Leap of Faith // Ask

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 03/10/2013

video available at www.sundaystreams.com/go/MilanVineyard/ondemand

(special thanks to Dave Schmelzer and the Greater Boston Vineyard…this sermon series and the Leap of Faith User Manual is largely adapted from their original material)

4^th Sunday in our Leap of Faith Experiment. 3 things we’re suggesting everyone do every day, from now until Easter (there’s more, actually, in the user manual, but these are three simple ones I want to highlight and commend to you):

1. My Big Ask

2. Pray for your 6

3. Read 10 Psalms a day

Let me review. What we’ve been saying so far is that a changed life, the life that we actually want, the life that feels like it’s actually got God’s power always blowing at its back, is a very specific sort of life. A life that will have focus, and a life that will bank entirely on faith.

And we’ve meant something pretty specific about focus. It’s a life that’s focused on God’s one purpose on earth, which we loosely summarized as “making his name great in all the people of the earth.” (Habakkuk 2:14) That’s what God is about. That’s all he’s doing at any given time.

And what, exactly, is this “name” he’s promoting all over the earth? We suggested, loosely speaking, that it’s something like “The God who does great things for people who trust Him.” (Isaiah 64:4)

So the kind of life we’re talking about, in one form or another, is focused on that, is about being a part of that. Because the idea is that our lives really don’t work when they’re focused on peripheral or trivial things.

We said that this sort of life, the sort that has all the power of God backing it, is a life that is utterly dependent on faith. And we defined faith the way the Bible does in Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

And of course, to live a life of faith takes great courage. Last week, we talked about the example of Caleb and Joshua scoping out a land of giants, and what it means to have the courage to go after something way bigger than you can imagine being able to do on your own. And the courage to give God free reign and a blank check to do whatever it takes to make you into the person who can accomplish what he wants to accomplish through you.

This week, we’ll look at the next step, which is to learn to let your life of faith be defined by asking.

[Ask for new battery. Ask for water. Ask congregation to turn to Matthew 7:7-11. Ask someone to read it for us...]

⁷“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸For everyone who asks receives; those who seek find; and to those who knock, the door will be opened.

⁹“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"

Matthew 7:7-11

Asking is the first thing you learned how to do, isn't it?

No baby can take life for herself, or produce it for herself. She only gets life by asking. From the moment of birth onward, she is asking, asking, asking. [describe first breath, oxygen from mother through umbilical cord, collapsed lungs receiving very little blood, when umbilical is cut, or clamped, carbon dioxide builds up in the body, combined with stimulation of coming through birth canal causes the baby's diaphragm to constrict, decreasing the pressure in the thorax, inviting air to rush in. it's a great effort, because the lungs are like small balloons being inflated for the first time - it will get much easier later, but that first request is hardly indistinguishable from a demand. Then the inflated lungs ask for blood from the heart, and it answers, reversing its blood flow, cutting off the valve that used to shunt blood away from the lungs, and flooding the lung's cells with blood. ] And now that her first requests have been answered, now the baby has enough air and energy to make her next request. A cry. A request of God, of the world, of mother and father and all who will hear. The same cry she will use when she wants warmth. Or food. Or a new diaper. Or reassurance, or attention, or whatever she may desire and need. She comes into life practicing, learning to become more and more proficient at one thing essential for life. Asking. Asking. Asking.

Later she will learn to take, of course. And to try to do things for herself. And if her taking and her self-provisioning are properly nested within her identity as one who asks and receives, all is well. She will only take those things that she is authorized to take, those things set aside for her, healthy, good. She will provide for herself informed by the understanding that everything in life is a gift, and so she will receive what she provides for herself with gratitude and generosity towards others, the highest form of interdependence.

26 When you have entered the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance and have taken possession of it and settled in it, ²take some of the firstfruits of all that you produce from the soil of the land the Lord your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name ³and say to the priest in office at the time, “I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the land the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.” ⁴The priest shall take the basket from your hands and set it down in front of the altar of the Lord your God. ⁵Then you shall declare before the Lord your God: “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. ⁶But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, subjecting us to harsh labor. ⁷Then we cried out to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. ⁸So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. ⁹He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; ¹⁰and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, Lord, have given me.” Place the basket before the Lord your God and bow down before him. ¹¹Then you and the Levites and the foreigners residing among you shall rejoice in all the good things the Lord your God has given to you and your household.

¹²When you have finished setting aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you shall give it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied. ¹³Then say to the Lord your God: “I have removed from my house the sacred portion and have given it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, according to all you commanded.

^Deuteronomy 26:1-13

Look at the pattern illustrated here…

Ask –> God Answers ->Faith + Courage –> God Acts Powerfully = Freedom

Ask –> God Answers ->Faith + Courage –> God Acts Powerfully = Thanksgiving & Generosity

Ask and it will be given to you...and to those who knock, the door will be opened to you.

This passage isn't just about answered prayers. It's not just about getting things. This passage is about how life in the kingdom of God works. It's about what it means to be students of Jesus. It's about what it looks like to live on the way of Jesus.

Asking is the essential practice of people who take leaps of faith.

The only way to get the life of God's kingdom is to ask for it and receive it. You can't take it until after you’ve asked for it and God makes it available. You can't produce it for yourself. You've got to ask. And when we ask, everything changes. We see who God is. We see who we are. We become proficient at receiving. We become people freed to give, to serve, to love.

It all starts with asking. Asking is the language of life, the language of God's kingdom.

Asking turns us into kids again. Reminds us we are a family.

Consider the requests I made of you earlier... Were they necessary? Couldn't I have gotten the battery myself, the water, read the text? Yes. Of course.

If I had gotten them myself, left the asking out of it, some important truths might have been masked, covered over, hidden.

The truth is, the batteries come from you... So does the water… If I get them all myself, that truth is hidden, masked, and my sense of self-sufficiency can keep me from seeing it.

But asking turns the light on, lets us all see the truth that's right here for us to see. We are kids in a family where everything we have is a gift, where love and thanksgiving and interdependence is the whole point.

Notice the you here is y'all. Not you, singular. You, plural. This is directed at us, at the beloved community, at the church. We are kids in a family. That matters, doesn't it...?

Let's pause and consider some specifics of this passage for a few minutes.

What exactly is Jesus saying? Ask for anything and you'll get it? Seek anything and you'll find it? Knock on any door and God will open it?

Much as we might wish sometimes that were the case, no.

The background assumption is that we’ve made God’s one focus our focus in life: making his name great among all people on earth. The assumption is that we are trusting him in a leap of faith – trying to take some land he is giving us. The assumption is that we are asking for things because we need them for what he’s invited us to do, for the life he’s calling us to.

And the other main assumption is that God loves doing stuff for us, his kids. He loves blessing anyone who puts his or her trust in him.

And so the context is kids in the family business coming to a Father who loves them and asking for whatever they need.

How do you get the good gifts God has for you? Ask for them. In fact, it's not of particular importance, it seems, what exactly you're asking for. Of far more importance is that you are asking. Full stop. Ask God. Seek God. Knock on God's door. Period.

Ask. Seek. Knock. They are all faith words, aren't they? You ask because you trust there is answer. You seek because you believe there is something to be found. You knock because you trust/hope there is someone on the other side.

What you receive may not be exactly what you thought you were asking for, but the very act of asking puts you in position to receive from God. To receive whatever good gift he may desire to give you.

Let's say you're anxious about money. To feed your family, pay for college, put gas in your car, pay off your debts, whatever. Let's say that anxiety is killing you, robbing you of life, and you can feel it in your bones but you don't know what will cure it.

Option A: You can fret and plan and work and scheme to get more money.

Or, Option B: you can ask God for more money.

Life in this world has taught us that option A is the way to go. Jesus is trying to teach us that option B will produce much better results.

Allow me to explain by taking you down a bit of a rabbit trail for a minute…

Notice what it follows in Matthew 7. Matthew 7 starts: Don't judge. The next thing Jesus says is ask.

Don't judge. (because judgment starts with taking)

Instead, ask.

Taking and self-sufficiency are concepts all tangled up with judgment. Adam and Eve took from the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil, in order to become like God, to become self-sufficient, and sit in the judgment seat in his place. This always leads to the unraveling and disintegration of loving relationships, cutting us off from God, and one another, and our true purpose as human beings (image-bearers who make God’s name great in all the earth). We get what we can, regardless of the cost to others, and use our knowledge of good and evil to justify our actions to ourselves and others, but in the end it only leads to death.

Asking and receiving on the other hand is what it looks like to eat from the tree of life. We ask God for what we need, and he gives it to us, and we receive it. This always leads to thanksgiving and generosity, and a deepening of bonds between us and him and us and others and reveals more and more of our identity and purpose both to us and to the whole earth.

Jesus' good news frees us from being people who orient our lives around judgment - and die - and allows us to become people whose lives are oriented around asking - and live.

Isn’t it interesting that Asking - the one thing we've been trained to avoid at all costs, because it will lead to being judged - leads to life. Don't judge. Ask. Asking is the posture we have to be in to receive the life of God's kingdom.

Asking is the posture of a lover, is it not? Will you marry me?

The asker is one who is free to give, to serve, to bless, to receive, to give thanks, to rejoice, to praise. The one who takes for himself, without ever stopping to ask, eventually keeps, looks to be served, condemns, takes, is entitled, huffs and puffs, belittles.

What if I wanted you to do something? Even something good for God. Compare...

You have been stingy and greedy - you should... You spend your time in useless pursuits - you should... You are so lukewarm in your devotion - you should... You don't understand as you should - you should... Your would be better off if you - you should...

vs.

Will you give your money? Will you give your time? Will you give your heart? Will you listen? Will you join me?

It's less about how it makes the object of the asking/judging feel, although that is instructive too. More importantly, which posture opens the door to life? The one - asking - is humbling, puts me in a place of dependency, hope, expectation. It sets me below you, available to serve as led by the spirit.

The other - judging - gives me an air of superiority, puts me in a place of independence, skepticism, critique. It puts me above you, requiring repentance before I can serve you.

So Jesus tells us to ask, seek, knock. To do it together. In faith that we will receive, find, see the the door opened before us.

Us, together asking God for what we need. We are joined, intertwined in our dependence, aren’t we? The very dynamic that asking deepens, the very dynamic that judging undoes.

And so, our posture towards God - that of asking, like children before a loving parent - is the antidote for wrong posture towards other - that of judgment.

Asking reminds us of who we are - children, not parents. It anchors us in our basic reality - we are people in need of God for all sorts of reasons, just like those we might otherwise be tempted to judge.

Asking forces our eyes to apprehend God as a Father who loves us - and if he loves us in our need, surely he loves others in the same way, with the same grace and mercy. It shifts our gaze from this finite world of limited resources, where we are fundamentally competitors with one another, to the broader world of God's limitless provision, where we are blessed brothers and sisters.

In fact, asking is the posture that prepares us most fully to live a life of faith in the adventure Jesus has for us. Asking joins us to every other person on earth. And asking is the only sure way to conquer worry. [have you seen your child worried? wishing they would open up and tell you what it is, their private, unspoken worry? but a child who is actively asking you for the thing they were worrying about, they are no longer worrying, are they? They are asking, and it is the first step in freedom from worry, it is the first step on the path of trust.]

Practical tips:

1. Do an experiment. Spend a day asking for nothing from anyone, not even God. Go overboard, denying yourself of anything you can't get without asking. Take note of your experience, how it shapes your sense of your self, your attitude, how you feel about others at the end of the day. Spend the next day asking for everything you can think of reasonably asking of everyone around you, including God. Start the day by asking God for everything you can think of asking from him, reasonable or otherwise. Go overboard, for the sake of the experiment. Compare your experience to the previous day, how it shapes your sense of your self, you attitude, how you feel about others at the end of the day.

2. Ask & Wait. Ask God for something you really want, but resolve before you ask that you will not strive to get it or make it happen yourself for a particular time frame. Easter maybe. This time next year, maybe. Something you can live without, but would give you great joy if he provided. Bonus: Call God "Dad" when you ask, if "Dad" has good associations for you. If not, try "Papa."

3. Ask with others. Try this as a family, or small group...brainstorm and decide something to ask God for together. Let’s ask together for the church goals from the leap of faith manual. 12 baptisms. A financial surplus by Easter.

Leap of Faith // Courage

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 03/23/2013

video available at www.sundaystreams.com/go/MilanVineyard/ondemand

(special thanks to Dave Schmelzer and the Greater Boston Vineyard…this sermon series and the Leap of Faith User Manual is largely adapted from their original material)

I have three children, 2 sons and 1 daughter. As I pray for them, I realize that so many of my prayers boil down to one thing. I’m praying, in one form or another, that they will reach their potential. That they will end up fulfilling everything that God has for them. That as they are on their deathbed, they won’t realize they’ve done maybe a tenth of what they were created to do.

And as I’ve thought about that, I’ve realized that ends up being a good deal of my prayer for myself too.

[Mom’s memorial service – “leave it all on the floor” – the inspiration of seeing the impact of a life fully lived, never stepping back from God’s call…]

Truth be told, it’s a little terrifying to pray that prayer for oneself. To even acknowledge that desire. Because to really fulfill my potential in God…well, what will that demand of me?

It surely will demand that I grow. Grow into someone more fearless. And more humble. And more selfless. No doubt, someone more godly, more holy, more set apart for God’s purposes.

Do I really want to absolutely fulfill all my potential, to absolutely rise up into everything I was created to do?

Or do I – now that I come to think about it – more just want to set up a life with just enough challenges to keep me interested, but also make sure there’s plenty of escape and comfort and plenty of self-protection? Because I’m not some sort of superman; I’m as ordinary as anyone else.

So while I pray that for my kids without hesitation, it gives me pause to pray it for myself.

Of course, when I retreat back into a safer world, I end up having all kinds of insecurities and worries, expressed well in a poem by Phillip Lopate:

We Who Are Your Closest Friends

By Phillip Lopate

We who are

your closest friends

feel the time

has come to tell you

that every Thursday

we have been meeting,

as a group,

to devise ways

to keep you

in perpetual uncertainty

frustration

discontent and

torture

by neither loving you

as much as you want

nor cutting you adrift.

Your analyst is

in on it,

plus your boyfriend

and your ex-husband;

and we have pledged

to disappoint you

as long as you need us.

In announcing our

association

we realize we have

placed in your hands

a possible antidote

against uncertainty

indeed against ourselves.

But since our Thursday nights

have brought us

to a community

of purpose

rare in itself

with you as

the natural center,

we feel hopeful you

will continue to make unreasonable

demands for affection

if not as a consequence

of your disastrous personality

then for the good of the collective.

Right? Isn’t it easier to get into that kind of frame of mind when our lives aren’t wholeheartedly plunged into fulfilling our God-given potential? Where we start being more concerned with what others are giving us than what we are giving to God, or to the world? Or maybe that’s just me…

3^rd Sunday in our Leap of Faith Experiment. 3 things we’re suggesting everyone do every day, from now until Easter (there’s more, actually, in the user manual, but these are three simple ones I want to highlight and commend to you):

1. My Big Ask

2. Pray for your 6

3. Read 10 Psalms a day

Let me review. What we’ve been saying so far is that a changed life, the life that we actually want, the life that feels like it’s actually got God’s power always blowing at its back, is a very specific sort of life. A life that will have focus, and a life that will bank entirely on faith.

And we’ve meant something pretty specific about focus. It’s a life that’s focused on God’s one purpose on earth, which we loosely summarized as “making his name great in all the people of the earth.” (Habakkuk 2:14) That’s what God is about. That’s all he’s doing at any given time.

And what, exactly, is this “name” he’s promoting all over the earth? We suggested, loosely speaking, that it’s something like “The God who does great things for people who trust Him.” (Isaiah 64:4)

So the kind of life we’re talking about, in one form or another, is focused on that, is about being a part of that. Because the idea is that our lives really don’t work when they’re focused on peripheral or trivial things.

And then last week, we said that this sort of life, the sort that has all the power of God backing it, is a life that is utterly dependent on faith. And we defined faith the way the Bible does in Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

So, if we’re onto something, the kind of life God most blesses and backs is focused on what he’s focused on, and is constantly depending upon centering itself around things it can’t see, but believes, trusts, counts on by faith.

This week, we’ll look at the next step, which is at the center of that thing I pray for my kids, and for myself. One way to label that thing is to call it “courage.” Let’s look at a story from the Bible:

13 The Lord said to Moses, ²“Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.”

¹⁷When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, “Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country. ¹⁸See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. ¹⁹What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? ²⁰How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees in it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land.” (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.)

²³When they reached the Valley of Eshkol, they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs. ²⁴That place was called the Valley of Eshkol because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut off there. ²⁵At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land.

²⁶They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. ²⁷They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. ²⁸But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large.

³⁰Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”

³¹But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” ³²And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. ³³We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

14 That night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. ²All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness! ³Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” ⁴And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”

⁵Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown in front of the whole Israelite assembly gathered there. ⁶Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes ⁷and said to the entire Israelite assembly, “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. ⁸If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. ⁹Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.”

¹⁰But the whole assembly talked about stoning them. Then the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites. ¹¹The Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them?

^Numbers 13:1-14:11

So, whatever you think about conquest, do me a favor and put that aside for the moment while we think briefly about this. What do you think about this as a picture of all of our lives, at least insofar as we’re trying to follow God…?

God has something for us, but he doesn’t just give it to us. He tells us, with his backing, to go and take it. But it’s massive; it’s way bigger than we are. Not only is it hopeless without God’s supernatural backing, there’s every possibility it will kill us to do it!

Now, there is an upside in this. Which is the non-trivial fact that God has said to go and do it and he’ll be with us and it’ll go great. But there is still the doing of it. A picture of this for the individual would be the passage we looked at a couple of weeks ago, with this 14 year old kid named David single handedly fighting and killing this super-soldier, Goliath.

David actually went on to write this very quirky psalm, which perhaps you haven’t fully noticed.

¹Blessed is the LORD, my rock

who trains my hands for battle,

my fingers for the fray.

^Psalm 144:1

It starts off in a familiar, comforting way…

“Blessed is the LORD, my rock…”

God’s always there for me, so I’ll praise him.

We get that.

But then it takes an interesting, maybe even distressing turn.

“Who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for the fray.”

Wait a minute, who said anything about a war. And if there’s going to be a war, can’t I ask God to fight it for me?

It seems like God’s perspective is that he’s sending all of us who are really doing our best to give ourselves to following him into a real war, against enemies that will look way, way bigger than us, but whom, with God’s help, we’ll beat. But whom we do, in fact, have to fight.

This is where faith, which we talked about last week, is helpful, but – I suppose – we could blame focus as the thing which got us into this mess in the first place.

It’s interesting, on the terms of the story in Numbers – I think the idea is that we’re all the Israelites

who’d rather be enslaved, but taken care of,

than rise up and take the good abundant land God actually wants to give us.

But which will take courage and faith to take.

And in fact, when someone rises up and exhorts us to go ahead, have courage and faith and take that land, we pretty much want to kill that person. But without faith-filled courage, there pretty much can’t be any changed life, only a return to slavery.

John “Praying” Hyde is an interesting case-study in a person who decided to make his life available to God. In the late 1800s, John felt a call to become a missionary to India. He decided that if he was going to be a missionary, that he might as well be a great one. So he applied himself in study and prayer before going.

He boarded a steamer for India in 1892 and while on board, read a letter from a close friend. The friend wrote, “I will not cease praying for you until you be filled with the Holy Spirit.” He was incensed. How dare this friend suggest he wasn’t already filled with the Spirit or prepared for his call? He had a degree, studied the language, and was on his way, leaving everything behind. He threw the letter in the trash. But, after some deep soul searching – looking at the hugeness of the work that had to be done in India, and how small he was as one solitary man, and the fact that God had called him into this thing – he realized what everyone realizes when they’re suddenly confronted with what their actual potential is in God.

He realized he had to be remade into a different person or it was hopeless.

So he got down on his knees and asked to be filled with God’s power and Spirit for what was ahead of him.

Being filled with the Holy Spirit takes courage, doesn’t it? Jesus describes it as being born again. His Spirit remakes us into someone new. Still us – but a truer version of us than we’ve ever known. Like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. And that can be scary to become.

 

It seems to me we all think that what’s going to determine where we get in life is the level of our talents and the strength of our character. And those are really important things which will make a big difference. But, when we are faced with the enormity of what God actually might give us if we had the faith and courage to go and take it, it’s as if we always thought we were a butterfly, but suddenly we realized we’re actually a caterpillar with some talents and a really good character. Those are helpful, but we still need to be remade into something different.

David, arguably the greatest picture of a king and a warrior we have in all of history, is constantly calling himself “weak” and “needy.” He calls himself “a worm and no man.” And, again, he praises God as the one who gives him strength for battle and trains his fingers for the fray.

David had a lot going for him from Day 1, but very quickly he realizes it’s not remotely enough to get the job done if he wants to take the land God actually has for him.

What are some ways you can give yourself to a life of this kind of courage under God?

[Practical Tips…]

1. Well, one way to start would be to tell God you want him to help you do whatever he wants you to do – no matter what the cost. Free Reign & A Blank Check.

Obviously, we don’t’ have the ability to bravely be some kind of hero for God. That was Peter’s mistake with Jesus. He said he’d die for Jesus – right before he told everybody that he didn’t even know Jesus. But what we can do is humble ourselves before God. Say that, clearly, we don’t have what it takes to take that promised land, but we’d love it if God would give us what it takes.

And so we ask him, as David did, to give us strength for the battle he wants us to fight and skill for the fray he has in front of us.

The rest of the things I’m going to suggest will require a partner to pull off. And that’s because we’re not meant to have this kind of courage alone. It’s not a coincidence that Joshua had Caleb. So I’d suggest either a gung-ho spouse, or someone in your small group, if you’re in one in our church. Barring either of those, join one of our small groups and do this then, or ask God to lift up a good partner for you for these steps.

2. Once you have a partner, get together over a cup of coffee or whatever, and have an important conversation, beginning with this question:

At the end of your life, what would you like to have accomplished for God?

Whatever your answer is, it should reflect a focus on God’s one purpose, should require some faith, and probably should be impossible on its own terms.

Then ask each other:

What about you right now would prevent God from accomplishing that through you?

The answer to that might be something obvious, like, “Well, fear, for one thing.”

Or it might be that you, currently, just aren’t close enough to God. Or it might be obvious that there are some sins or addictions God would need to take care of for that promised land to be possible for you.

Step three is to, together, ask God to remove that barrier and show you anything you need to do.

I want my kids to reach as much of their full potential under God as possible. I think, though maybe they’d phrase it differently, that’s what every parent wants for their child. But I also want that for myself, and I realize I need, to some degree, to be remade to pull that off.

There is so much upside in being remade like this, though. Not only do I get to actually go after what I’ve been created for, but my guess is that this is the only way to blow past my pettiness and insecurity. The only way to stop worrying about why my friends can’t meet all my needs better than they do. And then take up arms in the great battle with those who will go with me, and discover that they are actually better friends and partners than I ever could have guessed.

And so I ask God to help me not be like the Israelites in this story, who just want to go back to safe slavery. But to be like Joshua and Caleb, who were willing and eager to step out and conquer the impossible land. To declare with King David,

¹Blessed is the LORD, my rock

who trains my hands for battle,

my fingers for the fray.

^Psalm 144:1

Leap of Faith // Faith vs. Fear

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 02/24/2012

video available at www.sundaystreams.com/go/MilanVineyard/ondemand

(special thanks to Dave Schmelzer and the Greater Boston Vineyard…this sermon series and the Leap of Faith User Manual is largely adapted from their original material)

One of the things God likes to do is – well, it’s a very technical theological term, but I’ll just say it, and then we can break it down together: God likes to “do stuff” for people. You need something done? It gives God pleasure, it seems, to DO it for you. He likes the whole range. Finding us parking spots, getting us there on time, healing our bodies, keeping our gas tank running on fumes, telling us where to look for lost books and earrings, restoring relationships, helping us get a job, setting us free from addiction, directing the wind to deposit 20% off coupons in the parking lot when we need them, overcoming racism, bringing peace between warring nations. The whole range.

I know some of that seems a little beneath him. Like he’s got better things to do than some of that. And especially better things to do than doing stuff for us. Sometimes we imagine God should have set things up in a more purely intellectual way. So that we’d worship God not because we actually needed or wanted any good stuff for ourselves out of the relationship, but just because we acknowledge he’s real or objectively great or something.

Because the way things stand, we’d be likely to worship him just because he does cool stuff for us. [pink Cadillac story…]

We might have one of two possible reactions to this. One, if you’ve been a Jesus follower for a while, you might feel a little conflicted about it, a little guilty. Like it’s a dirty secret about your faith. You imagine you’re faith is supposed to be all about this pure love for God, uncluttered by selfish motivations. And still you kind of feel like you identify with pink Cadillac faith a little too much, when you get right down to it. Secondly, if you’re exploring the idea of following Jesus from the outside, it can seem a bit like a scandal to you. So everyone seems a little hypocritical to you.

There’s really only one realistic way past this. We’ve got to get over it. This is the way God is. This is the way we are. And it actually works a lot better if we’d just accept that and trust that God has a good reason for relating to us this way. What a crazy thought, huh? Accept God for who he’s revealed himself to be – even if he’s not quite like we’d make him if we were making a God. And accept ourselves for who we’ve revealed ourselves to be – even if we’re not quite like we’d make ourselves if we were making ourselves.

Many of us, as you are if you’ve been using the User Manual for the Leap of Faith, have been praying the Psalms, so they’ve been on my mind a lot. There are some bracing things that stand out as you pray the psalms – not least among them are the connecting words.

I love the Lord because he has heard my voice, my supplications…

^Psalm 116:1

Wouldn’t the song writer love God even if he didn’t hear and answer prayer?

For the LORD listens to the needy, ³⁴ and His captives He has not despised. Let heaven and earth extol Him, ³⁵ the seas and all that stirs within them.

For God will rescue Zion ³⁶ and rebuild the towns of Judea, and they will dwell there and possess it.

^Psalm 69

The more you read the whole bible, the more you realize that God is eager to DO things for people who trust him. The more you realize that that’s actually a fairly big deal for him.

Last week, we explored the idea that God’s one purpose on earth is making his name great. And that if we make that our focus in our lives, life just works better than making anything else our focus, or for that matter, living an unfocused life. Because of course, if God is all about making his name great, the way he does it is by doing great things for people who put their trust in him. Which makes sense, doesn’t it? If you’re a dad, the only way you get a great reputation as a dad is doing great stuff for your kids. Not doing everything they ask of course – I mean, sometimes they don’t ask for the best things; they’re kids after all – but by doing the important stuff they need from a dad, and by doing lots and lots of just plain old cool things for them because you love them.

We’re starting the second week of this experiment we’re calling “Leap of Faith.” I’m excited about it. At its core, the leap of faith is about finding out how true it is that God likes to do stuff for people who trust him. And the only way to find out is to trust him in specific ways and see what happens, right? So If it’s really true that God wants to do great stuff for us, how do we say “yes, I’m in!” to him and get this great stuff?

Well, it seems to boil down to this thing called “faith.” In Matthew 8, Jesus tells someone who wants something from him, “Let it be done to you according to your faith.” That’s why this 40 day experiment is called a leap of faith. Faith is the whole deal.

However, there is a key enemy to faith that I think it will be helpful to look at even at this early stage. Jesus talks about it in Mark 4:

³⁵That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” ³⁶Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. ³⁷A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. ³⁸Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

³⁹He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

⁴⁰He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

⁴¹They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

^Mark 4:35-41

Why are you so afraid? Seriously, Jesus? They are about to drown! What is Jesus driving at?

Jesus gets why they are afraid; he’s using his question to teach them about faith. He’s setting up fear in opposition to faith.

Why are you so afraid?

Do you still have no faith?

The disciples ask Jesus, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” Hadn’t he said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side?” Clearly, his purpose involves reaching the other side, not drowning. Which, in the midst of the storm, they seem to have forgotten. Or if they haven’t forgotten it, they sure don’t seem to be believing that’s what’s about to happen anymore. Their fear – and let’s be honest, it’s a very natural fear, supported by the way our brains are designed - has gotten in the way of their faith.

Somehow we tend to think doubt would be the enemy of faith. And I suppose there’s some truth to that. But it seems that a much more significant enemy to faith is fear. It’s one of two main things that keep us from life-altering faith. And the second is related to it, and goes back to last week – it’s a lack of focus on God’s one great purpose (which opens the door to fear when we lose focus on it).

[researchers who study how our brains work tell us that most of our actions are directed by a cognitive but pre-rational part of our brains that we can think of like an elephant. Really smart, really large, and generates a ton of momentum. And the more rational part of us is like a rider on that elephant, whose job it is to serve the elephant. And so doubt, often, is what our riders do when our elephants get scared, even by a mouse. Our elephants want to stop going where faith had first led them, and so our riders invent all kinds of doubts to support them in their fear. The smarter you are in fact, the more reasons your rider can come up with to support your elephants inclinations. So it may seem like doubt is the enemy of faith, but generally speaking, it starts with something else that gets our elephants going a different direction. And that something else is often fear. And most especially it’s fear when faith is what had gotten our elephants moving in the first place.]

If you read much fiction about various mythological gods, or ever play those god games where you rule over the world and have to get people to believe in you, you get a good picture about a conception of faith that’s fairly common. The way faith works in that worldview is that gods get their power from the faith of their followers. The more people who believe in them, the more power they have to do miracles and battle other gods. And so they like to do miracles (or fearsome things, for that matter), because it gets more people believing in them, which increases their power and helps them do more miracles, and so on and so forth.

Sometimes we have the same misconception about the real God. That somehow faith matters to him for his sake. But that’s not it - not really. Faith matters to him because he loves us. And faith – an active trust in him – is what opens the door to abundant life for us. Life that comes from him, full of adventure, significance, purpose, provision, life that totally fits who we are, that gives us joy – the kind of life Jesus has. And sure, he gets something out of it – he gets happy kids he gets to spend all day every day working alongside and enjoying. But again, his motivation even for that is that he loves us.

So Jesus isn’t upset with his disciples for their lack of faith because his nap got interrupted. He’s upset with them because their lack of faith is threatening to get in the way of the awesome life he is wanting to lead them into. On the other side of faith are the deepest dreams for our lives we’ve ever dreamt. Jesus says in Matthew 21: Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive. In other words, if you’re focused on God’s one great purpose on earth, and you come to God in prayer with faith, he’s going to come through for you. Because this is what abundant life is all about, this is what it looks like.

Isn’t that the life we want? It’s the life I want.

And only two things stand between us and a life of faith.

Fear, and a lack of focus.

I don’t think it’s too difficult a mystery why faith makes us scared. Faith forces us to believe in something we can’t see.

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

^Hebrews 11:1

The challenge, of course, with faith is that even though we can’t see it, we have to act as if it’s already there.

This is the fundamental conflict in life. Do you roll over when you’re a baby? You desperately want to, but what will happen if you do? Do you take a step? What if you fall over? Do you get on the bus? Do you take the job? Do you pop the question? Do you buy the house? Do you have the baby? Everything we desire deeply requires us to act like it’s going to work out, one way or another, even though it hasn’t worked out yet and there are no guarantees. Or, fear can keep us from ever stepping out in faith, and then we are “safe” but completely lifeless.

Listen to this psalm from the Bible and see what you think of it…

He who dwells in the Most High’s shelter, ¹

in the shadow of Shaddai lies at night—

I say of the LORD, “My refuge and bastion, ²

my God in whom I trust.”

For He will save you from the fowler’s snare, ³

from the disastrous plague.

⁴ With His pinion He shelters you,

and beneath His wings you take refuge,

a shield and a buckler, His truth.

⁵ You shall not fear from the terror of night

nor from the arrow that flies by day,

⁶ from the plague that stalks in darkness

nor from the scourge that rages at noon.

⁷ Though a thousand fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, you it will not reach.

⁸ You but look with your eyes,

and the wicked’s requital you see.

⁹ For you—the LORD is your refuge,

the Most High you have made your abode.

No harm will befall you, ¹⁰

nor affliction draw near to your tent.

For His messengers He charges for you ¹¹

to guard you on all your ways.

On their palms they lift you up ¹²

lest your foot be bruised by a stone.

On lion and viper you tread, ¹³

you trample young lion and serpent.

“For Me he desired and I freed him. ¹⁴

I raised him high, for he has known My name.

He calls Me and I answer him, ¹⁵

I am with him in his straits.

I deliver him and grant him honor. ¹⁶

With length of days I shall sate him,

and show him my rescue.”

What do you think of all that? Do you really believe that:

⁹ For you—the LORD is your refuge,

the Most High you have made your abode.

No harm will befall you, ¹⁰

nor affliction draw near to your tent.

For His messengers He charges for you ¹¹

to guard you on all your ways.

This is actually a sentiment that comes up a fair amount in the Bible. Here’s a passage from the new testament, quoting a psalm:

That’s why we can be cheerfully confident and say, “The Lord is helping me; I’m not going to be afraid; what can anyone do to me?”

^Hebrews 13:6

Has a genuine follower of Jesus ever had harm befall them? Has a person full of faith ever been afflicted?

Obviously, they have. I sure have.

Yet also, obviously, we’re supposed to take these scriptures really seriously and take heart from them. Jesus himself commands us in Matthew 6 not to worry about anything.

The way I understand it is this. I think, if we are following Jesus, if we are trying to focus on God’s one great purpose on earth, we are supposed to believe that he’s right there with us if things get hairy. That he’s sent actual angels to be with us. And that, whatever happens, in the end it will work out great.

The strange upshot of these teachings of the Bible is that their perspective is that death is not the enemy. Fear, worry is the enemy. Fear is tons worse than death! Isn’t that interesting?

Listen to Paul in Romans 8…

²⁸And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

³¹What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

³⁷No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

³⁸For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

^Romans 8

Or in Philippians…

Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

^Philippians 4:6-7

This is why a central part of our leap of faith is asking God for some specific things. We know his one purpose is to make his name great among all people. And that his name, in this sense, is “The God who does awesome things for people who trust him.” You have been created to see God’s name made great through you. So, one of our first steps of faith is to ask him for things. Things for you because you think maybe they are things God wants to do for you. And things for your six, because you know God loves them. And things for your church, because God longs to bless his people.

⁴This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. ¹⁵And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

^{1 John} 5

Focusing our lives this way can seem a little out there. Look at the passage from Mark about the disciples and Jesus in the boat that’s about to sink. Jesus point to them basically seems to be: Which are you going to believe more? This massive storm or the fact that I said, “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake?

Our lives cannot change in any meaningful way except as a result of faith. Every story of God making his name great in the world have come about as a result of faith. And this kind of faith boils down to believing utterly in the words of someone you can’t even see – Jesus.

So how can we do this? How can we overcome the fear and lack of focus that will keep us from receiving all the benefits of faith? I have four suggestions, four practical tips.

1. Believe by faith.

I mean this very simply. Put your trust in Jesus. Decide to become his follower. Trust him with your life. Say, OK, Jesus, you can count me as one of yours. I’m going to trust that my sins are forgiven. That you’re alive now even though you were killed on a cross, and that you’re up to something in the world and you’re inviting me to be part of it. And that as I work on doing what you tell me to do, you’ll take care of everything that matters in my life.

It takes a lot of faith to believe in him. A leap of faith. In fact, you may never find out if you actually believe in him until you make the leap by faith, and acknowledge that the thing you can’t see for sure yet if it’s in you, but you think it is, so you take a risk, and by faith you decide to believe. Only then will you find out if, in fact, you do.

2. Step out by faith.

Only one thing on earth will satisfy us, and that’s focusing our life around God’s one purpose on earth. It’s what we really want in life; it’s deeper than any of our dreams, though our dreams might not obviously point to that. Not yet, not at first.

So step out by getting in the game somehow. Maybe it starts by just praying for God to do something to make his name great, in a focused way. Maybe it means joining a team of people in a ministry in the church. Maybe it means planting a church. But somehow, take a step.

3. Give by faith.

Jesus says that serving God is in direct opposition to serving money. And it seems clear in the Bible that the greatest antidote to serving money is to give.

This is actually one of the things we know most about God himself. God himself is a giver. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son… And he brings up the subject constantly. Believe is in the Bible 272 times. Pray, 371. Love, 714. Give? 2162. You could argue that Jesus talked more about giving than about anything else. There are more promises in the Bible about how we use our money than about any other subject.

[for new guests: Can we make a deal that will make me feel better in talking about this crucial topic? Can we agree that, at least for these 40 days, if you give in response to this, you won’t give to US? I’d love you to get whatever benefit there is in this—and I think there’s massive benefit—without feeling a conflict of interest.]

Giving is a topic we’ll touch on regularly during this series, because it’s so central to seeing God’s blessing in our lives. And one of my goals for everyone who participates in this Lenten Leap of Faith is that you’ll stop worrying about money. And giving by faith is the only way that will ever happen.

And specifically I’m talking about giving by faith – not reason. In other words, giving because God tells you to, not because it seems like a reasonable or smart amount to give. Here’s how the prayer works. God, I want your name to be great. How much should I give to help that happen?

Then do it.

4. Rejoice by faith.

Here’s the bottom line. Only God can make your life work out. As you do all the things we’ve talked about, as you believe by faith and step out by faith and give by faith, it could all go terribly wrong.

None of my goals for you could happen. Same for my goals for the church. Same for the things I’m asking God to do for me and for the 6 people I’m praying for. Despair is right at the door, wanting to get in all the time.

God’s really going to have to pull this off. If anything good happens, it’s got to be you, God. But however things go, however well or poorly I do, I’m choosing to rejoice. Because it all rides on you and you’re good and you’re for us. I really believe that. So I rejoice.

You were created for a life of vibrant faith. And fear is the enemy of that. So stand with me, if you will, and let’s pray together about that.

Leap of Faith // God’s One Purpose

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 02/17/2013

video available at www.sundaystreams.com/go/MilanVineyard/ondemand

(special thanks to Dave Schmelzer and the Greater Boston Vineyard…this sermon series and the Leap of Faith User Manual is largely adapted from their original material)

The idea behind a leap of faith is that it demands everything from us (go ahead, jump – it’s only your life on the line!) and it promises everything to us (if you make it, nothing will ever be the same – your dreams will come true). A relationship, a job, a new business venture, an investment…

And the only way to find out if a leap of faith is going to pay off is to leap. If you don’t, you’ll never know. If you do, you only find out through the experience that follows.

The Bible tells some crazy stories about leaps of faith. Noah building that ark. Abraham packing up his family and heading off in to the unknown. David going up against Goliath with only a sling and stones. Jesus trading divinity for humanity and taking a chance on crucifixion and death. The message seems pretty clear: devote yourself to God’s purposes for you, and there will be abundant life on the other side of that leap of faith. Jesus famously said it this way: seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Of course, before anyone takes a leap of faith, they want to know if they’ve got any evidence to suggest it might be worthwhile. So over these next 7 weeks of lent, I’d like us to try an experimental approach.

Listen to what Psalm 34 says:

⁸Taste and see that the Lord is good;

blessed are those who take refuge in him.

⁹Fear the Lord, you his holy people,

for those who fear him lack nothing.

^Psalm 34:8-9

Taste and see suggests we can do some things and get some evidence. We put something in, and see what comes out. The Bible seems to say that what comes out is that the Lord is good. I say let’s give it a shot. Let’s take a leap of faith.

A whole book of the Bible, named after its author, the prophet Haggai, devotes itself to this subject. We’ll look at part of it in a little bit.

Before we get to these ancient words, let’s hear from the noted philosopher, Sheryl Crow, who wrote a song about this litmus test, even using the words of Haggai to make her point…

You can tell me the world is round and I'll prove to you it's square
You can keep your feet on the ground,
but I'll be walking on air
You're pretty good at waiting
While I go running around
Well, that's just the way it is, you know

I got a hole in my pocket
You give me love and I drop it
I guess I threw it away…

Sheryl Crow’s point is that she doesn’t understand herself or her life – at least on the terms of this song. She gets good things – in this case, real love – but she can’t hold on to them. It’s like she’s got a hole in her pocket. She puts the good things life gives her in there, but when she goes to get it, it’s gone.

And then you look at Haggai:

1 In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest:

²This is what the Lord Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house.’ ”

³Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: ⁴“Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”

⁵Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. ⁶You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”

⁷This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. ⁸Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the Lord. ⁹“You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. ¹⁰Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. ¹¹I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.”

^Haggai 1:1-11

In broad terms, Haggai is saying that our best bet is to give ourselves wholeheartedly to God’s purposes on earth. And if we don’t, one of the consequences that can happen is this – I like how the Message translation says it:

Take a good, hard look at your life.

Think it over.

You have spent a lot of money,

but you haven’t much to show for it.

You keep filling your plates,

but you never get filled up.

You keep drinking and drinking and drinking,

but you’re always thirsty.

You put on layer after layer of clothes,

but you can’t get warm.

And the people who work for you,

what are they getting out of it?

Not much—

a leaky, rusted-out bucket, that’s what.

When we give ourselves to anything other than God’s purposes, it can be like we have holes in our pockets. Or like we are leaky, rusted out buckets. We get good things, but can’t hold them. We get money, but where does it go? Even though on the surface our needs may be met, our lives feel starved.

Today we are starting something new. A season in our church we are calling A Leap of Faith.

My goals for what each of you gets out of this Leap of Faith over these next 6 weeks until Easter are:

1. That you’d experience at least one concrete gift from God.

2. That you’d experience an ever-deeper joy of finding your purpose in God’s work on earth.

3. That you’d grow spiritually more than you have in any other 40 day period of your life.

4. That, because of these 40 days, you’ll stop worrying about money.

So we’ll begin today with the first step in a leap of faith, in this experiment to discover that Jesus Is Really Good, and worth trusting with everything you are and everything you’ve got. That first step is this:

Focusing on God’s one purpose on earth.

The promise of the Bible is that as we do that, we’ll suddenly get swept into the life we’ve always been created to experience, and the holes we’ve experienced in our pockets will get sewn up. All the benefits that come our way not only won’t slip away, they’ll build up into a life that feels rich and worry-free and utterly provided for.

Now, that life may often be hard. In fact, it most certainly will, sometimes. Jesus himself has this little inconvenience called the cross to deal with, not to mention all kinds of persecutions along the way, and he promises unusual hardships for his closest followers.

But the promise is that hardships and trouble, though real, won’t at all define our lives.

Abundance will define our lives.

Of course, an important question presents itself, if, in fact, this is true…

What is God’s one purpose on earth?

If we are to organize our lives around this purpose, take a leap of faith and give ourselves to it, it sure would help to know what it is, wouldn’t it?

The Bible is full of hints. Hero after hero in its pages is heroic precisely because they’ve taken a leap of faith to pursue it. Let’s take David, for example…

⁴¹Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. ⁴²He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him. ⁴³He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. ⁴⁴“Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals!”

⁴⁵David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. ⁴⁶This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. ⁴⁷All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

^{1 Samuel} 17:41-47

David, apparently, thinks that

· because of God, against all reason, he’s going to win against this behemoth,

· and that his victory will publicize to the whole world that God is the strongest power on earth.

· And that that publicizing is really important, that it’s the bottom line of what he’s up to.

Look at the song he writes, Psalm 96

¹Sing to the Lord a new song;

sing to the Lord, all the earth.

²Sing to the Lord, praise his name;

proclaim his salvation day after day.

³Declare his glory among the nations,

his marvelous deeds among all peoples.

⁴For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;

he is to be feared above all gods.

⁵For all the gods of the nations are idols,

but the Lord made the heavens.

⁶Splendor and majesty are before him;

strength and glory are in his sanctuary…

^Psalm 96

So here’s my take on God’s one purpose:

To make his name great among all the people of the earth.

God’s name, in scripture, runs along the lines of “The God who does awesome things for anyone who puts their trust in him.”

If this is true, that this is what God is doing on earth, his sole purpose, and that focusing our lives on this is the quickest path to a rich, meaningful, prosperous life, how do we do that?

Well, consider this: the driving principle behind all abundance comes down to three words: “Invest, don’t spend.”

Meaning that, more and more, we want to devote our lives to investing ourselves in the things God promises to reward. We don’t want to just spend our time, because then when it’s gone, it’s gone. We want to invest in such a way that God will be giving us a return over many years to come.

A few suggestions:

Invest your time in God’s great purpose.

¹⁵Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, ¹⁶making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. ¹⁷Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

^Ephesians 5:15-17

It’s important to make wise choices with our time – and “the days” won’t help us because they aren’t neutral; they’re actually evil. If we don’t make conscious choices with our time, it will slip through the holes in our pockets. Instead, understand what the Lord’s will is and invest your time in God’s great purpose.

Secondly, Invest your trust in God’s one great purpose. By this I mean that we focus our whole selves around God’s one great purpose, that his purpose becomes what we’re about. For many people, fasting is a time-honored way of learning to do this.

¹⁶“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ¹⁷But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, ¹⁸so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

^Matthew 6:16-18

Notice how Jesus assumes that everyone who follows him is fasting. It boils down to giving up something we rely on, often food in some form, for some length of time, in order to feel the kind of desperation that we really need to feel for God himself.

When we really want something from God, we often fast as a means of signaling to him and to our own spirits that it pretty much has to come from him. Fasting, though it’s hard, is actually meant to be a pretty joyful experience, because it actually connects us with God. And it can be pretty exhilarating to actually fast for something specific in your life and see what God will do.

Thirdly, and briefly since we’ll talk about this one more in a couple of weeks, is to invest your talents in God’s one great purpose.

31 Then the Lord said to Moses, ²“See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, ³and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— ⁴to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, ⁵to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts. ⁶Moreover, I have appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, to help him. Also I have given ability to all the skilled workers to make everything I have commanded you: ⁷the tent of meeting, the ark of the covenant law with the atonement cover on it, and all the other furnishings of the tent— ⁸the table and its articles, the pure gold lampstand and all its accessories, the altar of incense, ⁹the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, the basin with its stand— ¹⁰and also the woven garments, both the sacred garments for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons when they serve as priests, ¹¹and the anointing oil and fragrant incense for the Holy Place. They are to make them just as I commanded you.”

^Exodus 31:1-11

If this is all of what life is meant to be about, clearly we’d want to find a way that all of who we are would be invested in it.

Finally, invest your treasure in God’s one great purpose.

The key biblical principle about how to always have more than you need is this one: your financial prosperity depends more on God’s blessing than it does on your earning power. Some people make big money but constantly struggle with debt. Lots of others do their best to invest their treasure towards God’s one great purpose and have a sense of being wonderfully provided for by God. Jesus makes a big deal about this too, teaching his followers that loving money is the root of all evil, that you can’t serve God & Money both, but that if you trust God you won’t have to worry about money.

We’ll talk more about this later in our leap of faith project over these 6 weeks.

Remember our discussion of David earlier, and how he really understood this stuff about God’s purpose on earth? It’s interesting how his life gets summed up in the New Testament: “David…served God’s purpose in his own generation.” Acts 13:36

Wouldn’t we like that to be true of us?

Practical Tips:

1. Read the User Manual for the Leap of Faith.

2. Do some or all of the stuff in there. Preferably all. But especially the first stuff.

Like a Tree // Calling

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 02/10/2012

video available at www.sundaystreams.com/go/MilanVineyard/ondemand

Wind.

Breath.

Spirit.

Word.

These are some ways human beings describe the divine when they encounter it. They share some things in common.

Wind. Breath. Spirit. Word. All of them invisible. Hard to get your hands on. Slip through your fingers. And yet unmistakable. Perceivable. Powerful. Sometimes even irresistible.

Felt or heard by one person or family or group, but the only evidence that remains to the outsider of their reality is the shift they’ve caused. The wind lifts seeds and water, moves it into new territory and deposits it there, from garden to desert, the only evidence of its activity is the new life growing in the previously arid ground.

Homo sapien after homo sapien meeting the God who is Wind, Breath, Spirit, Word, and the experiences are eerily similar.

Noah. The divine breath moves him to build an ark. Making him look like a fool until. Well, until we see that his journey is a hero’s journey.

Abraham. The divine wind calls him to leave his father’s household and go to an unknown land. Making him look like a fool until. Well, until we see that his journey is a hero’s journey.

Moses. The divine spirit calls him to resist the most powerful ruler in human history and lead his people across the desert to a land flowing with milk and honey. Making him look like a fool until. Well, until we see that his journey is a hero’s journey.

Jesus, the divine word made human flesh dwells among us, and what does he begin doing? Calling people. “Come, follow me.” Fishermen. Tax Collectors. Prostitutes. Doctors. Scholars. Noblemen. Teenagers. Homemakers. “Come, follow me.”

Person after person, from the dawn of human history, encountering God and being called. Right up until the present day.

Called from comfort, or obscurity, or desperation, or ordinariness

into adventure.

Extraordinary adventure.

Why are you here? Why are you doing what you are doing in your life? If you’ve encountered God – the way people tend to encounter him – you’ve felt the push of his wind, the whisper of his breath, the invitation of his spirit, the insistent command of his word. Come. Go. Do. And so you are here. And doing this. Because He told you to.

You’ve felt it deep in your bones. You were made the way you were made for a purpose. When you’ve resisted it, you’ve felt the tension it’s created in your life, the sense of being misplaced, not fitting quite right, a restlessness that sleep can’t touch. That sleep maybe even makes worse.

You’ve gotten hints of it in things people have said to you, stories they’ve told. You resonated, your pulse quickened, you came alive, felt the tug of a longing.

You’ve maybe had dreams. Thought you heard a voice. Wondered if it was real. Kept seeing hints in signs and on TV and lyrics in songs and words on paper or in crazy random places and thought, could that be God talking to me? And you’re pretty sure it probably was, even though if you ever told anyone they’d probably laugh a little and think you were maybe a little silly. So you haven’t told anyone. But you haven’t forgotten either.

Like a Tree series. Psalm 1: Happy is the man who…like a tree planted by streams of living water…

Over the last several weeks we’ve talked about nurturing and tending to different aspects of our lives so that we can be like a tree planted by streams of living water. From our interior lives, or our souls, to our relationships with others, to our active or work lives, and now concluding this week with our calling, or missional lives. How do we nurture and tend to our calling? To the purpose for which we were made and called by God to live? How do we day by day hear his voice amidst all the other voices and inclinations we have, so that our lives don’t get stagnant or off track?

As it says in Romans 8:14,

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

Or Galatians 5:25

Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

The Overlooked Obvious Thing

Before we get ahead of ourselves, we should note that we all have the same fundamental calling as followers of Jesus.

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28:19-20

The work of Jesus is our calling – loving the unlovable, serving our enemies, caring for the poor, strengthening the weak, healing the sick, equipping the saints, doing the works of the kingdom.

Of course, God has a unique role for each one of us to play as we do this, a custom made adventure that is designed to fit us perfectly and glorify God in the world. That adventure – like Frodo’s carrying of the ring to mount doom or Luke Skywalker becoming a Jedi or Dorothy’s epic feats in Oz – may take a lifetime to unfold in all its detail, but it will always be part of, and subject to, this fundamental calling.

And so if you’re discouraged that you don’t know what you’re calling is, stop being discouraged and start by doing your best to announce the good news of Jesus in your day to day life, through the way you love everyone you encounter and making yourself available to join with other followers of Jesus as they pursue God’s calling.

Much the way we all start by learning to crawl and walk and eat and speak and add and subtract and write our names and dress ourselves. Even though some may ultimately be athletes or dancers or chefs or poets or business owners or parents or teachers or pilots or electricians or nurses or accountants and on and on.

Letting Go

Nurturing our calling for the sake of spiritual growth – for the sake of the happiness that comes from being like a tree planted by streams of living water – begins with letting go of control over the course of our lives. When Jesus says, “Come, follow me” we’ve got to be willing to say “Yes.” And saying yes means that Jesus is now determining where we go and what we’re doing and what our lives are all about. He doesn’t give us a lot of information. We’re just going on the sense we have that he is good. That his goodness is trustworthy. That he’s calling us because he loves us. And if he loves us, there is life for us in following.

If a stranger says close your eyes, follow me you don’t.

But if your favorite person does, you just might.

The idea of calling is a fundamental difference between bounded set faith and centered set faith.

In a bounded set context, you get to look at life inside the boundaries, compare it to life outside, and make your choice. Then, once you’re inside, you can do the same and decide if it’s everything you thought it was. If not, out you go again.

But centered set faith is different. You only get to look at Jesus. And yourself. Because no one has arrived at your destination for you to compare your current life with. Everyone else is on a journey somewhere, not yet arrived. Except Jesus. So you see him, and you see you. And then you decide which of you is more likely to lead you to good life. And then you start taking step after step towards him, wherever he’s leading you. And you trust him, letting go of control. Day after day, step after step. Even when his call challenges you, frightens you, demands new things out of you.

Let’s not get the wrong impression. Letting go of control to follow Jesus’ call is an active thing, not a passive thing. It is a brave and courageous thing. It is the ultimate choosing. It takes every bit of will and desire we can muster, and focuses them in a singular direction.

Listen to what C.S. Lewis says:

“That is why the real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.”

Surrendering to Jesus’ call, letting go of all sorts of other impulses, daily deciding that you will let Jesus’ purpose for your life be your driving purpose, in other words, is the way we avoid not surrendering to all sorts of other things that insist they can lead us to life.

The prayer in the "How is your soul" booklet is a very helpful one:

Spirit of God, it is Your Voice I desire to hear above the din of all others clamoring for my attention. Give me ears to hear Your daily calling on my life as a follower of Jesus, and in my specific role in Your mission to love the world to wholeness. I choose to obey; speak and I will both listen and respond. In Jesus’ name, I offer myself to you. Amen.

Listen Actively

[teaching active listening in premarital counseling…teaching people to reflect what they hear in such a way that the other person can say yes exactly or well, no, not exactly… “So if I hear what you’re saying, …”]

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ² There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. ³ So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

⁴ When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”

Exodus 3:1-4

Notice how Moses goes over to look, and that’s when God calls to him. He’s let go of his flock tending enough to give his attention to the bush. The same thing happens for us. Letting go frees us to actively listen. To pay attention.

And in my experience, actually telling God what we think we hear him saying can be really helpful in hearing and discerning his call. Say it out loud. “Jesus, if I hear what you’re saying to me, you are calling me to…” That will often be accompanied by some kind of confirmation in your heart, peace in your spirit, some kind of internal witness to God’s voice if it is in fact from him. You may not even say it to God directly in fact, but maybe to someone else, and the same kind of thing can happen. That’s how I came to know the Lord’s calling to come serve as a pastor here. [Indianapolis story…]

Actually do.

This may seem obvious, but we nurture and tend to our calling by actually doing what we are called to do.

It can be really easy to get distracted and lose and our sense of calling. Even after we’ve said yes and taken some steps in following Jesus into it. We can be like dogs on a walk who see squirrels and all of sudden we aren’t on a walk anymore.

So look at your life and compare it to what you’ve felt the wind pushing you to do and felt the breath whispering to you to do and felt the spirit drawing you to do and heard the word inviting you to do. And if they don’t match up very well, begin, as best as you can today, to do what you’re called to do, and to stop doing what you’ve been doing instead. Even if it’s just a little bit at a time. Because the kingdom of God is like yeast in dough. It’s like a mustard seed planted in the ground. You’ve just got to let it get started, and then cooperate as best as you’re able.

Practical tips

1. Get out of your Comfort Zone. Do one unforced uncomfortable thing a day for a week. Because comfort is the enemy of calling.

2. Trade up. Tell God you’re willing to trade you’re storyline for your life for his storyline for your life.

3. Add the Calling Question to your Examen this week.