Daring To Commit
Joshua 24:14 Ephesians 4:29-32 Sept 13,2015
Today we celebrate our 2nd anniversary as a church. We thank God for what God has done in and through us. Lives have been changed, people have been touched, the gospel has been preached, and Jesus Christ has been lifted up.
But the place we are in morally and ethically as a society has shifted dramatically during those two years. We came together as a church to be a beacon of light for God in a world that gets increasingly darker without even knowing it.
Since we came together there have been riots in our streets over police officers who have killed unarmed civilians. Our media builds up a frenzy over a white cop killing a black man. We have demanded that officers be held to a higher standard. Demonstrations were planned all over the country. Sometimes that is justified, but there are other times when we need to demand that individuals respect the authority of the police.
Where were the demonstrations over the two police officers killed in New York sitting in the cars, or the deputy Darren GoForth who was shot in the back and head 15 times while putting gas in his car. Should not our outrage go in both directions. Should we not be angry at the looters who destroyed the business of innocent people who had nothing to do with any shootings.
We are fed the lies that the real enemy of unarmed black males is the police. I don’t know how many of you read the article in the Plain Dealer by Phillip Morris, but he wrote that from 1882-1951, a period of 69 year, 3400 blacks were lynched by whites who took the law into their own hands. But in one year, in 2013, over 6200 blacks were murdered mainly by other black men.
Last week we added five year old Ramon Burnett to that list. He was a five year old tossing a football less than 10 minutes from our church. A bullet ended his life because two teens were shooting at each other and both missed. Yet instead of helping to get rid of this dangerous element of killers in our society, we teach there is some pride in being able to say, “I’m no snitch.”
Two years ago, one of the highest constitutional guarantees we had was freedom of religion with a government unwilling to force you to believe what it wanted you to believe. I told you in a sermon, the real issue of homosexual marriage was not on whether or not they should be able to marry. The real issue would be whether the Supreme Court would uphold religious freedom or not. The Gay movement has not been about love and acceptance. It has been about endorsing a behavior.
We have now exalted sexual expression above all other rights in our constitution. Freedom of speech has been limited by your ability to say certain things about the behavior of the GLBTQ and so one movement. If you are a teacher and you say, boys should not be allowed in the girls bathrooms and locker-room, you can lose your job for being insensitive.
In Missouri 150 students walked out of school in protest of a guy who claims to be a girl demanded to be able to use the girls locker room. The school offered him a transgendered bathroom, but he declined the offer. What about the girls right to privacy?
The media rewrites history right before our eyes. Kim Davis is a Christian who issues marriage licenses in her job as clerk in the county office. When the Supreme Court issued its ruling on same sex marriage, she stopped issuing marriage licenses. The press wants you to believe she refused to issue a license only to gays and lesbians. The reality is she refused to issue any licenses so that it could not be seen as discriminatory.
Kentucky has a Kentucky Religious Freedom Restoration Act which gives accommodations to people to keep them from violating their religious beliefs. What she was asking for, was to have her name removed off the marriage license and someone else’s name be placed there. How difficult could that be?
If prisons have to make accommodations for prisoners religious beliefs such as some prisons are required by the courts to provide food consistent with their religious dietary laws, , why shouldn’t she be given the accommodation of having someone else’s name on the license instead of her name? Instead she was thrown into jail until she would issue the license with her name on it. She stayed in jail for five days.
The ironic thing is at the time she was being thrown into jail for standing on her biblical views of homosexual behavior, there was a ceremony going on in the PCUSA headquarters chapel celebrating its first gay marriage in the chapel. The minister leading the service said, ““No biblical writer would have envisioned what we think of as a good marriage today.” At least that was an honest statement that what he was doing had nothing to do with being faithful to the Bible.
Two years ago we had somewhat of a moral compass over the issue of abortion. Abortion is the taking of the life of a child. I understand the need to have compassion for people who have had abortions. But we recently had our conscience reawakened by the added horrow of turning the abortion industry into a greater profit making industry.
In our Youth Class on Wednesday when I told how Planned Parenthood was doing abortions in certain ways of cutting up the child to make sure they did not damage certain organs such as lungs, livers, kidneys, and hearts, that they wanted to sell for a profit, our “kids said that was just plain wrong.”
For those of you who support Planned Parenthood, you have an obligation before God to demand an end to this kind of using women in distress to increase corporate profits. Hoping that a child is born alive before an abortion so that you can get a brain in tact to sell should sear all of our consciences and move us to repentance. Instead, many of us are hoping the story will quickly fade from the press and we can pretend its not really happening. If they can cut out organs from children today what’s to keep them from cutting out organs from seniors at the other end of life, especially now that there is move to have more laws to pass physician assisted suicides.
For those of you who do not support Planned Parenthood, you have an obligation to not let your voice be silenced by people accusing you of being against Women’s Health. Planned parenthood gets $500 million tax payers dollars a year.
The only health care services it will specify on its website is tests for pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV testing. You can get that at any regular health care clinic. When Hilary Clinton first found out about the selling of baby body parts she said she found that news very disturbing.
Two weeks later she responded that it was wrong for the people who recorded the Planned Parenthood officials without their knowledge. The initial shock to her conscience was gone as it has for many people. We all wonder how the Germans stayed quiet while the Holocaust of killing and experimenting on Jews was taking place. I see now how easy it is to say nothing.
There was a protest in front of the Planned Parenthood in Bedford. There were over 500 of us and not a single media person was there. Our protest was peaceful, quiet without burning any buildings or blocking traffic. Yet we are deemed to be radical terrorists trying to destroy women’s lives. The pro-life movement offers more real health care, more alternatives, and more assistance to women in distress than Planned Parenthood ever will and they do it without federally funded dollars. Our media does not want you to know that. It won’t even call the movement pro-life. It will always say anti-abortion. But you never hear the other side called pro-abortion. Go to a pro-life website and see for yourself all the care they offer to women and to the child after it is born.
You don’t have to be at a rally to make your voice known. You just need to be true to your convictions. You need a Daring Faith to speak when God says speak. We were on the plane coming back from San Diego.
I had the seat next to the window, Toby was in the middle and a guy sat next to her. She began talking to the guy by asking him if he would like a piece of gum. He was surprised and said yes. They started talking. He was reading the paper and she looked over and saw an article on Planned Parenthood selling the organs of babies. She told him, what they’re doing is awful.
He said, you really think so. She said yes. He said, he donated money to them regularly. She said, you ought to give your money somewhere else. He said, okay, because of you I’m not going to send them another check. It turned out, this guy was very wealthy. When we landed in Phoenix, he wanted to put us up in some exclusive passenger lounge where you didn’t have to wait with regular people like us. We thanked him but declined the offer. Here she was making a difference because of a commitment to follow Jesus.
I know we hold various views on each of these three changes in our society. The goal is not to make others think exactly as we do, but wherever your position is, be faithful to bringing Jesus Christ and his teachings into that setting. Don’t bring a little of Jesus, bring in all of the word of God because you are there to have an impact for Jesus Christ.
Your life is actually shaped by your commitments. We become whatever we are committed to. If someone looked closely at you, what would they say you are fully committed to. Last week’s video talked about faith being radically committed to doing what God asks you to do. We celebrate as a church because we were committed to becoming one church. If you don’t commit yourself to anything you become nothing in life. You’re shaped by your commitments.
Great people are just ordinary people who’ve made a great commitment to a cause greater than themselves. People become great men or great women of God when they commit themselves to something greater than themselves. Joshua became a great leader because when everybody else was saying it can’t be done, we can’t have what God told us to have, Joshua was committed to believing God. We become whatever we’re committed to.
The problem is a lot of people are afraid of making commitments. And we see that in our society today. We have a lot of people who don’t want to commit to anything. I can remember a person in our church, who dressed nicely, drove a nice a car, and lived in a nice neighborhood who got upset with me because I took her giving from last year and put it down as a pledge for her giving for this year.
. She called to tell me, there was no way she could make a commitment to give $243 over the course of year, because she did not know what might happen to her finances. Do you really think she is open to seeing her faith grow afraid of committing $4.67 a week to the work of the Lord.
In our Old Testament reading, Joshua said, “You guys may commit yourself to a lot of other things, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” When we talk about having a relationship with Jesus, we are not talking about having somebody to call on when you get in trouble, or when you want something.
Daring faith in Christ means saying, “Yes Jesus, you ask it, I give it, you send me, I go, you need me I’m here. One of the good things about the coming persecution of believers in this country is that it is going to empty out churches and we will know who is committed to Christ, and who just goes to church.
Faith is always going to involve a commitment to God. Yet we take on a false humility in making a commitment to the Lord or to the church. I’m not going to say, what I’ll do or what I’ll give because I don’t know what the future holds. You cannot live a life without making some kind of commitments. You can’t buy a house without making a commitment. You can’t buy a car without making a commitment. You can’t have a job without making a commitment. So you have to make some commitments. You can’t get married without making a commitment.
As we look to the future, what kind of church is God calling us to be, and what kind of commitments do we intend to make. Romans 6:1 says
“Give yourselves completely to God—every part of you—for you have been brought back to life, and you want to be tools in the hands of God, used for his good purposes.”
That’s the highest commitment you can make in life. To give yourself completely to God to be used for the purposes that God made you, that God created you. Our vision is for New Life At Calvary to be known for two things. We should be a church of grace and a church of generosity.
Do you know why people became so angry with Jesus? Jesus was called a friend of sinners. How do you think He got that name? Can you imagine people saying, “New Life At Calvary” oh yeah that’s the church that’s a friend of sinners.”
It does not matter who you are, or what you have done, that your church will accept you and try to help you get back on foot to God. They will not demand that you get your act together first. Just like Jesus, they start loving you right where you are.
Even when you mess up, they will give you another chance. How many times have you messed up before God, and received another chance? That’s called grace. Is there anybody here who used to do something and it did not bother you, but one day the Holy Spirit touched you and said, “I want you to let go of that.
Just don’t do it anymore. Change that attitude. Start to love that person.” When the Holy Spirit spoke to you, and you responded, you feel like, “God if I had known that bothered you, I would have stopped a long time ago.”
You see God was extending grace to us, that even though our actions was grieving the Holy Spirit, God knew He had to bring us to the point where it began to grieve our own heart. Sometimes we have to extend grace to others when we see weaknesses in their lives. We have to come alongside of them and try to encourage them. Do you know why the bible tells us to love one another. Because left to ourselves, we just won’t do it.
It’s easier to write people off than it is to love them. Can you imagine how painful it was for Jesus to hear Peter proclaim, how he would have Jesus’ back no matter what, only to have to say, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times? But when you turn, strengthen your brothers. Jesus had made up his mind to forgive Peter, even before Peter did the act. That’s grace.
We’d love to see the Holy Spirit fall down on this place and people start speaking in tongues on the day of Pentecost, but we would love it even more if we could simply extend more grace to each other on a weekly basis. What would happen if we extended a little more grace to each other in our homes? Our homes would stay together, divorce would not be seen as the immediate answer, and Jesus would become more of a reality in our lives.
Christianity never begins with what others are doing to me. It begins with, allowing Jesus to live in me today. That’s not an easy thing to do. Jesus has a lot grace that He wants to flow through us and out to others. You see its one thing for us to have the truth of the word of God, but its another thing to have grace with the truth. It was said of Jesus in John 1:14 that he was full of grace and truth.
Having a daring faith means being committed to show Grace to others when its going against how you might feel about what they are doing. You are being called to be God’s agent of change, but not as a policeman but as a friend. Jesus was a friend of sinners. Are we bold enough to be a church of grace, without being worried about what others might think about us.
The other desire of our hearts is to become a church known for its generosity. I have found that all of us think we are generous until we actually have to give away stuff that we want to keep. I couldn’t finish my sermon on Friday which is very unusual for me. I had finished it on a paper, but I knew the Lord was saying that sermon is not finished. I couldn’t get the ending.
It wasn’t until I read the Daring Faith Devotional on Day six which says “Giving To God Strengthens My Faith.” Friday night I had already placed some items in a bag to bring to the Flea Market. God told me, that’s not enough, make sure you give away at least $100 worth of stuff. So I went through the house trying to find a $100 worth of items. I realized then, that even though I am a tither, that did not necessarily make me generous, because I had to force myself to give up some of the items.
Then I realized God wanted my sermon to be more about grace and generosity. Not only do I need to discover more about generosity, probably more of the rest of us did as wel. Generosity is not based on an amount that you give, but an attitude you have about God and possessions. Did God give this to me? If God gave it, and asked for it back, would I say yes? Could God replace whatever I gave to Him.
One of the things about Jesus was that He was rich in generosity. When he fed the 5,000 it does not say everybody got one fish and two pieces of bread. It says they all ate till they were satisfied and there were still twelve basketfuls left over. When Jesus issues the invitation to come and follow him, he doesn’t promise us a slightly better life, he promises us abundant life. Jesus did not want the disciples to have a little bit of the Holy Spirit, he wanted them to be full of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was generous in his healings, in his encouragement, in his giving, generous in his forgiveness and in His promises.
Some of the little things we do make a difference in how others perceive of us. We put two iron wrought chairs out on the E. 79th Street side opposite the bus stop. We put up a sign on the pole near the bus stop, saying, “Please feel free to sit in our chairs across the street as you wait for the bus. New Life At Calvary Thinks About You.”
The very next week my barber was telling me about the chairs and a couple of elderly ladies he saw sitting in them talking. Those chairs only cost us $48 a piece but they do ministry on our behalf each day of the week. How does God reward us? There is one person that God spoke to, who does not attend our church, who give us $200 a month because she says we care about helping the community. She’s committed to giving for one year. There is another person who does not attend our church, who sends us $140 a month because she knows we help single parent families.
When we are generous, God moves on the hearts of others. You need a financial miracle, start being generous and get God’s attention. In a few months we will be fully integrated into our new denomination ECO. We want to go into ECO as a great church spiritually, doctrinally and financially. We already have the first two items taken care of. But there is reason for us to go into the place God has given us, without being able to pay our bills. We serve a God, who has given us all that we need, but the question is will we give back what He asks of us.
We looked at our finances at Session, and we agreed that we would come back and look at what we thought we could eliminate from our ministries yet continue to be faithful in what God calls us to do. But we also agreed to issue a 90 day challenge to all who would be willing to have their faith stretched.
Here’s the challenge, for those of you who are not tithing to tithe, but if you do not have enough faith to do it yet, we encourage you to increase your giving by 20% of what you give. So if you give $10, for the next 90 days give $12 whenever you give your offering. For those of you who are tithers, give a 10% increase on your tithe.
For instance if you give $100, give $110. Now before you say you can’t do that, especially those of us who drive, gasoline is down to $2.08 a gallon which means you may already be saving $15 a week on your gas. Who knows, maybe God will keep the price of gas down for 90 days. All of you who pay for gas to heat your home, should switch your gas carrier if you have not done it in the last year. You will save over $200 in your winter heating bill.
As you make your commitment, tell God what you would really like for God to do for you so that at the end of 90 days, we can have some testimonies of what God gave to us during that time period. This is going to be just between you and God. We will not collect any cards. Just go ahead and do it.
Remember the verse from our Transformer’s Series, Romans 12:1-2 (NIV) 1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters , in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.
I’m grateful for what God has done in the past two years, but our commitment as pastors is to the 500 Campaign because God loves people. We need to reach as many people for Christ as possible.
Last Thursday night Session approved us having a third service at 12:30. You may say, “why, we aren’t filling up all the seats with the ones we have.” We have a faith to believe that there are people who God wants to reach, who want something different than what we currently are offering.
The church is the hope for our community. Some of us don’t want hip hop and certain ways of dressing in worship, and there’s nothing wrong with that viewpoint. But if that’s what we need to reach the 15-30 year old male who is killing us in our communities and doing drive by shootings, then let’s use it to go after them.
If that’s what we need to help pregnant teens and young adults to know that abortion is not the only option, then let’s try to be there in a place where they feel comfortable coming. Our message of who Jesus is, what Jesus does, and how the Holy Spirit works is still going to be the same, but our methods will be different.
When I told Anna, Anna I need your help to launch our vision for a new kind of a service to reach a new audience, she listened to what I had to say and responded, “if our class needs to move in order for us to reach a larger group of people, I’m more than willing to do what I can to make it happen. That kind of commitment to see beyond our own convenience to trying to reach others is what we need to move to another level in Christ.
All of us need to be willing to make changes and realize that nothing is supposed to last forever, except our love for God. You may have to come to church 15 minutes earlier as we sort out how we will work things out. You may be asked to serve in a different capacity. Change is going to come, and its going to happen. You never know what God is going to do until you try. Last week, Pastor Toby said in her message, if you don’t ask, the answer is automatically no.
We had a very unusual session meeting on Thursday night. We had discussed the issue of finance and it some ways it was a little disappointing. I had placed on the docket, purchasing a water fountain for the fellowship hall. When we came to that item, I said, “I’m not even going to bother to ask for $600 for the fountain.”
The elder to my left said, “My husband and I will donate the $600 for the water fountain.” The elder next to her said, “well my husband and I will split the cost with you.” I felt humbled by the Holy Spirit. Here I was not even going to ask, “when the Holy Spirit already had made provisions for the need.”
So often, as the word of God says, you do not have, because you did not ask. Jesus told us to ask, to seek, and to knock and the door will be opened. I don’t know what doors God wants to open for us as a church and for you as an individual, but we have a daring faith of a promise in Jesus in which He said, “Matthew 6:33 (NIV) 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Daring To Commit
Joshua 24:14 Ephesians 4:29-32 Sept 13,2015
A. Celebrating Two Years Together
1. Society Is Not The Same
2. Morally And Ethically
3. Riots—Balance & Unbalanced
4. Police Actions
B. Black Men In Danger
1. Phillip Morris
2. 3400 Over 69 vs 6200 In One
3. Raymon Burnett
4. I’m No Snitch
C. Constitution In Conflict
1. Freedom Of Speech
2. Freedom Of Religion
3. Gay Marriage
4. Transgender & Missouri Students
D. The Truth About Kim Davis
1. Refusal To Issue Marriage Licenses
2. Kentucky Freedom Restoration Act
3. The Changing Of A Name
4. Prison Accommodations Dietary Laws
5. 5 Days In Jail
6. PCUSA Chapel For Gay Wedding
E. The Issues On Abortion
1. The Need For Compassion
2. The Shocking Of The Conscience
3. Challenge To Plan Parenthood Supporters
4. Challenge The Media’s Presentation
5. Who Offers Health Care
6. Go To The Websites
7. Challenge To The Pro Life Supporters
F. Willing To Make A Commitment
1. Become What We Are Committed To
2. Joshua Becomes A Great Leader
3. Fear Of Making A Commitment
Romans 6:1 says “Give yourselves completely to God—every part of you—for you have been brought back to life, and you want to be tools in the hands of God, used for his good purposes.”
G. New Life At Calvary’s Reputation For The Future
1. Grace & Generosity
2. Become A Friend Of Sinners
3. Grace Gives Another Chance
4. Grace Gives Time To Change
5. Easier To Write Off Than Love
6. John 1:14 Jesus Full Of Grace & Truth
H. When Generosity Becomes A Lifestyle
1. Not As Generous As We Think
2. Giving To God Strengthens My Faith
3. Jesus Was Rich In Generosity—Feeding Of 5000
4. Wrought Iron Seat Evangelism
5. God Has Outside Sources
6. Entering ECO
7. 90 Day Challenge
8. Start To Tithe, Increase 20%, Increase 10%
9. God Is Helping—Gas Prices, Gas Price
10. Get Ready For Testimonies
Romans 12:1-2 (NIV) 1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters , in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.
I. The 500 Campaign
1. Session Launches A Vision 12:30 Worship
2. Church Is The Hope For The Community
3. Different Worship For Different People
4. Willingness To Adapt- Anna’s Response
5. Be Willing To Ask
6. God’s Provisions Are There Before We See Them
“Matthew 6:33 (NIV) 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you.
90 Day Daring Faith Challenge
1. Those Who Are Not Tithing— (Option 1) Start To Tithe For 90 Days
2. Those Who Are Not Tithing—(Option 2) At Least Increase Your Giving By 20%
3. Those Who Are Tithing—Increase Your Giving By 10%
( You still give at the same frequency you now give, either weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, or annually.)
Amount 10% 20% Amount 10% 20%
$10 $11 $12 $150 $165 $180
$20 $22 $24 $200 $220 $240
$25 $27.50 $30 $500 $550 $100
$50 $55.00 $60 $750 $825 $900
$75 $82.50 $90 $1000 $1100 $1200
$100 $110.00 $120 $1200 $1320 $1450
$125 $137.50 $150 $1500 $1650 $$1800
For Those Of You Who Are Tithing Already, You Would Be Giving 11% Instead Of 10% If You Increase Your Giving By 10%.
Daring Faith Pledge: God I Commit To Increase My Giving By _________. Lord I also ask that you would make it possible for me to be able to__________________ as I take this step of faith. I thank you in advance for meeting my need during these next 90 days.
