Engaging Scripture

Do you need a spiritual HIIT trainer?

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Have you heard of HIIT? High Intensity Interval Training. This winter my workout partners and I have done some HIIT workouts. They’re really tiring. You exercise hard for 20 secs, take a 10 sec rest, and then exercise again, rest again, etc. We’ve done a variety of exercises and work/rest patterns, and every time we finish, I’m wiped out. Then at night, I’m sore.

So you might like to know that we did a HIIT workout at the beginning of my sermon this past Sunday! We did 8 rounds of 20 sec exercise and 10 rest. 4 minutes. It was great! I invited anyone from the congregation who wanted to come up front and do the workout. About ten people of all ages came up front, while one lady from our congregation who is a HIIT trainer led us in exercises. That 4 minutes is all it took for me to start sweating. When it was over, I tried to continue with the sermon, and I couldn’t catch my breath.

You do a 4 minute HIIT workout and then try to read the Bible out loud!!! It’s hard!!!

So why would I have our congregation do a HIIT workout in a worship service? Read the passage I was struggling to read, and see if you can find out. It is 1 Timothy 4:6-10.

In that passage Paul teaches Timothy to do two things: Stop and Start.

Stop anyone who is involved in telling false stories. Start training yourselves for godliness. The word “train” where we get our English word Gymnasium. It is the Greek word “Gymnadzo” and the scholars tells us that it means “to control oneself by thorough discipline…In a number of languages the equivalent of ‘to discipline oneself’ is literally ‘to make oneself obey.’ This may sometimes be expressed as ‘to command one’s heart.”^[1]

Before we look at explaining what spiritual discipline toward godliness is all about, look at what Paul says in verse 8. He says that bodily discipline does have value, but he describes it as some/little value. Godliness, though, has value for all things. It has promise, Paul says, for the present life and for the life to come. So physical training is good. But its value is of comparatively small value to spiritual training. Physical training benefits us for the here and now, whereas spiritual training benefits us here, now and for eternity.

Paul is saying that spiritual training, then, should be given more time and priority. How about you?

I spend a lot of time in physical training, and I do not look at my time spent running or working out as wasted time. Not one second of it. I think it is really important. The question I need to ask is whether or not I give spiritual training an ample amount of time.

Let’s talk about spiritual training, then. What does Paul mean in verse 7 when he says “train yourself to be godly”? To try to answer that, let me first ask you: What does it take to be physically fit?

If you ask me how to train to be physically fit, that is a pretty easy question to answer. Look at a show like The Biggest Loser, and they have it all worked out. It involves exercising, a trainer, and healthy eating. Then take those components and implement them consistently in your life. What happens? The pounds fall off your body, and your build muscle. Ailments start to fade. A person moves from sickness to health. I love that show. I love to see the transformation take place in people’s lives.

Probably because I personally experienced a bit of that myself.

You don’t have to get on The Biggest Loser to train yourself physically. There are tons of local gyms with trainers and there are training apps. For me it was Joe Yu. Joe was an LBC student and pastoral intern here at Faith Church back in 2008-2009. He also had a background in being an exercise trainer. He was regularly asking me to work out. I was in seminary then and never thought I had time. Then my wife Michelle also started saying I should work out. I knew I had gained weight over the years, but nothing out of control. Had some back problems.

One day after Thanksgiving 2009 Joe was at our house, and he and Michelle were both saying I should starting working out. I said “Ok, ok…but the only time I could meet is early in the morning.” Joe was a part-time security guard late at night, and I figured it wouldn’t work for him. So he shocked me when he said “Great! Let’s do it!” Joe is a very enthusiastic guy. So that next week, we met up at the gym at 5:30am. Joe brought one of his friends along, Matt, who was a professor at LBC and also very into training.

I’ll never forget that first day. And especially that first night. Those guys put me through a beginning training workout that morning. At night, I was SO sore. I woke up in pain, and then put muscle cream on. But I put too much cream on, and it stunk up the room. I couldn’t sleep because of the pain. Michelle couldn’t sleep because of the smell!

Little by little, though, through Joe and Matt training me, leading me, encouraging me, my weight came off. I started working out four times per week, and eating less, cutting out sugar. In about six months, I figure I lost 50 pounds.

The running started that spring when Brandon Hershey, Matt Marvin and I ran my first 5K, the Race Against Racism in the city. Now years later at Faith Church we have an informal running group that has completed 3 half marathons and 2 full marathons, and a slew of other events. We do quite a bit to help each other out. Accountability during training. Entering events to give us motivation to achieve a goal.

For me it was personal, and it was communal. I wasn’t shocked by any of the methodology it took to get fit. And I think most of us have a pretty good idea of what getting physically fit will entail. We might not do it, but we at least know how.

But what about training for godliness? How do we do that?

Spiritual disciplines such as reading the Bible, praying, deeply participating in a church family, are all wonderful steps to take. But I have to admit, those are all standard answers. Good answers, but they bring to my mind some questions:

Do you do these things on a regular basis? More time than you give to physical exercise? More time than you give to TV, phone, etc.

If you don’t do them, why?

And if you do them, have you found them to be helpful in training you to become more godly?

If not, what else do you need to do to train yourself to be godly?

Could it be that something more is needed? As I think about how I’ve experienced physical fitness, it has always been best accomplished with other people. Especially when I’ve had people training me, leading, me, helping me see the way forward, encouraging me, holding me accountable. So when it comes to your spiritual life, maybe you need a trainer? Spiritual Director.

When we have done marathons and half-marathons, we have done 18 or 12 week training programs. You run 4 or 5 times per week. And you follow the plan. You don’t want to get to race day unprepared. Race day is going to be hard enough. But if you don’t train, it might mean either the race will be super painful, or unfinishable. So we faithfully follow the training plan, and little by little it builds you up to run 26.2 miles.

But do we give anything close to that amount of time and energy to allowing a spiritual director to train us?

Keep that question in mind. If you know a trainer at the gym could help you get physically fit, then how much time have you spent with a spiritual trainer to get spiritual fit?

This makes me think again of discipleship. We all should be training ourselves to be godly. We don’t have to hire a professional spiritual director, though I suspect that for most of us hiring a spiritual director would be a good thing.

During my upcoming sabbatical one activity that I am going to seek out is a spiritual director. There is a Jesuit retreat center that offers spiritual direction retreats for 5, 7, and even 30 days.

And here in our church family we should also focus on discipleship relationships that emphasize helping one another train for godliness. Who is helping to train you for godliness? And then after you answer the question about who is training you for godliness, the next question to answer is “Who are you training for godliness?”

Paul will say to Timothy in his next letter, in 2 Timothy 2:2, “the things you’ve heard me say, teach other also, so they can teach.” Paul trained Timothy, and then he wanted Timothy to train others, so that others could train even more!

Have a trainer, be a trainer!

Go out and get a book that will coach you on how to train for godliness: Spiritual Discipline for the Christian Life – Donald Whitney. This is a book that is like a trainer.

I urge you to read that book, and then pick one spiritual discipline to work on this year. But don’t do it alone. Get a trainer to help you. Talk with someone who is better at this spiritual discipline and have them train you!

Next, who is your spiritual trainer?

Who are you training?

Have a trainer, be a trainer!

^[1] Louw, Johannes P., and Eugene Albert Nida. Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains 1996 : 751. Print.

Is it weird to preach a sermon about leadership that is mostly for those who aren’t leaders?

Have you ever been asked to lead something in the church and thought “What? Me? No way!!!”

The thought of being a leader can raise a number of feelings. Here a few that I have heard:

It’s too much responsibility. What if I make a bad decision? I don’t want to have to deal with the consequences. What if I have to weigh in on a difficult situation? What if I don’t know what to do? I don’t want to know about the dark underbelly of the church.
It would be too hard. I don’t think I’m leader material. I don’t like to be up front or in charge.
I don’t think I’m called to be a leader. God never told me that I was to be a leader.
I’ve never been a leader before, so I can’t be one. I don’t know what to do!
I’m too shy, too quiet. I don’t like to speak up, and I certainly don’t want to be up in front of a crowd. I hate public speaking.
I don’t know the Bible well enough.

Have you heard these before? Maybe you have heard them coming out of your mouth! Are there other reasons that you have heard, or that you have used, to suggest that a person shouldn’t be a leader?

And most importantly of all, should these concerns invalidate a person from becoming a leader in the church?

As we continue our series through 1^st Timothy, we have arrived at chapter 3, and it is all about leaders. Who should be a leader? How should they become a leader? At Faith Church we have wrestled with these questions numerous times. In 2014 we updated our approach to leadership, and we said we made these changes based on biblical principles. For those of you a part of Faith Church, read what Paul says to Timothy, and then answer: how well do you think we did?

Check out 1 Timothy 3. Read the selection, then continue reading below.

Paul gives Timothy quite a long list of qualifications for leaders, doesn’t he? One of my concerns as I prepare this sermon is that at Faith Church we currently have 9 people on our Leadership Team. Maybe the rest of the church will hear the topic and think “Oh, this sermon is just for those 9 people on the Leadership Team. So I don’t have to listen in.” If you’re thinking something like that, I encourage you to still listen in. Here’s why:

This sermon is mostly for those who are not leaders yet. It is for the rest of the congregation, those who might become leaders, and even those who won’t. Why? Because those 9 current leaders have already achieved these qualities in large measure or else there is no way they could have been considered for our Leadership Team. Our current leaders can hear these words from Paul as an important reminder, for sure. But it is best for all the rest of us to see Paul as speaking primarily to us. Everyone can and should see these qualities as describing how a disciple of Jesus should live. Therefore, Paul’s words are for all of us. Let’s all pay close attention to the life that Paul describes here. Let’s all ask God to speak to us through his word, as perhaps there is something in these descriptions of overseers and deacons that we need to hear.

Why we’re installing modesty scanners in our church lobby

What is modesty??? Who gets to make the call? What centrally recognized authority do women have so that all can go to that authority to answer the question “Is this outfit modest?”

There isn’t one! There is no centrally recognized Christian modesty panel that we can refer to. Men, we really have little idea how tough it is for women. One author, Rachel Held Evans, describes the struggle this way:

“What I’ve only just begun to realize is that these two extremes represent different sides of the same coin. While popular culture tends to disempower women by telling them they must dress to get men to look at them, the modesty culture tends to disempower women by telling them they must dress to keep men from looking at them. In both cases, the impetus is placed on the woman to accommodate her clothing or her body to the (varied and culturally relative) expectations of men. In both cases, it becomes the woman’s job to manage the sexual desires of men, and thus it is seen as her fault if a man ignores her on the one hand or objectifies her on the other. Often, these two cultures combine to send out a pulse of confusing messages: “Look cute … but not too cute! Be modest … but not frumpy! Make yourself attractive … but not too attractive!” Women are left feeling ashamed of their bodies as they try desperately to contort around a bunch of vague, ever-changing ideals. It’s exhausting, really, dressing for other people.”

That’s the culture we live in. Other people live in other cultures which approach modesty quite differently. Tribal women dress in ways that our culture would find quite immodest. So let’s start off investigating modesty by trying to become culturally aware.

Take a look at these photos. What assumption do you make about a person who dresses like this?

That they are Amish, right? When you first saw this picture, did the thought jump into your mind that these ladies might be headed to a Halloween costume party?

Or did you immediately think, “Amish”? Did you assume something about these ladies because of their dress?”

What about this guy?

What kind of music does this guy probably like? Country! But how do you know he doesn’t like opera or gansta rap? Are you assuming something about this person because of his outer appearance?

Let’s do a couple more:

What style are these people dressed like? Goth. What are some general tendencies of someone who dresses like this? They like heavy metal music with rebellious themes. But how do you know they aren’t having a Bible study?

One more. Which clothing style is more likely to get this guy hired at a job interview?

The suit, right? Why? We believe that when a person puts on a suit, it says something about them. But what if the interview is for a tattoo parlor?

So what do all these questions and pictures help us learn?

It is a societal norm to make assumptions about people based on their appearance. We know that God does not look at the outward appearance. He looks at the heart. And we also should strive to look at people God’s way.

But we should be extremely conscious of the fact that many people do not look at things the way God does. Instead many people in our society judge you based on how you look, and even more, they treat you differently based on how you look.

Perhaps you rightly feel a sense of injustice about that. People shouldn’t treat you differently based on how you look! God’s way of looking at the heart is the right way. But it would be extremely short-sighted for any of us to fail to take into account how some people still look at and judge others based on outward appearance.

I am not excusing bad behavior. Not in the least. If a person lusts against another, that is wrong in Jesus’ teaching. If they rape another, or if they do anything in between, they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Sin is sin.

Hear me on this: I am not saying that sin is OK, or that it is OK to view people differently based on their appearance. I am saying we live in a world where people commit sin against other people based on their outward appearance! Therefore, when you live in a world where people do not have self-control, you should prepare for it. You would be wise, very wise, not to invite sin in your life. There is a great wisdom, therefore, to modesty.

So once again I ask, What is modesty? As the pictures above remind us, our view of what is modest, decent and proper is socially conditioned. You might not like the way someone dresses. But that doesn’t mean that your opinion is the only valid one. We simply must have humility about that.

And that brings me to passages like 1 Cor 8-10 or Romans 14-15 where Paul talks about what to do when Christians disagree with one another. We are not going to come up with a universally agreed upon Christian standard of modest dress. Even if we took a vote and agreed on a Christian dress code, we might have a majority opinion, but there would still be many who disagree with it. So what do we do when we disagree? First and foremost, we love one another. We can and must exist together, especially in a local congregational setting, where there are differences of opinion about modesty. We must fight the urge to judge one another. Here what Paul says:

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

So with that spirit of love and unity in mind, I refer to my mini-sermons that I mentioned last week. I believe they speak valid points from both gender! Let’s start with what some women have said:

Dear brothers in Christ, we women are ogled at in our hypersexualized culture. It is hard. We get weary. The last thing we want is to have you checking us out. So help a girl out. Please look up.

Men, you are responsible for your own thoughts and actions. It is not the women’s fault if you cannot control yourself. It is your fault. You need to take ownership of your own lust. You should not be objectifying women, checking them out, etc. Do not blame the women for lust. So do the hard work of opening yourself up to an honest appraisal of yourself. Men, none of us wants to admit that we have a problem with lust, or a porn addiction, or a self-control issue. But if we do, we need to know it and admit it, because it is only from the place of honest confession that we can begin to see transformation. I encourage you to have an accountability partner or group. Men, you should almost certainly have content filtering and accountability software on your devices.

A few years ago one of my sons, who was in elementary school at the time, heard from other students on the bus about a website they were encouraging him to check out. We didn’t have filtering software on our home computer, and he snuck on to the site. Once we found out through the sibling grapevine, I was heartbroken. In the safety of our home, my son had been exposed to extremely perverse images. Researches and scientists have done excellent and sobering work on the affects of porn on the brain. It create a powerful addiction, with ruinous consequences. Men, we need to take action to guard our homes, our sons, our minds. I had failed. We now have filtering software on our home computer and devices.

We need to talk about sexual addiction and lust in our churches, in our small groups, and take serious action. When Jesus brought up the topic of lust in Matthew 5, notice his approach:

You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Who does Jesus say should carry the burden for lust? Not the recipient of the lust, but the purveyor. Men, when we lust, Jesus says our response should be to take drastic action. He was speaking in hyperbole in those verses, of course. I also believe Dallas Willard’s approach to these verses is very instructive. It could be that when people in the crowd heard Jesus teaching this drastic action about lust, they would have been laughing. Not at, but with him. How could this be funny?

Consider, men, how you lust. If you gouge out your eyes, would that remove the capability for lust? Absolutely not. We well know that lust is a matter of the heart and of the mind. So perhaps the drastic action that we need to take is what Willard would call the renovation of our hearts. That might involve some serious rehabilitation, therapy. But if work on our inner life is what we need, then let us do that work.

Does this mean that women should be free to wear whatever they want? Not in the least. Without question, especially in a church family, women should be free from objectification, though not necessarily free to wear whatever they want. Paul was writing to women in 1st Timothy 2:9-15. So the second mini-sermon has some important points as well. Here it is:

Dear sisters in Christ, we men battle lust in our hypersexualized culture. It is hard. We get weary. The last thing we want is to see some of you dressed immodestly. So help a guy out. Please cover up.

Just as the men are responsible for how they think, women, you are also responsible for how you dress. Paul said clearly that the principle you should follow is to be known for your good deeds. Be aware of how warped our society can be, of what reputation you desire to carry and of what your message your dress sends to those who might not have self-control. Be known for your character. May your outerwear be an expression of your inner character.

So, Faith Church, we are installing new modesty detection scanners this week. All women must walk through the scanners before they enter the sanctuary. Men are exempt because Paul didn’t address them. The scanner will sound a buzzer if the woman is not dressed modestly, and our modesty security team will escort her to our new clothing ministry which will outfit her with proper attire. She may then enter the sanctuary. Image result for refrigerator boxes

We will also be email you all catalogs which will enable you to order our new church uniforms. That way no will have to face the shame of the scanners. Except guests. And they will get up to code quickly, we’re sure. Here is a picture of the sample uniform. We will provide kits for cutting out eye-holes.

Just kidding! No church should endeavor to create a dress code. Or install scanners. And neither will we. But we do ask all women to consider what Paul says in this passage. What does it mean to dress with modesty, propriety and decency? Please seek a faithful answer to that question before the Lord. I would recommend that women discuss this together. Our culture has plenty of clothing styles that are considered trendy, fashionable, and attractive. But our culture’s perspective should not be seen as the last word on the matter. The runways in Paris, London and NYC might not be the best place to learn how to answer the question of what is modest. Then again, they might! They might have good options. But they also have a reputation of subtly promoting the objectification of women, based on the styles they design.

In conclusion, I return to what Paul said above in Romans. Let us love one another. Our love for another should be such a priority that we are willing to practice massive amounts of self-control for one another.

PS – I mentioned a bonus 4th sermon in my post last week. I did briefly preach that on Sunday. It was about the role of women in ministry. My perspective was identical to what I said here. I continue to believe that in a near-egalitarian culture, such as the USA, Paul would have preached something very different than what he said in 1st Timothy 2:9-15 about women and their role in ministry. Look no further than how differently he taught in Romans 16, where he mentions Junias, a female apostle. That said, and because their is a robust, faithful hermeneutic around the equality of men and women in the church, I cannot fathom why other approaches continue to exist that do not allow for total equality of men and women in the church.

Why I’m preaching 3 different sermons about modesty…at the same time…kinda…

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Tomorrow I’m preaching 3 different sermons on modesty…at the same time. Kinda. Obviously, I can’t speak three sermon simultaneously, unless I recorded them separately and played them all at the same time. Or maybe I could record two, playing them at the same time as I preach the third. Imagine the cacophony.

Instead, I’m planning on speaking three sermons on modesty within the same timeframe of 30-35 minutes. Don’t worry, Faith Church, tomorrow is a coffee break Sunday, so that means coffee and snacks come before the sermon! You might want to bring extra with you back to your seats.

Actually, the first two sermons on modesty will be rather short. In fact, I can summarize each of them in one paragraph for you. Before I do that, though, you might be wondering why I am preaching on modesty at all. Simply, it is what comes next. I have been preaching through the biblical book of 1st Timothy, which is actually a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote, around 60AD, to his young associate named Timothy, who was pastor of the church Paul started in the Roman city of Ephesus. Paul wanted the church to thrive, and he wanted Timothy to thrive as its pastor. He writes Timothy, then, giving him advice and instruction about numerous matters in the church.

Last week we started chapter 2 in the letter, and we found that chapter 2 includes instructions about worship. First up was prayer, and Paul talked with the men about raising hands in prayer. You can read about that here and here. This week he speaks to the women, instructing them how to dress modestly. That’s why we’re talking about it. You can see what Paul says in 1 Timothy 2:9-15.

I’ve been thinking about this sermon quite a lot this week, and I’ve decided it is going to require three sermons in one.

The first sermon on modesty is the one that some men have asked me to preach to the ladies. Here’s a summary:

Dear sisters in Christ, we battle lust in our hypersexualized culture. It is hard. We get weary. The last thing we want is to see some of you dressed immodestly. So help a guy out. Please cover up.

And now for my second sermon on modesty. This is the one that some ladies have asked me to preach to the men.

Dear brothers in Christ, we are ogled at in our hypersexualized culture. It is hard. We get weary. The last thing we want is to have you checking us out. So help a girl out. Please look up.

But you know what? I really don’t want to preach either of those sermons. There is certainly truth in both of them. And that’s why I’m still going to preach them. But I have a third sermon on modesty as well. It is the one I really want to preach That one you’ll have to come to Faith Church tomorrow February 26, 2017, if you would like to hear it. I hope you can join us! Then stay for sermon discussion group, where we can talk further.

PS – There might even be a bonus 4th sermon.

Could prayer meetings and hand-raising be the worship that God really wants?

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Last week I mentioned the massive investment Christians have made in building-centered, staff/program-heavy, Sunday worship. I wondered if God might evaluate us concluding, “I wish you would have done something different.” But how do we know what God would say? Most of us involved in leading church worship do want to know God’s evaluation of our worship. Is it possible to get such an evaluation?

At Faith Church, we’ve been studying the biblical letter of 1st Timothy, and the section we came to on Sunday brought us face to face with an evaluation of our worship. Read 1 Timothy 2:1-8 to see for yourself.

In verse 3 where Paul says that “this is good and pleases God our savior.” What is good? What pleases him? To be a praying people! “This” refers to verses 1-3 in which Paul is urging them to be a praying people.

You would be hard-pressed to use Scripture to support the investment most church makes in buildings, worship services, and staff (including pastors) that lead programs. I am not saying that Scripture says those things are wrong and we should stop doing them. Instead, we need to see Paul here teaching us that Christians demonstrate a commitment to being a praying people. When it comes to worship, being a praying people is good and pleases God our Savior.

So what will it look like for us to increase our quantity of prayer?

An attempt to answer that question brings to mind the Jim Cymbala quote I put at the top of every Faith Church Wednesday evening prayer meeting guide:

“From this day on, the prayer meeting will be the barometer of our church. What happens on Wednesday night will be the gauge by which we will judge success or failure because that will be the measure by which God blesses us.”

Think about that quote. Is it possible that if we are prayer-less or don’t pray enough, we will not access the blessing and power that God offers us? Is it possible that we emphasize Sunday morning worship too much, and Wednesday evening prayer not enough?

Paul says a few other things about prayer in this passage as well. But I’d like to jump to his conclusion in verse 8, where he says, “Therefore I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.”

Based on everything he has said to Timothy about prayer, Paul wants men everywhere to lift up hands in prayer. Paul has made his case. He has argued that prayer is vital. He spends time describing what prayer is, who to pray for, what to pray for, and now his conclusion? Lift up your hands.

I have to admit that I got to that part and thought to myself, “Huh? Really? Why does he care about lifting up of hands?” And to some degree I still think that. In fact, I often think that hand-raising can be so contrived. Like in this video:

Then I think, I’m at least a bit used to the idea of raising hands during the musical part of our worship service. So why would Paul ask them to raise hands in prayer? And why does he pinpoint the men? Notice that in verse 9, which we’ll get to next week, he is going to talk specifically to the women. If there he is clearly talking to the women, here in verse 8 we know he is specifically talking to the men. I bring that up because sometimes “men” can be a generic way to speak of both genders. “Peace to all men, or all mankind”. Not here though.

Paul wants the men to lift up hands in prayer.

Men at Faith Church, including me, barely ever do this. Is that cool, in God’s evaluation, or not cool? We have some people, including men, that lift up hands during singing. Is that the same as what Paul is talking about? Maybe. Maybe not.

Let’s approach it from another angle: why do people not lift their hands during prayer? Should we? Investigate this with me a bit further.

Paul is possibly speaking figuratively here. It could be that he just wants people to pray, and he is using the words “lift up holy hands” as way of describing prayer. I grew up in a culture that taught Sunday School children to “bow your heads, fold your hands, and close your eyes”. Some Christian speakers, before leading a congregation in prayer, say “Would you bow your heads with me?” They don’t even use the word “prayer” but we all know what they mean. They don’t really want people to physically bow, do they? No, they want people to pray. But the act of bowing has become synonymous with the act of praying. “Bow your heads in prayer.” Paul could easily be doing something similar here. We’re not used to it because raising hands in prayer is not a part of our worship culture. But it was for them. Look through the Old Testament and raising hands in prayer is all over the place. So it could just be cultural.

But let’s not just assume that Paul is speaking figuratively. What if he does want Christians, and especially men, to raise their hands when they pray?

When I was a student at Bible college, we had chapel service every day in the morning. At some point a group of students started lifting their hands during worship. A few weeks went by, and one day the President at the time started off chapel with an announcement. “There will be no raising of hands here.” Why not? Was the president of a Bible college going against the Bible? It seems so, because here we have Paul specifically telling the men to raise up holy hands in prayer.

Frankly, I read this verse and I don’t like it. I must admit within me, I rebel emotionally at the idea of raising hands. Why, Paul, why? It seems so stupid. Really, Paul, no one cares whether or not I raise hands in prayer!

I think there are a few ways to respond to that.

First, I need to remember that God is not interested in rituals. We read that many places as well. He was regularly upset with the Israelites when they practiced the rituals of worship, especially the vast sacrificial system, but didn’t give their hearts in worship. God says “I want your hearts, not sacrifices.” Hand-raising could easily become a ritual. I start praying and raise my hands just to check it off the list. Or what if, at the end of each sermon when I normally close in prayer, I say, “OK, men, I’m going to start praying now, so up with your hands!”? Our God is not into that kind of ritual. He wants our hearts!

And that is where I think we would do well to examine why we do or do not raise hands. If done with the right heart motivation, raising hands can show a submissiveness to God. Look at the physical difference between the posture of open hands raised and that of crossed arms. Open vs. Closed. Symbolically that says something. Raised hands can be a plea to God for help, a humility before God.

Paul is not saying that you need to go to Tim Hawkins’ hand-raising class to learn how to do it right. But we all should look at our inner attitude and motivation when we do raise our hands. Examine your heart. Why do you do this? To draw attention to yourself? Or because you think you have to? Or because you are filled with gratitude to God, because you want to show humility and praise to God?

At Faith Church, we have a lot more of us that never raise hands, as compared to those that do. We have some that want to raise their hands, but are shy. Or we wonder what people will think if we raise our hands. Yours truly is in this category. When we’re singing songs, I have all kinds of thoughts going through my head. I want to raise my hands, but I don’t want to be showy. But then I think, maybe I should raise my hands because I’m the pastor. No, I think, that’s not what God wants. Not ritual, but heart. Then I think, yeah, but remember how excited you get at Connor’s soccer games, and your hands are in the air a lot! And you don’t care what anyone else in the crowd thinks of you. Michelle is embarrassed at how loud you get. Why can’t you do that during worship? True, I tell myself, true. My fear takes over though. I rationalize: I don’t need to raise hands, do I? I mean, God doesn’t really care, right? He wants my heart, right? And I usually don’t raise them.

And that is a peak into my heart and mind almost every Sunday. It can feel like inner turmoil rather than the worshipful, thankful attitude I want to have during singing praise to God.

If that at all resonates with you, are you allowing fear to grip you and control you, more than your desire to lift up your hands as act of praise and prayer showing your submissiveness to God? I can’t answer that for you. It could be that a lot more of us do need to raise our hands. But none of us should judge. Whether we see people raising hands a lot and think they should less, or whether we don’t see people raising hands much and think they should more, let us not be a people of judging one another. What is important is the heart!

Let us also, Christian brothers and sisters, be a people of prayer. I love that during most Faith Church worship services, we have an open mic sharing and prayer time. But I also love that we have Wednesday evening 7-8pm focused on prayer. There are many other ways and places that we can pray. Sunday School classes, small groups, Bible studies, one on one, before meals or before bed time. I encourage all those things.

But let me ask, family of Faith Church: what is your schedule like on Wednesday at 7pm? Seriously. Will you consider making Wednesday evening prayer meeting a priority? We won’t force you to pray out loud. We don’t require long, eloquent prayers. We have a short Bible study, right now we’re going through the book of Joshua, and then we pray. We have a time for requests, we pray through the bulletin prayer list, we pray for any requests that are submitted via the connection cards, email, or otherwise, and then we start praying for our church and ministry. I find the time usually flies by! Will you join us so that we can become more the praying people that God wants us to be?

What if Christianity’s massive investment in worship is wrong?

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Is it possible that Christianity’s massive investment in worship is misguided?

Think about it. We invest a lot of time, money and energy into worship, don’t we?

One morning or evening each week is devoted to it. Our society is very much oriented toward a weekly schedule that keeps Sunday mornings free.

We also build buildings for worship. We don’t have to. We could worship without them. But it is also not wrong to build buildings. The simple matter of fact, though, is we build buildings, lots of them. I don’t know the specific number, but I have heard that there are about 800 churches in Lancaster County, and most of them have buildings and property. Some are massive, some tiny, and many sizes in between. Drive around Lancaster County and start tallying up the church buildings and you lose count. Think about that with me for a minute. What would you estimate the average value of a church building and property to be? Now multiply that by 800. Then add the years upon years of furnishings, utilities and upkeep. That’s a lot of money, isn’t it? I wouldn’t doubt the figure is in the billions of dollars.

Then think about the other costs of worship. Staff is the big one. That’s me. The pastors. Then there are worship leaders and the many other staff. Multiply that by 800 churches, and here in Lancaster we spend a lot of money on hiring people to be involved in worship and worship programs, don’t we?

Next think of the time involved. Not just the 1.5 to 3 hours that you spend attending worship service and classes. Also add in the prep time, the volunteer time. Multiply that by 52 weeks every year. The result is a boatload of hours.

Put it all together and what do you have? We Christians make a massive investment in worship, don’t we? Why do we do this? The standard answer, and it is a good one, is that we give so much because God is worthy of our worship.

Not so fast, though. God is worthy, no question about it, but does that mean we can worship him however we want?

Because we invest so much into worship, it is incumbent on us to evaluate our investment, right? When you give time and energy and money to something, you are being responsible if you evaluate how that time, energy and money is being used, right?

How many of you would want to stand before God in heaven and hear him say “Your worship was seriously wrong. All that time and energy and money you spent on Sunday mornings in your buildings with your professional staff and worship services with songs and sermons and classes…I didn’t want you to do that!” You would want to know that, right? And you’d want to know what God wants sooner rather than later, wouldn’t you? I would. In fact, even if he said “You were on the right track, you were mostly right, about 75% correct in your investment in worship, but here are some things I wish you had done differently…” I would want to know that too! I would want to know even if we only got 5% wrong. Even if it was 1%. But how can we know?

When I meet people who don’t know much about Faith Church, they often have a series of questions they ask me: How big is the church? Is it inter-generational? And what kind of worship do you have? When they ask about worship, they’re not wondering about my sermons. They are wondering about the music! Is it traditional, contemporary, blended? We had a guest musician at our church a year ago or so for a special service, and he asked me that question: “What kind of worship do you have?” When I answered “experimental”, you should have seen the wrinkled up, confused look on his face. It was great! More recently I have changed my answer a bit. I still describe our worship as experimental, but I try to explain it a bit because people don’t know what I mean.

So what do I mean by “experimental”? People from Faith Church reading this might actually be confused by what I’m saying here because most Sundays we have a typical standby kind of worship. If you’ve been with us for a couple months, you know what I mean: welcome & announcements, focusing prayer, worship songs (mixture of old and new), sharing time, prayer, dismissal of kids, sermon, closing song, fellowship time. Doesn’t sound very experimental does it?

But I say that we are experimental because about once per quarter we try to do something completely different. Silent Sunday, Church has left the building, Worship in the park, worship in the Fellowship Hall around tables, artistic Sunday, change up the order of worship, change the method of communion, etc. It has been wonderful having the variety!

Why do we experiment with worship?

We experiment because we don’t ever want to give ourselves the idea that we have worship figured out. We always want to have the posture of learners when it comes to worship. There is no one right way to worship. We can learn from many different Christian traditions and new and upcoming styles about worship. Silent Sunday, for example, was informed by Quaker and Taize worship. We want to keep learning.

Why am I saying all this about experimental worship and being learners about worship? Because on our next two Sundays in our study of 1st Timothy, Paul teaches Timothy about worship. This is perfect for people who see themselves as learners of worship. Learners of worship don’t come to worship expecting to worship how they like to worship. Instead learners of worship come to worship services expecting God to teach them. That’s you and me. We are learners of worship. Disciples are learners from Jesus. And when we come to worship we come with hearts and minds that pray “Lord teach me today. Teach me how to worship you. Teach me what you want to teach me.”

Learners come to worship with teachable hearts and minds! And for the next two Sundays we are going to learn from Paul how to worship. Paul wanted Timothy to teach the church in Ephesus about worship. You are welcome to join us at Faith Church on Sunday if you want to learn about worship too! To prepare you might consider reading 1st Timothy 2. Hope to see you there!

Two things Christians should fight for

Image result for fight the good fight Paul tells Timothy to fight the good fight. Generally Christians are not supposed to be fighting. So what fight is Paul talking about? He calls it a good fight. Not too many fights could be described as good ones.

Life can feel like a fight. Have you ever felt that way? Life seems too hard sometimes doesn’t it? Is that what Paul is referring to?

Actually, Paul is saying, the fight to stay faithful to the Lord is a good fight. And maybe that resonates with you. If you are a following of Jesus, you might know the feeling of how difficult it can be to remain faithful to the Lord. This life is full of temptations which, if we caved in, would lead us to be unfaithful to God. Sometimes it is our own bodies that tempt us. Sometimes it is an addiction. We know that Satan loves to tempt us. Sometimes it is other people. Staying faithful to God can seem like a battle. Paul says it is a good fight.

In our study of 1st Timothy, we have come to chapter 1, verses 18-20. There Paul describes what he wants Timothy to fight for: first, to hold on to faith, and, second, to hold on to a good conscience.

The image here of holding on is a person who is holding on to an object and not letting go. It is an iron grip. I know in life it can often feel like we are losing grip on our faith. In the next verse Paul is going to refer to some guys that did just that. Hymenaeus and Alexander, he says, lost their faith. Part one of fighting the good fight is to hold on to faith.

The second thing Paul wants Timothy to hold on to is a good conscience. What is the conscience?

One scholar says that it is “the psychological faculty which can distinguish between right and wrong”. That same scholar goes on to say that “In some languages [this word] may [refer to] ‘the inner voice’ or ‘the voice in one’s heart’ or ‘how one knows right from wrong.’”

So Paul is referring to something that is inherently within us. We believe that God created all humanity with this inner voice, this true psychological faculty to distinguish right from wrong. That doesn’t mean that all people will do the right thing. You can know the right and not do it. I think we all are very aware of this in our lives. How many times do we know what is right, but we do what is wrong? What is worse, it seems that the more we do the wrong, the less we are aware of the right.

We can see why Paul would place such importance on fighting the good fight in the areas of faith and good conscience. Hold tightly on to them!

How do we hold on to a good conscience?

Keep a sensitive ear to the voice of the Lord. The means we should practice prayer.
Remain teachable. Remember the story of Samson in the Old Testament? He didn’t even realize that God had departed from him. He wasn’t teachable.
Read the Bible. It is our instruction. We need to know who God is and what he wants us to do.
Be doers of the word, which means that when you read the Bible, you then do what it says. This may require change.
Have accountability. This means close fellowship with other Christians.

We have to intentionally work at being sensitive to God. If you let it go one day, it will be easier the next day to grow callous to God. If you keep letting it go, you can find yourself quite distant from God.

In the physical world, the less food we get, the hungrier we get. In the spiritual world, it is the opposite: the less food we get, the less spiritually hungry we get. If you skip lunch, you’re crazy hungry by dinner, right? If you skip out on spending time with God, though, you start to lose desire for it. I wish the spiritual worked like the physical in this regard. I wish I would get spiritually hungrier if I skipped time with God. But I have found that when I distance myself from God, I only grow more apathetic about him.

It is more like relationships. When distance is put between two people, they start to fall away. So we need to fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience.

To successfully fight the good fight, I’d like to talk a bit more about one of the suggestions I made above, remaining teachable. I have found in the last 20 years or so, that a healthy self-awareness, humility and teachability are perhaps the most important foundation a disciple of Jesus must have. If we want to fight the good fight, first we must be teachable and humble.

We should be Christians who are seeking out the truth about ourselves. Think about yourself. Are you actively seeking people to speak the blunt honest truth about yourself? Or are you thinking “I’m scared of what people think about me…I want to avoid it. I don’t want to hear what people think of me.” Would you rather live in a fantasy world of your own making?

Many of us choose to live in a fantasy world because it is much easier. In those fantasy worlds, we are generally pretty awesome people who don’t have to change. In those fantasy worlds we can tell ourselves that we are good. But a huge part of holding on the faith and a good conscience is being humble and teachable.

It means having a healthy self-awareness, and a willingness to speak openly and honestly about yourself, both your successes and your failings. And that means that you invite the tough stuff into your world.

So let us fight the good fight, hold on to faith, and a good conscience.

Fighting the good fight implies that it will be tough. Paul doesn’t say “sleep on a cozy bed.” “Eat delicious desserts” “Enjoy a stress-free walk.”

He says “fight the good fight.” It is good. And it is a fight. It is good, worth it, fighting for the mission of the Kingdom of God. It is a fight against evil, a fight against injustice, a fight against Satan, a fight against selfishness and pride.

But it is a fight, and fights are hard. They require energy, time, and usually bring pain and hurt. Disciples of Jesus are fighters. But they fight the good fight.

Jesus said something about this fighting concept when he said, “take up your cross and follow me.” He was referring to self-denial. It is a fight. Often a fight against our inner inclination toward selfishness.

If you don’t want to shipwreck your faith, you’ve got to keep fighting.

How is your faith grip-strength?

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What is your grip strength? Did you ever take a grip strength test?

Have you ever used grip strengthening handles? You squeeze them over and over, hoping to strengthen your grip.

It is a good thing to strengthen your grip.

I bring this up, because I want you to think about your grip on your faith in God?

Do you ever feel like your grip on your faith is wearing thin?

Have you ever had a time in life when you lost your faith? Turned your back on faith? Or when you really felt distant from God?

Think about it right now. How close are you to God? You might feel like you have a strong grip on faith in God. Maybe it could be stronger? You might feel like your grip on faith is failing. You might feel like you have no grip at all.

In our church like ours, I imagine that our church family is all over the spectrum. It would be unwise and naïve to assume that every single one of us have a strong faith and feel really close to God.

So evaluate your faith. Do you have a tight grip on faith, or is it weak, or no grip at all.

When we talk about having a grip on our faith, I am insinuating that we have to do something about our faith, that we have a responsibility to hold on to it. And that we can lose hold of it. I am saying that we have a responsibility to hold on to our faith. We are involved in the process.

But am I right? What is our involvement in holding on to our faith? Maybe I’m wrong. Christians have long debated this. Is faith a work of God or a work of people?

Today as we continue studying Paul’s first letter to Timothy, we’re talking about grip strength, our faith grip strength.

We invite you to join us at Faith Church, as we look at what Paul says about faith grip strength. To get a preview, read 1^st Timothy 1:18-20.

How God feels about sinners…even the worst ones!

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Can God save the worst sinner ever? Would he want to? You and I might not feel like the worst sinners ever in history, but we can often feel pretty guilty about our bad choices. In the middle of the guilt, we wonder, “How does God feel about us when we have screwed up?”

As I mentioned last week in the intro post, our continuing study in 1st Timothy brings us to chapter 1, verses 12-17. In that section, the writer of this letter, Paul, declares that he was the worst sinner. He calls himself a blasphemer and persecutor, a man who arrogantly insulted God. If you want, you can read all about it in Acts 7-9. Paul is not exaggerating. He was part of the same religious establishment that opposed Jesus, and now a few years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, Paul was leading the charge to round up Jesus’ followers and crush their movement.

Why wouldn’t God just eliminate Paul? Instead, Paul tells us in 1st Timothy 1:12-17 that God considered Paul faithful. Faithful? That seems incredulous. How could God see Paul as faithful when Paul was on the brink of destroying God’s new movement to save the world? The reason is that while Paul had not placed his faith in Jesus, Paul was very passionate about what he considered to be the truth about God, the Old Covenant that God had with Israel. Therefore Paul considered the Christians a cult, a threat to the truth.

So Jesus stepped in, as you can read in Acts 9, when Paul was headed to imprison more Christians. Literally breaking out of heaven in a bright light, Jesus revealed himself to Paul, totally changing the course of Paul’s life. In 1 Timothy 1, at the end of verse 13 Paul looks back on that momentous event when God changed his life, and Paul says he was shown mercy because he acted in ignorance and unbelief.

The word here that Paul uses to describe how much grace and faith and love God gave him is quite vivid. The NIV uses the image of pouring, but I would argue that there is a better image. The word is actually a compound word “over fill”. It is the image of a cup into which a liquid is poured not just to the top, not to the brim, but overflowing. The liquid pours out over the edges. The container cannot contain that much!

I love that. That’s how much grace and faith and love God gives to us! More than we can handle. You are the container, and God is filling you with his grace and faith and love, and he is giving you more of his goodness that you can hold!

That’s how amazing God is.

Paul continues talking about this in verse 15 where he refers to the mission of Jesus to save sinners. Paul was the worst. Paul is using himself as an illustration of how far-reaching God’s grace is. He was the worst of sinners. Everyone in the early church knew this.

He was ISIS. He was their worst enemy. And how do you think they felt when they heard that their worst enemy supposedly changed into their strongest advocate?

No way, buddy!

How would you feel if a top ISIS leader started saying that he was now a Christian?

No one would believe him! That’s what Paul was going through.

But the change in Paul was true, and in due time, Paul showed them that it was true. We see clearly in Paul that Jesus has the power to save anyone and to change anyone’s life. Even the worst of sinners.

I hear Paul saying in this passage that he was the worst of sinners, and I think “I don’t know if you were actually the worst of sinners even in your own time, Paul, but I can pretty much guarantee that with all the horrible stuff that has happened in the last 2000 years since you wrote this, you aren’t even close to the worst.”

The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized it doesn’t matter who is actually the worst sinner, or whether or not Paul was the worst sinner. What matters is that Paul saw himself as the worst sinner.

And when you can be honest about how sinful you really are, then you start to see how amazing God’s grace and mercy are. Christian pastor and author Tim Keller has said “We only fully grasp the gospel when we understand, as Paul did, that we are the worst sinner we know.”

I’ll never forget a sight I saw at EC National Conference a few years ago. We were all singing praise to God, a normal part of our sessions of conference. One particular song emphasized this theme of brokenness before God, of taking our sin seriously, and a man in the crowd, without any prodding from the worship leader, got up from his seat, walked down the aisle, and got down on his knees in front of the whole assembly. He was clearly broken up inside about his sin.

Do we let ourselves off the hook? I wonder if we haven’t fully grasped the Gospel because we haven’t taken our sin seriously?

And if you’re thinking “Man, Joel…this sin talk dire stuff. Bleak.” Get ready. What comes next is a game changer.

In verse 16, Paul says something that many people think is crazy: God showed mercy to the worst of sinners!

God shows mercy to sinners, even to really bad sinners. And more than that, why would God do this? Paul says that God showed mercy to him so that Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.

God had unlimited patience for sinners. That is crazy talk. Unlimited? On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is no patience and 10 is unlimited patience, where do you rank yourself?

God is a 10. He is the only one who is a 10.

When you realize how God is so merciful, so patient with you, even when you feel like the worst of sinners, what do you do? You do what Paul did!

In verse 17 he bursts forth in praise: “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever!” Praise Him! Paul is praising him as he thinks about how amazing God was to him.

This is who God is! Paul is looking at the depths of evil that was in his heart and how God saved him. And he bursts with praise.

Paul uses himself as an example of why we should praise the Lord. But all of us have stories.

If God can save the worst of sinners, of course he can save the rest of us.

Paul is also an example for us in that he is sharing his story. Likewise we should share our stories of God’s intervention in our lives. And I’m not talking about only super dramatic stories. Stories of God’s work in the non-dramatic moments are also amazing. It is just as astounding for God to save us in a non-dramatic way as it is for God to break out of the clouds and save a Christian-killer like Paul.

All of us should have the words of praise found in verse 17 flooding our hearts and minds!

So if you grew up in a Christian family and you always believed in Jesus, that is just as awesome as if you didn’t grow up in a Christian family and have a more intense conversion experience.

Christians, be reminded of the grace, love and patience of God in saving you, pour out in praise, and tell the story!

Who was the worst sinner ever?

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Have you committed a sin lately?

Might be a question with an obvious answer “Yes!” because we all sin. Sometimes I hear people say that they sin all the time. Others I’ve heard say they don’t sin much.

Whether many times a day or hardly at all, even one sin can have us feeling guilty. And that is not a good feeling. When I feel guilt, it is an actual feeling. Very similar to feeling sick in the stomach. And it is connected to my thoughts. I feel guilty because I think I am guilty. I have all kinds of negative thoughts about it. Why did I do that? What are the consequences going to be? Will it be costly? Painful? Damaging to a relationship? Damaging to my future? Will people look down on me? Will I be fired? Will people hate me? You know the thoughts.

What makes the thoughts so devastating is that they are connected to our actions. We chose to act in a certain way that was wrong.

We chose to sin. Sin. We use that word, but what exactly does it mean?

Sin is when we act in a way that is wrong. For the Christian, the determination of what is wrong is simply anything that God does not approve of. There are sins of commission, when we do something God does not want us to do. There are also sins of omission, when we do not do something God does want us to do. Either way, by doing the wrong or leaving the good undone, God doesn’t approve. That is sin.

That might make God out to be a cosmic party-pooper, as if he wants life to be miserable and hard. But those of us who have walked with God for some time have found the opposite to be true. The way of God Kingdom is actually in our best interest. Sin, therefore, is an act against the way of God’s Kingdom, and not in our best interest. This is why I urge you not to believe depictions of Jesus and the disciples as a bunch of ultra-serious bores. Do you really believe his disciples would have given their lives to follow him, or that thousands upon thousands would have sought Jesus out if he was a terrible leader, dry, icy, and pathetic? I bet he had them in stitches all the time. And when you think of Jesus that as a great leader, you can also know that God is like that too. He’s fun, good, exciting, and loves us. And the way of his Kingdom is to help shape us into his image.

That’s why when we sin, we should take it seriously. So again, I ask, have you sinned lately? How do you feel about it? Ever feel guilty about your sin?

Sometimes we sin so much, or we have a particular sin that seems to just have a grip on us. As a result the guilt can be emotionally crippling. We feel like the worst of sinners. We’re good at exaggerating our impact, for good and bad. The worst of sinners? Probably not even close. But we can feel pretty guilty.

As we continue our teaching series through the letter called 1st Timothy, we next meet someone who gave himself the title “the worst of sinners.” If you had to list out the top 10 sinners in history, who would make the list? Hitler? Stalin? There have been some pretty bad sinners. So who is the worst? Check out 1st Timothy 1:12-17 to get ready, and join us at Faith Church to learn more.