Losing Jesus

So, where were you when you lost your kid? Seriously, if you have children you've lost one at some point or another. And if you haven't lost one yet you will. Maybe it was in a grocery store, or on a street, at Disney Land or perhaps at church. But you remember the moment when panic set in and you realized that you didn't know where your child was.

When I was little my mother looked on the street from our apartment and thought "I wonder what type of mother would let their toddler in diapers wander down the middle of the street." Then it dawned on her that she was that type of mother and I had escaped again. Once when I was locking up the church in Truro I realized that I had an extra three year old with Deborah. Kellie's parents had arrived in separate vehicles and when they left they both thought Kellie was with the other one, it wasn't until they got home that Ron and Kim realized they had misplaced their youngest.

Our moment came in Arlie Beach in Queensland Australia. Arlie Beach is about a 12 hour drive from Brisbane where we were living at the time, it is a beautiful little resort town on the very edge of the great barrier reef and it is full of strange people.

We had spent our day on the reef, first on a semi-submersible and then snorkelling and scuba diving on the reef itself. It was a full day. When we got back to town and had supper we were visiting some of the shops and Angela and I split up and it was only when we got back together that we realized that we had our nine year old but we didn't have our six year old, again with the "I thought she was with you" discussion. Panic ensued as we started to retrace our steps looking for our "baby". We eventually found her back at the dive shop we had visited earlier looking at pictures from our dive. She assumed that we would come back, if not for her at least for the pictures.

And most parents have a similar story, perhaps more dramatic perhaps less but you know that sudden hollow feeling in your stomach.

For the next six weeks we are looking into the book of Luke, which is the 3^rd book in the New Testament. The Author of course is Luke; some of these are just too easy. Luke was probably a gentile Doctor and he also wrote the book of Acts.

The book was written somewhere between AD 59 -63 and was actually written to a man named Theophilus, who was likely either a new believer or someone seeking to know more about Christ. Interesting name Theophilus, it was my great grandfather's name but more than that in the Greek it meant Lover of God. And the reason for the book, to explain to readers that God's love was meant for the entire world.

 

And it is in the book of Luke that we find the only accounts of Jesus as a child and in one of those short snippets we read about the time Mary and Joseph lost their oldest kid. I'm sure that Mary and Joseph told the story of their trip to Jerusalem on many occasions, recounting the horror of that day. The story starts in Luke 2:41-42 Every year Jesus' parents went to Jerusalem for the Passover festival. When Jesus was twelve years old, they attended the festival as usual.

Culturally we are told that it was required by Jewish law that every adult male who lived within 20 kms of Jerusalem should go to the temple in the capital city for the Passover celebration. It was also decreed that under Jewish law that at 13 a boy became a man. So this was a very special occasion for Jesus. Perhaps it wasn't the first time that Jesus had been in Jerusalem for the Passover, but it would be the last time he would celebrate the feast as a child and I'm sure he was looking forward to next year.

The Passover celebration lasted for several days and culminated in the Passover Feast; it was the biggest holiday in the Jewish faith and was a major celebration. Mary and Joseph and their family would have been there with friends and extended family from Nazareth and we are told that they probably didn't travel alone,

Those in the know tell us that in all probability the women and children would have travelled as a group and the men would have travelled as a group. You only have to go to a social function today to realize that things haven't changed much. We are also told that the women and children would have left earlier in the morning and travelled slower while the men would have left later but travelled faster, and every one would have ended up at the destination around the same time.

Because of Jesus' age he could have travelled with either group, he was really neither fish nor fowl. Young enough to still travel with the women and children if he wished but old enough to tag along with the men. And that is where the trouble began, because it would appear that when Joseph got ready to head out with the men he assumed that Jesus was with his mother, while Mary had assumed that Jesus would follow with the men and older boys. And you know what happens when we assume right? That's right sometimes we are wrong.

Luke 2:43-45 After the celebration was over, they started home to Nazareth, but Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents didn't miss him at first, because they assumed he was among the other travelers. But when he didn't show up that evening, they started looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they couldn't find him, they went back to Jerusalem to search for him there. Can you imagine the panic? The finger pointing? The fear? Mary and Joseph would have split up and began canvasing all of the other groups. Who had seen Jesus? Where and when? By the time they had finished it was very apparent that no one had seen Jesus at all through that day. When they couldn't find him we are told they left the group and headed back to Jerusalem on their own. But how would they find him? They came from the little town of Nazareth and Jerusalem was the largest city in the country. Perhaps not Toronto size but certainly the task before them was daunting.

And so they hunted, they went back to their accommodations and Jesus wasn't there, they went to where they had eaten and Jesus wasn't there, they looked up the new friends they had made during the days they had been celebrating and no Jesus.

We aren't told but we have to assume they went to the authorities with no results and checked whatever served for emergency health care to see if a twelve year old boy had been brought in, but to no avail. We don't know if Mary and Joseph had brought their other children back to Jerusalem with them, or if they had sent them ahead with family members but when it seemed that all the avenues had been exhausted we read this Luke 2:46 Three days later they finally discovered him in the Temple, sitting among the religious teachers, listening to them and asking questions.

We don't know what took them to the temple, if they were looking for Jesus or if in desperation they returned to the centre of their spiritual lives to pray for their son and to seek comfort from their God. Whatever it was that took them to the temple took them to their son. Isn't it always the way, you find what you are looking for in the last place you look. Which is one of the dumbest things people say. Just once wouldn't it be nice to hear someone say "Yep I found it in the third from the last place I looked. I had a list of places I needed to look so even after I found it I just kept right on looking."

In this case it kind of makes you wonder what would have happened if they had of gone to the temple to ask for prayer before they looked all over Jerusalem. But Mary and Joseph were like most of us, we try to do it on our own first and only after it becomes apparent that we can't do it do we ask God for help.

I wonder about the range of emotions that Mary and Joseph must have felt when they saw Jesus there right as rain in a conversation with the teachers of religious law? From "I can't believe you are all right we were so worried about you." To "What were you thinking, your father and I were worried sick." To "You are going to get the spanking of your life when you get home young man."

It appears it was somewhere in the middle, you understand that we are just getting snippets of the conversation, we are hearing the high points not all the minutia that actually makes up a conversation, so we hear Luke 2:47-48 All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. His parents didn't know what to think. "Son," his mother said to him, "why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been frantic, searching for you everywhere." That's a good motherly response, lead with guilt. And we can read it any number of ways because we don't know the tone of voice that Mary used, the volume of her words, the look on her face or whether she was hugging Jesus or shaking him.

And he responds by saying Luke 2:49 "But why did you need to search?" he asked. "Didn't you know that I must be in my Father's house?" It might be blasphemy, and you might want to stand back in case the lighting strikes, but reading that I think I would have reached out and slapped the kid. Arrrggghhh. And I have never hit either of my kids in anger, although there have been times.

Most of the commentators agree that this was a pivotal point in Jesus' life, that it was at point that he became aware of who he was and the task that lay before him. There are all kinds of stories, legends and tales of Jesus as a child but this is the only biblical account of Jesus' childhood. Up to this account the sum total of what we know about the Jesus as a child is summed up in these words in Luke 2:39-40 When Jesus' parents had fulfilled all the requirements of the law of the Lord, they returned home to Nazareth in Galilee. There the child grew up healthy and strong. He was filled with wisdom, and God's favour was on him.

We don't know all of the intricacies and mechanics that went into God becoming man but somehow I doubt if he had a full awareness of who he was before this stage. If he was to truly experience what it was to be fully human how do you do that with an awareness that you are God at the age of three?

Do you remember the clip I showed from Bruce Almighty last Sunday, when God is explaining the rules that will go along with the power he is giving to Bruce? Rule number one was "You can't tell anyone you are God, trust me you don't want that kind of attention."

And so it was here that in whatever fashion for whatever reason the switch was tripped and Jesus became aware of his destiny. Had Mary and Joseph forgot the wonder of his birth, maybe the everyday had caused them to lose sight of the eternal and suddenly Mary and Joseph were reminded of who their son truly was, not the son of Joseph creator of tables and chairs but the son of God, creator and master of the universe. I wonder if for Joseph he suddenly remembered "That's right I'm not his father."

As William Barclay tells us in the Daily Study Bible "Here we have the story of the day when Jesus discovered who he was."

Adam Clarke adds to that in his commentary "According to the Jewish canons, it was the age at which they were obliged to begin to learn a trade." And so it would appear that Jesus had chosen his path, listen to the statement that Jesus made Luke 2:49 "But why did you need to search?" he asked. "Didn't you know that I must be in my Father's house?" That Jesus had chosen his path and was beginning to learn his trade and it ultimately would have nothing to do with carpentry.

But this morning I don't want to focus on Jesus discovery instead I want to focus on the question "How do we lose Jesus?" Because we all know people who had a close personal relationship with Christ but now they don't, and the question is: How does that happen? And maybe you are in that position yourself, you are sitting there today thinking, that's me I used to have that relationship but now it's different, what happened?

Some thought on losing Jesus, would apply to Mary and Joseph and might apply to you or someone you know.

1) It Was Not Intentional There is nothing to lead us to believe that this was part of the plan.
I don't think that Mary and Joseph sat down and planned how they would ditch the kid. "Ok Mary, you sneak out with the other women and the kids, and then when Jesus is looking for you I'll slip out the back door." I don't think it happened that way, I think that it was a total shock at the end of the day when they suddenly realized that Jesus wasn't with them.

When we lost Deborah in Arlie Beach it wasn't intentional, we didn't plan to lose her and she didn't plan to get lost but she did.

And in the same way I don't think that anyone becomes a Christ follower thinking "someday I won't be this close to Jesus, someday Jesus will no longer be a part of my life." That's not to say that along the way some people don't make a conscious decision to walk away from Jesus and his teachings, but that wasn't part of the plan from the beginning.

So what happened?

I think Busyness Played a Part. It was a crazy morning, Joseph was trying to get things organized for the trip and Mary was trying to round up the kids. They weren't busy with bad things or evil things they were just busy. And to be fair their busyness had a lot to do with good things, they had been in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover that was good. Joseph needed to get back to the carpenter's shop and perhaps as he walked with the other men he talked business and found new customers, that was good. Mary was tending to the children and enjoying being with her friends those were good things. But in their busyness they lost sight of the fact that with every step they were moving further away from their first born.

The urgent often distracts us from the eternal, we become caught up with the here and now and lose sight of the there and then. We become so busy with life and all that involves that we lose sight of God. He takes a back seat to career, and sports and school and holidays and yard work and and and. Not bad things but we can become so busy that we miss the important things. My Daddy used to say, "The hurrier I go the behinder I get."

Which is why Jesus reminds us in Matthew 6:33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

Slow down, take a breath, look around and find Jesus.

I think Carelessness Played a Part Perhaps they were seeing Jesus in a different light than how they had seen him previously. He wasn't a little boy any longer he was growing up and taking on more responsibility for himself and his younger siblings.

And they had never lost him before. But a year ago they were paying more attention to the whereabouts of their son; they made sure they knew where he was and who he was playing with. A year ago they would have been certain of his location and wouldn't have simply assumed that he was with the other parent. It might not be flattering but they had become careless.

And to a certain degree if we look at times that our children have gone missing it has been through carelessness. Things distracted us and it's been awhile since we checked on them and then there they were gone.

When we were getting ready to move to Australia we knew that we were going to be going through a number of busy airports with a three year old and a five year old so we decided to take precautions. So we bought wrist leashes, not a big deal now but twenty years ago more so. And to get the kids used to them we started using them in the mall, Stephen figured that since he was on a leash he should bark, which led to interesting conversations. And some old folks actually criticized us for putting our kids on a tether, but we never lost them.

If we were honest when we discover that Jesus isn't where he used to be in our life it can often be traced back to carelessness. Do you remember in the book of Revelation John is reading letters to the seven churches of Asia that he had received from Christ in a vision. And to the church in Ephesus these scary words are written: Revelation 2:4 "But I have this complaint against you. You don't love me or each other as you did at first!" In the NKJV it reads this way, Revelation 2:4 "Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love."

The Christ followers in Ephesus didn't love Christ the way they once had and that happens, if we were to be truthful today the flames of that love might not be as hot as they once were. And that happens for the same reason it happens in other relationship, we take ourselves for granted and get careless. We do things that we would never have done when we were dating or courting or in the first few years of marriage.

And in our relationship with Christ, when we first started to follow "The Jesus Way" we were hungry for his word, wanted to be in church at every opportunity, wanted to be around other Christ followers and wanted to talk to Jesus on a regular basis. But then life stepped in and we became careless in our church attendance, our prayer life our bible reading and who we were spending our time with. And before long it could be said about us as it was about the Peter when Jesus was on his way to the cross, Matthew 26:58 Meanwhile, Peter followed him at a distance . . .

But no matter the reasons ultimatly what happened that day in Jerusalem was a Result of Choices they Made Mary and Joseph probably wouldn't think that way; they would say they didn't choose to lose Jesus but they did. Because they chose to assume that Jesus was with them, because they made the decision to not check with the other person.

Listen up, this is important. Just because it wasn't an intentional decision on their behalf it doesn't mean that it wasn't Mary and Josephs' fault. It doesn't matter how you slice it they were the adults and he was the kid, they were supposed to make sure that he was with them. It wasn't the twelve year olds job to make sure he was where he was supposed to be, it was the parents.

We live in a society that we like to think that some things aren't anyone's fault, that's just the way it happened. I heard someone talking about a car accident their daughter had and another person asked "Whose fault was it?" to which the first man replied "It was nobody's fault, it was an accident." It might not have been intentional, it may have been an accident but it was still someone's fault. Unless the ground in front of her suddenly opened up and swallowed her car or a meteorite landed on top of her car it was probably somebody's fault. You see, I think that we get faultless and blameless mixed up.

For example, I tend to be a bit of a klutz, if you had invited us over for tea and cookies and served me tea in your great grandmother's fine china and I accidently set my cup too close to the edge of the coffee table and it fell on the floor and broke you might say it was nobody's fault but that would be incorrect. I might be blameless in the sense that I didn't mean for it to happen but it was still my fault for putting the cup too close to the edge. And to a certain degree if you knew me you would have to say you were at least partially to fault because you didn't serve me out of plastic or stainless steel.

If your relationship with Jesus isn't what it used to be it is because of choices you have made and decisions you have made on how to lead your life and what would be a priority for you. I love the story and tell it often about the old farmer and his wife driving along in the pickup and she asks "How come we don't sit all cuddled up like we used to?" To which the farmer replied "I ain't moved."

And here is the reality, if you find yourself further away from Christ than you once were, he ain't moved.

Jesus didn't run away from Mary and Joseph, he didn't leave them behind they left him behind.

And now here is the good news, You Can Choose to Come Back to Jesus Mary and Joseph could have chosen to keep going. They could have rationalized that it was too much of a problem to travel back to Jerusalem; they were already too far away to go back, it wasn't that far to home, Joseph had business he had to attend to at home and besides they had other kids.

But they didn't choose to leave him behind they went back to find him. And it took time and energy and tears but they found him.

What will it take for you to get back to where you were in our relationship with Christ? To rediscover your first love? I don't know, but you do? Like any relationship your relationship with God requires work and effort the question is: is that a commitment you are willing to make? And only you can answer that question.

But here are a couple of suggestions, the best place to find Jesus is still in His Father's house, that would be church. Take time to talk to him, that's prayer and let him talk to you, that's reading His word. A good place to start would be to re-familiarize yourself with his story by reading along with us in the Gospel of Luke.

God Answers Prayer, But Not Always God Answers Prayer, But Not Always

Lends a whole new meaning to "I'm praying for you" doesn't it?

Prayer helps us feel closer to God, more connected to the church and extremely guilty if it is perceived that we don't do it enough or correctly. And this is one of the verses that is often claimed as a promise for praying Christians: James 5:16 The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. And no matter what translation you read it in it is just as powerful, the King James Version says James 5:16 The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

While the New International Version reads: James 5:16 The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

And it my opinion that this is the one of the most encouraging verses for praying Christ followers and in the same breath one of the most discouraging verses for praying Christ followers.

Encouraging because it truly is a great promise, listen to it again: James 5:16 The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. If you are a righteous person and if you pray earnestly your prayers will have great power and produce wonderful results. And we have all heard incredible testimonies about the answer to prayers, people healed, love found, employment gained, children saved, football games won.
Obviously those who prayed were righteous people who prayed earnestly.

But what about when people aren't healed? When love is lost, a job can't be found, children continue to wander and the football game is lost? What then? What does that say about the person who prayed? Are they not as righteous? Are their prayers not as earnest because the results are not wonderful and not powerful?

This scripture came to mind a couple of weeks ago in a matter of answered prayer, and because I'm older than dirt I remembered it in the King James James 5:16 The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. And as I thought about it and celebrated it I realized that James didn't finish the thought, what he should have written was James 5:16 The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much, but not always.

Now before you get out your torches and pitchforks in an effort to run me out of town you need to recognize two things. The first is "You can't" and the second is that I'm right. Because no matter who you are, no matter how righteous you might be, no matter has fervently you might pray, not all of your prayers have been answered. And if you were feeling particularly honest then you would admit that you don't always understand why not and sometimes you get a little cranky about it.

If we are truthful, there have probably been times that you felt like David when he wrote in Psalm 22:1-2 My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far away when I groan for help? Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer. Every night you hear my voice, but I find no relief.

And if the truth be known you don't need a sermon on how to pray, you've got that figured out. You might not feel comfortable praying when other people are around or praying out loud or in in public but you have no problem praying and you know how to pray, it's just talking to God, even if it's as simple as "Dear lord I pray his radar wasn't turned on, or help my baby get better, or let me win the lottery."

And we know why we pray, we pray when we feel helpless and when we can't do it ourselves. So we know the why and the how of prayer. Sure we might need to be reminded that prayer is supposed to be an ongoing conversation with God and not simply a shopping list of things we want, that it should include some thank-yous along with the pleases. But for the most part we all know how to pray. Maybe we don't do it enough but most of us do it, even if it's a prayer like Jacob Astley's "O Lord! thou knowest how busy I must be this day: if I forget thee, do not thou forget me."

So here is the question, why aren't some prayers answered? One source I read listed a number of reasons for unanswered prayer in our lives and his list looked something like this:

1. Lack of Fellowship with God and His word

2. Not seeking to please the Lord

3. Unconfessed Sin in One's Life

4. Improper Motives

5. Not asking in God's will

6. Don't know how to pray

7. Lack of Faith

8. Misunderstanding of Faith

9. Wavering faith

10. Failure to apply spiritual Authority

11. Lack of Perseverance

And well those are undoubtedly reasons; I don't think it's super productive to tell people "The reason that your prayers aren't being answered is you. You have no faith, or the wrong faith or you're just plain sinful." "Well thank you very much."

 

But without getting personal there are some reasons for unanswered prayer and some things we need to understand about prayer and also about limits that God places on prayer. Now I know that we like to think that the power of prayer is unlimited, and in theory it is. But remember the words of Yogi Berra who said "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is."

But for all practical purposes there are limits on prayer that are imposed by God himself.

And there are things we need to understand

We Need to Understand that God Has a Plan. At this point we could say that prayer is limited by God's will, but we all have different ideas of what God's will is, so let's stick with understanding that God has a plan for this world.

God's design for this world is that we would accept him as our Saviour and so when we die we will live with Him for all eternity. From time to time I hear people talk about healing and occasionally they will say that God wants everyone to be healthy and within certain limits I still believe that.  However, the bible does say in Hebrews 9:27 And just as it is destined that each person dies only once and after that comes judgment. People do not live forever, that's a plain and simple fact of life, and because of that we shouldn't be surprised when prayers for healing are not always answered.

I believe in the power of God to heal, and I know that God does heal people, but I also know that not everyone is healed. And people die, Jesus died and was raised to life again.  Our hope is a resurrection hope, that's God's plan for the world and our prayers are limited by God's plan. That doesn't mean that you don't pray for healing, but pray knowing that God is in control.

When I was younger I thought that when you prayed for healing and added "If it's your will" that it was just a cop out, that by adding that disclaimer you could always fall back on the "Well I guess it just wasn't God's will." But as I gotten older and perhaps wiser, depending on who you talk to, I've come to understand that ultimately God knows what he's doing, even if we don't understand it or agree with it. And I'll talk about that later.

We Need to Understand that God Designed the World A pastor came into his church one day and noticed a boy at the front praying, he went over to comfort the child and when the boy was done the pastor asked him, "I know you were praying but why did you keep repeating Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo?" To which the boy responded, "I just finished my geography test and I was praying that God would make Tokyo the capital of France." Probably not going to happen. There have been times that I've prayed for 48 hour days and unlimited energy so that I could accomplish all I wanted to do. But the sun still set at the usual time and I still needed my rest. Step off a building you will get hurt, because gravity isn't just a good idea, it's the law.

God created this world with certain laws in effect. We need our rest, and we need the universe to be a stable place to live.  Design and order are necessary.  I know that in the book of Joshua, Joshua prayed and God made the sun stand still but when we pray for such things we must know that we're praying for a miracle.  And a miracle doesn't require God to violate a "natural law" so much as it requires God to violate the consistency of the universe. Psalm 104:19 You made the moon to mark the seasons and the sun that knows when to set.

Prayers for God to move outside of those boundaries affect the very course of nature.

We should not be surprised when our prayers for miracles sometimes go unanswered.  

We Need to Understand the Primacy of Free Will Who watched the movie "Bruce Almighty"? If you didn't watch it you probably still know the premise. Bruce Nolan, played by Jim Carrey, is a reporter in Buffalo New York who is constantly gripping about how God treats him, so God, played by Morgan Freeman gives him his power, temporarily, to see what it is like.

Here is the scene where the rules are explained: (Clip from Bruce Almighty) You got that right? Don't mess with free will.

God didn't violate your free will to force you to become a Christian and he won't violate the free well of others to force them to become a Christian. Nor will God force people to give up alcohol or drugs or a destructive lifestyle.

The greatest gift that he ever gave us was the freedom to make choices for ourselves and he isn't going to take that gift away from someone else simply because you pray for it, no matter how noble your motives are. We should not be surprised when some of our prayers for others go unanswered. 

Now if you've ever asked me to pray for the salvation of a loved one, I will pray for their wisdom, I will pray that God's brings people into their path who will share a positive witness, I will pray that you become a better example of Christ's love and that you will have the courage to share Christ with your loved one, but I will not pray that God will make them a Christian.

Nor will I pray that God will make them stop drinking, or smoking or cheating.

We Need to Understand That We Are Not the Only One Praying How should God decide whose prayers to answer.

During the Stanley Cup I wonder how many Flyers fans were praying as compared to the number of Blackhawk fans? Do we presume that more Chicago fans prayed then Philadelphia fans? And what does it say about the prayer life of "Leaf" fans?

Probably the great example of this is weather. How many people pray for specific weather requests? We are probably all guilty of that aren't we? Lord let it be a nice day for my wedding, let it be a nice day for the picnic, let it rain for the crops and snow for the skiers.

What would happen if God granted everyone's weather requests?   Can you imagine it?  I mean the weather would have to be different about every hundred feet!  It would have to be rainy in this field and it would have to be sunny out behind this house.  It would have to be twenty eight degrees down Main Street and there would have to be a ten foot pile of snow in every child's back yard!  It would be ridiculous!  And we shouldn't be surprised that isn't how things work!  The Bible tells us that God is concerned about us as individual people but it also tells us that God is concerned about nations and groups of people and on some level that means God has to be concerned about all of us together.   

If you remember in Bruce Almighty, Bruce answers everyone's prayers with a collective yes and everyone wins $17.00 in the lottery. But that wasn't what they were all praying for.

And some of those prayers are selfish. If you are praying that you will get that great job you are praying that someone else won't. If you are praying that someone you know gets into surgery sooner because of a cancellation what are your prayers saying about the person who had to cancel? And where will they go in the line-up. And what are we praying when we are asking for an organ donation for someone.

We Need to Understand That God is Probably Smarter Than Us Outside of the limits that are on prayer we also need to realize that God created the universe and most of us have a hard time putting our kids toys together at Christmas. This would lead me to believe that God is smarter than we are. Often prayers aren't answered because it wouldn't be in our best interest. Just for a minute ask yourself what would happen if every prayer you had ever prayed had been answered. Who would you be married to, what would you be doing for a career, where would you be living. Sometime we just have to believe that God knows best. Maybe St. Teresa of Avila had it right when she said There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers. Which is very similar to the words written by Garth of Oklahoma who said "Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers, Remember when you're talkin' to the man upstairs That just because he doesn't answer doesn't mean he don't care
Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers."

Have you ever made a purchase or decision that you regretted soon afterwards? You know, buy a computer or phone and the upgrade comes out the next week. Start dating Mr. Right and then meet Mr. Right 2.0. Jump at a job opportunity and the company folds a month later. Order the burger and then see the nacho's at the table next to yours.

Sometimes God is waiting for even greater things for you, more than you can imagine right now.

What should we do when our prayers aren't answered?

That wasn't all that helpful was it? Learning why our prayers might not be answered. So what do we do when the sick friend or loved one doesn't seem to be getting any better, and the wayward child still hasn't come back to God. Does the fact that there are limits on our prayers mean that we should just give up? By no means. Here are a few suggestions.

1.  Be Patient

First of all and maybe most importantly, be patient.  Many of the things that we pray for we expect to happen overnight. "Lord teach me to be patient" we pray one evening and expect to have the patience of Job by daybreak! Be patient! Just because it didn't happen today doesn't mean it isn't going to happen tomorrow, or next week or in a year. A request delayed is not a request denied.

2.  Trust God

     Be patient but also trust God's wisdom.  Every child knows that there are times when parents say "no" and that there are demands that parents don't fulfill.  When it looks like a prayer isn't being answered don't get your knickers in a knot!  God hasn't fallen off His throne.  The angels sent to guard you didn't take a wrong turn on the trans-Canada and wind up in going to Florida for the winter. Whatever is happening for whatever reason God knows. Trust His wisdom and goodness. I always go back to a story I heard years ago. Two women were talking and one say "Maybe God will be good and will heal your little boy." To which the second responded and said "God will be good whether he heals my little boy or not."

Can we trust the wisdom of God even when it runs contrary to what we think should happen?

3.  Ask Why or Why Not 

If a prayer isn't being answered and God knows why and what's happening then we should also ask for some insight.  We're often told "don't question God."  True, it isn't healthy to doubt God's intentions, but often I hear this kind of thing said of situations when we should ask God.  If God knows then we might stand to learn something if we ask.

What if we stopped and asked, "God why didn't I get that job?" or "God why don't I have a relationship right now?"  

Think about a child who begs continually to eat sweets. What would happen if they asked why? Think of what they might learn about nutrition and discipline and about always getting what we want!  Think of how much more they could know than that "mean old mom won't let me have what I want."  

It's the same way with God.  When we don't get what we ask for it's a good idea to ask for more information.

4.  Keep Praying  

     Perhaps the best thing we can do when a prayer goes unanswered is to continue praying. Keep praying!  But remember prayer isn't just asking. It's a conversation. Sometimes we see God as a giant vending machine, you put in a prayer, pull out a healing, stick in a prayer pull out a solution.

Have you ever had someone in your life that every time you see them they ask for something? Gets a little annoying doesn't it. Sometimes prayer is just talking to God, telling him about your day and thanking him for all he's done for you.

It's easy to get discouraged when a prayer hasn't been answered. It gets hard to keep praying when we don't see direct results, but we ought to keep praying because the Bible and our experience both tells us that God answers prayers.  Every time we pray there is the real possibility that God will do something about our request.

Be patient! Trust God's wisdom and goodness!  Ask Why!  Keep Praying!

And as Jesus said John 13:7 Jesus replied, "You don't understand now what I am doing, but someday you will."

And Jesus still reminds us of that promise 2000 years later.

How’s Your Mud?

When I was a teen we lived just outside of Saint John New Brunswick in Hammond River and when I needed to think or just find time alone I would go down to the river, find a big rock and just sit and enjoy being next to the water. And it seems that it has always been like that, as a kid when I spent my summer vacation on Grand Manan you could often find me along the rocks of Swallow Tail or down by the edge of Pettes Cove enjoying being next to the water.

There just seems to be something refreshing and renewing about being next to water, we try to get out to Peggy's Cove each year and our vacation times always end up somewhere around large bodies of water. I can't even imagine living somewhere without quick access to the ocean.

It had been a rough couple of days for Jesus. He had been preaching to large crowds and families were bringing their sick children and parents to be touched and healed, I can only imagine the amount of emotional energy that it must have cost Christ. In the third chapter of Mark we are told Mark 3:20 One time Jesus entered a house, and the crowds began to gather again. Soon he and his disciples couldn't even find time to eat. Jesus was riding this huge wave of popularity; you gotta love it when you are loved.

But not everyone was happy with what was happening. Jesus had to deal with the scribes and Pharisees, that seemed to be an ongoing battle, but this time they didn't pull any punches. In Mark 3:22 But the teachers of religious law who had arrived from Jerusalem said, "He's possessed by Satan, the prince of demons. That's where he gets the power to cast out demons."

And you kind of expect that, everything Jesus taught threatened the status of these leaders, he was shaking up the status quo, leading people into a closer personal relationship with God which bypassed the religious establishment of the day. And really Jesus was able to give as good as he took, what with referring to the religious establishment as hyrpocrite, snakes and white washed tombs. It wasn't entirely a one way street.

But what must have really hurt Jesus was his family's reaction in Mark 3:21 When his family heard what was happening, they tried to take him away. "He's out of his mind," they said. Ouch, that's gotta hurt, when those who love you and are closest to you dismiss you as crazy. What is the line Sheldon uses in the Big Bang Theory, "I'm not crazy my mother had me tested." Apparently that didn't apply here.

But you can kind of understand his families feelings, Jesus had given up the security of the carpenter's shop to become an itinerant preacher, itinerant is a fancy word for homeless. He had found an entirely new circle of friends, including 4 fishermen, a tax collector and at least one zealot, and a zealot was only half a step away from being a terrorist. And then not being content to simply preach feel good messages it appeared that he was willing to take on the entire religious establishment all by himself. Might sound a little crazy, but they didn't have to mention it in public. Maybe it was this incident that caused Jesus to say later in his ministry Matthew 10:36 "Your enemies will be right in your own household!"

And so he has gone to the edge of the sea of Galilee, presumably to re-charge his batteries, in Matthew's account it tells us Matthew 13:1 Later that same day Jesus left the house and sat beside the lake. But it appears the crowds have followed him and they begin to press in to hear him preach until finally he borrows a boat, maybe Peter's or John's, and turns it into a floating platform preaching to the crowds on the shore. And, as he does so well, he points his audience's attention to the everyday and then uses it to direct them to the eternal and he begins to teach them using a parable, and a parable is simply an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Jesus started with the here and now and used that to explain how to get to the there and then. In this case it was a man sowing seeds in a field.

We do need to note a couple of things here at the very beginning. The only responsibility that Jesus laid on the sower was that he sows the seed. The sower received no credit for the seed that grew nor any condemnation for the seed that didn't grow. All too often we lay the responsibility for the fruitfulness of the see at the feet of the sower. If a church doesn't grow it's the preacher's fault, if people aren't saved it's the preacher's fault, if the church splits it's the preacher's fault.

But if we listen to this parable, it would appear that if the seed is the word of God and if the sower is the servant of God then his singular responsibility is to sow the seed.

And in the case of the farmer, we know very little about how he went about his task. Traditonally we are told that he would have worn a bag of some kind filled with seed and would have walked some type of pattern through his field broadcasting the seed by hand. Perhaps he did it in a very traditional method, up one row and down the other or perhaps he tried some new techniques and added a little variety to the pattern he walked or a little pizzazz to the way he threw the seed. But the truth of the matter is that we don't know, Christ didn't spend very much time on the sower at all. He is dismissed in a sentence and a half Mark 4:3 "Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seed. So presumably he did what he was supposed to do. If he had of walked up and down the rows and not thrown any seed at all I am sure that Jesus would have mentioned it, had he sown something other than the seed that he was supposed to be sowing that would have come up as well.

And just as the farmer discharged his obligation by simply sowing the seed the preacher's duty is to preach the word. And some do it in a very traditional method and some add a little more pizzazz to the task, but the important thing is that they do it.

And the second thing Jesus did not blame for the lack of fruitfulness was the seed. It was the same seed that was sown on the hard ground, the thorny ground and the good ground. Just as the sowers responsibility was to be a sower the seed was responsible only for being the seed, nothing more and nothing less. The only thing that was different in the four cases was the ground the seed fell on.

And so Jesus told the crowd the parable of the Sower and the Seed and then he changed the subject and went in a different direction. It was only later in the day when it was just the master and his students that he took the time to elaborate on this particular parable. And that's where we come in, because the explanation is as valid today as it was two thousand years ago. And we each find ourselves somewhere in Jesus' explanation.

If you were to investigate the different ways that people have responded to Jesus over the years you would get as many answers as there are people. But if you took the time to examine those responses you would find that you could narrow all of those responses down to the same four pictures that Jesus drew on that day for his followers.

And I know that all generalities are wrong but I would suspect that everyone here falls into one of those categories as well. So the question today isn't "What is the response of others to Jesus?" instead it has to be "What is my response to Jesus?" What has your reaction been to the claims on Christ on your life, because if you have heard the word of God then you have responded, one way or the other.

Mark 4:4 As he scattered it across his field, some of the seed fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate it.

Those Who Are Hard on the Outside In the Holy Land during the time of Christ the fields were long and narrow and between each field was a right of way, a path that was used by farmers on both sides. And it was on this pathway that the first seed fell.

It is interesting to note that this was very same fertile ground that made up the field, it was not rocky or stony, but because of constant pressure of people walking over it day after day it had become packed down and rock hard, and as the sower scattered his seed some of it was broadcast across these right-a-ways and just lay on top of the hard soil, providing a buffet of seeds for the birds.

And so Christ tells us in Mark 4:15 The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message, only to have Satan come at once and take it away. And so the hard ground represents the man with the closed mind. Now let's make one thing clear, we are all close mind over some things. Now personally I like to think I'm only close minded when I'm right, but that's just me.

Billy Graham told the story about the young preacher who want to make an improvement in the sanctuary of the little church he was pastoring in so he approached the board and suggested they buy a chandelier. Well one old fellow stood up and said "I'm agin it, and I'm agin it for three reasons. First there aint nothing in the bible about them there chandeliers. Second there ain't nobody in the church who can play one and third what we really need is more light in the sanctuary."

Well about some things it really doesn't matter if you are close minded, whether you drive a Ford or a Chev, whether you vote liberal or conservative, in a hundred years it won't make any difference. But to be close minded when it comes to spiritual things can have eternal consequences.

It happens at times that the path to the human mind has been trodden down as hard as the paths in those fields.

Alexander MacLaren was a Baptist preacher who lived a hundred and fifty years ago and he explains it this way, "They have been trodden by the heavy baggage wagons of commerce, the light cars of human pleasure, the merry dancers and sad funeral processions have all used that way and each footfall has beaten the once loose soil a little firmer."

It is a fact of life that we are made insensitive to the Gospel by the effects of necessary and often innocent things.
The urgent has robbed us of the eternal and so we say "I will get to it, in just a minute, tomorrow, next week." And while we wait the seeds of God's word lie exposed and vulnerable and listen to the warning of Jesus; Satan will come and take it away. Jesus doesn't mince words here, Satan is waiting to discourage people from accepting the grace of God and the salvation of Christ and the most effective way is to steal the seed before it can penetrate the heart.

As you drove away from Cornerstone last Sunday morning what did you take with you from the message? Can you remember the scripture I used, the main points or a key thought? Or were they snatched away. You know how it happens. 1) An immediate argument in the car right after church about where to go for dinner. 2) Lots of activities, appointments and busyness on Sunday afternoon. 3) Preoccupation with a problem at work, school or home. 4) A personality conflict with another church member or one of the staff 5) Irritation because of how far you had to park from the front door or because we didn't sing your favourite song, the music was too loud or too quiet and on and on ad nausem.

And the story continues: Mark 4:5-6 Other seed fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seed sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plant soon wilted under the hot sun, and since it didn't have deep roots, it died.

Those Who Are Hard Inside This kind of makes me think the story was written about Halifax or at least Kingswood. The picture that Christ draws here is soil that looks and is fertile, there just isn't that much of it.

And when the seed falls in this soil it quickly grows under what seems to be optimum conditions. It is almost forced to grow in a soil that is warmed by the heat absorbed by the rock and the nutrients that have soaked into the shallow layer of topsoil. And yet because the roots can't penetrate any deeper than the rock these plants that literally spring forth from the ground die in the heat of the sun.

Christ explains the application in Mark 4:16-17 The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. But since they don't have deep roots, they don't last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God's word. These are the folks that the gospel only penetrates emotion deep. Just as the seed finds a receptive home in the rock warmed shallow soil these people often seem very receptive to the gospel. Perhaps they've been on the search for truth or maybe it is the result of some emotional upheaval in their lives. Maybe the high of a marriage or the birth of a child or maybe the low of a marriage suddenly ending or the death of a family member or friend. Whatever the cause the emotions make the heart fertile ground for the gospel. But the rock that lies just beneath the surface is often the rock of an unrepentant heart.

And so they quickly and gladly embrace the promise of heaven, prosperity and abundance of life they never grasp the concept of "Take up your cross" or "Repent and turn to God." They see Christ as a fire escape from hell but not as Lord of their lives. Because the roots of the gospel message have been unable to entwine itself around their hearts these folks are not able to stand in times of adversity.

How do you get the roots to take hold? By changing the composition of the rock beneath the surface. By getting to know your bible, by reading it, attending services to hear it taught by hanging out with other Christ followers.

Every once in a while at the tail end of a hurricane one of the big evergreens on our property will blow over and they pull the roots out of the ground, they are thirty foot tall but their roots are only appear to be inches below the surface and so when the wind blows strong enough from the right direction down they come. And sometimes that happens with people, they have a surface faith but it hasn't really penetrated deeper than that.

Mark 4:7 Other seed fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants so they produced no grain.

Those With Other Stuff This seed wasn't sown on the hard soil of the path or for that matter on shallow soil covering rock, instead it landed in rich fertile soil, but in this rich soil lay the remnants of the thorns that had once grown there.

And as the rain and sun caused the wheat to begin to grow the thorns grew along with them, eventually depriving the good seeds of those things they needed to survive. If the thorns had of been torn out of the ground and eradicated in the first place instead of simply being ploughed under it wouldn't have been an issue, but they weren't

And so Jesus tells us in Mark 4:18-19 The seed that fell among the thorns represents others who hear God's word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things, so no fruit is produced. Of all the analogies this one scares me the most, not only does the seed germinate but it grows and matures as well. The people who are represented in the first two groups would appear to have never truly embraced salvation and all that goes with it. They are rootless and they were fruitless. They never really take off, at the very most they are a flash in the pan. And it's fairly obvious that the last group, which we will talk about in a few minutes, are truly born again, submissive, active and productive, but frankly this third group concerns me.

It would appear that these folks were truly touched by God, they grew and were right on the verge of producing fruit when all of a sudden their progress came to an end. Why? What happened?

Because as Jesus tells us, thorns grew up around them, thorns which suffocated the normal healthy growth of the plant.

And what do those thorns represent? Listen again to Christ, Mark 4:18-19 The seed that fell among the thorns represents others who hear God's word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things, so no fruit is produced. And Jesus doesn't say that these things might cause problems or that they might hinder our progress as Christ followers he tells us they will crowd out his word.

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

The worst part is that most of us never realize that we are being choked until we have been choked.

There are three things that Jesus warns us about, 1) The Worries of this Life We become so caught up in the everyday worries of this life that we have no room left in our lives for the things of God. Instead of trusting in him we try to work out all of those details ourselves. Remember the word of Jesus in Matthew 10:29-31 What is the price of two sparrows—one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows. We get to the point that we are harassed by anxiety and harried by the everyday and have no time for God.

The second thorn that Jesus talks about is 2) The Lure of Wealth I love the way the King James phrases it Mark 4:18-19 "Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, "and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. The lie that if you are only rich enough and have enough stuff then everything will be all right. The bible never condemns being rich. But it does warn us that when either money or the desire for money takes first place in our lives away from Jesus we are skating on thin ice. Which is why Paul warned Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:9-10 But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

And sometimes we rationalize our quest for riches by saying that it really isn't all that important to us like author Joe E. Lewis who said "I don't like money actually, but it quiets the nerves." Actually it was also Lewis who said "It doesn't matter whether you are rich or poor, as long as you've got money."

And I know there are folks out there that try to justify the lure of wealth by saying that when they are finally where they need to be they will be able to give to God's work. I don't believe it, if you aren't doing it now with what you got you won't do it later when you've got more. If you can't give 10% of a $100.00 it's doubtful you will give 10% of a $1000.00

And then the third thing that Christ warns will choke our Christian experience is The Desire For Other Things I call it the cult of the next best thing. Those that have motorcycles call it bigger bike disease, those with water craft bigger boat disease, those with travel trailers well you get the picture. We want bigger homes, nicer cars, larger salaries more prestige. And there is nothing wrong with aspiring to better things in life, until it becomes an all-encompassing passion. And then it becomes a picture of discontentment. We are never happy with what we have and it becomes the plague of pursuit, always pushing, straining, stretching, relentlessly reaching while our minds become strangled by the lie, "Enough just isn't enough."

If those thorns are choking out your Christian life they need to be dug up and eradicated. It's not enough to simply bury them. Kind of like the old guy who used to testify in church and say "I've gotten caught up in the web of sin again" and finally another old feller had had enough and he shouted "Kill the spider"

And then Jesus tells us the rest of the story,
Mark 4:8 Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they sprouted, grew, and produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!" Those Where it Stuck This is what we've been waiting for and what the farmer was expecting when he sowed the seeds. A crop. It's not enough for one seed to produce one plant that would just be a waste. The fruit of the apple tree isn't apples it's more apple trees.

And Jesus explains in Mark 4:20 that he's not talking about wheat.
And the seed that fell on good soil represents those who hear and accept God's word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!
That my friends is you, because in each one of us comes growth, maturation, and finally reproduction. When we talk about the purpose of our church is to help depopulate hell what we are saying is we are here to reproduce and to make more Christ Followers. So where you at, how's your mud. As we stop and pause to remember it is time to ask ourselves what has the seed of God's word produced in our lives?

What a crazy world that we live in. You ever feel like the Rabbit in "Alice in Wonderland"? You know the one, he's always rushing this way and that looking at his watch and muttering, "I'm late, I'm late". It seems that every hour of every day is filled to the limit with things that need doing and we never seem to have enough time to do it all. How often have you caught yourself wishing for more hours in the day or more days in the week so that you could finally catch up and finish everything that you are supposed to do? That wouldn't do any good though, we all know Murphy's law and some of us know about Newton's law of gravity, but how many of us are familiar with Parkinson's Law, first set forth in the middle of the last century, 1955, by C. Northcote Parkinson and it says:
"Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion."

And so regardless of how much time you had available you still wouldn't have enough. And if you were granted your wish of having an extra day in each week your stress level would simply be added to, because you would have one more day to try to jam too much into. Maybe instead we should wish for shorter days with fewer days in the week to limit our crazy schedules.

 

Modern technology promised us that all of the new conveniences would save us time and make our lives easier, but in the workplace, computers, blackberries, and cell phones have increased the pace of our work rather then reducing it. At home dishwashers, washing machines, vacuums and microwaves have made life easier but to go back to Parkinson law, work expands to fill the time available for its completion. And so mothers' lose the time they saved to schlepping the kids around to hockey, music and school activities. Even our kids are stressed out because so much of their time is scheduled and there is so little time to just be a kid, playing and allowing their imaginations to run wild.

It is a never ending circle that seems to escalate over time until finally, there is no more time. Henry Twells an English poet who lived in the 1800's wrote:

When as a child I laughed and wept,
Time crept.
When as a youth I waxed more bold,
Time strolled.
When I became a full-grown man,
Time RAN.
When older still I daily grew,
Time FLEW.
Soon I shall find, in passing on,
Time gone.
O Christ! wilt Thou have saved me then?
Amen.

 

And it is into this crazy rushed world that we would like to re-introduce the fourth commandment which reads Exodus 20:8-11 "Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the LORD your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you. For in six days the LORD made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.

The Sabbath, a day of rest seems to be an archaic today in the year 2010. You're thinking "Well sure, that was fine for back then when people didn't have as much to do, as far to go, but no sir not for 2010, in 2010 we need every hour of every day and every day of the week to get done what we have to get done." And that my friend is a crock. Please remember one cardinal rule of life, "You do, what you want to do." The fourth commandment was not given just for the people of Israel as they wandered in the wilderness, and it wasn't just given for Jesus and his disciples and it wasn't just given for John Wesley and the early Methodist's in the 1700's or and it wasn't just given for your grand parents, the fourth commandment is as valid today as it was 30 years ago, 200 years ago, 2000 years ago or 4000 years ago.

God didn't just give it annoy people or to mess up their plans for the weekend he did it because he knew what we are like. He knew that if he didn't legislate a time out in our lives that we wouldn't take one. A tree has to take a break, it can't say, "you know I really should produce leaves all year round and fruit in January when it's cold and miserable." A bear doesn't choose to hibernate or not hibernate, and what can you say about a cat. Nature has no choice it must take a break because that's the way it was created. But people are different, we have our freedom and that is the problem. We can drive our bodies, minds and emotions well past the breaking point. We have the power of choice and because of that power we are always in danger of destroying ourselves for some false set of values. It might be work, it might be appearance, it might be the desire to be the perfect parent but in a combination it provides a deadly cocktail for burn out.

Because of this great hazard God gave us a great gift, the Sabbath day, a day set apart, the Lord's Day, a day of rest and worship, relaxation, recuperation and joy. It is his gift to all of us, but it's up to each one of us to decide whether or not we will accept it.

A lot of confusion, misunderstanding, dogmatism and hard feelings are generated by this commandment. Almost everybody uses it to prove some point of view. So let's move very carefully as we explore what it means to observe the Sabbath today.

Now at this point we need to clarify that in the Christian church, in most cases, we do not celebrate the Sabbath. The Sabbath was the last day of the week; remember what we just read,

Exodus 20:8-10 "Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the LORD your God.

Our calendar has been changed so often through the years it's really tough to dogmatically state without reservation what day the seventh day was, although some people try. However the seventh day of the week or the Sabbath has historically been celebrated from sun down Friday until sundown on Saturday. And in its original form it merely forbade the performance of work on the seventh day, it was set apart as a day of total rest.

And so our Sunday, which is the first day of the week, is not the historic Sabbath. But we are Christians not Jews; most of us aren't even Christian Jews like the early church. I know that in our Christian vocabulary and in our hymns and poems we certainly use the word "Sabbath" as a valid figure of speech when referring to Sunday but we need to understand that the two are not the same.

The fourth commandment is the only one of the Ten Comandments that is not repeated anywhere in the New Testament, nowhere. Each of the other nine commandments are reiterated and often made even tougher in the New Testament, but not this one. There is no record of Jesus ever teaching anyone to keep the Sabbath. As far as we know, no apostle ever told anyone to observe it. In John 5:18 we are told that Jesus violated the Sabbath and in other stories we almost get the impression that he did so very deliberately.

But if the letter of the law, the seventh day Sabbath is not applicable to us today, certainly the principle of the Sabbath still is. Because it is grounded in the nature of God, in the nature of man and in the nature of creation.

Although the New Testament nowhere echoes the exact literal Saturday "Sabbath" command, it certainly reinforces the divine principle behind the command. That principle is that a specific and proportionate amount of time be set apart for rest and worship. That principle was not first laid down in the book of Exodus but in the book of Genesis, which tells how God himself rested after six days of creative labour. And even before the Commandments were given, earlier in the book of Exodus when God provide manna for the Israelites to eat, he told them to gather a double portion on the sixth day so they wouldn't have to collect it on the seventh day.

The Christians of the New Testament soon discarded the literal Seventh Day, Sabbath but kept the Sabbath day principle. Instead of keeping the last day of the week, they began to keep the first day of the week, which we call Sunday. Why? Because it was recognized as being the day Christ arose from the dead. Paul follows 1 Corinthians 15 the great resurrection chapter with these words in 1 Corinthians 16:2 On the first day of each week, you should each put aside a portion of the money you have earned. Don't wait until I get there and then try to collect it all at once.

And so Paul establishes a principle of a set time of the week when a gift is given to God. The first day of the week. And then in Acts 20:7 On the first day of the week, we gathered with the local believers to share in the Lord's Supper. Paul was preaching to them, and since he was leaving the next day, he kept talking until midnight. On the first day of the week they got together, listened to a sermon and took communion. Sounds like Church to me.

But it's not enough to know where the concept of the Lord's Day came from, we need to understand why the principle behind the Sabbath is still valid today. And we find the key in three spots in the scripture. The first is from the command itself. Exodus 20:8-10 "Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the LORD your God.

And so the first thing we need to discover about the Sabbath is that It Is a Day of Rest.

We live in a tired generation, we are chasing a brass ring that may never be able to be caught and we are willing to make way too many sacrifices for it, and we do sacrifice for it and it's not necessarily a new phenomena listen to what Robert Louis Stevenson
wrote over a hundred years ago
"Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business is only to be sustained by neglect of many other things."

Remember this song: (Play snip of Cat's in the cradle). Every generation since 1973 that has heard that song understands that they are the child and then they grow up and realize they have become the father.

And so we become a busier and busier race of people, seriously how many of us turn our smartphone, blackberries and iPhones off other than to go to sleep. Or do you just turn the sound off?

The rest that God commands us to take allows us to step back from the arena of life and evaluate exactly what it is we are trying to achieve. Even from a purely physical perspective it has been proven that people cannot go on indefinitely without things starting to go wrong with their bodies, their minds and their emotions. I wonder what would happen to the mental health business if we just slowed down. God is basically telling us in the fourth commandment, "Take a break"

Barbara Brown Taylor writes, "I do not mean to make an idol of health, but it does seem to me that at least some of us have made an idol of exhaustion. The only time we know we have done enough is when we are running on empty and when the ones we love most are the ones we see the least. When we lie down to sleep at night, we offer our full appointment calendars to God in lieu of prayer, believing that God—who is as busy as we are—will surely understand"

But it's not just a day of rest; the next scripture would indicate that there is more to Sabbath observance then simply staying in bed, sorry. Deuteronomy 5:15 Remember that you were once slaves in Egypt, but the LORD your God brought you out with his strong hand and powerful arm. That is why the LORD your God has commanded you to rest on the Sabbath day.

 

It is a Day of Reflection. Not only does God call us to rest on a special day but he also calls us to Reflect on that day as well.

 

In this scripture God is calling his people to reflect on how He had delivered them from the slavery of Egypt, but I would suspect that it would be fair to talk about how we need to reflect on how God delivered us from the slavery of sin.

 

And so on that day it's good to stop and reflect on what God has done and to give thanks. To gather with God's people and celebrate his goodness. To pause and give a little back to God, our time our money our talents. People say "well I can do that without going to church." Sure, but do you?

 

When people do whatever it is that people do on Sunday morning do they really give time to God.

 

Sunday is a day for God's people to get together and to reflect and celebrate what He has done for us. We do that by singing his praise, by reading and hearing from his word, by lifting up his name in prayer and by giving to his work. In this case it's Cornerstone.

 

We had mentioned previously that it appeared that Jesus had a problem with the Sabbath, which isn't exactly true, what he had a problem with was what people had done to the Sabbath. Mark 2:27-28 Then Jesus said to them, "The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!"

Throughout history the observance of the Sabbath or of the Lord's Day has inspired two extremes. People have found ways to misuse this gift just as they've found ways to misuse the other gifts that God has given us. The first extreme are those people who have historically made Sunday into a day of gloom and depression instead of a day of joy and gladness. This is what had happened in Jesus day.

We are told that the scribes and Pharisees had counted 39 letters in the original language of the fourth commandment and multiplied 39 by 39 and came up with 1521 and that was the number of ways they had come up with to break the Sabbath. You weren't supposed to work, so what was work? It was to carry a burden, so what was a burden and how far could you carry it before it actually became a burden? Let's go back to the scripture that we started with: Mark 2:23-24 One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples began breaking off heads of grain to eat. But the Pharisees said to Jesus, "Look, why are they breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?" Did you catch that? They were breaking off heads of grain to eat? That would be like picking raspberries but technically I guess they were harvesting grain.

In John 5 we read the story about Jesus healing the paralyzed man at the pool of Bethesda, do you remember who the story ends? John 5:9-10 Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, "You can't work on the Sabbath! The law doesn't allow you to carry that sleeping mat!" He was carrying a mat, not moving his house.

We aren't going to do the fourth commandment any favours when we turn it into something like "Thou shalt not enjoy life on Sunday." Many people mean well, but we cannot make people, especially children; enjoy God by forbidding them to enjoy anything else on Sunday. Such a rigid observance of Sunday can become just as idolatrous today as it was in Jesus day and that is what he was warning us about.

But usually today that's not our problem is it? Our problem today is probably the opposite extreme; we take a holy day and turn it into a holiday, a day of commercialized recreation, entertainment and profit.

Some of us have taken that passage where Jesus says that if your donkey or ox falls into a pit on the Sabbath that it's all right to pull it out and have used it as an excuse for everything and anything on Sunday. The truth is though if we are careful and avoid pushing the ox in the pit on Monday through Saturday then we won't have to spend Sunday pulling it out. And if your ox has a habit of falling into the same pit every week then you ought to fill in the pit or get rid of the ox.

How often do we say, "But I had to go to the store, or I had to buy gas on Sunday." The proper term for that is poppycock. You don't have to, you choice to. And when you see me at value food or Sobeys on a Sunday picking up something it is because I chose to be there. When we were pastoring in Truro we made a conscious decision that we would not do commerce on Sunday, period. We did not buy gas, we did not go out to eat we did not run to the store for a loaf of bread or a litre of milk, we did not go to Tims. And we survived. And not once did we starve or run out of gas.

People say that we needed Sunday shopping because there was no time through the week. When we were living in Brisbane, a city of almost 2 million people, the malls opened at 9 and closed at 5, except on Friday when they stayed open to 9, and they were closed on Sunday and we found the time to shop.

Like many things in life we either choice to do the right thing or choice to do the easy thing.

Exodus 23:12 "You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but on the seventh day you must stop working. This gives your ox and your donkey a chance to rest. It also allows your slaves and the foreigners living among you to be refreshed.

It is a Time of Refreshment

According to the Bible, God created the Sabbath. It's not just a day on which nothing happened, but God blessed it and made it holy. He paused and reflected on what he done. The bible tells us that God called the first six days "good" but the seventh day God called Holy. And it is intended as more then just a day of fun or rest. Within that day represents one seventh of our week and ultimately one seventh of our life. And when we slow down and rest and reflect on the goodness of God it allows us a time of refreshing. It recharges our batteries.

There are those who say they don't need to go to church to meet with God, and some people try to rationalize that a Sabbath spent golfing, shopping or going to the beach as fulfilling the spirit of the Sabbath.

Golfers in particular plead their case by saying, "I do more real praying on the golf course then I do in church". However, "Please God, give me a birdie," is not recognized as part of any accepted liturgy, no does it substitute for a good worship service. Sure you might use his name while on the golf course but I don't think that counts and more than likely goes back to our message two weeks ago on "Thou Shalt not Cuss".

Exodus 31:17. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day he stopped working and was refreshed. Think about it, God stopped working and was refreshed. So what happens when we make the decision to slow down and stop working, not hitting the stop button, but just hitting the pause button for a period of time.

You see, the day of rest shouldn't end when we walk out the door of the church. "Well, now I've done my duty and now I can get on with life." The Sabbath wasn't an hour it was a day. And if nothing else when we pause and reflect it will give us a new perspective on the rest of our days. It was Leonardo Da Vinci who said "Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen."

So what can we do on Sunday or what should we do? Good question

How about: Using it for family time (and family time is not watching your kids play organized sports, it's not sitting in the living room with everyone on their own laptop, it's not zoned out in front of the TV). Do you remember Sunday Dinners, not that they were necessarily relaxing especially for the cook, but why not make Sunday dinner a special time and an easy time, soup and sandwiches instead of a roast beef dinner.

I know it's tough but try to make it a relaxing time, just try sitting back and doing nothing, close your eyes and take a break (Although not specified in the Scripture, a Sabbath nap is certainly a divine gift.)

We've mentioned it before but take time for Church, come together with other believers to celebrate God! And take some time for conversation with God.

And if it is your choice don't work for wages on Sunday and don't compete for awards.

For your sake, your family's sake and for God's sake, just take a break.

 

 

A Sailor’s Tale

September 19 is International Talk Like a Pirate Day, honest it really is www.talklikeapirateday.com. And it seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up. This is the a repeat of the message I preached last time it fell on a Sunday. We started with a clip from the Veggie Tales Jonah Movie which I interrupted.

 

That, not be the way it happened. And you won't be getting far on yer voyage if you be learning your history from vegetables,

 

Arrr mateys, shiver me timbers I have a tale to tell so settle down and pay me heed.

Me name is Omar and I be a sailor. It seems like I've always been a sailor, you might say I was born into it. You see me father was a sailor as was his father before him. So I am a sailor too, although not a very good one, I get a wee bit seasick if you know what I mean. But as long as I can remember there's always been a deck moving beneath me feet. A sailor is what I've always been and a sailor is what I'll always be.

When the Story began I was mate on a ship called The Wings of the Morning and a fine ship she was too, she had been built in Athens, on the shores of Greece and had beautiful lines and fine handsome rigging. A fine ship and she rode the waves, not rolling much, which was important to me, if you know what I mean.

We had been sailing the Mediterranean making stops along the coastlines of Greece and Macedonia as well as hopping amongst the islands. You know Crete and Cyprus. We were lying to in the port of Joppa while the Skipper was scaring up a cargo for us.

Joppa wasn't a bad port to be tied up in as far as ports go, I've been in worse. It was in the country of Israel, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, the water was crystal clear the sand was white and fine like sugar. The sights and the sounds of the market drifted down the streets to the wharves, the smell of fresh baked bread mingling with the smell of the tar that covered the pilings. The sun was bright and the women were beautiful. Arrr, I could have stayed in Joppa for a long time. But it was not to be. The Cap'n arrived and told us that he had found a cargo, that we would be taking a cargo of dates and olive oil to the shores of Tarshish. Tarshish, why Tarshish? There was no place further away then Tarshish. It was where the earth dropped off and even if you didn't fall over the edge beyond Tarshish there were monsters and dragons and nobody who ever sailed beyond Tarshish ever came back. But that was where the cargo had to go so that's where we had to go.

They gave me this thing and told me if I pressed the button it would show you a chart. Well shiver me timbers it works. This be Joppa, which is where we were and this be Tarshish where we were taking our cargo.

I put the boys to work loading the cargo and getting everything shipshape for the voyage when this landlubber showed up asking where we was bound for. I told him we were sailing to Tarshish on the tide. He asked if there was any way he could go farther then Tarshish, and I told him there were no further then Tarshish, that beyond Tarshish there be monsters and there be dragons and then you just fall off the end of the world. I mean you just have to look at the chart to see that it's flat.

The lubber wanted to book passage with us and after talkin' to the skipper we decided that would be alright and so I asked his name and he told me it was Jonah. For a moment I had some doubts about taking a passenger named Jonah, you see I have kind of a sixth sense, I don't see dead people but sometimes things don't feel right and this was one of those times. But a cargo is a cargo whether it be dates or people so we told the swabby to grab his kit and make hisself at home down below with the rest of the cargo.

Well we sailed on the tide and it was a beautiful moonlit night, the stars were bright and just enough of a gentle breeze to fill the sails, which was a good thing, if you know what I mean. And so for three days we sailed toward Tarshish and a beautiful trip it was turning out to be. It was not to last though, on the evening of the third day a storm blew out of nowhere and nigh on threatened to sink the Wings of the Morning.

It blew hard and it looked like it wasn't going to let up so I ordered the men to throw some of the cargo over board to lighten the ship, better to arrive without dates and olive oil then to arrive without a ship, if you know what I mean. And as the men worked they cried out to their various gods and a lot of gods there were amongst the boys, but they must have been deaf gods because the storm didn't seem to be getting any better. It's no fun when you start you trip by sea and end up travelling by rail, if you know what I mean.

And then someone noticed that the landlubber wasn't with us, the cap'n told me to find the bilge rat and get him to pray to his god as well. Alas we found him asleep in his bunk, asleep! The entire ship and its cargo were in danger of being lost along with all the crew and the scurvy passenger's asleep. Know nothing fear nothing that's what I say. So we woke him up, after all if the rest of us were going to be terrified then he should be too.

As the storm grew worse the Cap'n called a parley, that's a French word you know, they invented mayonnaise the French did. And during the parley it was suggested that we cast lots to see who was to blame for the storm and you'll never guess where the lot landed. That's right with the Jonah fella, so we demanded that he tell us why the storm had come.

And what a tale he wove. He told us he was a prophet, from Israel, that be where Joppa is. And he said that his God commanded him to go to Nineveh and tell the people there that if they didn't repent and turn from their wicked ways that God would bring Judgement upon them. Then I says "But Nineveh be in the middle of the desert, not in the middle of the ocean." We'll just pull up the chart again, here be Joppa where we be sailing from and here be Nineveh where the lubber was supposed to be. And suddenly it all became clear he was running from the God of Israel, oh that can't be good. As Captain Solo would say "I have a bad feeling about this."

Then he started rambling saying something about how he should have believed David and that he should never have tried to flee on the Wings of the Morning. And I said, "This be your fault, you bilge rat you, now stop your whinging and tell us what we have to be doing to make the storm stop."

Well blow me down the swabby said that we needed to be throwing him into the briny deep if we wanted to be saved. Arrr I might talk like a pirate but I've never made a man walk the plank before and I wasn't about to start with this Jonah fellow. So I yelled at the men to pull in the remainder of the canvas and break out the oars that we would turn the ship into the wind and hold her in place. But it was no use, the wind got stronger and the waves got bigger and I suddenly realized that I wasn't sick anymore, arrrr I was too scared to be sick by now, if you know what I mean.

And I looked at Jonah, and I be thinking, if it works if we throw him over the side and the storm stops then we will have saved the ship, the rest of the cargo and all the men just by sending one disobedient prophet to Davey Jones Locker. And I realized how selfish and self serving that was; I knew that must be a way to save all of us, the ship and that mangy landlubber. There had to be a way I just had to figure it out, so I thought and I thought and I thought and while I be thinking the bosun and the rest of the hands threw him overboard.

And stove me in, it worked the wind stopped, just stopped and the waves stopped as well. In all me years at sea I'd never seen the waves just stop, the clouds disappeared and there was the moon filling the starlit sky. I yelled at the boys to throw the man a line before he became shark bait but suddenly the water erupted and a giant fish, or maybe a whale, it all happened so fast that it was hard to tell, just swallowed him right up. One minute he was there and the next minute there he was, gone, if you know what I mean. And there we were on the Wings of the Morning, alone on an empty sea with just the ripples on the water to show us where Jonah had been.

Arrr that should be the end of the story, but it t'wernt. A year later we be back in Joppa and one afternoon as I was making me way along the dock back to the ship I heard someone yell me name. I turned and looked and there was a man walking toward me, had a funny twitch, kind of like that fella Jack Sparrow and his skin and his hair seemed to be bleached and he had a pasty look to him. As he got close I thought that can't be but it was, it was Jonah. I asked him, "What happened to you? We saw you get swallowed and then you was gone. Was it a whale or was it a fish? People will want to know" and he said "I don't know they all look alike from the inside."

He told me that he spent three days in whatever it be he was in, time he said he spent talking to God. Which seemed to me to be a pretty good thing to be doing if you're in the belly of a fish, or a whale. And after three days the beast threw him up on a beach, I understand how the fish felt, Jonah didn't much agree with me either. Must have been a shock to those on the beach. As he was laying there on the beach with sand in his ears and seaweed up his nose God told him to get up and go to Nineveh and preach his message. And smartly the lubber got up from the sand and marched himself to Nineveh, where he preached repentance and the entire crew of Nineveh repented and that's the rest of the story.

It be a good story but unless we can learn something it's only a story.

1) Ye can't be running from God. Our first reaction when God asks us to do what we don't want to be doing is to run and hide, and our first reaction when we are confronted with our sin is to run and hide. It goes all the way back to the Garden, not that I know much about gardens being a sailor and all. But the good book tells us that after Adam and Eve had done what they weren't supposed to do, the good Lord came looking for them and then it says in Genesis 3:8 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the LORD God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the LORD God among the trees.

I guess trees are good for something other then building ships. But Adam discovered the same thing that Jonah discovered and that is you might run but you can't hide. And King David wrote in Psalm 139:7-12 I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night— but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.

Arrr in the book of Hebrews God's word be telling ye Hebrews 4:13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.

All kinds of people have tried to run from God, perhaps ye be doing that today, but listen you scallywags you can't be running from God.

2) Yer Disobedience be putting others at risk The boys on the Wings of the Morning had done nothing wrong, well maybe one or two of the lads had done some wrong things but it be Jonah who was running from God and it be his disobedience that put us all in danger. Ye not be knowing who your disobedience might affect and how.

Let me be telling you a sad story. It's about a ship mate I once had, a man of the cloth, if you know what I mean. One day he leaves his missus for another swabbies wife. Before the summer had come and gone again his youngest daughter, she be but 17 and unmarried was with child and the older daughter all of 22 years had left her husband of 2 years and was carrying another man child. Ye see when their father ran aground on the rocks of disobedience he shattered their moral compass and they lost their spiritual direction. There were those who left his church and others who left their faith. And I be knowing that we all be making our own decisions to follow God or not, but we will also be responsible for the stumbling blocks that we put in front of fellow travellers.

It was Jesus who said Mark 9:42 "But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around your neck. And when it comes to the end of the voyage there be those answering for the damage they did and be wishing that they was only being keelhauled or tasting the cat of nine.

When a marriage dissolves the fallout extends to the kiddies and grandchildren, yer ship mates are alienated and people are hurt, because of the disobedience of one or two. When God speaks to you about giving some of your treasure to his work and ye decline saying "It be my treasure" there are people that might never be reached because the booty wasn't there and whose fault be that? Many of those who be making a sacrifice when they built this fine new vessel, weren't doing it for themselves, but for others.

Before ye turn away from what the good Lord be asking of you or turning toward what he's telling ye to leave alone ye best ask yourself "who else will this affect and how?"

Arrr ye not be travelling alone on this voyage and your actions will affect the others you sail with.

3) It's never too late to be obedient When we tossed Jonah into the briny deep we figured the story was all over. But as that great philosopher Yogi Berra said "It ain't over til it's over." And I be knowing that Yogi wasn't a Pirate, he be a Yankee, but they lost the 1960 series to the Pirates, so if only then he probably wished he were a pirate. If you read the good book time and time again you see God giving people a second chance. Avast mateys, Moses, Noah, David, Samson, Peter and other's too numerous to mention were given a second chance. The secret be repentance, being sorry for what you've done and be ready to correct it. And you need to do it smartly, don't be waiting too long. Many a swaby who said they'd get it right at 4 bells went to meet their maker at 3 bells and never made it right, then it be too late. God may give us a second chance but it's not worth anything unless we accept it. It would be like lost treasure

Perhaps ye be thinking, "I wish I could go back and start the voyage over." Well you might not be able to start over but it's never too late to start afresh. Jonah couldn't rewrite the old story but he could write a whole new story.

I don't know what fish you might be in the belly of today, but God can hear ye there. The secret? Jonah discovered the secret when he cried out in Jonah 2:7 As my life was slipping away, I remembered the LORD. And my earnest prayer went out to you in your holy Temple.

Jeremiah was a prophet as well and he tells us in Jeremiah 13:16 Give glory to the LORD your God before it is too late.

Where be you at today? What is God asking you to do? Where is he asking you to go, what is he asking you to give? Ye be the only person who can answer for yourself, so I would tell you to make sure everything be shipshape in your life before the storms arrive.