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“Sermon from May 11, 2014: Jesus, The Son of God”
by Dennis Gulley
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Leduc Fellowship Messages
May 11, 2014
May 11, 2014
How Big is Your Tank
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When I was in my grade 12 year I was given an amazing opportunity. I had played water polo for three years at my high school, yes there are high school water polo teams in the states, and yes it is a real and difficult sport.
In the spring, after our water polo season was over, our coach Andy called and asked if I was interested in playing a non-league game with his team from Portland State University. I was excited that Andy had enough confidence in my ability to ask me to play with his university team.
I gladly accepted and showed up at the rec-centre where the game was to be played on the allotted day and time. Right away I realized something was different. Our high School pool was 25 yards long by about 12 and half yards wide. The maximum depth was 10 feet and the shallow end was 3.5 feet. This meant that during the 40 minutes of exhausting play sprinting back and forth we could hold on to the sides or stand on the bottom of the shallow end when a play was stopped for a foul. This gave the tired players and their tired legs a break.
The University tank was a regulation water polo tank. It was 30 yards long by 20 yards wide and was delineated by ropes as it was set up in the deep section of the Olympic size swimming pool. That meant there were no sides to hold on to and that due to the platform diving tower, the whole tank was 20 feet deep.
This all seemed good until mid way through the second half; my legs began to cramp due to the fact that I was unable to rest them during the dead ball moments of the game. Now I was, if I may say so, an excellent swimmer and always thought I could swim through a leg cramp. Let me assure you that no matter how good a swimmer you may be it is nearly impossible to swim with both legs cramping.
I was unable to swim quickly to the side or stand in the shallow section to help rest my legs. I began to sink like a lead balloon. I struggled to the top flailing and screaming in pain. I just got high enough to gasp for air and started to sink again. I made my way back up one more time, gasped for air one more time and then on the third time went down believing that I was about to meet my maker.
Just as I had resigned myself to the fact that my life might be done, I felt someone grab me by the wrist and quickly pull me to the surface. It was Andy. He looked at me with this goofy grin through his walrus-like mustache and said “how you doin buddy?” He quickly swam me over to the rope and to the side of the pool in true lifeguard style and told me to take a rest. That day I decided my water polo career was over.
Now are you ready for it? Here comes the cheesy Christian segue. Our spiritual journey is sometimes like this. As a church it is our desire to see people grow in their love for God and their love for one another and their neighbour. The love for God is our vertical relationship, or a relationship that is defined by depth. The connections with one another and our neighbours are our horizontal relationships defined by the expansion out from our comfort zone into the lives of others.
I have noticed that in my life, and in the lives of many I walk the spiritual journey with, it is easier to desire a very narrow and shallow pool. We feel overwhelmed by trying to go deep in our relationship with God and/or we feel very uncomfortable widening our relational field to include more people. So we tend to stay in the safe shallow end of a personal relationship with God, keeping it to what is known and comfortable. Likewise, we can tend to stay close to the wall of the pool rather than expanding our world to include the people that God has placed in the natural path of our everyday lives.
As your pastor it is always a struggle to know how to lead our community to grow in both areas, to grow deeper with God while at the same time growing relationally with those around us. The challenge I have for all of us as we go into this New Year is to examine the size of our tank. Is it too shallow or too narrow or both? As Elders, staff and ministry leaders we will strive to give strong leadership in providing guidance to our community to grow deeper in a relationship with God and wider in a love for those God has called us to.
Be Blessed,
Pastor Dennis
What Does God’s Covenant With Abraham Mean for Me?
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I said in the last post that I would follow up with a post on what the idea of covenant means to you an me today. Well, while we may not be a culture that sees covenants in the same way as Abraham did, we enter into them all of the time. Contracts are covenants. If you have a cell phone, then you have entered into a covenant with your carrier. If you own a home then you have most likely entered into a covenant with a your mortgage holder. We covenant, or enter into a relationship in a formal nature all of the time.
In the cases mentioned above the covenants are not always seen as equal. They usually exist because we want something that the other person has or can get us. We sign our lives away to enter into these relationships so we can get something that we want.
We, if we call ourselves followers of Christ, are in another form of covenant, the New Covenant. This covenant is made available to us through the blood of Christ shed on our behalf on the cross. This covenant is one that restores us to our intended relationship and communion with God our Father.
In this case we are offered a chance to covenant with the one person that holds the key to the one thing that we really need, not just something that we want or desire. This covenant brings the eternal life that we lost through our rebellion of sin.
There is another difference with this covenant is that it is not made by one stronger to hold us the weaker in a state of ownership, but rather it is as the covenants of Abraham’s day when a covenant made in between a stronger party and a weaker party made the two equal. Yes, when God made the covenant with Abraham, He made Abraham equal to a child of His, with the right to all of the resources of the Father.
With this agreement came the right to speak differently to each other. Abraham could now argue with God and beg Him for things, Abraham had a right to ask for the full resources of God the Father, as a dearly beloved son.
We too, as part of the New Covenant, have the right to the full resources of God. The goal of this should not be for our own gratification or wealth, but to have the heart of Christ in the garden when He prayed to the Father:
“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” Luke 22:42
Seeking the will of the Father should be the driving force of how we ask for and utilize the resources of the Father.
When is the last time you begged the Father for resources to make His will on this earth a reality? Maybe it is time to start.
Bring Me a Heifer..
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You may be reading this
post for no other reason than the title.
They are interesting words for sure.
They may not mean much to you and me, but to Abram they meant the world. In Genesis Chapter 15 we read the following
interaction between God and Abram:
“After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:
“Do not be afraid, Abram.
I
am your shield
your
very great reward.”
But
Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my
estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You
have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.” Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir,
but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look up at the
sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So
shall your offspring be.”
Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
He also said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of
it.”
But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”
So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”
In this passage of the story God is revisiting
Abram and He once again is promising to bless Abram. Abram who is still childless, though years
before God promised to bless him with children, begins to bargain with
God. But God makes it clear that He is
the one in charge and powerful enough to bring about His promises. In verse one He says “I am your shield.” This word for shield actually means
“sovereign”. God is saying I am in
charge, I, and I alone, am God.
Then why was Abram so excited that God asked
him to get a heifer, a ram, a goat, a dove and a pigeon? Because Abram knew that God was preparing for
a covenant ritual. Abram was from a
covenant culture and he knew the process.
A covenant was not just a promise or a
friendship. It was not a business deal
or an agreement, no it was an act of grace.
You see a covenant was usually entered not by people on equal terms, but
people who were very unevenly matched, a greater and a lesser, a strong person
and a weak person, a rich person and a poor person. The covenant made the two parties, not only
equal, but in a sense one.
Listen to what Pastor and author Mike Breen
says about this:
“Now, it’s a Covenant making society, a Covenant making culture. So when people
heard this for the first time they understood what was going on. They
understood that there were two leaders. There was a greater leader and a lesser
leader, but both represented the identities of those whom they represented. And
the greater leader confers by grace, upon the lesser leader, the capacity to
come into relationship. You see, here is the greater conferring upon the lesser
a relationship. Here is the stronger conferring upon the lesser the right to
relationship. So Covenant has always been crafted in grace. It’s always required the initiative of the great one. It’s always required the initiative of the strong. And God, the strong one,
confers grace upon the weak Abram, the right to relationship.
But there’s more than that. It’s not the relationship that
a slave would have with his master. It’s not even a
servant who is free to do their own kind of stuff. It’s not an employee. It’s the relationship of
oneness. And the best way we can express that is in family language. They
become one. God confers
upon Abram this astonishing gift which is that he is now one with God and can
meet God eye to eye and though God remains the greater and the stronger and can
speak to God as if he were one. Isn’t that
amazing? It’s absolutely astonishing.”
This Covenant that God initiates with Abram is
a gracious and sovereign act. This is a
major part of God’s Upper Story. In my
next post I will deal with what this means to us in our Lower Story.
God is God and I am Not
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The words in the title of this post are words from a song by Steven Curtis Chapman, as well they make up one of the most simple and yet most profound theological truths known to man.
It was in a moment of deep despair that these words struck deep to my heart. It was about 3 and a half weeks after my mother had passed away unexpectedly. Joanne, the girls and I were in Oregon and I was spending every waking moment preparing my mother’s house for sale. This was a big project that could have been featured on an episode of “Flip This House”. After three solid weeks of extreme home makeover I hit the wall. Hands bloody from trying to scrape 3 layers of linoleum off of the kitchen floor and becoming more and more aware of the fact that I was in way over my head I got in my mother’s car and drove away. I drove the old country highway that I used to drive as a young man when struggling. As I drove I cried out to God for help and then just as those words came off my lips the words of this song came on the radio.
A we begin our journey through “The Story” over the next year at LFC it is good to be reminded at the outset that all things in this universe are under God’s masterful plan. Creation of all things comes from Him and in and through Him they are held together. In Him alone can we find hope, purpose, healing and redemption. That is why we have been given the Bible, to tell us of a creative God who now seek to redeem all things at the greatest cost, His own life.
Over the next 10 months I will seek to blog a few times a week to add further thought to our study of “The Story: The Bible as One Continuous Story of God and His People.” I hope you will check back and keep up with the thoughts.
Here are the lyrics for the song “God is God and I Am Not. I hope you enjoy them:
And the pain falls like a curtain
On the things I once called certain
And I have to say the words I fear the most
I just don’t know
And the questions without answers
Come and paralyze the dancer
So I stand here on the stage afraid to move
Afraid to fall, oh, but fall I must
On this truth that my life has been formed from the dust
God is God and I am not
I can only see a part of the picture He’s painting
God is God and I am man
So I’ll never understand it all
For only God is God
And the sky begins to thunder
And I’m filled with awe and wonder
‘Til the only burning question that remains
Is who am I
Can I form a single mountain
Take the stars in hand and count them
Can I even take a breath without God giving it to me
He is first and last before all that has been
Beyond all that will pass
Oh, how great are the riches of His wisdom and knowledge
How unsearchable for to Him and through
Him and from Him are all things
So let us worship before the throne
Of the One who is worthy of worship alone.
The JOURNEY Ahead
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I am excited that we are on the verge of our big journey at Fellowship. This journey is the one year journey through “The Story”. We will be looking at the one continuous story of God through the Scriptures.
In this study we will learn to see our Lord as a God who is always on Mission and that he calls us to live as a missionary people of a missionary God.
We will see the whole of scripture as an unfolding story of God and his work to redeem his people.
I will be blogging twice a week through this adventure. One post a week will be around the idea of our Missionary God, and the other will address the issue of us as a missionary people.
We do not fight…..
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I am on day five of my trip to teach in Ethiopia and I am reminded again that:
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:12
I am reminded of the spiritual darkness that presides here in Ethiopia. I am sure it exists as much in North America, but it is much easier to see here. The people address it and know that it exists, they have just simply learned to deal with it and live alongside it.
I have had a chance to make some great connections for our desired partnership in Ethiopia, I have gained much knowledge, much insight, but I have also learned the difficulty in seeing the corruption that is prevalent in the “church” here. There is much talk and seeming signs of growth yet there is darkness in much of this, and one must be very careful to see the truth of what is behind much of the growth and energy. It is not always positive or Godly.
The good in these struggles for me is that it makes the grace of God through Jesus Christ that much more important. We must maintain a strong faith in the sanctifying work of the cross.
I pray for my true brothers and sisters in Christ here in Ethiopia and I pray that those leading the Church astray would be exposed by the light of the gospel.
Freedom To Love People, Not Win People
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For many years as a follower of Jesus, as well as many years as a pastor, I was afraid of loving people. No, that is not correct, I wasn’t afraid, I was simply not called to love people, or so I thought. The calling I had received from the churches that I was a part of was to WIN people, not to LOVE them. Every aspect of relational involvement with people was geared at winning them over to the side of Christ. I was taught an adversarial and competitive stance that lead me to see people as the enemy, or at best those to be conquered. It was after many years of ministry that I came to understand the joy of truly just loving people.
One of the freedoms that we need to experience is to be free to love people not see them as opponents to be challenged and conquered. Now that is much easier to say than to do, because many say that they are going to change their behaviour, but they don’t change it correctly. Change is not always correct, sometimes it is just change.
Often people think they are loving when all they have done is changed their perspective on people. They view them no longer as opponents or competitors and begin to view them as projects.
I always give the example of my daughters as my understanding of the difference between people as projects verses truly loving people. I never see my 5 daughters as a project, or as people I am trying to “turn into Christians”. I simply love my girls and as a reflection of that love I desire the best for them, and the best I could hope for them is that they will come to know and to walk intimately with Christ.
It is that kind of love I have had to learn to develop for my neighbours and friends. To do this means to walk in true community with people, and to walk life with them. We need to be planted among the people and we need to allow our roots to go deep. We need to take up residence among the people that God has planted us.
This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry
and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your
daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters.
Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Jeremiah 29:4-8
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Freedom: We Have It, We Still Need It
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This last weekend I had the privilege to share at our Alberta Baptist Association annual meetings about what God is doing through us at LFC. As I had short notice about my sharing I did a quick mental survey and heart check about what God has been doing. I was overwhelmed by all the good things that we are seeing as God is blessing our desire to follow him.
As I pondered the great things that God is doing, the image of freedom came to mind. I have been apart of the Church my whole life, that is a half of a century for those who are counting, and I have never felt more free than I do now.
I shared with my brothers and sisters that we have consistently sent the message of freedom to our people in three very specific ways and they are:
- Freedom to LOVE people not WIN people
- Freedom to BLESS our greater community not continue to bless the over blessed saints
- Freedom to PRIORITIZE RELATIONSHIPS over PROGRAMS
In the next number of blog posts I want to take some time to unpack these three freedoms as a reminder of the joy we have in serving the Lord and living as his ambassadors here on earth.
Cheers,
Pastor Dennis
In this message I take a look at two very important questions in each of our lives. Who is Jesus and how do I respond to him?