Category Archives: Discipleship

“Sermon from May 11, 2014: Jesus, The Son of God”
by Dennis Gulley

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Leduc Fellowship Messages
May 11, 2014

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?

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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

waterpoloball

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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.

 

 

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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. 

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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.

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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: 

  1. Freedom to LOVE people not WIN people
  2. Freedom to BLESS our greater community not continue to bless the over blessed saints
  3. 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

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Marathon Tragedy and Maranatha–Come Lord Jesus

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I have been overwhelmed this week with  amazement over the amount of violence, hurt, hate and tragedy that exists in our world.  It started on Monday with the bombing at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, then the report of an earthquake in Iran, series of bombings in Iraq and then last night with the massive explosion in Texas. 

Life is full of tragedy, and while some would use this information to say there is no God, I would state that it is a sign of the world choosing to live as if there were no God.  Choice of self over God has led to a world that consistently reflects life outside of God’s will. 

I have done a number of funerals over the last few months and many of them have been due to tragic situations.  At each of these funerals I needed to address those in the room who would question as to where God was in all of this tragedy.  The answer is that these things were not God’s will and that his heart breaks as ours do at times like this.  I have stated that “due to sin in the world there are many terrible things in this world that are not God’s will.”

We, those of us who but our full trust and hope in Jesus, know that we belong to a different kingdom that will only be fully realized when Christ returns.  Until then we wait and try to make the world reflect this coming, perfect Kingdom in any way we can in the here and now. 

I have a coffee mug that has on it the word Maranatha.  It is from a youth conference that I attended many years ago in Portland.  I looked at it this week and was struck by the word.  I then read a blog post by Ed Stetzer that stated:

There is just one use in the New Testament of the Aramaic word phrase, “Marana tha. Paul writes, “Marana tha
that is, Lord, come!” (1 Corinthians 16:22). Most translate it as a cry
for King Jesus to come soon. Yet, that one word has become a cry for
Christians in pain, persecution, and much more.

This marathon tragedy drives us again to our Maranatha cry– “come quickly, Lord” and set things right.

Let us continue to pray for those caught up in these tragedies, but let us also pray for those in our neighbourhoods and workplaces, on our streets and on our sports teams,  that walk in the darkness of this world with no real hope. 

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A Good Read on the Resurrection

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In preparation for Easter this year I have been doing a lot of reading and studying about the incarnation of Christ and specifically about his resurrection.  This is such a profound and foundational teaching for the Church, I thought I would post a good article I read on this topic.

Here is an extended quote from an article Tim Keller wrote titled “A Case for the Resurrection” in the magazine Relevant. It was subtitled: “Author and pastor Tim Keller on why Christ’s Resurrection is more than just a story.”

The resurrection was as inconceivable for the first
disciples, as impossible for them to believe, as it is for many of us
today. Granted, their reasons would have been different from ours. The
Greeks did not believe in resurrection; in the Greek worldview, the
afterlife was liberation of the soul from the body. For them,
resurrection would never be part of life after death. As for the Jews,
some of them believed in a future general resurrection when the entire
world would be renewed, but they had no concept of an individual rising
from the dead. The people of Jesus’ day were not predisposed to
believe in resurrection any more than we are.

Celsus, a Greek philosopher who lived in the second century A.D., was
highly antagonistic to Christianity and wrote a number of works listing
arguments against it. One of the arguments he believed most telling
went like this: Christianity can’t be true, because the written accounts
of the resurrection are based on the testimony of women—and we all
know women are hysterical. And many of Celsus’ readers agreed: For
them, that was a major problem. In ancient societies, as you know,
women were marginalized, and the testimony of women was never given
much credence.

Do you see what that means? If Mark and the Christians were making up
these stories to get their movement off the ground, they would never
have written women into the story as the first eyewitnesses to Jesus’
empty tomb. The only possible reason for the presence of women in these
accounts is that they really were present and reported what they saw.
The stone has been rolled away, the tomb is empty and an angel declares
that Jesus is risen.

Please check out the Relevant website to read more.

In Him,

Pastor Dennis

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Farther Along

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It is always interesting to me how the theme we are studying at Fellowship ties to the stuff that is happening in our community.  This last month or so has been a stretching one for me and for our community as many tough things have happened among us and among those tied to us relationally.

At the same time we are studying the Kenosis, the voluntary emptying taken on by Christ in the incarnation.  The “emptying” is actually summed up the taking on of the additional nature of humanity and along with it the giving up of the independent and continuous use of all that his deity would afford Him.  Only by the guidance of the Holy Spirit and to accomplish the will of the Father would He rely on his divine nature.

All of this was put into place that He might be the humble servant, redeemer and mediator that we so desperately needed, and for all this we are told that at the name of Jesus every knee would bow and tongue confess Jesus as Lord to the glory of the Father.

With all that has happened over the last few months I have to rest in the fact that this perfect God-man has the world in His hands and I can trust Him.

One of my favorite songs over the last year or so has been “Farther Along” by Josh Garrels a good old Portland boy.  The song says that Life does not make sense but “farther along” the journey we shall see more clearly, but for now we trust in the Lord and trust that all things will bring glory to God the Father through Jesus Christ.   Here video of the song and  the words from the song are below.  I hope you enjoy.

Farther along we’ll know all about it
Farther along we’ll understand why
So, cheer up my brothers, live in the sunshine
We’ll understand this, all by and by

Tempted and tried, I wondered why
The good man died, the bad man thrives
And Jesus cries because he loves ’em both
We’re all cast-aways in need of rope
Hangin’ on by the last threads of our hope
In a house of mirrors full of smoke
Confusing illusions I’ve seen

Where did I go wrong, I sang along
To every chorus of the song
That the devil wrote like a piper at the gates
Leading mice and men down to their fates
But some will courageously escape
The seductive voice with a heart of faith
While walkin’ that line back home

So much more to life than we’ve been told
It’s full of beauty that will unfold
And shine like you struck gold my wayward son
That deadweight burden weighs a ton
Go down into the river and let it run
Wash away all the things you’ve done
Forgiveness alright

Farther along we’ll know all about it
Farther along we’ll understand why
So, cheer up my brothers, live in the sunshine
We’ll understand this, all by and by
Still I get hard pressed on every side
Between the rock and a compromise
Like the truth and pack of lies fightin’ for my soul
And I’ve got no place left go
Cause I got changed by what I’ve been shown
More glory than the world has known
Keeps me ramblin’ on
Skipping like a calf loosed from its stall
I’m free to love once and for all

And even when I fall I’ll get back up
For the joy that overflows my cup
Heaven filled me with more than enough
Broke down my levees and my bluffs
Let the flood wash me
And one day when the sky rolls back on us
Some rejoice and the others fuss
‘Cause every knee must bow and tongue confess
That the Son of God is forever blessed
His is the kingdom, we’re the guests
So put your voice up to the test
Sing Lord, come soon

Farther along we’ll know all about it
Farther along we’ll understand why
So, cheer up my brothers, live in the sunshine
We’ll understand this, all by and by