Father of Heaven and all the Universe beyond, today we humbly come to you to thank you for your many blessings, and ask you to forgive us our manifold sin, as we learn to forgive others and ask for their forgiveness. Father, we ask you to grow us in you to be more like your Son, our Savior. In His name, Amen!
Message: Crazy Not Disturbed, acquired not Sold!
I hope that all of you are getting a moment from time to time during Lent (this time of introspection), to break away and reflect on how things are going between you and the Lord, and with the people around you. The people He has placed in your life.
Indeed, this time of the year, as the days get longer leading up to Easter (hence the name Lent), is all about taking a good look at ourselves and then determining how we might improve on the areas we would like to do better in. Those individual ideas, game plans, and improvement goals of yours, are as unique as the person you are sitting next to, and as special as the whisper of early morning greeted by the birds of flight. Each one a masterpiece in the creation.
I struggled this week to find just the right title for a message that I was compelled to share with you. I needed to find the right words to convey the excitement and joy that can be found in our new lives of transformation. Yes, our membership freely given in the family of God, coupled with the assurance of just how valuable God places in the treasure of your everlasting soul.
You see, each one of you in this room, and all of you watching, are immortal. You will live forever. No this isn’t an episode of Highlander the movie, but a fact of your soul living through eternity. A future with you in the driver’s seat of free choice. Agreed for some it’s a hard choice, because we are fallen people living in a fallen world with all those distractions clouding our decision making.
So, all the above contributed to my struggle for the right title for today. I had originally thought of Crazy on you, Going Straight on My Lord, but I was worried someone might think I was stealing a song title from the Rock Group Heart. And again, I wanted to emphasize God wanting and acquiring us from a world of sin through our choice, trust, and deep love for Him, hence; Crazy Not Disturbed, acquired not Sold!
Our generation of God’s family is the latest iteration of a family heritage going back to the days of Israel first reaching the promised land. Like us, God had acquired His chosen people from a land of sin, idolatry, and hardship, Egypt. He fought for His people, taught and led his children, and fed His family for 40 years in the wilderness. And then let His children leave His nest of nurture, to grow, and develop. Reading again from today’s Call to Worship, Joshua 5:9-12;
9 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” So the place has been called Gilgal to this day.
Side Note; Gilgal means circle of stone. I read that the children of Jacob have come full circle and have returned to their ancient land in force to claim the Lord’s gift to them.
Gilgal also shares the root word with the name of Golgotha (where Christ sacrificed) round skull and can be read as a reincarnation word. Or how about resurrection, transformation, and renovation of body, spirit, and soul?
Gilgal signals the next step in the development of Israel, leaving behind God’s nursery in the wilderness to live in the real world of nations. Similarly, Golgotha represents our step into eternity through dying to the world in order to live in Him who will nurture us not forty years, but through eternity. Continuing now with verse 10;
10 On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, while camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, the Israelites celebrated the Passover. 11 The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land: unleavened bread and roasted grain. 12 The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate the produce of Canaan.
Side Note Again; On that day Israel was weaned from the nourishing manna from the Lord, provided daily, and now will live like all the other nations of the earth, through the results of their daily efforts.
In a sense, like the prodigal son, Israel will go out and live in the world. We know how this story turns out through reading the Old Testament. We are told of the sad story of the people of God choosing anything but the Lord, and ultimately inviting their own suffering and despair. God’s chosen people will live wildly, and be reminded by God that He is still there and wants to be in relationship with them, constantly and directly in scripture, and through prophets, only to choose spiritual separation.
Like the father in the story of the prodigal son, God awaits His children to return to Him, both back then and in the here and now today. God would raise leaders and prophets throughout the Old Testament to instruct His children on how to keep the Lord in their lives. David is an excellent example of how a personal relationship with God was available and desired by the Lord.
David shares with all people (back in his day, and in our time of modernity), those who are seeking a deeper relationship with the Lord, and what it can be like. Psalm 32 provides us with a look into this life in the Lord and His family;
A Psalm of David. A maskil. (Which means; One who seeks enlightenment in the Lord)
1 Blessed is the one
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
2 Blessed is the one
whose sin the Lord does not count against them
and in whose spirit is no deceit.
3 When I kept silent,
my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night
your hand was heavy on me;
my strength was sapped
as in the heat of summer.
5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you
and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess
my transgressions to the Lord.”
And you forgave
the guilt of my sin.
6 Therefore let all the faithful pray to you
while you may be found;
surely the rising of the mighty waters
will not reach them.
7 You are my hiding place;
you will protect me from trouble
and surround me with songs of deliverance.
8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.
9 Do not be like the horse or the mule,
which have no understanding
but must be controlled by bit and bridle
or they will not come to you.
10 Many are the woes of the wicked,
but the Lord’s unfailing love
surrounds the one who trusts in him.
11 Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous;
sing, all you who are upright in heart!
And if we are so consumed with looking critically at David’s words and say to ourselves; yea, but bad things still happens in life to followers of God, so why bother? Well, then we have lost sight on the long game that David, your family in God, and more importantly, Your Lord, is concerned with, eternity! Our lives are a training ground for even bigger things that lay ahead on our eternity with our Lord.
This is so much bigger, deeper, more meaningful thinking than the world is capable of processing. That to even contemplate our future reality in our Lord marks us as foolish or crazy in the standards of our time. Our understanding, that in spite of all the things that you can buy for a price, to include the integrity of some people, we and ours are not for sale.
Yes we remember the instruction of our Lord when he teaches us in the Gospel of Luke 9:24-25;
24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?
And when this starts to resonate within us, we begin to understand what transformation is all about. More and more the junk of the world seems to mean less and less, and we begin to die to it’s pull on us. The world thinks were foolish, but we understand that our eternity is not for sale, for our God has found us, reclaimed us, and is leading us to a new joyful, meaningful life that soars beyond the world’s understanding of good. Hence, today’s title; Crazy Not Disturbed, acquired not Sold!
Who cares what the world thinks, we have been acquired by a God who already owns everything, and our birthright is not for sale. And as we begin to understand this reality a little more each day, we are led to think more and more in terms of thinking of and serving others before ourselves. Everything begins to change, and it is becoming easier and easier to understand stuff in scripture that once was beyond our ability to figure out.
Now more and more as I dive into scripture, I am seeing things more from a God perspective, instead of a steve incite. A me kind of understanding of life that is flawed in almost every way possible. Now when reading Paul’s instruction to the early Church about God and the good life available to me, things are beginning to make sense. Reading again today’s Message Reading from 2 Corinthians 5:13-21
13 If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
*Side Bare; What the world calls foolish, we insist is actually reality. That we are loved in spite of who and what we have been, by a God that is bigger than our sin. Now, you and I know about something better to live for than the selfishness of our past.
While the world consumes itself with chasing itself, and never finding satisfaction, we will concentrate on the business at hand which is loving our God with all we have, and loving the people our Lord has placed in our lives.
No longer will I be consumed with thoughts of; yea but, or what about, or they’re are just taking advantage of. That is what neglected dogs do when they fight over scraps, and God isn’t serving second and third hand slop. And we are not neglected! Reading on with Paul from verse 16;
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
**Side Bare Again; No more will we look at others the way the world does, and how does the world treat people? As objects, bling, and property.
There was a guy that had a trophy wife, and he treated her like a trophy wife (property to show off). And she acted like a trophy, but why wouldn’t she. His kids were seen not heard (when he was around), and served to bring the family honor and status because the whole family were just objects for the community to ogle over, not real with real feelings bathed in care and nurture, but achievement and glory. He was shocked, when they traded him in on a newer model, because he had taught them to treat others like the world does.
No, my beloved, you are not objects to our Lord, but priceless and masterpieces of His creation. And when we begin to realize this truth, well, those in God’s family are moved to care for, pray for, and work for the good in other people. Now that we have discovered who people really are. Not objects in our way, but beacons illuminating a path for service in Him the creator of all. Paul concludes our message reading in verses 20-21;
20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Are the people that see you on a Thursday seeing the person they see here on a Sunday morning? If you are feeling uneasy, you are in company. Cuz we all have “splaynen” to do towards our God in prayer. As we work with our Lord each day, and that is called a Faithwalk, we must remember some days will be more productive than others, and that’s when we lean heavily on our brothers and sisters. Going through the same type of thing!
Which is why this place is not a Country Club, but a hospital, where God is doing triage on a minute-by-minute basis. Where when you are weak, someone else is strong, banking on you being there when they are hurting.
My hope and prayer for you this week, as you discover your beautiful lives, is that you find comfort in being foolish in the world’s eyes, because you have not been sold-out to the ideas of worldly death, but have accepted a life of joy freely acquired in your Lord. That it’s ok to be; Crazy Not Disturbed, acquired not Sold! Amen!