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THREE KEY QUESTIONS FOR 2012
2ND STREET COMMUNITY CHURCH
1 JANUARY 2012
GREGG LAMM | lead pastor-teacher
Welcome to worship at 2nd Street on the first Sunday of 2012. It’s good to be here with you this morning as together we look into God’s Word – and seek out God’s heart for us as a flock whose MISSION is to BECOME MORE LIKE JESUS CHRIST AS WE LOVE GOD, LOVE PEOPLE, AND SERVE OUR WORLD.
As a pastor-teacher over the past 30 years I’ve watched people grapple with a wide variety of challenges: faith struggles, relationship issues, family problems, sexual issues, questions about career choices, and more. And through it all, while journeying with people embracing theMISSIONTO BECOME MORE LIKE JESUS CHRIST, I’ve found myself and other people consistently contending with THREE KEY QUESTIONS …
THREE KEY QUESTIONS that have been wrestled with over, and over again by men and by women … by Americans, and by folks born and raised in other places around the world, regardless of income, race or education … THREE KEY QUESTIONS that have been wrestled with over, and over again by right-brained, poets, writers, musicians and artists, and wrestled with over, and over, and over again by left-brained, hard-science engineers, and logical problem-solvers. I’ve listed theTHREE KEY QUESTIONS I’m going to share with you about this morning,on the dawn of 2012 in a ½ sheet handout in your bulletin … but for now, let’s begin with the first one.
KEY QUESTION # 1
- WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO SEEK, FIND AND FOLLOW GOD'S WILL? To seek, find, and follow God's will, YOU AND I, AS HIS FOLLOWERS, NEED TO SEEK, FIND, UNDERSTAND AND LIVE INTO GOD'S CHARACTER.
What does God look like? Not physically … but what does GOD’S CHARACTER look like? What do GOD’S ACTIONS look like? What kind of THOUGHTS DOES GOD THINK? Of course much of God and God’s ways will always remain a mystery to us, because God is immortal, divine, and infinite, and you and I are mortal, human, and finite.
ILLUSTRATION … TAPE RECORDING ASKINGPRESCHOOLERS, “WHAT DOES GOD LOOKS LIKE?”
I’m convinced that to connect with God’s will, toparticipate in God’s will, and to find our destiny in living life from the center of God’s will, you and I desperately need to knowabout, see, and experience more ofGOD’S CHARACTER.
What is God like? How do I describe God’s attributes? How do I move from the images of God I have rattling around in my head … images of God that probablybegan forming when I was a child … and how do I begin to have an understanding of God, and a faith in God that are growing and developing instead of stagnatly standing still?
As you and I seek to know God more fully, the result is that we’ll not only be able to trust God more completely, but that we’ll begin to take on God’s character more fully … becoming more like God in what we THINK, in what we SAY, in what we DO, and in how we commit to and stick with the PRIORITIESof our lives. Here are two New Testament versesthat help set the stage for answering this first KEY QUESTION…
LUKE 6:40; ROMANS 8:29(NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE)
40A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.
29For those whom God foreknew, He also predestinedto becomeconformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;
Gang, every single one of us here this morningis becoming more like SOMEONE ELSE, or more like SOMETHING ELSE… and depending on WHOMor WHATwe’re keeping our eyes on most intently, and WHOM or WHATwe’re turning to for our strength, insight, courage, and stamina, we’re either be becoming more like Jesus Christ, or less like Jesus Christ. I love the truth about this found in King David’s words in PSALM 37:4. Here are David’s words from THE AMPLIFIED BIBLEand then in a paraphrase of David’s wordsthat I wrote out many years ago…
PSALM 37:4
4Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desiresandsecret petitions of your heart.(THE AMPLIFIED BIBLE)
4 When I make seeking, finding, and following God’s character and God’s will for my life, my highest goal and aim, God will place His character and His desires into my heart, and make them mine. (PARAPHRASE)
God reveals His character to us on the pages of all sixty-six individual books that make up the Bible. And while some of God’s character traits can be difficult to understand, there are many parts of Who God is that are crystal clear. And to understand God’s will, and to live out God’s will, you and I need to let God confront us with the multi-dimensional realities of His character … and then invite God, through daily surrender, to refashion us from the inside out so that these dimensions of His character begin to become alive in us as He teaches us a whole new way to be human.
And when you and I begin to understand this, then seeking, finding, and following God’s will becomes less like a scavenger hunt, and more like a process of transformation where God’s will becomes less like something we struggle to do and stay on track with, and instead becomes A WAY OF LIFE.
For an example of what I’m talking about here, turn with me toPSALM 15where King David shows us how God lives and does relationships with us … and how He invites us to imitate Him in how we live with other people.
PSALM 15 (NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE)
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1Lord, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill?[God wants to live close to us. Somethings we do move us closer to God, and other things we do move us further away from God. Let’s live into this character trait of God.]
2He who walks with integrity and works righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart. [God treats us with righteous integrity and never lies. Let’s live into this character trait of God.]
3He does not slander with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend.[God never speaks untruthfully about anyone, and in fact, speaks well of and advocates for the people God knows and loves. Let’s live into this character trait of God.]
4In whose eyes a reprobate is despised, but who honors whose who fear the LORD; He swears to his own hurt and does not change.[God sees the difference between sin and holiness, and always chooses holiness – keeping His word, even when it hurts. Let’s live into this character trait of God.]
5He does not put out his money at interest. Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.[God gives us what we need, and doesn’t take advantage of us. Let’s live into this character trait of God.]
Gang, passages like this, describing God’s character to us, are found on nearly every page of the Bible. And this is why we need to read it, study it, meditate on it, and learn to actively live it out. God is calling you and me toCONSISTENTLY, VISIBLY, and INTENTIONALLY seek, find, take on His character because He knows that only then will we be equipped to know and live out His will. Do you see it?
BIBLIOGRAPHY …
- Knowledge Of The Holy, AW Tozer
- The Will Of God, Leslie Weatherhead
- God’s Will As A Way Of Life, Jerry Sittser
KEY QUESTION # 2
- WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO REALLY LIVE OUT MY FAITH INSTEAD OF JUST KEEPING IT INSIDE? To grow in my FAITH, I need to understand the intimaterelationship between FAITHand WORKS.
FAITHis the foundation of our relationship with God. The writer of HEBREWSsays in HEBREWS 11:1that “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” God CANSEEOURFAITH. Having FAITH proves to God that we know Him and are in relationship with Him. But the world CAN’T SEEOURFAITH. And so this is why God asks us to “live out our faith through works.”
LISTEN TO ME … Growing, on-point, missional followers of Jesus Christ don’t do “good works” to try and prove to God that they love Him, or to somehow try andearn God’s love. Again, God can see our faith and there’s no way to “earn” His love. But God calls us to do “works of faith” so that others can see who God is and what God is up to in the world, and so that people who don’t know God will be drawn towards Him through our words, our actions, and our priorities.
Singer-songwriter, Rich Mullins wrote a song years ago in which he said that “Faith without works, is like a screendoor on a submarine. One is your right hand. One is your left. It takes two strong arms to hold on tight. I think you need some works to show for your alleged faith. Well, there’s a difference you know, between having faith and playing make believe. One will make you grow. The other one just make you sleep.” I love how the Apostle James, Jesus Christ’s half-brother writes about the relationship between faith and works in The New Testament epistle that bears his name …
JAMES 2:14-16 (THE MESSAGE)
14-16Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup-where does that get you?
God can see our faith, but the world can only see our works of faith … the way we live out our faith. So let’s live it out! FAITHis the foundation, the rock … and our WORKS OF FAITHare the houses that we build on the rock. To grow in our faith you and I have got to understand the intimate relationship between FAITHand WORKS.
- If we only have FAITH, but no WORKS,we’ll DRY UP.
- If only have WORKS, but no FAITH, we’ll BLOWUP.
- But if we have both FAITHand WORKS, we’ll GROW UP.
BIBLIOGRAPHY …
For the City: Proclaiming and Living Out the Gospel by Matt Carter and Darrin Patrick
KEY QUESTION # 3
- WHAT DOES IT MEAN THAT IN MY LIFE AND IN MY FAITH, I WILL "REAP WHAT I SOW"? To become the person I want to be in the future I HAVE TO BE HONEST ABOUT THE PERSON I AM RIGHT NOW.
When a farmer scatters WHEAT SEEDinto the fields, that farmer doesn’t get a crop full of TURNIPS. WE REAP WHAT WE SOW. The fruit that grows out of the soil of our life is the mature, full-grown version of whatever is planted into our hearts, into our minds, and into our lives.
When this analogy moves out of the field and into life, WHO AND WHAT I AMBECOMING IS ROOTED AND RELATED TO THE PERSON I’M CURRENTLY SPENDING MY LIFE BEING. In other words, there’s a VERY REAL CAUSE-AND-EFFECT RELATIONSHIPbetween the kind of life I spend my time pursing and making, and the kind of life I end up living out. Jesus talked about it this way in MATTHEW 7 …
MATTHEW 7:17-18 (ENGLISH COMMON BIBLE)
17-18… every good tree produces good fruit, and every rotten tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit. And a rotten tree can’t produce good fruit.
Jesus is saying that when we look at the FRUITof our lives (OUR ACTIONS, OUR WORDS, OUR THOUGHTS … THE THINGS THAT COME OUT OF US), we can tell a lot about the ROOTS, THE SOIL, and THE FOUNDATION of our lives. When we pursue the things of God there’s a “God aroma” about us. And when we pursue the things of the world and ignore God, there’s a“aroma of death” around us … which reminds me of the the truth King Solomon writes about in PROVERBS 14:12 …
PROVERBS 14:12 (NEW CENTURY VERSION)
12Some think they’re doing right, but in the end it leads to death.
So often we live like tomorrow isn’t connected to today. So much of the time we live like we have all the time in the world to get our act together and start following Jesus. Sure, sometimes some folks know they’re dying, but much of the timepeople die all of a sudden, with no warning at all. It’s been said that we should decide what we wantpeople to say about us, about how we lived our lives, about our priorities, about the kind of person we were … we should decide what we’d want to hear people say about us at our funeral and what we’d like to have written on our tombstone once we’re six-feet-under then start working backward.
- Sow a THOUGHT… reap an ACTION
- Sow an ACTION… reap a HABIT
- Sow a HABIT… reap a CHARACTER
- Sow a CHARACTER… reap a DESTINY
I read an interview with British author J.K. Rowling a few years ago, and one of the things she said relates to this and has really stuck with me.
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." - J.K. Rowling
In The New Testament, the Apostle Paul uses a series of words to describe the CHOICESand the GROWTHGod expects us to be experiencing as His followers …
NEWBORN BABES(FIRST CORINTHIANS 3:1-3) … THESE ARETHE TODDLER YEARS OF OUR FAITH. We fall down a lot, and learning to walk and talk is more difficultthan we thought that it might be. After we’re first in a relationship with God we’re often full of enthusiasm but spiritually speaking, we can also be very weak and vulnerable.
CHILDREN(FIRST CORINTHIANS 14:20) … THESE ARETHE MIDDLE-SCHOOL YEARS OF OUR FAITH. We’repotty-trained, but still pretty messy. We’re learning many loads of new things about God, about ourselves, and about others, but we’re still often led around through life more by our emotions and our circumstances than by our faith in God.
YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN(TITUS 2:6) … THESE ARETHE 20’S OF OUR FAITH. We’re learning to own our beliefs in the midst of the real stuff of life, but we’re often more dependent on ourselves and on other people than we are on God, and we’re learning the power of surrender.
OLDER MEN AND OLDER WOMEN(FIRST CORINTHIANS 14:20; TITUS 2:2; HEBREWS 5:14) … THESE ARE THE ADULT YEARS OF OUR FAITH. We’re walking by faith and not by sight, there’s a steadiness and a stability to our trust in God and the wisdom with which we live out the truths we’ve come to know and understand. And this is where we’ll be at before we know itif we’ll consistently keep our hearts, our minds, our priorities focused on Jesus Christ.
Where do you see yourself in this continuim of spiritiual development? God wants you and me to GROW UP BEFORE WE GROW OLDbecause He knows that when we do we’ll have less regrets, less pain, and less sorrow about how our decisions of YESTERDAYand TODAYare affecting our lives TODAYand TOMORROW. In SECOND CORINTHIANS 13:5 the Apostle Paul tells followers of Jesus Christ to …
SECOND CORINTHIANS 13:5 (COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE)
5Examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Test yourselves.
When was the last time you examined yourself? Have you looked at the FRUITof your life and seen if it’s what you WANT IT TO BE, what you PLANNED FOR IT TO BE, what you PRAYED IT WOULD BE? Every single one of us will reap what we sow. In GALATIANS 6:7 the Apostle Paul puts it this way …
GALATIANS 6:7a (PARAPHRASE)
7aDon'tkid yourself or be misled … no one makes a fool of God. Whatever a person plants, a person will also, someday, harvest.
BIBLIOGRAPHY …
Sowing And Reaping by Dwight L. Moody
- Dangerous Wonder Messy Spirituality by Mike Yaconelli
- WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO SEEK, FIND AND FOLLOW GOD'S WILL? AS FOLLOWERS OF JESUS CHRIST, WE NEED TO SEEK, FIND, UNDER-STAND, AND LIVE INTO GOD'S CHARACTER IN OUR DAY-TO-DAY LIVES.
- WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO REALLY LIVE OUT MY FAITH INSTEAD OF JUST KEEPING IT INSIDE? TO GROW IN OUR FAITH,WE I NEED TO UNDER-STAND THE INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP BETWEENFAITHANDWORKS.
3.WHAT DOES IT MEAN THAT IN MY LIFE AND IN MY FAITH, I WILL “REAP WHAT I SOW”? TO BECOME THE CHRIST-FOLLOWERS WE WANT TO BECOME,WE HAVE TO BE HONEST ABOUT THE PERSON WE ARE RIGHT NOW.
NEXT SUNDAY …8 JANUARY … GREGG LAMM WILL TEACH FROM MARK 14:32-52. COME PRAYING AND EXPECTING! AND INVITE A FRIEND OR FAMILY MEMBER WHO DOESN’T ALREADY HAVE A CHURCHHOMETO JOIN YOU.
AND REMEMBER …THURSDAY MORNING FROM 6:00-7:00AT THE CHURCH OFFICE, JOIN PASTOR GREGG AND OTHERS AS WE READ, STUDY, DISCUSS, AND PRAY THROUGH GOD’S WORD FROM OUR ANNUAL BIBLE READING PLAN.