's All My Children, and a contestant on Dancing with the Stars.  In April 2003, at 19 years old, he was serving as a Humvee driver for the U.S. Army in Iraq when his left front tire hit a land-mine. He suffered smoke inhalation and severe burns to more than 40 percent of his body. 

J.R. was immediately evacuated and sent to Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) in San Antonio where he spent 34 months in recovery. Since his injury, he has undergone 33 different surgeries, including skin grafts and cosmetic surgery. During his recovery time, J.R. found a new purpose in life.   He has traveled the country since 2004, spreading his message of resilience and optimism. Today he is a sought-after motivational speaker and has shared the stage with many notable individuals. His scars are still visible.  His pain is real, but God redeemed the situation.  God’s grace is more powerful than land-mines!

The Washington Post (November 26, 2005) ran a story of another Iraq War hero, Army staff sergeant Hilbert Caesar.  He was in charge of a long-range 155mm howitzer — a self-propelled gun that resembles a tank. He was out on patrol in Iraq when a roadside bomb exploded. When the smoke cleared, Caesar looked down and saw that his right leg was severed in three places, flipped backward, just dangling by the skin. He tried to give his machine gun to a fellow soldier, but discovered it was bent. Then he yelled for the howitzer hatches to be closed, and thought to himself, “Oh man. This is it. My life is over.”

But he didn’t die. The insurgents responsible for the attack disappeared, and Caesar was transported to safety. At Walter Reed Hospital, his missing limb was replaced with an artificial leg of plastic and steel. 

Still, he felt despair about his future. He was in pain, and was worried that he’d never be able to run again, or be attractive to women. He received word that eight men from his platoon had been killed by a car bomb in Baghdad, including one of his role models. The news was devastating.

But little by little he began to shift focus. Caesar met other injured soldiers and heard them talk about their recoveries. He began to look for the best, and realized that he was fortunate to make it back from battle with just one missing limb. “I’m grateful for that,” he told The Washington Post. “I’m thankful for just being here.”

Caesar now completes marathons in racing wheelchairs, and has found a job with the V.A. He sees the loss of his leg as a minor setback, and believes that he has come out of the war with more wisdom, compassion and appreciation for life.  --Hilbert Caesar has experienced “post-traumatic growth.”  God’s grace is more powerful than roadside bombs.

A number of psychiatrists and psychologists are beginning to see that not all soldiers return from war with shattered spirits. A number are emerging from the experience feeling enhanced. Now this is not to say that war is heaven — rather than that other place. It’s not desirable or healthy or good. But it can lead to personal growth.

The same thing happened to the apostle Paul after he was stabbed with a “thorn” in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7). We don’t know exactly what this thorn was, although biblical scholars have suggested that it could have been anything from epilepsy to stuttering, depression to eye problems. What’s important is that Paul considered this affliction to be a painful trap or torture designed to take him out of the spiritual battle plan. 

Back in the first century, sharpened wooden stakes were often placed in pits, with the hope that enemy soldiers would fall on them and be impaled. These stakes were also used as a method of torture. Sharpened stakes were the roadside bombs of the ancient world, and they were described in Greek by the word skolops — the exact same word that Paul uses for his thorn in the flesh.

So Paul was stabbed — by a messenger of Satan, he says — “to torment me, to keep me from being too conceited” (v. 7). He could have given up, assuming that his life as an apostle was over. But instead, he discovered that it was just beginning.

Three times he pleaded with the Lord to remove the skolops, but God said to him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness” (v. 9).  God’s grace is more powerful than a thorn in the flesh.

Power is made perfect in weakness. As amputee Hilbert Caesar says, “It makes me appreciate life a whole lot more.”

Power is made perfect in weakness. As Adam Replogle, a tank gunner who lost his left hand in Iraq, says, “Sometimes it takes people a lifetime to realize what [life is] all about … you go through something like this and it grows you up a little bit.”

Power is made perfect in weakness. As Tom McNish, a former Air Force pilot who was a prisoner in North Vietnam, reflects: “There is no question in my mind that the experience I had in Vietnam has had an overall very positive effect on my life.”  Not that McNish recommends it for anyone else. Or that he would want to do it again. It was truly a time of suffering, after all. But you can’t have post-traumatic growth without trauma.

Think of a time when you have experienced spiritual growth. A shift in priorities. An increase in personal strength. A renewed appreciation for life. A deepening of personal relationships. Have these improvements been the result of smooth sailing and easy living?

Hardly. These kinds of growth come from stress, struggle and suffering.  My year in Iraq provided me opportunity to suffer a little and to grow a lot.  Despite the training we received before arriving in Iraq, I still wasn’t sure exactly what to expect, and that was stressful.  Even though I never went outside of a military base in Iraq, I did travel to bases all over the country visiting my soldiers--that was a little scary at times.  Throughout the time there, rocket and mortar attacks were very common.  Usually, casualties from these attacks did not happen or were minimal, but not every time.  One time when a rocket attack was lethal, I  volunteered to go to the base where the attack happened just hours after we lost 5 heroes and dozens were injured severely.  I experienced the presence of God working through me to provide comfort and hope to many of the soldiers who lived through that horrific morning.  It was very demanding physically, emotionally & spiritually, but God’s grace was more than sufficient for me that week.  Living through that confirmed God’s calling on and presence in my life.  My faith is still growing as a result.  God’s grace is more powerful than grief and fear.

The longer we live, the more stories we have to tell.  The proof of God’s activity in my life, in Paul’s life, and in the lives of the Corinthian and all Christians, is ultimately not magnificent spiritual visions or miraculous physical healings. The proof of God’s activity is the grace that sustains us even in our weakness, for it is in those moments that we recognize the power is not our own but must come from God. Boasting in our own power is foolishness and accomplishes nothing; boasting in our weakness may just remind us that “the power of Christ” also resides within us. The thorns, stakes and roadside bombs of life are unfortunate, but if we let Him, God can redeem those situations and we learn some powerful life lessons... First, trauma moves us from isolation to community, second, trauma shifts us from self-reliance to God-reliance and third, often God will give us deliverance and victory in the midst of the pain!

Through trauma we often move from isolation to community. Looking back on his experience in battle, Hilbert Caesar says, “The guys I served with were awesome guys.” Shared suffering creates a bond that sometimes is even stronger than our biological family.  Times of pain and suffering can force us to turn to each other, rely on each other, and serve each other — sometimes in sacrificial ways. SSG Caesar insists, “I would go through it again — for the guys I served with. Yes. Absolutely. I wouldn’t change it for the world.”  

We are created in the image of God.  Our God is relational--One God in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Therefore, to truly live into the divine image in which we were created, we need to be in healthy relationships.  Trauma can be the catalyst that moves us from isolation to community.

That reminds me of a story...A fellow slid his truck off a road and ended up in a ditch. A farmhouse was nearby so the motorist asked the owner if he had a tractor he could borrow to get his truck back on the road.

“Nope, but I got my mule, Blue,” said the farmer.

“I doubt a mule is strong enough to pull my truck out.”

“You don’t know Blue,” said the mule’s proud owner.

So Blue was hitched to the truck. “Pull, Blue!” 

The truck didn’t move. And the farmer then called out, “Pull, Elmer!” 

The truck moved a little. Then the farmer yelled, “Pull, Biscuit,” and the truck was free.

“Thank you so much,” said the truck owner. “But I have a question. You called your mule by three different names. How is that?”

“Simple,” said the farmer. “Blue is blind. And if he thought he was the only one pulling, your truck would still be in the ditch!”  As long as Blue didn’t think he was doing it all himself, he was able to do the job!

We are not alone.  Jesus promised to be with us always. The greatest way through which we experience the presence of our Risen Lord is in the gathered body of believers, the ecclesia, the Church.  In the life of the church, it is typically trauma that moves us from isolation to community. Sure, festivities can be fun, but their effect is usually superficial. What binds us together as members of the Body of Christ are illness, grief, struggle, adversity, confusion and crisis.  

Share a meal with a neighbor at a potluck, and you’ve got contact. Carry a meal to a neighbor after a death in the family, and you’ve got community.

Soldiers find that they gain strength and inspiration from each other as they talk about their injuries and their recoveries. They become more resilient as they offer encouragement and support. Helping others in shared suffering is the greatest path to recovery.  The same is true as we gather in the church to talk honestly about our struggles, and to share insights we’ve gained from our successes and failures. Whether the challenge is raising teenagers, overcoming addictions, managing money, or adjusting to the loss of a loved one, there is a tremendous benefit in moving from isolation to community. When we gather together, we discover that power truly is made perfect in weakness.  God’s grace is more powerful than thorns, stakes, roadside bombs or anything else life throws at us.

The second benefit of trauma is that it shifts us from self-reliance to God-reliance. It’s clear from Scripture that this was a major move for the apostle Paul, a superstar of the early church who described his qualifications by saying, “If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews … as to righteousness under the law, blameless” (Philippians 3:4-6).  Today, Paul might say: Yale University, Rhodes Scholar, Harvard Law, Wall Street, the White House. But Paul tosses all these credentials away, pitches them into the garbage, because he has discovered the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord. For Paul, a connection to Christ is what saves him from sin and makes him right with God, and he values this relationship above all else. 

Because of Jesus, Paul moves from self-reliance to God-reliance.

But this is not the end of his story. Paul encounters suffering. A roadside mine is triggered, a bomb explodes. This skolops, this sharpened stake, this roadside bomb, this personal trauma, has the effect of mediating God’s grace to him. Paul knows that even good revelations can shift his focus away from God and toward himself, and so the thorn comes.  Satan tries to discourage Paul, but instead the effect is to keep him connected to Christ.

“Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me,” admits Paul, “but [God] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness’” (vv. 8-9). Paul begs that the thorn will be removed, just as veterans of war plead that their pain will end, and their bodies will be restored. But the message Paul gets is that God’s grace is sufficient, in any trauma, in any time, in any situation.  God’s grace is more powerful than thorns, stakes and roadside bombs.

Here’s the deal: Sometimes deliverance and victory come by removal of the source of pain. That’s not how it worked in Paul’s case. The lesson he learned is that often God will give us deliverance and victory in the midst of the pain!

This is what the men cited above came to learn — even if they might not express it that way. God’s grace is sufficient. God’s gift of himself, his gift of Jesus, is enough — enough to overcome any obstacle.  God’s grace is more powerful than thorns, stakes and roadside bombs.

This is what Paul learns in his time of post-traumatic growth: God’s grace is sufficient. God’s grace is powerful.  This is a lesson that we can learn as well, as we discover the power of God’s grace in our communities of faith, and in our increasing reliance on the Lord. In fact, we may even follow Paul in actually boasting of our weaknesses, because when we do this the power of Christ will dwell in us. “I’m all right with weaknesses, insults, disasters, harassments, and stressful situations for the sake of Christ,” says Paul to the Corinthians; “because when I’m weak, then I’m strong.” (v. 10).

Reliance on God moves us from weakness to strength, from agony to ecstasy, from cross to resurrection.  It’s a perfect power. On the other side of pain.  Our God is an awesome God and His grace is the most powerful thing in the universe!  Amen.

Blessed Bivouac

I preached this sermon on 16 October 2011 at Bethel UMC in Weatherford, TX...

EXODUS 33:12-23

 Moses said to the LORD, “Look, you’ve been telling me, ‘Lead these people forward.’ But you haven’t told me whom you will send with me. Yet you’ve assured me, ‘I know you by name and think highly of you.’ Now if you do think highly of me, show me your ways so that I may know you and so that you may really approve of me. Remember too that this nation is your people.”

 The LORD replied, “I’ll go myself, and I’ll help you.” Moses replied, “If you won’t go yourself, don’t make us leave here. Because how will anyone know that we have your special approval, both I and your people, unless you go with us? Only that distinguishes us, me and your people, from every other people on the earth.”   The LORD said to Moses, “I’ll do exactly what you’ve asked because you have my special approval, and I know you by name.” Moses said, “Please show me your glorious presence.”  The LORD said, “I’ll make all my goodness pass in front of you, and I’ll proclaim before you the name, ‘The LORD.’ I will be kind to whomever I wish to be kind, and I will have compassion to whomever I wish to be compassionate.  But,” the LORD said, “you can’t see my face because no one can see me and live.” The LORD said, “Here is a place near me where you will stand beside the rock. As my glorious presence passes by, I’ll set you in a gap in the rock, and I’ll cover you with my hand until I’ve passed by. Then I’ll take away my hand, and you will see my back, but my face won’t be visible.”

Anybody here this morning like to go camping (or are all the campers gone this weekend because of the great weather we’re having)?  What kind of “campers” are y’all?  I have learned that there are different degrees of ‘roughing it” from the hardcore survivalist who only takes a light pack with the bare necessities to those fancy camper people who basically drive or tow an RV that is really just a luxury apartment on wheels and everything in between.  The goal in camping is to commune with nature and each other in ways we cannot at home.  The Israelites in our text this morning were not on a weekend camping trip, they were traveling through the wilderness for 40 years on their way to the Promised Land.  They traveled from one campsite to the next as God lead them.  I don’t know about y’all, but I don’t want to spend 40 years “camping,” even if I had a top of the line RV!

My sermon this morning is titled “Blessed Bivouac.”  A bivouac is a temporary encampment.  As a verb it means to set up and use a temporary encampment.  As a soldier, I have spent a little time in a bivouac, but never more than a couple weeks.  During the past year of deployment in Iraq we had more permanent living arrangements called CHUs--containerized housing units.  At the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, however, our service members did bivouac until more permanent housing was made available.

In Exodus, the Israelites are bivouacking across the wilderness because of their lack of faith and discipline.  God through Moses delivered them from slavery in Egypt with many miraculous signs including the parting of the Red Sea.  God’s glorious presence, the shekinah, is with them as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.  They are provided with food on a daily basis: manna (God’s MRE) and quail.  God provided water from rock.  God is with them & yet they grumble, they complain, they don’t trust, they disobey and they disrespect.  Just prior to the event we read about a moment ago is the story of theGolden Calf.  While Moses is up on the mountain with God receiving instruction, the Israelites get impatient and convince Moses’ brother, Aaron, to make a “god” for them to worship.  So Aaron collects some gold jewelry from everyone and fashions it into a golden calf.  Total disregard and disrespect for the One true God is the setup for the episode in Exodus 33.  

God is upset, and rightfully so, one of God’s top 10 rules is “no idols!”  However, God is also merciful and completely faithful.  Centuries prior to this event God promised Abraham and his descendants he would make them a great nation and give them a land of abundance--the “Promised Land” that flows with milk and honey.  Therefore, in 33:1 “The Lord said to Moses, “Go up from here, you and the people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land I promised...”  God promises to send an angel ahead of them to drive out the pagan inhabitants, “But I will not go up among you, for you are a stiff-necked people, and I might destroy you on the way.  When the people heard this troubling word  they mourned.”  Moses sought assurance from God that God would support the people of Israel in spite of their sins of idolatry when they had worshiped the golden calf. God told Moses to tell the people to continue their journey toward the land that had been promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God promised that an angel would go with them and that obstacles would be removed from their path. However, God said to Moses: "I will not go among you because I might destroy  you on the way, for you are a rebellious people." God tells the people He can’t go because if He did His presence would be too much for them--they would be destroyed.  God is holy and sin cannot exist in the presence, in the shekinah glory, of God.  

I like Moses because he had the habit of speaking very frankly with God. He didn't worry about being charged with insubordination or about suffering retaliation from God. Furthermore, he had some questions he wanted God to answer.

Moses indicated to God that he understood God's instructions. Moses knew that he was to lead the people to the Promised Land. He wanted to know whom God would send if God did not plan to accompany him. God assured Moses that God’s presence, the shekinah glory, would definitely be with him. Moses did not hear God clearly, so he questioned God again: "If you don’t go with us, we aren’t movin’!" Moses was having difficulty understanding God's purpose. He was wondering whether God was planning to forsake the people of Israel.

Moses insisted that he needed assurances of God's intent. He wanted God's presence, God's protection, and God's continued leadership of the people of Israel. God responded to Moses' concern very favorably, saying: "The very thing that I have spoken to you I will do; do not worry. You and the people of Israel have again found favor with me."

Moses was delighted with God's reassurance. Then Moses said that he wanted to see the character of God revealed in its fullness. Moses wanted full disclosure from God. God was very patient with Moses and granted his request. God decided to let Moses see God's goodness as an additional way of reassuring him. God had forgiven Israel because of Moses' intercession, and God decided to affirm this through self-revelation. This self-revelation was given as a sign of God's grace and mercy. God wanted to confirm to Moses and the people of Israel that God was merciful as well as righteous.

However, God warned Moses, "My presence is too much for you to see. No one can see God's face and live." 

Does anyone remember the movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark?”  The archeologist/adventurer, Indiana Jones, goes on an expedition to find the Ark of the Covenant first described in Exodus.  He is in a race with Nazis who believe that this ancient artifact will give them ultimate power.  At the end of the movie, the Nazi’s have taken the Ark from Indie and one of them opens it.  Of course Hollywood took a lot of liberties with the Truth, but that scene helps illustrate what God is talking about in Exodus 33.  When the Ark is opened there is a glorious presence released.  Unfortunately for the Nazis this presence destroys evil.  As the presence sweeps through the valley all the bad guys are reduced to dust.  Without the loving grace of God, this is what can happen to sinful people who find themselves in God’s glorious presence.  God is awesome.  Encountering God’s manifest presence, God’s shekinah glory, is overwhelming.  

This is what Moses asks to experience when he says, “Show me your glory.”  God’s reply is loving and merciful.  God agrees to give Moses a peek, but only after the glory has passed by.  Moses knew that despite the danger, in God’s presence is the place to be.  Yes God is Holy and awesome, but God is also loving and merciful.  Moses knew that entering into the presence of God properly brings transformation, not destruction.  Entering into the shekinah of God rightly brings healing, wholeness, peace and joy.  

In our text this morning God has assured Moses that He knows him by name, which means God knows Moses on a deep, personal level.  The people have listened to the reproach for their idolatry and have repented.  They even took off the rest of their jewelry.  Moses intercedes on their behalf and pleads with God to stay with them as they continue their journey.  Moses argues that it is God’s choosing to encamp with them wherever they go that makes them distinctive among the nations.  God’s blessed bivouac is what gives them the confidence to continue. Moses says, “If you won’t go yourself, don’t make us leave here. Because how will anyone know that we have your special approval, both I and your people, unless you go with us? Only that distinguishes us, me and your people, from every other people on the earth” (Exodus 33:16).  As you read on you will discover that God does indeed go on with his people.  As a matter of fact, the point of God’s story is that God desires to commune with His people always.

Not only does God bivouac with them, God gave Moses the design for a blessed bivouac called the Tabernacle, and God gifted people with the skills and with the Holy Spirit’s inspiration in order to make the design a reality.  The Tabernacle is a huge and elaborate blessed bivouac that God’s chosen people took with them and in which God’s shekinah glory was revealed for a very long time.  

This mobile worship center, this blessed bivouac, was a precursor to what God really desires.  Take a look at the Gospel of John chapter 1.    In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God...The Word became flesh and made his home among us.
We have seen his glory, glory like that of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth” (vss.1 & 14).  There it is in verse 14, the Word became flesh and made his home among us...the literal translation of the Greek word translated as “made his home among us” is tabernacled!”  Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Word of God made flesh is a continuation of God’s mission to be with us in blessed bivouac until we can be with God in eternity.  “Christ has appeared as the high priest of the good things that have happened. He passed through the greater and more perfect meeting tent, which isn’t made by human hands (that is, it’s not a part of this world). He entered the holy of holies once for all by his own blood, not by the blood of goats or calves, securing our deliverance for all time” (Hebrews 9:12).  Jesus marked the end of the season when God’s shekinah glory manifested in a building; first in the blessed bivouac known as the Tabernacle and then the more permanent Temple which was designed like the Tabernacle.  Now God is tabernacling with humanity in the person of Jesus.  No longer is there a huge structure, whether the tent or the Temple where God’s shekinah only manifested once in a great while.  For the 30+ years of Jesus’ earthly life the glory and presence of God was available 24/7/365 wherever Jesus chose to be.

And God doesn’t stop there!  As Jesus was preparing to end His ministry on earth, in John chapters 14-16 Jesus tells the disciples about the Cross, the Resurrection and Ascension and the promise of the indwelling Holy Spirit!  God in Christ in you, the Hope of Glory! (Colossians 1:27).  When we are baptized, immediately following the imposition of the the water, the pastor places her or his hands on the person’s head and says something like “The Holy Spirit work within you, that being born through water and the Spirit, you may be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ” signifying the giving of the Holy Spirit (United Methodist Hymnal. 37.).  God, in Jesus showed us how to be blessed bivouacs and then sent His Spirit to make it happen.  In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Paul is calling on Christians to live holy and righteous lives when he says, “Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you? Don’t you know that you have the Holy Spirit from God, and you don’t belong to yourselves? You have been bought and paid for, so honor God with your body.”   Individually and corporately our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.  Now the shekinah glory, the full presence of God that used to manifest in the holy of holies in the Tabernacle and Temple and then in the person of Jesus the Christ is in each and every follower of Jesus 24/7/365 wherever we are and there are over a billion of us alive today!

The Devil thought he won on that Friday over 2000 years ago, but he was so wrong!  Jesus’ death on the cross paid the penalty for sin once and for all!  The sin that made it impossible for people to safely enter into the fullness of God’s presence, the sin that separated us from God, the sin that broke the Holy and intimate relationship with God and each other for which we created was wiped away, cleansed by the blood lamb of God, the Lion of Judah, Jesus Christ.  Not only did Jesus pay the price for us by His death, he gave us hope in His resurrection.  All that our enemy, the devil tried to do to keep humanity from experiencing the joy, peace and power found in God’s glory was made nothing in those great 3 days,Hallelujah!  We are reconciled.  We are blessed bivouacs, and as the Body of Christ, the Church, we are the Blessed Bivouac.  We can be assured of God’s presence,  we can catch glimpses of the shekinah glory today.  We can grab our pack and go on an adventure with God.  Yes, God is everywhere, but sometimes he is more present, or a better way to think of it is that we have times where we are more aware of our omnipresent God.  

“Think about your last Bible study, youth group, worship service, or staff meeting. Did you earnestly pray for God to show up or did you just take for granted that he’d be there? (“He’s God. He’s everywhere!”) Sometimes it takes determination to move beyond the idea of the omnipresence of God so we can experience his special presence [God’s blessed bivouac]. It’s the point where we go from casually inviting God to be with us to being desperate for him to show up” (Shane Raynor. http://www.ministrymatters.com/all/blog/entry/1880/degrees-of-gods-presence ).

Every day seek God’s glorious presence.  Strive to bivouac with God.  As we do so, we prepare ourselves for an even greater awakening to God’s glorious presence when we gather together with other blessed bivouackers, which will make our gatherings attractive to the lost wanderers among us. Amen.

When God Shows Up His People Reach Up:True Christian Worship

I was gone for a week recently for a class. When I came home, I didn't even make it in the door before my kids were greeting me with hugs & kisses. Our youngest, Gabriel, is not quite 2 yet and when I opened the door he yelled, "Daddy!" as loud as he could as he ran to me with his arms reaching up for me to pick him up so he could give me a hug. That is an awesome feeling. That is the kind of response God deserves and desires. That is True Christian Worship, and Worship is what we are created to do. When God shows up His people reach up.

I am so blessed to gather with you and to have the privilege of sharing the message with you this evening. We are diving into some treacherous waters…When God Shows Up His People Reach Up. Tonight, I am teaching on True Christian Worship, and if I told you I wasn't a little nervous about broaching this topic I would be lying. So, I asked some friends, "What is True Christian Worship?" And I got a lot of safe answers, what I call "Sunday School answers." Maybe you are wondering what the big deal is, why is the chaplain so afraid of the topic of worship? Have you ever heard the term, worship wars? People leave churches over the topic, churches split over the topic. I have been told by very sincere people that if I allow drums in the sanctuary, they won't be back. I have also been told that if I require a gathering to participate in a responsive reading, or if I write out my prayers, then I am blocking the Holy Spirit. When I was in seminary we devoted a week of chapel services to the topic of traditional versus contemporary worship. This is a big deal. It should be a big deal. We are talking about rendering worship to the One, True God.

John chapter 4 records a worship debate between Jesus and a woman of questionable morals. First, the back-story; Jesus & His disciples are traveling & have turned back toward Galilee. The shortest route is through Samaria, which just happens to be full of Samaritans who are kinda like second cousins to the Jews. Jews & Samaritans don't like each other. As Jesus & the disciples are passing through a Samaritan town, the disciples go on ahead to find some food, while Jesus waits beside Jacob's Well where He has this encounter with the woman and tells her her life story. So let's pick up the story at John 4:19-26…[NEXT SLIDE] So, as you can see, debating about the details involved with True Christian Worship is not a new phenomenon. So, what is worship?

I hate to be negative, but sometimes when we try and define concepts as elusive as worship, it is helpful to start by listing some of the things it is not…

True Christian Worship is not:

• MUSIC: traditional "hymns" and/or contemporary worship songs are only 2 examples of using music. The Book of Psalms is the original praise and worship collection. What about the music of Beethoven, Mozart, Handle just to name a few? I read somewhere that all music is worship music, the problem is too much music focuses on subjects less than worthy of praise.

• STYLE: Closely related to music is the style of the worship service- the old traditional vs. contemporary debate. There are other "styles" as well—the Friends Gathering where the worshippers gather in near silence prayerfully waiting for the Holy Spirit to prompt some of them to share, an Orthodox vespers gathering on Saturday night to prayerfully prepare one's heart to celebrate the Eucharist on Sunday morning, a mega-church praise gathering with a professional band video clips theatre lighting and even fog machines, a house church gathering with one guitar to help accompany singing, a non-instrumental Church of Christ gathering, a charismatic service where many worshippers are manifesting some of the gifts of the Spirit like speaking in Tongues, Prophesy & healing. I could go on and on and on, but you get the picture. In the debate during chapel service at ATS, Dr. Demaray was chosen to speak on behalf of "traditional" worship. Long story short, he had nothing negative to say about either contemporary or traditional worship, but remarked that both words described style of worship, not worship. That both styles are merely different approaches to the same God. In response to the charge that traditional liturgy is just vain repetition; Dr. Demeray replied that if a liturgy seems dead the problem is not with the liturgy, but with the heart of the liturgist.

• A PLACE: This is what the woman at the well tried to debate with Jesus—we worship on this mountain, but you Jews worship in Jerusalem… The ancient Celts spoke about "thin places" where the boundary between the material & spiritual worlds are easier to pass through. Thousands of people go to the Holy Land each year and have profound spiritual experiences. Some places have spiritual significance for us, but we give them that significance. Remember, "the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof…" I heard UM missionary to Israel, Alex Awad (a Palestinian) speak @ TWU about the tension in Jerusalem. He said we fight over dirt, but the Kingdom of God is not made of dirt, it is built in the heart of believers.

• A PERFORMANCE FOR THE CONGREGATION: Worship is not a spectator sport. Soren Kierkegaard was a Danish theologian in the nineteenth century. He identified the problem with worship in his time and in our time as well. He indicated that in a worship service, we (humans) tend to consider that we are the audience, (2) God is the Prompter, and the worship leaders are the actors. Kierkegaard suggested that the true experience of worship is this: God is the Audience; the people in the congregation are the “actors,” who are responsible for engaging in the act of worship; and the worship leaders are the prompters.

• A SERMON: I believe that proclaiming God's Word through a sermon is very important (if I didn't, I wouldn't be in this line of work!), but a sermon is not the sum total of worship.

• RITUAL AND LITURGY: Ritual and liturgy apart from the Holy Spirit are useless at best and idolatry at worst. Like my professor said, the power of liturgy lies in the hearts of liturgists. I appreciate both liturgical & non-liturgical forms of worship. When I am leading or participating in liturgical worship, I imagine all the other worshippers around the world and throughout the history of the Church who use the same liturgy and I feel connected. Whenever we say "Jesus is Lord!" we are reciting the very first creed.

Richard Foster in his book Streams of Living Water says; "All of us are liturgical. That is to say, we all use material and human 'forms' to express our worship of God...We all have a choice of liturgy, but we do not have a choice of whether to use liturgy. As long as we are finite human beings, we must use liturgy; we must express ourselves through forms of worship. Liturgy, liturgia, simply means 'the people's work.' Our task in liturgy is to glorify God in the various aspects of our worship life. We are to let the reality of God shine through the human or physical forms. This is true whether we are singing hymns or burning candles, dancing in ecstatic praise or bowing in speechless adoration."

Regardless of our personal worship style, our goal needs to be magnifying God with all our heart.

• EMOTIONALISM: There are times when the result of true Christian worship is powerful and emotional. There are times when we come to the well of worship completely dry and God fills us to overflowing. However, whether or not you have an emotional response is not the measure of worship authenticity. God is no less active when we don't "feel" it. When we experience these times it is good to ask why. Perhaps it is a time of growth. If so, praise God that He not only trusts you to survive this "dry time," but wants to help you thrive because of it.

• RAISING YOUR HANDS: There is no one, correct posture for worship. As long as we focus on exalting God whether our hands are raised or we lie flat on the floor or anywhere in between is the correct posture if it is where the Spirit is leading you. I am guilty of feeling prompted by the Holy Spirit to lift my hands and choosing not to because I didn't want to be embarrassed. We must guard against trying to prescribe one particular posture for worship as the posture because God doesn't work that way. The posture is not what is important, it is the worship. It is the inclination of your heart reaching up to God. We must also guard against worrying what other people think, because most of the time… they aren't…

• ABOUT YOU: Everything else I just said is an attempt to make this point abundantly clear.

All of these are means to the end of True Christian Worship. True Christian worship means we ascribe ultimate value to God and behave accordingly. God, and only God, is worthy of our worship. After fasting for 40 days in the wilderness, Jesus is tempted by Satan. Jesus met each temptation with God's Holy Word. On the third & final attempt, Satan offers Jesus all the kingdoms on the earth if Jesus will only bow down & worship Satan. Jesus replies, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him'" (Matthew 4:10).

Someone once said, "Corporate worship is meaningless if not powerless unless proceeded by six days of private worship." I have to confess, I am tired of hearing how this or that worship service didn't feed somebody. I know it happens, but as I said before, if you don't get anything out of a worship service, you should ask why. I already mentioned God trusting you to grow in the midst of His perceived absence, but there are other possibilities. Using their metaphor against them I want to ask, "when was the last time you ate?" If we consistently go for six days without food and water, one meal every seventh day cannot provide all the nutrients our bodies need. The same is true for soul nourishment. Perhaps we don't feel fed because we are so spiritually mal-nourished. We need to take time daily with God, period. But we also need to gather with other Christians for complete spiritual fitness. The what's in it for me, consumerist attitude that is more concerned with what the individual gets out of a worship service is disappointing, but it is a reality. Those of us who have been at this Christian thing for a while should be prepared to worship when we gather. This is not always possible because life happens, but that is the ideal we strive for—being spiritually prepared to render authentic worship to God because worship is our lifestyle. As we become more and more successful at this. As we arrive at our gatherings full of the blessings of God instead of spiritually starved, those just outside the faith who visit our worship gatherings will have better opportunity to experience the risen Christ in and through us. Hebrews 10:19-25 describes the importance of gathering for worship; [NEXT SLIDE] Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Worship is a heart matter, which is what the praise song, "The Heart of Worship" is all about. The pastor of the church where the song writer, Matt Redmund, lead worship realized that they had become prideful about their worship music program, so he said no Matt Redmund & no praise band until we get back to the heart of worship—Jesus.

Jesus promised in Matthew 18:20—Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them. Reaching up means focusing all we have & all we are on glorifying & blessing the God who so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son…God showed up 2000 years ago in Jesus, God is present in Jesus now whenever Christians gather in His name. God is here. Reach up and bless His Holy Name. Amen.