THE HANDS OF GOD

During the special music service that Nancy and her team prepared for us just before the summer break, I was struck by the many hands that were involved to prepare such a lovely morning of worship.

The hands of the musicians. The hands sweeping the bat droppings off of the front porch, those preparing the bulletin, or updating the website. Those that help collect the offering, check that the power was on and working, mowed the lawn, arranged flowers. Rang the bell. All those 
hands, and more, offering service to others.

I began thinking about the gift of HANDS, and how wonderfully made humans are, with amazing tools to accomplish so many things.
Then I began reflecting on the concept of service. What does Christian service look like?

Let’s start by thinking about what we very often think Christian service means. Here’s some examples:
-becoming a missionary
-becoming a pastor or preacher or leading worship in church 
-teaching Sunday School
-feeding the poor and homeless 
-doing street ministry
-giving tithes and offerings
-donating money or useful items to charity
-supporting a child through World Vision, Samaritan’s purse, or other works 
-visiting people in prison
-visiting the sick or infirm

So I am wondering if the above list of Christian service, which are all important and valuable, is completely representative. For those of us who are NOT doing those things, is there anything else? Or do we relegate ourselves to the back-bench of Christianity, failing to see our value.
Obvious acts of service can be politicized and honoured above the unseen ones. So, do we serve God in order to earn a golden halo? Or to earn points in Heaven? Is service a one-time act, or a repeating action?

Do we look for recognition for our acts of service? Are we disappointed when no one notices how clean the church is, or how many hours we spend helping others? When we are called to stand before God, does He look at our list of charitable works and judge us on that?

Or is service to God an on-going way of being? So where does Service fit in our faith life?

Matthew 25: 34-46 Here Jesus says to His disciples (who were asking about the final judgement), that whatever we 
do in service to others, we are actually doing unto Him. Conversely whatever we did NOT do that we could have done, we also did not offer to Him.  He is outlining what Christian works actually is, but do we actually understand what He is saying?

Another question: what is Christian service FOR anyway? What is the ultimate purpose of serving God?

Whenever I have questions like this, I like to go to the Bible to see what Jesus said. 

We read in the book of Matthew where Jesus was answering questions of the church leaders, questions designed to catch him out. They sure did not like His simple and profound teaching. 

Too many people were starting to be too interested! 

Finally he says this: Matthew 22:34-40 “Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an 
expert in the law, tested him with this question: Teacher which is the greatest commandment in the Law? Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbour as yourself” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

Did you catch that? What Jesus is saying here, is the same as he said to his disciples.
Loving your neighbour is serving God. 

Let’s look more closely at what he said.

-Loving God with all your heart mind and soul. That speaks of total commitment to God. There’s not too much room for anything else when we are called to love Him with ALL our heart.  It speaks of a heart full of God’s character, a heart that we have allowed God to fill. It speaks of a mind thinking in pathways that lead to goodness and kindness. It speaks of a soul that is sold-out to God, that knows who he or she is, a soul who knows whom they worship and serve. It speaks of a monumental act of surrender, of a conscious opening up to the Holy Spirit to allow Him to fill us.

-Loving your neighbour as yourself. Certainly if God is not number one, then who is? That’s easy. Me myself and I!  It’s is very very difficult for a human to put self aside and put God first.

But Jesus said that every other law or commandment in all of life is covered by these two statements. Loving our neighbour means extending kindness. Being generous. Showing good-will. Lending a helping hand when possible. Perhaps it could mean a bit of self-sacrifice. 

Practising an attitude of non-judgement. Not cheating, stealing or similar. It shows surrender to God. God is Love.

Any behaviour that is unkind, unjust or stingy is actually done unto God, because it is actually in disobedience to God’s commandment and therefore a rejection of Him. That sounds serious!

A heart that is surrendered to God loves his neighbour as himself.
When our kids were young, we had a discussion at the breakfast table every morning before school. We would read a Bible passage then apply it to events and situations in every day life. 

Basically everything boils down to how to apply these 2 commandments to everyday situations. It was helpful, in this way, to apply Biblical truths to “real” life, which is often the dilemma for believers. How to take faith into our every day lives. 

So if Jesus has commanded us to love God, be fully surrendered to Him, be filled with His love, and to honour others, how does doing those things translate into service?

What do we “do with our hands”, as it were.

The question that pops into mind is:  Why did Jesus come to earth anyway?

He says He came to give us Life.

John 3: 16 says “for God so loved the world, that he gave His only son that whoever believes on Him should not perish but may have eternal life”.

He also said that God does not want anyone to be lost.
In the parable of the lost sheep, Jesus said in Matthew 18 “what do you think, if a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?” For those of us who know what sheep are like, you 
can visualize that one sheep who wandered off. Walking around blindly bleating and of course going in the complete wrong direction! It needs help!  He continues:  “And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. 

In the same way your Father in heaven is NOT WILLING that any of these little ones should be lost”

It seems God’s plan is that we all should come to know Him. He wants us to be in relationship with Him. So THAT is why Jesus came. So none of us should be lost. His plan is to bring us all to Himself, and his commandment is to love him, and out of that to love others.

Now I want you to think of someone in your life whom you remember most fondly. Maybe someone from your childhood or adolescence, a parent or grandparent. Or a business colleague or neighbour. Or even someone entirely unknown to you. Someone who had a memorable positive effect on your life.

Now that you have someone in mind, ask this question. Why them? Why do they matter? what did they do? What motivated that person to act in a way that made you remember them in fondness today? Just hold that thought as we continue.

God tells us to be filled with the Spirit, and the Spirit of God is Love. Be filled with Love. When that Love overflows out of our lives, it renders service to others.

God didn’t call us to believe on Him then go DO acts of service. He told us to LOVE HIM. The acts of service are simply a CONSEQUENCE of the fullness of God’s love in our lives.

George told me the other day he heard doctor James Dobson of Focus on the Family talk about his health journey, and how a doctor had told him he had to lose weight or he might not live that long. Dr. Dobson said he then quit eating sugar. He didn’t diet or think of dieting. He just quit eating sugar only. And he lost 30 pounds.  He even said “I didn’t diet or anything, I just quit eating sugar”. He didn’t focus on the result, just on the one act.

This concept is what God is talking about when He calls us to serve Him.  He has called us to love Him. That is all. To focus on that one act.

We serve God by BEING. By being in our lives and continually surrendering that life to God, for His infilling of love. We really don’t need to plan or figure out WHAT to do, we simply need to open ourselves to the love of God, and it automatically affects the world around us.

Simply being there in the midst of life, overflowing with the love of God. Love that flows like a river, spreading out wherever we go, touching others no matter who they are or what their situation.

And we have many tools at our disposal to express or release that love to our neighbour. We have HANDS. We have tongues. We have feet. We have attitude. We may have wealth or power or position. We may have NO wealth or power or position. But we have the love of God that overflows and becomes service to Him and to others.

The Bible tells us to not hide our light under a bushel. What is our light?  And why does our light need to be seen, and by whom?

Matt 5:14-16..you are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds (the work of your hands) and praise your Father in Heaven”.  Because it is a beacon, like a lighthouse that warns of danger and shows people the way to safety. A light a draws life to it. 

Not only moths or bugs are attracted to the light. We are also drawn to the light. The love of God in us glows like a beacon, and leads people to God.

Now think back to that person you chose when I asked you to recall someone whom you remember with fondness. Very possibly it is because he or she was simply living the love of God 

in everyday life, simply being there with his or her light shining. Not necessarily preaching or teaching, just being there.

We can be that person that someone else remembers as influential in their lives.

Lift up your hands and look at them. They are beautiful tools to serve God. Psalm 139:14 says “For you formed me in my inwards parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb; I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made”.

Your hands might be bent or broken, small or large, long fingered or stubby fingered, weak or strong. They are fearfully and wonderfully made. Look at the pictures of the hands on the front of the bulletin. Those are actual photos I took of hands in this room. Look at your hands. They are yours only. They are your tools.

I have a story about my hands. As a child, of course I never thought about what my hands looked like. But one day when I was in Bible school I think, I was in the Greyhound bus depot coffee shop, having a snack or drink or whatever, waiting for the time to board the bus to go 
home for the weekend. There was a guy sitting there who decided he would try it on with me. After I rejected his advances, he tried to punish me, I suppose, for rejecting him, by saying “What big hands you have, they are like man hands. What girl has hands like that!

For years afterwards I was embarrassed about my hands. I never wore rings or bracelets to being attention to them or nail polish etc. Finally I decided I did not want some questionable person to be in charge of how I felt about any part of myself, and got over it.

Then just a few years ago I was going through some old photos and found one of my great great grandmother from Switzerland. My hands are exactly like hers.

No matter what our hands are like, they are a symbol of a life in service to God, hands that are full of goodness and that reach out to the world around us. For God does not want any one to be lost.

We don’t need to “go on a diet”. We don’t need to agonize over where we can be of use to God. 

We don’t need to look at the Christian service list and find ourselves lacking or incapable. Those are very important and very valuable kinds of service, but they are not all.

The thing is,  we don’t need to worry about what kind of service we can or cannot do. We are all different and placed in our lives with a light to shine.

All we have to do is open our hearts, mind and soul to the spirit of God, the spirit of love, and He will light our lamp and fill our hands.
​
The rest, as they say, is easy.

Carving Initials
“In the middle of the garden, God put the tree that gives life.” (Genesis 2:9) When God created Eden it marked the beginning of humanity. God planted the Garden of Eden and it was a place of great beauty and pleasantness. God planted trees which He made to support and please human life. But He also planted two very special trees, trees that represented everlasting life and sin.

We have the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and we have the Tree of Life. This morning we will be focusing more on the latter, the Tree of Life. This tree looked like the others in the garden but it had certain goodness which the other trees did not possess. This was a life-giving tree, a life-sustaining tree. The connection between the soul and the body was maintained by this particular tree. As long as man nourished himself from this tree, the link between body and soul could not be broken.

Let’s take a moment to talk about the significance of trees. To a painter or poet, and probably some of us, there is nothing else in nature which is more intensely profound than a tree. Think about how graceful a tree is. Think about the silhouette of various trees. Think about its green colour in summer and the changing hues of gold, orange, yellow and red in the fall. Think about the branches, the twigs and the leaves.

A tree illustrates diversification in unity. It has colourful and fragrant blossoms and luscious fruit. A tree reflects human life: a tree is born, it grows, it breathes, sleeps, decays, dies and reproduces. It’s not much wonder that throughout history man has had a keen interest, even a fascination, for trees.

In many ancient cultures the tree held a divine sacredness. Groves, and even individual trees, were cherished and revered as favourite dwelling places of the gods and they were set aside as places of worship.

The earliest tree of life was stylized by the Assyrians in the second millennium BC and appears to have been adapted by Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist art.

The Greek Dryad is a tree nymph or spirit in Greek mythology. The Dryads watch over and care for the tree they are born with.

The British Druids were members of the Celtic people and are best remembered as religious leaders. Their knowledge was never written down, but rather passed down by rote. The Druids used both animal and human sacrifice and their rituals were carried out in Oak groves.

In Norse mythology, Igdrasil (Yggdrasil) is the tree of life and is an eternal green Ash tree. The branches stretch out over all the nine worlds of Norse mythology and extend up and above the heavens.

Now all of these are examples I have mentioned are pagan to our Christian beliefs. But we have our own Tree of Life which grew in the centre of the Garden of Eden. Eden’s Tree of Life is the source of everlasting life. That is the belief of Christians. The Tree of Life is mentioned four (4) times in the Book of Proverbs. Chapter 3, verse 18, “As a tree makes fruit, wisdom gives life to those who use it. Everyone who uses wisdom will be happy.” Then in Chapter 11, verse 30, “As a tree makes fruits, a good person gives life to others. The wise person shows others how to be wise.” The other two references in Proverbs can be found in Chapters 13 and 15.

“Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the Tree of Life, which is in the paradise of God.” This passage comes from Revelations 2:7. Other references in Revelations are found in Chapter 22, verses 2, 14 and 19.

These Biblical passages produce images of energy, health and abounding joy and happiness. But let’s not forget, there were two trees in the garden; the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God gave Adam and Eve a choice between the two trees. They represent a choice between obeying God’s command or following the lies offered by the devil.

God teaches us that the key to a good life is looking to Him for guidance and strength. He wants us to live according to His will. The life-giving tree represents God’s law. The Tree of Life is not dead. We alone are to blame if we are cut off from the tree because we chose the other tree.

Imagine yourself in the middle of the food court at the mall. You find yourself surrounded by all your favourite fast food restaurants. And now, like Adam, surrounded by such a wide variety, you have to choose what you want to eat. What would you choose? Adam is in the middle of the world’s most amazing garden. He has all the best food at his fingertips and can choose whatever he wants, whenever he wants. How cool would that be!

Then God gave Adam a rule for living in the garden. He said, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you mustn’t eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, because if you do, you will die.” So as long as Adam didn’t eat from that tree everything would be great.

Now this is where the problem starts. 

In the beginning of Chapter 3 in Genesis we are told about a snake. The snake, or serpent, sees Eve walking around the Garden one day and he stops to ask her a question. “Has God told you that you can eat the fruit from all the trees?” the silky voice whispered softly. Eve replied, “God has told us we can eat all the fruit except for what grows on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.”

So here is the dilemma. Did God REALLY say you must not eat from any tree in the garden? Satan wanted to see if Eve remembered God’s rules. When you were a little kid, did you ever want to look at the Christmas presents under the tree? Everyone told you no peeking, but then one day you Mom goes to the grocery store and you see the presents just sitting there. So you think to yourself, “Did Mom really say I couldn’t look at any of the presents? Just one little peek won’t hurt.”

Even though we might not be talking to a snake about eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, we still have been tempted to disobey.

So what does Eve do? The snake is still tempting her and says “I hardly think such a lovely fruit would do you harm. God knows that if you eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you’ll become just like God, and will be able to decide for yourself what is right and what is wrong.”

​Eve looked at the fruit and thought how tasty it looked. She thought how wonderful it would be to be as wise and powerful as God. She believed the serpent’s lie and ate the fruit and also gave some to Adam, who was with her. She felt a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach and wondered what was wrong with her. Suddenly she realized she was feeling guilty. She had disobeyed God and knew she’d done something wrong. Both Adam and eve became unhappy and fearful of God.

God was sad that Adam and Eve had disobeyed Him. He told them they had to leave the Garden of Eden. God told them that because they had disobeyed Him nothing would come easily for them and that one day they would die.

This story tells us that as long as we have a relationship with God, as long as we are connected to God, we have access to Heaven. We know that when we die we will go to Heaven to be with God and live forever. The problem is, when we sin or do bad things, we break our connection to God. And if we don’t have a connection to, or a relationship with God when we die, we won’t have everlasting life.

God made us to be in a relationship with Him, and when we admit that we have sinned and ask for forgiveness, we fix our relationship with God and ensure that when we die we will have ever-lasting life. So just like Adam and Eve, we’ve all done wrong. But just like Adam and Eve, God is there to rescue us. All we need to do is ask.

Perhaps some of you are thinking that I’ve been giving the wrong meditation this morning, since the title is Carving Initials, but here comes the explanation.

When I was a kid, maybe about 10 or 11 years old, my grandfather gave me a pocket knife. I was a bit of a tomboy. I liked trucks, machinery and tools and I wanted to know how things worked. So you can imagine how thrilled I was to get that knife. Grampa taught me how to whittle and I’d spend hours trying to master the craft. I was proud of that knife and showed it off to all my friends.

I carried the knife everywhere I went. And then one day I spotted a big old tree down in the brick yard and decided to carve my initials in the trunk. I began to scrape away the bark and to cut deeply into the tree. My fingers got pretty sore, but I kept on until the task was completed. Those 3 initials, NLC, stayed in that tree as long as the tree lived, but when it died and toppled over into the gully, my initials toppled with it.

That old tree reminds me of the Tree of Life. God wants us to carve our initials in the Tree of Life. He has given us our lives, as bright and new and keen as that pocket knife of mine. He wants us to take our lives and carve our names on that Tree of Life. And because that tree lives forever, we, too, will live forever if we put our names there. Let’s not spend all strength in cutting our names in the trees of wealth, business and fame. Let’s use some of our energy in carving our names deeply on God’s Tree of Life, because when we do, our names will be there forever.

​In the final chapter of the Bible it says, “Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the Tree of Life, and may enter through the gates into the city. (Revelations 22:14). Will you make the same old mistakes our ancestors have made down through the centuries and choose the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, or will you search out the Tree of Life and have eternal life?

Let’s pray a Celtic prayer called the Tree of Life. Let us pray. O, King of the Tree of Life, the blossoms on the branches are our people, the singing birds are Your angels, and the whispering breeze is Your Spirit. O, King of the Tree of Life, may the blossoms bring forth the sweetest fruit, may the birds sing out the highest praise, and may Your Spirit cover all with his gentle breath. Amen

PRELUDE:                    Chenaniah
 
PROCESSIONAL:         Thy Word        (#496-Blue Hymnal)
 
CALL TO WORSHIP:    (congregation reads words in bold)
Leader:  Joy comes to those who follow the ways of the Lord.
People:  We will follow the Lord with joyful hearts!
Leader: Those who follow the Lord are like trees planted by the river,  
               bearing fruit each season.
People:  May our leaves will never wither! May we know God’s     
                blessing in all we do.
Leader:  Let us worship the Lord who leads us to joy and abundance.
People:  We will worship God all of our days.
 
WELCOME
OPENING HYMN:       411   Stand Up & Bless the Lord
OPENING PRAYER & THE LORD’S PRAYER  
HYMN:                     748   Lord Of All Hopefulness
ANNOUNCEMENTS, BIRTHDAYS & ANNIVERSARIES          
PRESENTATION OF OFFERING:  
Offering Received                                                                              Offertory Hymn:     #79   (Blue Hymnal)               
​Offertory Prayer
HYMN:        634   Will You Come & Follow Me
SCRIPTURE:      Genesis 22:1-14 • Luke 14:25-33
 
PRAYER


MEDITATION:   
PLASTIC JESUS, PLASTIC JESUS....
Genesis 22:1-14 • Luke 14:25-33

A few years ago, the Federal Government, in their infinite wisdom, decided to replace paper money with some sort of a weird, shiny, plastic-y, polymer type.... Stuff. Indestructible, they called it It would last forever. Impossible to rend or rip..... I have a desk drawer filled with little weird, shiny, plastic-y, polymer scraps. Anyway, as I was saying, a few years ago they replaced paper money.

An industrious young entrepreneur from Ontario figured out a quick way to make a little cash. He procured some heavy linen paper and using a high quality printing setup managed to counterfeit a considerable pile of twenty dollar bills. He then decided that he would go gas stations, corner stores and the like, purchasing small items with his false twenties and then receiving new.... plastic.... money as change. Now, you'll remember I called this fellow industrious, young, but not smart. The fellow's twenties featured a delightfully regal and beautiful older lady.... who was definitely NOT the Queen of England.

As you probably know, real Canadian currency has a host of features designed to make it harder to counterfeit. If you hold it up to the light you will see that there's a strip embedded in the paper that has the denomination of the bill printed on it. That strip also glows under UV light. There are several features that you need a magnifier to see as well. All of these things are included to distinguish the real bills from the fakes and also to make it harder to counterfeit. The reason is that when you have that $20 bill you need to be sure that it's real; that it's really worth $20.

Here's another example. Companies that make the different products we use every day spend lots of money creating what's called "brand identity." That means they create a logo or identity for their company
or product that is easily recognizable. Probablythe most successful example of creating this brand identity is the familiar shape of the Coca-Cola bottle or their red can. When you see a can or bottle of Coke, no matter what language it's in, you know it's Coca-Cola.

The same is true for most successful products. The idea is that when you see that logo or name, you know you're getting the real thing, the genuine product. So these same companies spend lots of money every year to keep others from duplicating their product or their identity.
Today, however, one of the big problems is copycat products being produced in Asia that are trying to imitate the genuine product.

Dolce and Banana. Michaelsoft Binbows. A Superman clone called Specialman. 

Most of these are rather funny but these forgeries are not always funny. For example, authorities have found clones of a popular brand of down jacket for sale on the Internet. When the jackets were tested, it was discovered that they were not filled with down at all but with all sorts of other things, like chicken feathers (and other parts) swept up from the floor of a poultry factory. This can pose a real health risk by carrying bacteria and disease. Another problem these days is the availability of counterfeit medications that people purchase hoping to save money. I think it's obvious how harmful those could be since they may not have any of the needed medication in them.

In the same way that we can be fooled by counterfeit products or money, we are also in danger of counterfeit religion as well. To be more specific, we are in danger of having a counterfeit faith, of believing in a fake Christianity. We are in danger of worshiping a plastic Jesus.

So what do we mean by "plastic Jesus?" What exactly is a counterfeit faith? Where does this fake Christianity come from and how do we recognize it? More importantly, how do we make sure we don't fall for it?

The first thing we need to know is that, unlike counterfeit products or money that are produced by someone else, each one of us is responsible for creating these knockoffs. A plastic Jesus is some kind of caricature of Jesus that is not the real Jesus. It's the image we create in our minds of Jesus - the Jesus we think we want to believe in. John Calvin wrote, "every
one of us is, even from his mother's womb, a master craftsman of idols." What he's saying is that you and I are like a plastic Jesus factory.

What are some of these fake jesuses that we create? Let's look at some of the ways we misunderstand Jesus. Many people today see Jesus in the same category as Mister Rogers - a kind, gentle moral teacher telling
stories that have a good life lesson but not really requiring much on my part. Back in 2005, psychologist Christian Smith studied Christian youth and discovered that many of them held similar views about God and about morals but that these views weren't really biblical. After further research he discovered that these beliefs had become widespread in American religion. Here they are. See if this describes your own beliefs.

1. A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.
2. God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
3. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about yourself.
4. God does not need to be particularly involved in your life except when He is needed to resolve a problem.
5. Good people go to heaven when they die.

Smith called this kind of faith Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, which is a complicated way of saying that God's goal is to make me happy and to help out when I can't take care of things myself. Friends, that is NOT the God of the Bible. That's a made up faith with ME as the center. That's a plastic Jesus.

Instead, in our Scripture reading today Jesus says, "being my disciple is a total commitment. This is not a part-time thing. To follow me you have to be willing to give up everything else that you love more than me. You have to love me more than your money or your pride or your family or even your own life. Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple."

What Jesus is saying is that being His disciple has to be the most important thing in your life. This is a radical concept for most of us, particularly in modern American culture. Our society says, "take care of number one." Jesus says, "you're not number one."

One of the things that I find interesting about this passage is the two short parables Jesus uses as illustrations.

 In the first one, in verses 28 and 29, he says "If you want to build a building, don't you first sit down and figure out how much it's going to cost and whether or not you can afford to complete it? " In the second parable he compares the decision to follow him to the decision of a king to go into battle against another. In both illustrations, what Jesus is saying is that being His follower takes a complete commitment and that commitment should come from careful, thoughtful Consideration of what's involved. 

We saw that level of commitment from Abraham in our Old Testament reading. Abraham trusted God so fully that he was willing to give up the thing that was more important to him than anything in the whole world his son Isaac.

I think it's important to point out here that God is not asking you to take a vow of poverty, or to live like the Amish. 
 
When Jesus says that we are to "hate" our parents or spouse or siblings or children he's using hyperbole. If hating your parents were a true tenet of Jesus, most 15 year olds  I know would make some fine Christians.

What He's saying is that we need to have our priorities straight. In Matthew 6 He tells us, "seek first the Kingdom of God and then all these things shall be added to you."

So back to our idea of Plastic Jesus...?

What are some ways that following the real Jesus is different from a plastic Jesus?

First of all, a plastic Jesus is easy to live with. There's no real requirement for you to change as long as you're being more good than bad.

But following the real Jesus is hard. We're told this over and over again. The path is narrow, and difficult.

Second, with our Plastic Jesus, the church and our faith (and I'm not only talking about Sunday mornings... All the time, friends, all the time) becomes something that we add to our already busy life. If I'm lucky I'll be able to make some time in my schedule to be at church or to help out with a service project.

Finally, the plastic Jesus exists to meet our desires. This is the heart of the "prosperity gospel." At the root of this is the idea that more than anything God wants me to be happy and that means he must want me to have the things that make me happy, like a nice home and a fancy Car.

But Jesus did not come to earth, die on a cross and then rise again from death to make us happy. He came to make us whole, to help us through our difficulties and trials, and to bring us joy.

Our happiness depends on our circumstances and so we are not always happy. Things in life can make us sad or angry. But joy (and we know that joy is sometimes different from happiness) .... True joy comes from understanding what God has done for us and continues to do for us. The Apostle Paul says, "rejoice in the Lord always." Joy comes from the wholeness that Jesus, his teaching and the path of discipleship provides.

So our challenge this morning is to get rid of our Plastic Jesus. Get rid of the Jesus that we've created in our mind. Instead, let's trust in the Jesus who was one of us and yet fully God. Believe in the teaching and wisdom that you find in the pages of the New Testament. Make God the most important thing in our life today and every day.

Choose wholeness over happiness. Choose to give Christ the most important place in your life, even if it means having to change. Choose to get rid of your plastic Jesus and follow the real deal.
Amen

​.CLOSING HYMN:         370   Hallelujah, Sing To Jesus
BENEDICTION & CHORAL AMEN            

With our Lord’s prayer, let us Pray, Our Father……

     Let us pray responsively the prayer of faith by David, the shepherd boy, from psalm 23. It is included in your bulletin.
 
One - The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.


All - He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
 
One - Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
 
All - Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
​

​Message:     Let Your Faith Carry You (Joe)

​Let Your Faith Carry You.

Have you ever asked yourself the question, what is faith? or how can I use my faith? I’m not just talking religion here, although faith in religion is certainly a prerequisite to strong belief. No, I’m talking about that kind of faith that can be part of our everyday lives, useful in a variety of ways. This kind of faith is the faith that is said to be able to move mountains.But before we look at any examples, let’s establish what we mean by faith. 

Saint Augustine of Hippo was a Roman African, an early Christian theologian and philosopher from Numidia (North Africa) whose writings had a huge influence on the  Christian Church in the 4th and 5th century, and on the development of not only Western Christianity but of Western philosophy in general. Augustine was a prolific writer. His ‘Confessions’ is recognized as the first autobiography of early western literature written, of course, in Latin. Luckily, nowadays, translations are available.

But what about faith? Without trying to go too far off course, here’s what Augustine says about faith: 
Faith is to believe what we do not see. And the reward of that faith is (finally) to see what we (decide) to believe.

Science believes only in material facts which have their roots in observation. In other words, if I can observe something by my physical senses, if I can see it, hear it, feel it, taste it, or small it then I can believe in it. Faith recognizes science as valid, but not as the sole root of belief.

Why would you believe in something you do not see, you may ask? Isn’t that a little ridiculous?

Yet this is the dilemma that believers face every day, and too often in our modern world, even so-called believers fail the test. At crucial times we fail to believe.

Here’s a story called ‘Leap of Faith’ which illustrates what I mean.

A man was walking in the mountains just enjoying the scenery when he stepped too close to the edge and started to fall. In desperation he reached out and grabbed a limb of a gnarly old tree hanging onto the side of the cliff.
Full of fear, he assessed his situation. He was about 100 feet down a shear cliff and about 900 feet from the floor of the canyon below. If he should slip again he'd plummet to his death.
Full of fear, he cries out, "Help me!" But there was no answer. Again and again he cried out but to no avail. Finally he yelled, "Is anybody up there?"
A deep voice replied, "Yes, I'm up here."
"Who is it?"
"It's the Lord"
"Can you help me?"
"Yes, I can help."
"Help me!"
"Let go."
Looking around the man became full of panic. "What?!?!"
"Let go. I will catch you."
"Uh... Is there anybody else up there?”

(We are afraid of the consequences. We are afraid of pain, We are afraid of death.


Yet in the end, there is only one thing that will provide us with balm, with relief, with confidence. There is only one thing that will give us assurance that we can break on through to the other side, as rock star Jim Morrison sang. That single thing is faith. And that faith, as Augustine said, consists of belief in something you cannot see. How do we know? Because we have faith, pure and simple. Why should we accept it? Because with it, we can see. Blinders are removed. Without it, we will always doubt. We will never fly. We will always hold ourselves back. Faith can carry us beyond science, beyond materialism, beyond the incessant need to keep proving or looking for proof. Faith is the door to self-fulfilling prophecies.

I remember one time quite a few years ago I was coaching a hockey team of 13-year=olds. Before every game, I led them out of the dressing room with the same team chant: “We’re number one, we’re number one, we’re number one.” Only problem was that halfway to Christmas we still hadn’t won a game. One night just before game time, one of the kids said to me, “Coach! How come we keep chanting, ‘we’re number one’ when we haven’t won a game yet?” “Well, Adam,” I said, if you don’t believe you’re number one, how will you ever make it happen?” If you don’t believe you can make it, trust me, you never will. Why? Because you’ve set your bar too low.

Belief does not rely on winning games. It relies on the faith that you can do it. Your faith will carry you to success, but only if you grasp it and make it happen.

Isn’t that what Christ said to Doubting Thomas? “Thomas, you now believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not seen, yet believe.”

My personal belief that God exists rests on faith. At one time I wrestled with my doubts in this way. Reason could only take me so far. There is a God, there is not a God. Our existence must rely on some force beyond what we can see. No, our existence relies on nothing but physical forces. Why should I think otherwise? Since I couldn’t make up my mind, I couldn’t fly free of my doubts. And I think most people go through similar struggles. But I still prayed. I still prayed to a God I couldn’t see. I still prayed to a God I couldn’t hear, to a God my other senses wouldn’t reveal to me. And then, one early morning, half awake, I came face to face with my questions and my doubts. And I made a decision. I decided that from that day on, I would believe, and that no matter what, I would never stop believing. And I trusted that God would be with me every step of the way from that day until my death.

Here’s the interesting thing. Like a huge stone rolling off me, I was suddenly flying. I was being carried to a new land, a new existence. My free will that God blessed me with at creation allowed me to make a choice. And once made in favour of belief I gave myself up to the results of that choice. There was no turning back. My faith rescued me, bore me away, from fear of consequences, from fear of pain, from fear of death even. What, after all, is death but an end to a temporary existence and a free pass to a permanent one that is forever better. Of course, that belief requires faith. Nothing else will work.

I am reminded of my step-father, William Hevesy. my favourite mentor. I have many examples of this man’s never diminished faith. But one I like that I will never forget. Some years ago, my stepfather sold his business prior to getting his immigration papers to move to California. Unfortunately, the people who bought his business were unable to pay more than a fraction of what they owed him and declared bankruptcy. My stepfather had to find a job at age 50 to make ends meet temporarily. When I found out what had happened, I went to him and asked, “Apu, what will you do?”
“Joe,” he replied, “I will go back to work and raise the money your mother and I will need.”
“But what if you can’t?” 
He looked me straight in the eye and said, “I will do it because I have to. Can’t is not an option.”
And he did. Never had a doubt. Never allowed a doubt, He was No. 1. His faith carried him away.

Life is a never-ending series of challenges. We all face something often on a daily basis. Will we have doubts? Of course. Will we win at everything we try. No, certainly not. Will God be there for us always? Yes, always. How do I know? I let my faith carry me. Let your faith carry you.
ReplyForward

THE FAMOUS BENEDICTION BY ROBERT SCHULLER
February 20, 2012 

And now may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. And may God give you His peace in your going out and in your coming in, in your lying down and in your rising up, in your labor and in your leisure, in your laughter and in your tears… Until you come to stand before Jesus in that day in which there is no sunset and no dawning. Amen.