JeffBerg.us

God is not nice

Here it is...the God is not Nice "e-perience".  Please note that once you leave this site I do not vouch for all the content on the site you will look at.

I opened by talking about the barking dog trick.  You can read about it here.

Wow does Jesus get angry once in a while.  Look at this...

It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money. Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables. Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, “Get these things out of here. Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!”  Then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: “Passion for God’s house will consume me.”  (John 2:13-17, NLT)

Yes, Jesus can get angry.  And as a matter of fact, I want to suggest he is not nice as we commonly define nice.

1.	pleasing; agreeable; delightful: a nice visit.

2.	amiably pleasant; kind: They are always nice to strangers.

3.	characterized by, showing, or requiring great accuracy, precision, skill, tact, care, or delicacy: nice workmanship; a nice shot; a nice handling of a crisis.

4.	showing or indicating very small differences; minutely accurate, as instruments: a job that requires nice measurements.

5.	minute, fine, or subtle: a nice distinction.

6.	having or showing delicate, accurate perception: a nice sense of color.

7.	refined in manners, language, etc.: Nice people wouldn't do such things.

8.	virtuous; respectable; decorous: a nice girl.

9.	suitable or proper: That was not a nice remark.

10.	carefully neat in dress, habits, etc.

11.	(esp. of food) dainty or delicate.

12.	having fastidious, finicky, or fussy tastes: They're much too nice in their dining habits to enjoy an outdoor barbecue.

13.	Obsolete. coy, shy, or reluctant.

14.	Obsolete. unimportant; trivial.

No, Jesus has an aggressive side.  Jesus fights.  What is true about fighting nature of Jesus?

1.  It is Righteous at all times.

• The funny church signs....

• The Confusing Church Signs

• The church signs that display, in my humble opinion, arrogance.

Want more?

1. Here are a few I marked at Flickr.
2. This is the source of most of these, Crummy Church Signs.
   

• This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.   Hebrews 4:15, NLT

2.  It is always for the sake of others.

• Now this is a story about getting mad when you are inconvenienced.  Check out what happended this week in the airport in Sydney....customers booed Qantas employees who jumped out from behind the counter to help an 80 year old woman who collapsed.

• Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.   (Phil 2:5-8, The Message)

3.  It seems to be directed and institutions and not at individuals.

• How would telling people to be nice to one another get a man crucified?  What government would execute Mr. Rogers or Captain Kangaroo?”  Phillip Yancey

• The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9, NIV

• Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1, NIV)

Finally, look at what C. S. Lewis said to close out The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

'Safe?' said Mr. Beaver...'Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.'"

God is good, but he is not nice.  He gets angry and picks fights.  But he does so for the sake of you and for me. 

Recommended Reading...

No More Christian Nice Guy: When Being Nice--Instead of Good--Hurts Men, Women And Children

The Jesus I Never Knew

Who Is My Enemy?

Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

(Disclaimer...I would receive a small commission if you buy a book from these links.)

Between the Trees

Between the Trees

September 2, 2007

Pastor Jeff Berg

Before I start, this is not what I mean by "between the trees"

Regarding my Stuck in the Middle Story, the Seahawks moved back to the NFC west in 2002 so I can root for them again without doing so in secret.

You and I are to live "stuck in the middle" between the bookends of Scripture.

The “bookends” of Scripture are…

• The Tree in Genesis 2

8 Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. 9 The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  (Gen 2:8-9, NLT)

....

15 The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. 16 But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”

.....

1 The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”

2 “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. 3 “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”

4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”

6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. 7 At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.  (Genesis 3, NLT)

• The Tree in Revelation 22

1 Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit,^[a] with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations.

3 No longer will there be a curse upon anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him. 4 And they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads. 5 And there will be no night there—no need for lamps or sun—for the Lord God will shine on them. And they will reign forever and ever.  (Rev 22, NLT)

....

14 Blessed are those who wash their robes. They will be permitted to enter through the gates of the city and eat the fruit from the tree of life.

To correctly understand the significance of the “bookends” we need to understand the prelude – Genesis 1.  As we do so, we will see that the Bible is not about how we can JUMP FORWARD TO THE END but rather how to live BETWEEN THE TREES.

Regarding our tendency to look for shortcuts...look at this story!

TAMPA - A 41-year-old Lady Lake man has pleaded guilty to providing steroids to his 13-year-old son to give him an advantage in in-line roller skating competitions.

James Gahan signed a plea agreement saying he provided his son, Corey, with synthetic testosterone and human growth hormone starting in 2003 when the boy was 13 and continuing at least into 2005.  (Dated 8-28-07)

Source:  http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBX4FXOV5F.html

Genesis Chapter 1:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
² Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.  (NIV)

Other Translations of Genesis 1:

• formless and void (NAS) – footnote: waste and emptiness

• ²Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness (Message)

• empty waste (Amplified Bible)

• without form and void (ESV)

• desolate (TEV)

• empty (NCV)

• formless waste (Anchor)

• tohu-wa-bohu (from the Anchor Notes)

• Other commentators would say a wasteland of chaos and nothingness

And From this state of nothingness God gets to work

• V3 and God said, let there be light
• V 6 and God said, let there be an expanse between the waters
• V9 and God said, let there be dry ground and vegetation
• V 14 and God said, let there be lights to separate the day from the night
• V 20 and God said let the water teem with living creatures
• V 24 and God said let the land produce living creatures – animals!

Notice everything is becoming more complex:

Please also note, this is poetry.  There is a rhythm, a cadence do it.

But then comes the break:

V26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, ^[1] and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

Genesis 1 informs us that we are not….

1.  ANIMALS

A few thoughts on Animals...

1. Animals Have No Sense of Spiritual Awareness

Psalm 8:

³ When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
⁴ what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?

You never hear dogs asking these kinds of questions.

1. You never hear a cat saying they are going to take a year off of college to find themselves.

2. You never hear a pig, when rolling around in the slop say, have you ever wondered what happens when you die?

3. You will never find a couple of hamster jump off of his or her spinning wheel and say, what is the point of all this?

Animals are slaves to their desires and instincts.

Genesis 1 also informs us that we are not...

ANGELS

Seeing another side of Creation, Job we learn:

Job 38

⁴ "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
⁵ Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
⁶ On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone-
⁷ while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels ^[1] shouted for joy?

The Dangers of living a life only focused on living as an animal...

3 You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols. 4 Of course, your former friends are surprised when you no longer plunge into the flood of wild and destructive things they do. So they slander you. 5 But remember that they will have to face God, who will judge everyone, both the living and the dead.  (1 Peter 4, NLT)

The Dangers of living a life denying our physical reality...

20 You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, 21 “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”? 22 Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. 23 These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.  (Col 2,NLT)

So the challenge for us is to learn how to be fully human, between the trees for if we do not, we will miss out on a few things

When we live without a proper understanding of Genesis 1 we miss out on…

1. The PERSON God wants to make us

2. The MISSION God wants to give us

3. The COMPANIONSHIP God wants to have with us

---

The Following Books were quite helpful to me in thinking about this sermon...

Exposing the Secret

On Sunday, June 3, I got to preach on "The Secret."  It was the second in our Christians and Controversy series.  Here is the MP3 for you to listen to/share with others.  Also, I have posted my outline, power point file, and quotes/Bible Verses in an "expanded pastor's page." These are ones that did not fit onto the pastor's page.

Exposing The Secret MP3: Download jeff_berg_track_4.mp3

Pastor's Page: exposing_the_secret_pastors_page.doc

Expanded Pastor's Page: Download revealing_the_secret_expanded_pastors_page.pdf

Powerpoint File:Download june_3_sermon.ppt

Other Web Notes:

From my virtual friend, NakedPastor.

For an overview of The Secret and it's popularity, click here:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2007-02-14-the-secret_x.htm

For some thoughtful non-Christian looks at the secret, check out these articles:

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/why-henry-ford-knew-more-than-the-secret.html

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2007/03/05/the_secret/ (note...this article contains some profanity.  But, if not offended, it is quite good.)

http://www.slate.com/id/2166211/pagenum/all/

http://www.slate.com/id/2165746/pagenum/all/#page_start

For some good Christian responses to The Secret, look at these:

http://planetwisdom.com/seanmcdowell/thesecretdeception.php

https://www.cometothebrook.org/articlePage.asp?iid=1736&articleid=19

http://www.somareview.com/thesecret.cfm (a little favorable towards it...but thoughtful.)

http://biblicalspirituality.org/secret.html

Anxiety Free Thoughts on Worry

A life free of obsessive daily worry will develop when we ...

1. Commit to living out the rest of the Sermon on the Mount.

When we live out the previous section and are choosing to focus on Christ, it is a natural byproduct that we will not be as worried about the day to day things of life.

… Therefore I tell you ... (Matthew 6:25a, italics added)

2. Recognize that obsessive worry is an unworthy endeavor for God’s people.

We are made for so much more then thinking about food and clothing.  We are eternal beings.  We were made for a purpose...a God-honoring purpose.  We can not focusing on those when we are worried about our clothes.

Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?  (Matthew 6:25b)

For the pagans run after all these things … (Matthew 6:32a)

3. Understand day to day anxiety as irrational.

We all know worry does not help.  We have to tell our selves over and over again that worrying is not going to help.

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?  (Matthew 6:27)

Each day has enough trouble of its own.  (Matthew 6:34b)

4. Live out this section in light of all of scripture.

We are stilled called to work and still called to help this poor.  This text, as all, must be interpreted in the context of all of scripture.

For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat."  (2 Thessalonians 3:10)

Anyone who sets himself up as "religious" by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.  (James 1:26-27, The Message)

A few more thoughts on worry

Some of these will appear in some form or another in my sermon, but here are a couple of other strategies that will help us deal with worry. 

Jesus told us that today will have enough problems on its own.  What would it mean to only focus (worry?) about today?  What things could we focus on this day to reduce worry?  Let me throw out three suggestions.

1. Focus on the GOOD of the day

Whatever is good and perfect comes to us from God above, who created all heaven's lights.  (James 1:17, NLT)

When we are thinking about the good gifts that God has given us that day, it probably becomes harder to worry about tomorrow.

2. Focus on the TASKS of the day

Work hard and cheerfully at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.   (Colossians 3:23, NLT)

You can't wring your hands and roll up your sleeves at the same time. ~Pat Schroeder

A day of worry is more exhausting than a day of work. ~John Lubbock

It seems to me that getting after whatever we can get after with respect to the things we worry about will make a difference in our worry.  We can sleep easier knowing we have done everything we can do today to solve that which worries us.

3. Focus on the CONCERNS of the day

Give us today our daily bread. (Matthew 6:11, NIV)

I've developed a new philosophy... I only dread one day at a time. ~ Charlie Brown (Charles Schulz)

Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy. ~ Leo Buscaglia

_____________________________________________________________________

Another set of thoughts.

It seems to me that when we fully live into God's agenda worry will go away.  Here are a couple of parts as I see it.

PART 1 OF THE AGENDA: A LIFE OF PRAYER

What else can we do with the worries that our beyond our control but pray?

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. - 1 Peter 5:7, NIV

"Every evening I turn my worries over to God. He's going to be up all night anyway." - Mary C. Crowley

PART 2 OF THE AGENDA: A LIFE OF MINISTRY

Something amazing happens when we serve others...our problems become much smaller.

For you have been called to live in freedom--not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love. Galatians 5:13, NLT

"Anyone who is truly religious does not develop a neurosis." Dr. A. A. Brill

PART 3 OF THE AGENDA: A LIFE IN THE KINGDOM

When we do live together we have people to share the load with.  This can make all the difference.

Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2, NIV

________________________________________________________________

Book Recommendation:

This book was helpful to thumb through thinking on this topic. 

Holy Discontent, 12-3-06

Thanks for surfing over and checking out my web notes for this talk.  Here are a couple of things you can look at and some quotes that were not able to be displayed in power point or on a pastor's page.

_______________________

As I see it, a song the perfectly embodies the discontent of a generation is U2's, "I Still, Haven't Found, What I'm Looking For.  To learn more about it you can visit here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Still_Haven't_Found_What_I'm_Looking_For

for the lyrics, click here:

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/u/u2/i+still+havent+found+what+im+looking+for_20141420.html

The 3 main outlets for our longing are:

1.  Relationships - (Our drive to be accepted by people when we know people are harsh)

"Even though consumers like to touch products while shopping," Morales says, "they don't want to buy things other shoppers have come in contact with." Recently, she and two colleagues--Jennifer Argo of the University of Alberta and Darren Dahl of the University of British Columbia--asked unwitting shoppers at a University of Alberta campus bookstore to try on a specific T-shirt. When participants asked a sales associate about the shirt, though, they were told only one remained in stock.

That's where the disgust factor came in. While some shoppers were told they could find the shirt on a regular rack, others were directed to the return rack--a sure sign the clothing had been contaminated--or worse, told that the shirt was being tried on, at that moment, by another customer. Eeeww.

It didn't seem to matter that a shirt was clean, without blemish, and, in fact, brand new. If shoppers believed it had been touched, they were less likely to pay full price. Participants were willing to pay $20 for a shirt from a regular sales rack--but just $16.18 when they thought it had been touched by someone else, and $11.72 for one supposedly touched by several others.

Source:  http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/108/next-research.html

2.  Money - I got the data on the rich being no happier than the middle class from the book, Stumbling on Happiness.  (I have not finished it yet but am finding what I am reading to be very thought provoking.)

3.  Comfort -

Suppose your great-great grandparents, who lived four generations ago, materialized in the United States of the present day.Surely they would first be struck by the scale and clamour of present-day life, and might not like these things; neither do we, necessarily….

Yet as your [they] learned more of contemporary life, they would be dazzled. Unlimited food at affordable prices, never the slightest worry about shortages, unlimited variety – strawberries in March! – so much to eat that in the Western nations, overindulgence now plagues not just the well-off but the poor, the poor being more prone to obesity than the population as a whole. …

Many other aspect of contemporary life, taken for granted by those who live it, would dazzle our recent ancestors. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the average American lifespan was forty-one years; now it is seventy-seven years, equating to almost twice as much time on Earth for the typical person. History’s plagues – polio, smallpox, measles, rickets – have been defeated, along with a stunning reduction of the infectious diseases that for pre-antibiotics generations instilled terror. …

................

Today we live a long time, in fairly comfortable circumstances; enjoy goods and services in almost unlimited supply; travel where we wish quickly and relatively cheaply; talk to anyone in the world; know everything there is to know; think and say what we please; marry for love, and have sex with whom ever will agree; and wail in sorrow when anyone dies young, for this once-routine event has become a wrenching rarity. All told, except for the clamor and speed of society, and for the trends in popular music, your great-great-grandparents might say the contemporary United States is the realization of Utopia.

............

Yet how many of us feel positive about our moment, or even believe that life is getting better? Today Americans tell pollsters that the country is going downhill; that their parents had it better; that they feel unbearably stressed out; that their children face a declining future. …The percentage of Americans who describe themselves as “happy” has not budged since the 1950s, though the typical persons real income has more than doubled through that period. Happiness has not increased in Japan or Western Europe in the past half-century, either, though daily life in both those places has grown fantastically better, incorporating all the advances noted above plus the end of dictatorships and recovery from war…[Even in a era of abundance and social progress] the citizens of the United States and the European Union, almost all of whom live better than almost all of the men and women in history, entertain considerable discontent.

(From The Progress Paradox, as copied from: http://www.runawayplanet.com/dons_blog/humanitys_spiritual_quest/index.html)

Where we end up is in the state of discontent, and I call it Holy Discontent because it can cause us to realize that there is something more to life.

"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."  C. S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity.

And at Christmas, that other world is made available to us!

14The Word became flesh and blood,
      and moved into the neighborhood.
   We saw the glory with our own eyes,
      the one-of-a-kind glory,
      like Father, like Son,
   Generous inside and out,
      true from start to finish.  (John 1:14, The Message)

At Christmas, our Holy Discontent is met by Jesus

3.  Comfort - Rather than comfort he gives us a mission.

2.  Money - We are challenged to store up treasures in the kingdom

1.  Relationships - We are given a savior who is with us...regardless of who "us" is and what kind of messes we find ourselves in.

Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people —even eating with them!  (Luke 15:1-2, NLT)

or,

By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, "He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends." (Luke 15:1-2, The Message)

Recommended Book: Rumors of Another World (Another fine book by Phillip Yancey that talks a great deal about the discontent folks feel and how it ought to point us to Christ)

Our Mission to Children - Web Notes

Our Mission to Children

Setpember 17, 2006

Pastor Jeff Berg

When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Mark 10:14, NIV

_______________________________________________________________________________

I opened with a story on Dwight Moody. 

To learn more about his life and ministry you can visit here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_L._Moody

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Diagram of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
5. Actualization
4. Status (esteem)
3. Love/belonging
2. Safety
1. Physiological (biological needs)

See more about Maslow and is theories here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs

THE SIX RUNGS OF POVERTY (from Wess Stafford and Compassion International)

1. Economics
2. Health
3. Education
4. Environment
5. Political
6. Spiritual

The Six Rungs of Poverty comes from Wess Stafford and Compassion International.  To learn more about the ministry of Compassion International, visit here: http://www.compassion.com/default.htm  To learn even more about poverty and how the church can address the issue I recommend the book, To Small To Ignore.  You can find a link to buy it at Amazon at the bottom of this post.

Another great ministry that addresses poverty is Habitat for Humanity.  You can visit them online at  http://www.habitat.org/

Here are a couple of good online articles about the church and poverty:

http://www.purposedriven.com/en-US/HIVAIDSCommunity/StartingAMinistry/HIVAIDS_wont_be_stopped_without_churches.htm

http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/poverty.html

To learn more about the Children's Foundation and Casa Hogar you can visit here: http://www.childrensfoundationinc.com/home.htm

RECOMMENDED BOOK: (Full Disclosure...if you use this link to buy the book I get a small commission.)

Grace is Unpredictable - June 19, 2006

Flip: When the Gospel Turns your World Upside Down

Sermon #3: Grace is Unpredictable

June 19, 2006 – Pastor Jeff Berg

Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by keeping the law? Of course not, for the Holy Spirit came upon you only after you believed the message you heard about Christ. Have you lost your senses? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? - Galations 3:2-3, NLT

For more than you may ever want to know about the law of cause and effect, follow this link.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causality

Most Christians have a correct understanding that when it comes to our salvation - the law of cause and effect is no longer applicable. In other words, there is not some act I can do (a cause) that will make God love and accept me (effect). Yet in spite of our understanding that God’s favor is not earned through our causes when it come to our salvation, we often think that we can apply the law of cause and effect to other areas of our life of faith. However, when we fully comprehend the Gospel our understanding is flipped and we discover that grace is unpredictable…all the time.

1"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. 2He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. 3"About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' 5So they went. He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. 6About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?' 7" 'Because no one has hired us,' they answered. "He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.' 8"When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.' 9"The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. 10So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.' 13"But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? 14Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?'  - Matthew 20, NLT

Entering into this fullness is not something you figure out or achieve. It's not a matter of being circumcised or keeping a long list of laws. No, you're already in—insiders—not through some secretive initiation rite but rather through what Christ has already gone through for you, destroying the power of sin…When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive—right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ's cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets. Colossians 2:11-15, The Message

For a great study on the Old vs. the New Covenant go to www.biblegateway.com and look up Deut. 29 and Hebrews 7

Regarding my story about being told my prayer would not be answered becaused I did not answer my prayer, "In Jesus name."  Here are a couple of good web pages.

http://www.gotquestions.org/pray-Jesus-name.html

http://markdaniels.blogspot.com/2006/02/what-does-it-mean-to-pray-in-jesus.html

A Key Question for God’s People - Is the Bible a TREASURE MAP or a COMPASS?

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12, NIV

The "Bad" News - WE CAN NOT CONTROL GOD

The Good News:

1. THE PRESSURE’S OFF

And now that you have found God (or should I say, now that God has found you), why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual powers of this world? Galations 4:9, NLT

"The God of the Jews and Christians is unlike any other god. Dispute with Jupiter and you’ll have one of those yellow lightening bolts shoved down your throat. Talking back to Allah is likely to get you into even more trouble than talking back to my sixth grade teacher, Mr. Davidovitch. Try arguing with Buddha and he’ll laugh at you derisively for treating any conversation as if it referred to something real. But when you start arguing with Yahweh, he smiles, rolls up is anthropomorphic sleeves, and starts to look interested." Conrad Gemph, Jesus Asked, pp 87

2. CONDEMNATION IS WORTHLESS

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1, NLT

10Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
   "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God,
      and the authority of his Christ.
   For the accuser of our brothers,
      who accuses them before our God day and night,
      has been hurled down.  Rev 12:10, NIV

1As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"  3"Neither this man nor his parents sinned,"... John 9:1-3a, NIV

The story I ended my sermon with is from the book, What's so Amazing About Grace.  There is link to it at the bottom of this post.  To learn more about John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace, use this link.  http://www.anointedlinks.com/amazing_grace.html

RECOMMENDED BOOKS: (Just a reminder to my web notes readers, if you buy these books via the links provided I receive a commission.  These links are for your convenience.  There are other great places to buy them.)

If it is true that we can not program God, then the pressure is off.

The Pressure's Off: There's a New Way to Live

This is, in my opinion, the best contemporary book on grace.

What's so Amazing about Grace?

This book is where I got the phrase, "Grace is Unpredictable."  I really like this author and this book.

If Grace Is so Amazing, why Don't We like It?

Spirituality is Earthly - June 11, 2006

Flip: When the Gospel Turns your World Upside Down

Week # 2 – Spirituality is Earthly

June 11, 2006 – Pastor Jeff Berg

Do you still think it's enough just to believe that there is one God? Well, even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror! James 2:19, NLT

Somewhere along the way many Christians in North America have adopted idea that becoming a Christian is about coming to an understanding and agreement with a set of facts about Jesus. However, when we truly understand the intent of Jesus for our lives we find our understanding flipped and that the spirituality we were designed to live out is greater than an intellectual assent. The spirituality Jesus desires for us is earthly…it changes how we live.Faith is…

…more of a STARTING POINT than a FINISHING LINE

…more of a RIVER TO ENTER than a BRIDGE TO CROSS

…more of an ESSAY TEST than a TRUE/FALSE QUIZ (Special Web Only Bonus – Boy aren’t you glad you surfed on over? This metaphor was not in the sermon.)

"God did not seek to put a new suit on the man but a new man in the suit." E. V. Hill

"The desire of Jesus is not merely to get us to heaven when we die but for us to bring heaven to earth." Brian McLaren What are the consequences?

We move from ARROGANCE to AWE

You ask, `Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?' It is I. And I was talking about things I did not understand, things far too wonderful for me. Job 42:3, NLT

Christianity got over the difficulty of furious opposites by keeping them both and keeping them furious. - G.K. Chesterton

We move from DIVISION to UNITY

My prayer for all of them is that they will be one, just as you and I are one, Father--that just as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us, and the world will believe you sent me. John 17:21, NLT

This joke has been all over. I don’t know the original source but for this sermon I copied it from http://commonsaints.blogspot.com/2006/05/cant-we-all-just-get-along.html

We move from CONVENIENCE to COMMITMENT

I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection! But I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be. No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven.

Philippians 3:12-14, NLT

Thanks to http://www.javacasa.com/humor/church.htm for the joke about the man who left his church in spite of living alone.

We move from DEBATE to SERVICE

For you have been called to live in freedom--not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love. Galatians 5:13, NLT

The Duct Tape Idea came from a sermon I heard Rob Bell preach on a different subject.  I liked the idea so much I borrowed it for this sermon.

RECOMMENDED BOOKS:  (Just a reminder, if you were to use these links to buy these books I would recieve a small commission.  I only share that in the intrest of full disclosure.)

This is the book I mentioned in the beginning of the sermon with the jam being loved after the sample, but never purchased because there was "information overload." 

Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking

I first was confronted by my lack of ability to argue people into the Kingdom by this book ten years ago.  It has greatly effected how I think about ministry.

Conspiracy of Kindness: A Refreshing New Approach to Sharing the Love of Jesus

Rob Bell uses some helpful imagery in this book when he talks about our approach to sharing our faith.  He uses a Trampoline vs. a Tower as metaphors to think about.  He asks, "Are we inviting people to jump with us or do they have to construct a tower brick by brick before being a person of faith?"  Rob is one of the great, young thinkers in the faith.

Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith

This book does a great job in forcing us to think about what Jesus was really calling people to.  McLaren is, for good reason, a controversial author but this book is solid and educational.

The Secret Message of Jesus: Uncovering the Truth that Could Change Everything

Failure is Beautiful

Here are the special "web notes" for my sermon.  Here you will find quotes and textual references that did not fit on the pastor's page (And perhaps a few that did not come out of my mouth).  At the end I will also include some recommended reading and books that influenced my thinking on this sermon.  Please let me know if these were helpful to you.  It takes some extra time and I am happy to do it if you benefit from it, but won't bother if they are of no use.  Thanks and God Bless.

_________________________________________

"If we truly knew the value of suffering, we would ask the good God for it.” - Brother Andre

A widely held understanding of failure, suffering, and hardships is that these things are either not from God or a punishment for some kind of wrongdoing. Either way they are to be avoided at all costs and viewed as detrimental to our well being. However, when we get a greater understanding of the Gospel our view of it flips and we see that it can be, while still unpleasant, beautiful.

Here is a link of the Oprah or Osteen quiz.

Failure is to be EXPECTED

Dear friends, don't be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad--because these trials will make you partners with Christ in his suffering, and afterward you will have the wonderful joy of sharing his glory when it is displayed to all the world. (1 Peter 4:12-13, NLT)

"I have never thought that a Christian would be free of suffering. For out Lord suffered. And I have come to believe that He suffered, not to save us from suffering, but to teach us how to bear suffering. For He knew that there is no life without suffering."  Alan Paton, in the novel, Cry The Beloved Country,

I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world." (John 16:33, NLT)

Failure is beautiful when…

…it SHAPES OUR CHARACTER

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us--they help us learn to endure. And endurance develops strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation of salvation. (Romans 5:3-4, NLT)

23They say they serve Christ? I know I sound like a madman, but I have served him far more! I have worked harder, been put in jail more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again. 24Five different times the Jews gave me thirty-nine lashes. 25Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. 26I have traveled many weary miles. I have faced danger from flooded rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the stormy seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be Christians but are not. 27I have lived with weariness and pain and sleepless nights. Often I have been hungry and thirsty and have gone without food. Often I have shivered with cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm. 2 Cor 11, NLT

2Consider it horrible pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. James 1:2-3, NIV, strikethrough added

"The truth is that if you asked me to choose between winning the Tour de France and cancer, I would choose cancer. Odd as it sounds, I would rather have the title of cancer survivor than winner of the tour, because of what it has done for me as a human being, a man, a husband, a son, and a father……We have unrealized capacities that sometimes only emerge in crisis. So if there is a purpose to the suffering that is cancer, I think it must be this: it’s meant to improve us." Lance Armstrong

"What doesn’t destroy me makes me stronger." John Perkins

"Character can not be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved." Helen Keller

… OUR NEED DRAWS US TO JESUS

When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, "My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live." (Mark 5:21-23, NIV)

"The Christian has a great advantage over other men, not by being less fallen than they, nor less doomed to live in a fallen world, but by knowing that he is a fallen man in a fallen world." C. S. Lewis

"The Bible was written in tears and to tears it yields its best treasures."   A. W. Tozer

"…good was not merely a tool to be used, but a relic to be guarded, like the good from Crusoe’s ship – even that had been the wild whisper of something originally wise, for, according to Christianity, we were indeed the survivors of a wreck, the crew of a golden ship that had gone down before the beginning of the world....But the important matter was this, that it entirely reversed the reason for optimism. And the instant the reversal was made if felt like the abrupt ease when a bone is put back into the socket. I had often called myself an optimist, to avoid the too evident blasphemy of pessimism. But all the optimism of the age had been false and disheartening for this reason, that it had always been trying to prove that we fit in to the world. The Christian optimism is based on the fact that we do not fit in to the world."  G. K. Chesterson

"You people in the sunshine may believe in faith, but we in the shadow MUST believe it. We have nothing else." An unnamed Scottish preacher as quoted in Reaching for the Invisible God, pp 61  (If you are not familiar with Phillip Yancey you can follow this link to his column archive in Christianity Today.  He is one of my favorite writers.)

…it UNITES US WITH CHRIST

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death… (Philippians 3:10, NIV)

"If Lewis had lived the cloistered existence of a bachelor don, his writing would have suffered from a loss of warmth, humanity, and the understanding of pain and suffering." Sawyer goes on to argue that the brilliance of the Narnia series was not in spite of the suffering he was surrounded by but because of it."  George Saywer on C. S. Lewis and his life during the time frame he wrote the Narnia series

"We are not here to prove God answers prayers; we are here to be living monuments of God’s grace."  Oswald Chambers

"Not all wounds are healed but all wounds can be healing."  (This is my paraphrase of a statment made by Mark Buchanan in the book listed below.)

CLOSE

You know for yourselves that we're not much to look at. We've been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we're not demoralized; we're not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we've been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn't left our side; we've been thrown down, but we haven't broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus' sake, which makes Jesus' life all the more evident in us. While we're going through the worst, you're getting in on the best! … So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There's far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever. - 2 Corinthians 4:8-10, 16-18, The Message

A CREED FOR THOSE WHO HAVE SUFFERED:

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve.
I was made weak, that I might learn to humbly obey...
I asked for health, that I might do greater things.
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things...
I asked for riches, that I might be happy.
I was given poverty, that I might be wise...
I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men.
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God...
I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life.
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things...
I got nothing I asked for - but everything I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am, among men, most richly blessed!

by Roy Campanella

RECOMMENDED BOOKS
(Full disclosure - if you purchase these books via the links provided I would receive a small commission.  If you buy them through Amazon, Christianbooks.com, or a traditional bookstore and are blessed that is great as I see it.

Your God is Too Safe

Authentic Faith: The Power of a Fire-Tested Life

Reaching for the Invisible God