It’s great to see everybody here on the this, the FIRST Sunday of a new calendar year.
2019!
How many of you are excited about 2019? You know the reason I’m most excited about 2019? ... 2018.
And it wasn’t that 2018 was bad. There were lots of good things that happened in that year. In fact, Nicholas Kristoff wrote an op-ed appearing in yesterday’s New York Times claiming that 2018 was the BEST year in human history! He cited increased numbers of people living above the poverty line and overall better access to health care as evidence for that bold claim!
But as good as 2018 might have been, I also know that God always has something better.
Better isn’t always easy. Sometimes better is a little scary. Better is a little scary because sometimes we’re creatures of comfort. It may not be very good, but it’s what I got. And I’ve learned to make do right now with what I got so telling me that there’s something else that’s better might mean doing something other than what I’ve been doing to get something other than what I’ve got.
Do you follow me?
Or put a biblical way… “
"I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12-14)
But what I do know is that no matter WHAT 2019 holds for me, my family and our church, that Jesus will be present to us the whole journey through.
In fact, if I were to lift up the single most important thing I need to grasp as I enter a new year it’s this - that Jesus is already here with me and he’s in charge. The fact that Jesus is in charge could be good news or bad news for someone this morning. Good news because Jesus always invites us into deeper, more purposeful reality with him. Bad news because I’m not always ready to lay down and leave behind the reality I’ve grown to know.
What I’ve grown to know is the IDEA that’s in my head of how I think my life should be. But when we meet Jesus, we’re not meeting an IDEA about Jesus. We’re meeting a person. We’re meeting Jesus.
The problem is that we’re used to thinking of Jesus in terms of an idea we have about Jesus. Jesus healed the sick. Jesus died on a cross. Jesus saved the world from its sin. And those things are all true. But still those are facts about Jesus - when we’re directed NOT just by things we KNOW about Jesus but by the spirit of Jesus himself.
Paul points this out in 1 Corinthians. He was a persuarsive and wise preacher. A wonderful speaker. An amazing rhetorician. You know all those letters you read in the New Testament from Paul? They’re sermons Paul is preaching to the Galatians, Corinthians, and Romans. He is literally speaking to a someone who is copying down his words and then someone reads that message aloud to the the church.
But when he writes to Corinth, he asks them to remember what it was like being together in person - because it isn’t with wise and persuasive words that he with with them, but as he says - with a DEMONSTRATION of the SPIRIT’S POWER.
"When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstrationof the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.” (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)
We don’t know precisely what that means but after reading all of 1 Corinthians, we might get a picture. The Corinthians were used to hearing great speakers. It was part of their culture in a way that’s not like ours. That was what they did for entertainment. Paul was a great speaker - a master craftsmen with words - and so it would have been easy to go away from Paul entertained by how he delivered his message.
But that would have been missing what Paul was actually bringing. He didn’t come with a PROPOSITION, he came with a PERSON. And the person of Jesus was a person they would encounter in POWER - through the Holy Spirit. Things change in the presence of Jesus. And they change in ways we can’t foresee or control or manipulate. Because, it’s Jesus - and not us - who is DIRECTING the change.
And in twenty-six years of ministry, I’ve got to say this is the single most difficult message for a room full of highly intelligent, educated, incredibly capable, super-successful, and exceptionally good-looking people to hear - BECAUSE… we are all in charge of our lives! Until… we’re not.
Last week, my mom and dad and I went to the doctor to see what could be done about my dad’s “memory issues.” And even that phrase, “memory issues,” is a quaint way I’ve tried to have control over what’s going on with my dad. “Memory ISSUES.” Sometimes dad is able to get the words out he wants to say. Sometimes he struggles for minutes.
What I found out was that he got very sick back in July - and my mom and dad who can’t bear the thought of being a burden to their children - didn’t tell their sons. So when I went back home in August and noticed a sharp decline in my dad’s ability to gather his thoughts and form his words, I started coming up with my own diagnoses - which were off because I didn’t have all the facts.
I don’t want to bore you with all the details of that visit. But as I sat and took notes while Dad’s doctor went through a list of possible causes and then tried to narrow them down, it occurred to me that I’m not driving this bus.
And all of my instincts to do what some of you know very well - to jump in and fix it - to gather all the relevant data, to start bringing organization to the chaos, to get a vision and make a plan, and then in a Marine Corp-like fashion, work my plan. That thing that I do very well, wasn’t going to help me here. It wasn’t going to change my dad’s “memory issues.”
I woke up New Year’s Day in New Orleans at the home where I grew up still with no plan. I got my workout clothes on, put on a sweatshirt, and stepped out into the front yard to go running. It was drizzling outside. It had been drizzling all week. It had been drizzling rain just about every moment we’d been in New Orleans from the moment we arrived. Light annoying drizzle. Non-stop.
I pulled my hoodie over my head and just started walking toward the Levee and the bike path that runs along Lake Pontchartain. Normally, I would take my phone and head-phones, but I left those back at the house so I wouldn’t be listening to the wonderfully inspiring messages of Steven Furtik (sorry Chrissy!) or Chris Hodges (sorry Bro and Carol!) - I just wanted to hear some wisdom - any wisdom - from God.
Something happens when you lay down the constant noise and chatter we put in our ears or in front of our eyes. When you lay down the social media. When you set aside the distraction and when you pay attention to just what’s simply in front of you. In fact, I think it isn’t too far fetched to suggest that in our day and age - we won’t hear a clear word from God - until we unplug from the noise.
I got back from my walk - soaking wet. Tired. But here’s what I heard or saw or encountered while I prayed and listened and took in the silence of that bike path along Lake Pontrchartain. And it wasn’t an idea about Jesus. I believe it was Jesus. The risen Christ doing what the risen Christ does through His Holy Spirit. Speaking peace and life.
And for someone who likes being in charge of things and in control of his life this is some good news from God. That while I can’t control many or most of life’s outcomes, I can be purposeful about what I cultivate and what I offer.
And here’s something that I’m almost hesitant to share. I’m not really sure I should. I don’t want to feed the beast of our control instincts any more than they’re already fed. But here goes… When we determine to move and speak and live and love out of a place of God’s peace… THINGS around us begin to shift and change. People change. Healing happens. Hope is opened up. And we become Christ’s instruments of grace and healing to the broken places around us.
And out of GOD’S PEACE FOR US … we offer PEACE to OTHERS. And that’s when the JESUS and his KINGDOM come in POWER.
(Preached 1/6/19 @ AFCC)
(Preached 1/6/19 @ AFCC)
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