Where He Sends

Text: Isaiah 6:1-8

Focus: The Calling of Christians

Function: To help people embrace their call

Form: Story telling

Intro: I remember being in a large Stadium with 20,000 other pastors and we got to participate in what the speaker called a “Rapture drill.”

Now, I am not sure of his theology around the timing of what he was saying, but I am pretty sure of the outcome.

He was speaking from Revelation Chapter 4 and it is a cognate passage to this one.

John the Apostle sees the throne room of heaven and the Seraphs flying around God.

It is an awesome picture.

We see this crystal sea with all the souls of humanity standing on it.

There is this great Throne upon which the power of God is sitting.

There is an Emerald Rainbow acting as an arch over the Throne.

There are flashes of lightning and peals of thunder eminating from this place.

Overhead are angels flying and there is a symbolic picture that partially informs our theology of the holiness of God, and evil's inability to stand up to the scrutiny of God's presence.

It is described in the concept of these angels, who, according to systematic theology, have no free-will and therefore no chance to choose to rebel against God, the demons were the ones who were forced to follow Lucifer during his rebellion, who, simply because they are not the manifest embodiment of God's self are forced to cover their feet and eyes in the presence of almighty God.

If they are free from sin, and they can't survive the majesty of God, even though they are flawless, how much worse is it for us, who were born into a broken, less than perfect world?

And again, partly, it is the basis for the atonement. The systematic theology teaches that only God is perfect and God is so powerfully perfect, that any imperfection, especially the brokenness of sin and rebellion would die in God's presence.

That is probably why several biblical authors and actors were so shocked when they saw God, or one of God's angels because they knew that in God's presence, God's holiness would kill them.

But at the end, when we all stand before God, it won't be that way anymore.

We will have finally experienced the reality of our redemption.

And so, the rapture drill. One side cried out “Holy, Holy, Holy” and then the other side, and since there were thousands and the acoustics were right, it was an amazing sight.

We were loud enough for the building to actually shake and for a moment, I had a glimpse of what that event, the event that Isaiah described would be, was, like.

I remember Jerry Brenneman preaching for me once and he was frustrated about a Televangelist who said “God was talking to him while he was shaving.”

And Jerry just wanted to know if the Televangelist stopped shaving out of respect for God when God spoke to him.

The idea is that being in the presence of God is transformational.

That is why, I believe, that gathering together for sincere worship is so important. Our God is awesome and God is worth our praise!

It connects us back to our perfect, divine, parent: God.

And look at what happens to Isaiah in the passage.

He too, sees God in all God's glory and it is so intense, he wonders why the experience itself has not killed him.

Jerry was perplexed at the Televangelist because his reaction was different than Isaiah, Daniel, John, Ezekiel, Job, Solomon, Moses and the other Biblical actors who to a man or woman, -every single one of them- when they sensed the majesty of God, the fell down exclaiming their own brokenness and sin.

That is the proper response.

And look at what happens when Isaiah assumes that position of humility before God.

God touches him with this burning coal and forgives his sin.

The burning coal, throughout the OT prophets, represents God's Word.

Not the static word for them, which was the first 5 books of the Bible, the law of Moses, the Torah.

But the living and alive Word that is still being written for them.

And it is. Some would say that the book of the Acts of the apostles is still being written.

John, changes the meme a little bit, but in a profound way.

God spoke and the worlds were created.

Daniel heard the voice of God and it sounded like the collection of a myriad of voices at the same time.

That Word of God is referred to in the NT as the Rhema word of God.

The spoken power of God that created the universe. The Rhema is when God spoke and POW! The universe snapped into existence.

It is a completely different word in the Greek for Jesus being the Word of God.

That word is Logos and my best description is that it is God's personal selfie.

It is the incarnational form of God more commonly known to us as Jesus the Nazarene.

But that isn't the first time Jesus appeared to humanity. Jesus appeared to Abraham at the oak of Mamre, Jesus appeared to Moses in the burning bush. Jesus appeared to Daniel and his friends in the fiery furnace and Jesus appears and dwells inside Isaiah as this burning coal that when it touches him it transforms him into a person wherein Jesus can live.

Last Sunday, we celebrated Pentecost, the birthday of the Church, the coming of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit comes into us when we embrace Jesus.

How did Isaiah embrace Jesus?

With a simple statement of humility.

I am a man of unclean lips.

John says what 1 John 1 says, he confesses his brokenness and God comes inside of him and saves -heals- him.

I am convinced, to put it simply, that salvation is our acknowledgement of our need for Jesus to restore us to the life God created us to have.

And it comes from the simple expression of reverent humility.

And what happened? As soon as God cleanses him, God calls him.

We are closing the sermon with a hymn that refers to this great passage.

But the Chorus is a little muddled.

The words read: “I will go, Lord, IF you send me.”

Again, I like the position of humility that the song's author expresses. If. He refuses to assume his own greatness.

But here is the thing that I see.

It isn't really an “if.” It is a where, or a when, you send me.

This passage is deeply personal to me.

I remember a young lad of 12 years of age. Me.

I was at a youth conference revival sort of thing a the bible college for which my dad worked.

I wasn't old enough, but being as it was a block from my house and no one was watching me, I snuck in. I didn't think that I would get in trouble for being in Church.

The preacher spoke from this passage and he put out a call for people to join with Isaiah and say to God: “Here I am! Send me?”

I was moved, deeply and when he gave an invitation, I wanted to be the first to the front.

17 years later I was deeply distressed and in prayer. Don't think me some sort of saint because I pray a lot.

I am not really disciplined about it. I believe that we should spend more time praying when we feel called to it instead of making it some sort of mechanical Mike action. But, then, that works for me and as soon as I say it, someone else will find value in more structure.

But the point was, God and I were talking and all of a sudden I was whisked, in my mind, to the ceiling of that auditorium. It felt like I was standing there with Jesus, up in the rafters, among the lights, and I witnessed that young man, me, making this promise to God 17 years before.

I stake my Pastoral calling in part on that highly spiritual event in my life.

Here I am, Lord, send me.

Yet for years, my favorite Hymn has been “When I survey the wondrous Cross.” I love it because the glory goes to God, and no one else.

Then it changed to “The Wonderful Cross” which is the same hymn, with a Chorus of surrender added to it.

But recently, my favorite is based on this passage. The song we are to close with.

And I tell you why.

The cross is a pretty scary image. It reminds me of my sin and guilt.

Now, Isaiah's confession of his own brokenness, I believe, is key to this miracle and vision and his calling.

But look at the song, because in the song, just like the passage, God is not calling people to war, to fight or to “take a stand against evil.”

Nope, God called Isaiah. God called me. And God calls you to be radical proclaimers of God's grace, love and mercy.

These are not words of judgment, fury and sinfulness. Nope, the calling is to bring people back into the love and family of God.

It is not a calling to shame them for their mistakes, but a call to heal them, to feed them fine food and wine

One of our Hope Cookie bakers shared this with me and it meant so much to the men in the room at prison.

She said something like: “when I bake Chocolate Chip cookies for my boys, because I love them, I use Ghiradelli Chocolate instead of Hershey's or Nestles. Don't those men deserve the same love?"

Yes they do!

God has given us both the power and ability to heal a hurting world. Will we go?

Power To Succeed

Text: John 17:6-19

Focus: Our Position in Christ

Function: To help people realize what God can do with them

Form: Storytelling

Intro:

My eldest brother fell off of a slide when he was 2 years old.

He suffered a pretty big concussion and for the next few years, my parents were told to wake him up during the middle of the night to keep him from slipping into a coma.

My mother and father did everything they could to protect him from the scrapes and bruises that happen in life.

I was at the kinder parade in Holland Michigan last week. It was my first alone excursion into everything that Michigan has to offer.

With fond memory, I watched a mother argue with her young teenage daughter about just how much freedom her child was to be allowed during the parade.

It is the inevitable conversation that is based on the love and protection that our parents gave us.

The rule that I had growing up that most other kids did not have was about riding a bicycle.

I wasn't allowed to own a bike until I was 10 years old.

And for good reason. My mom lost her only sister and her youngest brother to a car/bus and a car/bicycle accident. My mom was the oldest and these tragedies happened to two of her siblings at different times, but both while they were in the first grade.

Having lost two siblings, and then having this major accident happen to my eldest brother meant that my mom was somewhat protective of me.

All the other kids got bikes when they were younger, not me.

But I never resented it, not even today.

The difference to me was this: “my mom loved me enough to keep me safe.”

Do I think it was perhaps an overreaction? Maybe, but it was based on love.

Watching children grow is the most rewarding and maybe the most scary things that parents go through.

I remember when my eldest son got his license and took his three younger siblings on a car ride. Everything that Kathy and I treasured went off into with that car.

The trust that I had to put in him was terrifying.

I thought, if he does half of what I did with a car, I'll just have to ground him until he is 21.

Parents can over react, under react or do it just right.

I am convinced that God's reaction to us as Children is very appropriate.

And it turns out, God places a lot of confidence in us.

God entrusts us with this huge message.

And God, knowing the difficulty we will have in fulfilling this great commandment, has made a provision for us.

One of the things I love about being a pastor is the chances that I get to pray for people. I have seen God do some pretty amazing things in prayer.

I think, I suspect, that people ask me to pray because as pastor, they believe that I have a special relationship with God in prayer.

Now, in our theology, we believe in the Priesthood of all believers.

In other words, any one of us -every one of us- has the same rights and privileged of being a part of God's family as anyone else.

And yet, there has always been something comforting to me when someone I love, trust and respect prays for me.

However, we are human.

Do we know God's will?

Not always!

And so, whenever I pray, I make sure that in the prayer, almost always, that I leave room for God's plan and not my own.

We were taught to pray by Jesus' “God's will be done.!” And the emphasis that I make on this is “God's will, not my will.”

Thank God that my will isn't done.

I only see a small part of the picture.

So, there can be, and sometimes is, a doubt whenever someone prays as to whether or not it is God's will.

So, we can ask ourselves a question about this prayer.

In the 16^th Century, a Lutheran Preacher dubbed this prayer in the gospel of John as Jesus' “High Priestly Prayer.”

It is the prayer given by Jesus on behalf of us, the Church.

And Jesus, as our great High Priest makes this prayer on behalf of us to God.

And we ask ourselves this question: “if Jesus prayed it, then was the prayer in accordance with God's will?” Is the answer to this prayer always going to be, “Yes?”

(ASK)

Like me, you believe it to be true as well.

So, just what does Jesus pray for for us in this prayer?

Jesus prays for our unity.

Jesus prays for our safety.

Jesus prays for our protection.

Jesus prays for discernment about when evil forces are using us.

Did this prayer get answered? Is this prayer still be answered?

Yes!

I believe it.

And I find it wonderful.

Jesus does not pray to protect us from all problems.

Jesus does not pray for us to be rich, healthy and wise.

Jesus does not pray for us to live a life without problems.

Nope.

The opposite is true.

Jesus tells God the Father in the prayer that we will be hated by people because of our faith and difference.

I can see that.

We have all experienced it.

We have been told to sit down and shut up when speaking up against violence, especially the systemic violence that is still happening around racism in this country.

When we talk about turning the other cheek, I often hear people say: “that is just crazy and irresponsible.”

When I talk about giving to the poor, I hear things like: “they are lazy and we need to stop the Nanny State from helping them.”

When we speak out against the war culture and the money spent for military spending that could be building a better infrastructure that could lift even the weakest of us out of poverty, we are accused of being socialists.

And all of that assumes that the greed and consumerist nature of our culture is somehow inherently better than other cultures.

But when we speak truth to power by reminding people of the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus, we can be called fanatic.

And it can come to us by other Christians who are caught up in worldly values instead of living their lives by the teaching of Jesus.

We can feel alone.

We can feel persecuted.

We can feel despair.

We can be tempted to give up hope.

But Jesus has seen it all. He saw it happening to us before the cross.

And I believe that He is still in heaven making intercession for us, the saints.

When my child went to the prom with a young person whose dress seemed entirely inappropriate to me, that same idea in prayer came back to me.

Lord, deliver him from the temptation of evil. Lord, give him sound judgment. Lord, forgive him if he fails. Lord, let him know t hat you and him together can do anything.

I love this prayer because this is the prayer of Jesus hope in the disciples.

This prayer is Jesus Himself laying His hands on His disciples and commissioning them, and us for this great service in the Kingdom of God.

So, the conclusion is that Jesus is wanting to use us.

And He is ready to use us, no matter what.

This is the power of His Spirit at work in us.

Yesterday, I got to spend my last time with the prisoners at Warren Correctional Institute.

We had what is called an “instructional day.”

It was for the men who decided after our weekend that they want to journey on with this new kind of Church in the prison.

I say new kind of Church because it is basically run by the residents, the prisoner, inside the institution.

They are still living in a tough environment and there are things that go on inside of there that do not happen in normal Churches. Or at least they shouldn't.

There are men who are barely Christian. They are brand new disciples of Christ.

They don't know the bible very well. They can't preach a series of sermons. They certainly don't know all the Christianese that we speak in the Church.

They are raw, but they are willing.

Yesterday we spent more time listening to them and encouraging them.

One man in my group said to that he had never been to Church before in his life. No one took him there when he was a kid.

Now, most of the men there have some sort of church experience in their background.

But this guy was simple enough in his faith to actually believe without feeling intimated by the Spiritual giants that were in that room.

One man told me that he could be released already, but between Kairos, and the Stephen Ministry, a program started by one of the Kairos volunteers, he decided to wait until he finished his training so that when he got back into the world, he would be more prepared.

His statement to me was actually this: God saved my life here in prison and it was worth it for me to come here because I got off the heroin and found Christ.

So, there are spiritual giants in the room but this guy, without any real knowledge of how to pray, how to study and how to share his faith did some amazing things.

We asked the guys if there was a chance to share Jesus, and it was framed with the simple phrase: Love, because God is love, with others.

He told us a few stories of how all of a sudden, he said, although he is very shy, all of a sudden, God used him to share encouragement on several occasions.

God doesn't need tired old saints, God needs willing people who will take the chance to believe.

So, let me bring this around.

We started out talking about how Jesus probably gets all of His prayers answered with a yes because He knows the will of God.

So, as soon as Jesus gets done with asking for God's Spirit to help us, He then makes a bold statement on behalf of the Church. Look at the last verse: I dedicate myself to you in order...

He is committed to our success and makes this declaration on our behalf forever.

El Shaddai

Text: John 15:9-17

Focus: Love

Function: To help people see the nurturing quality of God's love.

Form: Storytelling

Intro: This passage contains probably the greatest order given to the Church.

We know the Great Commission, Matthew 28:19-20.

But it springs out of the Great Commandment, Love one another.

Today, I want to focus on the reason why.

Whoever does not love does not know God because, God is love, 1 John 4:8.

Some time back, I mentioned a difficulty I was having with a child over politics.

My wife, in conversation about it said this to me: Don't be so argumentative that you split up my family. Remember, we love and respect each other.

I titled this sermon, “El Shaddai.”

You may remember a great worship/contemporary worship song from the early 80's called “El Shaddai.”

It was performed by Amy Grant.

And I loved it.

But there is something interesting here in that name.

El Shaddai literally means, God the breasted one.

It is a reference, an old Jewish reference to God, the nurturer.

We are created in the image of God as both male and female.

So, let me take you into the room with me last Kairos weekend.

On Saturday night, we have a big service dealing with forgiveness.

We ask the men to begin in the morning writing a forgiveness list which is added to all day long until the evening where we burn the lists in a bucket -not a small feat for inside a prison- and then we have an hand-washing ceremony.

That night, instead of a friendly goodbye, we give the men a “Jacob moment.”

The men are excused to the prison compound without a chance to talk to anyone on the team about a way to get out of these forgiveness cookies.

We want them wrestling with God over themselves and the way they love each other.

And they come back in Sunday morning thinking that they have dealt with it.

But forgiveness isn't easy.

How many have tried to forgive, only to have some sort of body memory, a smell, a glance, a time of year or any thing that reminds a person of past pain.

Most of these men have big family issues.

It is not a cliché to say that they have to deal with issues with their mother.

One man, I told you about him forgave his mother on Saturday night and Sunday AM, she showed up for a visit. An huge miracle.

They are tired and one can see the emotional struggle they have faced the night before.

We go into the chapel for some prayer work.

There is a 40 minute prayer for healing past memories.

It goes back in time, because God is not in time, and imagines Jesus healing these moments.

For some men, the healing starts all the way back in the womb when they may have been rejected by a crack addled mother.

We are tired, and emotionally on the edge when in the chapel, first thing in the morning, we hear this song:

There is something about this that connects with the body.

God, like a mother, has carved us on the palms of God's hand.

God, in this case, the loving nurturing God -it is right, in this case to call God “her” - ...in this case, She loves us with an unconditional love.

Now, I have to express to you that this concept of unconditional love was given to me by both my parents.

My dad was different.

In an Hell Fire and Brimestone preaching environment, my dad showed that unconditional love as well.

It is a quality of God.

And those of us who know God are comfortable showing that love.

A mother's unconditional love.

That is the example of love that God gives to us.

God's love is perfect and it will never ever hate us.