Divine Nobodies: Shedding Religion to Find God

I know it is completely cliché these days to attack the “established” church and all that goes along with it. We poor, dumb, seminary trained pastors just don’t get it. We old denominational folks don’t have a clue how things really are “out there.” Yeah, okay, I know full well that much of what passes for Christianity and pastoral ministry is little more than religion management and not even very good religion management at that. It is neither Christian nor pastoral. I get it. I know all these things, I’ve heard all these things and, most importantly, I live these things every day of my life. These are the very beasts making my life difficult. None of this is news to me.

And yet I must say, Jim Palmer’s book exposes and refreshes me still. He transparently describes the life and thoughts of pastors and church leaders with such surgical precision and accuracy it is often painful to read. I kept looking for some sort of anesthetic along the way, but Palmer offers very little. His is a conversation borne along by painfully personal experience; we must listen to what he says because we know Palmer isn’t talking at anyone louder than he is talking at himself. His stories must be listened to because we know they are true – and true stories must never be ignored.

In the book, Palmer walks through a series of stories about nobody people who taught him good stuff about following Jesus without stumbling into dead, dull religion. I loved these stories. I have my own list of wonderful nobodies who have done exactly the same for me over the years. These nobody people matter ever so much more than anyone thinks, especially since Jim Palmer took the time to present them to us.

Thanks Jim. From one nobody to another, I truly cherish your efforts!

Hidden In Plain Sight (Mark Buchanan)

What a wonderful book! This is the fifth of Buchanan’s books and the second I’ve loved. Buchanan has a way with words and stories that make his books a pleasure to wallow in. They are not books to be read quickly, but books to be pondered. While he sometimes loses track of himself in his vocabulary, he always comes back; and comes back wonderfully!

This book is a study of the Apostle Peter, of Christian virtue and of 2 Peter 1:1-9. Buchanan walks through Peter’s life and his Scripture text and explores them for all they’re worth. The book is obviously Scripture soaked and driven, and yet Buchanan also allows his mind to quite pleasantly wander a bit from time to time. His reflections and stories bring his arguments to life in lovely ways.

I have always loved the Apostle Peter. I love the highs and sometimes almost comical lows of his life (i.e. “Let’s build some tents and stay here on the mountain!”) I love the idea that we know what we know of Peter’s flaws and struggles because Peter himself probably made sure we remembered them! I love the quite obvious imperfections of the man; his imperfection gives me hope that my own imperfections will also be met with grace and glory. This book, much like Ortberg’s “If You Want To Walk On Water, You’ve Got To Get Out Of The Boat,” makes me love Peter even more. And in loving Peter more, I find I also more deeply love the Savior who loved him.

This book is well worth a Saturday afternoon. Virtue demands it…

A Moment for the Children - Hulk Hands

My daughter Maria gave me a funny Christmas present this year. Do you know what these are? Do you know who the Incredible Hulk is? He is a comic book character who, when he gets real mad, turns into sort of mean, green, enormous monster smashing everything everywhere. But he’s not real. I know he’s not real because his pants never rip when he gains weight and gets big. And goodness knows that isn’t real!

But what if these were my real hands? What if my hands really were this big? And green? Would God still love me if I had funny huge hands? What if I were a mean guy who smashed things up when he gets angry? Would God still love me then? Or does God only love nice people and important pastors? Does God love your nice moms and dads? Does God love kings and presidents and powerful people? Does God only love famous people? Or does God love little people too? Does God care about your story/life? Or does God only care what preachers have to say?

Did you know the Bible says God loved us while were still sinners? What does that mean? It means God loves us even before we did one thing to deserve His love! It means He loves us even when we have our ripped shirt, tight pants and angry Hulk hands on! It means that even though God certainly doesn’t like the bad things we do at all, He still loves us and longs to be with us. It means God cares about your story. It means your story is just as important to God as any preacher’s story. Isn’t that something?

I have pictures of my daughters in my wallet. Do you know why? Is it because I need to remind myself what they look like? No, it is because I love what they look like! It is because I love them. It is because I’m proud of them and I like to tell people about them. Their story matters to me. God is the same what about us. I have a pastor friend who always says, “Doesn’t it blow your mind knowing that Almighty God carries your picture in His wallet?”

God loves you, just as you are. God wants to be close to you. God wants to be the first and most important thing in your life. God wants to shout your little story to the world! Isn’t that something?

Questioning Our Cheeseburgers

I just finished reading Franchising McChurch: Feeding Our Obsession With Easy Christianity by Thomas White and John M. Yeats.

I have decidedly mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, the authors describe in gory detail how a consumer mentality has invaded and deeply damaged the American church. Almost every pastor I know would probably agree with that assessment. We are all dealing with the fallout of our culture's self obsession.

But I'm not entirely convinced that White and Yeats have chosen the proper boogeyman. They point fingers at the seeker sensitive, the megachurches and especially at the increasing numbers of churches choosing multi-campus church options. While the overwhelming majority of their concerns are completely justified and well worth sober consideration, there isn't enough recognition of the value these churches bring to the overall Gospel conversation. While I share the deep concerns expressed in this book, I also recognize many of my bigger church brothers and sisters offer great benefits to the church. I used to speak very disparagingly of a local megachurch in my ministry area until I had a chance to review their Adult Bible Fellowships brochure. Their offerings were both biblically deep and spiritually solid; I would have profited from any of them. I still don't want to be part of their church, but I'm not ready to toss out the baby just yet.

The real problem we're all facing is me. I'm selfish. I'm sinful. I want my church like I want everything else in life; according to my own definition, taste and comfort zone. Scratch me and, underneath, even though as an experienced pastor I especially should know better, I'm just as selfish, superficial and sinful as the next person sitting in any church. While I deeply agree we're seeing a consumerism in America and in the church that is truly demonic and troubling, I believe we must deal with the issue personally first. The big picture church issues will take care of themselves (especially in a consumer society!) if the consumers have a change of heart. I believe religious consumers like me need an epic change of heart.

May God give us a true hunger for only the best things! May God give us a genuine change of heart!

Christianity In Crisis: 21st Century (Hank Hanegraaff)

This is an unpleasant book to read. This was probably a very unpleasant book to write. And yet, as much as it pains me to admit, this is book well worth reading. In some Christian circles, this book should probably be required reading! Hank Hanegraaff walks through almost all the most popular "name it and claim it" faith movement figures of contemporary America and exposes their theology and practice for what it is and what it is not. While sometimes Hanegraaff's criticisms seem unduly harsh, petty and reaching, once he finishes his arguments, the reader cannot help but agree that Hanegraaff is completely correct in his concerns. Many of the most popular figures in today's "faith" movement are not just colorfully strange and eccentric believers to be tolerated within the church. They are spiritually dangerous and sometimes openly destructive folks whose thinking and practice must be resoundingly rejected. Hanegraaff does so.

As a general rule, I dislike this kind of book. As an overly critical person already, I usually avoid this kind of reading because I don't need any help moving in this direction. But I'm sadly glad I read this book. I do have a few suggestions however...

First of all, thinking of a man in my former church who never spoke to me unless he had a word of criticism, I would like to see a more balanced approach to the people and ideas being skewered. While I agree with the conclusions, I would still like to see at some passing recognition of the good these people occasionally do. Not all snake oil salesmen are evil, nasty people - some are just selling bad products.

Secondly, I would have appreciated a simpler focus and more concise book. Cut the book in half and simply spend one chapter on each figure being considered. It would have been much easier to wade through. Many of the people who most need to read this book will probably not be willing to wade through 400 pages. But they might be willing to scan through and read the chapters on at least a few of their personal heroes.

Third and finally, I thoroughly hate the title! While Christendom and religion might constantly be under attack and dealing with crisis, the true Christian faith will never be in crisis. Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world! If we dial back the crisis language, work in a little more grace and thin the conversation down to the real essentials, the objectives of this book might be better accomplished.

I wish this book weren't necessary. But sadly, that isn't the case. It truly saddens me to see what passes for wisdom in American religious life. May this book be an encouragement to all its readers to get back into the Bible for themselves so these kinds of foolish ideas will have no ignorant soil in which to take root. Thanks for all your work, Hank. I do appreciate it.

Cowabungally Christian

“But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars--their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." ~ Revelation 21:8

Last week, I was studying John’s description of heaven in Revelation 21 and noticed a grim pause in John’s lovely visions. In the verse above, the One sitting on the throne in John’s visions included a quick list of people who won’t get to enjoy heaven’s eternal wonders. Of course I’d read the list before, but it had never previously stunned me. For some reason, I’d never really paid much attention to the first disqualified people. Cowards. Cowards aren’t getting in.

What?? Out of all possible disqualifying sins to make a scary list like this in the exultant second to last chapter of the Bible, Almighty God chooses to begin His list with cowardice? Wimps? Wussies? Whiners? Wow! Cowards don’t get in? That is worth a moment’s pause!

But when we go back through the rest of the Bible, this exclusion does make complete sense. God has always demanded radical faith and courage. And if we think about it deeply, cowardice is the simple antithesis of faithfulness. Cowardice is both sin and sin causing. The evil ripple effects of cowardice run wide indeed.

Now enter yet another of Pastor Kevin’s kitty pictures…

My older sister Sharon sent me a Valentine’s Day card last week with this picture on the front. The caption on the inside read, “Here comes your Valentine’s Day hug!” Cute, huh? But for some reason last week, as I looked at the funny picture, I couldn’t help imagining what this kitten was thinking at the moment the picture was snapped. I imagined if this kitten were a surfer or Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtle, she would be screaming “Cowabunga!” or some such thing. And as I thought about the glories of heaven last week and the important issue of cowardice/courage today, I wonder if this “cowabunga” image might be a good picture of the godly Christian attacking life. Cowardice is not a word we would ever attach to this cat!

Tony Dungy, in his excellent new book Uncommon, tells the story of something his former University of Minnesota football coach Cal Stoll taught all his freshman players. He said “Success is uncommon, therefore not to be enjoyed by the common man. I’m looking for uncommon people.” Dungy goes on in the book to discuss how success, regardless of how we define it, is not something we can take for granted. Success in anything is something only going to those with truly uncommon “cowabunga” attitudes towards life. And nowhere is this truer than in our faith lives.

We are swimming against the tide trying to be courageously Christian in our culture, especially when it comes to what we are attempting to do together as a church. Contrary to the claims of our former governor, Christianity is not a religion of wimps and weaklings. That idea is simply laughable to anyone even remotely familiar with Christian history! While we must all start our spiritual lives in full recognition of our wimpiness, Jesus has no intention of leaving us there. Jesus has no interest in accommodating whatever is sinfully common, normal and culturally acceptable. Our faith is always, always, always on offense. Heaven has no rooms reserved for cowards. Jesus intends to take our weakness, broken lives and fearfulness and turn us into water-walkers and wonderfully wild men and women of faith. Whatever we are called by God to do in this life, however we are gifted, we’re supposed to do all with faithful, courageous abandon.

This month we’re going to do a teaching series on baptism. I love the cowabungally Christian metaphor of baptism by immersion. While of course there is nothing sacred about any particular baptismal method, I love baptism by immersion not only because I believe it to be the most faithful biblically, but much, much more so because it is a glorious image, a powerful declaration to our superficially spiritual culture, that we want to be cowabungally Christian! “Lord, don’t just wash my feet, but my hands and head as well.” Let there be no aspect of my life not buried into your death and raised to courageous and cowabungally new life!

May God help us think clearly this month about cowardice, courage and faith! May we lean forward together in eager expectation and courageous hopefulness!

Amen.

Our Heavenly Hope (John 14 & Revelation 21)

My friends Ray Thielbar, Roger Sorenson and Bruce Osmanson send me gorgeous pictures of Ely from time to time. They are always staggeringly beautiful. They remind me of the breathtaking beauty of the Boundary Waters, the lavish glories of God’s creation and, of course, all my good friends still living up in Ely. I love these pictures.

But they are just pictures, aren’t they?

I can’t feel the wintery forest breezes in a picture. I can’t hear a wolf howling or crabby ravens noisily chattering amongst themselves. I can’t hear the crunch of the snow under my boots or feel the stinging cold on my face. I can’t feel the radiating warmth of the setting sun sneaking gently through the frosty trees. It is just a picture.

This “just a picture” issue is precisely our problem whenever we attempt to describe the glories of heaven, our eternal home. Even Jon Mortensen couldn’t capture what is actually there! As the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:9, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.” Ironically, even the words of Scripture cannot completely convey the fullness of heaven; not because God’s Holy Word is inadequate in any way, but simply because our human language is inadequate.

So I want to be very simple in our discussion of heaven this morning. While references to heaven appear literally all over the Bible, I’d like to focus our attention on just two passages. The first of those heavenly snapshot passages is Revelation 21. The Apostle John was describing his glorious revelation experience, intended by God to encourage a suffering 1st century church, and he finished his story with a glorious description of heaven.

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits thick, by human measurement, which the angel was using. The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.

I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

Heaven is gorgeous. Heaven is the presence of God. Heaven is the total absence of sadness, death, mourning, pain. Heaven is absolute newness. Heaven is the final quenching of every thirst. Heaven is the ultimate reward for those who embrace Jesus and the ultimate loss for those who reject Him. Heaven is perfection. Heaven is light without darkness. Heaven is a tree of life and healing. Heaven is completely curseless living. Oh my goodness, heaven is seeing the face of God and seeing that we are fully seen by God! Heaven is eternal.

Meditate on this stuff. Each one of these statements carries with it a theological and existential ripple effect too rich and glorious to describe and almost too perfect to be believed. Logically, scientifically, even cynically speaking, if even one of these statements is true, heaven is beyond our most vivid imagination. If even one of these statements is true, securing our place in heaven is the single most intelligent pursuit any human being could ever undertake.

And that brings us to the second and even more critically important passage. During the Last Supper Jesus had with His disciples, he was preparing them for the difficult days to come. Just as the Apostle John would encourage people with his great revelation of Jesus years later, here Jesus encouraged with another sort of heavenly discussion. He explained how we all can secure our place in heaven. Listen closely to what He said in John 14.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. My Father’s house has plenty of room; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

We secure our place in heaven by fully embracing what Jesus says here. I see three very simple components to this heavenly encouragement we must take home today...

We secure our place in this glorious heaven when we reject fear; when we refuse to allow our hearts to be troubled. Folks, there is a cross coming for me in a few hours. There is injustice, violence and horror in store for me. There is bad government, foolish leadership and all sorts of birth pangs in store for the planet. Do not let your hearts be troubled; reject fear!

Monica made my day Wednesday morning. I have been deeply troubled by things going on in our world and in our country of late. It seems to me the world around us grows more selfish and superficial, more disconnected and destructive almost every day. And so as I was walking out the door to the office on Wednesday morning, I snuggled up to Monica a bit and half-jokingly said, “Tell me everything is going to be okay, honey.” At that, she took my face in her tiny hands and said with a smile, “Everything is going to be excellent!” A true follower of Jesus understands that everything is going to be excellent. We’ve read the last chapter! There will be many dark, difficult days ahead, but we don’t fear as this world fears. We reject all fear!

But the only way we can live this fearlessly is to fully trust God and the way He has made for us in Jesus. This is the second component of our preparation for heaven. Trust God has a plan and a place for us. Trust Him to care for us as only He can. Trust that we will one day be with Him. Trust Him so completely we can be fearless and confident about all these things. Since we know where our LORD Jesus has gone, we can confidently know where we too will go. We must be filled with trust in God; fully excited, expectant and confident.

And yet the hinge of our trust is Jesus. We secure our hope of heaven when reject fear, trust God and, thirdly, when we become utterly and single mindedly Christian. We secure our place in heaven when our thoughts, our words and our daily lives reflect that Jesus Christ alone is the way, truth and the life. We are secure in our heavenly hope only to the degree we understand Jesus alone can give us the security we seek; that Jesus alone is the only way to the Father. We are only secure when we rest confidently and securely in the arms of Jesus.

And please understand we’re not playing some intellectual game here. Being single mindedly Christian is not simply a matter of dry religious, intellectual assent to a list of doctrinal principles. Being single mindedly Christian means single mindedly embracing the full Gospel, the way, the truth and the life. It means praying and working for God’s kingdom to come on earth even as it is in heaven. (Considering the picture of heaven we’ve just reviewed, that’s a pretty lofty goal!) It means not simply hearing and praising the high standards of the Sermon on the Mount on Sundays, but living them out by the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit in our daily work. It means taking up your cross and living dangerously; truly radical discipleship in every sense of the word. It means a complete baptism, a complete immersion into His death and joyous resurrection to completely new life. It means fully living each day as though you were dying; speaking sweeter, loving deeper, giving forgiveness and embracing eternity for all its worth. It means we are absolutely present in and squeezing the juice out of each precious moment of this life in a way impossible for anyone other than the single mindedly Christian person. Intellectually accepting Jesus as the way, truth and life is only the very first step on our path to heaven’s glories. We are called to single mindedly live out our acceptance!

Folks, everything is going to be excellent! There is no snapshot picture of heaven I could give you today that could possibly do justice to the gorgeous reality. Even the perfection of the Word of God cannot describe what the Bible itself tells us is indescribably wonderful.

Don’t you think it would be wise to call the Front Desk and make a room reservation?

Don’t you think it would be wise to investigate all these things for yourself and, on the remote possibility I’m correct in what I’m sharing here today, happily jump into this Jesus thing with both feet? Who are we kidding here, folks? If what I’m saying here today is correct, if it is even remotely possible that these things are all true, what could possibly be more important for any of us than to know, love and follow Jesus with every happy, hungry ounce of our being?

May we all be sloppy obsessed and gorgeously fanatical about heaven! May we fearlessly trust in God! May we be single mindedly Christian! And may our rejoicing in all these things help us gloriously reflect heavenly hope to the completely fearful world around us!

Amen.

This Is Your Brain On Joy – Dr. Earl Henslin

I have agreed to review books periodically for Thomas Nelson Publishers. Here is my first review.
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Have you ever wondered why some folks seem to have a difficult time getting happy? Why is true joy so elusive for so many? As a Christian working in the field, Dr. Earl Henslin believes he has some answers. He believes there are often completely treatable, completely understandable brain issues driving many of our persistent mood problems. He makes a very convincing case.

Dr. Henslin has an engaging writing style making complex issues approachable for the average lay person. He also has a cheerful sense of humor. Any serious author able to find a way to use the line, “Everybody knows it is just not a good idea to put a gerbil in charge of your mind” is worth a read! Not only does he regularly bring a smile to a potentially dry subject, his approachability actually makes brain research comprehensible.

I have only two hesitations with this book, both of which might be overly picky on my part.

When I’m listening to anyone discussing complex scientific issues, I appreciate a genuine sense of humility. In the constantly changing field of medical research in particular, I want to see a very obvious recognition the writer understands medicine is still something of an art form. While I am thrilled by all we have learned about the human body in recent decades, scientists have been wrong enough in the past that I want to hear some honest humility in their pronouncements. I rarely do. While Dr. Henslin isn’t particularly offensive in this area, I guess I would have liked to hear a bit more humility as he discussed all the treatments/experiments possible for our brains. Last time I checked, the brain is still at least little tricky to fully understand! I’m just not completely comfortable with some of his certainty.

The second issue relates to the nature of self-help books. I am always concerned when an author gets overly specific and prescriptive. While it might be helpful to discuss medicines and supplements found helpful in treating certain brain issues, I am very uncomfortable listing dosages and regimens. I am uncomfortable with the detail given in the book. The potential for abuse and confusion is too great. I would have thinned the self-help stuff significantly. I don’t like the idea of people self-medicating for potential brain issues.

These concerns aside, the book was still a thought-provoking and encouraging read. Perhaps the most encouraging message of the book is that our brains can be treated and can recover from seemingly hopeless situations. This is a very hopeful and useful book in the right hands. Anyone dealing with emotional issues might do well to give it a peek. But talk to a professional before you start popping any pills!

Embracing Eternity (Luke 12:13-21)

As most of you know, Monica and I came very close to purchasing a home in December. We didn’t really want a house. We certainly didn’t want the distractions of a mortgage, lawn mowing, yard work, snow shoveling, a longer drive to work, or a million other fine benefits of home ownership. But we’re both 48 years old now and we haven’t done that much to begin preparing for retirement. And if we’re going to have beaches and sunshine in our golden years, we need to get serious about retirement planning now, right? Isn’t that what we’re all told?

Of course there’s sound, mature and completely biblical wisdom in that thinking, but our Scripture text today causes me to wonder. Which retirement should we spend our best energy preparing for? Which retirement should we spend more time thinking about – our retirement from some earthly job or our retirement from earthly life? As we close our conversation about truly living like we are dying this morning, I beg us all to consider how much we truly embrace our completely inevitable eternity. What sort of eternity are we preparing our selves to enjoy?

What answers are we giving to these eternal questions? In Luke 12, someone tried to involve Jesus in a family money squabble. Jesus happened to be teaching about hypocrisy, when a man interrupted him, perhaps thinking of someone he considered a hypocrite. But Jesus recognized the deeper greed issues behind the squabble and shared a very sobering story. He refused to take sides, but instead discussed the motivations driving the argument. Beginning in verse 13, reading from the New Living Translation, we read:

Then someone called from the crowd, “Teacher, please tell my brother to divide our father’s estate with me.” [Take my side and get me my money!] Jesus replied, “Friend, who made me a judge over you to decide such things as that?” Then he said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.” Then he told them a story: “A rich man [he was already rich] had a fertile farm [the word used here implies a large territory] that produced fine crops. He said to himself, ‘What should I do? I don’t have room for all my crops.’ Then he said, ‘I know! I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll have room enough to store all my wheat and other goods. And I’ll sit back and say to myself, “My friend, you have enough stored away for years to come. Now take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!” ’ [Me, my, mine – very self-obsessed!] But God said to him, ‘You fool! You will die this very night. [Your debt is due!] Then who will get everything you worked for?’ Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.”

This parable punches our culture in the teeth! While most of our culture would praise this fellow as a good businessman, Jesus calls him a fool. Jesus paints him as a selfish idiot.

Why? What exactly does the rich fool do wrong? There is a lot of foolishness to discuss in this story, but let’s limit ourselves to just three of his most glaringly foolish behaviors.

He Lived Like This Life Was All There Is

The first one is the most obvious. This foolish man lived like this life was all there is. He acted as though all that mattered was the pleasure he could provide for himself in this life. He forgot we are not in the land of the living going to the land of the dying – we are in the land of the dying going to the land of the living. As the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:19, “If we have hope in Christ only for this life, we are the most miserable people in the world.” This life is not all there is. The sooner we understand that, the better we off we will be.

Do you remember the old bedtime prayers people used to pray with their children? Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. Grim! Did you know there used to be another even more gruesome verse included in that prayer? Our days begin with trouble here, our life is but a span, and cruel death is always near, so frail a thing is man. Good night, honey! Pleasant dreams!

When John Ortberg commented on this old prayer in his most recent book, he said, “There was a day, much different than ours, when children said this prayer by the millions. Somebody wanted children to know: earth is fallen and broken and not our home. Life is not permanent. Death is both twisted and inevitable, and human life hangs by a slender thread. We have an [eternal] soul and not just a body. God is the kind of person who can be trusted with our eternal destiny. To be clear about who keeps our souls is infinitely important.”

This life is not all there is. This life is not about some foolish accumulation of stuff. This life is not about guaranteeing a good spot on the beach when you’re seventy! It is about fully enjoying your spot in eternity! We all know these things if we’re honest with ourselves…

Fortune magazine once quoted comments made by billionaire H. Ross Perot: "Guys, just remember, if you get real lucky, if you make a lot of money, if you go out and buy a lot of stuff-- it's gonna break. You got your biggest, fanciest mansion in the world. It has air conditioning. It's got a pool. Just think of all the pumps that are going to go out. Or go to a yacht basin any place in the world. Nobody is smiling, and I'll tell you why. Something broke that morning. The generator's out; the microwave oven doesn't work. ... Things just don't mean happiness."

This life is not all there is. Any fool should know this.

He Lived Like There Would Always Be More Time

The second foolish thing our wealthy, biblical retirement planner does is also obvious. He forgot that the clock is always, always, always ticking. He lived like there would always be more time. This fool could control his business beautifully, but he forgot he couldn’t control the ticking clock. James 4:14 echoes this theme very bluntly. “How do you know what will happen tomorrow? For your life is like the morning fog – it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.” While it is wise, mature stewardship to plan for the future, we must never forget we are not guaranteed an earthly future. We are not guaranteed more time. There will not always be more time.

Speaker and author Carol Kent knows something about time. She was on the fast track to becoming an absentee parent--until her young son, Jason, made a simple observation. She recalls: "We were eating breakfast together, and I had on an old pair of slacks and a fuzzy old sweater. He flashed his baby blues at me over his cereal bowl and said, 'Mommy, you look so pretty today.' I didn't even have makeup on! So I said, 'Honey, why would you say I look pretty today? Normally I'm dressed in a suit and high heels.' And he said, 'When you look like that, I know you're going some place; but when you look like this, I know you're mine.'”

There is not always going to be more time to share breakfast cereal with our kids. We don’t know how much time we’re going to get. Time is an arrogant human joke…this life is not interested in what your watch says. Almighty God is not following your silly schedule.

Erma Landis told a great story years ago of how, for decades, anyone living within five or six miles of “the hat factory in Denver, Pennsylvania, set their clocks and watches by the sirens the hat factory set off five days a week. At 5:30 a.m., the wake-up siren would begin the day followed by the starting, lunchtime, and quitting sirens at the designated times. When the siren system was eventually disbanded, a friend of mine was reminiscing with the timekeeper about his job. "What did you use to determine the exact time?" With a twinkle in his eye, the man reached in his pocket and pulled out an ancient Mickey Mouse watch.”

Folks; time is a Mickey Mouse deal without any guarantees at all. We don’t know when our cheap watches will stop ticking. We must live every moment of our lives aware of that fact.

He Prepared For The Wrong Retirement

This life is not all there is. We are not promised all the time we want. And if we don’t understand those two facts, we will make the same foolish third mistake the rich fool in this Bible parable did. We will prepare ourselves for the wrong retirement. We will run the serious risk of losing everything; we will lose not only all the silly barns full of wealth we’ve worked so hard to build and hoard for ourselves but, exponentially worse, we will risk losing the eternity of bliss and wonder God has planned for us. We’ll not only lose the condo, we’ll risk the castle!

Please don’t underestimate the severity of this parable. We risk losing everything if we embrace the foolish, money-grubbing, rich guy perspectives of this world. Do you remember exactly what Jesus taught us all in Luke 9:25, just a few chapters before this story? “How do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose or forfeit your own soul in the process?” We must not waste our lives preparing for the wrong retirement!

Next Sunday morning, we’re going to spend a few moments exploring some of what the Bible has to say about heaven and our eternity with God. We’re going to cover a lot of ground, so I’ll only share one verse on this subject here today. I would simply ask each of us consider what we think the Apostle Paul meant in 1 Corinthians 2:9, when he said, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.” Jesus shared this harsh story about the rich fool because the worst tragedy of all would be to waste our temporal lives on some perverted, foolish rich guy rush for the wrong retirement and then, risk losing the opportunity to experience the ultimate retirement after this life is over! Can any of us even imagine the glorious eternity our Heavenly Father has planned? Do any of us honestly want to risk losing that? Not me.

This foolish rich man prepared for the wrong retirement. Don’t follow in his footsteps!

As I close this morning, I find myself almost haunted by the final question God asks the rich fool in our Bible passage. Who is going to get everything you’ve been working for?

J. Vernon McGee, in his commentary on this passage, shared a humorous cowboy grave stone epitaph which read: “Here lies John Racket in his wooden jacket. He kept neither horses nor mules. He lived like a hog. He died like a dog. And he left all his money to fools.”

Is that how any of us want to be remembered? Who is going to benefit from how we’re living our lives? Who is going to get everything we’re working for? Are we planning for our eternal retirement? Or are we just leaving a bunch of money for other greedy fools to devour?

The story is told of an accountant speaking with a lawyer about the final will and testament of a multimillionaire who had just died. The accountant asked, “So, how much money did the old guy leave behind?” And the lawyer responded, “All of it.”

Do we get that? Do we really? We’re going to leave all this behind.

Which retirement are you preparing for?

Jesus made a way for us in the wilderness. Jesus taught us how to joyously live each day as if it will be our last. Don’t waste another moment of your life foolishly working for or obsessing over things that will not last. Accept the free offer of life and salvation Jesus gives you. Surrender your heart and open your life to the wonderful power and leadership of the Holy Spirit. Come close to your Heavenly Father and He will surely come close to you!

May you embrace eternity today! May you live this day as though you were dying!

Amen.

Fun-Filled Christianity (Hebrews 12:1-3)

Almost exactly ten years ago, I shared the following lengthy message on my first official Sunday as pastor of the Ely Baptist Church. I find myself once again drawn to it...

May God help us understand the fun!
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There is probably no more important time of the Christian year on which to talk about fun than this one. The Easter season. This time, more than any other in the Christian calendar, ought to be about fun. It ought to be about joy. About worship. About celebration. New beginnings and new hope! Even in the midst of all the pain, broken-ness, suffering and lunacy of our contemporary world, this season ought to be singularly about welcoming the King of the Universe into the Jerusalems of our lives. Wave your palm branches in the air, folks, the King has come to town!

And yet somehow the word “fun” just doesn’t seem to quite fit when it comes to discussions of our faith, does it? Somehow “fun” never seems to make it into the deep theological Sunday-morning discussions of our faith, does it? Somehow “fun” is a secular idea. Fun is something that non-Christians get to do on Sunday mornings when the rest of us are stuck in church, right? Fun certainly isn’t something we discuss in church! We have too much serious stuff to talk about, right?

I used to think so until one experience I had as a young soldier in the Army that redefined fun for me. I don’t think I ever really understood what fun was until one day at Ft. Bragg when my 1SG made me get four haircuts in one day. Now there’s a fun experience! I’ve shared this story with a few of you already, but I wanted to share it with all of you this morning because it was such a defining moment for my understanding of what fun-filled Christianity is all about, and, even more importantly, for what I believe God wants to say to all of us this morning.

We were having a Commanding General’s inspection one week when I was a new and inexperienced young soldier in the unit and, any time that happens in the military, everyone goes a little crazy getting ready for it. It isn’t uncommon to have several different uniform and grooming pre-inspections in which various people in the chain of command will conduct their own inspections of how you look. I had gotten my hair cut for my bosses’ inspection and had passed with flying colors. But when the 1SG inspected us later in the morning, he told me that I needed to get a better haircut. I was angry since I knew that my first haircut was well within regulation, but one does not disagree with one’s 1SG and hope to live, so I went and got my second haircut. But when I reported in to the 1SG for reinspection, he failed me again! Now really getting angry, I stomped back to the barber for my third haircut of the day. Barely controlling my temper, I reported to the 1SG for what I was sure would be my final reinspection. But as soon as he looked up from his desk at my hair, he just shook his head, rolled his eyes and said, “Hanson, go back to your barber and tell him that your 1SG is John Meyer and you have CG’s inspection tomorrow!” Fuming and spewing and stomping back across to the barber for the fourth time, I was met at the door of the barbershop by a laughing barber who said simply, “Son, who is your 1SG?” Almost yelling at him, I spit back “John Meyer!” He laughed again, muttered something about “why didn’t you tell me that the first time, boy?” and proceeded to give me the closest buzz cut I’d had since Basic Training.

By this time I could just about feel my anger pulsing in my now-shaved clean temples! I decided that, 1SG or no 1SG, I was going to let this guy know exactly what I thought. I stomped down the hallway to his office, did my little “Specialist Hanson reports for inspection” game, and, this time, was met with a broad and satisfied smile from my Sergeant Rock 1SG. At that moment, with all the courage I could muster, I bravely spewed out, “1SG, with all due respect, my first haircut was well within regulations!”

At that, my tired old 1SG looked back at me, slowly shook his head, and said something to me that I pray I will never forget. Without so much as a hint of anger in his voice, he said, “Of course it was, son, but we’re not here just to do the minimum. I want you to be the absolute best you can be. You see,...this Army stuff is just no fun at all if you’re only here to do the minimum!”

Until that moment, I don’t think I had ever heard the words “fun” and “Army” in the same sentence before. I had never before even considered the idea that getting “gung-ho” about Army stuff, or “gung-ho” about haircuts (of all things) could, in any way, ever be fun. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that, until that moment, a lot of my military life and also a lot of all of my life to that point, was not about fun, it was about doing the minimum. Doing just what it takes to be legal. Just what it takes to make it over the wire. Just what it takes to pass the inspection, but not a glimmer more. And the more I thought about this “do the minimum” perspective, the more it began to dawn on me that doing the minimum just isn’t any fun! This Army stuff, this life stuff and, most importantly of all, this Christianity stuff, is just no fun at all if you’re only here to do the minimum.

So as we’re gathered here for yet one more worship service, it occurs to me to ask you if you really know what fun is? How much fun you want to have here this morning? How much fun do you want to have in your life as a Christian? Are you here this morning just to meet the regulations or are you here this morning to have some fun? Are you just keeping the hair off your ears or do you really want to have some fun with all of this? How fun is your Christian life at this moment? What does the fun Christian life look like? How can we learn what it means to have a fun Christian life?

Scholars agree that the letter to the Hebrews reigns unchallenged as the best New Testament commentary on the Old Testament and its relationship to Jesus Christ. It makes clear that the sacrifices and other priestly activities were but shadows pointing forward to Christ, the once-for-all sacrifice for sin, the true Priest, the one mediator between God and man. Indeed, Hebrews may be considered a grand portrait of Christ with the Old Testament as its background.

We don’t know exactly who this letter was written by or to whom it was written. But, from the context of the letter, the writer makes it clear that this group of Jewish believers was going through a severe persecution (Hebrews 10:32-34), probably on religious grounds, by non-Christian Jews.

For a first-century Jew to become a believer in Jesus Christ required a great sacrifice. He was immediately branded as an apostate and a blemish to the Jewish nation. He was considered “unclean” in the strongest possible sense. Defecting Jews were immediately expelled from the synagogue; their children were denied the privilege of attending the synagogue school; they lost their jobs in geographical areas controlled by the Jews; in short, they lost everything of earthly value to them. Furthermore, the Jewish high priest had the authority in Judea, and to some extent in other provinces, to throw troublesome Jews in jail (compare Hebrews 10:33-34). It was circumstances such as these that apparently caused many of these Hebrew believers to wane in their commitment to Christ.

At first, these Hebrew Christians joyfully accepted persecution (Hebrews 10:34). But after a while, it apparently became too much for them to bear and their endurance weakened (Hebrews 10:35-36). The warning passages in the letter suggest that these believers were degenerating in faith. While they never considered actually renouncing Jesus Christ, they nevertheless contemplated drifting back into the outward observances of Judaism (including rituals, ceremonies, and sacrifices see Hebrews 2:1; Hebrews 4:14; Hebrews 7:11; Hebrews 10:1; Hebrews 13:9-14). They apparently reasoned that if they took part in such rites, the Jewish leaders might be satisfied and leave them alone.

The writer of this letter set out to warn them about the futility of such reasoning. If they lapsed from Christianity back into Judaism as they had already begun to do to some extent—they would be identifying themselves with an obsolete system and a Christ-rejecting nation that was under judgment. The writer accordingly pointed them to a better way. His argument was revolutionary: Because of Christ, everything is new. Everything is better. Because of Christ, we as Christians get to redefine what “fun” is. The old has passed away, so hold onto your new faith and your fun commitments. Don’t go back. Instead, patiently endure your present circumstances. Your faith will be generously rewarded. This is certain, for God’s promise cannot fail.

The writer of this letter doesn’t want his readers to fall back into pointless religion as they struggle to face their difficult lives. He wants them to embrace the excitement of their faith for all its worth. He wants them to live to the maximum. He wants them to not focus on their temporary suffering. While the writer clearly understands and relates to the difficulties they are experiencing, he doesn’t want them to lose sight of the goal. He doesn’t want them to lose sight of the fun they are supposed to be having as followers of Jesus. And as he is explaining these things to them, he shows us all how to do that. He shows us all what real fun is. He shows us all what it means to have real fun… After spending a great deal of time discussing people that have endured for their faith in the past, the writer, in chapter 12, verses 1-3 says these simple words:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Believe it or not, I happen to believe this is a recipe for a fun Christian life. This is a recipe for a Christian life that does the maximum, not the minimum. A Christian life filled with excitement, adventure, surprises, miracles, and powerful demonstrations of God’s presence in our midst. I believe the writer to the Hebrews gives us six steps to fun here that will work for anyone in virtually any situation.

We Are Not The First People To Have Hard Times

The first step to this fun-filled Christian life is to realize that we aren’t the first people in the history of the planet (and certainly not in the history of our faith) to go through hard times. Our glorious faith is filled with “a great cloud of witnesses” who had difficulty in this life. If we go back just a few verses to Hebrews 11, we quickly discover that suffering for people of even great faith is nothing new! “Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned, they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated-- the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.”

We must never think that our “light and momentary troubles,” as Paul said to the Corinthians, should get in the way of our fun, exciting lives as followers of Jesus.

I must confess to you this morning that I seriously questioned the idea of preaching about “fun-filled Christianity” with all the garbage that is going on in the world today. For a moment, I thought that even using a word like “fun” in connection with our faith trivialized the difficulties under which most Christians in the world live. How can I possibly talk about “fun-filled Christianity” when my missionary friends are still being held captive in Colombia? How can I talk about having fun as a Christian when most Christians in the world today might be going to bed hungry or in fear tonight? But then I realized that precisely because of all the suffering in the world today, I must even more loudly talk about the fun of the Christian life. Because of all the difficulty and the drudge in which we swim daily, we need to be reminded even more loudly that the Christian life is still supposed to be an adventure. We don’t slip back into pointless religion or some sort of dull, mediocre existence because things are hard in this life. To the contrary; it is precisely because things are hard in this life that we must seek to live our lives even more radically committed to the One who can make all this drudge exciting!

“...we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

Folks, we need to understand that this life is only the slightest speck of our eternity. We need to understand that there is nothing that the world or the Enemy can do to us that can possibly separate us from the excitement of our faith.

Ditch The Baggage

The second step the writer encourages his readers to take here seems uniquely suited to our materialistic culture. If we want to experience the full fun of our faith, we need to not let our momentary difficulties bog us down but, secondly, we need to ditch all the unnecessary baggage from our lives that is holding us back. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders...”

If we want to experience the thrill of winning this race, then don’t you think it might be helpful to not carry the sandbags of this world along with us when we run? I love the imagery of a race in this passage because it so perfectly illustrates what the Christian life is like. And yet it absolutely amazes me how few of us seem to be able to really listen to it. It seems to me that many of us look at the marathon that God is calling us to run and we think that, in order to finish it, we need to carry about 200 pounds of running gear along!

It reminds me of a scene in a very bad Steve Martin movie I saw once called “The Jerk.” The movie was generally pretty awful, but there was one scene in which, after losing all his riches and being thrown out of his house, the main character walks out of the house making a silly speech about how little he really needs to be happy. But as he gets closer and closer to the door, he ends up collecting more and more garbage from the house which he considers essential to his happiness. “All I need to be happy is this chair, and that picture, and these glasses, and that rug, and these books...., that’s all I need!” And pretty soon he is struggling even to walk under the burden of all these things he thinks are essential to his happiness.

I think that is exactly what a lot of us try to do as Christians. God calls us to an exciting, fun-filled Christian life lived to the extreme and we tearfully wander slowly off after Him out the door slowly carrying the chairs, the books, the furniture and all the silly toys we think are essential. “OK, I’ll follow you. But I just need these few things. That’s all I need!” God says to us simply this morning that we can’t run this way. Our Christian race isn’t going to be any fun at all if we’re going to try to carry a whole bunch of junk along! None of these things might necessarily be sinful or even bad, but if you really want to live a fun Christian life, if you really want to run fast, then you’ve got to ditch the baggage that is slowing you down!

But that isn’t the only thing God wants us to ditch...

Ditch The Sin

The third step God wants us to take towards a fun-filled Christian life this morning and the second thing God wants us to ditch from our lives is sin. If we are going to have the exciting lives of the “great cloud of witnesses” before us, we not only have to ditch all the baggage we’re trying to carry, we need to ditch the sin that is twisting around our legs and making us trip.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles...”

This is so obvious that we don’t need to spend much time on it. Suffice it to say simply, folks, that there is no way we can ever hope to experience a fun-filled Christian life if we are so bound up by sin in our lives that we feel guilty all the time. We need to radically change our thinking about how fun sinning is!

One of the most twisted reversals of our fallen human existence argues to us that sin is fun and sinlessness is not. How many times in your life have you heard that message in subtle and not-so subtle ways? But is that really true? Is sin really fun, even using the world’s definitions of what fun is?

Think about it for a moment, what single sin in your life can you think of that offers you more than a moment of pleasure? Why is it so hard for us to see this? Why is it so hard for us to see that gluttony, for example, offers only short-term pleasure and long-term pain? Why is it so hard for us to see that sexual sins offer only momentary thrills and often a lifetime of painful consequences? Even if we assume, for purposes of discussion, that the devil knows anything about real fun at all, why is it so hard for us to see that our favorite sins just aren’t meaningfully or lastingly fun? Forget all the religious rules or theological arguments about morality and right and wrong for a moment; just think about it!! What sin in your life is lastingly, enduringly fun, by any definition of fun that anyone might choose to use?!

None of them! While sin might tease us with a momentary pleasure, it is woefully inadequate for a lastingly fun-filled life. So let’s ditch sin also this morning, alright?! Let’s throw our sins at the feet of the Master and ask Him to help us have real fun in our lives instead! Fun that lasts! Fun that endures! Real fun!

Run With Perseverance

The fourth step to be remembered as we seek a fun Christian life is perseverance.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance...”

Folks, we are running a marathon, not a sprint. Just as for the “cloud of witnesses” before us, even though we ditch the baggage and the sin from our lives, we still need to remember that this is a distance race. This fun Christian life that God is calling us to is not a race that is going to be over in 10 or 12 seconds. This isn’t a 100-yard dash...this long-distance. This is perseverance. We need to remember that this long race is going to have its good moments and its hard moments; moments in which we think we could run forever and moments in which we think we have hit a wall we can never climb over.

Sometimes I think that if the writer to the Hebrews had been to U.S. Army Basic Training, as I have, he would have phrased this section a little differently. I think instead of just calling this life a race, he would have called it an obstacle course. Sometimes we’re running through tires, sometimes we’re climbing across a rope bridge, sometimes we’re crawling through a mud bog or climbing over a wall, but regardless of where on the course we are, we need to concentrate all our energy on simply persevering. Folks, if you’ve ever seen a bunch of guys running an obstacle course at 5:30 in the morning, you’ll know that stylishness rarely plays much of a role in the race! It doesn’t matter so much what you look like as you’re climbing over the wall; just get over the bloomin’ thing! That’s what God is telling us this morning. If you want to experience the real fun that God has in store for you, just get over the wall somehow! Persevere! Keep going! The prize is worth it!

Run Your Race And No One Else’s

But there is another part of the advise in that same sentence that we also need to remember. Look again at the passage:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

That is the fifth step towards a fun-filled Christian life. We don’t simply persevere in this marathon, obstacle course race we’re running, we concentrate on our race. We concentrate on the race marked out for us!

If we are believers, we are all running the race that God has marked out for all of us collectively. The Greek word for “us” in this passage is a plural one. We are certainly and wonderfully running our race together.

But make no mistake about it; God isn’t asking you this morning to run the race that I’m running. God isn’t asking you to do the fun things He’s asking me to do! The Bible is very clear: you’re not supposed to steal my fun, you’re supposed to have your own fun! God is asking you to have the fun in this life that He wants only you to have. There are things in this life that only you can do! There are places on this earth that only you will go! There are people in this town that only you will speak to!

One of the things about organized Christianity in this country that has always driven me absolutely crazy is how incredibly “white-bread” it often is. We serve a God who has a custom-made, fun-filled individual plan for each of our lives and yet often we collectively seem to want to do everything we can to eliminate those fun-filled differences. Instead of embracing each and every difference among us, we argue about what we should wear, what kind of music is “appropriate” in here, how we should all think about certain, very debatable issues and we seem to completely ignore the fact that all this fun-filled diversity between us is God-created and God-intended!

Folks, the reason God calls us together into community as the Church is that we are better together than we are apart! God has a fun-filled plan for the Church which He cannot complete without the full communion of His weird and wonderfully different creations. Each of us has a distinct and different purpose in this place. Each of us has a race marked out for us!

Keep Your Eyes On Jesus

So what holds all this fun-filled weirdness together? If what I’m saying is true, and each of us is running a completely different race, then what holds us all together? If all of us are supposed to be having our own fun, then how are we possibly supposed to have fun doing it together? Look again at the passage:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

This is the last and greatest argument of this passage. We must never forget that we are not the first ones who have had difficulty in following Jesus. We must strip away all the unnecessary baggage and entangling sin that slows us. We must must run our fun-filled marathon race with perseverance and we must run only the race that God intends for us uniquely to run. But, at the end of the day, if we are ever going to hope to be able to accomplish any of these things, we must always and only keep Jesus in our eyes. If we are ever going to be able to stave off the demons of weariness and heartache, then we must remember Our Source of joy, hope and excitement. We must never forget that Jesus is the Author of Fun! Only Jesus can give us the victory. If we fail to keep only Jesus in our eyes, then our race will never be the fun-filled adventure that God intends it to be.

Jesus suffered in a way none of us will ever suffer. Jesus never carried the baggage or fun-destroying sins that we do. Jesus persevered till the end. Jesus carried out the mission that only He could carry out. And He did it all so that you and I wouldn’t have to listen to what the world says is fun! He did it all so that we would have the ability to endure what we have to endure, to cast off the things that we need to cast off, to persevere in the missions that only we can complete. He did it all so that we would have the fun-filled privilege of holding Him in our eyes until that day in Eternity when He will hold us in His arms.

Conclusion

How much fun are you having in your life today? How much baggage and sin are you hanging onto? What kind of race are you running? But, more than anything on this morning of so many new beginnings for all of us, who is in your eyes?

Folks, this Christianity stuff is just no fun at all if you’re only here to do the minimum! Let’s commit to having some real fun together in this place!