March 22, 2012

"Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." Matthew 16:24

Isn't love amazing? No One captures it or communicates it better than Christ.

In this one verse He shows the inclusive nature of love when He says, "Whoever" but then He also demonstrates the exclusive aspect of love when He used the word "must".

To me, this is an incredible insight about the love of God. It is a key to experiencing His CRAZY LOVE.

God's love is unconditional love because it flows out of His nature. He gives it freely to everyone. You are loved fully and completely regardless of who you are or what you have done. Tomorrow as you drive to work, everyone you pass or everyone who passes is loved unconditionally by God. As the children's song goes, "Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white they are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world".

So, love is given to all 7 billion souls on planet Earth! Love is given to whoever draws a breath everywhere all the time! His love is all-inclusive!

But having said that, there are conditions to receiving His love and to growing in that love. In this verse Jesus clearly articulates those conditions. They are:

Decision - "Whoever wants to be my disciple"

Anyone can receive His love but must decide to receive it and enter into a personal faith relationship with Him. That is an exclusive decision.

Denial - ".....must deny themselves...."

To receive His CRAZY LOVE you must deny your selfish self-centered love. You must surrender any competing loves to allow His love to be supreme in your heart. It is that exclusive.

Dying - ".....take up their cross...."

For Jesus to make it possible to receive God's love, He had to die on the cross. The exclusive nature of receiving His love requires you to die to desires that compete with His love.

Devotion - ".....and follow me!"

Once again, if you are to enjoy the fullness of His CRAZY LOVE you must follow Him exclusively. Since love is received in relationship with Jesus, being a follower of Jesus is absolutely required. And unless you are devoted to Him you are not a follower you are just a fan.

Love is given unconditionally but there are conditions to receiving it.

Have you received it?

March 21, 2012

"Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.” Matthew 13:1-9

Almost everyone loves a good story so it is not a surprise that Jesus, knowing how effective stories can be, told parables to illustrate kingdom truths.

One of the best known parables of Jesus was the parable of the sower. In a rural setting with some farmers in the crowd, Jesus launched into a story that they could easily relate to - a sower sowing seed. It was a common scene in those parts during certain times of the year.

First the farmer would plow and prepare the soil to receive the seed that would be sown by the farmer. When those seeds landed on the soft, moist, well prepared soil it would take root and grow into a large stalk of corn or wheat. Each of those stalks of grain was ladened with considerable amount of additional seeds.


Of course, not all seed would land in the well prepared soil. Depending on the accuracy of the sower and the direction or velocity of the wind, some seed would land on the hard-packed path, some would land on the rocky ground, and others would land among the thorns. The four various soil conditions resulted in four quite different results. Only one would bring the harvest they depended upon to secure their future as a family.

A bountiful harvest would provide the food they needed for the year, plus it would allow them to set aside the seed for the next crop and then sell what was above that to provide money for their needs. There was a lot riding on the harvest and they knew they had sown good seed so it all depended on the condition of the soil.

The sower of course, represents God and the seed represent the truth and grace that He sows into your life and mine. It is good seed capable of producing a bountiful harvest in His kingdom. For purposes of our current CRAZY LOVE study, this parable illustrates how you are to receive the love of God into your life. Your responsibility is to make sure you are good soil so your life will produce fruit for His kingdom.

In this parable, Jesus identifies three common obstacles you will have to overcome to produce good soil. One is hardness. One is shallowness. One is stress. Those three realities of daily life in the 21st century will rob you of the joy of experiencing God's love unless you are detemined to produce good soil in your life.

Hardness typically comes from disobedience. When you hear the truth and become aware of what God desires from you but you willfully refuse to obey, that hardens your heart. God's love cannot take root in a disobedient spirit. Do you have an area of disobedience in your life this morning?

Shallowness represents a lack of discipline in your spiritual life. When you don't apply yourself to regular study and prayer you will not develop any spiritual depth. When you deprive yourself of fellowship with other believers you will have trouble developing spiritual depth. If you are not regularly involved in serving God you will stay shallow in your spiritual development. When you limit your spiritual experience to feelings and emotions, you will struggle with shallowness. What are you doing to develop spiritual depth today? Are you giving God's love a fair chance to take root in your heart?

Life has always involved stress but in 2012 America it is getting increasingly more difficult to make ends meet. Financial worries and job security issues and demands of balancing work schedules with time for family or faith and fun can generate stress. Stress drains energy and focus and diverts you from concentrating on God's love. God's Word calls you to pull Him into the center of your stress reminding you to "cast your cares upon Him for He cares about you". Will you do that today? Will you decide that you will share your stress with God and turn your worries into a place of worship?

Receiving God's CRAZY LOVE is the result of being good soil. His seeds are good and can produce and abundant harvest of love and grace within your heart! Will you cultivate good soil today?

March 20, 2012

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers." Galatians 6:9-10

Just a few minutes ago I checked the meter on our website that tracks the number of hits we get and where they originate.

Here is what it showed for the last several days:

United States - 48   Russia - 11   India - 2   Slovenia - 2   Brazil -1   Germany - 1   Poland - 1   Venezuela - 1

Our little church on a corner in Spotsylvania County touches people around the world! Think about this, between the witness of our website on the world-wide web and the several missionaries we help support it is correct to say that the sun never sets on the ministry of Fredericksburg Wesleyan Church!

That is pretty amazing but what does it have to do with CRAZY LOVE?

Here's the point. We tend to overlook or underestimate the power of small things done well, done consistently, and done in love.

Just the time taken to load our sermons (English Church and Spanish Church) on the website makes those messages available to literally billions of people over the world-wide web. It is the digital equivalent of sending a missionary overseas except we get to go everywhere the internet goes!

Writing daily devotionals requires some time but once it is posted on the website it is there for millions of English-speaking people to pull up and read.

It is very easy for us to get intrigued and infatuated with the big things, the spectacular things, the high budget and high tech productions and become discouraged by our inability to do ministry like that.

There are certainly some amazing and ingenius new ways to present the gospel and some very creative people designing them. I say, "Thank God for them!" Big things done well can get some big results!

But just because we can't do those things on that large scale, don't fall into the trap of believing you can't make a difference! You can by doing small deeds well and consistently over time motivated by God's love!

Only Heaven will reveal this for sure, but I bet there have been more people reached by small acts of love than by big events. CRAZY LOVE is communicated most powerfully face to face, person by person! And since there are more people doing small things than there who do big things, it makes sense that more people would be reached by small acts of love lived out consistently!

Don't get weary doing the small stuff! Keep doing it as well as you can and often as you can with as much love as you are able! And don't forget, there are a bunch of small things that are done well to make those big productions work!

CRAZY LOVE expressed consistently is crazy powerful!

March 19, 2012

^"This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."  I John 4:9-11

How do you know that God loves you? What indication do you have? What evidence can you point to? What proof can be offered?

You know because He showed His love.

He showed His love by giving the best that He had.

Think about it! God has a lot of good things! In fact, EVERYTHING God has is good! He could have chosen His second or third best option and it still would have been amazingly good! BUT God is love and love doesn't give second best!

So, God proved how much He loved us by giving us the one thing He loved the most - His Son!

And Jesus came from the Father to prove how much He loves us by giving up the glory and security of Heaven to come to earth as a man to die for our sins. Why would He do that? Why would he subject Himself to so much shame and suffering and offer Himself up to die on a cross? Only one reason - LOVE - CRAZY LOVE!

So, we know we can be confident about the love God has for us because we know that He gave His best in order to give you and me a chance to become our best! In willingly offering His Son for you He is saying, "I love you as much as I live Him!" Wow!

And Jesus demonstrated how real and vast His love is for you by willfully leaving heaven and coming to earth for one reason - to die a sacrifical substitutionary death on the cross for you and for me!

For any honest and clear-thinking person there can be no doubt as to the love of God for you! God gave His best to demonstrate His Crazy Love! And Jesus, the Son of God, came to earth as a man and dwelt among us to show us what love looks like and died on the cross to make that love available to us!

So, in light of these powerful demonstrations of God's love and of Christ's love how do you think God would expect you to show your love for Him? What should you be prepared to do in order to show your love for Him?

Can you do that with left-overs? Can you do that with second-best? Will God accept that from you? Should He?

March 18, 2012

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field." Mt. 13:44

It was 25 years ago that I first walked into a Starbucks. I had heard of them but they were new to the area so when we went to downtown Chicago for the day after Thanksgiving, we got our chance to try it out. It was love at first sip!

Everything about the place appealed to me. The smell of coffee brewing, the ambiance of coffee lovers congregating and the piping hot fresh cup of their coffee of the day!

A quarter of a century later, I still love it! Millions of others do too and the Starbucks brand is still going strong despite many competitors trying to imitate their success.

The reason for their success is rather obvious to me, in hundreds of visits over 25 years I have never had a bad cup of coffee from Starbucks. It is always piping hot and very smooth. The barristas there are always pleasant, well trained and professional. They love making their products as much as their customer's love getting them. I know that each time I walk into a Starbucks I will get a perfectly prepared cup of coffee.

Despite their amazing record of consistency and excellence it would only take one lukewarm cup of coffee to put a dent in their reputation. But I doubt that will ever happen because not only do I know that, they know it too!

Would to God that we could say the same thing about Christians and about our churches! Would to God that everyone who met a Christian or walked into a church would not find one that is lukewarm. If only followers of Christ would be as committed to excellence as the managers and employees of Starbucks! Oh, if only every Christian and every church service could leave people with a good taste in their mouths! How it would please God if His people had as much crazy love for God as Starbucks has for it's coffee products!

For any employee of any Starbucks in the country, the perfect cup of coffee is their "hidden treasure" or their "pearl of great price" and they are completely committed to making it happen!

That is precisely the point of this parable Jesus tells to His disciples. If you are going to be a part of God's kingdom you must be totally committed to it, just like Jesus was totally committed to us! He gave His all for us! He had crazy love for His Father's Kingdom. And when He gave His all for the Kingdom He got crazy love back from God.

God measures love in terms of commitment! Commitment is expressed in sacrifice. You can't be casual about His kingdom and have crazy love. You can't value comfort above commitment and have crazy love! Starbucks is never casual about their coffee and they are never comfortable until it happens. Lukewarm is unacceptable to them.

Crazy love means all or nothing for the kingdom of God. Lukewarm is unacceptable!

March 17, 2012

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field." Matthew 13:44

Perhaps you have seen this bumper sticker somewhere.

 

I doubt if you believe that, but the reason it gets a laugh is because there IS an element of truth in it. There are quite a few people who believe that happiness and contentment in life is the result of having lots of possessions.

This raises a legitmate question, "How much stuff does it take to make you happy?" I'll bet at some point in your life you have wondered about that.

I think the main point of this parable speaks to this very issue. Jesus is telling His disciples that real satisfaction comes not from having many things but commiting to the one main thing. That one main thing is the kingdom of God and the kingdom of God is God's reign and rule in your life.

Do you believe that? It runs counter to our materialistic consumer driven cultural norm and if you are not careful you can easily get sucked into that mindset. It happens almost unconsciously especially if you are not consciously guarding against it.

Jesus once encountered a young man who was confused at this point. He had a good education and everything that money could and money leftover besides. But he felt that something was missing so he came to Jesus to find out. Here's how it played out:

"As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’^" “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth." Mark 10:17-22

This young man had many things but his love of those many things kept him from the main thing and suspect there are people like that in this room this morning. You have lost your first love because you have lost your focus on that one main thing and become concerned over many things. And the cares and concerns of those many things keep you from receiving God's CRAZY LOVE. Am I close?

According to Jesus, here is what it looks like:

Comfort = having many things

Commitment = having the one main thing

If you are not experiencing God's CRAZY LOVE could it be that you have been trying to find comfort in many things rather than committing to kingdom of God and allowing Him to reign in your heart and soul?

Are you willing to sell the many things in order to take possession of the main thing?

There are three groups of people in relationship to God's kingdom:

1) The Cop Outs - They are unbelievers. They refuse to seek God or acknowledge him at all.

2) The Hold Outs - They are believers who want to please God but are not committed to putting Him first. Like the young man who came to Jesus, they want Jesus but they want to love all their stuff too.

3) The Sold Outs - They are believers who possess the CRAZY LOVE of God because they are surendered to Him and have given up many things to possess the main thing!

Which group are you in today?

March 16, 2012

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field."  Matthew 13:44

Central to the teaching ministry of Jesus was the kingdom of God.

Why do you think that is so?

Could it be that until you acknowledge God as your king you can't actually acknowledge Him as your God?

You can't "kind of have Him for a God"! At least not as a capital "g" God.

So, for God to be your King you must commit to putting Him first in your life and make serving Him your chief passion! If He isn't your King then you aren't committed to His kingdom.

Being "kind of committed" is an oxymoron. It is like being "kind of pregnant" or "kind of dead" or "kind of married". You can't do it!

We have done a disservice to the kingdom and to Christians by implying that it is possible to be a Christian and not surrender to Christ. We have been negligent to allow believers to think that they can occupy the kingdom of God and not acknowledge God as King!

Jesus makes it quite clear with this story that those who wish to possess the kingdom must decide to make the kingdom their most treasured possession. The cost to enter the kingdom is exactly what this man did in the parable - sell out and buy in.

This man in the parable made a clear decision to treasure God's kingdom above all else. That is commitment! It cost him everything to cross the line into the kingdom.

There is no comfortable way to enter the kingdom and there is no comfort zone within. There is only a cross! There is only His cause!

You cannot comfortably arrange His kingdom around your preferences or your priorities. Do you think you could walk into the palace of a king and hand him your schedule and agenda and expect him to accept it? I don't think so!

So, how do you think you can presume on God to conform HIS kingdom to your comfort level? You cannot!

What part of kingdom do you not understand? What part of commitment do you not understand? What part of sell out do you not understand?

Could there be a connection between His CRAZY LOVE and His kingdom? Could there be a connection between your lack of commitment and your lack of CRAZY LOVE?

Is it possible that trading your comfort for commit to His kingdom is the price of CRAZY LOVE?

It was for Jesus! The cross was not comfortable! But it was the price of purchasing access to the kingdom for you and me.

Are you ready to sell out and buy in?