I’m starting to feel like the more I move forward in life the less I end up understanding.  Seriously how did bullying become such a problem?  I know that it has always been around, but lately this seems to be something different.  Our kids aren’t going to school any more with bully’s but pint sized sociopaths.

Now I am no means talking as the cool kid who bully’s left alone.  In school I was the preferred target.  I was a scrawny, geek with little to no friends because I was always the new kid.  It was easy for the bully to separate me from the crowd because I wasn’t part of one yet.  And because of my size they always thought I would be easy be taken advantage of.  Especially if there was a few of them.  These guys would do what ever they could to take advantage of me, name calling, taunting, spreading lies (or as we politely call them rumours), physical intimidation, and finally because they were cowards physical force.  This created the most unpleasant part of my schooling.

But here is where the difference between my story and the ones I see today.  I was not a victim.  That word wasn’t even remotely used around me or what was happening.  I was taught by my parents, and teachers that bullying was wrong and despicable and that only one thing puts a bully in their place and that is standing up to them.  So I did, and most times I lost that fight, was ridiculed more, and they tried to make things worse.  But I did not give in.  I kept my ground.  And eventually they all backed off either because they were really cowards, or because I wasn’t worth their efforts.

Now I’m not Mr. Awesome, this was really only done because I had support.  To the point where when one bully didn’t like the idea of me standing up to him and let his fists do some talking, a teacher came yanked the bully off of me and dragged his butt into the principles office (Thank you for that Mrs. Whiteside).  I don’t think kids are allowed to have this support any more.  Teachers are so tied up by parents telling them what not to do under threat of job loss, that they can not do parts of their job.  Parents are at a loss of what to do as well, you can only do so much with not being their, and unfortunately bullies can be every where now.  We need to support these kids who are being separated and hunted down for their differences.  

We also need to show our kids it is okay to take action.  I have a son who will go to school in a few years.  He will be taught to respect everyone.  To have compassion on others and to as much as possible show grace.  But he will also be taught when necessary to defend himself and others.  I won’t send him to what is now a den of wolves without the expectation that one might bite.  I expect him to be the bigger man, but I support him in the reality of actions that might have to be taken.

This is seriously a sick world we are coming into.  Has anyone thought what happens when these bullies grow up.  What happens when they have a spouse, or kids?  When they enter the work force?  Or become those who enforce the law?  Or even teachers?  Yes some will grow out of it.  But honestly if we don’t change things we are going to go from an epidemic of bullies to an epidemic of women abusers, rapists, and child abusers.  

THIS NEEDS TO STOP.

I don’t understand why this got out of control.  But I do understand that it can not continue.

My prayers are with every child and teen that is being bullied.  And know that there are people that support you.

Now as a disclaimer the title refers to the skit in general.  Yes there were parts of the sketch that I found distasteful and offensive, but as a whole the sketch wasn’t offensive to me.  

I have been a fan of SNL for years through good sketches and bad.  And some episodes are worse than others.  When I watch SNL I expect to laugh… a lot.  Does that always happen, no, unfortunately not.  And to produce what SNL needs to do on the time line they have not everything is going to win everyone over.  Right now the sketch they have that disturbs me the most is called the Californians.  There is nothing wrong with it in any that people usually get up in arms, the reason I loathe it is because it isn’t funny.  That’s why that offends me it does not meet my expectation of this show.  They can have bad and tasteless jokes, but at least make them funny.  Even if I know I shouldn’t laugh, at least try and make me laugh.

With that aside lets look at the actual sketch.  This was a satire if not straight out parody of Quentin Tarantino’s latest style of films, that being uber-violent alternative history.  Not much of a departure from his previous style of uber-violent fiction.  In deciding to do this sketch this honestly is the way to go is with Jesus, the only other choice they had would be to do Lincoln.  This is a great set up for a joke, and it was well executed.

But here is the part that get’s Christians in a loop.  What they portrayed was not Jesus.  Which like wise that does offend me.  But you know what I am equally offended by the portrayal of Jesus I see in most churches of white, blue-eyed, super model Jesus. Though having Christoph Waltz playing Jesus (even if it is a bad interpretation) is funny because of the fact he is known for playing bad guys.  It’s going against typecast which gets in a quick joke. Sure they could have made the same joke with a slew of Old Testament characters but none would of had the same effect as Jesus.

To all Christians though take this in context, though some of the writers on SNL being of a liberal inclination like to rile up Christians just to see what you will do, this was not the intent.  You know why, because they don’t actually care what you think.  They represent so highly the unchurched and dechurched that over the last decade to you could probably write a manifesto about them.  The church is incredibly irrelevant to them, and many regards only good for providing one more joke.   The majority of Christians that responded to this sketch did exactly what they thought the church would do and flipped out.  Thus the church moved itself further away from the conversation we should have.

This show just gave us a huge opportunity to talk to millions of people that have written off the church about Jesus.  The liberal media even pitched in by doing tons of articles about the sketch.  Everyone is talking about Jesus, and our response is apparently lets boycott SNL.  I’m sorry but why?  Personally I want to say thank you to Lorne Michaels for letting this sketch run.  You have given a lot of people a reason to talk about Jesus and the church an open door to talk about why they believe in Jesus as a resurrected saviour, and not a resurrected insurrectionist.

This is a great gift even if it doesn’t look like how we want.  I pray that this gets to be used as a conversation piece to lead many people to the cross.  Jesus can use any means he wants to draw people to him, so why not a sketch that offends?

(and just in case this was lost in things, I did not agree with the this sketch.  I’m just trying to give God glory in it, even if that wasn’t the original intent.  See Paul and his time in Athens for precedent) 

We are now into a new year.  2012 is gone, and we are now quickly moving into 2013.  Does it seem weird to anyone else that this is the year that we are in?  As kid growing up any date with 20 something in it was something far off in the future.  I kind of thought that because the 2000’s we so far off that when 1999 ended the 90’s would just start over again.  14 years later and we are now in a time that the great science fiction writers happily promised us we would have colonies on the moon, exploration to mars, personal robots, flying cars and we would have made contact with a few different aliens.  We also had some more pessimistic writers that have told us that we would blow ourselves up, some country would conquer the other, the world would end, some sort of biological disaster would happen, and that several different alien races would conquer us.  Given though that none of us came here today driven by our robot chauffer in our flying car, and that we are all here and not ruled by some strange creatures, I think it is safe to say while the number 2013 may sound futuristic the future in many regards is still a few years off.

                But this is a new year.  The new always comes with a bit of excitement and hesitation.  We do not know what is going to happen.  It is strange what I have been reading over the last few days as 2012 came to a close.  So many people felt that it was a bad year and were looking forward to a new year.  Growing up listening to my Dad preach he would always cram in a certain line for his New Years sermon, or if we were going on vacation his Christmas sermon.  “This year was better than the last, and next year will be better than this one.  No matter what tomorrow brings as long as it comes it is better than today, just as today is better than yesterday by the shear fact it is here. That you are alive and can continue the adventure makes this the best year of your life”.  My Father was a ridiculously optimistic fellow he was known for saying that “life is what woke him up in the morning”.  Honestly what it was was my brother and I and 5 cups of coffee.  But until recently I never understood this outlook on life.  2012 really has been the best year of my life, not despite all of the bad stuff, but the whole year together.  And by faith and the grace of God if I get to look back on 2013 I will again say this is the best year of my life. 

                This outlook isn’t something that came with a change of age or necessarily of wisdom.  But it comes with a change in spirit.  The ability to see the world through God’s eyes changes greatly our perspective on how we see everything.  We no longer look at the world then in the us versus them mentality or good stuff versus bad stuff, but we now look at things to see how is God at work in the world around us.  I want everyone to turn to the book of Jude.

                To the Greeks he was called Judas, and to the Hebrews he was Judah.  To us he is just Jude the brother James, leader of the church in Jerusalem, and half-brother to Jesus the Christ.  For a while he was actually mistaken in the early church with the other Judas the son of James and betrayer of Christ.  If it wasn’t for a closer look at his genealogy and that he quotes Peter this letter may never have made it into the bible.  And that would be a sad state of things.  This Jude though grew up in the same home as Jesus calling Mary and Joseph, mom and dad.  Likely he would have been trained in carpentry.  Jude was probably present at the wedding in Cana, and a few of Jesus’ other miracles.  He would have heard Jesus teach and preach several times.  Yet despite all of this we know from scriptures he didn’t believe until after Jesus’ death and resurrection.   It was not until Jude became convicted by the Holy Spirit did his focus change.  Instead of seeing his annoying older brother who was always “upstaging him”, Jude now saw his savior.  This now is the Jude who wrote the epistle we are going to start unpacking.

Read verse 1 and 2.

                Mercy and peace had a long standing of being a Jewish greeting.  It was something uniquely Christian to add love.  This is still a Jewish greeting mercy and peace.  Though they have different phrases for it now.  A young Jewish boy named Leonard brought us the greeting this way “Live long and prosper” we’ve known Leonard better as Spock from the Star Trek franchise. 

                Mercy is an inevitability of need for us in the face of a Holy God.   Where we are, is in a position of utter separation from God.  The ancient church developed a prayer for this that we still use called the Kyrie Eleison, “Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.  Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me a sinner”.  Mercy.  It is something we desperately cry out to God for.  It is something we long for more than food, water, or air.  Without the mercy of God we would only have death and damnation.  It is God in his infinite mercy that sent Jesus to die for us.  Jesus in God’s mercy is our way to move out of our sin and separation from God back to being in relationship with God.

                When Jews talked about mercy it was the idea of freedom through sacrifice.  They would have thought of the Passover and the sacrificial lamb.  For us Christians and those who have lived to see the gospel fulfilled we know that mercy is in the cross, that it is Christ’s sacrifice.  But mercy is more than just the commune between us and God.

                In our house the word no is starting to be used a lot.  Joey , our son, is a year and a half old.  He is fully mobile and just starting to talk.  All of this means he loves to explore and only has about 12-20 words that really work for him.  So inevitably he does stuff he’s not supposed to do.  Given that he is still new to this world and stuff that we think is common sense just isn’t to him yet.  This is especially true when it comes to his relationship to our cats.  I’m not a hundred percent convinced that he knows they are alive.  He will often come to the one that he can catch and pick her up by the tail or try stepping on her.  Then as parents we have to say “no”, hoping that he understands the fault he’s made.  Most times he doesn’t get why we are saying no.   Which now puts us in this awkward what do we do position.  Do we up things from a no to time out, or do we give him mercy because he doesn’t fully understand. 

                Think to Jesus’ words on the cross “they know not what they are doing”.  Mercy is often given in the face of ignorance.  When someone wrongs us rarely are they thinking to the full extent that it is going to hurt us.  There is usually some specific goal, very often self centered.  That person that cut you off in traffic, was paying no mind to you they just needed to get somewhere.  Or the person that took that last box of cereal you wanted, they had no way of knowing you were coming done the isle for it.  These people are acting the same way Joey does with no idea they are doing anything wrong, and they probably won’t stop if you said no either.  This is where mercy comes into play in our everyday lives.  It is how we choose to react in these situations that will be our standard of mercy.  Will we be Christ like and let things slide offering our prayers to them if not more if the situation demands?  Or do we turn to anger, and hurt?  Do we let these dark emotions fester inside of us, giving a foot hold to the enemy?  In this New Year with all the new adventure it will bring you from Christ I give you mercy.  May you give it as freely as you have received it.

                Next in this greeting we have peace.  Peace may be one of the most poignant greetings that could be given this year.  2012 was not a year of peace.  I don’t think anyone would try to claim otherwise.  We have had devastating floods, multiple mass shootings, our neighbors to the south are being torn apart by their differing ideologies, countries in the middle east traded governments in violent coups, embassies were attacked through terrorist schemes, and Israel and Iran almost started World War 3.  Like I said there was no peace.  Even at the time of year when everyone says there should be peace on earth a very troubled individual set a house on fire in the middle of the night just so he could open fire on unarmed paramedics and firefighters.  Looking at this year through the lens of peace I can understand why so many wished to leave last year behind.

                Almost a hundred years ago in the year 1914 the world was at war.  The front lines were spread across Europe, Germany was essentially against everyone else.   As Christmas started to approach at night either side would begin to sing carols in their trenches.  Some nights they would venture out and sing together and exchange pleasantries.  Then on the night of December 24^th the trenches of both sides emptied.  This wasn’t one of the many big pushes to gain ground.  No, both sides declared a truce, with no thought to what their superiors might say.  The British, the Scotts, the French, and the Germans, more than 100,000 troops had Christmas.  They had peace.  Unfortunately a story like this has never really happened again.  The higher ups wanted their war and ordered such events to never happen again.  To prevent the men from thinking their enemies as equals they used harsher techniques of killing to dehumanize the enemy.  Their leaders wanted to make sure they decided when peace would arrive.

                2000 years before that in the time of Christ the world was ruled by Rome.  As long as you were with Rome you were to have peace.  The empire would protect you.  It was in this culture that Jesus was told to have the title Prince of Peace.  It gives this idea to those of the day you think that Rome gives you peace, no I, Jesus, am the ruler of peace.  You want real peace you go to Jesus.

                Look at what Jesus said about peace in Matthew 5 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be sons of God.”  Or in John 16 “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation.  But take heart; I have overcome the world.”  In these verses Jesus clearly tells us two things.  First, that it is up to us to make peace.  It is a conscious choice on our part to make peace on this world.  Even though by our rebellious nature we have bent to war with others, we have the freedom to choose peace.  I’m not saying this is an easy choice and neither was Jesus, but it is a choice, and blessed are you if you make it.  Second you can have peace because Christ made a way for you to have.  Not only are we given the choice to make peace but we are given the opportunity to have peace.  In Christ we can have peace.  Jesus’ coming here to this world, going through all the pain and suffering that we go through, he did all of that, so that through him and resurrection we could have peace.  This does not mean we will not have trials, it just means we can have peace in Christ through these trials.

                Let me shed some more light on this for you.  This past September I was woken up by very loud banking on my door.  I was really confused coming out of a sleep and didn’t entirely understand what was going on at first.  Everyone was in a panic and it took me a minute to catch up to what was going on.  Kim quickly shoved Joey into my arms yelling that we had to get out of there now.  With Joey in hand I grabbed my laptop and went to the car.  Between the two of us we only had a handful of possessions and the clothes on our backs.  As I am trying to get both of them into the car, I look up and see at the far end of our building, flames shooting out of the roof.  After getting Joey settled at a friend’s house, we came back and just watched as most of our block and in some ways our lives for the last four years burned down.  We didn’t sleep much that night more from adrenaline than anything.  But the next day we woke up and went out and got breakfast.  Somehow everyone knew who we were, and they kept giving us these responses asking us how we could be so calm, so at peace.  See we didn’t really know anything was wrong, that we were to feel different.  We knew everything was going to be okay.  Because we were in Christ we had peace. 

As you start this year have peace in Christ and be the peace in the world around you.

Finally in this greeting we have love.  Like I mentioned before love was not standard to the greeting.  It was an additive made by the followers of Christ.  Even though Christians had taken the rich Jewish meanings behind the words mercy and peace, and brought fullness to them in Jesus; it was love though that they used to symbolize something uniquely Christian. 

Love is a central focus in Christianity.  Look at the two greatest commandments, love the lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself.  Or look to why Christ came to this world as said in the book of John, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten so that who so ever beleiveth in him shall have eternal life.”  Then we have how Jesus sums up love in John 15 “that no greater love is this than for a man to lay down his life for his friends.”  There is no separating love and Christ.  God is love and the embodiment of that love is Jesus.

In Greg Paul’s book God in the Alley he tells a story from his time of street ministry in Toronto.  The story strangely parallels the story of Hosea and Gommer.  The story of Mutt and Wendy, two people that the world had chewed up and left in a mess.  Both of them had more than their shares of problems but Mutt believed that his love could overcome all of their issue.   Though like Hosea he had to chase after Wendy because she had little care for him.  But there was so much heart ache for them as Wendy kept going back to the street corner giving herself away to the highest bidder.   Mutt in his love kept going out finding Wendy again and bringing her back to him.  He would do whatever it took to get back from whatever sad condition he found her in.  He would pay whatever cost; give whatever it took to show his love and to love her.  This was his love. 

This is a great story of what Christ has done for us.  Jesus paid everything, he gave up heaven for us.  He freely allowed for himself to be tortured and killed in the worst way possible.  We had rejected God there was barely any one that was really serving God but he decided to come and rescue us.  Even today through the work of the Holy Spirit, God is in the business of rescuing us.   It does not matter how much we run from God, as long as we are still alive he wants to draw us out of our sin and to him.  In this year no matter what happens know that Jesus loves you, he desperately loves you and yearns to be in a close relationship with you.  

As we enter into this New Year, I welcome you into it echoing the greeting of Jude.  I greet you with Mercy, with Peace, and with the Love of Christ.  May these three things shape this year for you.

A startling discovery has been made. If a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, it still does make a noise.  With this startling piece of knowledge we now know that just because we aren’t there doesn’t mean we can ignore something.

I have been in churches for a long time, and for about half that time a Christian ( or at least I bowed the title). In that time I have observed different congergations and people.  Though usually they weren’t that different.  The practices were usually the same.  Sometimes I would honestly have to double check that I was in a different location. Most of them were really well intentioned in following Christ, yet it was hard to see how they were actually doing stuff.  The got lost in modern religious practices and got really good at those.  These churches wer made up of four walls and not much else.

Now lets contrast these churches with something I’ve gotten into more the last few years, the bible.  I am by no means an expert on this book.  At this point in my life I may still be able to quote more of ‘The Princess Bride’, than I am the bible. Inocncievable you say but alas its true.  The bible is God’s story, both of him self and to us.  It is an amazing mastery of well the story.  And everything in it is active.  There is a reason why it is called the living word. 

So we have the church which is God’s active presence in the world (though like I said earlier not so much), and the Bible which is the living word of God.  Essentially something that is alive, and something that is dead. So what does this have to do with trees making noise?

Well everything see the reason there is such a contrast between the church and the bible is because the church has forgotten that trees make noise.  Or in a less metaphical way to say this we forgot how to hear Christs heart breaking.  In Mark (the gospel of) the word listen was used twice in reference to how we should interact with Jesus.

Listen.

Instead we talk. We sing. We make joyful noise. We teach. We preach. And occasionally we dance.  But rarely do we listen.  I don’t even think we remember what we were supposed to be listening for, let alone who to.  Busy people are horrible at listening, just ask their children.

Listening isn’t just a word that refers to hearing, but it also means to obey.  So what we need to listen for will show us how to act.  So what do we hear?  Do we hear Jesus as he healed the infermed? Do we hear Jesus as he sat with those the world didn’t care about? Do we hear Jesus as he played with kids? Do we hear him as he went out of the way for his friends, for stangers, for enemies? Do we hear him when he feed the hungery? Do we hear him as he free’s the oppressed? Do we hear him when he cries out it is finished?

Do we hear him?

If you do, then look outside at the world.  And tell me

Do you hear the trees falling?

Ephesians 5:25- 33

1 Peter 3: 7

Tonight I am going to be talking to the guys.  It is all about you guys tonight.  We are going to discuss what it takes for you guys to be men of God.  Ladies you may want to pay attention because this will give you a good measuring stick on the type of guy you should want.  Now guys I want you to understand a few things.  One you are boys.  Yes you are teenagers but in all reality right now your boys.  What we are talking about tonight are things that as you incorporate them into your life will help you to become men.  Real men.

            Now open up your bible’s and stand in respect for God’s word.  I want you to open up to the book of Ephesians chapter 5 verse 25.  For those of you who did not bring your bible you can follow along on the screen.

            There is a lot to unpack in this scripture.  We are just going to work our way down through these verse to get you to see what how God wants you to be a man.  The first thing I want you guys to get is that a man of God must love like Christ.  The first thing we are given in this passage is the hardest.  Honestly if you guys can get this one down the rest is a piece of cake.  To love like Christ is the hardest thing that you can do.  See this is how Christ loved.  He first limited himself.  That means though he was still God, when Christ came to be with us, he no longer had access to all the things that made him God.  This is like if you have a car, and thats the thing that makes you Mr. Cool, but to get the girl instead of using the car, you walk.  You are limiting yourself to show love.  That wasn’t all that Christ did, he also suffered.  We suffer daily anything from a stubbed toe, to a broken heart, Christ suffered just like we do.  Then finally Christ died for us.  See it is one thing to die for someone that you are close friends with but Christ died for strangers, and those that hated him. 

            So this is what it means to be a real man you limit yourself.  Practically this means that you don’t go spending all your money on yourself.  Instead you practice discipline and save it, and you give it back to God.  Real men suffer, this means when you are ready to and have a wife and children, you will go through what ever they are going through.  You don’t get to sit on the recliner and watch TV an tune them out, you are a man and you will be responsible to them.  Then thirdly you will die.  This means a real man is willing to give up everything for his family and community.  Now I know this sounds like being a man sucks, but here is the deal, all the things I am telling you to give up are the things you do as a boy.  The things that you gain as a man top any x-box, G.I. Joe, or other trivial thing you had as boy.

            Now like I said that was the hardest step.  The next thing you must do to be a man is read the bible.  This is a bible.  It is your life line.  This is your connection to God.  Through the words on these pages you will find faith.  We are commanded to read the words in here multiple times through the bible.  And you want to know why?  Because it is the answer to life’s problems.  If you want to be a man and you want to do it right you follow this.  If as a man you want to be married, to have a wife, then you need to be in this book.  This will guide you in marriage.  And later if as a man you want to be a father than you need this book, because it will teach you how to raise your kids.  You need the bible.  If you want to be a man a real man, than open this book dig your nose deep into its pages, and keep it there till it is ingrained in your life.  Not only are you to read the word but you are to make it part of your life.

            Third thing you must do if you want to be a man of God is treat your body right.  Here’s the deal guys there is no woman in her right mind that wants a drugged up man-hoe for a husband.  Real men do not go out and destroy their body doing drugs, by drinking till their liver is black, by smoking till they might as well have lit a fire in their lungs, or by sleeping around with so many women that if we asked you what STD you have it would be quicker if you just list the few that you don’t.  Here is why one day you guys are most likely get married.  Statistics are in your guys favor that, that will happen.   Here are somethings women do not want to find out from men that they marry.  They don’t want to find out that you have slept with 30 women.  They want to know they a precious to you and you waited for her.  They don’t want to know that the reason why your marriage is so short is because you wasted away your life on drugs.  They want to here though that you are going to be around forever.

            This isn’t just limited to sex and drugs though.  If you are treating your body right than you need to exercise.  A real man protects his wife, and his family.  He has the ability to work and work hard.  A real man is not a fat slob that sits on his but all day, who his crowning achievement is he can out eat an all you can eat buffet.  You also need hygiene.  That means dress well, shower, put on deodorant, and that thing that is growing between your eyebrows get rid of it.  Very few women want to marry a brow-clops.  And you know what the best part about this is.  If you do these things the bible says you will be rewarded.  Here on earth you will be rewarded.  And the reward is sex.  Not cheap tawdry sex, but amazing married sex.  It says right there at the end of 31 that the two will become one flesh.  That is your reward, so take care of yourself.

            Alright point four.  If you want to be a man of God you must grow up.  A child can not be a man.  It does not work that way.  Being a man has nothing to do with age.  You can be 30 and still be a child.  Some of you can start living this stuff today and honestly be more of a man than your fathers.  A lot of guys in todays world though would rather be boys than men.  We want you to be men, men succeed in life.  See boys live in their mom’s basement, have the worst job ever, so that they can laze around and make enough money to buy the next big Halo release.  Men on the other hand grow up.  They take on responsibilities.  They are people that can be relied on.  Someone who is just scraping by can not be relied on.

            There are 4 things that you really need to do take your self from a boy to a man.  These are the grow up steps.  First thing is, and these are in no particular order, you need to move out.  Men do not live at home, men have their place, and pay their own bills. 

            Next thing you need to be discipled.  This is a big thing, and honestly a lot of men miss this.  See if you want to be a man of God you need to have someone showing you the way.  Some one needs to be helping you unveil the truth of scripture and keeping you accountable.  These people that will disciple you will also be able to teach from experience how to be a better man, a better husband, and a better father.  They know because they have the experience.

            Third thing you need to do to grow up is get a job.  A real man accepts his responsibilities and takes care of them.  In this world responsibility takes money.  They are not mooching off their buds, or parents, or girlfriends.  They go out and work hard and earn their money.  See we live in this microwave culture where we think we can get everything now and for free.  Truth is you work hard and you get rewarded.  And in this society you need to work harder than everybody else if you want to get anywhere. 

            Fourth thing you need to do to grow up and be a man is find a wife.  This is a step that may not apply to some of you, but here is the deal.  Men don’t find girl friends.  Real men don’t think that they are all that and can just go get sex from what ever girl they want whenever they want.  Ream men love and honor one woman.  They woo her and respect her.  Get this guys I’m not saying you need a wife to be a man, what I am saying though is if you want to be a man and have a relationship with a woman you get two choices she is either your sister or your wife.  Thats is it.

            Alright one last thing to being a man.  Lets turn back in our bibles to 1 Peter 3:7.

If you want to be a real man you must respect women.  Women really listen up if a guy doesn’t meet this standard dump him.  Real men have a good and healthy relationship with women.  They treat them with honor and respect.  They do not pick on or tease women, they encourage them.  Real men do not treat women like a piece of meat.  You know what treats the opposite sex like meat.  It’s not boys your not even at that level, animals are what do that.  If you can not control your desires you are no worse than a dog.  Real mean are not putting their hand all over their girl friends.  They have respect and self control not just for the woman, but for themselves and for God.  See all these women are daughters in Christ.  This means they are daughters of the king.  And the daughter of a king is a princess.  You do not sexually molest a princess.  You know what happens when you do that the king will come after you.  That is what this verse is talking about.  Christ is saying that if you want to be a man for him you respect his daughters, if you don’t he will have nothing to do with you.  You guys need to treat every woman as if they are a daughter of Christ.  And I mean every woman.  That means at night when your alone and you think the best idea is to look at porn I want you to remember that is Christ’s daughter you are looking at.  And he is ticked that is what you have made his daughter.  Jesus is furious at you guys who think that if you take a girl out on a couple of dates that you now deserve to get something in return.  Prostitutes aren’t even that cheap.  Some of you guys need to really smarten up and realize that your view of women is so low, that the idea of treating a women right has never occurred to you.

            Some of you guys already want to be men of God.  Tonight is more of a guide than a correction.  But there are some of you guys tonight is your wake up call.  Some of you tonight need to realize that you have been listening to all the wrong sources, TV, your friends, and sadly some of you even your fathers.  You need to follow Christ’s way, and he wants you to be real men.  Which means some of you need to change things tonight.  So you guys are going to sit for a bit or come to the alter and just think about this and pray.  And when your ready than join us as we worship your best example for being a man Jesus Christ.

Turn with me to Amos chapter 5 beginning with verse 18. I will be reading out of the TNIV (Read Amos 5:18- 20).

 This is the first of three parts in chapter 5 we are going to look at today.  All three of them are talking about worship.  Not necessarily music, but worship none the less.  Worship in the most basic of meaning is to attribute worth to someone.  It was a common theme among the minor prophets like Amos.  For example Hosea married a prostitute to illustrate to Israel that their worship of false gods was equivalent to Israel being a prostitute.  Or over in Malachi, he condemns the people of Israel for not bringing in their tithe, with holding their worship from God.  But here in Amos even though we have the characteristic condemning language of a prophet he is asking them “how do you worship?”. 

            Worship is now thats what Amos wants his listeners to know, and that is your first point.  We can tell from this first section of scripture that Israel worships God in the future.  I don’t mean this as they will get to worshiping God later, but I mean this in they are worshiping God for something he has yet to do.  They are waiting anxiously for the day of the lord.  The scripture says they longed for it.  Because they longed for it they weren’t doing anything.  God wanted them to live their lives for Him, instead they were siting on their butts waiting for him to end the world.  Israel was working with this idea that because God was going to smote the world and that they were God’s chosen that they could just sit and do nothing. 

            Now I would love to read this section of scripture and laugh.  To think that a few thousand years ago a bunch of people stopped living their lives because they thought God was going to end the world.  Unfortunately this is not an isolated incident.  In the 2005 documentary “The God who wasn’t there”, a large number of evangelical christians.  In there interviews they were surprised to find that an overwhelming number of christians believe that Christ will return in their lifetime.  Now there is nothing wrong with this initial thought, scripture even backs it up in Matthew 24:43 when it says that Jesus will return like a thief in the night.  We don’t know when Jesus will return so it could very well be tomorrow.  The problem is with how this affected their world view.  These people interviewed believed that multiple issues which are on Christ’s heart no longer need apply to them.  Issues such as the environment, slavery, poverty, AIDS.  Whatever we do to the least of these we do to Christ.  So if we wait on the day of the Lord instead of living it, are we worshiping Christ or offending Him.

            There is another point Amos raises about the day of the Lord.  The day of the Lord isn’t something you want to wait for or worship.  Which Israel at the time was doing both.  See we like to think of the day of the Lord, Christ’s return as a great thing.  Usually this is because we gloss over to the end of the story.  There is a new heaven and a new earth, and we all live happy ever after with Christ in the new Jerusalem.  We like to forget about the locusts like scorpions, the planet engulfing war, the dragon and other beasts, and a bunch of other stuff happening that will not in the remotest sense be fun.  Amos describes it like this that the day of the Lord is like running away lion only to find a bear, then when you reach the safety of your home you are bitten by a snake.  The day of the Lord is not for us.  Today is for us.  It is like the children’s song “This is the day that the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.  This is the day, this is the day.”

            When we worship it is to be now.   Worship is NOW.  We are not to wait to worship.  We are to rejoice in what God has given us and worship today.  Let Jesus worry about tomorrow.

            Now lets jump down to verse 25.  We are going to take this a little out of order, but Amos gave this as three statements on worship, so we are going to get the whole picture either way.  (Read Amos 25-27)

            Here we see that worship is now.  Which is your second point.  In the historical books of the bible we are given to distinct ages of Israel’s history.  When they were in the wilderness and when they are a kingdom.  Now us as outsiders get to view both sections some what objectively and get to see that Israel in both ages were not the most consistently faithful people.  They had their moments but really the never seem to get it.  To the people of Israel in the kingdom age though, they thought they were amazing back in the wilderness age, at worship.  God even seems to think this a little when he speaks through Amos in verse 25, saying that you did bring me sacrifices back then.

            Now this isn’t a nostalgia trip.  God and Amos are not saying remember the good old days.  We used to really worship well back then.  What they are doing is getting Israel to look at the difference between the two ages.  In the wilderness the suffered, were miserable, had enemies always at their doorstep, and did not know if they would live another day.  But they trusted and worshiped God.  On the other hand in the kingdom, they had a king, an army, money, houses resources, and were respected by their enemies.  They were by most means an affluent society.  Yet they let themselves be corrupted by foreign nations and gods.  They worshiped impotent things made of wood, and metal.  They worshiped their king, and the stars.  The septuagint and probably even some of your translations says they worshiped Molek, a “god” who demanded human sacrifices, which we learn from other scripture usually came in the form of children.

            To boil it down for us you have two situations in life.  You are either down on your luck, or you are doing great.  Now which one are you going to praise Jesus in.  Is Jesus Emmanuel, God with us, the God that gets down and walks with us in our suffering.  Or is Jesus to you Jehovah-jireh the God who provides all your needs.  Here’s the thing this isn’t an either or.  Jesus is not the supermarket pantheon of gods seen in other cultures.  Jesus is eternal and in all things.  He sits now and glory, urging his father who is the best father to give, his children, us, the best gifts.  He is also the God who limited himself to come to earth and be like us.  Who suffered like we suffered in every way, then on top of that took both death and sin upon himself in the humiliation of the cross, so that we could have a life.  We serve a King both good, and merciful, because he has done it all with us.

            See this is what Amos is getting at worship isn’t an either or thing.  It  is not you can worship Christ in your suffering, or in your affluence.  Worship is in the suffering, and it is in the blessings.  Worship is Now.  We need to worship God where ever we are in our life.  Whether we are well off, or if we hurt.  And honestly sometimes it really does hurt.

            Now we are going to look at our third point, starting at the middle starting verse 21.  (Read Amos 21-24)  .  Here we see that worship is Now.

From the book of leviticus, and deuteronomy… and exodus, we know there were a lot of laws and sacrifices.  Sacrifices we an imperfect system to help us draw closer to God.  It was basically an imitation for what Christ would one day do for them and what he has done for us.  There were also sacrifices meant for the healing of relationships of community.  As we see in this scripture the Israelis were giving great sacrifices.  On the outside.  There hearts though were the issue. 

            Sacrifices were essentially a form of repentance.  Just like how if you repent today and don’t turn away from the sin, back then if you offered a sacrifice yet didn’t change how you lived than it was worthless.  God here is saying that the people shouldn’t even bother to make sacrifices to Him anymore, He knows what there hearts are, and as far as He is concerned the people of Israel are just having a bunch of barbecues.  This even works as a warning to others that the fellowship offerings are no good either.  Everything is just for show. 

            They go on to say that it isn’t just the sacrifices that are for show.  The meetings they hold are for show.  When they sing their songs and play their music that is just noise.  There was nothing in their worship that was for God.  It was devoid of an holy relationship.  In fact if you look at the section we read before you see that the worship was to the unholy.

            See these people that Amos was talking to no longer knew or matched up God’s heart.  Do you match up to Christ’s heart?  Is your heart burdened by the things that burden his heart.  See worship isn’t music.  Music can be used for worship, but is not in itself worship.  This is what God wants as worship, justice and mercy.  This is echoed by James the brother of Jesus when he says that “true and holy religion is ministering to widows and orphans”.  These are big orders.  How do we do this practically in our lives?

            I just finished reading a book a couple weeks ago called Zealous Love.  The book is made up of a series of articles dealing with the issues of where people are seeking out the heart of Christ and trying to bring justice and mercy to our hurt and broken world.  Now consciously I know every where is not like North America.  But its real hard to accept stories of a young 13 year old girl that was kidnapped in Nashville, moved two states over so no one could find her, than repeatedly raped and beat till she had so little hope that she willingly prostituted herself to her captors.  She was rescued at the age of 17, four years later.  Thankfully it was a Christian organization.  But during those 4 years where was the body of Christ?  Slavery is now at a record high around the world, higher than if you added all the slaves together from the entirety of the african slave trade.  And most of them are children and women.  Where is the body of Christ in this?  AIDS in this last year has taken more victims now than leprosy every did.  Christ himself acted against leprosy, where are we his body in this?  Lets draw it back to local in our province of New Brunswick and right at our front door, homelessness, unemployment, divorce, abortion, alcoholism, spousal abuse, child abuse, and teen pregnancy are all on the rise, where is this church, where is this body of Christ in these issue?

            I can’t give you the answers to all these questions.  You need to work together and find them yourself.  Here are somethings I can tell you and scripture supports this.  You can’t fix everything. All of the things and even more are burdens on Christ’s heart and he weeps for them.  But honestly you specifically can truly only make an impact in a few of them.  It’s part of the reason why the church as a whole is so big, altogether we can solve (in Christ) all of these problems.  But specifically we can do our part.  This is your worship.  Your worship is Now.  We can not wait to be Christ in this world, in this country, in this province, and in this town. This isn’t something you get to wait on, or deliberate over.  You can’t just smile, nod, and say that it is something to pray about.  You need to do something bring justice and mercy into this world.  Christ will guide you to what he wants you to do as you do it.  But do something. 

            Christ deserves all the worship we can give him.  So let us give him our best, and most pure worship.  Let our lives be a worship unto him.  And let it be now.

I’ve had the awesome opportunity to preach a lot more than usual lately.  So I decided to post my sermons here, just cause.  If you for some reason feel like stealing them have the integrity to change anything that is personal.

Ever since I started this challenge of blogging once a week, I often find when I get to blogging that I have absolutely nothing to say.  It’s just a little bit annoying.  I probably have tons of stuff to say somewhere in my brain but most of it isn’t for this form of communication.  I also think that whatever I blog about should have some substance, as if CNN will be reviewing my blog on the news tomorrow. O well I was going more for amount than substance so because of that I am going to blog about ice cream.

I like ice cream.  I would probably be okay if I could have it a few times a day.  Recently I have discovered a flavor of ice cream that I can not have.  The flavor Dinosaur bones.  This flavor used to be made by Scottsburn, unfortunately no longer is it made.  But its sounds like its a fun flavor.  I have this thing about ice cream, I like it to be fun. Like moon mist, or cotton candy.  Vanilla though tasty is not fun. This is why I want Dinosaur bones, it sounds fun.  So if anyone knows where I can get this at send me some I would love to try it.

At youth the other night we played the game bigger or better.  A simple game where you start with a penny and try and trade for the coolest thing.  I definitely think I may have been given the coolest group there was, but I may be biased. Though are team did end with a scooter and a kitchen play set, though not enough to beat a working t.v. 

The idea of trading up led me to thinking about our relationship with God. There is the good way we could go with this thought, that the longer we are with God the bigger and better things get.  But thats not what I was thinking about.  

See I was looking at this more how we aren’t usually satisfied with what God gives us so we want to trade it in for something.  God gives us a coke, we’ll return it for a coke zero.  Jesus cures our headache but well go see the doctor for out foot thats hurting.  So on and so forth… with probably better examples.  What ever God does we don’t seem to get that it is more than enough for all of our needs (thats in the bible).  Thats the issue though we keep wanting to trade up for a God that doesn’t supply just our needs but all of our wants to.  Heck we probably want a God that supplies just our wants, because we don’t really rely on Him for our needs.  I guess we really want a Gennie, not a savior.  

Here is the thing if we got this, sure we would get all the stuff we wanted, but we would not get saved from hell.  For the most part we are oblivious to our need to be saved from our own damnation.  That is the primary need God made sure to take care, you want out, Jesus is your out.  No matter how kewl the next XBOX is it is not worth the fact the genie god can’t save you from hell.  

In the scriptures it tells us to approach God humbly.  Pride is why we want what we want, and keep wanting.   Thats why to be satisfied and to glorify God, we need to humble ourselves for Him. Then our gifts will be bigger and better. 

Unfortunately the title of this blog is also shared by a terrible country song.  But it is an annoying truth.  Waiting is hard.  We live in a microwave culture, we want it now and there are to be no exceptions.  We apply this to everything even God.  Yet here is the thing God is not a bag of popcorn.  We can’t just pray and expect that in 5 minutes God will be ready to do whatever we want.  He (God) is the omniscient master of the universe, thus meaning He knows better than us and knows when it is the right time.

Case in point I’ve been praying for finances a lot lately.  Usually not anything greedy just to be able to actually pay the bills in a relaxed manner. This is easily a shared statement with any post-college student.  Our bills are much bigger than our paychecks, I am told this balances out eventually, but I’m not there yet.  A few months ago I thought that these prayers were answered some by a nice sized tax return.  But ever since I was told of this return I’ve been praying for it to show up.  Two months of having to trust God in this.  Thats not that long in the grand scheme of things but it is still a while.  Yet it did finally come (or will come I should say, only got the date today).  And it has come not necessarily in the time of financial need (though its there to), but as an answer to another question on timing.

God’s ways are not my ways, and I take great comfort from that.  Maybe I’ll be able to praise Him more the next time I have to wait, knowing that everything is in His hands.