codysandahl

Sermons

November 11, 2018 - "Arise and Build: Investing" by Rev. Cody Sandahl

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Lay Reader = Matthew 6:19-31

19“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; 20but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; 23but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24“No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

25“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 28And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’

Introduction

We are still tracking the story of Nehemiah, who was able to envision a better future for his people and then rally the help he needed to make it happen. Last week we saw how Nehemiah prayed when he was overwhelmed, when life attacked him from every side and even from within. This week we fast forward a few years as the work on the wall continued.

Last year one of the hurricanes that battered the Texas coast pretty much wiped out the island where I used to live – Port Aransas. And my family did a number of trips down there to help the recovery effort as much as they could. And my dad reported that there were a number of people who had driven down to the island with their trucks full of water bottles. Not to give away, mind you, to sell at a substantially marked up rate. That’s called profiteering. Of course he said this laughing, because there was a whole parking lot filled with free bottles courtesy of the government just a few blocks away, so they went home with most of their water bottles unsold.

But isn’t that so human? Whenever there’s a disaster, there’s someone ready to make quick buck off it. Whenever there is suffering or trials or even just everyone is focused elsewhere – there’s always someone asking, “How can I profit off of this?” The same was true during the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem.

The people were spending so much time out working on the wall, they didn’t have time to make a living. And there were people ready to give them loans – at excessive interest rates. Pretty soon the work on the wall was grinding to a halt because of the financial situation of the workers. So Nehemiah had to step in, break up the racket, and get everything humming along again.

In contrast to the profiteering of these money lenders, here’s how Nehemiah used his personal power and influence.

Nehemiah 5:14-19

14Moreover from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year to the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, twelve years, neither I nor my brothers ate the food allowance of the governor. 15The former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens on the people, and took food and wine from them, besides forty shekels of silver. Even their servants lorded it over the people. But I did not do so, because of the fear of God. 16Indeed, I devoted myself to the work on this wall, and acquired no land; and all my servants were gathered there for the work. 17Moreover there were at my table one hundred fifty people, Jews and officials, beside those who came to us from the nations around us. 18Now that which was prepared for one day was one ox and six choice sheep; also fowls were prepared for me, and every ten days skins of wine in abundance; yet with all this I did not demand the food allowance of the governor, because of the heavy burden of labor on the people. 19Remember for my good, O my God, all that I have done for this people.

Honest

Do you remember a few years ago there were earthquakes in a Chinese province and schools collapsed? Children were trapped – and some killed – in the rubble of their very schools. It was tragic. In the midst of that tragedy, one pastor told his congregation that he felt God had called him to send a million dollars to help the families and the rebuilding. And the response was huge. He told a pastor I knew that he had raised more than three million.

So the pastor I knew asked him if he was going to send the extra two million to the families or to more rebuilding. And he replied, “Oh, no. God called me to send a million to China. The other two million are just God’s way of blessing me for my faithfulness.”

If you feel like you just threw up a little in the back of your mouth, you’re in good company.

That just feels icky, right?

But why does it feel so icky? In other contexts, getting more money than you need is called profit.

To me it feels wrong because it’s dishonest. If someone sends in money for China, that money should go to China.

The Cause

To rewind to that Texas hurricane, one of the star players on the Houston Texans, JJ Watt, setup an online fundraiser to help out the city of Houston. He couldn’t get home due to the hurricane, so from a hotel room in Dallas he created a quick fundraiser with the goal of raising $200,000 for hurricane relief. Three weeks later, he had raised a shade north of $41 million. So God blessed him with $40,800,000 of personal blessing, right?

No, JJ Watt kept expanding the relief effort to match the scale of the donations. They have rebuilt more than 600 homes, 420 childcare centers, distributed 26 million meals, provided health services to those in need, rebuilt Boys and Girls Clubs, and setup a 12 month plan to continue food distribution and recovery efforts.

Reflecting back on it, JJ Watt recently said, “As I reflect on the events of Hurricane Harvey one year ago, the memories of destruction and devastation remain, but they are accompanied by memories of hope, selflessness and the beauty of the human spirit.”

That’s not icky, that’s inspiring!

So what’s different about those two approaches? They both sent a lot of money to help needy people. But the pastor seems to have been looking out for ways to bless himself, and JJ Watt seems to have been looking out for ways to bless his city.

Nehemiah says of his time as governor, “I devoted myself to the work on this wall, and acquired no land; and all my servants were gathered there for the work…yet with all this I did not demand the food allowance of the governor, because of the heavy burden of labor on the people.”

So which does that sound like? Does that sound more like the pastor keeping $2 million for himself? Or more like JJ Watt expanding the relief effort to match the generosity?

Does that sound like someone who’s in it for himself? Or does that sound like someone who’s in it for the cause?

Does that feel icky? Or does that feel inspiring?

Nehemiah gave up influence and power for the cause. Nehemiah invested his own money in the project rather than enriching himself.

I had lunch with a church member last week, and we were reflecting on some of the difficult times helping one of the very challenging people in our city. And our basic summary was, “Sometimes doing the Lord’s work can be very annoying!” Ever experienced that?

But if we do it anyway, because it’s the Lord’s work, God notices. If we only serve when we feel good afterwards, that’s like praying, “Dear God, I’ll do whatever you want me to do…as long as it’s fun and easy and rewarding.” Or maybe, “God, please give me the chance to prove that winning the lottery won’t spoil my heart.”

When you are thinking about serving somewhere, is it about you and your convenience and what you get out of it? Or is it about the cause and the work of the Lord? Think about that for real. Jesus tells his followers that if they do really amazing spiritual things, but then they tell everyone about it to gain admiration – they’ve already received their reward. But if they’re willing to serve without being noticed, God notices.

Is it about the cause? Or is it about me?

We had our first movie night this past Friday – the decorations are still up in Ficklin Hall for the Stewardship Potluck, and even if you aren’t staying for the potluck go take a look. It looks fabulous.

But the movie we watched was the Incredibles 2, and there’s this funny exchange between the superhero dad and the superhero mom. In the movie, superheroes have been made illegal, and either the mom or the dad have to go get a normal job instead of being superheroes. And the dad says, “We need to change that law so that I…I mean our kids have the choice to use their super powers!” He was trying to make it about their kids, but slipped and admitted he wanted to be able to use his own super powers. It was about him.

So when you do something nice for a friend or coworker or neighbor – is it about them or about you wanting to be thanked or recognized? If you serve at the Community Dinner or somewhere else in the church – is it about the cause or about getting recognized? When you donate to an organization or to this church – is it about getting what you want, a vote for every dollar donated, or is it about investing in the cause?

Faithfulness

It has been said that the Christian church is one of the only organizations on earth that exists primarily for the benefit of the people who aren’t already its members. There are plenty of organizations designed to benefit their own members. But Jesus gives us a different task. A different mission. A different goal.

In our first text today, Jesus gave some pretty direct teaching. “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be.” “No one can serve two masters.” “Do not worry about your life.” “Worry won’t add a single day to your life.” Very direct, very challenging teachings. And a little later, Jesus ends it with this summary: “But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

That’s the paradox of our faith. If you want to be respected, doing everything to gain respect won’t make you respected. Seeking God’s purposes and God’s causes and God’s ways makes you respected.

Doing everything in your power to gain recognition and affirmation won’t leave you recognized and affirmed and fulfilled. Seeking God’s purposes and God’s causes and God’s ways will do that.

Every church says they could use more members, right? But doing everything in our power to get more people won’t bring more people. Seeking God’s purposes and God’s causes and God’s ways will do that.

In one of the books I read recently, there’s this guy who really had his life transformed by a church. He visited one day, and he was so touched and moved by the personal and thoughtful followup that he joined the church and got involved. He was later asked to be a part of the evangelism committee. And that’s where they showed him the script they use – the same script that someone had used on him. Suddenly he didn’t feel like it was a personal and thoughtful followup. It felt like a trick to him instead. He felt like a statistic. It felt icky to him.

So the call of Nehemiah and the call of Jesus today are both the same – where is God calling you to be faithful? It might be affirming, it might not. It might gain you admiration and recognition, it might not. It might come with certain perks like Nehemiah’s job, but in faithfulness do you take those perks or like Nehemiah do you not? Faithfulness might be exciting. Or it might be annoying.

In our faith, what we do and how we do it both matter. The end does not justify the means. So what does faithfulness look like in your life this week? Whatever that is, make sure you don’t make it feel icky along the way. Amen.

Sermons

November 4, 2018 - "Arise and Build: United" by Rev. Cody Sandahl

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Lay Reader = 1 Corinthians 1:10-18

¹⁰Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. ¹¹For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. ¹²What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” ¹³Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? ¹⁴I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, ¹⁵so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. ¹⁶(I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) ¹⁷For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. ¹⁸For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Introduction

We are still in our series trying to learn from Nehemiah, because he was able to dream of a better future for his people and rally the help he needed to achieve it. Last week we saw how he inspired people to care, and out of that caring they went above and beyond for each other. Good stuff is happening!

To illustrate this week’s chapter in the story, do you remember the movie Jaws? That giant shark so terrified audiences that there was a measurable decrease in beach attendance that year. Steven Spielberg was the bane of ocean tourism that year. But it was only temporary – about a year later things were back to normal. But then about two years after that, a new movie poster appeared that said, “Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water…” – Jaws 2!

Chapter 3 was good to our friend Nehemiah. Everything was finally running smoothly. But “just when you thought it was safe…” we see chapter 4. Just when they thought it was safe, their enemies arrived. Just when they thought it was safe, trouble appeared. Ever had that experience? Listen to how Nehemiah and the people of Judah responded.

Nehemiah 4:7-23

⁷But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and the gaps were beginning to be closed, they were very angry, ⁸and all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. ⁹So we prayed to our God, and set a guard as a protection against them day and night. ¹⁰But Judah said, “The strength of the burden bearers is failing, and there is too much rubbish so that we are unable to work on the wall.” ¹¹And our enemies said, “They will not know or see anything before we come upon them and kill them and stop the work.” ¹²When the Jews who lived near them came, they said to us ten times, “From all the places where they live they will come up against us.” ¹³So in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in open places, I stationed the people according to their families, with their swords, their spears, and their bows. ¹⁴After I looked these things over, I stood up and said to the nobles and the officials and the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your kin, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.” ¹⁵When our enemies heard that their plot was known to us, and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to his work.

¹⁶From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, bows, and body-armor; and the leaders posted themselves behind the whole house of Judah, ¹⁷who were building the wall. The burden bearers carried their loads in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and with the other held a weapon. ¹⁸And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built. The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me. ¹⁹And I said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, “The work is great and widely spread out, and we are separated far from one another on the wall. ²⁰Rally to us wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet. Our God will fight for us.” ²¹So we labored at the work, and half of them held the spears from break of dawn until the stars came out. ²²I also said to the people at that time, “Let every man and his servant pass the night inside Jerusalem, so that they may be a guard for us by night and may labor by day.” ²³So neither I nor my brothers nor my servants nor the men of the guard who followed me ever took off our clothes; each kept his weapon in his right hand.

On Every Side

There is a major flaw in many movies about war. I call it the courtesy of the enemy. Let’s say the heroes are outnumbered five to one. In a movie, the enemies will courteously line up and only charge the heroes one at a time. If you ever find yourself in an epic swordfight, here’s a pro tip – attack at the same time! Practical advice, right?

Nehemiah isn’t facing courteous enemies in a movie. He’s facing enemies on every side. Sanballat and the Samaritans? They came from the North. The Ammonites? They came from the East. The Arabs? They came from the South. The Ashdodites? They came from the West. And they were smart enough to attack at the same time from all sides – how rude!

Isn’t life like that, though? We can usually handle one enemy – an unexpected medical bill, the death of a loved one, a challenging relationship, troubles at work, a pipe bursts at home. We can handle our enemies as long as they are courteous enough to line up one at a time.

But when they come at the same time? When we’re facing the Samaritans AND the Ammonites AND the Arabs AND the Ashdodites? When we’re facing struggles in our household AND struggles in our work AND struggles in our health AND struggles in our relationships? Then we got problems.

Are the struggles in your life courteous enough to line up one at a time? Or do they rush you at the same time? I’ve experienced a lot of the rushing, not the lining up.

First Response is Prayer

I have never been accused of excess emotion, but when life rushes me from every side I get even more rational and even less emotional. When I don’t have anywhere to turn, I rely on my greatest ability – my reason. What do you do when you are overwhelmed? What’s your response when life rushes you from every side?

Nehemiah was surrounded on every side, from the North and the East and the South and the West. But he was prepared for that. That’s why he wanted to rebuild the walls to begin with. He had guards ready to go. Did you catch what the breaking point was for Nehemiah? What pushed him over the edge?

The fear and disunity of his own people. The rumor mill was running at full speed. Our laborers are tiring. There’s too much debris to clear out, so we can’t actually rebuild the wall. We’re afraid that our homes aren’t protected enough – we need more guards at MY house, even if you have to pull them away from my neighbor’s house!

That’s what got to Nehemiah. And his response? He prayed. His first response was prayer! Not my hyper-rationality. Not relying on his greatest strengths. Not hiding or giving up or sweeping it under the rug. Prayer. When he was assailed on every side, including facing fear and disunity and opposition from within – he prayed.

If you want to read a salty prayer, go look up the beginning of Nehemiah chapter 4. Nehemiah is very honest – actually he’s very aggressive in his prayer. That may not be a perfect model of prayer, but I do think we can learn from him. His first response when overwhelmed is prayer. And that prayer isn’t some generic, “Oh God, I hope you’ll maybe kinda sorta help me out, but only if it’s in your will…” No, it’s very direct. He says, “Take their taunts, O God, and fling them back at their own heads! Dash their strength! Let them be overrun by their enemies!” And it gets more interesting from there. He prayed for real, not a nice and tidy gentle prayer. I think we can learn from that.

If you feel overwhelmed, if life is rushing you from every side at once – maybe even attacking you from within – have you prayed? And have you prayed with unbridled honesty? Have you prayed what you’re actually thinking, not the cleaned-up version you’d admit to your pastor?

Nevertheless

After praying, Nehemiah realized the real problem he had to face. He needed God’s protection, but he had already anticipated that. Now his real enemy was disunity and fear. If the people didn’t rally, their fears would come true.

This is what he did. “¹³So in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in open places, I stationed the people according to their families, with their swords, their spears, and their bows. ¹⁴After I looked these things over, I stood up and said to the nobles and the officials and the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your kin, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.”

He took these frightened people and put them in the gaps between the walls – the most exposed part of the city. The least defended. In plain sight of their enemies. And in plain sight of their own families.

And he reminded them who they were and what they were doing. “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord. Fight for your sons and daughters and spouses and homes!”

One of my professors in seminary used to say that a lot of the good news of Jesus can be summarized with the word, “nevertheless.” Jesus, the Son of God, died. Nevertheless, he rose again. I like how Paul says it in 2 Corinthians 4 – “8We are pressed on all sides, but (nevertheless) not crushed; perplexed, but (nevertheless) not in despair; 9persecuted, but (nevertheless) not forsaken; struck down, but (nevertheless) not destroyed. 10We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”

We are the “nevertheless” faith. We are surrounded by enemies from the North and the South and the East and West. Nevertheless, we are not afraid!

We are divided among ourselves and afraid. Nevertheless, we have a great and awesome God who fights for us!

We are drained emotionally and mentally and spiritually and physically. Nevertheless, we are alive in Christ!

We have been slowly declining for years. Nevertheless, we will be faithful to Jesus today!

That willingness to cry “Nevertheless!” is how we claim the LIFE of Jesus even as we feel more like death with Jesus.

When we stand in the open places, in plain sight, and say, “Our troubles are real. Nevertheless, I will keep going because of my faith in Jesus!” That’s the gospel.

That’s what we should be showing the world around us. We aren’t perfect. We don’t have everything together. Our God doesn’t magically make our problems go away. Nevertheless, here we stand! Nevertheless, we have hope. Nevertheless, we can have joy! Nevertheless, we stand together. Not alone. Together.

Alive in Christ

So can we live with that “nevertheless?” Can we live with that inexplicable joy? Can we live with that ability to stand together even though life is rushing us from the North and the South and the East and the West? Can we remain united even then? Can we remain alive in Christ even then?

That’s what our faith is about. That’s what the church should be about. That’s what we can offer each other when we notice that someone has life rushing them from all sides.

If you know someone being rushed from every side, how can you stand with them in the open spaces, in the gaps in the walls?

If you’re like Nehemiah being rushed from every side, how can you cry, “Nevertheless!” because of your faith in Jesus?

Don’t lose hope. Don’t give up. Remember the words of Nehemiah: “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your kin, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.” Amen.

Sermons

October 28, 2018 - "Arise and Build: Radical Neighbors" by Rev. Cody Sandahl

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Lay Reader = 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

1Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. 2For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.3When they say, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape! 4But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; 5for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness.

6So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober; 7for those who sleep sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. 8But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. 9For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him.

11Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.

Introduction

We are still in our series looking at how Nehemiah dreamed of a better future and inspired others to help make it happen. Just to recap where we are in the story, Nehemiah had his heart broken by the suffering in Jerusalem. He had a vision to repair the walls and restore the city. He got the Persian king to invest in the project. Nehemiah faced the reality of the situation rather than a fantasy. And then he inspired the other leaders in the city to buy into the vision.

Now that Nehemiah has a vision based in reality, the resources he needs for the job, and the support of other capable teammates, let’s see what those teammates actually did in response.

Nehemiah 3:28-32

28Above the Horse Gate the priests made repairs, each one opposite his own house. 29After them Zadok son of Immer made repairs opposite his own house. After him Shemaiah son of Shecaniah, the keeper of the East Gate, made repairs. 30After him Hananiah son of Shelemiah and Hanun sixth son of Zalaph repaired another section. After him Meshullam son of Berechiah made repairs opposite his living quarters. 31After him Malchijah, one of the goldsmiths, made repairs as far as the house of the temple servants and of the merchants, opposite the Muster Gate, and to the upper room of the corner. 32And between the upper room of the corner and the Sheep Gate the goldsmiths and the merchants made repairs.

Above and Beyond

When was the last time you flew on a commercial jet? If you haven’t been on one in a few years, your memories might be better than today’s reality. But most airlines still pass out a snack – peanuts, pretzels, stuff like that. So I want you to try to remember – what’s the most memorable airline snack you’ve ever received? Anyone have a memorable airline snack story? Anyone?

I actually do. Southwest Airlines actually considers humor to be one of their core values. Not a nice add-on. One of their core values. And on one flight we were just starting to climb after taking off. And out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something sliding past me on the aisle. Probably a kid dropped something, right? But then another slid past me. And another. And that’s when the flight attendant announced on the loud speaker, “To expedite the distribution of snacks, reach down and grab one as they come down the aisle.” He had released all the pretzel bags at the front of the plane, and they were sliding past for anyone to grab. That’s memorable! If you can make snack distribution memorable, you have officially gone above and beyond.

Nordstrom is another company that is legendary for going above and beyond. One of the cleaning staff found some bags of purchased clothes that had been left at the store – along with a flight itinerary inside the bag. He looked up the name in the store’s database and found a phone number. After multiple attempts without an answer, he realized that the customer was probably going through the security line at the airport based on the flight time. He called the airport and had them page the customer to let them know where the bags of clothes were. That’s serious commitment! That’s above and beyond.

Have you ever experienced something like that? A company or a person going above and beyond?

In our text today, we see a list of who repaired which sections of the wall. It starts off by listing the people who repaired the wall right across from their house. They helped the city and made their own back yards better in the process. Nothing wrong with that.

But then the scope of the repairs gets larger and larger. Finally, we get to Malchija, one of the goldsmiths. And he repairs this huge section of wall that extends way, way beyond his own back yard. He didn’t just pitch in a little bit to help his city, he went above and beyond. He was to the repair effort what Southwest and Nordstrom are to customer service. He was inspired to go above and beyond, not just for himself, but for his neighbors and for his city.

Has anyone ever gone above and beyond for you? Or have you ever gone above and beyond for someone else or for a cause you believe in?

Past Behavior

As you know, I was a computer programmer before becoming a pastor. And it’s interesting to see how people react differently depending on which company comes up with an idea. For instance, Microsoft just recently purchased the most popular system for sharing your computer code with other people. On one hand, it’s a nice investment in the global computer programmer community – this service needed money to keep going, and now it has it courtesy of Microsoft. But computer programmers have seen Microsoft’s past behavior, and they have the 3 E’s to describe it – embrace, extend, extinguish. In other words, Microsoft has frequently played nice at first, then added features that make the tool incompatible with others, then killed it off after their competitors go out of business. Embrace, extend, extinguish.

Based on that past, Microsoft is viewed with two bucket-fulls of skepticism. Past behavior matters.

Or have you heard that Walmart is buying up-scale clothing brands? They actually bought one of my favorites – Bonobos. But instead of the up-scale brand improving my thoughts about Walmart, being owned by Walmart lowers my thoughts of the previously up-scale brand. It’s hard for me to feel like I’m getting truly up-scale quality at a place that predicates its whole business model on being the lowest price possible – even if you have to lower quality to get there. Past behavior matters.

When I was living in Pennsylvania, there was a somewhat infamous local developer. He had a rather abrasive manner of interacting, and he was always pushing the boundaries of what he could get away with in his zoning. That earned him opposition to every plan he proposed, because people assumed he was out to hose them somehow. Past behavior matters.

You can’t buy different values. You can’t purchase a new heart.

If you’re thinking about going above and beyond for someone else, how will they perceive you based on your past actions? Past behavior matters.

So if you feel like God is calling you to invest in a better relationship in your family, you can’t expect your family member to switch their impression of you immediately. If you’ve spent ten years being the my-way-or-the-highway person, you’re going to have to really commit to encouraging the other person to tell you their real opinion. You’ve spent ten years shutting them down, you’re going to have to earn their trust before they’ll start opening up.

If you feel like God is calling you to invest in a relationship in your neighborhood or at work, what message has your past behavior sent? Are you going to be welcomed? Are you going to be feared? Are you going to be respected? Are you going to be written off as a waste of time? Past behavior matters. And if you want things to be different, you’ve gotta be committed for a long time. You can’t try something new once or twice and then give up and say, “Well, I tried!”

Is God calling you to go above and beyond for someone? Is God calling you to go above and beyond for a cause you believe in? Not just the bare minimum, but surprisingly above and beyond like Malchijah? If so, how long will you need to be committed? Your past behavior will affect that answer.

Committed

When we first started the monthly Community Dinners, we decided to stay committed even if no one came. I remember those early dinners. Cooking for 40 and only having 12 show up – that can be defeating! But the leadership team was committed. Now we can see over a hundred! But it took commitment.

Where do you need to stay committed to see a different result?

I’m planning to stay committed to our neighborhood. I’ve shared before that when I was interviewing here I sent a friend who lives in the area to be an anonymous spy. I wanted to get the perspective of a first time visitor. And the number one impression I got back was, “Boy, those people sure like each other!”

And I think that is the fundamental essence of this church’s character. When we chose to help people with food, it wasn’t as a food bank. It started with Thanksgiving Dinner and then expanded to the Community Dinner. We sit down with people around a table and enjoy the relationships.

When we started a program for our…more seasoned members, it evolved into Saturday Lunch – a chance to sit down together to eat, to enjoy an interesting program, and to enjoy the relationships.

Why do people love to sing in the choir or play in the handbell choirs? Sure, they like to sing or play the handbells, but really they enjoy the relationships.

I’ve tried sending out materials that people can study – like going deeper with the sermon. Almost no one does it. But if we have a class or some other way to gather, it goes well. Because you get to enjoy the relationships.

Are you picking up on a theme?

I believe that our character, our past behavior, is enjoying relationships with each other. We really like each other. Most of the time. That’s who we are as a church. So when we think about going above and beyond for our neighbors, that’s our calling card. How can we help people enjoy relationships just like we enjoy each other?

I believe that is our specific niche. I believe that is what we are called to do and be. I believe we are called to help people have better relationships with each other – relationships that are enjoyable. That’s how I believe we can go above and beyond in a way that resonates with our character, not swimming upstream like Walmart buying up-scale brands.

So we’re going to commit to opportunities to develop and deepen enjoyable relationships. My two best ideas are having a monthly family-friendly movie night here at the church and also having opportunities for parents to have a night together without the kids. We’re going to have our first movie night on Friday November 9. Open to anyone in the church and anyone in our community. Come have a good time. Enjoy the relationships. A free movie with free popcorn and snacks is a way we can go above and beyond for our neighborhood, and I think it fits with our character. But we’ll still have to be committed to it for a long time before it gets traction.

Transformation

But the vision isn’t just to have people come watch movies at our church. We’ve been tracking the story of Nehemiah rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, but I don’t want you to think that it’s about walls. It’s not really about the walls.

Nehemiah rebuilds the walls because he knows that fear is preventing the Israelites from investing in their relationship with God. They’re too busy trying to survive to care about what Moses wrote down. By rebuilding the walls, Nehemiah helps them broaden their horizons and care about God again. That’s what Nehemiah is really about. Rebuilding the walls results in a spiritual transformation, not just a better-defended city.

In the same way, I believe that a transformation will happen if we can help people enjoy each other. If we can enjoy each other, we can serve together. If we can serve together, we can worship together. If we can worship together, God can do miraculous things.

A movie night isn’t about a movie. It’s about giving people reasons to care about each other. If we do that, I believe it will result in a spiritual transformation as well. That’s the vision.

One last story of a company going above and beyond to illustrate. Sainsbury’s had a popular item called Tiger Bread. But one day the company got a letter. “Dear Sainsbury’s, Why is tiger bread called tiger bread? It should be called giraffe bread. Love from Lily Robinson, age 3 ½.”

And what was the response to this suggestion from a three-year-old that they should change the name of their popular product? She got a letter back. “Thank you so much for your letter. I think renaming tiger bread giraffe bread is a brilliant idea – it looks much more like the blotches on a giraffe than the stripes on a tiger, doesn’t it? It is called tiger bread because the first baker who made it a loooong time ago thought it looked stripey like a tiger. Maybe they were a bit silly. Chris King, age 27 1/3.”

Instead of ignoring this little child who couldn’t possibly know anything about marketing and branding, they cared! And they shared her letter with others, and those people cared. And now Sainsbury’s doesn’t sell Tiger Bread anymore. They sell Giraffe Bread courtesy of Lily Robinson, age 3 ½.

Transformation happens when you decide to care about someone. That’s the power of relationships. In our first text today, we heard this: “Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.” That’s our task in our relationships.

Is God calling you to care? Is God calling you to go above and beyond for someone? Is God calling you to be committed? If the answer is yes, transformation can happen. Amen.

Sermons

October 14, 2018 - "Arise and Build: Facing Reality" by Rev. Cody Sandahl

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Lay Reader = John 4:7-26

7A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8(His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 13Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” 15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” 19The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” 26Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”

Introduction

We are still in our series looking at how Nehemiah dreamed of a better future for his people and then rallied others to make it happen. And we’re asking what better future we can make happen as well.

In the story of Nehemiah, we’ve seen how he was deeply moved thinking about how much the people of Jerusalem were struggling. And then he convinced the king of Persia to let him return to Jerusalem and the king decided to invest a bounty of his own resources in the project.

So Nehemiah dreamed of a better future for his people. He rallied the king of Persia to make sure he had the resources. And now we’re with him as he arrives in Jersualem. He has heard about the problems. God has called him to invest in a better future. Now, he wants to see it for himself.

Nehemiah 2:11-20

11So I came to Jerusalem and was there for three days. 12Then I got up during the night, I and a few men with me; I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. The only animal I took was the animal I rode. 13I went out by night by the Valley Gate past the Dragon’s Spring and to the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire. 14Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and to the King’s Pool; but there was no place for the animal I was riding to continue. 15So I went up by way of the valley by night and inspected the wall. Then I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned. 16The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing; I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest that were to do the work. 17Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, so that we may no longer suffer disgrace.” 18I told them that the hand of my God had been gracious upon me, and also the words that the king had spoken to me. Then they said, “Let us start building!” So they committed themselves to the common good. 19But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they mocked and ridiculed us, saying, “What is this that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” 20Then I replied to them, “The God of heaven is the one who will give us success, and we his servants are going to start building; but you have no share or claim or historic right in Jerusalem.”

Evangelical Counting

In church pastor circles, there’s a well-worn adage. If the Head Pastor wants to talk about last Sunday’s worship attendance count, it’s never going to be revised down – only up. I remember a conversation I had with the head pastor at my previous church. I was in charge of our small groups, and that was the primary discipleship ministry. We had 1300 people in worship on a weekend, and our goal was to get 1000 of them into a small group. When I arrived, our initial count was between 350 and 400.

Each year we had immense success. Thanks to the efforts of the staff, the small group team, and my own contributions, we were up to 1000 after three years.

But the next year we kind of stalled out. We went from like 1005 the third year to 1020 the fourth year. And I told that to the head pastor as we were putting together our annual report. And he asked if there was any way to round up to 1100 to make it look better. I replied that I would rather tell the reality that we had stalled in our growth than tell a fiction that we were still expanding rapidly. If we fudge the numbers this year, how much would we have to fudge the numbers next year to maintain the fiction?

In church circles this is jokingly called evangelical counting. If we count the number of arms in worship today, the number will look way better than if we count the number of bodies in worship.

When I was an executive pastor I was talking with some of my colleagues. And they were debating if someone who watches a video of the worship service counts as “attending worship.” I mean, if we counted people who visited our sermons page as “attending worship,” we could add 17 people per Sunday. Our worship count would look very good this year!

But…about half of those are actually just robots updating info for Google and other search engines. And….many of the actual humans viewing the page only stay a minute or two – so they’re poking around, not listening to the sermon. So I could add 17 people per week to our worship attendance, and I could even point to a number to back it up, but it would still be nothing more than a very pleasant fiction. For reference, we don’t add anything extra to our worship count.

In our text today, Nehemiah doesn’t want to hear the very pleasant fiction. He wants to see the very real, very tangible, very dangerous situation with his own two eyes. In fact, he writes that he did his inspection before he even told anyone why he was back. He didn’t want anyone to try to influence him before he had a baseline. He wanted to face reality, not a fiction.

When I was growing up, I knew some girls whose parents were divorced, and their dad was rather scarce. And over and over and over again, he made promises to show up at their event. Or to come pick them up. Or to take them to something special. And he never showed up. But the next time he made a promise to them, they would excitedly tell us what they were going to do with their dad. Everyone else knew it was just a fiction.

But fiction doesn’t have to be pleasant. Sometimes our fictions are worse than reality. Maybe you’ve heard about the recent rise in the rate of violent crimes in America. Maybe you’ve heard the stories in the news about children being victimized by adults in power. The world sometimes feels like it’s going down the tubes, right? But…the violent crime rate is still considerably less than it was in the 1990’s. And for children, the rates of violence, physical abuse and sexual abuse are all less than the 1990’s. We have actually made progress – still a long way to go, but things are better today than they were. The idea that everything is getting worse is a very unpleasant fiction.

Are those numbers perfect? No, of course not. But they weren’t perfect in the 1990’s or 1960’s or 1930’s. The numbers we have are messy – whether we’re talking about worship attendance at our church or national statistics. If two messy numbers are close to each other, count them as equal. But if there’s a big enough gap, there’s probably something real there, not just a fiction.

Is there anything in your family, or in your work, or here at church, or anywhere else in your life – anywhere you need to face reality instead of a fiction? Anywhere you need to inspect the walls yourself, like Nehemiah?

Jesus’ Radical Reality

In our first text today, Jesus was in the wrong part of town, talking with the wrong people. If you read the Old Testament without having your eyes glaze over, you’ll see some fairly specific instructions for the Jewish people. God wants them to be a cohesive unit, not intermingling too much with the other nations around them. God wants them to be different.

Between the time of Nehemiah and the time of Jesus, there came to be two different races of Israelites. Samaritans were the descendants of the people who started intermingling and intermarrying with the other nations after Babylon and then Persia ruled over Israel. And the Jewish people were the ones who kept God’s commands to only marry other Jewish people. So the “pure” Jews saw the “impure” Samaritans as traitors and collaborators. Instead of maintaining their Jewish heritage, they intermarried and broke God’s commands.

And “collaborator” is perhaps the best way to think about their relationship. You can think of it kind of like France after World War II. Those who were in exile and then came back, or those who stayed and fought the Germans were the “pure” ones. Those who stayed and collaborated with the Germans were the “impure” ones. There’s some understandable bad blood between those groups, right?

So here we see Jesus in Samaritan land, talking with a Samaritan, and she’s a woman! That’s three strikes, Jesus! And that’s before we even learn that she’s a collector of husbands. And how does this exchange end?  The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”

Let me try to help you understand how mind blowing, reality-altering this was. Jews thought the Samaritans were beyond hope. They were permanently defiled. They were a lost cause. And Samaritans thought the Jews worshiped the wrong way in the wrong place. And Jews were judgmental to boot.

And Jesus says he is the Messiah – the one coming to make all things right – and he is the Messiah to the Jew and Messiah to the Samaritan. This one person, Jesus, came to make things right for Jew and Samaritan alike. This one person, Jesus, took the insurmountable divisions between them and stood in the gap to bridge the divide. The Son of God was sent to the Jews, and the Samaritans, and to all the peoples of the earth.

Thanks to Jesus, those insurmountable divisions became nothing more than unpleasant fictions.

Are there any seemingly insurmountable divisions that are nothing more than fictions because of who Jesus was and what he came to do?

Jesus’ Radical Reality Today

Let me tell you a few perceptions that are nothing more than fictions because of Jesus.

If you have  lost a loved one, you may feel that you’re all alone. That’s a fiction. Jesus says “remember, I will be with you always even to the end of the age.” And there are people in your neighborhood or in this church that want to be with you as well. If you have lost a loved one – if you are a widow or a widower or stuck at home with no one to talk to – you aren’t alone and you don’t have to be alone. That’s a fiction. The reality is that Jesus has not abandoned you, and there are other people here today that don’t want you to feel alone, too. That’s reality.

If you feel like the thunderclouds are just following you around – if you feel cursed – if you feel that there isn’t hope. That’s a fiction. I was just talking to a friend who lost his job, lost his health insurance and he has a kid with a rare and expensive illness, he had a bunch of job interviews and they all dried up. He was feeling cursed. And then the closet with his wife’s clothes separated from the wall and collapsed in their bedroom. That didn’t help the feeling of being cursed. But after telling me that update, he told me that God had opened a new door for his family. It wasn’t where they wanted. It wasn’t what they pictured. But it’s exciting. It took a while, but God had a way out from the thundercloud.

There’s this famous verse in Jeremiah 29, but I want to give you the broader reading.

“This is what the Lord says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.”

That famous verse about God having plans for your good – that was written to a defeated people at the start of their 70 year exile in another country. That verse is NOT a promise that God is going to zap away everything bad in your life. That’s a pleasant fiction. But that verse DOES promise that God has something better in mind. For some of those exiles, they didn’t get to see the payoff. But their children did. God has a plan in mind – and it’s good. That’s reality. It might not look like you want it, it might not be where you want it, it might not be when you want it, I can’t even promise that you’ll be alive to enjoy it, but God’s plan is a reality.

If you feel that you have messed up beyond compare – if you feel that you have sinned your way out of heaven – if you feel like God would be offended to be seen near you – that’s a fiction. In our first text, Jesus sat and talked with a woman who had burned through five husbands and was living with yet another man. Jesus got in trouble because he at meals with the collaborators and the traitors and the prostitutes and the homeless and the lepers. And even worse? He had fun with them! Scandalous!

Romans 8 reminds us that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Nothing! And troubles in this life don’t mean God has forgotten us or stopped loving us. “Nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Jesus.”

If you think you aren’t worth God’s time or aren’t deserving of God’s time – that’s a fiction. Jesus’ love is for you, too. That’s reality.

Child of God

In fact, let’s camp out there for a little bit. At our staff meeting this past week, Carol was leading a devotional and she shared that she has long shared the same bit of good news with people in the hospital, with people she met as a chaplain, and with the student she tutored with our Whiz Kids tutoring.

“John, you are a beloved child of God, made in the image of God, with the divine spark in you, and nothing can change that.”

“Nancy, you are a beloved child of God, made in the image of God, with the divine spark in you, and nothing can change that.”

“Dave, you are a beloved child of God, made in the image of God, with the divine spark in you, and nothing can change that.”

“Maria, you are a beloved child of God, made in the image of God, with the divine spark in you, and nothing can change that.”

You get the idea. That is both beautiful and Biblical. I love it.

And now, as the pastor at my previous church used to say, “I’m about to go from preaching to meddling.” I don’t get nervous about preaching except for the times I have to speak an uncomfortable truth. This is one of those times.

There is a rather unpleasant fiction in our society right now, and I think we need to name it as a fiction. Our society wants to tell us that anyone who votes differently than me isn’t human – or at least they’re idiots. Our society wants to tell us that anyone who focuses on a different part of Jesus’ life and teaching and ministry isn’t going to be in heaven. Our society wants to tell us that we should be angry at each other, afraid of each other, divided against each other. This is an unpleasant fiction.

Here’s what Jesus said about our divisions. This was part of his prayer from the Gospel of John right before being crucified on our behalf.

“My prayer is… that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

If we believe in Jesus, that’s our reality. If we believe in Jesus, our reality should mean we can look at someone with different theology or different politics or different values or different emphasis and say, “There goes a beloved child of God, made in the image of God, with the divine spark within them, and nothing can change that.” If we believe in Jesus, that’s reality. If we believe in Jesus, then whether someone gets their news from Fox or MSNBC or NPR or the New York Times or the Economist or wherever – Jesus still came for them. Just like he came for you. That’s reality.

Colorado Public Radio has been doing something interesting they call “Breaking Bread.” They get people with wildly diverging views – even different world views – together to talk about those divisions. People don’t generally change their minds after these talks – they don’t suddenly agree. That would be a fiction. But they do get to humanize someone they vehemently disagree with. Maybe we can do something similar.

If you find yourself wondering, “How can we worship the same God when…?” Fill in that blank. If you look at someone else who reports to believe in Jesus and you wonder how we can worship the same God? I encourage you to go find out. Go break bread with them. In fact, I dare you to go find out how you can worship the same God.

We have another round of Hot Button Theology classes coming up at the end of October, and we’re going to try to do that together around some pretty dicey topics. Maybe we’ll discover that we disagree but are still connected through our faith in Jesus. Maybe it will all blow up in my face. We were able to do it together last time, but even two years ago our society wasn’t telling us we were quite as divided as it’s telling us today. I mean, we just heard how Kathie’s prayer walk was mistaken for being a suspicious criminal! That’s how divided our society is telling us we are.

I think that’s a very believable, unpleasant, FICTION. Not because the gaps between our opinions are small – they’re big. I believe the ultimate reality is that we who believe in Jesus have a chance to remember that we are part of a story that is much older than any country. Much more compelling than any movie. Much more transformative than any political platform. Much more real than any philosophy. Much more personal than any self help book.

That’s what I think is reality.

Children of God

To close today, I can’t force you to do this but I’m going to give you the space to do it. I’m going to give you about thirty seconds of silence here, and I challenge you to think of someone you vehemently disagree with. It might be someone in this room. It might be someone who’s in the news. It might be someone within reach. It might be someone a world away. It might be someone in your house. It might be someone you’ve never met. It might be me!

If you’ve got that person in mind, in the next silence, I encourage you to imagine yourself telling them, “NAME, you are a child of God, made in the image of God, with the divine spark within you, and nothing can change that.” I know we’re bold enough to lob verbal hand grenades at people we disagree with from behind the fortified walls of our little tribes. But are you bold enough to imagine Jesus’ very different reality? Here’s 30 seconds to think about that.

Sermons

September 23, 2018 - "Arise and Build: Dreaming" by Rev. Cody Sandahl

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Lay Reader = Jeremiah 29:4-7

4Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

Introduction

We are starting a new series looking at how Nehemiah was moved by God to dream of a better future for his people, and then rally the people to achieve that future.

Nehemiah is one of my favorite Old Testament books. Nehemiah is a man of action, but he also demonstrates compassion, wisdom, and deep faith. That’s a model for us as we dream of what God has in store for our future as well.

It’s useful to know where Nehemiah sits in the history of the nation of Israel. This takes place kind of in the twilight of the Old Testament narrative – it’s pretty close to the end where the Bible goes silent for a few hundred years before Jesus comes. So most of what you know from the Old Testament has already happened by this point.

Most importantly, this is after the destruction of Jerusalem by the armies of Babylon. This is after the Temple was destroyed – the greatest national catastrophe in Israel’s history. We don’t really have an analog for that, but the closest would be if Washington DC was destroyed along with every church building in the whole country. It was about as bad as it gets.

We heard in our first text from Jeremiah that God told the Jewish people to settle in and thrive where they were. Many of the leaders were captured and taken back to Babylon and other cities. And God told them to bloom where they were planted, because God was going to let them simmer there for a while. God let them stay in exile for about 70 years before giving them a way home.

Many of the Jewish people rose to positions of power in Babylon and later Persia, which conquered Babylon. You’ve heard about Daniel – who went into the lion’s den and came out unscathed? He became the chief advisor to the Babylonian king. Esther? She was the wife of the Persian king. And here we see Nehemiah, who is the cupbearer for the Persian king.

Cupbearer sounds like a waiter, right? But if you were an ancient king, and you were in constant danger of being poisoned, you cared a great deal about the person serving you drinks. The king’s life was literally in the hands of the cupbearer, so it was a position of great trust and influence. Think of it more as a confidant than a waiter.

Here in chapter one, we see how God opens Nehemiah’s heart, opens Nehemiah’s mind, opens Nehemiah’s vision to see what God has in store.

Nehemiah 1

1The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah. In the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, while I was in Susa the capital, 2one of my brothers, Hanani, came with certain men from Judah; and I asked them about the Jews that survived, those who had escaped the captivity, and about Jerusalem. 3They replied, “The survivors there in the province who escaped captivity are in great trouble and shame; the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been destroyed by fire.” 4When I heard these words I sat down and wept, and mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

5I said, “O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments; 6let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Both I and my family have sinned. 7We have offended you deeply, failing to keep the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances that you commanded your servant Moses. 8Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples; 9but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are under the farthest skies, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place at which I have chosen to establish my name.’ 10They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great power and your strong hand. 11O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man!” At the time, I was cupbearer to the king.

Reaching the Heart

I have marvelous news! I did a Google search this week, asking “how many people are hungry in the US.” And Google actually had already processed the answer to that question by pulling some data out of an official website. So, here’s the marvelous news. According to Google, the number of people who are hungry in the US: 6 people! That’s it! 6 people!

OK, well actually Google messed up, and the website actually said ONE in SIX people have times in their lives where they can’t provide food for everyone in their family. And other websites have lower numbers depending on how you count it. But the numbers seem to fall somewhere between 25 and 50 million people in the US have issues feeding their family. Or, again, 6 people according to Google.

What do you feel when you hear that? If you’re like most people, probably the real, God’s honest truth is that you don’t feel anything when you hear that. It’s too abstract. Even if you hear something closer to home – about 20% of the kids in Littleton schools face times where their families can’t feed them – you might think it’s wrong, you might wonder about the number, but you probably don’t feel anything.

Nehemiah probably wasn’t alive when Jerusalem was destroyed. Its walls lay in ruins for decades. Its people had been scattered for generations. So when Hanani told Nehemiah, “The survivors there in the province who escaped captivity are in great trouble and shame; the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been destroyed by fire,” that’s the very definition of yesterday’s news. That’s almost yester-century’s news.

And yet, Nehemiah says, “When I heard these words I sat down and wept, and mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.” Why on earth did he have that deeply-felt reaction to something he already knew?

Sometimes God uses old news to reach us in a new way. It’s one thing to know there are hungry people in our city – it’s another to meet someone at the Community Dinner who took three buses and spent hours of their time to get a free meal here. Or someone who has a deep-seated fear of crowds, but they’ll brave the 70, 80, 100 people at the dinner because they wouldn’t eat that night otherwise. For some reason, when Nehemiah heard about Jerusalem this time it struck a nerve. It reached his heart, his feelings, not just his mind.

We heard something similar from our students who went on the mission trip to Houston. Most of us are thinking about the harrowing rescues going on in the Carolinas with Hurricane Florence. Can you even remember the hurricane that hit Houston last year? So when they showed up and saw how these people still didn’t have homes over a year later – it touched a nerve in the students in a very Nehemiah-like way. And also like Nehemiah, it inspired them to do something about it. They sanded longer and harder. They spent time on the details inside the closet, where no one would see it, because they cared with their heart.

If you’ve been here at all over the last month, you’ve heard a bit about what God has been moving in my heart lately. I have been circling around the concept of place, or neighborhood. I have access to a ton of information about our area, and as a staff we just looked at the info in a one mile circle around our church. That gets you about to Santa Fe on the West, Broadway on the East, Bellview to the North, and Caley to the South. When I talk about our neighborhood, that’s about what I’m thinking.

But I’ve also been thinking about my neighborhood. I don’t live in that one mile circle around the church. Most of you don’t, either. Maybe that tells us something about how we have gotten out of touch with our local area. But the fact is that I live about four miles away – that’s close, but not close enough for me to know the people right around our church. So I’ve been thinking about my actual neighborhood in addition to the church’s neighborhood.

Like with Nehemiah, it’s not new information that moved my heart. It just suddenly made its way from my mind to my feelings. Now, I do get some deep insight about the blocks right around our church. I get a very unique perspective. Caleb goes to the preschool just a few blocks from here, and many days we park at the church and walk there. And so I can tell you the color of all the dumpsters between here and there. And I can tell you that one of our neighbors had a broken truck, and it’s been fixed. And if anyone forgot to pick up after their dog, Caleb will let me know about it. So I have some insight on our church’s neighborhood.

That’s how God is moving my heart right now in a very Nehemiah-like way. How is God moving your heart right now?

Praying and Dreaming

After Nehemiah was deeply moved in his heart, he prayed to God. He said, “O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments; let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel.”

What a prayer! Any time you can work in “great and awesome God” into your prayer, you know you’re dreaming something big!

Sometimes when our hearts are moved – even if they are moved to sadness – we can find dreams that are worthy of the “great and awesome God.”

A pastor named Mark Roberts was in a period of transition, and he asked God to speak to his heart about a possible move. He visited a small Presbyterian church the morning after praying that prayer. And what did he experience that morning? “The service was dreary, the worship insipid, and the preaching weak. Not only did God fail to speak to us in an inspiring way, but we left feeling discouraged and very sad.”

The sadness lasted far beyond the less-than-inspiring worship service. And he finally realized why his heart had been so moved – so discouraged – by this experience. He says, “Gradually I began to realize how much it grieved my heart that Christians had gathered for worship but ended up wasting their time.” Ouch.

But out of that sadness, he uncovered his sense of calling as a pastor. He started dreaming about genuine worship, Gospel-centered preaching, and making Sunday mornings worth every minute invested in it. That’s a dream worthy of the “great and awesome God.” But he had to experience that sadness first. He could dream only after finding his heart moved.

I want to share with you the exercise that moved my heart toward this concept of place, of neighborhood. On the back of your bulletin, you’ll see a blank space with “Your Neighborhood” at the top. Grab a pen from the pew rack in front of you. And in the middle of that space put a little square to represent where you live. Write “Me” in that square.

Now think about the people around you. Who lives next to you? Draw a box for that person or that family. And put their names in if you know them. Keep going – finish out your block. Write down the names you know, or just leave blanks where you don’t.

Put in boxes for other people you know in your neighborhood – maybe they’re a few blocks away, that’s OK. You can just put a box in space for them.

How many people do you know, by name, in your neighborhood? Is it pretty filled in? Or is it a bunch of empty boxes? And now, you don’t have to write this down, but go down those names. Do you know enough about their lives to pray for them? Could you come up with one thing to celebrate, or one thing to ask of God on their behalf?

That’s the one that got me. I know a fair number of names in our neighborhood, but I don’t know most of them well enough to be able to give you a joy or concern for prayer. And for some reason, that saddened me recently. It feels wrong.

And then I started thinking about the blocks around this church. And I can’t even fill in the names, let alone prayers. That feels wrong, too. It saddens me, like Nehemiah hearing about Jerusalem.

But it has also led me to pray, like Nehemiah, to “the great and awesome God.” Nehemiah was saddened by the sorry state of Jerusalem, but that led him to dream of what could be and how he could help make that better future happen. I believe we can dream together of what could be in our personal neighborhoods and the neighborhood around this church. And if we can dream, if we can pray to “the great and awesome God,” perhaps God will reveal how we can make that better future happen. Are you with me?

Prayer Walk

The first year I was here, we did something together that I believe we need to do again – but now with a different focus. About three years ago, fifty of you picked a block around the church and walked it, observing and praying. I think we need to do that again.

It looks like we might do this on Sunday October 14, but the beauty is that it doesn’t have to be done at the same time. If you want to do it, but you are out of town that day? Just do it on your own a different day. Prayer works no matter when you do it.

But here’s the twist. We have two different places, two different neighborhoods. We have the one mile around our church – that’s one neighborhood. And then we have the neighborhood where we live – the one you drew on the back of your bulletin. I’m feeling called to invest in both, but maybe you feel more strongly called to just your own neighborhood. That’s fine.

So on or around October 14, I invite and challenge every single one of us to pick a block and pray for it. I’ll put together little guides to help you. Pray for a block around this church or a block near where you live. Last time we were really just gathering information. This time, I want to encourage you to open your heart. How is the Holy Spirit trying to speak to your heart in a way that inspires you to act on behalf of these neighbors? How can you get to know their names, and their joys, and their concerns? If it’s in the church’s neighborhood, how can we demonstrate the love of Jesus in a way that makes them glad we’re here?

Summary

Sisters and brothers, how is the Holy Spirit trying to reach your heart like Nehemiah hearing about Jerusalem? How is the Holy Spirit trying to inspire you to dream and act on what you’re feeling like Nehemiah? And how will you pray fervently like Nehemiah? If we dream and act and pray in the same direction together, the “great and awesome God” might move in our midst. Do you want to see that? Because I do.

Sermons

September 16, 2018 - "Finding Your Love Language: Words of Affirmation" by Rev. Cody Sandahl

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Lay Reader = Hebrews 13:1-9, 15-16

¹Let mutual love continue. ²Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. ³Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured. ⁴Let marriage be held in honor by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled; for God will judge fornicators and adulterers. ⁵Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” ⁶So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?” ⁷Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. ⁸Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. ⁹Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings; for it is well for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by regulations about food, which have not benefited those who observe them. ¹⁵Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. ¹⁶Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

Introduction

This is the last week in our series about finding your love language in life and in worship. Last week we talked about acts of service, and we talked about the difference between joyful service and grumpy service.

Next week we will start a series on Nehemiah, and we’ll see how he was able to dream of a better future and then rally people to make it happen.

This week, for music dedication Sunday, we are looking at the final love language in life and in worship: words of affirmation.

And I think both of the main words are important here. “Words.” That means that unless it’s spoken it hasn’t happened yet. A shoulder massage is nice, but that’s either physical touch or acts of service, not “words” of affirmation. And then make sure those words are actually “affirmation.” Praise. Positivity. Gratefulness.

We’re going to hear about the power of positive words in Romans 12. This is a letter from the apostle Paul to the church in Rome. He hadn’t met them personally, so he wanted to put a lot of his theology into this letter so they could hear who he was and what he believed in straight from the horse’s mouth.

Romans 12:5-21

⁵so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. ⁶We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ⁷ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; ⁸the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness. ⁹Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; ¹⁰love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. ¹¹Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. ¹²Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. ¹³Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. ¹⁴Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. ¹⁵Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. ¹⁶Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. ¹⁷Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. ¹⁸If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. ¹⁹Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” ²⁰No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” ²¹Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Don’t Forget the Hits

What’s one of your earliest memories? For me, one of my earliest and strongest memories comes from kindergarten. I had a pet rabbit that I brought to show and tell day. I was simultaneously proud and very nervous that the rabbit would escape. So I alternated between being very generous and very mean about who could hold and pet my bunny. For some strange reason – I think it was random, actually – I was generous with my friends and mean to the kids I didn’t like as much. Probably that was just because my friends were the responsible ones, and the others were the rapscallions.

Why do I remember this and frankly almost nothing else from my school experience in kindergarten? Because that’s what I wish I did differently. And my brain quickly erases whatever was good and etches indelibly onto my memory the things I could have done better. If I don’t remember it, it must’ve been pretty good.

This has been helpful over the years, because it helps me have a growth and development mindset. Maybe some day I’ll have such a great year that I remember nothing. That would be the top of the mountain for me!

Now that’s a bit tongue-in-cheek, but my mind definitely hones in on the negative, the opportunities for growth and change. I was just the featured speaker at a fundraiser for Charlie’s special needs camp, and the main thing I remember is that I cleared my throat a little too close to the mic when I was getting a little teary-eyed while telling Charlie’s story. I barely remember the fifteen minutes of people wanting to talk to me afterwards, but I’ll remember that throat-clearing for the rest of my life.

I am a big fan of learning from mistakes, so I like to debrief events when we’re done so we can make it better next time. But not everyone appreciates my laser focus on mistakes.

In my previous church, we were going over our Christmas Eve worship services. And I had a running list of things we could have done better. We should look into having a parking lot team next year, because the parking experience was draining people of their Christmas cheer. Our exterior signage needed to get better for our guests. Our interior signage needed to guide visitors to the bathrooms. The worship service was a bit too long – people seemed bored by the end. We needed to add about thirty more minutes of time between two of the services to help the parking lot empty.

And that’s when one of the other staff members interrupted me. He had a pained look that was a mixture of wounded and incredulous. He asked, “Well was there anything we did well?”

Whoops. Forgot about that part. I had already forgotten all of those things.

And that question – that need to hear what went well, not just what could be improved – that’s the “words of affirmation” love language. Ever since that moment, I changed my debrief process to ask three things in this order: What were our hits? What were our misses? What should we do next time? Hits. Misses. Next Times. In that order. Because without that process I would jump to the misses every time.

If you have someone in your life who experiences love by hearing words of affirmation, make sure you start with the hits. Don’t forget to tell them – with real, live, actual, audible words – what went well. Tell them what you appreciate. Tell them!

Our text today encourages us to “outdo one another in showing honor.” In other words, go out of your way to praise people and show them respect. Dole out the credit instead of hoarding it. Who in your life could use a little dose of praise? Who hasn’t heard “thank you” in a while?

Affirming God

Today is our music dedication Sunday, and I intentionally put words of affirmation this week. Because singing is one of the most common ways we worship, and many, many songs and hymns are praising God.

“A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing. Our helper he amid the flood, of mortal ills prevailing.”

That’s words of affirmation toward God. Or how about…

“Then sings my soul, my savior God to Thee. How great Thou art, how great Thou art.”

Telling God how great he is? That’s words of affirmation. That’s telling God, “I love you.” Or how about…

“Fairest Lord Jesus! Ruler of all nature. Son of God and Son of Man! Thee will I cherish, thee will I honor. Thou, my soul’s glory, joy, and crown.”

Cherish, honor, joy – those are words of affirmation. Or how about…

“All hail the power of Jesus’ name! Let angels prostrate fall! Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown him Lord of all. Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown him Lord of all.”

Those are words of affirmation. That’s telling Jesus, “I love you.”

I love singing those words of affirmation. I personally don’t pray those words of affirmation very well. But I can sing them with gusto! When I worship, I worship best by singing. Not even listening – singing. But you might worship best by listening. Or you might worship best by speaking your prayers. Or you might worship best by thinking your prayers in dialogue with God. There are different ways to apply “words of affirmation” to our worship.

So what’s your most life-giving way to worship God? How do you best praise God? Our first text today said, “let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.” A “sacrifice of praise” means praising God even when you don’t feel like it, even when things aren’t going well, even when you don’t feel particularly praise-y today.

How do you best affirm and praise God? If you are a singer, then sing! If you are a listener, then listen! If you are a pray-er then pray! Let God know about the hits, not just the misses and next times.

Summary

Sisters and brothers, I bet I’m not the only one who jumps to the misses and forgets to speak the hits aloud. Don’t forget the hits. Don’t forget the praise. Don’t forget the WORDS – real, live, actual, spoken words – of affirmation.

I want to invite you to take the next minute or so thinking of one person in your life who could use a word of affirmation. And decide when you’re going to tell it to them THIS WEEK. If we got into the habit of sharing words of affirmation, I think the world would be a better place.

So I’m going to give you a minute or so to think of that person, that praise, and that appointment to share it. And since it’s music dedication Sunday, I’ll play through the first verse of our next hymn, Blessed Assurance, before turning it over to the real musicians up here.

Sermons

September 9, 2018 - "Finding Your Love Language: Acts of Service" by Rev. Cody Sandahl

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Lay Reader = James 1:19-27

19 You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. 21Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.

22 But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 23For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 25But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.

26 If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. 27Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Introduction

We are still in our series about finding our love languages in life and worship. Last week we looked at quality time, and we asked how we can give the people in our lives and give God our undivided attention. This week we are looking at acts of service.

We’re looking at a text from John 15. In the Gospel of John, Jesus gives a long talk to his disciples while they’re in the Upper Room the night Jesus is betrayed. He washes their feet – a shocking act of service – and then tells them several chapters’ worth of final teachings. The theme of serving others comes up quite a few times. Have you ever seen “TL;DR” on the Internet? That means, “Too Long; Didn’t Read.” If you don’t want to read Jesus’ whole multi-chapter treatise, this text is the TL;DR summary for you.

John 15:9-14

9As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. 12 ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command you.

Attitude

Let me describe a scenario for you. And I want you to give me a score on this. 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest. Give me a score on this hypothetical act of service. Imagine that I’m going to serve my wife by doing the dishes while she’s away for the evening. But I wait until about five minutes before she’s supposed to get back. And when she walks in the door, I’m muttering to myself about how many dishes there are. And when she wants to tell me about her day, I say, “Can’t talk! I’m serving you by doing all these dishes! And let’s eat out tomorrow instead of cooking so there won’t be any dishes tomorrow night!”

What do you think? The dishes got done, right? 1 to 10, how many points should I get for that service?

In other words – does your attitude matter when you’re serving someone, or is the end result all that matters?

Well in our text today, Jesus uses these words: love, joy, friends, abide. In our first text today from James, we heard “be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger…bridle your tongue.” Or you’ve heard of the fruit of the Spirit, right? The result of the Holy Spirit working in your life, Paul writes in Galatians 5, is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.”

I don’t see muttering on that list. I don’t see eye rolling on that list. I don’t see self-congratulation on that list. I don’t see martyr syndrome on that list – where you point out to everyone who will listen how much you’ve suffered. I don’t see demanding recognition on that list.

Attitude matters.

In fact, I think that’s the most difficult part of what Jesus says. Jesus gives quite a few difficult commandments here. He doesn’t say “love people enough to get credit.” He says, “love just as I have loved you.” He doesn’t say to do random acts of kindness a few times a month, he says, “abide – live, dwell, inhabit – in my love.” Make it a way of life. He doesn’t say that serving others is a great way to build your resume, he says we should “lay down our lives.”

But to top it all off, he says we should have joy as we do that. That’s tough! I think it’s often the hardest part.

From Grumpy to Joyful

But maybe we can use our attitude as a canary in the mine shaft, as a bellwether, as a trip wire. When I am counseling couples before their wedding, I tell them that bitterness is a flashing yellow light. Bitterness in your heart is like the check engine light on your car. You can probably drive around with it for a while, but then again your engine might explode. The longer you go without addressing it, the more dangerous it becomes. When you feel bitterness in your heart, that’s a good time to go get a relational tune up with a counselor if possible, or a pastor if you’re more comfortable.

I think it’s the same when we are serving someone or serving in a ministry. If you notice bitterness in your heart, that’s a check engine light. If you go to a meeting and come home grumpy, that’s a check engine light. If you do a thousand things to help others, but then you want to complain about it – that’s a check engine light.

One of the great cultural works of the English language was released in 1987. The parody movie, “Space Balls.” A princess is being rescued by a scoundrel, and she is rather grumpy at how inconvenient the rescue is for her. And he says to her, “Look! Those pouty lips! Those flashing eyes! Those flushed cheeks! You know something, Princess? You are ugly when you’re angry!”

Joyful service is beautiful. Grumpy service is ugly.

We make our boys pick up the play area before they go to bed. And they are always joyful about it as you might imagine. But sometimes – it’s rare – but sometimes I’m picking up a few things during the day. And I don’t even ask them to help, but sometimes one of them comes upstairs and helps me pick up with a smile on their face. When Charlie marches upstairs and says, “I pick up my mess!” That’s heart-warming because of his attitude, because of his joy. When he lies on the ground like a limp noodle and chucks his toys in the general direction of the toy bin because I’m requiring it? Not as heart-warming.

The toys got picked up in both cases, but grumpiness is ugly and joy is beautiful. Have you ever been the grumpy server? Are you being the grumpy server now? I would love to declare First Pres Littleton to be a grumpiness free zone, but I don’t have that power. Since it worked for forest fires, maybe I need to have Grumpy the Bear to say, “Only YOU can prevent grumpy serving!”

Maximize Your “Get-To’s” With Spiritual Gifts

But if you are being the grumpy server right now, what can you do about it? If you’re having trouble letting go of little annoyances in your head, if you’re keeping Jesus’ commandments but your heart isn’t full of love, what can you do about it? Or to use our first text from James, if you’re having a hard time being quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger, what can you do about it?

Well let me encourage you to minimize your “have-to’s” and maximize your “get-to’s.” We spent a significant part of this year talking about our spiritual gifts, or our spiritual DNA – the ways God has designed us to serve with joy. We had about 80 people take the spiritual gifts class or take the spiritual gift inventory on paper or on our website.

Now, if you are serving Jesus or serving other people, and you go home glad that you did it, you don’t need a spiritual gift inventory – you’re already in the right spot. But if you are serving Jesus or serving other people, and you go home complaining and grumpy – you might need to make a change. And the spiritual gifts inventory can help you find that fertile ground for joyful service, not grumpy service.

If you have spiritual DNA for Prophecy, meaning Truth-Seeking, find a way to serve where you can provide oversight, accountability, or say the uncomfortable but necessary truth.

If you have spiritual DNA for Helping or Serving, find a team that does something you believe in and pitch in wherever you can.

If you have spiritual DNA for Teaching, find a way to serve where you can help it be the best it can be, or where you can help train others to get involved effectively.

If you have spiritual DNA for Encouraging, you can either reach out to others who would be joyful servers in the ministry, or find a person or two whom you can mentor.

If you have spiritual DNA for Giving, find a way of serving where you can find or give the resources needed for that to thrive.

If you have spiritual DNA for Leading, find a way to serve that allows you to organize, plan, or direct the effort – either the whole thing or just your own little part you can guide.

If you have spiritual DNA for Compassion or Mercy, find a way to reach those who are outsiders or serve people who have physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual needs.

Find your fertile ground for joyful service, not grumpy service. If you’re grumpy right now, it might be because you are operating outside of how God designed you to serve.

I think this is fairly obvious inside the church, but I think it can apply in our relationships, too. Usually our spiritual gifts are like our love languages – we like to receive what we are good at.

So many times a good way to serve a leader is to offer to take something that annoys them and run with it so they can focus elsewhere.

Many times a good way to serve a prophet or truth-seeker is to tell them God’s honest truth.

Many times a good way to serve someone with helping or serving is to just do some random chores for them.

Sometimes you can reverse this. Many times a good way to serve someone with teaching is to let them teach you something and have a good attitude while you learn.

Same thing with a person who has mercy or compassion – many times they have a hard time receiving mercy or compassion from others. So is there any way you can let them into your life more deeply and allow them to demonstrate their compassion.

A giving person might appreciate knowing that you donated to a cause they believe in.

So if you are grumpy while serving, think about your spiritual gifts to find a new way to serve. And if you are trying to say “I love you” to someone by serving them, think about what they would truly appreciate based on their spiritual gifts. And if said person is a control freak, you might have your work cut out for you because they might not want to be served!

Find the Win

The other thing that can help you find joy in serving instead of grumpiness is to find the win. We have some Broncos fans here – and we also have some Broncos fans who are away at the game today – so let me ask you this: was it more fun to be a Broncos fan when they won the division five times in a row and took home a Super Bowl? Or was it more fun to miss out on the playoffs in 2016 and having a losing record last year? Which was more fun?

For the Longhorns, I can tell you it was categorically more fun having 9 straight 10-win seasons, including a national title, and it was categorically less fun winning five to seven games the last few seasons. Winning is fun! Surprising revelation of the century, right?

Now, Jesus says we should abide in joy, to choose to be joyful, but that’s not always easy. So find the win. Maybe that’s internal – I enjoy serving this person or serving in this ministry because I feel good about it.

I was on a youth mission trip in the Chicago area, and one of the houses we were repairing had a very demanding owner. When the owner criticized the results of their labor, the students were livid. They had traveled half-way across the country to help her, and this was the result?

I encouraged them to remember that what they were doing pleased Jesus even if the homeowner was cantankerous. Even if the homeowner didn’t want to give them credit, Jesus did. That’s an internal motivation even when the external factors don’t look like a win.

But sometimes you might be able to find an external win – even if it’s small. I also reminded those students that, even if she complained about it, they had built her a sturdy, level, functioning floor. Her previous one had holes in it. That’s demonstrably better, right? She was a cranky person with holes in her floor when you found her. She’s a cranky person with a solid floor when you left her. That’s a win!

If the person you’re serving is always saying “you missed a spot,” a small win might be noticing that they didn’t criticize you this time. They could still use some lessons in gratefulness, but you can’t control that. Or maybe just remind yourself of how you made something better. Find a small win. Focus on that.

What’s a Win for FPCL?

If you’re serving somewhere here at church and you’re feeling grumpy about it even though it’s the kind of thing you’re good at and enjoy, do you know what a “win” is in that ministry? Why should anyone be doing it, let alone why should you be doing it? What’s the God-honoring vision behind that ministry, and how is it making an impact? Why is it worth doing?

That’s why I’ve been talking the last two weeks about our church vision, because what excites me, what brings me joy, isn’t necessarily driven by numbers. Scale matters. Trend matters. But whether we have 160 in worship or 165 in worship doesn’t move my emotional dial. It’s a useful tool, not a real God-honoring goal.

What gets me excited is when people who aren’t already connected with a faith community find a way to belong here. When they find those Rooted Relationships here – that’s a win. Whether it’s a Bible study or the choir or a mission project or a book club or quilting. When someone feels like they belong – that’s a win. When someone finds relationships that matter, that support, that encourage, that heal – that’s far better than our shallow culture. That’s exciting. That’s like closing a hole in the floor of that woman’s house in Chicago.

When someone finds a way to believe here, to Grow in Christ, that’s a win. Maybe it’s the prayer ministry, maybe it’s a Bible study again, maybe it’s teaching in Sunday school or mentoring a youth confirmation student, and that reinvigorates their own faith. That’s a win. When we help people find the peace of Jesus, the peace which surpasses all understanding instead of running the rat race of accumulation – that’s exciting.

When someone decides to be loving, Branching Out to Serve, when someone gives their time to be the hands and feet of Jesus – that’s a win. When someone decides realizes they can find deeper fulfillment serving others rather than serving themselves – that’s exciting.

If we can help someone belong, believe, and be loving – even if it’s just incrementally, even if it takes a long time – I find joy in that. That’s the win, and that’s why I’m here.

If you want to find the win in your ministry, or if you think your ministry needs to rethink itself, think about those three things. How are we helping people belong, believe, or be loving? How are we helping people become Rooted, Growing, and Branching Out? How might someone be a smidge more like Jesus after they interact with this ministry? If you can’t articulate that, you might be missing the win that would bring you more joy as you serve.

Summary

Sisters and brothers, Jesus said we should abide in his joy – that we should live in a joyful place as we serve others. Joyful service, not grumpy service.

If you find yourself being more grumpy than joyful, is there a better way to serve that is more in line with how God designed you?

Or is there a way to focus on the small wins – fixing the holes in the floor even if the homeowner is still cranky?

Jesus uses the imagery of “abiding” very intentionally. It means to settle down, to live. You can choose where you live. You don’t always get to choose how big your house is, but you have choices on where you live. You can choose joy as well. Abide in joy this week.

Sermons

September 2, 2018 - "Finding Your Love Language: Quality Time" by Rev. Cody Sandahl

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Lay Reader = Hebrews 10:19-25

19 Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, 20by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, 25not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Introduction

We are still in our series about finding our love languages in life and worship. Last week we looked at gifts, and how a good gift is a physical embodiment of your thoughtfulness toward someone. We talked about how we as a church could be a gift to God, as well.

This week we are looking at quality time. Last week we were dealing with my lowest love language, this week we’re looking at my highest. So this week I actually know what I’m talking about! No mental shopping lists this week!

To help us understand quality time, we are going to one of my favorite texts. This is right after Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit showed up in a blaze of fire. Peter just gave his big sermon to the people of Jerusalem. And three thousand people were baptized that day. So this text is how the hundred-or-so disciples incorporated three thousand new people who had never walked around with Jesus in the flesh.

I mentioned our mission statement last week – Rooted. Growing. Branching Out. This is the text that gives us that summary of the Christian life. See if you pick up the quality time in here.

Acts 2:42-47

42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, 47praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

Undivided Attention

Did you catch it? The most important part of that text? In my humble opinion…<PHONE RINGS>. Oh, sorry, my phone is buzzing – just a sec. “Hey, I’m preaching a sermon right now. I’ll call you back later. Yes, I saw the latest news on the Texas Longhorns. I’ll be free in about an hour – 50 minutes if I hurry this up. Talk to you then.”

Sorry about that. As I was saying, the most important part of the text. In my humble opinion…<TEXT MESSAGE>. Oh, sorry, I got a text. Just hold tight for a moment. I’ll be right…back…with…you. OK.

Where was I? Oh yes, the most important part of the text. In my humble opinion…you know, I just noticed how shiny the organ pipes are now that they’ve been cleaned. Have you noticed that? Totally awesome! I think we were talking about something else, but I just wanted to point that out.

Now I’ve lost my place. Oh well, it must not have been important. But don’t worry. You and me? Totally quality time here!

You want to know how to drive a Quality Time person absolutely bonkers? Multitask while spending time with them. And then if you want to see a Quality Time person explode, interrupt them with your quick unrelated observation or the question you just remembered to ask them. If you are observant, you should be able to spot the anger or the resigned disappointment pass over their eyes.

Quality Time is all about focused, undivided attention. When I go out to eat with someone, I try to choose a spot where I can’t see a TV. Because even if I don’t care about what’s on, it draws my eyes away and distracts me. This goes double for going out to eat with my wife. Or if you’re on the couch next to someone, and you don’t care about the game that’s on TV but they do? Guarantee you that isn’t quality time. They’re having quality time with their team via the TV, not quality time with you.

The key to understanding quality time is to notice that it is two words. Not just time. QUALITY time. Not all time together is quality. Are you tracking with me?

If you have someone in your life who is a Quality Time person, how can you give them your undivided attention?  Not half of your attention. Not even 90% of your attention. Your undivided attention. That’s what they’re craving.

Giving God Undivided Attention

And that undivided attention is what God craves as well. All over the Bible, God is referred to (or self-refers) as a jealous God. This isn’t jealous as in, “I’m so jealous of the stuff Jim has.” This is jealous in a Quality Time way – jealous for our undivided attention.

Jesus was definitely a Quality Time guy, too. He didn’t just walk around giving seminars and healings while you wait, he lived his life with his twelve disciples. He had deep friendships with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. And when he was staying with Mary and Martha and Martha was so busy getting the house ready for Jesus and his crew, Jesus said Mary was doing the better service by just sitting with him giving undivided attention.

God has every THING already. But what God craves and doesn’t have is our undivided attention. God chooses to allow us to direct our attention – even toward other things – but God craves our undivided attention. Think about that. You have something God wants. You have something Jesus wants. You have something the Holy Spirit wants. And it’s not in your bank account or wallet. It’s not in your inventory. It’s not covered by insurance. It’s in here (POINTS TO HEAD) and here (POINTS TO HEART). Your undivided attention. That’s what God is jealous for.

But how do we give God our any attention at all, let alone undivided attention? But lets’ back up and take a look at this text from Acts 2 for some guidance. How can we give God the one thing we have that he wants – our undivided attention?

Dialogue

One way we can give God undivided attention is with dialogue. Conversation. I bet most of you have been thinking about prayer as a way of giving God undivided attention, and you’re right. In v42, it says one of the things these 3000 new converts devoted themselves to was prayer. They also spent much time together in the Temple in worship. Those are the two most obvious ways of giving God attention – opening a dialogue or conversation with God through prayer and worship.

The Bible talks about God as our heavenly parent, and so I think dialogue makes sense as a way to give God undivided attention. Parents like to have dialogue, conversation, with our kids, right? But not all conversations are created equal. Caleb just started at a new preschool, and I asked him what he did. And remember, Caleb is the chatty one. But stated resolutely, “Nothing.”
“Nothing? You didn’t do anything today at preschool?”
“Nothing.”
“Did you go on the playground?”
“No.”
“Did you play with friends?”
“No.”
“Did you just sit in one spot all day while everyone else played?”
“Yes.”

Man, I thought I had until age 13 before that stuff started happening! Luckily that was just one day. Every other day he has been his usual chatty self when talking about school. But that conversation wasn’t exactly quality, right? Funny, but not really quality time.

Not all prayer time is quality time either. Not all worship time is quality time either. How can you give God your undivided attention in prayer and worship?

I actually don’t do well with the head bowed, hands clasped, classical prayer format. It very quickly turns from undivided attention to wander-y attention. Anyone else experience that? So I have learned other ways of giving God undivided attention. One pastor talked about prayer as thinking deeply about a topic with the Holy Spirit. I can do that. I can mull over a topic or something God has placed on my heart. I can roll a hard experience around in my mind while asking God where he is in the midst of it. That’s a form of prayer. And it works better for me than the classical format. We’re going to go way deeper on this at the spiritual retreat. Carol has some good stuff on prayer.

So dialogue or conversation through some kind of prayer, some kind of worship, whatever helps you communicate with and hear from God with undivided attention – that’s quality time.

Trusting Jesus

Another way to give God our undivided attention is to trust Jesus with our decisions. Acts 2 says those 3000 new Christians devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching. They were able to do things they couldn’t do before – wonders and signs. Instead of being selfish they became generous. Those are all ways that they lived differently because of their faith in Jesus.

Becca and I just saw the Mr. Rogers documentary, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor.” Anyone else seen it? If you haven’t, it’s just about out of theaters but I think it’s already available for rent and streaming. It’s worth your time. And they’re not even paying me to say that. I should look into that, though.

It’s a wonderful look at why Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood was so different from every other kids’ show. Other shows were trying to entertain kids…and sell some merchandise on the side. But Fred Rogers didn’t just want the kids to spend time in front of the television watching him. He wanted them to be able to choose to live differently – and better – after watching his show.

Early on in PBS’ history it was about to get defunded by the government. And the senator leading the charge to defund PBS was listening to all the PBS advocates telling him why it’s worth funding. But he’s unimpressed. Then Fred Rogers tells him about his show. He wants kids to know that feelings are mentionable AND manageable. Everyone has choices they can make with their emotions. And he tells the senator the words to one of his songs – “What Do You Do With the Mad That You Feel?” The ending goes, “I can stop when I want to. Can stop when I wish. Can stop, stop, stop anytime. And what a good feeling to feel like this and know that the feeling is really mine. Know that there’s something deep inside that helps us become what we can. For a girl can be some day a lady. And a boy can be some day a man.”

And the senator replied, “Well I think that’s wonderful. Looks like you just earned that $20 million.”

Just as Fred Rogers hoped to give kids a better way to live when they watched his show, Jesus hopes to give us a better way to live when we trust him. We can choose how we respond and act in life. Our circumstances don’t control us if we take Jesus seriously. In fact, the Bible has its own version of that song from Fred Rogers, which isn’t super surprising since he was an ordained Presbyterian minister. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says it this way, “The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.”

When we have faith in our heads, and love in our hearts, being the hands and feet of Jesus quickly follows. And whenever we trust Jesus with our decisions in life, that’s quality time with God.

Rooted Neighbors

The last way to give God undivided attention is by giving each other undivided attention. You remember how Jesus summarized the Bible itself? “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. And the second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and Prophets hang on these two commandments.” When we interact with each other in a God-honoring way, we are in fact honoring God.

In the text from Acts 2, it says they spent MUCH time together. They broke bread together – meaning they had meals in their houses together, not just at the church.

I haven’t really made this connection before until this week, but I also notice that they were together in a particular place. To go back tot hat tree analogy for faith, they had Rooted relationships with each other, but they were also Rooted in their very particular neighborhoods. That’s how they gained “the goodwill of all the people.”

They didn’t catch an Uber Donkey over the Peter’s house for church, get some lovely teaching, and then go back home for the week. They spent time together throughout the week. They were known in their very particular neighborhoods.

Last week I talked about our church as having the potential to be a shelterwood for our very specific area. If you don’t like all the tree imagery, you could also call that a neighborhood church. Becoming such a great neighbor, such a blessing in the name of Jesus, that the people who could walk to church here do. That’s when you’ve become a neighborhood church again. And I say “again,” because that used to be the case.

But we also have plenty of people who live too far away to walk here. Most of you, right?

Well what if that neighborhood church idea was something you did in your own neighborhood as well? What if you didn’t just drive to church for Bible study or book club or Circle? What if you gathered in your neighborhood as well? We have enough people at Windcrest Retirement Community that they gather on occasion, so this can apply in that phase of life, too.

As a church, I believe we are called to get to know the joys and concerns of this neighborhood so that we can be a blessing. As an individual, might Jesus be calling you to get to know the joys and concerns of your neighborhood so that you can be a blessing? If that sounds intriguing, let’s have coffee and we can spitball some ideas.

One of the stories I share about trees I think applies here. When we were visiting the San Francisco area we went to see the Redwood trees – big enough to drive a car through. But some of them were roped off with signs that said, “do not walk.” I asked a Park Ranger and found out that while Redwoods are 350 feet tall, their roots are only five or six feet deep. And just having enough people walk around their base can expose the roots and make the tree fall down.

But when two or three or four or a forest of Redwoods start interlocking their roots, they can withstand almost anything. I’m beginning to think that we as Christians need to have Rooted relationships – not just at church – but where we are planted in our own neighborhoods. I’m beginning to think that our particular place is important – not just friends around the city, but a forest of interlocking roots right near our homes.

How might Jesus be calling you to love your neighbor as yourself – right from your block? That’s quality time with God.

Summary

Sisters and brothers, we have one thing that God is jealous for, that God craves, that God doesn’t already have. One thing: our undivided attention. Quality time. When those 3000 new converts were joining the early disciples, they were shown how to have dialogue with God. How to trust Jesus with their decisions. And how to have Rooted relationships in their own communities. The early disciples thought those things were of utmost importance. Are they important to us as well? Amen.