A little too close to home...

So, this past Friday we had a Lock-In for kids & teens and it was a HUGE success. We even had someone from US Cellular donate LED lightsticks, which made our band feel as if they were the real STUFF! With the combination of swirling lights, 2 strobe lights, a large light bank, a turning disco ball (lit up, of course), a fog machine, and 50+ shimmering lightsticks, we could have been in any concert venue in the world! It was cool!

After each of the four sets, I preached a chapter of the book of Jonah. I had the front of the church decorated to look sort of like where the action was taking place. The middle of the stage area was the ocean. To the right, organ side, was Tarshish, basically just wicker walls and then hills and mountains to the far right. On the left, piano side, was Ninevah, that Great City. Or, as I referred to it in our story, "that Great Party City"! As soon as I said the word 'party', they flipped on the lights for the disco ball and my Ninevites began dancing a bit.

I'm getting ahead of myself. As I preached, I used our kids & teens as my silent actors to mimic the action of the narrative. When the Bible said the sailors were scared, I would pause & give them opportunity to be scared. They were great sports (most are big hams like me). It was awesome! I've got it on VHS, I'll make you a copy, cheap. :)

Now, to the hard part of this blog. In the final chapter of Jonah, after he has finally wised up & repented from running from God, after he has gone to Ninevah & given them God's message, after THEY have repented & turned from their wicked ways and turned to God, we find Jonah sitting up on the hill. Instead of being thrilled that the entire nation has turned to God (shouldn't that be, you know, like the goal of God's people, that others come to worship our God???), well, instead of being happy that the ENTIRE nation has turned to God, Jonah is actually rather ticked off about it! The Bible says He is mad at God that He didn't destroy them before they could repent.

If God's purpose in the book of Jonah were only the people of Ninevah, I think the book would have ended after chapter 3. But God had something more in mind: He was still not finished with Jonah. Chapter 4 teaches that God brought up this plant to bring shade to Jonah's head (apparently it was scorchingly hot). Then, God brought along a worm to eat that same plant the next night. What was Jonah's reaction? He was angry that the plant was gone! Angry! Upset! Downright frustrated!

Then God drew in His net around Jonah. God asked him, "is it right for you to have pity on a plant for which you did not labor?" And then He said, "And should I not pity Ninevah, that great city, in which are more than 120,000 persons who cannot discern between their right hand & their left?" I think God was referring to there being more than 120,000 children. If there are that many children, just think how many people there must be!

God was telling Jonah, your priorities are messed up! Jonah cared more about his own comfort than the souls of people. He cared more about his immediate surroundings than the eternity of all those people.

Now, at the Lock-In I stressed that life is not all about US! I am not the center of the universe. Life does not revolve around me. Life does does not revolve around any of those kids or teens present, even when they think it does. Life is a mission trip! Our mission is to tell others about the awesome God that we serve.

Between the wee hours of Sat. morning & the preaching hour of Sunday morning, my focus changed a bit when it came to that silly plant of Jonah's. You see, I began to wonder if we as a church haven't become more focused on our plants of comfort & ease than we are on the goal of lostness & mission? We love our church: As long as no one messes with our style of music, as long as we have our padded pews, as long as the heating & a/c work, as long as the choir hits all the right notes.

We've got to be more willing to sacrifice our personal preferences & desires for the sake of reaching people for Christ. Paul said, therefore I've become all things to all men that I might by all means save some. I Cor 9:19

Don't worry about the plant!

Persecution vs. Judgment

So, I've been preaching through the book of I Peter as he writes to encourage the young church as they face persecution. I have been using a giant arrow that I made out of cardboard as my weekly illustration, that our lives are much like that arrow: we too are pointing people somewhere. We are pointing people with our time, resources, and the way we speak and spend our money somwhere. Some are pointing people to our jobs. Some to our families, to our kids or grandkids (you know who you are, the ones who have the ready-made life-size posters in your wallets prepared to withdraw them at a moment's notice). :)

Some of us point simply to ourselves. Everywhere we go, and in all that we do, our lives practically scream, "look at ME"!

So, week after week, I've used this giant arrow to focus us on the fact that Peter is saying we are to be about pointing people to Jesus in every facet of our lives. Our private, quiet, alone time is to be pointing people to Jesus. But also, our public, work, and even Wal-Mart, grocery store, soccer match, restaurant time is to be pointing people to Jesus. When all is going well, my arrow is to be pointing people to Jesus. When all is not going well, my arrow is still to be pointing people to Jesus (not to my problems).

As I've gotten deeper into I Peter and preached through his encouragement of the fledgling church in persecution, I've started having a thought, which turned into a nagging thought, which turned into a haunting thought. As we approached this week's text of I Peter 4:12-19, that thought finally came to true light, and I'll share it with you now.
The essence of the message is very simple. It is based on an either/or statement, that seems to be exceedingly clear for our country at large, and all too true for all too many individual Christians in America today. The questions are these:

Are we being persecuted by men because we are so passionately living for Jesus? (v. 12-16)
OR
Are we being judged by God because of our apathy and our lethargy in our walk with Jesus? (v. 17-19)?

Peter begins by saying that we should not think it strange when persecution comes as if some strange thing is happening to you. Paul told Timothy yea, all who live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted in II Timothy 3:12. My haunting thought was, God, why aren't Christians in America being persecuted??? Of course, I tried to comfort myself and say things like, "well, we live in the land of the free and the home of the brave." I'm grateful that God allowed me to be an American and enjoy all the freedoms I enjoy, but that answer did not satisfy my soul. It was hollow. God said through Paul, all who live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. "All" and "will" were not qualified by, except in America.

Then my next thought was something like this: after Sept. 11, I said and heard countless others say things like, "Wow. God must really be trying to get America's attention." After Hurricane Katrina, "Wow, God must really be trying to get New Orleans' and America's attention." Now, in the midst of this world economic crisis, "Wow. God must really be trying to get the world's attention."

But, look at verse 17 of I Peter 4. It says, "For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God: and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?"

If I understand that verse correctly, then my previous statements about 9/11, Katrina, and the financial woes were incorrect! God's not trying to get THEIR attention. He's trying to get OURS!!!!!!! The problem is not the world turning from God, it's that the church has settled back in it's mission and gotten lazy, lethargic, and complacent. We have fallen asleep at the wheel and God is having to wake us up before it is too late, not only for us, but for those that we are endangering! We have a mission to do and we are falling down on the job. We have become comfortable in our air-conditioned, padded pews and forgotten that our call is to BE the church outside of the four walls to reach the world with the Great Commission. We gather to worship, to be sure, but then we SCATTER and continue to worship as we live out our faith in front of a world who needs to know what that looks like! Our mission is to BE the church and to tell this world that there is a God who loved them enough that He sent His only begotten Son.

Is it possible that God has gotten so fed up with our luke-warmness that He is now bringing judgment on the world because of us in order to get our attention to remind us that time is short and that we have a job to do? I don't know that answer to that, but it certainly is within the realm of possibility. It is time for us to repent of our laziness and get off the sidelines and back to the mission.

Life is a Mission Trip!

So, I'm a husband, a dad, a pastor, and most-importantly, a Jesus-loving Christian. What does that mean? Well, most folks don't know because we rarely see people that look like those folks we read about in the New Testament. I don't think I look like them all the time either, but MAN I SURE WANT TO!

If you're hungry to see your life mirror the life of Christ and His New Testament Church, then I invite you to join me in this prayer journey. Will it be easy? No, absolutely not. Will it be worth it? Oh yeah, you bet ya!