Tangible Kingdom – Old Ways, New Ways
Illustration of iron and steel wool – set me on fire God!
For God to take us on a new path in this Tangible Kingdom, He needs to remake us. Next week, my son Ken will talk about a new heart that God proposes to give us. The last couple of weeks, we talked about church and the Kingdom in a different way that perhaps you ever considered before. It’s a new way to live. Life in grace, life filled with a delightful whimsical connection with our God. God is looking to remake your life even though you don’t realize it. For example:
May 25, 1979. Denis Waitley was having a bad day. Everything he did to try to make his flight out of O’Hare to LA seemed doomed to failure. Denis was literally running through the terminal to try to get inside the doors but he was seconds late. He pleaded with the agent to open the doors for him. After all, He was an important guy. He had to make that flight for a speaking engagement in LA. The agent was not impressed and Denis missed flight 191. He stormed out of the boarding area and waited for more than 20 minutes at a line to reschedule his flight. Just as he got to the ticket counter, an announcement over the intercom changed his life. The plane that he missed, Flight 191 from Chicago to LA had crashed on takeoff. There were no survivors. All 258 passengers plus 13 crew and two people on the ground lost their lives that day. For some unexplainable reason, Denis got a new life. He never returned his ticket for a refund; instead he put it on a wall in his office to remind himself of God’s grace.
Life can be jumpstarted just like that! Peter was minding his own business, which happened to be the fishing business. Luke tells the story like this:
Luke 5: 1-11 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, 2 he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch." 5 Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets." 6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. 8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" 9 For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 10 and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men." 11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.
Ever feel that way? Go away from me Lord, I am a sinful man.
Jesus saw Simon’s fear – fear of failure, fear of a meaningless life. Jesus went there and healed it. “Don’t be afraid. From now on, you will catch men.”
We don’t know about Peter’s childhood years. Probably his father was a fisherman and his father before that. He no doubt loved God, but his humble job never allowed his mind to entertain the idea of
Jesus doesn’t seem put off by whatever old ways you have walked. Paul was a drastic example; he was persecuting Christians to the death. God set him on a new path, making full use of Paul’s zeal but in a different direction.
Our earliest memories often define the direction we're going. Mortimer Adler said “Discover your earliest memory and then ‘so life is’.” My earliest memory is of moving to a new house on Summit Street standing behind the wheel of a truck. Maybe that's why I love to travel to go to new places. Some people have early memories that are painful. Life was scary, insecure, filled with pain.
George William Russell Irish poet “Germinal”
In ancient shadows and twilights where childhood had strayed, The world’s great sorrows were born and its heroes were made. In the lost boyhood of Judas, Christ was betrayed.
Judas must have had some memory that made him who he was. He was predisposed to betray, not predestined. He had a choice; we’ll never know what that memory was. Judas’ memory might have been the thing that propelled him to want to be part of a kingdom, to want to have riches, to want to rule, to be in charge.
King David was the runt of the litter, his Father referred to him as ‘qatan’, the youngest – but a better translation is “the worthless or unimportant one” His brothers looked down on him, treating him with distain. And yet it propelled David into becoming a king. It also propelled David into the arms of Bathsheba.
How do we take hold of our memories that threaten to undo us? Many times we memorize and replay the memories of pain and disappointment. What if we walked a new path? When Jesus set out the way of the Kingdom (Sermon on the Mount – Matt. 5-7) Over and over again, Jesus started a new path with these words, “You have heard it said… But I say to you…” You can’t live in this Kingdom using old ways, old rules!
What if we paid attention to good memories and retold and wrote about those moments when good things that happened in our lives? Even bad things turn out to be good!
Phil 4:8 – a great life verse
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of respect, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if something is excellent or praiseworthy, think about these things.
You can’t get this in the nightly news or in much of the media. You have to take control of your life, your thoughts. What would happen if you made a Thanksgiving Journal – like Ann Voscamp did – One Thousand Gifts? What if you determined to write a Book of Blessing? Whether it gets published or not, who cares? The point of the book is to share the 100’s of good things that have come your way, big and small. What if that book was your legacy to your children? In the meantime, what if you read and reread that book to yourself to remind yourself of the goodness of God, God’s provision?
Or you could do what I have been doing for the past 15 years or so. I am writing devotional bibles. Notes and underlined verses, encouragement, occasional humor, many of you in this room have one. I estimate it takes about 200 hours to do one Bible. It has changed my life. I pray it will change others’ life. One day my voice will be silent.
You can let every experience define or refine you. Too often we have allowed bad experiences to define us; it's time to walk a new path. Let all life’s experiences work to refine you, to sharpen you, to reshape you into the image of God. That’s His plan!
Post-imagining is a gift you can use. Instead of assuming that every detail of your past experience is correct as you recall it, imagine first of all that Christ is there. Let Christ help you imagine the reasons things that happened the way that they did, reasons that were previously were unknown to you. If this seems to be an impossible thing to do; keep this in mind, we all distort our memories.
The ones that were good we round out to be even better – remember the good old days? Or the big fish that you caught. Or that amazing game you played? If we can be flexible with good memories, why not reshape your not-so-good memories?
I had a broken relationship with someone I love very deeply because the interpretation of their memories painted me as someone who was horrible and with horrible intentions. I have had to fight the battle to write that person out of my memories, even though there are thousands of good memories I have of them. I also need to fight the urge to remember only the negative memories of that person, or else I am left with a distorted and unrealistic memory of them too.
We also need to manage our imagination. We can use our imagination to find ways to punish people who harm us or to Bless them. We can use our imagination to indulge in lustful thoughts or loving thoughts. We can use our imagination in the future, not to think of how things will fail, but how things might succeed. This is not new age stuff, the Bible says in Proverbs as a man thinks so is he.
Life is lived forward but it’s replayed backwards. We look back into what is happened. But God starts with the end in mind and then works forward his plan for us. His Predestination is for us to be His kids and that is how He works in our lives every day.
The role of whimsy – not coincidence, but God speaking. As a 31 yr old young man I went to a church conference, bumped into an old friend from Madison WI, who happens to be doing missionary work in Kenya. I tell my wife, and she hears the voice of God speaking, “Send Ken to Africa.” Secretly she contacts Mike now from Kenya, and arranges the mother of all trips; 40 days and 40 nights in Africa. So I get my passport, shots, visas, all set to go, when the church I was attending has a meeting. The church had been growing so much that they needed to add on. Shelley and I put our heads together and prayed. God – how much can we give to this project. God told us both the same number. $1400. That’s just about $3000 in today’s dollars. That’s over and above our tithing. That’s a lot of money for a family of 5 making $28,000 a year. Problem is, that was the amount set aside for my plane ticket to and from Africa. Goodbye Africa – hello room for the church to grow, no contest, right? But then, God did something amazing we never bargained for. He gave me a painting job that would replace completely the money we pledged. So off to Africa I went. But the Whimsy didn’t end there. On the first leg of the journey, my flight out of JFK was delayed 5 hours. God placed an angel, a messenger in my path. Do you have the time? She was going to Kenya to be married. She gave me a 5 hr crash course on Kenyan culture. Then came the 8 hour flight to Frankfort, and God placed in the seat next to me Monty Crisp. Monty worked in the field for World Vision. Tons of useful information that would help keep me out of trouble. Finally, waiting for a connection to Nairobi, I sat with Mary Kenyatta. Her father was Jomo Kenyatta, the man who Kenya was named after.
Why did God send me to Africa? I went there thinking it was to change Africa, but in the end, it was to change me. Up until that time, I had this idea that the best way for me to be a missionary for the Lord was to go overseas. (and I truly love doing that!) But God wanted to send me to a much more challenging mission field. Home. I came home with a conviction that to plant churches in the NE Ohio is more strategic than in another culture. Chesterland was the 3rd church I helped to plant, and I am praying that there will be many more before my work here on earth is done.
To reach more people, we need to be all in. Every one of us knows people who need the Lord. God will light a path for them if you are willing to walk in it. God will speak to you in whimsical ways, if you will listen, and obey. Being willing is most of the deal. Follow-through is what makes it happen. If you want to live a new life, live new ways, then you have to get out of the rut you are in.
Next Step Dare me to be like Jesus
It is ridiculous to think that you can keep on living the same way and get dramatically different results. Tiny adjustments won’t cut it either. Jesus calls every person who follows him to rethink their lives, to restructure, to live in a different direction. That is what we want to see happen at POP.
I want to invite you to join us in this new path!
1. Be part of a Discipleship group – meet a minimum of 1 time a month to learn how to be a disciple that makes disciples. The pastors at POP are available to explain this process and answer questions – they would like to have you over to cast vision for Disciple making. Connection card, write Interested or Not so we can get back with you.
2. Bless card – explain how to make use of it! We want to enlarge the area of our influence! We want to extend the Kingdom of God – not only by increasing our outreach, but by starting new works in new places. (in December POP gave almost $28,000 - much of it for IJM and Haiti)
3. Paving the Way. Help us finish the work we started on the parking lot. We need to pave both Mentor and Chesterland in order to be good stewards of the property, and to make room for those who want to join us making a difference at POP. Cost for both projects is just over $50,000, but we already have pledges to match giving. A special collection on Easter will help us know if we can do the paving this summer. Would you please pray and obey?
Going deeper
1. Which will you do, write a Thanksgiving journal, Book of Blessings, Dev. Bible?
2. Who do you want to write on your BLESS card?
3. Will you take a step out in faith and experiment with Discipleship?
