The Promise of Power

Jews living under Roman occupation in first century Palestine were looking for a power-filled Messiah to restore Israel’s glory days of King David. Their hopes hinged on promises like that of Micah 5:2-5a. However, Messiah Jesus, who ultimately fulfills Micah’s prophecy, upends our earthly ideas of power. Jesus invites us into the other-worldly Kingdom of God where the first are last and the least are the greatest; where losing is gaining, dying is living, and leading is serving. If you missed Sunday’s message you can watch the 4:00 p.m. outdoor service livestream here.

The Promise of Joy

 

We live in a world full of fear – politically, socially, economically, and more! Fear inclines us to hunker down, isolate, and stick with our own tribe. The Bible’s antidote for fear isn’t bravery. It’s joy. God’s presence in our midst quiets our fears and brings us joy (Zephaniah 3:14-20). Sadly, Old Testament Israel often tried to keep God’s joyful presence to themselves. They mistakenly believed God’s good news was only for those religiously aligned. Christ’s birth shatters any notion that God’s joyful presence can be possessed or contained. As the angel announced to the shepherds, Christ’s birth is “Good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” If you missed yesterday’s sermon, you can listen to it here or watch the entire service here.

Cultivating a Thankful Heart

 

My heart is broken this morning with the news out of Waukesha, Wisconsin. I grieve for those killed, injured, and traumatized during yesterday’s parade. It is yet another reminder that our world is not as it should be. And there’s no way to make sense of such violence without acknowledging that I too am not as I should be. My world is broken and so am I.

Yesterday, I talked about how a life of gratitude in response to God’s grace produces in us “compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.” (Colossians 3:12). Such qualities seem in short supply these days. Perhaps, as we move toward Thanksgiving Day, by God’s grace, we can live a different way.

If you missed yesterday’s sermon, you can listen to it here or watch the entire service here.

Giving Thanks When Life Hurts

 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says to “Give thanks in all circumstances.” That can be really hard! It’s one thing to be thankful when life is going our way. But what does it mean to be thankful when life hurts?! First, it’s a paradox. As followers of Jesus and citizens of his heavenly kingdom on earth, we can hold two truths equally: that life really hurts AND God is really good. Second, gratitude is a discipline we practice. Being genuinely thankful when life hurts takes effort on our part. Third, gratitude is a gift we receive from God. In other words, embracing the paradox that life is hard and I am blessed, while practicing the human discipline of expressing thanks, even when we don’t feel like it, puts us in a position to receive God’s gift of a joy-filled spirit.

 

In addition to the Psalm 92 Challenge (Reading Psalm 92 at 9:02AM and 9:02PM every day), try making a gratitude list each night before bed. Write down 10 things from the day that you are thankful for. The list doesn’t have to be profound or deep. Just let the Holy Spirit call to mind some things from your day that you can say “thanks” for. Give it a try! I promise, it can change your life. If you missed yesterday’s sermon you can watch it on YouTube or listen to the podcast.

One-Tenth Thankful

 Luke 17:11-19 tells the story of some lepers who experience Jesus’ healing, but only one-tenth of them is thankful. An attitude of gratitude keeps us alert to God’s salvation work in us and around us. We need hearts of thankfulness. And the world needs more genuinely thankful people. (If you missed Sunday’s message you can listen to it here, or watch the entire service on our YouTube channel.) 

 

During November, we’re familiarizing ourselves with Psalm 92, a communal psalm of thanksgiving. Take the Psalm 92 Challenge! Read Psalm 92 every day, twice a day. Once in the morning at 9:02 a.m. and once in the evening, at 9:02 p.m. Let this Thanksgiving Psalm saturate your spirit and increase your gratitude quotient. 

Abiding with Christ

The Fourth Invitation of Jesus is “Abide with me” (John 15:1-11). This invitation, like the other three, corresponds to a fourth stage of faith which is characterized by complete surrender. In this stage, we surrender our will, our mind, our aspirations, and our abilities more fully in oneness with Jesus. This is only possible as we submit to the Heavenly Father’s pruning (John 15:2). Abiding with Christ comes with two startling promises, according to John 15. First, we get whatever we want! Jesus promises, “Ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”(John 15:7). This isn’t the work of some cosmic vending machine, but rather the fruit of one’s desire fully conformed to Christ. Second, we are promised unbridled joy (John 15:11). Far more than “happiness,” unbridled joy is the fruit of unbridled obedience to Christ.

There are two great scenes in the movie Cast Away, starring Tom Hanks, that illustrate this journey of surrender. In the first scene, Tom Hanks’ character tries leaving the deserted island under the power of his own resolve and with undersized resources (a small rubber raft and a single small paddle). Beaten quickly by the waves however, Hanks returns to the island bruised, bleeding, and defeated. This is what can happen when we try advancing in the Christian life by sheer willpower and with inadequate spiritual equipment (spiritual disciplines). Some 1,500 days later, he tries again. His equipment now is more developed. The small rubber boat has been replaced by a raft of several sturdy logs lashed together. He has two large oars now instead of a single plastic paddle. In the end however, it is only when Hanks stops rowing, hoists a makeshift sail, and surrenders to the wind, that he is finally carried into the freedom of the open sea.

As long as our spiritual equipment consists only of a few Bible verses and an occasional quick prayer, we can never hope to experience the open sea of abiding with Christ. We must cultivate sturdier spiritual equipment and actively surrender to God’s work (pruning) in our lives to move into the deep. If you missed Sunday’s message, you can listen to it here or watch the entire service on YouTube. Also, below are links to the aforementioned scenes from Cast Away.

https://youtu.be/gUEgs7MYUw0

https://youtu.be/R8y-6suAexU

Come and See

Faith in God is not like an on-off light switch. Faith is a relationship that, like any other important relationship, moves through different stages. For the first followers of Jesus, faith didn't begin with a belief about who God is. It began with a look inside themselves. The first words Jesus utters in the Gospel of John is not a declaration about who God is. Rather, it’s a question about what the disciples want (see John 1:38). Do you know what you want today? Do you know what you are seeking? The first stage of faith is responding to Jesus’ invitation to “Come and See” (John 1:39). It’s an invitation to explore who Jesus is and what he can do with our deepest desires. 

 

You can watch the recording of this message on our YouTube channel or listen to the sermon podcast here.

You Are The Body

 

When I write dear “church”, I’m not writing to a building or to a certain group of leaders. I’m writing to individual followers of Jesus who collectively make up the body of Christ, the church. Paul puts it this way, “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” (1 Corinthians 12:27). 

 

While there are many things to appreciate about a free market economy, it can skew our view of the church. If we’re not mindful, it’s easy to think of church like a grocery store. In the same way we shop at the grocery to meet our physical needs, we shop for a church to meet our spiritual needs. It may sound harsh, but the church does not exist to meet our needs. Rather, the church exists to meet the needs of the world. The wonderful thing is however, that God meets our needs in the body of Christ (the church) as we lock arms together in mutual love for God’s purposes in the world. Did you miss yesterday’s message? You can watch the entire Sunday worship service on our YouTube channel, or listen to the sermon here.

 

A great way to begin discovering your place in the body of Christ is by taking a spiritual gifts inventory. Try this one from the United Methodist Church. 

Who Gets to Belong?

Some members of the New Testament church at Corinth felt like they didn’t belong because of their differences. Paul argues in 1 Corinthians 12:12-20 that the church is “One body with many parts.” Just because we’re different, Paul asserts, doesn’t mean we don’t belong.

I talk to a lot of people who feel like they don’t “belong” these days. Because of their differences on politics, race, or culture they feel like they no longer fit in at their workplace, school, or even in their own family. Sadly, the church is not immune to this trend. We have a lot of differences pulling us apart.

And this is precisely what the Devil wants!

The Evil One’s scheme is to cripple the Body of Christ with division. His ploy is to separate, isolate, and divide. He knows that when the Body of Christ isn’t working together in all its parts, it is benign and ineffective. In contrast, the Holy Spirit of the resurrected Christ calls us out of our “partial and piecemeal lives… into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything.” (The Message, 1 Cor 12:13). The Devil divides, but the Holy Spirit mends. The Devil tears us apart, but the Holy Spirit puts us together.

If you missed yesterday’s message, you can listen to it here.

Deferred Obedience

 Deferred obedience is a relationship killer. When we put off doing something we promised to do for a friend or loved one, it undermines trust and damages the relationship. The same is true in our friendship with God. For forty years(!) Moses put off having his family marked with the covenant of circumcision. This deferred obedience created a barrier that made Moses’ relationship with God timid and half-hearted. But God intervened in Moses’ life through his wife Zipporah to bring Moses to obedience (Exodus 4:24-26). Once that happened, God’s story through Moses really gets moving! If you missed yesterday’s message, you can listen to it here.

 

Have you been putting off something in your relationship with God? A sin that needs to be confessed? A relationship that needs mending? Help you need to ask for? Don’t put it off another day. Step out in faith and watch God move! 

Who's in Charge

 

In a culture that prizes personal freedom and rebels against anything that thwarts individual autonomy, Jesus’ invitation sounds strange – “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34) We’re taught to chase our dreams and pursue our potential, not to deny ourselves and conform to another. And yet Jesus’ curiously uncompromising demand is followed by the great paradoxical promise of God’s Kingdom – “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” (Mark 8:35). The upside-down truth of Jesus’ realm is that when we surrender all, we gain all. When we do what looks like losing all for Jesus’ sake, we end up winning all. When we take Jesus’ path of self-denial, we discover the freedom of self-fulfillment. 

If you missed yesterday’s message, you can listen to it here.

Partnering with Jesus

 

While some people wear trouble on their sleeves, most of us tend to suffer in silence. When facing an obstacle in life, we’re more inclined to soldier on or try a new strategy. However, Jesus invites us to try something radically different: Give up. When faced with the obstacle of feeding four thousand hungry mouths with only a few scraps of food, the disciples query, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?” The simple answer is, one cannot. The disciples had to literally ‘give up’ their inadequate resources (see Mark 8:6. Jesus literally takes the bread out of their hands) and admit they had an unmanageable problem. Real breakthrough and lasting change begins with surrender. It begins when we admit to God, and confide in another, that we need help. 

 

If you missed yesterday’s message you can listen to it here.

Interruptions

 

When Jesus’ mini-retreat with the disciples is interrupted by crowds clamoring for his attention, Jesus responds with compassion (Mark 6:34). In fact, throughout Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is continually interrupted by people’s needs. But Jesus never once grumbles, whines, or complains about it. He always responds with compassion. Some people think, ‘Jesus is too busy running the universe to be interrupted with my “little” problem.’ But we can be sure that no matter how big or how small, no matter if the problem is of our own making or of someone else, Jesus will respond with compassion.

 

Yesterday’s message was all about how Jesus responds to us when we’re in “desolate” places. If you missed the sermon, you can catch it here.

Promises

 

Whose opinion of you matters most? For Herod, in Mark 6:14-29, it was the opinion of his party guests that mattered most. When Herod’s birthday bash gets out of hand, he makes a rash promise to give his wife’s daughter whatever she wants. When the girl asks for the head of John the Baptist, Herod is regretful, “but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her.” (Mark 6:26) In other words, Herod was more concerned about his image and reputation than he was about being faithful. However, when we live as though God’s opinion of us matters most, we are free to make mistakes, listen to others, or change our minds. This is an important truth as we increasingly live in an age where being “right” seems more important than being faithful. 

 

If you missed yesterday’s message you can listen to it here.

Processing Pain

 

Life can be difficult. It’s hard living in a world that is less than ideal, with people who are less than ideal, in careers that are less than ideal, being ourselves who are less than ideal. The gap between the ideal and the real can be painful. Dr. Henry Cloud says we often respond by attacking and judging ourselves and others. But the Gospel of Jesus Christ offers another way. The power of the cross absorbs all judgement and recrimination (Romans 8:1, 18-25), making space for relationships of love and acceptance. The church is God’s safe space where we honestly process our pain and receive necessary correction. It’s where we learn to love ourselves and others when life is less than perfect. 

 

If you missed yesterday’s message, you can watch it here. 

Relational Connectedness

 

Having been created in the likeness of a three-personal God, (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) who is a perfect tri-unity of relationship, you and I are designed for relational connectedness. Without it, we’re not fully human. But relational connectedness requires vulnerability and compassion. We have to be willing to admit to one another when we’re not okay. We also need compassion and empathy, for ourselves and for one another, as we share our hurts and hang-ups. If you missed yesterday’s message and want to learn more, you can catch it here.

  

Grace + Truth + Time

 

In Luke 13:6-9 Jesus tells a parable about a languishing fig tree. Frustrated with its lack of production, the vineyard owner tells his gardener to “cut it down!” However, the master gardener suggests a different plan. He says, ‘Let me dig around the tree and fertilize it. Then, let’s give it some time.’ Christian author and psychologist Dr. Henry Cloud suggests the gardener’s action plan reflects the way God works to restore languishing places in our life. First, we need God’s truth to dig beneath the surface into the root systems of our soul. Second, we need the unmerited favor of God’s grace to fertilize our hearts. Third, we need to allow God time to work. Grace+Truth+Time. If you missed yesterday’s message, you can catch it here.

 

I look forward to continuing our sermon series, entitled “A Church that Heals” next week with a look at the importance of relational connection in the process of God’s healing. 

Friendship Favor

 

The tiny, 21 verse, 335 word book of Philemon speaks volumes about what transformed relationships in the Body of Christ can look like. The book of Philemon reminds us how the Gospel fundamentally re-orders all human relationships and dissolves status differentials under the headship of Christ. By asking the wealthy slave-owning Christian, Philemon, to receive Onesimus back “no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother,” (vs. 16) the Apostle Paul invites the church to embody the Kingdom of God in the hard reality of everyday relationships.

 

If you missed yesterday’s message, you can catch it here. 

How to spot irreverent babble

 

We live in a world with a lot of talk. Which can be great – sometimes. But it can also be unhelpful and distracting. The church at Ephesus, where Paul’s protégé Timothy pastored, was being derailed with troublemakers. Throughout his first letter to Timothy, Paul warns about “irreverent babble and contradictions” that cause us to swerve from the faith (1 Timothy 6:20-21). According to 1 Timothy, here are four ways to tell if the cause or conversation you’re falling prey to amounts to “irreverent babble and contradictions.”

 

1.  If the cause or conversation glorifies man rather than exalting Jesus and glorifying God, it may be “irreverent babble.”

2.  If the cause or conversation isn’t borne out of prayer and rooted in Scripture, it may be “irreverent babble.”

3.  If the cause or conversation is about greedy gain versus eagerness to give, it may be “irreverent babble.”

4.  If the cause or conversation doesn’t promote godliness, it may be “irreverent babble.”

 

For more explanation and specific scripture references, you can review yesterday’s sermon here. 

Honor and the Friendship Community

 

Paul advises Timothy to honor the widows in his church with equity vs. equality, partnership vs. paternalism, and discipleship vs. discipline. Paul doesn’t suggest a one-size-fits-all solution for the widows in 1 Timothy 5:3-16. They are treated equitably, not equally. Secondly, the widows are not service projects. Rather, they are valued partners in the ministry of the church. Lastly, Paul’s overarching concern is not discipline of some and reward for others. The equitable, partnering relationships are ultimately aimed at discipleship and spiritual growth. These biblical principles are the building blocks for honorable relationships toward those in need in God’s friendship community.

 

If you missed yesterday’s message, you can catch it here!

Power of Example

While the CLPC pastors and ministry team staff were on retreat this weekend, elder Jimmy McGregor* preached on 1 Timothy 3:1-7, 14-15. At first blush, Paul’s words about leadership in this chapter seem incomplete or out of date. A closer look, however, reveals Paul’s concern for the character of a leader within God’s friendship community, the Church. Character flows from the heart. Godly leaders are ones whose hearts are shaped in relationship with Jesus. 

I Timothy 3 isn’t just about formalized leadership positions within the church. It’s about all of us. You are a leader. Right now. Today. In the home, at school, or in the marketplace, someone is watching your example and following your lead. Therefore, our character (molded in the life-giving rhythms of Jesus’ Kingdom) matters. If you missed this Sunday’s message, you can catch it here.

*Jimmy McGregor, a former staff member with Clear Lake Presbyterian (CLPC), currently serves as the Chairman of Lighthouse Christian Ministries. He also leads a CLPC Connect Group that partners with Lighthouse in serving alongside our neighbors in Bayview, Bacliff, and San Leon. You can learn more about this Connect Group here. 

Friendship Community

You and I were created in the image of a three-personal God who exists eternally as a tri-unity of relationship; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Being created in the image of a relational God, we are hard-wired for relationships. Genuine and loving connections with one another literally makes us human. To live in isolation and loneliness is de-humanizing. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego formed a friendship community while living in Babylon (Daniel 1:17-21). They prayed for one another, encouraged one another, and together they blessed the world around them. As followers of Jesus, we’re invited to do the same. CLPC is committed to fostering healthy, outwardly Christ-focused friendship communities. Send me an email (steve@clpc.org) if you’d like to learn more about finding such a connection.

If you missed this weekend’s message, you can listen to it here.

Our Friends-Shape sermon series continues this weekend with a look at Naomi and Ruth: An Intergenerational Friendship. I look forward to worshipping and learning with you.