Tonight at Breakaway we’ll be looking at Prayer.

“To know God as the sovereign disposer of all good, inviting us to present our requests, and yet not to approach or ask of Him, were so far from availing us, that it were just as if one told of a treasure were to allow it to remain buried in the ground.” – Calvin

Hope to see you there.

Also here is a throwback photo of Rico Hotz taped to a wall.

I’ve had a few people ask for parts of the message I taught in Chapel last week so I decided to post it here.

Anyone know what this is? It’s a famous piece of graffiti from the first century, it is from Thessaloniki. That word sound familiar? The book, Thessalonians, found in your Bible  is written to the church in that city. 

So what happened in the first century of giant significance? That’s right, Jesus was crucified.

The image above depicts a man kneeling on the left, in front of a cross.  There is also a man on the cross, with the head of a donkey.  And below it, in Latin, is written:  ”Alexander worships his God”.

We don’t know who Alexander is, but it would seem he is a Christian who is being ridiculed because of his faith in a crucified God. Christians have been mocked for their faith from the moment Jesus died on the cross. Even Jesus was mocked while He hung on the cross.

1 Peter 1:6 tells us about the various trials that are facing Christians. He writes, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,” Peter is acknowledging that they are facing trials and in this book he will encourage worshippers of Christ to remain strong despite the trials.

You understand what trials are right? Life is hard, people are going to mock you and be jerks and treat you terribly. Many will do so simply because you are a Christian. One aspect of the early Christians is that they were marginalized. They were pushed to the margins. 

You know what marginalized means? Go find a book. Notice the real stuff in it is going on in the center and to the left and right are empty sections of nothing, just white space. That’s the margins, nothing important is going on there.

No one pays attention to the margins, like I said, it’s not where the important stuff is. It is where those ideas and those people who are not powerful and not influential are placed.  

Now you can hear that and become very discouraged or you can hear that and realize that the early Church that Peter is talking to was in the margins too and God has done amazing things through the lives of those Christians who lived in the margins. (We have it pretty good in fact, Nero was making Christians into torches or throwing them to wild dogs.)

Don’t be discouraged though. I want to show a few amazing things about this reality. 

1. You will be mocked, ridiculed and persecuted. But so was Jesus our savior. 

In John 15:18–20 Jesus is speaking and he says this, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you…”

They persecuted the Son of God, of course they are going to persecute you!”

Don’t expect an unbelieving world to respect you. Your belief that God came as a man and was killed on a cross before coming back to life will be mocked. What you believe about Marriage, Sex, male/female roles and various views of right and wrong will be mocked. Your understanding of creation vs evolution will be made to seem silly and childish.

That’s ok. That’s where God has us, you simply need to be prepared for this. Don’t be shaken when you are mocked.

2. You do not belong here. You are citizens of the Kingdom of God. Ephesians 2:19 tells us just that.

We also see it in 1 Peter 2:11, “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.”

We tend to focus on the second half of this verse which tells us to abstain from the passions of the flesh. That’s good, but don’t miss that little statement at the beginning telling you who you are.

You are a sojourner and an exile. (Do you know what that means?)

It reminds me of the time spent in Mexico and Guatemala as an American, they all seemed a little weird to me, they didn’t do things the way I thought they should be done. I was the foreigner though, It was me who was the stranger.

• NIV says we are, “Aliens and Strangers”
• NLT says, ““temporary residents and foreigners” 

The point is this, as Christians we belong to God’s Kingdom. Jesus is our King. Being members of another kingdom makes us outsiders here on earth. We have become strangers, because quite frankly, we have become strange!

After Chapel, Mrs. Eaves shared a quote from someone I was not able to track down. She said, “You will know the truth and the truth will make you odd.” That made me laugh cause it made sense, it reminded me of when I’m trying to explain Christianity to someone who knows very little about it or who is very antagonistic against it.

Anyway, Our values, our lifestyle and our priorities are radically different from the surrounding culture. We do not fit in. We are on the margins and that is where God has us.

3. God has His purpose in this.

Let’s look back at the verse in 1 Peter again, cause it keeps going beyond what I read you earlier.

1 Peter 1:6-8 says this, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,”

You will be tested in the world and the expectant result is the showing of the “genuineness of your faith”. That your faith is real and knowing your faith is real is of absolute value.

I expect most of you hear this and think about the future. When you are in college or working. That’s true, but it is applicable to you right now, today.

Let me remind you 2 Corinthians 5:20 refers to Christians as “Ambassadors” it says, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” 

As ambassadors we are to be about the promoting the interest of God to those outside the kingdom of God. That’s what an ambassador does. That’s why the United States has ambassadors in foreign countries, that’s why we set up embassies.

However you’ve got to know this. Being in a Christians School is kinda like living in the US Embassy in a foreign country. It’s safe, it’s protected, it’s a place to learn and prepare. That’s good! That’s part of why it exist.

But if you are to actually be an ambassador to that country you must go outside the walls or invite them inside the walls. You can’t remain separated.

So let me advise two groups of you.

1. Ambassadors of Christ living in the embassy.

This is those of you who don’t have relationships with unbelievers. You don’t know and interact with unbelievers. You are ambassadors living inside the walls. Don’t feel bad about that, but find a solution to it.

Find a way to get outside the walls. You need this, get your parents or solid friends to come with you. Get involved in sports or clubs or interest groups that are not only full of Christians. Try serving through Mission Southside or with an outreach ministry of your church. Help with a pregnancy crisis center or Habitat for Humanity. Harvesters or the New Hope food Pantry.

Or you know that kid that is your age that you see walking down the street outside your house, talk to him, talk to her. Ask their name, what grade they are in and anything else that might start a friendship.

Talk to your parents and ask them to help you find a way to get outside the walls so that you might be a true ambassador for your King.

Now the other group.

2. Ambassadors of Christ who go outside the wall.

Many of you already do this. I love that. You know unbelievers, you pray for them. Maybe you’ve be mocked for worshipping a crucified God or for your view of creation or something like that.

My encouragement to you is this. God said you would be persecuted. Don’t be discouraged when that happened when God’s word proves to be true. Instead, go ever back to God asking for His strength. Let this push you to prayer, to encouragement with other Christians, to utter dependence on God moment by moment.

Finally I want to show this encouragement from Hebrews 13:11–14

“For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.”

Let’s go outside the camp, why? To endure the reproach. Reproach means “disgrace” it means, “insult” Let’s do that! But why you might ask? Look at that last line. Verse 14. “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.”

Wow. We seek a city that is to come. An eternal city, an eternal kingdom where Jesus reigns on the throne. That’s your home. You will mocked in this life, that is to be expected. Let the truth that there is something greater for the Children of God encourage you through every struggle that might come your way.

Dwell on what God has for you as a child of God, an eternal life in his eternal kingdom under his eternal reign.

In August of 2006 I received a phone call from a fast talking Yankee who claimed he was in Kansas and interested in Laura, Beckham and I moving out there to minister alongside him and another Yankee. After I hung up, I asked Laura where Kansas was. She thought it was right above Tennessee. Seemed right to me.

We never wanted to leave Texas, but we visited Redeemer and quite frankly it was love at first sight. We kept hearing the phrase, “covenant community.” And while we were pondering what this meant, they were showing us in the way the people loved each other and went out of their way to serve each other. I’ve seen community on paper listed in theory many times, but seeing it in person was an altogether different experience. On October 2nd, 2006, we arrived in this strange place excited to minister to the families and youth of Redeemer.

Over the past 6 1/2 years we’ve watched so many awkward junior high students grow into wonderful young men and women. We’ve walked alongside families assisting discipleship in whatever way we could. We’ve prayed for and with our brothers and sisters in Christ on this common journey of sanctification. We’ve experienced life with this local congregation of amazing people. Kansas became home.

Somewhere along the way, we realized that many of our students were leaving for college and not finding a local church body to be a part of. We’ve heard their stories and with so many students headed out to Kansas State University, we began praying for God to build up a church that would nurture them and give them a place to serve and grow to love the Church, both local and universal.

We’ve witness the Austins and Pattersons come out of RUF ministry and get involved in the local church and this gave us a vision for what could be for Harriet, Sam, Chris, Aaron, Morgan, Jonathan, Mich, Andria, Chris, Mark, Robbie, Katie, Sarah, Seth, David, Josh, Matt, Ben, Rudy and so many more who are now or could be spending their college years in Manhattan, Kansas.

So some time ago Laura and I began praying about this. We began to feel God’s call on our lives to be the means He used for what we had been praying for so many years. We learned more about this medium-sized city, 2 hours west from KC, in the middle of Kansas and started to love it. We talked about it with the Shanahans and Dunnings. Prayers continued, and in May of 2012, Laura and I traveled to Atlanta, Georgia to be assessed for Church Planting with our denomination. It was a great time of encouragement and things continued to slowly progress.

I’ll spare you all the details, and jump forward to today.

We believe God is calling our family to Manhattan, Kansas to plant a church and help begin an RUF campus ministry. We are excited about being a part of God’s mission of redemption in this college town and love seeing God’s grace, through the Gospel, transforming individuals and families. We are excited to see the body of Christ, His Church, engage a community that is growing quickly every year.

Bottom line is we want to pour out our life in Manhattan for something that matters, for something eternal, to share the gospel and build a Church that will be about the Kingdom of God, that will be a benefit to Manhattan and a place to further nurture college students who will grow as they learn to serve others and function as a part of the Church body.

It’s not easy to walk away from a place like Redeemer. Redeemer is a family to us. Our kids have grown up here and have so many who love them, they get to attend a fantastic Christian School, there is security in knowing a pay check is coming every two weeks, there is opportunity for real ministry, it’s just a great place.

But like I said, we want the risk because we see the goal is worthy.

So there it is. July 31st, 2013 will be our last day at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.

It makes me want to cry just writing that sentence. Now I am crying because we’ve been loved and loved Redeemer and yet we couldn’t be more excited about this gospel adventure. We have one life to live, one bucket of water to pour out on the land and we believe this is a worthwhile purpose to pour our lives into.

We are so thankful and excited that God is not sending us alone to do this work, but that others will be joining us for this project.

Travis & Amy Shanahan have been dreaming with us, and in many regards well before us. We thank God constantly for their fellowship and partnership in this. They have been the greatest friends we could ask for and can’t wait to minister along side them in a new city. Apart from the efforts of Travis and the grace of God this Church Plant would not be in motion. I’m so thankful for his efforts…and love he and Amy even more knowing this whole paragraph embarrasses them both.

That is more than we deserve and yet God is sending Jon & Tricia Dunning with us as well. Jon and I have worked together to establish two youth summer camps for the Presbytery over the years and have bonded as we dream about what God might do on the campus of K-State. Jon will be the RUF Campus Pastor. He is one of the most caring pastors I’ve ever met. He asks real questions and listens intently to students and others before pointing them ever back to the Gospel.

Beyond that, we’ve poured into the lives of so many students who are already there or headed there soon. We look forward to seeing them on a regular basis and introducing them to the permanent residents of Manhattan, who we hope will soon also be their covenant community.

This is such a strange time: to be broken-hearted leaving Redeemer, and at the same time so excited about, God willing, planting a church in the last place I ever imagined God would call us. (Kansas is right above Tennessee, remember?)

Pray for God to provide what is needed financially so that our efforts can be more focused on the work of the Gospel.

As I rode I was interested today in how all that was left on the ground was the solid stuff that has been piled up and packed tightly. I was impressed with snow just for existing when so much of the other snow was gone.

Then one particular portion really caught my eye, there was a pile on the left side of the trail of solid snow, it was melting and it made a little stream of water across the trail that was pouring on to pretty dormant looking little trees.

I’ve not spent much time thinking about snow in my life so maybe I’m way behind on this concept, but at that moment I realized unless the snow melts it’s of no worth to the trees and flowers and bushes that need it to grow green in the Spring.

It’s just a silly image, but it reminded me that as a Calvinist I’m often referred to by critics as the Frozen Chosen. We are called this because unfortunately too often reformed people appear cold and callous, lacking love for others. Like most stereotypes it’s partially true, though a whole history of missions shows this accusation far from being 100% accurate.

Anyway, we are like the solid piece of packed snow on the side of the road and unless our hearts are melted by the light and heat of God’s Word we will fail to be a benefit to the world at large.

My prayer at that moment, was for God to melt my heart, to be turned into the flowing water that flows down the river to the yet dormant seed or young tree that would benefit from the water.

It’s not a perfect analogy, but it does bring me back to 1 Corinthians 3:7 where we see the place of planting and watering, but more than that we see the growth belongs to God.

“So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.”

God, transform me from the frozen chosen, to a stream of soverign grace flowing to those in need of the Gospel.

—————-

I know many of you will be annoyed at any talk of obedience, especially from an Old Testament text. But even Romans 1:5 Speaks of the coming of Christ bring about the “obedience of faith” But lest I be bring an unbearable yoke let me be clear again that obedience is a result of God accomplished and given faith, not the cause of it. If you read this in regards to how to be right with God, you’ve misunderstood. To get it right you must read even this through the lens of the New Testament and thus how those right with God respond to God.

In 1 Samuel 15:3 there is a commandment from God to Saul regarding what they should do with with the people of Amalek after God gives them victory over them. They are to destroy them completely. Man, Woman, child, infant, ox, sheep, came and donkey. It seems odd that God would command such a thing, but he does and God has his reasons.

After God gives them victory though, Saul chooses to keep the best animals to sacrifice to God at a later point. This is a seemingly noble act, but contrary to God’s command.

How many times do we disobey our authorities on the grounds that what we are doing is really a good thing. Or disobey God’s Word because we think we know better?

I found it interesting after David is confronted about his disobedience God speaks to this through Samuel.

“And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord ? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.” (1 Samuel 15:22 ESV)

That is a statement of the value of obedience. Obedience even when it seems odd at the time, when we want to second guess God’s thinking on the issue.

I see this in my children and I see this in myself.

I see it in my children when I ask them to go put on shoes cause we are leaving and I come find them cleaning up toys in the basement. What they are doing is good, it is helpful, I commend it, except by choosing to clean up at this moment they have also chosen to disobey what I am really asking them to do.

I see it in my life too. God makes it clear in the Ten Commandments and all over the place that He is to be first in my life, first in everything. Yet, I find myself doing the work of ministry, serving others, teaching, visiting people, etc. All without taking the time to be in God’s Word, to be in prayer asking for wisdom throughout the day. I find that even in these good things they are sometimes ultimately disobedience as I put my family or friends or youth or entertainment or all number of things in a position of value and importance above God.

What of the Amalek’s are you holding on to today? What good thing are you choosing over the call to be satisfied in God as you pursue Him in His Word? Preparing food for a church event? Making sure your house is super clean? Working more than is truly necessary to the neglect of your family?

God give me clarity today of what obedience to God looks like and give me resolve to be about that because “you have stated that to obey is better than sacrifice.”

Crazy, I know, but so is this sale. I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned before how much I adore Lime Ricki Swimwear! They sell cute, modest swimsuits (NO, that’s no longer an oxymoron! Yay!). You gotta love that. Regular price they are pricey, that’s why I swimsuit shop when it’s 19 degrees outside!

Got this email today:

So now we are talking! Tops are $20 and bottoms are $12 before the discount. Shipping is only $5. That means you can get a top  and bottom AND shipping for $18. Even better, get two tops that match one bottom! (They do sell one pieces too, but I have an un-proportionate torso, so those don’t get me exited…) They have normal bottoms, but I love love love their skirts and boy shorts!

Warning: they are final sale. They have a great sizing chart though.

Hope this makes your winter a little less cold looking forward to summer!