Calling and sending

'What is the difference between being called and being sent?

What do both evoke in me and how do I feel differently about them?

Often we use language based on our reality.

We have theology and reality and sometimes they don't line up or we don't feel like they line up.

Yet we don't wrestle with that.

We live in that dissonance and it can cause guilt and chaos and anger.

In this season will we let our reality affect our theology?

Will we at least wrestle with the ways they feel and may be different.

Think about mission trips.

How do we describe them after they happen?

Luke 10:1-16

Sending of the 72

Long gap

Nothing recorded

Missing the hard and the good.

The nitty gritty details

What if we are sent to the campus.

Work with the emotional sense of being sent. Feels hard alone 

Finally the return is recorded

Luke 10:17-

Dig into the messy in between

How does this relate to fall conference?

We sometimes treat it like Disneyland.

We sometimes think we have to put on a fake smile to cover the hurt.

But really doesn't Jesus deal with the mess and the pain.

And then out of that can come with real joy.

God helps us to experience your calling and send us as you sent your Son Jesus!

Let us come to him and identify with Jesus in being with you and going to the nations.

Amen

God teach me to rejoice in my circumstances!

Philippians is a book of rejoicing!

God I think I was going strong the first couple days of the flood. But after the adrenaline faded and reality hit in, when I had to face day to day new challenges. When the stress of a big conference for work coming up kicked in. When I had a bad headache and back pain. Then it wasn't as easy to rejoice.

But God I ask that you teach me to rejoice despite my circumstances. Even in those circumstances whether good or bad.

For Paul before me wrote in Philippians chapter 1:

12 Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. 13 As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. 14 Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.

Paul sees despite being in jail and limited in his preaching and teaching to writing letter and those around him that God is using this situation for the advance of the gospel. 

God I pray that you would use my story and your provision from the flooding to advance your gospel!

18 But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ,what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. 

But in the last few days I have gotten sick probably from a mix of different things: the dirty house, being around lots of people, traveling a lot, lack of exercise, stress and so on. How does my sickness advance the gospel? How is Christ preached when I am sick and stuck at the doctors and at home? 

Maybe I could write letters like Paul did? 

20 I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.

God give me strength and courage to endure these circumstances and to still rejoice! I am concerned I will let this affect my attitude and the way I portray Christ. God help me to exalt Christ in my words, actions, prayers, attitude, relationships and the way I take care of my body. 

God I pray that you bring about good things in me and through me for Christ and the gospel in whatever circumstances I face in the coming days. Through this work I pray that I would rejoice because of Christ's glory! 

Amen

Jesus take this pain!

God in the aftermath of the flood I feel stressed and burdened and physically I'll. please take this burden and pain from me!

He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. (Isaiah 53:3, 4 NIV)

Thank you Jesus for all your love! Thank you for taking our pain! Jesus I love you and am thankful for you!

Amen

Preach Christ Crucified! 1 Corinthians 1

^{1 Corinthians 1:18, 22-25
18} For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

This is a powerful verse for me as a Christian minister. For many consider my work, my fundraising, my life, my faith my choices foolishness. And to the world they are, they make no sense. But in the midst of the world and even some in the church criticizing what I do I must hold onto God who has called me to him and called me to his service. For I trust that God will use the message of the Cross through me to save some from darkness to light.

Here is a very helpful reminder for me in college ministry as many reject Christ:

²² Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, ²³ but we preach Christ crucified:a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

Students at CU call themselves spiritual and think of themselves each as philosophers. They think they are wise and know for themselves right and wrong and truth. Yet I claim we are all foolish and God alone is wise. Students at CU demand signs and proof. They demand logic and science. But we continue to preach Christ crucified: as has been preached for over 2,000 years. 

Many reject this message and reject the God who created them. They reject Christ through whom the world was created. As John recorded of Jesus:

John 1:3-5
3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

To persevere rejection and continue my calling as a college minister I must remember: many will reject the message but a small few are called and will come to believe in the gospel and follow Christ. And for that hope I toil and strive that a few might be saved. 

I am only responsible for my own decision and actions to continue following Christ. Yet I hope God will work in peoples hearts through the message I preach. I love, hope, care for, outreach to, serve and pray for the 30,000+ students at CU. But I am not responsible for whether or not they respond to the message. I am only responsible for preaching it. And I hope in time that InterVarsity and Christian groups at CU could reach every single student with the gospel.

God I pray you would help me to persevere in preaching Christ crucified for your glory and that a few might believe and be saved. Help me to hold out hope against all opposition and rejection that some will believe and be saved. Raise up disciples of all nations at CU that they might carry your gospel far and wide that the whole world would be impacted by the light of Christ and the hope we have in Christ. 
Amen

Psalm 66 Glorify God!

This morning in church at Calvary bible Church our Pastor Tom on the day of his return from sabbatical gave the Sermon on Glorifying God as people and as the church from Psalm 66. In his time of rest he visited many churches and saw the stark contrast between churches that glorify themselves and people and churches that glorify God. 

Psalm 66

For the director of music. A song. A psalm.

¹ 

Shout for joy to God, all the earth!

² 

    Sing the glory of his name;

    make his praise glorious.

³ 

Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!

    So great is your power

    that your enemies cringe before you.

⁴ 

All the earth bows down to you;

    they sing praise to you,

    they sing the praises of your name.”^[a]

From this Psalm there are 3 great reasons to praise our God!

1. His past works of deliverance. 

⁵ 

Psalm 66:5 Come and see what God has done,

    his awesome deeds for mankind!

• For God has delivered me personally from:
• Living life without a hope, a life stuck in sin, a life where I was desperately trying to be good enough to be saved, good enough to be loved, and good enough to matter. He saved me by revealing Christ to me through faithful Christians and the Word of God by his power and Spirit opening my heart. 
• Keeping me from slipping into sexual sins that would have weighed on my heart and future relationships. I remember distinct instances where all of my heart wanted those things and yet God brought me out of those situations and protected me. 
• Loneliness to real deep relationships with friends, God, deeper relationships with my parents and my wonderful girlfriend Ivanna. 

  2. Through the fire he has brought us to abundance. 

⁵ 

Psalm 66: 12

¹² 

You let people ride over our heads;

    we went through fire and water,

    but you brought us to a place of abundance.

• This promise is sometimes fulfilled in this life and sometimes only in heaven. For example Jesus and the apostles all died for the kingdom of God and yet were brought through to the abundance of heaven. 
• So how do we hope in times of trial and doubt? 
• Cry out to him who can save - our God. 
• Trust in him and live in him despite the circumstances. 
• Set your hope on our real home in heaven with God. 
• For our hope is God himself not our circumstances. Instead of blaming God and withdrawing from God go to our Father who loves us. For as Romans says nothing can separate us from God from the love of Christ:
• If we have the love of Christ and God we need nothing else!

Romans 8:35-39

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;

    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”^[j]

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[k]neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

3. God hears out prayers. 

Though God doesn't always answer our request: he gives us his love and relationship with him!

Psalm 66

¹⁶ 

¹⁶ 

Come and hear, all you who fear God;

    let me tell you what he has done for me.

¹⁷ 

I cried out to him with my mouth;

    his praise was on my tongue.

¹⁸ 

If I had cherished sin in my heart,

    the Lord would not have listened;

¹⁹ 

but God has surely listened

    and has heard my prayer.

²⁰ 

Praise be to God,

    who has not rejected my prayer

    or withheld his love from me!

So Lord we come to you in times of abundance and times of trial with praise and prayer setting our hopes on you and your great love! Lord strengthen us and deliver us from sin and death, bring us into life with you whether abundance comes now or in heaven. Let our lives and our words be to your glory and not ours! Amen

Theology of God around suffering Joseph Gen 50

Joseph's brothers did evil and almost killed their brother, instead they sold him into slavery.

Now when the tables are turned and Joseph is in power he has the chance to avenge himself. But he instead does somthing amazing. He has already forgiven them, loves them and gives a brief but beautiful summary of how we can understand God  and his plans in the midst of suffering.

The brothers are afraid and don't understand Joseph's heart but try to trick him and lie about something their father said before dying: ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept. His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said. But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

(Genesis 50:17-20 NIV)

I think it is important to distinguish, God does not say their sin and hatred and jealousy of their brother was ok or part of his plan. He never made them turn on their brother or nearly kill him and sell him into slavery. God allows us to sin even at the cost of others lives. Yet God in the big picture works our evil and brings about his good plans.

And there is also judgement for that sin. We desperately need forgiveness. That is why we need Jesus. Not to save us from suffering in this life directly but to save us from sin. And in so doing we are saved from suffering for we can live again in a life in heaven without suffering.

God help us to understand even in the confusion that you are good and we are the ones causing evil.

Yet you also work our evil out for your good in the big picture.

Save us from ourselves. Give us hearts and eyes to see the truth like Joseph. To forgive and to love

Amen