2011-12-23
Good Morning Dear Ones,
It was as if God had brought our senior pastor, Dean Nadasdy, and I to expound on the same subject, that of the cost of being a disciple, at the same time on purpose. Ooohh! I guess He did! J I happen to be writing this on the very same Sunday that the sermon was “A Determined Church” based on PHIL 3: 1-14, today’s installment in the series on “Faith come to life: A Letter To Our Church” was given. I’ve been away for a week on vacation, so I can assure you that the pastor and I never exchanged information on what we were going to write. But, it’s becoming more and more apparent that the Holy Spirit, and not we humans, is in charge.
In my last message, the Holy Spirit led me to challenge each of us to consider the price of gaining worldly things at the expense of one’s spiritual life. When we accepted Christ as our personal Savior and entered into the Covenant of Grace, we were walking to the death of our human independence, as God became our “Covenant Partner.” By no means is this a negative event! That is why we mustn’t confuse such loss of independence as if it were slavery to another human being. Instead, we are gaining a Covenant Partner, Who is here for us at any time of day or night, has love beyond the measure of any human love for us, and Who wants nothing more than for us to gain eternal and blissful life with Him in His own perfect time in heaven [JN 3: 16: RO 3: 24-25]. And to think, all we need to do is to have faith in His Son and repent of our sins. He gives us salvation, justification [RO 4: 3], eternal forgiveness [1 JN 1: 9], and the gift of the Holy Spirit [RO 8: 14-16]. As long as we are thinking about what we get, let’s look at what God gets out of a covenant relationship. He has already told us that nothing matters more to Him than to bring us back to His side in heaven in His mission statement [EPH 1: 4-5] and that of the Son [JN 6: 39-40]. When we enter into a covenant relationship with God, He has the right to intervene in our lives any time He wishes. That’s nothing to be afraid of, because His motives are always good/pure, His intervention is always in our best eternal interests. Read Christ’s words, in JN 8: 32, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” There is real freedom in the covenant relationship we have with God, and yet it is still a death to human independence.
If that seems like an oxymoron or simply doesn’t make sense, our senior pastor explained it well this morning when he cited the apostle, Paul, in PHIL 3: 7-9. “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for Whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is though faith in Christ-the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.” Paul is telling us that all the wealth, prestige, material gain of his past as a member of the Sanhedrin [Jewish ruling council] whose job it was to persecute Jewish Christians means nothing to him- no more than rubbish in comparison to knowing Christ Jesus, the Lord. I got a kick out of our quite dignified Pastor Dean trying to let us know that the Greek word, for which the word “rubbish” has substituted in the NIV, actually means poop! That’s how adamant Paul was being in trying to get his point across! It is this loss of human independence that Paul is telling us has now become so valuable to Him that he is happy to describe Himself in RO 1: 1 as a “bondservant of Christ set apart for the Gospel.”
What matters to any person in a genuine covenant relationship with God is knowing God. To know God is to know Him by the power of Christ’s resurrection, to be in a covenant relationship that is a growing one on the part of the human- growing, intimate, and real. I overheard a comment from the congregation, “it’s intimate like being in a marriage.” I wholeheartedly agree! A real God-ordained marriage is a promise to physical death. But a covenant relationship with God is a kind of marriage for eternal spiritual life. A believer in Christ may go through horrific trials and suffer great losses on earth, but that person is never alone. Christ is always there for him. I know this out of personal experience and can truthfully testify to it. We, as true believers know Christ by the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing His sufferings. LK 9: 23-25, “Then He said to them all, ‘If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?’” This powerful challenge from our Lord is left for our response. The answer we give is not just coming to faith in Him, but it is also running the race marked out for us with perseverance and with love. Our answer will make the difference between real freedom and love in the covenant relationship to which we are invited, or spiritual death with conscious torment from which there is no escape.
PRAYER: O Lord, we cannot miss how You sometimes ask us to hover over a concept that You feel is so important that it deserves extra meditation. Such an idea is the one discussed today. You want us to realize there is a cost to being Christ’s disciple while at the same time great benefits to being in a covenant relationship with You. Your tender heart was saddened at the young rich man who couldn’t bring himself to give up all his material wealth so he could follow you, in MT 19: 16-23. How keenly You wanted that rich man and others who are wealthy to use their talents for Your purposes! When each of us refuses to obey Your commands or hardens our hearts to the needs of others, we are disappointing You Who least deserve this. You have given us the gift of a talent set that You intend we should use to join You in Your work. You never abandon those who have faith in Your Son, especially when trouble comes our way. PS 28: 6-9, “Praise be to the Lord, for He has heard my cry for mercy. The Lord is my Strength and my Shield; my heart trust in Him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy, and I give thanks to Him in song. The Lord is the Strength of His people, a Fortress of salvation for His anointed one. Save Your people and bless Your inheritance; be their Shepherd and carry them forever.” Such a prayer wouldn’t make any sense, if You weren’t the God Who is our loving and faithful Covenant Partner. You know well how difficult it is for some people to give up their human independence to such a relationship, to fully understand the benefits of doing so. You give us direction when we flounder, You rebuke us when we disobey You, and You give us the promise You will never break of an eternal life of bliss, sweet fellowship with You. We stand before Your mighty throne in deep gratitude and joy that You want us to be in this covenant relationship with You. As for the loss of human independence, we give it over with praise and thanks to You for the blessings You give us every day. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: The Holy Spirit leads me to a discussion of LK 14: 26-33 about the cost of being a disciple. There is something that needs to be written here about just how much the Lord cares for us. PS 37: 23-24 is a passage I repeat often. “The steps of the godly are directed by the Lord. He delights in every detail of the lives. Through they stumble, they will not fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.” And PS 40: 1-2 is another one. “I waited patiently for the Lord’s help; then He listened to me and heard my cry. He pulled me out of a dangerous pit, out of the deadly quicksand. He set me safely on a Rock and make me secure.” I cite these two passages here to let the Lord reveal how much love He has for us. Yes, He knows we are suffering trials, some of them very severe ones, like losing a loved one, having chronic pain that will last for the rest of one’s life, or watching another person we care about suffer from cancer, for example. Perhaps, we have lost our lifelong dream, or we have dealt with long-term mean-spiritedness on the part of another in the workplace or elsewhere. If we believe, the Lord still loves us and is here for us. All we need to do is to ask for His help. This is no emotional crutch; it is real just as is His love for us. Let me close with 1 PET 5: 6-7.
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” When we are suffering, let’s lift our hands in praise of the Lord, because He will carry us through and always love us as our very special Covenant Partner. Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15