#castthefirststone

Have you ever had a song or a part of a song stuck in your head?  You know like, . . .  “Mahna Manhna.”   You’re welcome.

Back in the early eighties I heard a song once, only once as far as I can remember.  It was in the kitchen of our family home on Golden Grove Rd. in Saint John.  We were that family that always had a radio playing in the kitchen.  And one afternoon I hear a song, didn’t catch the name of the artist but the words of the chorus stuck in my head.  For over thirty years they have lived there, and every once in a while I’d try and track down what the song was.  And low and behold the other day thanks to the power of the interwebby I found it.

The song was recorded by a young Christian artist by the name of Robyn Pope who had limited success for a few years in the United States.  Why it was played on a secular radio station in Saint John New Brunswick is beyond me.  But the line that has been stuck in my head for the past thirty years, is “Cast the first stone if you think you’re so hot, if you think that she’s wicked and you think that you’re not.”

To put it into context, here is first verse and chorus song by Robyn Pope. 

Maybe you know the story and maybe you don’t.  It was read this morning from the book of John Chapter 8 the first eleven verses.  It’s pretty self-explanatory; really all you have to do is read it to get a sense of what is happening.

And today I’m sure that if someone was tweeting about this event the hashtag would be #castthefirststone.  We are in our second week of our “Hashtag This” series, and over the next few weeks we will be looking at various words and phrases from the bible that deserve a hashtag.

A woman had been caught committing adultery, a sin that was considered a crime under Jewish law.  As a matter of fact the Rabbis said “Every Jew must die before he will commit idolatry, murder or adultery.”  A view that obviously wasn’t shared by everyone.  In particular, a view that must not have been shared by this woman, at least not in practice.

You’ve either heard the story or you’ve heard the phrase “Cast the first stone” which is the central part of what happened that day.  This morning we are going to look at the characters who made up the story.

1) The Accused Let’s start by clearing a couple of things up right away.  First you ever get the impression that the woman here was an innocent spectator? You kind of get the idea that she was just standing on the side of the road and they grabbed her and dragged her to Jesus.  I don’t know how many times I’ve heard this message preached and I’ve always gone away feeling sorry for the woman.  Hold it.  The woman was an adulteress.  The Bible says that she’d been caught in bed with a man who wasn’t her husband.  Now I don’t know for sure what she was doing in bed with the man who wasn’t her husband but I’d be willing to bet they weren’t playing checkers. 

Now in 2016 Adultery may not seem all that serious.  Across the border in the presidential race one candidate is an adulterer and the other candidate is married to an adulterer and it hasn’t seemed to hurt either of them.   And all most of us probably know at least one adulterer or adulteress, but in Jesus day it was a pretty dangerous accusation.

The second impression that you get from hearing some of these sermons was that she was just caught in the act right then and dragged from the scene and thrown at the feet of Jesus, but it doesn’t even imply that it had just happened. 

So we probably should presume, because we don’t know any different that the woman was fully clothed and her husband or her partner’s wife or whoever had caught them, had reported them to the powers that be and now action was being taken.

The third impression that you get is that the man got away with it.  You hear preachers asking that question “Where was the man”?  And then saying things like “She couldn’t have been alone.”  As if this was some grand conspiracy where only the woman involved in adultery was punished.  And then the preachers start speculating that the person that she had been caught with was one of the religious leaders or someone important.

Maybe, but according to one source the Mishnah, or Jewish codified law states the penalty for adultery would be strangulation and it even lays down the method.

It then reiterates that death by stoning is the penalty for a girl who is betrothed and then commits adultery.  So, maybe the guy had already paid the price.

We know nothing else about this woman other than the bare facts laid down in John’s narrative.  She was caught in adultery and was being sentenced.  There was no defense for her; she couldn’t appeal to a higher court. 

She had started writing the story and her accusers would finish it for her.  As a Jewish woman, in a Jewish culture, raised in a knowledge of the Jewish law she would have known the consequences of her actions. 

We might ignore the words of the law laid down in the Old Testament but for her that wouldn’t have been an option so she would have known that Leviticus 20:10 “If a man commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, both the man and the woman who have committed adultery must be put to death.

When she started down that path, she would have known the ultimate destination if she got caught.  She may very well have thought that she wouldn’t get caught but she knew what the law dictated would happen if she did get caught.

We might feel sorry for her, we might feel that the punishment didn’t fit the crime, after all what would happen today if adulterers & adulteresses were put to death.  Other than the fact that the unemployment problem would be solved with all those jobs opening up, Hillary would be a widow, the Donald Trump question would have already been answered, Hollywood would be a virtual ghost town and most of us would lose some friends.

And as much as we might feel that this was extreme and unjust action, in her country, under her religion according to her traditions and customs she was simply getting what she deserved no more no less.

Which brings us to 2) The Accusers The scriptures tell us they were the teachers of religious law and Pharisees.  These men were the court of Israel.  They were the legal experts of the day.  When you had an issue that needed to be resolved this is where you brought it. 

And so it was to these men that the woman was brought.  Probably by her husband who explained the situation and presented the witnesses.  You see it wouldn’t be enough that he had caught her in the act because the law may have been harsh but it tried to be fair and so it said in Deuteronomy 17:6 But never put a person to death on the testimony of only one witness. There must always be two or three witnesses. 

That is reiterated in Deuteronomy 19:15-19 You must not convict anyone of a crime on the testimony of only one witness. The facts of the case must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. “If a malicious witness comes forward and accuses someone of a crime, then both the accuser and accused must appear before the Lord by coming to the priests and judges in office at that time. The judges must investigate the case thoroughly. If the accuser has brought false charges against his fellow Israelite, you must impose on the accuser the sentence he intended for the other person. In this way, you will purge such evil from among you.

Now that’s the bare bones of the situation, but it’s not all the story.  To put a wrinkle in the story these men did not have the right to put this woman to death, and they knew it. 

“But Denn, you said”, I know what I said.  I said that the penalty for her crime was death under Jewish law.  Right?  Right. 

But they weren’t under Jewish law, remember they were an occupied country and they were under Roman law, and under Roman law nobody but the Roman Authorities could impose the death sentence.

You might recall that is why the Jews took Jesus to Pilate to be condemned to death; they didn’t have the authority to do it.  I don’t know what they were going to do with the woman, but it wasn’t going to be death.  Or at least there had been a pretty good chance that it wouldn’t be.

But then they started spouting off things like John 8:5 “The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?” And that’s when the reality of the situation started to sink in.  She knew that the penalty for adultery was death but it had been a while since the penalty had been carried out and she wasn’t really all that interested in seeing a return to tradition.  But why now?  What was happening here? 

Well, to be truthful I don’t think that this woman or what she did was all that important to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law of Moses.  Oh they would have looked at her with contempt, and probably made some rude comments about her private life. 

They may have granted her husband a divorce and made life pretty miserable for her.  But she was just a secondary concern; they had bigger fish to fry.

The woman was just an excuse; she was bait for the bigger fish.  You see this young carpenter from Galilee, Jesus was getting on their nerves and they were looking for some way to discredit him.  It wasn’t the first time nor would it be the last; remember these were the same guys who asked him in Luke 20:22 “Now tell us—is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

And in Matthew 19:3 Some Pharisees came and tried to trap him with this question: “Should a man be allowed to divorce his wife for just any reason?”

and in Mark 8:11 When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had arrived, they came and started to argue with him. Testing him, they demanded that he show them a miraculous sign from heaven to prove his authority.  Kind of a recurring theme wouldn’t you think?

And so the question they pose to Jesus is this, “Will you side with the Jewish law, the law of your forefathers or will you side with the Roman oppressors?”    It was really a lose, lose situation for Jesus. 

If he said “stone her” then they could go to the Romans and say, “Look here’s a man who’s challenging your authority.  On the other hand, if he says “don’t stone her” then they go to the Jew’s and say “See, he’s challenging the authority of scripture.

The woman was a nothing to the Pharisees and rulers of the law, she had no name, no personality, no feelings, and she was simply a pawn.  A piece to be played in the game they waged against Jesus.  They were using her the same way they would use a tool.

3) The Forgiver And so it’s in this little soap opera that we see Jesus at his best.  Because unlike the Pharisees, Jesus knew the woman, he had been there when she was created, he knew her when she was being knit together in her mother’s womb, he knew the numbers of her hair and he knew the condition of her heart. 

And unlike the Pharisees he cared about the woman, it was for her that he left heaven and came to earth, it was for her that he was willing to live as a mortal for thirty-three years, and ultimately it would be for her that he would allow himself to be nailed to a cross and die.

You gotta get the picture.  Jesus is teaching a crowd of people, and as was the custom of the day when a Rabbi had something very important to teach he did it sitting down with people gathered all around him.  And so there he sat, and there they stood. 

A woman who if not full of remorse was almost certainly full of shame, her head bowed, her eyes looking at the dirt, knowing that she was guilty.  Surrounded her were the religious teachers, her judges, the ones who had her very life in their hands.  And they were demanding an answer. 

And he didn’t say a word, he just bent over and started doodling in the dirt, and they stood there looking down on him demanding that he make a decision concerning this woman’s life.  And he continued to write in the sand, kind of an interesting reaction. 

Wonder why he did that?  There have been at least four suggestions.  1) To give him time, he didn’t want to be rushed into a rash statement, so this was a little bit of a time out.  Perhaps he was thinking things through and more importantly taking time to ask his Father what he should do. 

2) Perhaps by doing this he was forcing the Pharisees and scribes to repeat their charges, so they could hear exactly what they were saying. 

3) Maybe he did it so that he wouldn’t have to look in their eyes.  The leering, lustful looks of the religious leaders, the morbid curiosity of the crowd, and the shame of the woman all combined to twist his heart in knots.  So he hid his eyes.

4)  The most interesting suggestion by far is that as he sat there doodling in the dust, he was actually jotting down the sins of the men who stood before him.  This goes a little deeper than mere speculation.  Again let’s remember that the Bible wasn’t written in English, it was written in Greek which was a much more expressive language then English.  English is kind of a lazy language.  We’ll take one word and make it mean half a dozen different things. 

Like the word fast.  It can mean quick, it can mean go without food, it can mean to tie something up, it can mean that the colors won’t fade, it can mean to be loyal, it can mean to be sexually promiscuous or it can mean that your watch gained time. 

The Greek word that would normally have been used here for writing should have been graphein which simply means to write.  But John adds the prefix of Kata to the word which means against.  Making the word katagraphein which meant to write down a record against someone. 

And so some have suggested that Jesus was confronting the men with their own sins.  Bob beat his wife last week, Fred cheated on his taxes, Joe stole from his neighbor, and Jacob slept with Marks wife.  I’ve also heard it suggested that he was writing the names of their girlfriends in the dust for all to see.

But whatever he was doing the leaders continued to demand an answer and so Jesus gave it to them John 8:7-8 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.

 Maybe this was when they noticed what the words actually said that he was writing out, I don’t know but something struck a chord because the Bible says John 8:9-11 When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

Now as a side bar to our sermon, you may have noticed in your bibles a footnote that says that this particular story was not included in many of the early manuscripts that have been found of the New Testament. 

And that is true; the earliest manuscripts don’t include this story.  However, some scholars feel that it wasn’t included in the earliest manuscripts because those who edited the text of the New Testament thought that this was a dangerous story, a justification for a light view of adultery and therefore omitted it. 

None other than Augustine said that the story was removed from text of the gospel because some were of slight faith and to avoid scandal.

William Barclay who wrote the daily study Bible Commentary had this to say “We may be sure that this is a real story about Jesus, although one so gracious that for a long time men were afraid to accept it.”

Now back to the message.  It’s easy to draw the wrong lesson here and to get the impression that Jesus took the woman’s sin all too lightly, as if it didn’t matter.  He didn’t say “I am not going to judge you”.  What he said was “I am not going to judge you just now, go and sin no more.” 

Jesus was asking her if she was an adulterer or if she had simply committed adultery, and there is a world of difference.    It was Richard North Patterson who wrote  “No one should be judged by the worst moment of his life.”

So what he was doing wasn’t so much abandoning judgment as much as deferring judgment.  He was saying, “Go and prove that you can do better” Jesus attitude to this sinner and to us as sinners involves a number of things.

1) It Involved a Second Chance, it was as if Jesus was saying, “I know that you’ve made a mess of things, but life is not finished yet, I’m giving you another chance a chance to redeem yourself.”  Let it be known in Jesus is a gospel of second chances. 

Jesus was always interested not only in what a person was but in what a person could be.  He didn’t say that what people had done didn’t matter, broken laws and broken hearts always matter but he knew that people not only have a past but they have a future.

And isn’t that what Jesus has done for all of us, give us a second chance?  Where we can come and ask him to forgive our sins and repent, that is turn from our sins, and through his help seek to do better.

2) It Involved Mercy The basic difference between Jesus and the Pharisees was they wished to condemn the woman he wished to forgive the woman.  If we read between the lines of the story we can see that they were taking great pleasure in what they were doing and would relish in being able to stone the woman.

3) It Involved Challenge.  Jesus confronted this woman with the challenge of a different life.  He wanted her to know the reality of 2 Corinthians 5:17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!  But what he didn’t say was “It’s all right, don’t worry: just go on as you are doing.”  he said “it’s all wrong, go out and fight and change your life from top to bottom, go and sin no more.”

It wasn’t an easy forgiveness, instead it was a challenge which pointed a sinner to heights of goodness which she couldn’t even imagine.

4) It Involved a Warning.  It may not be said but it is certainly implied.  Here we are face to face with the eternal choice.  Jesus confronted the woman with a choice that same choice he gives each one of us, either to go back to our old ways or to reach out to the new way with him.  This story is unfinished, for every life in unfinished until it stands before God.

So where are you at?  If you can’t put yourself in the woman’s place, then you are putting yourself in the Pharisees place. 

Listen to me very carefully.  There isn’t any sin in the world that you aren’t capable of.  I had a friend of mine who told me he couldn’t imagine how anyone could commit adultery and today he is living with another man’s wife while his wife lives alone.  You best be careful before you pick up a rock and throw it. 

Maybe you’re standing where the woman stood and you know that you’ve done wrong and you can’t imagine what Jesus would want with the likes of you, and he’s saying “The story’s not over yet, go and sin no more.”  That doesn’t just involve being sorry for sinning it involves being so sorry that you turn from your sin and that is called repentance.  listen to the message that Jesus has for you today “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

#alloftheworld

Do you remember when your kids were teens and you would leave them at home alone, maybe for an hour or a weekend?  If so then you know that the most important thing that you wanted them to remember were your last words.

“I love you, remember your homework”, “I love you don’t forget to do the dishes and clean your room.”  “I love you, remember no parties and don’t burn the house down.” 

Some of Jesus’ last words to his kids, the apostles were read for us earlier.  Or at least a portion of those words, the part that Mark recorded.  If we want to capture all of those words we need to look in all three gospels and the book of Acts.  And when we put them together we get something like this:

But then after 40 days of miracles, and teaching Jesus has this to say to His followers: “And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven.  But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. These signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in my name, and they will speak new languages. They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won’t hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick and heal them.  With my authority, take this message of repentance to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem: ‘There is forgiveness of sins for all who turn to me.’ You are witnesses of all these things.

Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone, everywhere. Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Those fragments by the way are found in Matthew 28:19-20, Mark 16:15-19, Luke 24:47-49 and Acts 1:8-9. 

This is week one of our “Hashtag This” series and over the next couple of months we will be looking at various phrases and words in the bible that would warrant a Hashtag. 

And perhaps you are wondering:  What is a hashtag?  According to Wikipedia: A hashtag is a type of label or metadata tag used on social network and microblogging services which makes it easier for users to find messages with a specific theme or content. Users create and use hashtags by placing the hash character (or pound sign) # (also known as number sign or octothorpe) in front of a word or unspaced phrase, either in the main text of a message or at the end.

So, in this case each of those scriptures might have included the hashtag #gointoalltheworld

This is also week one of Partner Month at Cornerstone.  Each October at Cornerstone we highlight various partners who we have chosen to work with to change the world.  In today’s case you will hear from Selinda Van Horn who represents GP or Global Partners, which is our sending partner. 

And the reason that we have partners at Cornerstone can be summed up with #gointoalltheworld.

The words that were read for us earlier are in reality the mission statement of the early church.  You know what a mission statement is right?  It is when you have boiled the purpose of your life or the life of your church down to a concise statement of purpose. 

Over the past three Sundays we’ve looked at why Cornerstone is what it is and why we do things the way we do. 

And it ultimately goes back to our mission statement.  Cornerstone Wesleyan Church exist to reach pre-Christians through dynamic worship and relevant preaching, bringing them to a life expanding relationship with Jesus Christ and guiding them into a practical holiness as evidenced through the fruit of the Spirit.  That is our mission statement, the short version is Cornerstone Church exists to reach pre-Christians, the even shorter version is Cornerstone exists to help de-populate hell. 

And if Cornerstone Wesleyan Church does not reach pre-Christians through dynamic worship and relevant preaching, bringing them to a life expanding relationship with Jesus Christ and guiding them into a practical holiness as evidenced through the fruit of the Spirit, then we have failed to do what we set out to do. 

The greatest measure of our success is how well we fulfil our mission statement.

But it’s more than that for you and for us because along with the mission statement that we have for our church is Christianity’s mission statement which was given to us by Jesus: “Christianity exists to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded.” 

If we are not doing that then we have failed, so let’s look at the mission statement of the church.

1)  What Is Supposed to be Done There has to be a reason why the church is here and why the Lord leaves us in the world after we get saved.  I mean let’s think about it, the world is cold and uncaring, full of pain and grief and heaven has none of that. And so isn’t that where we really ought to be?  But that isn’t where we are. 

So, why are we here and not there? In John 20:21 Jesus, tells His disciples why they are being sent out John 20:21 “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”

 So we are being sent by Christ in the same way that Christ was sent by the Father, and why was that?  Apparently to help depopulate hell.  John 3:16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Winning the lost is the bottom line that’s why we are here, that ought to be the mission statement of every Christian and every Christian Church, to reach the lost. 

It was Charles Spurgeon who wrote:  “If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.”

Sounds like Spurgeon was committed to keeping people out of hell.   

But more than that Jesus reminds us in John 10:10  . . . I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.   So how do we not only help people obtain an eternal life when this life is over, but make the life on this side of eternity a full life, an abundant life? 

Well, Jesus offered a couple of suggestions in his teachings when he told the disciples in Matthew 5:13  “You are the salt of the earth.” And so we are told that we are to be an influence in the world, both preserving it and flavouring it as salt, and then Jesus added to that in the next verse when He said Matthew 5:14  “You are the light of the world.”  So we are to light the way and brightening the world as light. 

2) Where It’s Supposed to Be Done 

 Jesus told his apostles in Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”   Today that might sound like this;

Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Halifax, throughout the Maritimes, in Canada, and to the ends of the earth.”

Basically that means everywhere.  Too often we qualify the word missions by adding either foreign or home to the beginning of it.  But the church only has one mission and that is to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything that Christ commanded.

We have an obligation to reach people where ever there are people.

That means that we have an obligation to reach our next door neighbour, to reach the guy across the street, to reach the lady on the other side of town, those in Quebec and California as well as those in Ghana and Haiti.

And it needs to be intentional.  It won’t just happen.  If we don’t plan a way for it to happen then don’t count on it happening.

At Cornerstone reaching the lost is a priority, not just in Hammonds Plains which is our Jerusalem, but also in our Judea, our Samaria and to the very ends of the earth. 

And early on we realized that we wouldn’t be able to fulfil all of that mission by ourselves.

3) Who is Supposed to Be Doing It If we were to look at who was there on the day of the ascension we would discover the eleven remaining apostles, but the great commission had to have been for the entire movement at that time, it wasn’t enough for those eleven to be committed to evangelism without the rest of the group being committed as well. 

The great commission is meant to be a mission statement for all Christians.  It doesn’t matter what Christians call themselves, whether it be Wesleyan, Nazarene, Baptist, Pentecostal or whatever.  They have a common mission and that is, to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything that Christ commanded. 

For Christianity to survive, Christianity has to be committed to the mission of winning the lost. 

When we stop making disciples and stop baptizing people then at that point the Church will begin to die, and it will die within one generation.

But the great commission has to go beyond simply being for all of Christianity; it needs to be a burning passion for the Wesleyan Church.  Without the desire to win souls to Jesus Christ our denomination will become just another empty shell in the ecclesiastical wastelands of our country.

But the great commission has to go beyond simply being for all of the Wesleyan Church it needs to be for this church right here.  Without the desire to win souls to Jesus Christ our church will become just a service club, we’ll be like the Lions or the Rotary Club. 

Not that there’s anything wrong with the Lions or the Rotary club it’s just that they are not the body of Christ and we are, or at least that’s what we are supposed to be.

It would be so much easier to convince people of the value of evangelism if the Bible said that the only way that you could get into heaven is if you brought somebody with you, but it doesn’t. 
However, listen to the words of Christ in John 14:21 Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”
You want to be loved by God and by Jesus?  Sure you do.  Well here’s the ticket all you have to do is to obey Christ’s commands and one of those is Matthew 28:19-20 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.”

If that was a command of Christ and we don’t do it then John 14:21 says that we don’t love him, and only those who love Christ are loved by the Father and only those who are loved by the Father are going to get in.

4) How it’s Supposed to Be Done  The power of the Holy Spirit is the means; the method is not defined.   Deng Xiaoping said “It doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white as long as it catches mice.”  When we allow the Holy Spirit to take control of our lives neat things happen.  The Bible tells us in: Mark 16:17-18 (Jesus Said) These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in my name, and they will speak in new languages. They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won’t hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.”

Now some people get really caught up in those particular things, but they are simply indications of the power of the Holy Spirit in the lives of those who minister.  It is a promise of enablement and protection. 

How many people who were serving evil now serve God?

When Selinda and Jesse move to their new field they are going to have to learn to  speak in a new tongue because their mother tongue is English. 

When Val, Joel and Dana were working in the clinic in Haiti last spring weren’t they placing their hands on sick people to heal them? 

I don’t think that you ever have to worry about me picking up snakes, and I think some churches try to prove the deadly poison promise with the coffee they serve.

Sometimes we get so caught up in how we should do it that we never do it.  It was Thomas Jefferson who said “In matters of style swim with the current in matters of principle stand like a rock.”

Do you remember when Nike used the phrase “Just Do It.”?  I would like that to be my message to the church, “Just Do it”  Listen again to the promise of Christ in Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Canada, throughout the Maritimes in Canada, and to the ends of the earth.”

There are two things that happen when the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, two evidences of his presence. 1) We receive power 2) We will tell people about Jesus. 

If our lives do not exhibit power and we are not witnesses than it would appear to be very obvious that the Holy Spirit has never come upon us.

As far as evangelism on a personal level that is all of our responsibility, you can no more shirk that than you can walk past a drowning man and not throw him a rope. 

But on a broader spectrum there are those who God has called to reach people where you can’t.  And that’s why we have partners.

We realized very early in our existence that we couldn’t do it all, and in many cases there were already people doing it.  Which is why we have chosen to partner with organizations like Soul’s Harbour, World Hope, Compassion, Open Doors and Global Partners in order to change the world.

After all “Christianity exists to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything that Jesus commanded.”

God Loves Our Worship

In all my years of ministry I haven’t found anything that can make church people as cranky as the music.  Seriously.  Thom Ranier a church growth and health consultant wrote “The comment ‘someone complained about the music at my church’ is a universal phenomenon of our age.”

If you’ve been with us over the past couple of week’s we’ve been going down a path entitled.  Why We Are. . . and we started two weeks ago by looking at why we are focused on the lost.  We are by definition what some folks would call a Seeker Sensitive Church. 

That is why we do what we can to make the unchurched, the de-churched and the pre-churched comfortable in our service.  That’s why we have an one-hour service.  It’s why we try to incorporate music that at least sounds like it was written in this century and why we try to explain churchy terms and concepts and preach and teach toward the end of making the message relevant to people today.  To answer that all burning question that people ask during sermons:  So What?

And the reason we do that is because God loves lost people.  God loved lost people enough to be willing to give his Son.  And Jesus loved lost people enough that he was willing to give his life.  And so we asked the question, if those two statements are true than what are we willing to give to reach the lost?

Last week we looked at the story of the children who were brought to Jesus and how the disciples tried turning the parents away and Jesus got a little cranky and told the disciples, “Let the children come to me, don’t do anything to stop them.”

And we looked at why Cornerstone invests so much time and energy into our children’s ministry.  And we do that for the future of the church.  The church, this church and the church universal is always one generation away from extinction. 

And without children the church will only exist until they close the door after the last funeral.

But more importantly, the reason why we invest so much time and energy into our children’s ministry is because we aren’t just impacting the future of the church we are impacting the eternity of those kids.      

If we believe what we say we believe about there being a heaven to be gained and a hell to be shunned I would think there would be people knocking down the doors to help insure that our children would have an eternity with God. 

We aren’t just offering a program to keep the kids occupied while you are in real church, our staff and volunteers are impacting their todays and their forevers.

And that brings us to the scripture that was read earlier. 

Jesus was asked by a man what was required for eternal life, and this was his answer:  Matthew 22:37-38  Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'  This is the first and greatest commandment.

Jesus said that is the most important commandment, if you can only do one, this is it.  This is the one that you don’t want to miss.  'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'  So we were created to be loved by God and our purpose in our lives is to love him back.  He should be the most important thing in our life. 
If we have to pick the one item that we couldn’t or wouldn’t do without it should be God.  
And there is a word for what we do when we love God that way and that is “Worship”.  We worship God.  Goes all the way back to the first book in the Bible, Genesis 4:26 When Seth grew up, he had a son and named him Enosh. It was during his lifetime that people first began to worship the Lord.
If we go all the way back to the beginning of the story you realize that Adam and Eve were created to be in fellowship with God.  There was a direct connection and they deliberately rebelled and walked away from the relationship.  And after they were banished from the Garden of Eden we have no idea what type of relationship they had with their creator. 
But it’s not very long into history that we read those words about their grandson Enosh, it was during his lifetime that people said “We need to have that relationship with the one who created us, we need to connect with him again.”  And they began to worship God.  But what does that mean? 
Does it mean that they started having church and part of that was the “Worship” service?  Did they have drums and guitars and keyboards and sing songs by Ren Collective and Chris Tomlin, or did they have an organ and piano and sing hymns?  Was it contemporary worship or more traditional worship? 
And by the way, the term “Contemporary Worship” is often misleading, in more cases than not it means that churches sing songs written somewhere between 1970 and 2001.  But the word contemporary as defined by Collins English Dictionary means 1. belonging to the same age; living or occurring in the same period of time2. existing or occurring at the present time3. conforming to modern or current ideas in style, fashion, design, etc4. having approximately the same age as one another

In his book The New Traditional Church, Tony Morgan makes a great point when he wrote : “If most churches truly wanted to be contemporary, Sunday would have a lot more hip-hop and R&B (have you listened to the Top 40 lately?).”  That was an aside.

The problem is that we limit worship either to what we do in church or narrow it down even further to half of what we do in church and then we make it the least significant part.  And so we have the “worship”, that is the singing part of the service and it is the prelude to the important part which is the “preaching”. 
Sometimes you will hear people say, “I really enjoyed the worship this morning.” And what they mean is that the music spoke to them.  And that’s not bad, but it is personal and while it may be a part of what worship is it certainly isn’t all of what worship is.  When we limit worship to music then it becomes very personal and anything that is personal we become defensive of.
And that’s why musical styles in churches can sometimes result in conflict, because it is so personal.  When we say that we don’t like a particular type of music then those who like that type of music take it personally. 
In other words, if I don’t like singing traditional hymns in church then in some people’s minds I’m saying singing traditional hymns in church is wrong and so by implication that means that I’m saying that those who prefer singing traditional hymns in church are wrong as well.
Understand that was just an example, there are a lot of hymns I like, and I enjoy singing them at the Berkeley and at Beulah Camp, but it’s not a part of what we are trying to accomplish at Cornerstone. 
But if I didn’t like hymns, it would just mean that I personally don’t enjoy that style of music.
I don’t like classical music or rap music, I don’t like reading poetry, or putting anchovies on my pizza. And if you do like classical music or rap music, reading poetry and eating anchovies on your pizza you probably aren’t offended because I don’t.  But worship is more personal than just our preferences.
So when we narrowly define worship as one style or type of anything it puts God in a box.
Worship can’t be defined by style because style is too individualistic.  And so worship music is really a mis-definition because it’s only worship music for some and for others it just plain annoying. 
Neat story, that I’ve told before.  There was an elderly pastor on this district by the name of Walter Fernley, he passed away about five years ago and his wife passed away a couple of years before Walter.  Mrs. Fernley’s first name was Mabel but everyone called her Mabs.  One day Walter asked Mabs to say grace at dinner, which she did, very quietly.  To which Walter commented, “I couldn’t hear you.”  To which Mabs replied “I wasn’t talking to you.”
So when you say “I didn’t enjoy the worship this morning”, the response is “We weren’t singing to you.”  
I don’t think God has a preference for any one style of worship music.  I think that we offer our worship to Him and if we do it with the right motives and a pure heart then He goes, “Thank you, that was so cool.” 
Because as good as it might be on any given Sunday at Cornerstone ,God has heard so much better.
Think about it twelve hours ago he heard the worship team from Hillsongs Australia sing, and two hundred years ago he heard Beethoven play his fifth symphony and three thousand years ago God heard King David sing an original arrangement that that we call the 23^rd Psalm.
And you understand that heaven is filled with music that God hears all the time.  It’s actually country music, it sounds a lot like Willie.  
But we are God’s children presenting our gift of worship to Him.  When your child gives you a gift that they made themselves do you say, “Well it’s nice but it’s not very good compared to other art I’ve seen.”  No you say “Thank you, that is so cool.”
So if worship isn’t what we do in church, and it isn’t just music, what is it?
Paul was writing to the early church in the book of Romans and this is what he said  Romans 12:1  And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.
So look at the last line, This is truly the way to worship him. In other translations it reads “this is your spiritual act of worship.” What is your spiritual act of worship?  To offer your bodies as a living and holy sacrifices.  But what does that mean?  Well there are three things that we need to note about that statement.
1) Worship is Something You Give  We are told to give our bodies and when you give something it is voluntary.  From day one God created mankind with this incredible gift of free will.  He didn’t create us to blindly serve him without thought or choice. 
In 1942 Isaac Asimov wrote a short story called Runaround and in it he introduced us to the 3 laws of Robotics which state  
1. A robot may not harm a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Those laws were fiction of course but God could have put very similar restrictions on humanity.  But then we would have been robots and not people and God wants us to choose to worship him and so he allows us to choose whether or not we will obey him and whether or not we will worship him.  He wants it to be a conscious decision where we in effect say, “I offer this to you” 
Francis De Sales  summed it up when he said  “There are no galley-slaves in the royal vessel of divine love -- every man works his oar voluntarily!”
Of course free will is a double edged sword, author P.J. O’Rourke commented “One of the annoying things about believing in free will and individual responsibility is the difficulty of finding somebody to blame your problems on. And when you do find somebody, it's remarkable how often his picture turns up on your driver's license.”
Nobody else can worship for you and if you don’t take that step there is nobody else you can blame for it not happening. 
And that applies to what happens on Sunday as well.  We can decide to not enter into worship during a service because the music isn’t to our taste or we find it too loud or not loud enough, or it’s not our favorite worship leader, but understand it will be our choice.  We do what we want to do. 
2) Worship Involves Who You Are We told to give our bodies, not anybody else’s body, but our bodies.  And that simply means that you are to give “You”.  While we are here we are here in our bodies, if we are going to do anything it will be done with our bodies. 
Every once in a while someone will tell me, “I can’t be here next Sunday Denn, but I will be here in Spirit.”  Do you know what that means?  “Nothing, zip, nada.”  If your bodies not here then youur spirit’s not here, they are interconnected and they go together.  In this life you can’t have one without the other.
And so by asking for our bodies God is in effect asking for all of us.  So understand you will be worshipping something and that will be indicated by what you are doing with your body and where your body is.  It defines our priorities. 
If you tell me “Denn I really want to be at church next Sunday but I have to be at . . .”  What you are saying is “I really want to be at church but I want to be at . . . more.” 
Because, ultimately  “We do what we want to do.”
So when we offer our bodies we are offering ourselves in a practical way to God, it’s not just something that happens here in our mind, kind of like a card I sent to my best friend one year for his birthday, on the cover it said “When it comes to gifts it’s the thought that counts.”  And inside it said “And I thought about getting you a gift.”   And it’s not just what happens here in our heart, where it is a good intention. 
When I was growing up my favorite Aunt would often remind me that “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”  And Margaret Thatcher said “No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he only had good intentions. He had money as well.” 
So it’s not enough to think about worshipping God or even wanting to worship God if we don’t actually worship God.  
3) Worship Demands Something.  Every decision we make involves a positive and a negative, when we say yes to one thing, we are saying no to something else.  And it isn’t simply a matter of choosing between what’s good and what’s bad.  That would be too easy. 
As a pastor I will sometimes hear people talk about how much they love Jesus, but they never offer anything back, no time, no service no gifts.  It was Michael Novak who wrote “Love is not a feeling of happiness. Love is a willingness to sacrifice.”    Remember how Paul said we were to offer ourselves to God?  A living and holy sacrifice.
And that often means choosing one thing over another. 
And by the way, another aside here.  On the other side when you hear someone saying they are going to choose the lesser of two evils, remind them that the lesser of two evils is still evil.  That was a bonus, had nothing to do with the message.  Now back to our regularly scheduled Sunday morning message. 
And so worshipping God, offering your body to Him will require a sacrifice.  Sometimes it’s small.  Maybe it means being in church instead of sleeping in or mowing the lawn.   
Maybe it means lifestyle choices.  I will do this thing and will not do that thing.  Or perhaps there is a relationship that drags you down and puts you in situations where you know as a Christ follower you really shouldn’t be. 
Jesus was talking about situations like that when he told his disciples in Matthew 5:29-30  If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.  And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. 
He was so serious about that statement that he repeats it in Matthew 18:7-9  "Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!  If your hand or your foot causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.  And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.
Now, Jesus didn’t poke anybody’s eye out or cut off anybody’s hand or feet.  He was talking about removing yourself from situations and relationship that would cause you to be disobedient to what he is calling you to do.
And there are some of you here today who know exactly what I’m talking about.
Your sacrifice might be reflected in how you use your volunteer hours.  Every one of us has to decide for ourselves where we will give our time.  Because we only have so much time to give.
It is reflected in our giving, because I understand that when you choose to give to God’s work you are choosing to not use that money somewhere else. 
But ultimately those decisions are life changing decisions because when they come together they are saying “I will put God first in my life.  Before my family, before my career, before my recreation, before habits.”  And that’s not easy, and that’s probably why Jesus said in Matthew 10:38 If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. 
Because Jesus knew that what he was asking of us wouldn’t be easy, he knew that it would cost something, he knew that it would require a sacrifice.  If it doesn’t cost something, then it’s not a sacrifice. 
It’s been forty-five years since Wilbur Reese wrote these words, inflation has probably increased the price but the sentiment is still the same.
Three Dollars Worth of God
I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.
Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep,
but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk
or a snooze in the sunshine.


I don’t want enough of God to make me love a black man
or pick beets with a migrant.
I want ecstasy, not transformation.
I want warmth of the womb, not a new birth.


I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack.
I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.
I don’t think that’s what God was asking for when he asked us to be a living sacrifice.
What is it that you are giving up?  How are you making yourself a living sacrifice today?