Resolve to be Kind

 

            It is included in one of Paul’s so-called “virtue lists” (2 Corinthians 6:6). It is the way God will give grace when are gathered to him in his eternal kingdom (Ephesians 2:7). It is fruit produced in us when the Holy Spirit fills us, works in our lives, and through our lives (Galatians 5:22).

            Kindness. The United States of America desperately needs a tsunami of kindness to overwhelm us.

            The United States is beginning a presidential election year. Our politics have always been contentious, but the divisions of the past decade rival any from the most bellicose times in our nation’s history. Many of your neighbors are apolitical, but those who have political feelings hold them stridently and in the extreme. And if you are among the masses who would rather avoid politics, you will inevitably be pushed into political conversations by your aggressively partisan neighbors. It’s never a nuanced discussion respecting those who hold different perspectives. It’s always a vicious fight.

            What can followers of Jesus bring to these fractious times? Kindness.

            In 2 Corinthians, Paul writes, “We have commended ourselves … by kindness.” In other words, for Paul and his missionary colleagues, kindness is a job requirement. He can’t adequately travel and represent Christ without it. In Ephesians, we read that God has “raised us up with [Christ] and seated us with him in the heavenly places …, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness. The heavenly eternity we long for is defined by kindness and unintelligible without it. “The fruit of the Spirit is … kindness” (Galatians 5:22).

            Some Christians are determined to be bold in their witness. I agree. We are called by God to courageously testify that Jesus is Lord. We are called to this proclamation no matter how much it costs us. However, boldness cannot be claimed as the forfeiture of kindness. In Christ, we can be both: bold and kind. We must be. To make a difference in a militantly polarized day, we have to insist that to follow Christ is to commit to kindness.

            I’m not recommending you make resolutions as we step into 2024. Neither am I recommending against resolutions. I have my own list of resolutions I hope will make me a more likable, helpful person. If the practice of keeping New Year’s resolutions helps you recenter and refocus your life, go for it! Just be sure and keep the resolutions you make!

What I as a pastor, charged with guiding souls in the way of Christ, do commend is the pursuit of kindness; all year! When the fighting around you gets loud and ugly, change the temperature by being an agent of kindness. Disorient your neighbors by meeting their intensity with your gentles, inviting spirit. Make it your 2024 goal to pursue kindness in your relationships, in the world around you, and in your own heart.

Pursue Joy

 

 

            In the novel Don’t Cry for Me, Isaac’s dying father, Jacob, writes to his son. In telling his life story, Jacob remembers when his grandmother died. His grandfather, somber and seemingly angry, did not shed a tear at the funeral. He did, however, dourly warn the gathered mourners that judgment was coming and they’d best be ready. A hard life rendered the man dour, somber, and very angry. I don’t blame the character, though I want to jump into the story and tell him that faith in the Lord Jesus is more than soberly preparing for judgment.

            Paul writes, “The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness” (Galatians 5:22). Joy! ‘Fruit of the Spirit’ refers to what God produces in the life of someone full of God’s Spirit. We don’t work on being loving or joyful so much as we get to know God better. We work on aligning our lives with God’s ways and God’s purposes. We develop our relationship with the Holy Spirit. Then the Spirit produces fruit – love, joy, and the rest. The Holy Spirit produces these things in our lives.

            That said, I think a way to get to know the Spirit is to pursue joy. This fits at any time of year: Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve, a chilly, cloudy, gray Tuesday in February. However, focusing on joy is especially apropos in May. Summer is right around the corner. More people will be outside, soaking up the sun. Many go on vacation in the warmer months. Fun moves from being a pleasant, unexpected outcome to the purpose of the planned activity.

            It’s the fullness of time for going deep into God’s heart in pursuit of joy. This happens in a thousand ways, in as many places as you can imagine; sharing coffee with a friend in a café; a morning walk in the woods; lingering as you admire a sunset; writing poetry; leaning into the positive feelings certain colors produce in you; having your breath taken away as you take in the view from a mountain top; meeting fellow Christ-followers from another part of the world; feeling God’s pleasure as you spend time praying for someone you love; the list could go on.

            It’s hard to imagine the joyless faith Jacob displayed as something connected to a God whose Holy Spirit is manifested in joy in the lives of believers. We realize how God carries us through life as we get to know God better. We get to know God better as we walk in and feel the joy God pours into us to overflowing.

            Yes, the Bible mentions judgment often. The word rejoice comes up a lot too. As summer blossoms, my Christian friend, pursue joy. You will feel God’s arms wrapped around you and the warmth of God’s smile with the happiness that come to your life. And, you’ll be ready for the judgment Jacob feared, whenever it comes.  

"The Fruit of the Spirit is ... Kindness"

 

November 1, 2022          

            Turn to Galatians 5:22. It speaks of the fruit of the Spirit, that is, what the Holy Spirit produces in followers of Jesus. One of the attributes that signals that the Spirit is at work in a person is kindness. In an America where election results are denied for no reason other than disappointment, where science is ignored and mocked, where opinions are so polarized there is no middle ground or nuanced thought, and where churches are emptier each week, I received kindness from strangers, and love in its fullest extent from my most intimate of relations.

            It was a dark and stormy night, specifically Halloween, which was, in fact, dark and stormy. We (I’m not specifying who “we” were, but I wasn’t alone) made the mistake of locking the keys of my new car in the trunk. It doesn’t matter who was at fault. It does matter that this happened in Cook-Out parking lot in a town more than two hours away from home. I called AAA.

            They came within an hour and went to work. They managed to get the front door open, but this car has outstanding theft protection. There was no getting in that trunk without the key. Two AAA tow truck drivers worked at it for quite a while. I guess the positive is, it will be really hard to steal my car. The negative is, after waiting an hour and watching the AAA guys fail to recue my key from its trunk internment, I had to call my wife. She had to leave the joys of distributing candy to our costumed neighbor children and drive two hours with the spare key.

            All that time waiting at the Cook-Out, long after I could not eat one more hush puppy, I sat and counted my blessings. The AAA guys were very compassionate. They gave their best and I tried to give them a tip for their efforts and time. They refused my money. They genuinely cared and were sorry they couldn’t help. The guy working the register in the Cook-Out was equally kind. He showed empathy at my plight and assured me I could hang out as long as I needed to.

            If these strangers demonstrated kindness in an America where it seems to be lacking, my wife did what I knew she would do. She got in the car and drove, nearly five hours (there and back), just so she could open the trunk and we could retrieve the imprisoned key. She wasn’t happy about it. Would you be? But she did it and I knew she would because I know she loves us. It’s a love you can count on.

            Furthermore, God is a God we can count on. There’s a lot of angst and fury in America right now. Sitting there, stranded in a strange town due to a careless error, I had some fury roiling in me. But God sat me down by the soda fountain and helped me see what was right before my eyes. Kindness and love, even in this America. I wasn’t happy about my prolonged night out at a fast place, but I was extremely thankful to see what God wanted to show me.

"Spiritual Gifts" (1 Corinthians 12:4-13, 27-30)

Sunday, September 15, 2019

            I know a Christian couple that has spent much of their life together hosting people in their home.  Sometimes their guests stay overnight.  Sometimes they come for dinner.  This couple has a pool in their backyard.  They have had numerous groups from the church and from the neighborhood over for pool parties.  Sometimes their guests are very close friends or family.  Sometimes, they host people they do not know well.  Once, most of the cast of a play that was running in their town came to their home for Thanksgiving dinner.  They did not know these actors but they gladly opened their home on that special day that is often for family time. 

            This couple loves music.  With a piano instead of a TV in their living room, often they will host times of singing with their guests, be it show tunes or worship music.  Having all these people into their space is a lot of work, but it is a labor of love.  They keep photos of all the guests who have stayed with them on the guest room wall.  After almost 4 decades in that house, they’ve run out of space.  In this work of hosting and singing and playing, they serve God by serving and loving others.  In doing so they exercise two spiritual gifts God has given – music and hospitality.

            Would you enjoy hosting people the way this Christian couple does?  Maybe, maybe not; but, like them, you too have spiritual gifts.  As a part of your unique make-up and your relationship with Jesus, you have special gifting God has given in order to build up the church and help others grow in their relationship with Him.  God wants to work through you. 

            The key word in the phrase “spiritual gifts” is spiritual.  The gift is a manifestation of the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.  What do we mean by the idea of spiritual or spirituality?  If a worship service is full of loud, lively, excellent music; if it is spontaneous; if it includes speaking in tongues; it is “spirit-filled.”  Some people think that only if it is loud, spontaneous, and charismatic can it be called Spirit-filled.  Does the Holy Spirit only work in Sunday morning spontaneity? 

First Corinthians 12:1 reads, “Now concerning spiritual gifts.”  But the word ‘gifts’ is not in the Greek text.  The Greek word in verse 1 is ‘pneumatikwn,’ a plural adjective that could mean ‘spiritual things,’ ‘spiritual matters,’ ‘spiritual persons,’ or based on context it could mean ‘spiritual gifts.’ 

One mistake people make is focusing on the gift instead of the giver.  The most important idea in 1 Corinthians 12 is that in Christ we have a relationship with the Holy Spirit.  As that relationship grows strong through prayer, worship, and the practice of spiritual discipline, we come to learn our gifts. 

The Christian couple from the opening story expresses the gifts of hospitality and music.  Neither gift is found in any of the classic spiritual gift lists in the New Testament.  These passages are 1^st Corinthians 12:7-11 and 27-30; Romans 12:3-8; Ephesians 4:11-12; and 1^st Peter 4:9-12.  Some readers insist that these are exclusive lists.  I met a retreat leader years ago who had done a PhD on Romans 12.  He believes every Christian must possess one of those gifts cited in that passage.  I think those are ‘for instance’ lists and the Holy Spirit can use supernaturally empower countless other personality traits or abilities as gifts. 

I also don’t think gifts are fixed.  If, 15 years ago, you took an assessment that said your gift is ‘working miracles,’ 1 Corinthians 12:10, does that mean you’ll be a miracle workers all your life?  Maybe.  But maybe in this season of life, the Holy Spirit works through you in a different way.  The Holy Spirit of God is dynamic.  We live in deep relationship with the Spirit, and our lives are dynamic too.  That means we see new things all the time, including new discoveries inside ourselves.  We more and more become who God is calling us to be.  Newness is the story whether you follow Jesus at 15 years old or 85 years old. 

We, as a church will take a spiritual gifts inventory in order to guide us, but I want to offer this.  Take the inventory and do so with hope and enthusiasm.  Just don’t be handcuffed by the results.  Maybe in your pursuit of the Holy Spirit, it will be revealed to you that you are gifted by God as a scientist or as political leader or in some way not specifically mentioned in scripture.  Maybe your gift is courage and you work in a profession that puts you in danger.  Scientist and courage are not things that will turn up when you take the gifts inventory and that’s ok. The inventory is simply a tool we’ll use to help people serve God in ways that bring joy and enable them to excel.  You are gifted; everyone is.  What you do with your gift and the results of your use of it, the fruit of it, will reveal whether or not the Holy Spirit is in it.

We will not let spiritual gifts be divisive in our church.  Some Christians who exercise the gift of speaking in Heavenly tongues insist that only those who speak in tongues are full of the Spirit.  Tongues is an example of one gift, and Paul devotes an entire chapter – 1^st Corinthians 14 – to warnings about misuse of that gift.  The people I know who speak in heavenly tongues do so to grow close to God and they never use that gift to disrupt the work of the church.

Pentecostals, Christians who exercise the gift of tongues, and Christians in churches that do not express that gift must work side-by-side to build up the kingdom of God on earth.  In a church like ours, we must not be uncomfortable with our brothers that speak in tongues; and, they can’t see us spiritually inferior when we don’t. 

All true disciples are charismatic Christians.  Charisma means gift of grace.  God gives that one be a teacher, another have the gift of knowledge and use that gift in some type of research, and another the gift of tongues, an so on.  Living the spirit-filled life ought to lead to unity among passionately devoted followers of Jesus, not division.

Remember why we receive spiritual gifts.  Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:7, “to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”  We are gifted to glorify God, advance His kingdom, and build up his church, the Body of Christ.  We know we are using the gifts properly when they produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  When what we do produces the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23), then it is likely we have been exercising gifts of grace, Spiritual gifts.

Why do we put such an emphasis on the relationship with the Holy Spirit?  The Holy Spirit was sent by God to be God’s presence with us.  The purposes of the Spirit are (a) to show us the truth, (b) help us recall all Jesus said and did, (c) help live by His leadership, (d) help us know that all we’ve been taught about Jesus is accurate, (e) function as the point of connection in our relationship with God, and (f) glorify Jesus.

In Jesus’ conversation with the disciples at the last supper, recorded in John 16-17, he emphasized the importance of the Holy Spirit.  We cannot follow Him without the Spirit being active in our lives.  Union with Christ – that’s what the Spirit-filled life is; and, the church is the body of Christ, so union with Him includes union with each other. In leading people to Jesus, in establishing new ministry, in helping those in need, and in sewing love, we see that the Holy Spirit at work and we are a part of it.

            To live in the Spirit, we have to open ourselves to God and trust God.  God is the initiator.  We don’t attain the Spirit, we receive the Sprit.  A gifted preacher does not convert people to Christ; the Spirit does.  A gifted healer does not make the wounded whole; the Spirit does.  A gifted servant does not bless the church by leading us all to humility; the Spirit does.  The preacher, the healer, the servant, and all others who use their gifts are God’s instruments.  God gets it going and sustains everything.  Through the Spirit, God empowers us.  Living the Spirit-filled life is turning inward, meeting the Spirit, and then facing the world in the Spirit’s power and following the Spirit’s agenda. 

            I began by telling the story of a couple I know who express their spiritual gifts of music and hospitality.   Through their love, the Holy Spirit ministers to people.  How can you find out your gifts, express them, and become a conduit through which God’s spirit moves? 

            Our spiritual sensitivity is heightened as we live an active faith life.  Volunteer in the church and in local mission opportunities.  Be involved in several ministries, and reflect on your own how you experience God as you serve in the church.

            In addition to ministry, grow close to God by studying the word.  Make the Bible a huge part of your life.  Read it daily so that the content is at the ready in your mind.  Prayerfully meditate on passages that speak to you.  Be involved in Bible study with other Christians.  We learn from each other.  It sound basic to say we learn about the Spirit by coming to worship, serving in the church and in the community, and studying the Bible.  Basic as it may be, building life around these spiritual disciplines awakens us to God’s voice.  We grow in our sensitivity and are thus able to hear the Spirit, receive what the Spirit gives, and respond when the Spirit calls. 

            As a church, we will be taking a spiritual gifts inventory.  We’ll roll this out through the small groups, and make sure it also available to folks not currently in a small group.  We’ll let you know what gifts you might have.  As you participate in church life, we’ll try to help you find ways to maximize your expression of your gifting.  We want everyone to feel that incredible joy that comes in serving God together with the church family. 

            God invites us to live a Spirit-filled life.  We give control of our lives over to God, and in doing so, we get to see who God is.  The Christian couple I talked about to open the message; they see God when they open their home, have people in, and sing with them.  You might see God when you teach or serve or speak Spiritual knowledge of prophecy.  The gifts come from the Spirit, and when we live in our gifting, we are drawn closer to God.  That is a really good place to be.

AMEN

The Recipe for Faith (Galatians 5:16-26)

            As I read the ingredients label, you tell me the product.  Let’s see who can guess it first.  [Read the ingredients of several products, see who can guess what it is.]

            Now try this one: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  That’s a follower of Jesus, a disciple.

            In Galatians 5:22-23, we read that these attributes are the fruit produced when the Holy Spirit of God goes to work in each of us.  When we say the things Jesus would say if he were in our place, and when we, in interactions with other people, do the things he did, then our lives are Spirit-filled and spirit-guided. 

            Put sugar, flour, eggs, and milk together in the right quantities and out comes a cake.  Put the Holy Spirit into a repentant, receptive heart, and out comes love, joy, peace, patience, and the rest.  We become kinder, more generous.  We exercise self-control when the world around us is falling apart.  It is not so much that we work at developing these qualities.  We can put in that effort.  But what actually happens when these qualities are produced in our lives is God is in the process of effecting constant change in us.  We become different people than we were without Christ in us.  We become new creation.  We become people who reflect God’s glory.

            How does it happen?  It begins with God’s love for us.  God wants to be in relationship with each one of us, and collectively with us as His Church.  What gets in the way?  Sin.

Sin is shorthand for all the ways we ignore God, hurt each other, hurt ourselves, destroy the good world God created, and disobey His word.  God takes sin seriously because it is damaging to human life.  God created us in His image and wants us to thrive in relationships with each other, with creation, and with Him. Whether we believe it or not, whether we see it or not, sin disrupts and ultimately destroys all those relationships.  When we live in unconfessed sin, we are cut off from Him.  When we die in unforgiven sin, we are cut off eternally. 

            God doesn’t want that but also doesn’t prevent it.  If He did we would be robots, automatons that don’t sin, but also don’t choose to love God and follow Jesus.  God gives us free will.  We can choose faith or rejection of faith.

If we choose to reject God, God honors our choice.  No one condemned to eternal separation is unloved by God.  God is perfect love.  God came as a human being, Jesus.  He taught us how to live as brothers and sisters to each other, as God’s beloved children.  And then, because God knew we could not overcome sin by our own will power, Jesus died on the cross.  No matter how hard we work at it, we cannot stop sinning.  So Jesus paid the price for our sins.  That’s grace – us receiving salvation from sin and death, salvation we did not earn.  Jesus on the cross is God empathizing with us and saving us from an eternity apart from his love.

            Why is this salvation so important?  Plenty of times I have heard people outside the church, outside of Christianity insist they don’t need saving.  What if our hearts are not receptive when God prompts us?  What if we see our sin, see God’s holiness, but decide we don’t want to repent?

            How will my life be if I spend my hours watching TV, drinking beer and eating chips, Oreos, and ice cream?  I like all those things.  But if those are the ingredients of my life, the result will be a fat, lonely, unhealthy existence.

            On the other hand, if I get plenty sleep and exercise, and eat a lot of salads and healthy proteins, and spend more time with friends and less time with eyes fixed to a screen, I’ll have a healthier, happier existence. This is not complicated.

            And it is not complicated if we think about it spiritually.  Galatians calls the life apart from God the life of the flesh.  Galatians 5:16-17 states it flatly.  “Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh.”  We have those desires in us, even as the Spirit is in us when we turn to Jesus.  Temptation also resides in us, but we cannot be ruled by it.  We cannot organize our lives around our desires and what we think we need to satisfy those desires.  That too is a recipe – a recipe for frustration and disappointment.

            Verse 17 continues.  “What the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh.”  This is because the Spirit gives glory to God and leads us to give ourselves to loving others.  Think of the flesh as your deepest cravings; these are urges that if acted upon will feel good in the moment, but won’t help anyone else and in the big picture won’t help you either.  The flesh is hedonism; do whatever feels good even if in doing it you hurt yourself in the long run.  Are others injured by your cravings?  It doesn’t matter.  Satisfy those cravings anyway. 

            The works of the flesh are, says Galatians, “fornication;” that’s sexual activity outside of marriage.  The next two works of the flesh listed, impurity and licentiousness also involve sexual sins.  Paul identified marriage as the specific context for healthy sexuality and any sexual activity outside that context was flagrant defiance before God. 

Idolatry and sorcery, the next works of the flesh cited both involve human attempts to control the spiritual realm.  Idolatry is the attempt to contain and control God.  We worship things and give them the loyalty we owe to God.  In sorcery people revert to ridiculous incantations in the mistaken notion that God or the devil could be controlled by human wisdom.

After sexual sins, sorcery and idolatry, the next set of ingredients listed in the work of the flesh all relate to the breakdown of relationships: enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, and carousing.  Two weeks ago, we examined Jesus’ second great commandment – to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.  All these works of the flesh noted in Galatians 5 put us in conflict with the very neighbors God has commanded us to love.  Forgiveness is a must.  Often, when the sin of the flesh involves you or me harming someone, the person we hurt is someone we know well, maybe some we feel has hurt us.  Our own church family has experienced division like this.  Perhaps in many of us anger lingers.  The perfect love of God that has saved us from our own sins also empowers us to forgive.  By relying on the Spirit, our anger is rooted out and love and forgiveness take its place.

The final word in this list of works of the flesh is “and things like these.”  The list is not exhaustive.  You may have experienced bitter disappointment or unsavory temptation.  Maybe you have your own words to add to the works of the flesh listed in Galatians 5:19-21.  We don’t want these to be what describes us and it need not be. 

The Holy Spirit effects change in us.  We can’t provoke salvation.  Salvation is God’s initiative.  Jesus had to come and die for us.  We couldn’t make that happen.  God could and did.  Because it has happened we can position ourselves to receive what God has prepared.  We can be the mixing bowl in which God stirs up love, grace, and forgiveness in preparation for making us newly alive in Him. 

The words I used at the outset in talking about the fruit of the spirit were repentant and receptive. 

The one with a repentant heart looks into his own life and sees all these works of the flesh for what they are: agents of his own destruction.  We have to be painfully honest with ourselves.  The warning at the end of verse 21 is the person committed to continuing in the works of the flesh will not inherit the kingdom of God.  He can’t.  The flesh is in direct contrast with the Spirit.   However, when that person sees the evil in the flesh, is truly sorry, and turns away and turns to God, he is met with forgiveness and help.  Those temptations lurk and some insidious force is always there to lure us back to the sexual sin or the violence or the petty bickering with neighbors or some other misfortune.  But when we turn to Christ, he helps.

The turning – that’s repentance.  Once we are facing the Lord, we do so with receptive, responsive hearts.  It does no good to reject sin and then turn around and reject the Lord.  When He says to us, “My children, you are forgiven,” we need to believe it.  He’s removed our sins.  We don’t need to stay in them.

Instead, we open ourselves to God and fully receive His Spirit.  We don’t wrestle with God over who gets to control our lives.  Following Jesus means we say to God, “You’re in charge God.  I am here and I am yours.  You’re the boss.”  Galatians 5:24-25 puts it this way.  “Those who belong to Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  If we live by the Spirit let us be guided by the Spirit.”  We can’t serve two masters.  Once we see the destructive nature of human lust and once we turn away from that, we must then hand ourselves over to the care and leadership of God, revealed in Jesus, and present in the same Holy Spirit that dwells in each of us. 

This recipe begins in salvation – the moment we are born again - and like so many good foods, it grows more flavorful the longer it cooks. 

Our part is to come to the table.  Turn away from sin and all that comes with it.  We then turn to God in full confession, full honesty about our fallen condition.  We come with arms and heart wide open, ready to receive the grace God has prepared for us. 

Forgiven and born again, we live our lives “guided by the Spirit” as verse 25 says.  The persistent tension of temptation never leaves, but we stay focused on Christ so that the Spirit will be unencumbered, free to be about the work of our transformation.  Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control become what defines our relationships. 

Pause as you ponder each example of the fruit of the Spirit.  When you or I react to life situations in ways that embody this fruit, we are choosing to yield to Jesus in the way we live.  When we act out in angry, relationship-destroying ways, we are choosing the works of the flesh.  Choose the Holy Spirit.  Become God’s good work so that not only will you feel the glorious transformation of becoming, new, others also will meet God as God works through you.  Then they too will be the container in which God’s work is accomplished. 

AMEN

“To Do What God Says” (Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23; 3:13-17)

Sunday, January, 2019

            It doesn’t matter what your job is.  Are you a student trying to graduate?  A young adult new in the workforce?  A professional, at the top of your game?  Or, has it been so rough, you’ve you given up on career ambitions?  Are you just trying to make ends meet and make it to retirement?  Or, are you into retirement?  Where we are in life - it doesn’t matter.  When we walk in the light, we are near God.  Being close to God, we have real joy and even if life is hard, we have grace and hope.  So, how do we have a close relationship with God?

            That’s the point of this series of sermons about walking in the light.  Last week’s truth: if we look for God, we’ll find him.  If we constantly seek, we will meet God in our everyday lives.  So, in 2019, commit to disciplines of awareness.  In a notebook write down every “God thought” you have throughout the day. At the end of each day, review what you’ve written, and pray.  Ask God to reveal himself to you in those moments.  Do this every day. 

Disciplines of awareness.  Carry the word “Grace” on a card everywhere you go.  When anger at another person rises up in you, whip that card out.  Look at it, hard.  Remember, God has given you grace.  Pray.  Ask God to help you give grace to the other.  At the end of each week, review moments when grace invaded your anger.  Meet God in those moments. 

Disciplines of awareness. Take pictures of things you see that make you think of God.  At the end of the week, go through the pictures slowly, praying as you look at them and remember where you saw God in your everyday life.  

When we see the light, we can step into it and walk in it.  That’s today’s discipline.  Walking in the light, we obey God throughout our lives.  God won’t force His will on us.  He lets us choose to be disciples and as we choose to live under His rule, he walks with us, blessing us.  Three specific decisions must be made by anyone that desires to walk in God’s light: first, we decide that God is the absolute authority of our lives.  Second, we decide to know what God says by reading the Bible and learning how to listen to the Holy Spirit.  Third, we decide life with God is worth the cost.

Joseph the earthly father of Jesus, John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin and the prophet who paved the way for Him, and Jesus Himself each model the obedience of a life lived under God’s authority.  

When Joseph decided to stay with Mary and be her husband, he didn’t know a woman could become pregnant by the Holy Spirit.  He did not understand that she was carrying in her womb the son of God.  What he knew was God told him to marry her, and he did.  God told him there was danger and he had to flee to Egypt.  He didn’t know anyone in Egypt.  But, he packed up their recently acquired gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and took Mary and the baby Jesus to Egypt.  When God told him the danger was passed, he believed and returned to Israel. 

John modeled the same obedience as he preached fiery sermons that so enraged Herod, he imprisoned and then executed John.  John never wavered in the message because he knew he was saying what God had told him to say.  Jesus did not want to die on the cross.  But he knew God’s plan and went with it obediently.  That’s what obedience is: doing what God says even when we don’t understand or, worse, do understand it and know it will be hard and don’t want to obey.  But we do anyway.  Each of these heroes of faith decided to obey God.

 If we believe God’s authority is absolute, we need to know what God’s instructions are.  We can memorize the the 10 commandments, study the sermon on the Mount, and contemplate the fruit of the Spirit, found in Galatians 5.  We can carry the lists of virtues found in different places in Paul’s letters.  We can and should read everything Jesus says about caring for the poor in Matthew 25 and throughout the Gospel of Luke.  We must know the content of the work.  Knowing the Bible is a starting point for obedient living.

The rubber meets the road when we’ve studied and then in our in daily interactions with people, try to live by what we’ve read.  The Holy Spirit, the third member of the trinity, helps us.  Joseph was surely tempted to leave Mary when he found out she was pregnant and he wasn’t the father.  He was a decent man willing to reject her discreetly.  But gentle or not, the temptation was to push her away.  The Spirit helped Joseph obey the message of the angel and marry her.  

John was undoubtedly tempted to fear Herod, but he in spite of the fear, he obeyed.  Letting fear guide us instead of faith is a real temptation.  A lot of people God calls to serve in missions don’t go because they’re afraid: afraid it is too expensive; or, afraid it is dangerous to travel to other countries.  If you feel in your gut God calling you to something and resist because you’re afraid, that’s disobedience.   John knew Herod would probably kill him for his preaching, yet he openly critiqued the king when the king’s marriage broke God’s law.  

Have you felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to talk to someone about faith in Christ?  Did you resist because you were afraid you’d look stupid or the person would reject you and maybe stop being a friend?  Walking in the light involves making the decision to risk speaking and looking like a fool or risk going, even to dangerous places, because we trust the nudge of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is God and living in a right relationship with God is more important than living safely or living an easy life. 

Maybe speaking out is easy.  You’ve already shared your faith with someone this and January is not even two weeks old.  Maybe you’re fearless.  You’ve already got your overseas mission trip for 2019 planned.  You may be tempted in some other way to disobey God.  Faith always has a cost. 

When I was young, I had a mixed record of obedience.  My idea of what a man should be led me to play high school and just a little bit of college football.  My idea of what a man should be led me to enlist in the army and go through infantry basic training.  Part of my commitment as a Christian was to stay a virgin outside of marriage.  I kept that commitment.  However, in the locker room and in the barracks guys were constantly bragging, usually in vulgar terms, about the women they had been with.  In those conversations, I stayed as quiet as I could, but inevitably, someone would look at me with a wry smile and ask, “What about you, Tennant?”  My  commitment to sexual purity wasn’t tempted.  My commitment to honesty was. 

Sometimes, I said, “I am Christian.  I am waiting for marriage.”  There might have some teasing, but usually when I made a statement like that, my teammates or fellow soldiers respected me.  Other times I was asked, “Tennant, you’re awfully quiet.  Have you been with a woman?”  And with the opportunity to speak about my faith, I lied.  I said, “Of course I have.”  Instead of representing Jesus, I thought lying would make things easier on me.  I broke of one of the 10!  Thou shalt not bear false witness.  

I had already decided God was my authority.  I made the first decision.  I knew the Bible and heard the Holy Spirit.  I had make the second decision.  But, when I lied, I didn’t make the third one.  I did not decide that life with God, in that moment, was worth the cost.  Since then, God has forgiven me of the sin of lying and the greater sin of ignoring the Holy Spirit.  God has given me additional chances to tell the truth and be a witness and I have done that.  It’s taken time and 2nd and 3rd and 100th chances from God, but I have since decided that the cost - I might get teased for being a 30-year-old virgin - was worth it.  

Of course I have been tempted in numerous other ways and succeeded to represent and obey God at times, and failed at other times.  And my decision to obey God’s teaching about sexual purity and about truth-telling is nothing next to Joseph’s life-or-death moments of obedience, or John and Jesus’ decisions to obey God to the point of death.  But God is not comparing me to Joseph or John or Jesus.  God is not comparing you to anyone.  God meets us in the midst of our obedience. 

I had shame when I lied about my experiences in order to fit in with other soldiers.  The Holy Spirit let me sit in that embarrassment, but was with me the entire time.  God gave me grace and additional opportunities.  When those opportunities arose, God emboldened me to be a truth-teller and to be someone more concerned with my identity in Christ than with what others thought of me.  Looking back on these times, I have gratitude. 

What matters most today is your story, your walk with God in 2019.   First, decide that God is God - the ultimate authority not just in the universe but in your life.  Second, decide to know what God says by reading the Bible and studying it with other believers.  Third, the hardest part, decide that whatever the cost, you’ll obey; you’ll live God’s way. 

The third decision is the hardest because of the ways we get tempted and what tempts me is different than what tempts you, but we all get tempted.  We don’t have the willpower to resist. We need the Holy Spirit’s help. 

I talked earlier about disciplines of awareness.  We also need disciplines of obedience.  You could think of many and should choose what works for you.  I offer one suggestion.  Bring to mind what tempts you.  What is it in life that leads you to forget about God and do things your own way?  Temptations are so powerful, you won’t even need to write this down.  But you do need to name it.  Name two temptations and imagine those specific places in your life these temptations come up.  

Now, commit to praying every day for a minute or so specifically about this temptation.  In this daily prayer, name the temptation, confess to God that it’s hard to resist, then ask for help from the Holy Spirit in resisting.  Don’t miss a day. 

Finally, at some point every month, review.  Review the previous 30 days.  Identify moments in which you felt the temptation.  Be honest in your review.  If you gave into the temptation and disobeyed God, confess, receive grace, and repent.  If you succeeded, with the Spirit’s help in resisting the temptation, celebrate.  Thank God and praise God for God’s willingness to walk with you.  

God helps us obey.  We practice the spiritual disciplines in order to position ourselves so that that we’re ready and willing to receive the love and grace and help God has for us.  I can tell you from my own experience that deciding it’s worth it to obey God is hard sometimes, but brings great joy.  In those times I failed to obey, but then confessed, I received forgiveness.  And the life I have in Christ, is one I would not trade for anything.  There is no greater joy than the joy we have in the light of God.  God wants that joy for you. He holds it out to you because He loves you.  Make the decision today to follow Christ and walk in His light.

AMEN