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September 2020

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September 20, 2020 – “Younique: From Depths to Glory” by Rev. Cody Sandahl

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1 Kings 19:9-18

9At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there. Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” 11He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; 12and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. 13When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 14He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” 15Then the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram. 16Also you shall anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah as prophet in your place. 17Whoever escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall kill; and whoever escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall kill. 18Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”

Introduction

This is the third week in our Younique series. We are trying to equip you to discover and live your divine design. Last week we tried to uncover the true you by having unflinching honesty with ourselves. So in week one we tried to discover our destination – where we’re going in this phase of life. In week two we tried to admit our starting point – where we are today…really. For week three, we’re trying to learn and grow even when things go…poorly.

And this leads me to a big misconception. Many people believe that smooth success is indicative of God’s presence. That is hogwash, baloney, and false all wrapped into one. In our first text, we heard from the greatest prophet of the Old Testament, Elijah. He had just won a HUGE victory, and yet his life was threatened and he ran away despondently. It wasn’t all smooth success.

We’ll hear in our text today that Jeremiah’s faithfulness to his calling from God did not win him admiration and support and riches and fame. It earned him infamy. It earned him derision. In our text today, his faithfulness is rewarded by getting beaten and thrown into stocks for people to mock. That’s not all smooth success.

Paul was imprisoned for his faith. John was trapped on Patmos when he wrote Revelation. That’s not all smooth success.

You really can’t measure your faithfulness by how smooth or successful your path is. There are way too many Biblical examples of faithful people experiencing bumpy and downtrodden paths. So if you’re experiencing smooth success right now, be careful about assuming that means God is on your side. And if you’re experiencing a bumpy and downtrodden path right now, know that it doesn’t mean God is against you. Maybe Jeremiah’s experience in our text today will shed some light.

For a little context, Jeremiah was prophesying up a storm! He had delivered countless powerful messages from God. But the most recent one had really raised the ire of the leaders. Let me give you the choicest little tidbit from Jeremiah’s most recent message from God: “I will make this city a horror, a thing to be hissed at; everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its disasters. And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and all shall eat the flesh of their neighbors in the siege.”

So, I gotta admit. I kinda understand the extreme negative reaction this message inspired within people. Telling people things are going to be so bad they’ll eat their sons and daughters and neighbors, that’s not even extreme. That leaves extreme in the dust on the far horizon. That’s gross and downright offensive, right?!? But it was God’s message to the people. And Jeremiah’s purpose was to speak the words God gave him. And so he did it. Listen to his reward for his faithfulness.

Jeremiah 20:1-14, 18

20Now the priest Pashhur son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. 2Then Pashhur struck the prophet Jeremiah, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the Lord. 3The next morning when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, The Lord has named you not Pashhur but “Terror-all-around.”

4For thus says the Lord: I am making you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon; he shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall kill them with the sword. 5I will give all the wealth of this city, all its gains, all its prized belongings, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them, and seize them, and carry them to Babylon. 6And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house, shall go into captivity, and to Babylon you shall go; there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely.

7O Lord, you have enticed me, and I was enticed; you have overpowered me, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day long; everyone mocks me. 8For whenever I speak, I must cry out, I must shout, “Violence and destruction!” For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. 9If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot. 10For I hear many whispering: “Terror is all around! Denounce him! Let us denounce him!” All my close friends are watching for me to stumble. “Perhaps he can be enticed, and we can prevail against him, and take our revenge on him.” 11But the Lord is with me like a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble, and they will not prevail. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten. 12O Lord of hosts, you test the righteous, you see the heart and the mind; let me see your retribution upon them, for to you I have committed my cause. 13Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hands of evildoers. 14Cursed be the day on which I was born! The day when my mother bore me, let it not be blessed!

18Why did I come forth from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and spend my days in shame?

Bad Days

Alexander was a school-age boy, and his day started off a little rough. He forgot to spit out his bubble gum before going to sleep, and now it was tangled in his hair. At breakfast, his brothers found prizes in their cereal boxes, but poor Alexander just had cereal with no prize at all. At school, his teacher didn’t appreciate his drawing and disqualified him from the drawing contest. Alexander said it was an invisible castle! The teacher said it was a blank piece of paper. At lunchtime, all of his friends had yummy desserts in their lunches. But Alexander’s mom forgot to pack a dessert in his. In light of his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, Alexander figured the only way to fix things would be to move to Australia where everything is obviously better.

Those are some of the highlights of the classic children’s book, “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.” In our text today, Jeremiah could identify with Alexander, because he was having his own terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Jeremiah was arrested. He was beaten. He was placed in stocks where everyone passing by could mock him. He was ostracized from his community. He spoke the truth but no one believed him. He followed his calling from the Almighty God, but this was his reward. Jeremiah was truly experiencing a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

In fact, Jeremiah wanted to just give up. In our first text today, Elijah also wanted to give up. Both of them cursed the day they were born. Jeremiah said in our text today, “Why did I come forth from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and spend my days in shame?” That’s about as direct and succinct as you can get. Maybe some of you can relate to that sentiment.

Nowhere Else to Go

Obviously, since we’re reading this prayer, Jeremiah didn’t give up. Why? Well he tells us in our text today. He says he tried to stop telling people God’s messages. He says he tried to stop caring about the injustice around him. He says he tried to stop caring about the religious hypocrisy around him. He says he tried to just fit in. But he couldn’t do it. He says when he tried to stop being who God made him to be, “then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.”

In other words, he had nowhere else to go. No one else to turn to. Where else could he find such certainty of purpose? What else could fill the hole within his soul? Who else could address the issues around him and within him other than God? He had nowhere else to go. He had no one else to turn to. He was weary from the consequences of following God, but he knew that God was the only one who could restore him.

There’s a song on Christian radio right now that says this to God: “You turn mourning to dancing. You give beauty for ashes. You turn shame into glory. You’re the only one who can. You turn graves into gardens. You turns bones into armies. You turn seas into highways. You’re the only one who can.”

When we’re having our own terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days, nothing else and no one else can actually meet us where we are and keep us afloat other than God. One more TV show won’t do it. One more video game won’t do it. One more website won’t do it. One more bowl of ice cream won’t do it. One more glass of wine won’t do it. Our Creator is the only one who can refill our empty souls. Maybe you’re trying to fill the hole in your soul with something else. Is it working? Or are you just as empty today as you were yesterday?

Our God is the only one who can turn mourning to dancing. Our God is the only one who can take our ashes and create beauty. Our God is the only one who can turn graves into gardens. He’s the only one who can. Jeremiah knows this. He’s not happy about it. But he knows it.

In fact, at the bottom of this dark well, Jeremiah rediscovered his calling. The handful of things he had left when he was this low reminded him of his purpose and calling. Those things he couldn’t stop doing – they were his true calling. He couldn’t stop sharing the truth that God gave him. He couldn’t stop caring about his society. He couldn’t stop caring about the faith or lack thereof of the people around him. He couldn’t stop speaking with God in prayer. Your true calling is something you can’t stop doing even if you try – and Jeremiah tried to stop. He just couldn’t stop. Jeremiah’s crisis of faith revealed timeless truths about himself.

And in fact, that’s our first tool for discovering and living the life that God dreamed for us in this phase of life. What are the things you can’t stop doing? If they are God-honoring instead of just pet peeves, they’re probably part of your calling.

For me, I can’t stop learning new things. I feel dead when I’m not learning a new idea, a new perspective, or a new skill. Learning is part of my divine design. Some people find their calling in having the courage to take risks for God. Others can’t stop being a blessing to those who are less fortunate. Others can’t stop providing encouragement to those around them. Some people can’t stop praying for people or praying for this world. Those things you can’t stop? If they are God-honoring instead of pet peeves they’re probably part of your divine design.

Michelangelo said, “The sculpture is already complete within the marble rock, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.” What’s left in your sculpture when everything superfluous has been chiseled away? What’s endemic to your being? What can you not stop doing? What must you do even if you don’t feel like it today? Or maybe what’s something you miss? Who were you earlier in your life, and why do you miss that aspect of who you were? Thinking about those things we must do, or can’t stop doing, or miss when we do stop them – that’s our first tool this week.

Next Right Thing

In the movie Frozen 2, Anna had just lost her sister and her best friend. She was alone, tired, hopeless. She was also having one of those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days. But this was part of her song in that moment.

“I’ve seen dark before, but not like this. This is cold, this is empty, this is numb. The life I knew is over; the lights are out. Hello darkness: I’m ready to succumb…How to rise from the floor, When it’s not you I’m rising for. Just do the next right thing. Take a step, step again. It is all that I can to do. The next right thing. I won’t look too far ahead. It’s too much for me to take. But break it down to this next breath, this next step. This next choice is one that I can make.” I don’t have the vocal talent to attempt to sing that for you. Be grateful that I know my limitations.

But I think there’s great wisdom in that song. Just do the next right thing. Don’t look too far ahead. Don’t get caught up in step two, three, four, and fifty. Just do the next right thing.

That’s eventually what Jeremiah decided to do. Once he realized that he couldn’t stop sharing God’s messages, that he couldn’t stop caring about certain things, he just decided to share the next message God gave him. And that’s what he did to get back in the game after his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. He just did the next right thing. He had to know what was at his core. He had to know how to define “the next right thing” by understanding his divine design. But the clarity he received in his darkness gave him just enough light to confidently take that single next step. That’s all.

An archer focuses their eyes on the very center of bull’s eye, because when you aim small you miss small. They don’t focus on the target – that’s too big. They don’t even focus on the bull’s eye – that’s still too big. They focus on a particular spot within the bull’s eye. One spot. Focus on just one spot. Focus on the next right thing. Aim at that small target, because if you aim small, you’ll miss small.

Our second tool this week is thinking about that one next right thing. If you have gained any clarity around your divine design during this series, what’s the next right thing God dreams for you during this phase of life? Just one thing!

As the great American cowboy philosopher Curly said in the movie City Slickers, “One thing, just one thing. You stick to that, and everything else don’t mean squat.” When he was asked, “But what’s the one thing?” Curly replied, “That’s what you’ve gotta figure out.”

Maybe for you that’s something in your faith – a spiritual practice to renew or add. Maybe for you that’s a God-honoring conviction to follow – finishing well or demonstrating kindness or speaking the truth in love. Maybe for you that’s an activity to commit to – learning and applying something God-honoring or investing in a particular relationship. What’s that one thing for you? What’s the next right thing? That’s our second tool this week.

Summary

Sisters and brothers, sometimes it is when we have nowhere else to go and no one else to turn to that we gain greater clarity around our divine design. Jeremiah discovered he couldn’t stop sharing God’s messages, and he couldn’t stop caring about justice and faithfulness in his society. And he couldn’t stop communicating with God.

What are some of your core convictions like that? What can’t you stop doing or caring about, even if you tried? Is that God-honoring, or just a pet peeve? And with that greater clarity around your divine design and your God-honoring convictions, what’s the next right thing? Just one thing! What’s the next right thing? I’d love to hear what your next right thing is so I can be praying for you. If everyone hearing this did one right thing, a lot of right things will have happened this week. I hope you’re one of them. Amen.

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September 13, 2020 – “Younique: Uncover the True You” by Rev. Cody Sandahl

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First Reading = Matthew 18:6-9

6“If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea.

7Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks! Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling block comes! 8“If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than to have two hands or two feet and to be thrown into the eternal fire. 9And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into the hell of fire.

Introduction

This is our second week in our series trying to discover our divine design – how we can live the life God dreamed for us during this phase of life. Last week we talked about gaining clarity around our purpose from God during this phase of life, and it doesn’t have to be big and grand. The two tools I gave you were imagining what you dream would be true about your life when someone writes your headstone, and then dreaming about your three year horizon.

This week we are looking at uncovering the true you. If last week was about where you’re going, then this week is about where you’re starting from today. And the key this week is to engage in extreme honesty with yourself. The famous physicist Richard Feynman once said, “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.”

So this week is an invitation to look unhaltingly, unwaveringly, unerringly at who and where and what you are today. No matter what you tell yourself, God isn’t fooled. So today let’s try to stop fooling ourselves and see what God sees.

In our text today, Jeremiah is passing along God’s admonishment and invitation to the people of Judah. God challenges them to return to him wholeheartedly, not just with their lips but with their whole beings. God acknowledges that it will be difficult and painful for them to put down some of their treasured sins and little white lies and diverging priorities and self-centered practices. But that wholehearted return is what God asks.

Jeremiah 4:1-4

4If you return, O Israel, says the Lord, if you return to me, if you remove your abominations from my presence, and do not waver, 2and if you swear, “As the Lord lives!” in truth, in justice, and in uprightness, then nations shall be blessed by him, and by him they shall boast.

3For thus says the Lord to the people of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns. 4Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, remove the foreskin of your hearts, O people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, or else my wrath will go forth like fire, and burn with no one to quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

Admitting Mistakes

Twenty-four years later, I still count this as one of the greatest commercials I have ever seen – especially since I still remember the product it was advertising. The commercial shows a montage of a man painstakingly painting the grass in the end zone of a football stadium. In fact, it’s the end zone of the Kansas City Chiefs, with their iconic red background and large block white lettering. The man looks at his completed work with a satisfied grin. And then one of the football players comes up and pats him on the back and says, “That’s great…but…who are the Chefs?” As the man realizes he left out a letter in the “Chiefs,” all he can say is, “Great googily-moogily” and shake his head.

Is it going to work if that man said, “Maybe no one will notice?” Of course not! Or would it work if he did what my son does what I tell him he skipped a letter in a word he’s learning to write? He slides a super skinny, tiny version of the letter in between the other letters. Could the painter slide a tiny little “I” between the “h” and “e”? That’s not going to look right come game time! Or could he, being unwilling to change anything, petition the NFL to rename the team to the “Chefs” before the game on Sunday to accommodate his own preference to not start over on the end zone painting?

No, his only course of action is to start over. It’s painful. It’s annoying. It’s time-consuming. But admitting the reality of his missing “I”, admitting that he wrote “Chefs” instead of “Chiefs”, and then fixing it – that’s his only way forward that has any value. Other people will notice if he just pretends it’s not true. Other people will notice if he just tries to slip a tiny little “I” in there to fix it shoddily. And the whole NFL won’t change the name of the team just because of the end zone painter’s preferences.

Now, that may sound pretty silly. It may seem silly to imagine the painter saying, “That doesn’t say Chefs! I don’t have a problem!” It may seem silly to imagine the painter saying, “Easy fix! I’ll just slap a little ‘I’ in there. That’ll be good enough. It could be worse!” It may seem silly to imagine the painter saying, “Well I think they should be renamed to the ‘Chefs!’”

It seems silly, doesn’t it? And yet…and yet…have you ever thought to yourself, “I don’t really have a problem?” Have you ever thought to yourself, “Well, what I’m doing isn’t right, but it could be worse!” Have you ever thought to yourself, “I don’t think God should do that or be that way! If God were truly loving…if God were truly just…if I were God…?” When I catch myself thinking thoughts like those, and those are pretty common thoughts, I try to imagine it coming from that end zone painter. Because I bet that’s just how silly I sound when looking at myself from God’s perspective.

As I said to start, this week is an invitation to look unhaltingly, unwaveringly, unerringly at who and where and what you are today. No matter what you tell yourself, God isn’t fooled.

So what do we need to do to uncover the true you? What do we need to do to get the excuses out of the way? What do we need to do to get the masks and the camouflage out of the way? What do we need to do to uncover the true you?

I live within walking distance of a trail. And when it dumps a foot of snow, I like to head out on the trail at night with my snowshoes. No one else is crazy enough to be out there. And everything is so calm, so serene, so smooth with all that snow on top of it. But if I didn’t know the terrain already, I would be taking a huge risk doing that. Because it may look smooth with a foot of snow on top of it, but under the surface there are holes, rocks, tree branches, and all manner of things that can trip me up.

What’s under the surface of your life and your soul? What looks OK on the surface, but maybe a foot down it’s a jumbled mess? Let’s be honest with ourselves since we’re not fooling God anyway.

God Cares About the Separation

And let’s also be honest with ourselves about another thing – God cares. God cares when we do things that lead us further from his presence. We know we have forgiveness in Jesus, but God still cares about we do, what we feel, and what we think.

It’s pretty obvious that God cares in our text from Jeremiah. Listen to how it starts. “If you return, O Israel, says the Lord, if you return to me, if you remove your abominations from my presence, and do not waver, and if you swear, “As the Lord lives!” in truth, in justice, and in uprightness, then nations shall be blessed by him, and by him they shall boast.” That’s pretty obvious, right? God cares.

But what’s less obvious is the breadth and depth of how God cares. God cares about the abominations – the big, obvious, headline-grabbing sins. But keep reading. God also cares about our faith, that we can swear “As the Lord lives!” So it’s not just right behavior, it’s also right faith.

But keep reading. God also cares about “truth…justice…uprightness,” our text says. So God cares about our personal actions and also our society and how we contribute to that society.

But keep reading. Who receives a blessing if the people get rid of the headline-grabbing sins, if the people return in faith to God, if the people invest in personal and societal truth, justice, and uprightness? Who benefits? The text says, “then the nations shall be blessed by him.” So God cares about Judah. God cares about Israel. But God also cares about all the nations, not just his chosen people.

If you’re keeping score at home, texts like this one contributed greatly to Jeremiah’s distinct lack of popularity. No one wants to hear how they need to get rid of their own abominations. People like to point out other people’s abominations, but not their own. No one wants to hear how they haven’t upheld God’s truth, how they haven’t invested in creating God’s justice on earth, how they haven’t lived an upright life in the eyes of the all-seeing Creator.

But in Jeremiah’s time they really didn’t like hearing how God cared about the nations. They wanted to hear about how God cared about their nation. They wanted to hear about how they were the chosen people in the promised land. They wanted to hear about how they were the shining beacon of faithfulness in a pagan world. They wanted to hear about how they were special – unique – as a nation. And yet we heard last week that Jeremiah was appointed to be a prophet to the nations, not just Judah or Israel. Jeremiah was repeatedly thrown in prison, ostracized, and attacked because people thought he wasn’t patriotic enough when he said God cared about the nations.

Jesus got the same reaction from people for many of the same reasons. In our first text today, we heard Jesus reaffirm that God still cares. “If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than to have two hands or two feet and to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into the hell of fire.”

Later in Matthew, Jesus addresses the religious leaders with an unpopular message. In Matthew 23 he says, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay tithes of mint, dill, and cumin, but you have disregarded the weightier matters of the Law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.” I love this image! Jesus is saying they’re so outwardly religious, they make sure to account for their home gardens when they tithe to the temple. Can you imagine making a trip to church to give a portion of your herb garden to the offering plate? It would certainly smell nice!

But he calls out the gap between their outward religiosity and their actual contributions to the things God cares about. They did what was visible and personal, but neglected the internal and the social. So God cares about religious hypocrisy. No one wants to hear about that, either. Jesus calling them out like this was one of the reasons the leaders killed Jesus.

So let’s recap some of the things God cares about. God cares about our faith in him above all else. God cares about about the big headline-grabbing sins. God cares about our commitment to the truth. God cares about our individual contributions to justice as a society. God cares about the uprightness of our internal life. God cares about what we do. God cares about what we see. God cares about what we say. God cares about what we think. God cares about Judah, Israel, and all nations. God cares about our faithful spiritual practices. And God cares about our religious hypocrisy.

Does anything on that list sting? Should anything on that list sting? It may hurt to look this honestly, but God used the image of plowing a field in our text from Jeremiah today. Plowing a field is literally tearing a hole in the soil and turning the surface soil upside down. It’s hard and destructive work. But it enables new life, new growth, a new harvest. Are you willing to plow the field even if it hurts? Because God cares about all of that and more!

Tools

But remember that our goal this week is to uncover the true YOU. We aren’t trying to uncover the true THEM! I bet when you heard that list of things God cares about, you could picture other people who do those things. I bet you know people who you believe are committing headline-grabbing sins, or disregarding the truth, or neglecting justice, or failing to live an upright internal life, or showing religious hypocrisy.

That may be true. But knowing what’s separating THEM from God doesn’t help YOU draw closer to God. Where do you need to return to God? Where do you need to care about something God cares about? Where do you need to be faithful to Jesus instead of being a modern-day Pharisee? We’re looking in the mirror, not looking through the window today. And yes, I know that’s uncomfortable. It’s uncomfortable for me, too. Some things on that list sting for me, too.

Each week we’re going to give you tools to actually apply these concepts to your life. So here are a few tools to help you uncover the TRUE you as God sees you – the ups and the downs, the well-done’s and the warts, the sinner and the saved.

For the first tool, consider the different major chapters of your life. Those chapters could be chronological or thematic – you can decide how to divide up your life. Within each chapter, consider what lies you were living and what Gospel truths were trying to set you free.

For example, when I was in high school I believed several lies about who God is. I believed that my emotions were negative, so I tried to squash them into nothingness. That’s a lie. I also believed that God would only accept me if I achieved perfection or something really close to it. That’s a lie. I battled with hopelessness. That’s a lie.

But I also had a firm foundational belief that Jesus was God. I had a firm foundational belief that I could talk with Jesus and that he would interact with me and my life rather than being distant and uninterested. Those are Gospel truths that were trying to set me free from the lies I was living.

What lies were you living in the chapters of your life? What Gospel truths were trying to set you free in the name of Christ? And once you’ve trained yourself to think that way, apply it to your current chapter of life. What lies might you be living right now? And what Gospel truths are trying to set you free in the name of Christ? Lies and truths – that’s the first tool.

The second tool is pretty simple. If you want to uncover something that is separating you from God and separating you from the life that God dreamed for you, just look for this internal thought. Whenever you hear yourself thinking about something you’re doing, “Well it could be worse…” that’s an alarm bell. Jesus said we should pluck out our eye if it causes us to sin. I can’t imagine him saying, “that thing you’re doing is OK, because at least you’re not doing it as bad as those eight people over there.” That’s not how God works. Jesus grants us forgiveness, but he still calls us to change our lives and live as God dreamed for us. An action that could be worse can still pull you away from God. A hurtful thought that doesn’t make it’s way out of your mouth can still poison your heart. So the second tool is to watch out for “it could be worse” and bring that to God in prayer intentionally.

Summary

Sisters and brothers, remember what Richard Feynman said: “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.”

This week is an invitation to look unhaltingly, unwaveringly, unerringly at who and where and what you are today. No matter what you tell yourself, God isn’t fooled. So today let’s try to stop fooling ourselves and see what God sees. Even if “it could be worse,” God still cares. So I invite you to take some time this week to consider what separates you from God. We’re not wondering what other people are doing, we’re pointing our finger through the window, we’re looking at ourselves in the mirror.

What do you see in the mirror? What does God see in the mirror? Amen.

Younique Bulletin Cover

September 6, 2020 – “Younique: Discover Your Divine Design” by Rev. Cody Sandahl

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First Reading = Ephesians 1:1-14

1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus: 2Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. 5He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight 9he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 10as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, 12so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. 13In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; 14this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

Introduction

We are starting our new series looking at the prophet Jeremiah as a window into discovering our divine design. In simpler terms, we’re going to try to equip you to understand your purpose from God for this phase of life, and then encourage you to be intentional about seeking that purpose. That’s a bold aim, but I believe we can make some real progress on that front if you really want to and if you’re willing to put in some time during the week.

I can’t tell you your purpose through a sermon. But I can give you some tools to use in seeking your purpose from God. And if you attend one of our groups that’s looking at this same material, you’ll get even more tools to seek and understand your purpose from God.

For a little background on Jeremiah, he was a prophet for about forty years. And they were pivotal years in the history of the Jewish people. Jeremiah’s ministry straddled the great destruction of Jerusalem, the destruction of God’s temple, and the exile of the Jewish leaders. He shared the word of God to the people when they had false hope. He shared the word of God when the people thought God had abandoned them forever. He shared the word of God when he was celebrated (which was rare). And he shared the word of God when he was despised and rejected (which was just another day at the office for him).

We don’t know exactly how old Jeremiah was when he became a prophet. In our text today he complains that he is too young, but it’s not clear whether he’s a literal child around the age of twelve or if he was being figurative. Most scholars peg Jeremiah in his mid-teens to maybe early twenties at the start of his ministry.

So now that you know a little bit about Jeremiah, let’s hear how God called him to his purpose as a prophet – one who speaks the truth that God reveals to them.

Jeremiah 1:1-10

1The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, 2to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. 3It came also in the days of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of King Zedekiah son of Josiah of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month.

4Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, 5“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” 6Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” 7But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a boy’; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you, 8Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.” 9Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me, “Now I have put my words in your mouth. 10See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”

Slow Discernment

When I was in seminary learning to become a pastor, I had two basic paths laid out for me. On one hand, I was a lifelong Presbyterian attending a Presbyterian seminary while also pursuing the multi-year Presbyterian ordination process for pastors. On the other hand, I had helped start a new, independent church before seminary, and I could see staying with that or even joining the staff of another independent church. In other words, I was going to seminary to learn to become a pastor. I was still deciding if I would be a Presbyterian pastor.

And God did give me clarity on that question. All I had to do was think about it. Pray about it. Study it. Gain experiences on both sides of my choice. And I had to keep doing that for three years. Only then did God provide clarity. And that clarity wasn’t a thunderbolt from the sky moment. It was just a sense of peace that my next step was to become a Presbyterian associate pastor at a church where I could learn from the head pastor. And that’s what I did after seminary. It just took three years to settle on that.

So I could tell you, “God told me to become a Presbyterian associate pastor after seminary,” and that would be true. But it would also distill three intense years of wrestling into a single sentence. In a similar way, I believe Jeremiah’s sense of calling from God that we heard in our text today was actually a growing sense of purpose that came to Jeremiah by wrestling with God for a couple of years. What we have in our text today is probably, in my reading of Jeremiah’s timeline, distilling a couple of years’ worth of wrestling with God into a few sentences.

I mean, can’t you imagine a teenager sensing a call from God and wanting to say “no” to it? Can’t you imagine a teenager telling God, “I’m not ready! I’m not even sure about what you’re saying!” Really, let’s be honest. Can’t you imagine someone of any age doing that?

I share this idea that Jeremiah might have experienced and understood his calling from God over a span of a couple of years because I think it’s a lot easier to relate to. Contrast Jeremiah’s conversation with God with some other key call stories from the Bible. Remember Moses? Yeah, he talked to God via a burning bush. Elisha? He saw his mentor taken into heaven on a chariot of fire and knew he was called to take the prophet mantle.

Isaiah? Here’s a little snippet of his experience from Isaiah 6: “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.”

In the New Testament, Saul was blinded by a vision of Jesus and healed by a Christian. Mary received a visit from the angel Gabriel. Gabriel also visited Zechariah the father of John the Baptist to foretell John’s birth. Zechariah didn’t believe the angel and was made mute until John’s birth.

Those are all really intense experiences! Contrast the burning bush, the chariot of fire, the singing heavenly seraphs, the vision of Jesus, the visits by the angel Gabriel – contrast those with Jeremiah. “Now the word of the Lord came to me…”

Even if that was a literal voice, that’s pretty tame in the space of Biblical callings from God. And if it really was a two year process of wrestling with God, then Jeremiah’s call story is downright common. That’s how I figured out my next step after seminary. That’s how lots of people discover their purpose from God – after a long period of wrestling with God.

If you want to know your purpose from God, you’re probably not going to get a burning bush or a chariot of fire or a visit by an angel. If you do, please let me know! But if you wrestle with God about your purpose, if you spend time seeking that purpose and praying on that purpose and asking God to reveal that purpose, you are pretty likely to reach clarity eventually. It might not happen within the next six weeks, but then again it might!

I’m challenging everyone hearing this. If you don’t know your purpose from God and you want to know it, set aside some time and energy and mental space and soul space to wrestle with God for the next six weeks. Maybe this strange year we’re in is actually giving you the space to see things from a different vantage point. Maybe God can sneak some light through the cracks of your 2020 life. But if you just kinda sorta wish God would reveal his purpose for your life, that’s not likely to result in any divine revelations.

Jesus told us to love the Lord our God with “ALL your heart and with ALL your soul and with ALL your mind.” Not a little side corner of our hearts. Not the spare room in our souls. Not the leftovers of our minds. ALL of our hearts, ALL of our souls, ALL of our minds. If you want to know God’s purpose for your life, put some time into it over the next six weeks. Again, my goal for this series is to equip you to wrestle with God about your purpose and how to live it in this phase of life. But I can only give you the tools. I can’t wield them for you.

Destiny is a Big Word

But I want to address one of the biggest obstacles most people face when they’re trying to discover their divine design – their purpose from God. Many people think that having a purpose from God is something of grand proportions. Like Luke Skywalker destroying the Death Star or overthrowing the Empire. That’s a grand destiny, to be sure. But did you know you can have a purpose that is just as big as your life? As a parent, part of my purpose is contained within my children. No one’s going to make a movie about that. If they do, I want Brad Pitt to play me. Just sayin’.

In 2 Kings 5, there’s a foreign general named Naaman who suffers from leprosy. He hears that Elisha – he of the chariot of fire call story – might be able to heal him. But Elisha won’t even see him. He sends a messenger to tell General Naaman to wash himself in the Jordan river seven times and he would be healed. And Naaman is furious! He’s insulted because Elisha won’t see him face to face. He’s insulted because Elisha wants him to take seven baths. As if he hadn’t already bathed a few times over the years!

But one of Naaman’s servants says, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!” So Naaman follows the simple instructions begrudgingly and he’s healed.

I tell you this because I was once like Naaman. Some days I still have Naaman thoughts. “If God would give me a big task, I would do it!” But what if God gives me a small task? What if God gives you a purpose that’s too small to be made into a movie? What if God gives you a purpose that almost no one will ever notice other than you, God, and maybe a couple other people? Will you be as faithful in that small task as you think you would be if you got a visit from the angel Gabriel?

Have you ever looked at a painting or watched a movie or heard a song and thought, “That was OK?” That was blah? That was generic? I’ve thought that even about some well-reviewed movies and some famous paintings. But other paintings and other movies and other songs move me! My family loves the movie Captain Ron. It’s hard to go a whole conversation in my family without at least one Captain Ron reference. My parents have not one but TWO copies of the DVD just in case one dies!

I can’t tell you how many times I have quoted one of the fabulous lines from Captain Ron to someone. And they just stare at me. I think I have only met two other people outside my family who have seen Captain Ron, and I have quoted it to hundreds of people. All of you are missing out, I tell you!

Most people don’t know about it, but that movie is part of the fabric of my family of origin! It may not be a classic to anyone else, but it is cinema royalty to me!

The life that God dreamed for you doesn’t have to win an Oscar. The life that God dreamed for you doesn’t have to be famous. The life that God dreamed for you doesn’t have to make the history books. It just has to be the life that God dreamed for YOU. Your purpose from God needs to be faithful to God, not worthy of a movie script. Maybe it’s like Captain Ron to my family, and no one knows it but you and God. But if it’s the purpose God had in mind for you, if it’s the life God dreamed for you, it’s a beautiful and heavenly thing.

But here’s the challenge with the smaller purposes that most of us have. The challenge is live that purpose uniquely as God dreamed for you instead of generically as anyone could do it. There might be a bunch of people hearing this who have similar purposes from God for this phase of their lives.

There might be twenty people hearing this whose purpose from God right now is to pass along their faith to their grandchildren. OK. That’s great! But how did God design you to do that? What does God hope you will do this month in pursuit of that purpose?

Are you the fun one? Are you the quiet but respected one? Are you near or far from the grandkids? Have your kids followed Jesus, or is faith skipping a generation? Are your grandkids curious about faith or antagonistic or apathetic? All of these questions affect how God designed you to fulfill that purpose right now in your situation.

So the challenge if you have a purpose like that – one that could be similar to dozens of people’s purposes from God – the challenge is to actually do something about it instead of just letting it float along generically. How can you be intentional about your purpose if it’s something more day-to-day like passing faith to the grandkids? How can you leverage your personality or your experiences or your whatever to achieve that purpose? You don’t need a big, earth-shifting purpose to be intentional about it.

Tools

My great-grandmother – we called her Mamaw – didn’t want anyone to know her true age. She was viscerally opposed to anyone knowing how old she was, and she wasn’t playing around about it. She ran a cemetery, and her deceased husband was already buried there. In fact, her own headstone was sitting there already. And it listed her name, her birth date, and a dash waiting for her eventual death date to be engraved. One time when we went to visit the cemetery, my brother looked at her headstone with her birth date engraved and he exclaimed, “Mamaw! Now we know how old you are!”

She slowly turned, winked at him, and said impishly, “Don’t believe everything you read!”

So she may or may not have lied on her own tombstone. But I want you to think about telling the truth on your tombstone. Here’s one tool that can help you figure out your divine design – your purpose from God. If you could choose what someone would truthfully write on your headstone to summarize your life, what would you choose? What would God want someone to be true about your life when they write your headstone?

One dearly departed husband put “I told you I was sick” on his tombstone. So when his wife passed away she engraved on her headstone, “And I was sick of hearing it.” Rodney Dangerfield famously put on his headstone, “There goes the neighborhood.”

More meaningfully, someone put on their headstone, “Raised four beautiful daughters with only one bathroom…and still there was love.” Now that’s saying something!

What would you want written about you? What do you hope is true of you at the end of your life? What does God hope is true of your life? That’s one tool for discovering your divine design, your purpose from God.

The second tool is a little more specific. Imagine three years from now. What do you hope is true three years from now? If you could pray for something earnestly to be true three years from now, what would you pray for? Let’s go back to that grandkids example. What if, instead of saying you hope to pass your faith along to your grandkids, you narrow that down to say within three years two of my grandkids will exhibit interest in their faith? Which two? What will you do about it over the next three years? Over the next year? Over the next six months?

That’s the three year horizon. What’s a Godly dream for three years from now? Write it down as specifically as you can. And then start thinking about how you can contribute to that tangibly over the next few months.

We’ve been dreaming about that three-year horizon as a church. For example, we often hear that people wish there were more younger people at our church. Almost every church in America wishes that, by the way. But let’s roll with it. In three years, what do we dream for our church in terms of seeing more younger people at our church?

I’ve recently thrown out a potential way to quantify that as a three year horizon dream. Within three years, our church will have grown relationships with 50 people under the age of 50 deep enough that we know how to pray for them each month. I call that Compassionate Relationships when we know someone well enough to pray for them specifically and regularly. So if our church dreams to have compassionate relationships with 50 people under the age of 50 within three years, what should we be doing over the next six months? How should that affect our goals for 2021?

You might be wondering why we hired a youth director in the middle of a pandemic. Well first off, we’ve been trying to hire the right youth director for almost two years, so it’s about time. But second, we can’t reach 50 people under 50 without someone pouring into our youth and their families. And thanks to your generosity for the last few years and especially this year, we were able to confidently hire the right person as our youth director in the middle of a pandemic. Your faithful generosity empowered our investment in our church’s three year dream. Thank you!

Another three year dream is that every person in our congregation has compassionate relationships across multiple generations. We don’t just want children knowing children and youth knowing youth and adults knowing adults. We dream of compassionate relationships across multiple generations like the best family reunion this side of the Mississippi!

Last year we told you we dreamed of being a church that is exceptionally loving to children and their families. We asked you to sign the children’s ministry support promise. We asked you to learn the names of children you see at worship and greet them by name. And many of you did it! Guess when our children’s ministry started growing? When many of you started doing that. Children want to come back to that church where nice people know their name. You did that! Thank you!

This year, Kate is asking you to write individual notes of love, encouragement, and support to the children of FPCL since we can’t see them in-person right now. Write a note as long or as short as you want, mail it to Kate at the church address by September 11. You don’t know which kid will get your note, so don’t try to put their name on it. Write one note of encouragement and love and support. Write two notes. Write 21 notes if you want to reach every kid in our church!

If you want to see more younger people in our church, write a note! It helps us to be exceptionally loving to children and their families! Let’s surprise the children with a deluge of notes! A flood of notes! We can do this together! You can write a note even in COVID quarantine! You can write a note no matter how old or young you are! So come on! Let’s do this!

Summary

Sisters and brothers, I got a little fired up there talking about putting our church’s purpose into action. And that’s because my purpose from God is to unleash potential in the name of Christ. When I see what’s possible through Jesus, I want to see it become reality. That gets me out of bed in the morning.

Well, actually my children get me out of bed earlier than I want to in the morning. But unleashing potential in the name of Christ is what keeps me going. That potential doesn’t have to be grand. It doesn’t have to be worthy of a movie script. It just has to be God’s dream for an actual person or an actual group like our church. Unleashing that potential, striving for God’s dream for us, that’s my purpose.

So my dream for you during this series is that you get a much clearer glimpse of the life God dreams for you. If you seek that clarity. If you invest in understanding God’s dream for your life. And if you then start working toward God’s dream for your life, then God will be on the move in your life and in our midst. Can you imagine, can you dream what that would look like? Let’s unleash that potential in the name of Christ! Amen.