Sunday, January 13, 2008
Matthew 3:13-17
Senior Pastor
A boy from Sudan, who
is a Christian, has his knees and feet nailed to a board and he is left to die.
When rescued he says he forgives the man who did this because Jesus was also
nailed and forgave.
A Vietnamese Christian pastor is sentenced to two years in prison. When he is
offered an early release, he declines stating that he has a group of new
believers in the prison he has to disciple.
A Colombian missionary is kidnapped and told she only has two hours to live.
She tells her captors that if she only has two hours to live, she wants to
spend it telling them about Jesus.
Now those kind of
testimonies get my attention. They
impress with me with their deep devotion to Christ and their clear
commitment to live or die for Christ.
I think each of them is “all in.”
Last week I started
this sermon series I am calling “I’m All In!” using the image of a poker player
who risks everything by betting all of his or her chips on one hand of
cards. Last week I asked all of us here
to consider a couple of questions: Is
there anything on which you would bet everything? And secondly, Is your faith in Christ even that sure?
But most of us will never face a test of faith like those first vignettes. Let me tell you another story that illustrates being “all in” in a very different way.
There once was a woman
who woke up one morning, looked in the mirror, and noticed she had only
three hairs on her head. She said to herself, “I think I will braid
my hair today!” So she did and she had a wonderful day.
The next day she woke up,
looked in the mirror and saw that she had only two hairs on her head. “H-M-M,” she said, “I think I’ll part my
hair down the middle today!” So she did and she had a grand day.
The next day she woke up,
looked in the mirror and noticed that she had only one hair left on her
head. “Well,” she said, “today I’m
going to wear my hair in a pony tail.” So she did and she had a fine day.
The next day she woke up,
looked in the mirror and noticed that there was not a single hair on her head.
She exclaimed, “YEA!!! I don’t have to fix my hair today!”
I think she is a
marvelous example of being “all in.” I
think the ability to face all of life’s circumstances, even those unpleasant, frustrating and often debilitating
circumstances, comes from people who have a faith in something bigger than themselves.
Of course, for us as Christians, that is faith in Jesus Christ. As Paul says in Philippians, I can do all
things through Christ who strengthens me and further he says I have learned to
be content in all circumstances because I am a Christ follower. (Philippians 4)
That is a faith that is
completely committed.
Not too long ago I was in
a training focused on healthy churches.
At one point the presenter talked about Paul’s faith and how he believed
we could see how Paul matured by looking at his self-descriptions in his
letters.
He pointed out that in one of his first letters, Galatians, he begins
with “Paul an apostle!” Then in a later
letter he moves to Paul, “least of the apostles” (1 Corinthians 15:9); in
another letter, even later, he says “I have become a servant… least of all the
saints” (Ephesians 3:8). Then, in what
we believe to be a letter written toward the end of his life, he identifies
himself one who is chief among sinners (1st Timothy 1:15).
Being “all in” doesn’t
mean that we have arrived or that we are not still growing into all God wants
us to be. But to be “all in” we
do need to be sure to take the first step, which is to commit. There is an
internal and an external piece of that.
Matthew describes the external or the visible commitment step as he
tells us the Good News about Jesus. He
says that Jesus came down to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. He tells us that John protested, but Jesus
countered with the notion that this needs to happen to fulfill all
righteousness. (v. 15)
Righteousness means right standing, so Jesus is saying I need to do this
to be in right standing with God and to fulfill God’s will.
It is a very early sign that Jesus is yielding his will to
God’s will.
He seems to be saying no matter what you or I might do John, this is
God’s will and so we need to do this.
So John baptizes Jesus in the Jordan River. Then as Jesus comes up out of the water the Spirit of God comes
down, Matthew writes, and says: This
is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased. (v. 17)
I am suggesting to you
today that God wants this for Jesus and God wants this for you and me. God wants to bless us and live in us and guide us and speak to us; that
happens best when we yield our lives to God’s will. The Good News is that when we turn our lives toward God and
commit to follow Christ not only is God pleased, but we are in for life eternal
and life abundant.
Lori
Markes, our Director of Children’s Education recently did a project with our
elementary age kids in which they made prayer books to send to our troops
overseas. We have received several
letters back from those who received the prayer books. I want to read just one to you:
“I wanted to take a few minutes to send my thanks to
the Kids of the First United Methodist Church for your wonderful Prayer Books
that you sent to Freedom Chapel at Kirkuk Regional Air Base, Iraq! What a wonderful gift to those of us
deployed and in the middle of this war against terror. Faith is one of the most
important aspects of our lives here as we deal with many things, good and bad
in this war. Your prayers are a great
comfort to me each day as I read one every morning as I begin my day here. In a couple of weeks my tour of duty here
will end and I will return to my home base and my family and friends. Thank-you for taking the time to give us a special gift that will live on in
many of our hearts for many years. I will take your prayer book to my office at
my home base and read a prayer each day like I have here in Iraq! Thank-you!
God Bless you all!
Harry”
HARRY L. MARSTERS II, CMSgt, USAF
First Sergeant/Chief Enlisted Manager
506th Expeditionary Communications Squadron
Kirkuk Regional Air Base, Iraq
Now
that is really neat to see the fruits of the efforts from a project our kids
did here in Sunday School. But I told
you about it today because I think it is another example of a guy who is “all
in.” See, he is not only thanking us
for the thought, but he is actually using the prayer book as part of his daily
devotion to God. And not only while he
is in a war zone but you can see that he is planning to use it even when he
comes back home. He is committed to be
a follower of Christ, day in and day out, everyday, no matter where he is
stationed; he is committed to starting each day focused on God.
Being “all in” may
lead to extraordinary sacrifices for the faith, but more often for us it will look like a daily commitment to keep our hearts and minds focused on God and
doing God’s will in our lives. John
Wesley described what he thought it looked like be “all in” back in his day in
a little piece he wrote called “A Character of a Methodist.” I will not read you the whole thing, but let
me list some of the characteristics he noted:
A
Methodist is one who loves the Lord God with all the heart, with all the soul,
with all the mind, and with all the strength.
Methodists
are always rejoicing.
A
Methodist is happy in God because God is filling the soul with joy and peace.
Methodists
“pray without ceasing.”
The
loving eye of the soul is set on Christ and “seeing God who is invisible”
everywhere.
Methodists
love God and love others as self.
Methodists
have put on “compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.”
All desire is for
God and for living as one who bears God’s name.
Accordingly, this
one desire is the one purpose of a Methodist’s life: “To do, not his or her own
will, but the will of God.”
A
Methodist lives by God’s commandments; now God has set the heart free. It is God’s glory and joy to do this. It is the Methodist’s joy every day to “do
the will of God on earth, as it is done in heaven.” (Quoted in A Perfect Love, by Steven Manskar, p. 15-16)
Now Wesley is describing
the things he emphasized in the Methodist movement, but you could substitute
“Christian” for “Methodist” and each of those statements would still be
true. It is a fit description for an
“all in” Christian.
What I am suggesting each
of us do is get real in this new year and look at our life of faith and assess
where we might improve. Ask
yourself: Where do I need to
grow? Where does God want me to
grow? Where am I missing out? What do I need to do to be “all in”?
Now if you have never
before professed that you wanted to be “all in” with Christ, then just like
Jesus come on down and get baptized.
But once you have done that, you are not done, you have just begun. It is a lifelong journey of growing in
faith, of opening heart and mind, so that God might form you ever more into the
image of Christ.
During these next few
days think about where you might focus this year. Next week I am going to move on into some more specifics as to
how we can do this effectively. I hope
you will be with us. I pray that it
will be a good week of Christian growth for you until we meet again in this
place. Amen and thanks be to God.
…their deep
devotion to Christ and their clear commitment to
live or die for
____________.
Is there
anything on which ______ would bet everything?
Is your faith in Christ even that sure?
…noticed she had only __________ hairs on her head.
I think the ability to face ______ of life’s circumstances…
comes from people who have a faith in something bigger…
…see how ________ matured…at his self-descriptions…
But to be “all in” we do need to be sure and take the first step,
which is to ____________.
…early sign that __________ is yielding his will to God’s will.
God wants to __________ us…
“I will take
your prayer book to my office at my home base
and read a
prayer ________ day like I have here in Iraq!”
Being “all in” may
lead to extraordinary sacrifices…for us it
will look like a
__________ commitment…
All desire is
for God and for living as one who bears God’s name.
Accordingly,
this one desire is the one purpose of a Methodist’s
life: “To do, not his or her own will, but the
________ of God.”
Where do I need to grow? Where does God want me to grow?
Where am I missing out?
What do I need ___ ___ to be “all in”?
Kid’s Question: What is the first step of being “all in”?