Foreigners - Who Are Respectful

Aretha was asking for it, Rodney Dangerfield never got any of it, everybody’s looking for it, bosses are demanding it, and parents are expecting it — Respect. In fact, ask yourself this question; If you could have 1500 Facebook likes or the respect of the 3 people you admire the most, which would you choose? No contest for me, I’d choose respect every time. Why? Because I know how hard it is to come by. Respect often can take years or decades to acquire, yet only a minute to loose. Most of us are only one failure or one bad decision away from losing respect that could perhaps never be gained back.

Our culture has gradually, I think, replaced respect with admiration and honestly, while some would see them as the same thing, admiration is a thin veneer of respect. Admiration can be, and often is, from a distance, but respect has to have, or should at least, some knowledge, some point of reference with a person. It is, if you will, personal. All admiration requires is some level of promotion, a little talent or a platform of some sort, and a dose of celebrity and admiration is sure to follow. Respect requires some level of integrity, and chooses right over good every time. And, while right is always good, good is not always right. There’s nothing evil or wrong with admiration you understand, it’s just not respect.

The Scripture, through its messenger Peter, gives us some insight as to what respect really is through the lenses of family and faith. I’ll guarantee that some of what you discover will surprise you.

Foreigners - Under Glass

Ever been some place you know you didn’t belong? When I was a junior in high school, I mistakenly walked into the first day of a calculus class thinking I was in a geometry class. Now I made decent grades in school (As & Bs) but when I walked in and looked around that classroom there was nothing but brainiacs in there and every one of them was looking at me wondering what in the world I was doing in a calculus class. I went ahead and found a seat and, determined not to bail immediately, sat through the entire class like I knew exactly where I was and meant to be there. Needless to say, that was my first and last trip to a calculus class and I paid closer attention the next day to find the geometry class I was actually supposed to be in. I’ll never forget though how I felt knowing that every eye in that room was staring at me wondering if I really knew what I had stumbled into. It felt like I was Under Glass and the microscope was zeroed in on my obvious mistake.

The culture we find ourselves living in has Christ-following believers under a similar scrutiny. If you don’t believe that, you need only look at the well-chronicled stories of prominent believers that have fallen or have had mistakes or failures made public. Our pagan culture can and does thumb their nose at any sense of morality and ignore any sense of right and wrong but let a Christian around them fall and watch the slings and arrows find their way out. So what do we do about that you ask? Well, the first step is to acknowledge that there are eyes on us at every turn and be aware that, along with the scrutiny, there is also an opportunity to make Christ known. If there is a bullseye on your back, it’s because they know you profess to be a child of God. For the steps after that, stay tuned.

Foreigners - 2 Resurrections

I don’t know about you but I’m grateful to be worshipping together this Easter Sunday. Last Easter we were meeting for our first of what would be several drive-in services on the porch and the parking lot after having had online only worship for several weeks. It was good to be able to see everyone, even if it was through a car windshield. Sometimes we learn to appreciate the things we take for granted only after we don’t have them or are able to experience them for a while. The connections made in the local New Testament church are, by their very nature, intended to be deeper and stronger than other relationships we experience because we are after all, integral members of the body of Christ. Consequently, even though the spiritual connections are deeper than the physical ones, it is still good to be together. And speaking of being together, are there those in your world or perhaps even in your family, that don’t have that connection to a local body of believers? Why not get in touch with them and invite them to come with you this Easter Sunday to experience what a connection at CrossPoint is all about. In a culture that has been so divided and disconnected over the last year, they would likely see that as a welcome invitation.

So have you ever stopped to think about what Easter really means to you? Is it about perhaps a new outfit, a spring sale, or even a few chocolate bunnies thrown in just for good measure? Nothing wrong with any of that other than the fact that if that’s all it means to you, that’s a pretty shallow look at the most pivotal series of events in human history. And all that is totally understandable if you don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Ah but if you do... you know that an after dinner betrayal, a mockery of a trial, a malicious beating, and a horrible crucifixion are not the end. Because you also know that Sunday’s comin’, and we all know what Sunday brings.

Foreigners - Who Are Redeemed

If you’ve never heard the story of John Newton, the writer of “Amazing Grace,” it’s a captivating one about his growing up to be “a high-handed sinner,” as he referred to himself. With a Christian mother and an unbelieving father, he went on to follow in his father’s footsteps and become the captain of a slave ship that transported slaves from Africa to England in the late 1700s and became an integral part of the slave trade. He gave his heart to Christ during a storm at sea and became convicted about his occupation. Later he became a “slave redeemer,” a person who pays for the slave at auction and then immediately sets them free.

Redemption is an amazing and powerful thing. So much so that every born again Christ-follower can and should see themselves as a redeemed slave. Like Newton, we too were enslaved to our sin and lost-ness when the redemptive work of Christ on the cross purchased us, sin and all, and set us together with Him in a redeemed place, freeing us from both the penalty of our sin, and then as we learn to walk more closely according to His will for us, the power of sin as well.

This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday, which is the beginning of Holy Week, the week that believers remember the betrayal, trial, beating, crucifixion, death, burial and then the Resurrection of our Lord. We are going to not only hear about the power of redemption from first Peter, but experience it as well as we come to the Lord’s Table together.

Foreigners - Who Are Priests

As the story goes... There’s a priest, a pastor, and a rabbi out playing golf. They’re deciding how much to give to charity. The pastor says “We’ll draw a circle on the ground, throw the money in the air, and whatever lands inside the circle, we’ll give to charity.” The rabbi says “No, we’ll draw a circle on the ground, throw the money in the air, and whatever lands outside of the circle, that’s what we’ll give to charity.” The priest says “No no no. We’ll throw the money way up in the air, and whatever God wants, he keeps!”

According to a recent survey of 18-35 year olds, their knowledge and opinion of who priests are and what they do had to do either with a joke similar to what you just read, or had to do with their sexual abuse of young boys in the Catholic church. Whether accurate or not, that’s not a very positive public perception of the priesthood.

Did you know that, according to the Bible, every born again believer in Jesus is also a priest? I know, that sounds almost unbelievable right? So, what does that mean to the average Christian? I mean, do we need to get us a robe, a staff and some tassels and begin to learn Latin? Believe it or not when the Bible talks about our own priesthood, it’s talking about a very simple concept -- access. Meaning that because of the work of Christ on the cross, and during which the veil in the Jewish temple between the Holy Place (where the usual sacrifices were made) and the Most Holy Place (where the High Priest entered once a year to offer the sacrifice of atonement) was torn in two from top to bottom, we now have instant access to God. That was a significant event, meaning that every child of God could now come to the Most Holy Place and worship God. Still though our priesthood can be a challenge to grasp, not to mention live out every day.

Foreigners - Called to Holiness

When most believers think of holiness, what often comes to mind is the words to the hymn, “Holy, Holy, Holy”:

“Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!

Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;

Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!

God in three persons, blessed Trinity!”

In fact, when we think about Holiness, we tend to think that it’s likely a God only kind of thing. I mean we can’t really be holy can we? If you know you like I know me, holiness is usually not my first thought when I wake up in the morning. I heard Tony Evans say once that his holiness was a holy mess, and that’s probably true for most of us. Yet the Scripture calls every believer in Jesus to live a holy life and to continue to pursue holiness. So does that mean we are supposed to be sinless? If so, then we’re all toast. Does it mean that we are supposed to have enough scripture memorized so that we can quote a verse for about any situation that comes up in life? Perhaps it’s based on church attendance, or how much we put in the offering plate, or how much we volunteer to help. In essence, there have to be some measurables for holiness, right? Good news. There indeed are some measurables but they probably aren’t what you would expect. Make no mistake, if we are living a holy life in this world, we are going to feel like and look like Foreigners. However, that “foreign” state is exactly what God wants us to see and pursue and holiness is a great indicator that we are headed in that direction.

Foreigners - Who Have Hope

It’s been over 30 years ago now but I still remember the look of helplessness on that young mother’s face when she asked me, “What do you think I should do?” Her newborn son was lying in an incubator in the then newly developed NICU at Children’s Hospital at less than 3 pounds and the doctors were not giving her much hope of her baby boy’s survival. And if he does survive, it’s likely that he will have a number of health problems, some of which could be life-long. Now understand that I’m in my late twenties, in fact this new mom was older than I was, and I’m fairly new to ministry when she is asking me this question, expecting an answer. She was understandably shaken and it became clear to me that whether she told the doctors to take her son off the equipment that was keeping him alive or letting him continue to fight for his tiny life was weighing heavily on her and my counsel could significantly affect her decision. Talk about a sobering moment. It was one of the first times in my life I realized that someone was looking to me for hope and I knew that, in and of myself, I had none. I had however been taught and had learned where real hope is found though. So I looked into her eyes and said something to the effect of, “Well, it depends on whether your hope for his survival is depending upon the fine doctors and nurses that are on the other side of this glass here or whether it’s in the Lord that made and formed that little guy inside your womb.” She began to smile at me through the tears and said, “Let’s see what God can do.” That tiny little preemie boy is now a healthy 30 something year old young man. That’s what well-placed hope can do.

As we launch a new Spring teaching series through the books of 1st and 2nd Peter entitled Foreigners, our journey is going to take a number of turns and they begin with this Sunday’s look at our being a people of Hope.

Why Life Isn’t Fair - Because God Is Just

We are hearing more and more about social justice in the media, from academia, and from our culture in general. And, while “social justice” is really not something new, the present day volume around it has certainly been ratcheted up considerably. The concerns of those seeking it are not limited to these areas but what I hear the most about are in the conversations around poverty, race, and gender. While we certainly have poverty in America, most folks who want to bring exposure to that have never been to a third world country to see what real poverty actually looks like. There are “safety nets” in America that don’t exist in other places around the world, that’s why millions are clamoring to get here every year. Can we do more? Yes, but just as Jesus said in Matthew 26.11, we will always have the poor in the world. Politicians, and consequently the media, are certainly making racism a hot button topic. Let me say up front that there are racists in America, in the south, and yes in our city. That said, I do not believe we have a wide-spread systemic problem with racism. A single act of racial injustice is one too many, but I believe those who have and live with racist views are in an extreme minority. Then, does the glass ceiling we hear so much about really exist? According to Pew Research Center, it depends on the field you are in. PRC points to the fact that, in the last ten years, medical schools on college campuses across America are turning out more female doctors than male. Also, law school enrollment is around 50% female and that is trending upward.

At its core, the arguments made for social justice have as their goal, equal outcomes for everyone. However, until someone figures out how to bottle motivation into a pill that everyone can take, you are never going to have equal outcomes for everyone because, motivation is internal. You and I have heard that life isn’t fair and it isn’t. That’s why we desperately need a just God who, in His justice, always has a better way for us than most of us choose.

Why Life Isn’t Fair - Because God Is Sovereign

Did you ever have a know-it-all in your class in school growing up? Every time the teacher asked a question their hand would pop up? Me too. The thing that made it fun in our class was that the teacher didn’t like a know-it-all any more than the rest of us did and she would never call on her to give the answer, even if hers was the only hand raised. Then as we grow up and start to work, there is usually a know-it-all there too. Sometimes it’s really that they have the smarts and expertise to be able to tell everyone what or how something needs to be done and sometimes it’s really just about control.

There really are situations though where it’s actually beneficial to have a know-it-all. For example if you are needing to get to the bottom of a potentially serious medical condition or you find yourself in a complicated or dire legal quagmire. In those situations you want and need doctor or lawyer who knows a thing or three about how to help you.

The same is true spiritually speaking when it comes, not only to the eternal destination of our souls but also in the day to day decisions and choices that present themselves in our lives. We need a God who knows and understands... one who knows and understands what we are facing and how to best navigate us through it or deliver us from it. The good news is that is exactly who God is. He is a Sovereign God and, as such, knows in advance what is coming our way and what we need to deal with it. The thing is, many of us either ignore His sovereignty or think we know what’s better for ourselves than He does. Here’s the deal. If God is Sovereign (and He is) then He intends to use everything that enters our life (and He does) to increase our faith and shape our view of Him and of our circumstances. I want to be walking as close as possible with a God who already sees around the next corner of my life don’t you?

Why Life Isn’t Fair - Because God Is Gracious

For the last several days I have been thinking of the multitudes of ways that God is gracious to us, and they are too numerous to count - many of which I take for granted. As a person with Parkinson’s Disease, I have become increasingly grateful for the involuntary things our bodies do that we never give a thought to like blinking, breathing, balancing, raising a hand or arm to catch or guard ourselves against something about to hit us or the other way around. There are so many things out of our control that He is gracious about as well. A God of design and purpose gives us the parents, families and homes that we have or were born into. A God who is gracious places us in families who love Him and want to live life His way and make Him known to others by serving them and Him. A gracious God surrounds us with friends who love and encourage us along the way. A gracious God leads us to a spouse who fills in the gaps of what we are not, and becomes exactly what we need, and then blesses them with children and grandchildren to nurture, love and release to become all that He has designed for them to be, again according to His grace. A gracious God draws us to Himself to help us discover our lost-ness and recognize our need for a Savior and leads us to a body of believers that helps us discover how to grow, how to worship, how to serve, how to know Him more fully and make Him known both in our world, and around the world. Then, when he is finished with us here, a God of Grace transports us from this place to the place that we were actually designed for, destined for and that has been prepared especially for us.

Does any of that look like the God you know or the grace you have experienced? If the jury is still out on that for you, I invite you to listen close and you will see Him in a different light, to discover a God that from creation forward has never settled for being fair with us, but instead chooses again and again to be Gracious.