Wrecked, Week 3 - “Moving In Silence”

  I grew up around metal stud framing and drywall. When I was old enough to start working as an apprentice, I was the ground guy who had to cut and set up for the guy on the lift or scaffolding. My Dad would emphasize again again that the guy on the ground had to work, so that the guy on the top never stopped working. I learned that in order to accomplish that task, I had to see the job a head and prepare for that. Every thing I had learned needed to be implemented without the guy I was working with saying a word. I was supposed to have the next piece ready to be either put up, or cut. I was supposed to have the layout ready, or the next piece fabricated without a word from my partner. 

I watched other ground guys who would have so much done ahead of time that they had to keep busy so it didn’t look like they were just slacking off. But even when I got to the point where I was like that, I had to always have an ear open to my partner. Because inevitably, there had to be a change, because there was a pipe, or duct work in the way. I had to be listening and doing to make sure the job went as smooth as possible.

And it’s this idea of working while waiting for commands that brings us back into the third week of our Wrecked series where we are going to the Old Testament book of Esther chapter 2. And as we open up to Esther 2:1, let's remind ourselves where we are so far in our series.

So far in our series we’ve looked at two people Paul and Nathanael. We saw how Paul’s life was wrecked by God when God took Paul from being a self-righteous persecutor of the Church, and made him realize his own wretchedness. Paul thought he was doing righteous acts, that he was on the side of God, but when he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, that entire belief was crushed. Paul lived the rest of his days in a humble state, where he knew he wasn’t anything great, but only for Christ did he have anything at all. We need to live in this humble state as well. Embracing the truth of our wretchedness and how far the love of God has reached down to bring us out of that wretchedness.

Then last week when we looked at Nathanael. In him we saw a person who most likely a little arrogant, and yet when Jesus revealed that he saw Nathanael under a fig tree, that arrogance melted away, and wrecked his life to a point that Nathanael was willing to die for a man he thought couldn’t have been anything good at all. We walked away from Nathanael’s life with an understanding that we must lose the desire to be seen by the world, and only care for being seen by Jesus.

  This now brings us to the story of Esther and as we open to Esther chapter 2, we need a little context. The previous chapter of Esther’s book is about two people, the King and Queen of the Persian empire. In the first half of the chapter we learn a little about the King and how one day he threw a huge feast for a lot of people. It was a lavish affair to show his greatness to the people. Because of this we also learn that the Queen threw her own feast for all the women in her care as a parallel to her husband’s feast.

In the second half of chapter one, we get a conflict between our two people. The King desires that his Queen come before the people of his feast in full royal garb to show her off. She was a looker and the King wanted others to see how beautiful she was. But the Queen refused. She wouldn’t come and be paraded in front of the King’s guest, and this infuriated the King, because when the King wanted something it was done. 

We’re then told that the King met with his advisors and they agreed that this couldn’t go unpunished because it would embolden their wives to not follow their commands. And so, they made and example out of the Queen, stripping her of her royal station. But this left the King without a Queen, and so he began his search for a new queen, and it’s here that we pick up in Esther chapter 2 verse 1.

1 Later when King Xerxes’ fury had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what he had decreed about her. 2 Then the king’s personal attendants proposed, “Let a search be made for beautiful young virgins for the king. 3 Let the king appoint commissioners in every province of his realm to bring all these beautiful young women into the harem at the citadel of Susa. Let them be placed under the care of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who is in charge of the women; and let beauty treatments be given to them. 4 Then let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.” This advice appealed to the king, and he followed it.

5 Now there was in the citadel of Susa a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, named Mordecai son of Jair, the son of Shimei (she-may), the son of Kish, 6 who had been carried into exile from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, among those taken captive with Jehoiachin king of Judah. 7 Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This young woman, who was also known as Esther, had a lovely figure and was beautiful. Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died.

8 When the king’s order and edict had been proclaimed, many young women were brought to the citadel of Susa and put under the care of Hegai (hay-gay). Esther also was taken to the king’s palace and entrusted to Hegai (hay-gay), who had charge of the harem. 9 She pleased him and won his favor. Immediately he provided her with her beauty treatments and special food. He assigned to her seven female attendants selected from the king’s palace and moved her and her attendants into the best place in the harem.

10 Esther had not revealed her nationality and family background, because Mordecai had forbidden her to do so. 11 Every day he walked back and forth near the courtyard of the harem to find out how Esther was and what was happening to her.

12 Before a young woman’s turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics. 13 And this is how she would go to the king: Anything she wanted was given her to take with her from the harem to the king’s palace. 14 In the evening she would go there and in the morning return to another part of the harem to the care of Shaashgaz (shaa-sh-gas), the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the concubines. She would not return to the king unless he was pleased with her and summoned her by name.

15 When the turn came for Esther (the young woman Mordecai had adopted, the daughter of his uncle Abihail) to go to the king, she asked for nothing other than what Hegai (hay-gay), the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the harem, suggested. And Esther won the favor of everyone who saw her. 16 She was taken to King Xerxes in the royal residence in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

17 Now the king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women, and she won his favor and approval more than any of the other virgins. So he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. 18 And the king gave a great banquet, Esther’s banquet, for all his nobles and officials. He proclaimed a holiday throughout the provinces and distributed gifts with royal liberality.

Now there’s a couple of things we can gather from what we know about Esther. First, she was an orphan in the care of her older cousin Mordecai. Second she was a beautiful young lady, and quickly won favor with many people, especially the guards and eventually the King. She also followed wise counsel; the first instance of this was following Mordecai’s instruction to not reveal her Jewish background, and the second instance was at the direction of the eunuch Hegai (hay-gay) on what to bring to the King. 

In Esther’s story, after a year she becomes Queen and we’re immediately brought into two plots of assignation and deception. The first is in the last part of chapter 2 where Mordecai uncovers a plot to assassinate the King. This information is relayed through Esther and the King was able to avoid the death.

Then we are taken into a second plot by the King’s right hand man Haman. This plot takes up the majority fo the rest of the book, and was kindled because Mordecai wouldn’t bow to Haman when he would pass by. So instead of taking his rage out on Mordecai himself, he went full egomaniac and convinced the King to wipe out the Jews in all the empire. When the decree for this genocide was announced, Mordecai reached out to Esther for help. And in chapter 4 verse 11 we get this conversation, with Esther saying…

“All the king’s officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that they be put to death unless the king extends the gold scepter to them and spares their lives. But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king.”

Now the first Queen was stripped of her station because she didn’t appear before the King when called, and it was even worse to appear before the King when not called. Esther is looking at a real possibility of death if she were to stand before the King unsummoned. We can see either fear or dissociation happening here. Either Esther desires to follow what Mordecai is asking but she is in fear of her own life, or she figures she will escape the coming genocide because she is the Queen. Well, in the next verse we get Mordecai’s response and the state of Esther’s thoughts.

12 When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, 13 he sent back this answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. 14 For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

In Mordecai’s response, I think we can see which of our two options Esther was in. She was thinking that she could escape the situation by being the Queen. But Mordecai rightfully points out that she won’t escape this even though she’s the Queen. I mean he’s right, if the previous Queen was stripped of her station for not showing up when she was summoned, how much greater is the outcome, when it was found out she was a Jew. Esther’s fate would be like that of the rest of her people. At this, Esther consigns herself to what must be done, but she has a request from her adoptive father in verse 15. 

15 Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: 16 “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”

If we were to continue to read through the rest of the story, we find out that Esther is able to appear before the King and not die. Mordecai is then honored for uncovering the original plot against the King, and Esther is able to reveal both Haman’s plot to kill Mordecai and his plot to wipe out Esther’s own people, the Jews.

Both infuriate the King and it is Haman who hangs from the gallows, and it is the enemies of the Jews who fall in the end. And were left, at the end of the book, with an understanding that the Jews, and especially Mordecai thrive under the King’s rule.

But there is something that stands out in the book of Esther. This one thing stands out because it is omitted throughout the entire story. Do you know what that is? God is never once mentioned throughout the entire story. In the 153 verses not even a hint of God is alluded to. 

Now this is not unique to the Book of Esther, the Songs of Solomon or Songs of Songs doesn’t mention God either. But in that book’s context it makes more sense. That book’s focus is the love between a man and a woman and the passion they have for each other that leads to marriage. So a simple reading of the book, makes sense on why there isn’t a mention of God within a passionate love letter between two individuals. 

Yet with Esther, the lack of God in both the foreground and the background makes no sense. In fact the perfect time for a mention of God would be in chapter 4 verse 14. Mordecai states, “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place…And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this” 

This could have read, “For if you remain silent at this time, God will bring relief and deliverance for the Jews…from another place… And who knows…maybe God has given you…your royal position for such a time as this”

But even in the most appropriate place in the book, God is still not mentioned and I think that’s intentional by the work of the Holy Spirit who inspired this book to be written.

Esther’s entire life was guided and directed by God. When Esther’s family died, God had Mordecai available to adopt her. When the Queen was disposed of, God gave Esther favor with the guards. God was there when Mordecai overheard the plot to assassinate the King, and gave favor to Esther when she needed to stand before him and seek his favor on behalf of the Jews.

How do I know that God was there, because Esther’s story parallels another story from the same time period, the story of Daniel and his three friends. They won favor in the sight of the guards. They stood in opposition to the Kind’s decrees and yet came out because of God’s work. The story of Daniel, Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego shows us that God is right there aiding his people to accomplish his will. Esther shows us that even when God’s not mentioned, he is still at work.

This teaches us a valuable lesson on what it means to be wrecked by God. The number one thing I hear from believers, no matter what their age in the faith is, “I want to hear from God.” Which is a great thing. We should all seek to hear from God more and more. But a question I ask is, what if God is waiting for you to obey what he has already said?

What if God is asking you to walk without the direct command, because he has already given you the direct command in his word?

We can see this is Esther’s life. The first command she follows is Exodus 20:12, “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” In this case she’s honoring her adoptive father Mordecai when he tells her not to reveal her heritage. The result being that she is able to reveal it later, thus insuring the lives of her people.

Another command is to seek God in the act of fasting, from places such as Joel 2:12-13, where God speaks to the Jews, “‘Even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.’ 13 Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.’” We see this when Esther makes up her mind to go before the King, she asks the people to fast with her.

Throughout the book of Esther, we see people not be directly told by God to do certain things, but what we do see, are faithful people doing as God had already commanded. It’s easy to get into the mind set that I cannot do anything until I hear directly from God, but the biblical truth is, God has spoke so much that we need to be doing what he has already commanded. 

I’ve heard people say, but we are told to wait upon the Lord. Typically we look to verses like Psalm 27:14 where it states, “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” But we misunderstand the word wait. Wait in this verse and verses like it, does not mean to sit and allow things to happen to us. The Hebrew word qavah (kaw-vaw’), means to eagerly look for. We are to be in a state of anticipation for the work of God, which means, we need to be actively working in what God has already stated. 

A verse that gets quoted a lot is Matthew 25:23, “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’”

It’s a verse that gets brought up as something a believer would like to hear when he sees Jesus. Yet that verse comes in the midst of a parable where the Master is absent and the workers have to decide what the best course of action is.

If God never directed us again in our lives, we have all that we need to faithfully follow him. We have this in his word. When we are in doubt of anything in our lives, and God doesn’t seem to be answering, we must return to his word and ask the question, “What has God already commanded me to do in a similar situation that I find myself in now. 

This is why it’s so important to read the Scriptures, so we know what God has already commanded others to do in situations such as we find ourselves in. In marriage, God has already spoken. In singleness, God has already spoken. In business, God has already spoken in. In our free time, God has already spoken. 

God’s word is full of commands that can and will direct us to God’s will in the situations we find ourselves. And the deeper we go in our relationship with God, the more he will be silent to allow us to implement into our lives the commands he has already given us. 

And when we do, we will see God at work, both in the foreground and the background, and we will be the faithful servant of the Master, because we have done what he has command us to do.

So my challenge this week is to read through the book of Esther, it’ll take you about 20 minutes uninterrupted. Then ask the question of God, what can I do in my life right now that you have already commands me to do?

It might be, love your neighbor. It might be stay away from that sin. It might be worship only me.

Whatever it is, do it, follow the commands of God that he has already laid out in his word.

And let us be a people that follow God no matter the situation, because he trust in his already spoken Word. Amen

Wrecked Wk 2 - Unknown But Seen

  Growing up I didn’t have a clique. I had an assortment of friends that I hung out with. I would spend time with my friends on the their farms and ranches. I would spend time with my friends as they played video games. I spent a lot of time playing sports, and other times talking Star Trek. My clique, was anyone that did either feel like they fit in, or they didn’t feel like their supposed group of friends were really friends. 

I had a teenage one time name off a bunch of cliques at his school and tell me what teens were in those cliques. I asked him, where would I stand in today’s high school culture? He said he didn’t know because I did a bunch of things that you’re not supposed to. And the reason is, I never thought that I should be anything for someone else, when it came to my own interests. I like sports, I also like playing board games. I like the smell and work of a ranch, and I also like being inside playing a video game. And when I hang out with people, I like to see what their interested in and connect there. I’ve alway like to see people as people and it’s grown since I came to Christ. Paul writes in 1st Corinthians 9: 22b-23, “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.” This has become a part of how I interact with people, that every person is seen as an individual. That I try to make sure that every person I meet is seen as important.

I don’t always do it and I lack a large part of the time, but I strive to see people as God sees them.

This idea of being seen, brings us back into our sermon series where we are talking about how our relationship with God wrecks who we were before we accepted Jesus as our Savior. We’re going to be looking at John chapter 1 and the story of Nathanael. 

We began looking at this wrecking of God through Paul’s encounter with Jesus. On the road to Damascus, Paul is so utterly knocked, both physically and figuratively, off his donkey that for the rest of his life, he points to how he had realized that he was a wretched person. How is self-righteousness and self-absorption were worthless compared to Christ. And how his sin was so bad that he was the least of all the apostles and all of God’s people. Yet, Paul understood the deep and unrelenting love of God for people that realize their wretchedness compared to Jesus. It was here that we talked about realizing and embrace our own wretchedness in sin, which leads us to praising God all the more that he loved a wretch like me. The world desires us to puff ourselves up, to think God would be lucky to have us, but it’s when we realize that God doesn’t need us at all, but that he desires a relationship with us, that God’s love becomes deeper and more fulfilling.

We might be wretched in our sin, but Jesus loved the wretched so much that he died for them. Praise God for the deep love of the Father, that sent the Son, who died on the cross and raised to life, and now to whoever accepts him as Savior, receives the Holy Spirit as a seal to everlasting life.

Let’s now look at another wrecking that God has done, this time in the life of Nathanael in John chapter 1, starting in verse 43. Let’s read together. 

“43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, ‘Follow me.’

“44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, ‘We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’

“46 ‘Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?’ Nathanael asked. ‘Come and see,’ said Philip.

“47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, ‘Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.’

“48 ‘How do you know me?’ Nathanael asked.

“Jesus answered, ‘I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.’

“49 Then Nathanael declared, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.’

“50 Jesus said, ‘You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.’ 51 He then added, ‘Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘“heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on” the Son of Man.’”

This is an interesting moment. In the first three narrative encounters Jesus has in John’s Gospel, he is given three titles. John the Baptist refers to him as the Lamb of God (v.1:29,36), Andrew refers to him as the Messiah (1:41), and Nathanael refers to him as the Son of God (1:49). Each of these titles refer to different aspects of Jesus’ ministry. The Lamb of God and Messiah titles refer to his sacrificial and saving work, while the Son of God title refers primarily to his divineness, but also carries with it a claim to the the throne of Israel.

But it’s the two responses of Nathanael that we’re going to be focusing on today, and how Jesus’ sight changes Nathanael to the core. 

To put this in context within the Gospel of John, more than likely a man named Andrew and the Philip in this passage were disciples of John the Baptist. They had heard John call Jesus the Lamb of God who had come to take away the sin of the world. Andrew invited Jesus to come and stay with him, and Jesus was introduced to Andrew’s brother Peter. Philip on the other hand went to get his brother Nathanael to meet Jesus. But we can see that Nathanael was reluctant, saying, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?”

The reason for this is most likely because of a hierarchy of disdain within the Jewish community. People from the Judean region, where Jerusalem was, held disdain for people in the Galiean region. Nathanael’s home town was in Cana another city in Galilee, and in turn he had disdain for the town of Nazareth. Most likely this is because, Nazareth hadn’t had any prophetic or historical value for the Jews and was just a backwater village.

But Nathanael’s disdain might be deeper than this. See, it’s only in John that we get Nathanael’s first name. The other Gospels refer to him by his second name, or what we would call his last name, which is Bartholomew. This name would be seen as Bar-Tolmei or son of Tolmei. Some scholars believe this is a reference to King Talmai the king of Geshur and the father of Maacah, one of King David’s wives. This wife birthed Tamar and Absalom. This would make Nathanael of royal blood, the only one of the twelve disciples to have this connection, and a distant cousin to Jesus himself. This could be why when Jesus sees Nathanael he says, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”

These words could also point to Nathanael being a straight talker. He’s probably a person that doesn’t beat around the bush, and says things as he sees them, kind of what he said with the disdain for Nazareth comment we saw earlier.

By thinking thoughtfully about Nathanael, we can start to see a picture of of who is was come into view. He’s a young man that comes from a prominent family line of King David, and he has disdain for others that are not like him. And he speaks his mind even if that means he offends people. Sounds like he is an honest and maybe arrogant person; the perfect candidate to be wrecked by God. 

So whether willingly or begrudgingly, Nathanael goes with his brother to meet Jesus. At Jesus’ words of Nathanael being a true Israelite, Nathanael asks the question, “How do you know me?” Notice that Nathanael doesn’t use an honorific when addressing Jesus. Unlike Paul who we saw last week, uses the title “Lord” in response to Jesus, Nathanael just asks the question, “How do you know me?”

It’s here that Jesus reveals something, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Jesus is revealing a sight beyond the physical, that saw Nathanael before he was called by another to meet Jesus. This sight of Jesus saw Nathanael in his life before this encounter. What was Nathanael doing? What was he saying or thinking under that fig tree? We don’t know, but Nathanael knew, and Jesus knew. 

We can see that this was such an overwhelming revelation to Nathanael because he responds with, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.” Whatever Jesus saw about Nathanael under that fig tree, it awoke a realization within Nathanael that Jesus was truly who his brother said he was. That he was the long-awaited Messiah, the Savior of Israel. This true Israelite of royal blood, with disdain in his heart toward the people of Nazareth, had his eyes open to the truth that Jesus is the true King of Israel, the Son of the God and heir to David’s throne.

Now this isn’t the first time in the Scriptures that were told about this sight that goes beyond the physical. In Mathew 6:6, Jesus tells us that we are to pray in secret, and “…your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

A little further in Matthew 6:17 and 18, Jesus reveals that, “But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

And again in Matthew 6:26 we get this insight from Jesus, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”

This isn’t to mention places like Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

Or Psalm 139:13 where the Psalmist comments on God’s sight beyond the physical, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”

Throughout the Scriptures, God’s sight sees us no matter where we are. Whether if that’s in the womb before we were born, or doing secret things, or if we are found in need. God is seeing us, and this sight of God, is what stops Nathanael in his tracks and what changes the trajectory of Nathanael’s life. 

From this moment, we only get a few more references to Nathanael in the Scriptures. And these mentions are not significant stories about him, but rather his name appears just as a part of lists when referring to the other twelve disciples, such as in John 21, or Acts 1:13. 

We really don’t know much about Nathanael from the Scriptures except for this one moment in time. Even his role in the early Church is some what clouded. We’re told by the early church historian Eusebius that he went to India and left a copy of the Gospel of Matthew and then went to the area of Armenia north east of modern Turkey. What is known, is that he was a martyr, but that is not fully known. What is said in Church tradition is that he was flayed alive and then either crucified or decapitated, or both around 68 AD.

Yet, being known by history isn’t the point of Nathanael’s life, it was being known by the Savior. And this is another aspect of what it means to be wrecked by God. God wrecks the perception that we need to be known by the world. That we need to be famous, or glamorous. That we need our 15 minutes of fame in order to make it or be remembered.

Out of all the original twelve disciples, Nathanael was probably the most on track to becoming a well known person, yet when he was seen by Jesus, all that mattered to him was that God saw him. His royal blood no longer matter, nor did his birth place. What mattered was that God had seen him, and that he would now seek only what God would see in his life.

We must seek the same thing. We seek only to be seen by God, and not worry about being seen by others. Because the reality is, people will never see us for ourselves, but rather through their own perception. Yet God sees us, he knows us, he loves us, and he has purpose for us. 

But we must allow God to wreck our perceptions of importance, seeking only to be seen by the God of the universe, because when all that matters is being seen by him, whatever he calls us to do is worth it.

There’s a Casting Crowns song called “Only Jesus,” here are the lyrics, 

“Make it count, leave a mark, build a name for yourself

Dream your dreams, chase your heart, above all else

Make a name the world remembers

But all an empty world can sell is empty dreams

I got lost in the light when it was up to me

To make a name the world remembers

But Jesus is the only name to remember

And I, I don't want to leave a legacy

I don't care if they remember me

Only Jesus

And I, I've only got one life to live

I'll let every second point to Him

Only Jesus

All the kingdoms built, all the trophies won

Will crumble into dust when it's said and done

'Cause all that really mattered

Did I live the truth to the ones I love?

Was my life the proof that there is only One

Whose name will last forever?

And I, I don't want to leave a legacy

I don't care if they remember me

Only Jesus

And I, I've only got one life to live

I'll let every second point to Him

Only Jesus  

Let us be wrecked by God, that it’s only the name of Jesus that matters in our lives. 

This week I want to challenge you to wrestle with this: are you seeking to be seen by the world or by God? This can be done by wanting people to see your talent like singing or being athletic, or wanting to leave a legacy that your family will remember you. But the world will never truly see you; they will see through their own eyes a perception of you. But if you seek to be seen by Jesus, then the world will see what it needs, a relationship with the Savior. 

So let us seek to be seen by God, and that through us, others may see him. Amen.

Wrecked Wk 1 - Wretched But Loved

  Years ago we had this outreach event for the teens, where we were going to take them to Disneyland. The point of the outreach was to make new contacts with teens that had been adamant that they would never come to the church. We told the teens that they had to pay full price for their ticket if they wanted to go, but if they got a friend to go, then they would only pay half price, and their friend would be free. In the end, one new teen came, the rest just paid full price for their ticket. So, we’ve never done a trip like that since, because it didn’t achieve it’s intended goal of outreach.

But the trip almost got canceled the day we were supposed to leave. Josh and Gabe, two of our teens that had graduated and were at college in Phoenix, were on their way to go with us. They were going to help lead music at the two worship times. They were about 40 miles outside of Quartzsite, when their car tire blew out and their vehicle flipped. When we first heard the news we were going to stop everything and focus on the situation, but Gabe told us they would be fine, and that we should go. So we went. A few years after that, and Josh was sitting in the front seat of the church van as I picked up teens for Wreck Night. We were out on the road to Rainbow Acres, when I took a curve. Josh grabbed the handle and put his hand on the dash, and just started saying “J! J!” To him it felt like I was taking the curve too fast. I realized that he was still dealing with his experience from that accident. 

That car wreck changed Josh and his interaction with driving. Which is should. Anytime we have a wreck, whether that be a vehicle accident or a relationship wreck, we should go away from it changed. And that’s what we’re login to be talking about for the next several weeks. 

Too often in our relationships with God, we don’t realize that we’ve been in a wreck. Jesus’ does’t come into our lives as an add on to them, but rather to tear down the walls and chains of sin. And if any of you have ever done any remodeling, demolish has to occur, before the renovations can happen. 

So for the next five weeks, we’re going to look at five people of Scripture and learn from their encounters with God. From each of these encounters, we’ll walk away with an understanding of what God desires from his people and how his wrecking work works. Because we have a tendency to think that our relationship with God is a give and take. If we give God something like our cussing, he’ll let us go on lying. If we give God our alcohol, he’ll let us go on gossiping. If we give God our adultery, he’ll let us go on swindling. In the modern church, it can even look like, if I give God my heart in salvation, he’ll heap blessings of possessions and fame on me. 

So in the next few weeks, we’ll see the call of God on the the lives on people in Scripture and where that call took them. In doing so, we’ll see the path that God calls us to in our lives. To begin this series, let’s open to one of the most famous calls in all of Scripture, the call of Paul in Acts 9.

As we open up to Acts 9, here’s a brief summary of where we are in the Scriptures up to this point. Jesus has been crucified and raised back to life. He spent time with his disciples and then returned to heaven charging them with the carrying of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. The disciples began this work after receiving the Holy Spirit. And though thousands began to accept Jesus as Savior, they began to encounter hostility. Floggings and imprisonments followed their preaching. Hostilities grew until Stephen was martyred for the faith.

This death, marked the beginning of a persecution that would swell and rescind throughout the next several centuries. The main antagonist of this early persecution was Saul the Benjaminite who flew into this persecution with holy and righteous anger for Jesus being equated to God. But his acts didn’t last long, and his encounter with the Risen Jesus is one that has been talked about throughout Church history. Let’s read together that first encounter.

“1 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’

“5 ‘Who are you, Lord?' Saul asked.

“‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. 6 ‘Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.’

“7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9 For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.”

God used this encounter with Jesus to shape the New Testament and our understanding of who he is. Paul’s life is completely and utterly wrecked. No facet of it remained intact as it was before. 

From Paul’s words throughout his writings we see this complete transformation. From Romans 7 we get this, “21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord (21-25)!”

From 1st Timothy 1:15, Paul writes, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.”

From 1st Corinthians 15:9 we read, “For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”

And from Ephesians 3:8 Paul writes, “Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ…”

From Paul’s encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, he recognizes just how far he was from God. Paul recognizes how utterly wretched he was. And he puts this forth in his letters, recognizing that it is only because of Jesus that his wretchedness was fixed. That even in the presence of the saints, who esteem him as a great teacher and evangelist, he is still the least and most undeserving of them all. Why? Because he fully understands how great and glorious God is and how utterly not he is. 

This is something that we can miss in our calling from God. We read and quote John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

And we think that God just loved us. We are so special that God loves us. And don’t get me wrong, God does love us, we are special to him, but this can so easily fall into the category of, “well I’m special, therefore God loves me.” It’s a self building, rather than Christ building, attitude. 

And I see this in worship songs, both old and new. When the “I” of the one singing becomes the subject of the verse instead of the God who is being sung to, we have fallen into the deception of God must love me because I am so great. There’s a song entitled “My Testimony” that doesn’t even get to who God is until the chorus, which comes after two verses of what we have done or what we have experienced. 

This “I” type of focus comes about because we don’t include the verses after John 3:16. John 3:17ff read, “17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”

It’s the condemned state that we are in and God’s great love and compassion that seeks to bring us out of that condemned state as to why the Father lovingly sends the Son. Paul states it this ways Romans 5, “6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

It’s not me at all in the equation. I have done nothing in my own power to receive Jesus, and I do nothing in my own power to live in relationship with him. God has done everything to get me to this point. And this is the wrecking that we must recognize, I am wretched without Jesus and I rely completely on him now. Marika, my wife, made the point that this isn’t a natural response. And that’s the point, it’s God’s supernatural work that achieves all things.

So what are we called to do by Paul who recognizes his wretchedness? First, Romans 10:9-13, for, “9 If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. 11 As Scripture says, ‘Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.’ 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” We must first enter into the relationship with God, by accepting we are sinners and accepting his free gift of salvation.

Next, Romans 12:1-2 reads, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Romans 6:11-14 states, “11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.”

And we could go on and on, but the core of Paul’s encounter with Jesus, as relayed to us through his writings, comes from Galatians 2:20, “20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

From our first look at someone who encountered Christ, sets the foundation on what we must understand about our relationship with him. It’s this truth, there was nothing about us that warranted God’s love, it was his goodness and love that saved a wretched sinner like me, and now through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are called to throw off my old self and put on the new person I am in Christ. 

We cannot hold onto the illusion that in some way we was good enough for God, or that now we can barter with God for things. No, we was saved in a wretched state that offered nothing of value to God, yet he was good and loving and saved me out of that wretchedness, calling me his child. And now we walk his path on his terms, submitting to his will and not my own. 

This truth does’t feed into our desire to be recognized for our achievements, and it doesn’t feed into our desire for possessions, but it does recognizes the reality we’re in, and the only way for us to move forward. Without Christ we are nothing and our lives will end in nothingness. Yet with Christ, we are truly found, because we walk in our true creation, which is God’s life bestowed upon us. 

This is a wrecking ball to the illusion of the self-gratification, self-absorption, and self-centeredness that we can so easily fall into. It’s a tearing down of the illusion that we can so easily create, that we am somehow worthy of God’s love. No, God is worthy of honor and glory and power, because he loves the wretched, and calls the weak things his beloved. And when we embrace this truth of Scripture, now we can truly see my worth, because it’s found no where else except in Jesus. And he becomes our everything, with his praise flowing off of my lips for his great work.

My challenge for you this week is to come before God and ask him to seek any selfish desires, any self-righteous mindset, and thing that would say God needs me; confess it recognize and remember the wretched state you were in before Christ, and praise him that he is good and loving because he saves you from it. Then seek after him to move by his Holy Spirit to beat down the old selfishness, to present you as a living sacrifice and instrument of godly work. Not by your own power but in submission to God’s power at work in you.

God desires his people to be his. To be led and directed as he so chooses. Let us then walk as the Spirit leads, upon  the Word of God, into the work of God, for the glory of God. Amen.

Digging Through Roofs - A Philosophy of Ministry

  I want us to do something a little different this week. I want to read the Scripture and then tell you a story and how this section of God’s Word impacts us here today. Our passage comes from Mark chapter 2, verses 1-5. Now this passage has a parallel in Luke 5:17-26, but there’s an element that Mark picks up on that is crucial to how the passage impacts us. So let’s read together Mark 2 starting in verse 1.

“1 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’”

The story I’m going to share with you today was a story relayed to me when I first came to Quartzsite by one of the founders of this church. It was the late 1970s. The US was going through a cycle of crisis, with issues that would eventually lead to a confrontation with the Iatola of Iran. The 80s are just on the horizon and the country is hoping for some change. Quartzsite, an old mining town, had become a spot for people to get some gas off the newly linked Interstate 10. The town boasted that they were the destination for rock hounds and the biggest yard sale in the nation. With the advent of retirees, Quartzsite became a cheap place to come, buy some property and spend the winter away from the harsh storms of the north.

At that time there was only one church in town, so if you were a believer that’s where you went. But as it is today, when you have older people wanting to enjoy their retirement years, you’ll need people that are still working to help them experience that. Young families began to migrate to where their grandparents were, and a new dynamic was brought into our desert town. 

But for some, the young families were not as welcomed as the retirees, and one such person was the pastor of the only church in town. As it would be later told, the pastor was almost manic at the thought of having children as a part of the church.

So the families began meeting together in houses, just studying the Bible. Families such as Herb of Herb’s Hardware, and Maude of KBUX Radio. Eventually more and more people gathered with the small group of families, which led the group to deciding it needed more room. Ever the generous man, the newly formed church renovated, and moved into Herb’s house out on the edge of town, on 720 W. Desert Vista St., where we meet this morning. That little building that we now call the Fellowship Hall began seeing weekly worship services, and the church continued to grow. 

When the group of believers decided to move in the direction of an establishing a local church, they began to look at different denominations to connect with. Most of the people were from a baptist background, but there was already an established baptist church in town, so they looked at other options. After looking at several, they decided on a small denomination that had at its core the sharing of the Gospel through missionary work. They chose the Christian and Missionary Alliance, and in 1984 became an official church of the denomination. There wasn’t many Alliance churches around them back then, but they did have a sister church up in Lake Havasu, and the young Pastor of the church, Jeff Jones, was invited to come and preach. 

Eventually, the church called their own pastor, a different young man with a family. And under his guidance the church continued to grow. Years later, another pastor was called, and another, and throughout the these roughly fifteen years, the church saw steady growth. But although the church saw growth with the snowbirds and older local residence, at the core of the church was a focus on the young families of the town. And towards the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s, a recently retired couple by the name of Ellis made sure that the church stayed true to that core purpose. 

After some issues that led to the termination of the current pastor, the search for a replacement began. As fillers, people like John Maltby of Maltby Chiropractic lended their gifts to help the church through this transition. But the church wasn’t the only ones looking for a pastor, the district was looking as well, and a now more seasoned pastor became available. Jeff Jones, who spoke in Quartzsite at the church in its formative years, was invited back to take the reins of the pastorate. 

Within the first years of Jeff’s tenure as Senior Pastor, he navigated the church through several tough issues. First, the Ellis’ greatly encouraged the church to hire a youth pastor, as they were getting older and were concerned that they wouldn’t be able to continue the work for too much longer. A couple of promising candidates were tried out, but never lasted more than a summer. This eventually led to the first full-time Youth Pastor being hired, and for four years the youth group grew. Jeff also navigated the church through a transition from a board model based on a baptist governing style, to an Elder Board model, which was standard in the Alliance. Finally, Jeff and the church called another youth pastor in 2007, which eventually led to another issue that Jeff had to navigate.

Around 2012, a group in the church decided that Jeff’s leadership was lacking, and that the youth ministry was out of hand. They believed that the church began to focus and spend too much on the youth and needed to reign it in. The goal was to terminate the Youth Pastor position altogether, get rid of the van ministry, and if possible, replace the Senior Pastor. But the core of the church had always been reaching out to the young families in town, and the church was able to move forward in continuing this work that God had called them to back in the 70s. 

In 2015, Pastor Jeff was led by God to step down as the Senior Pastor of our church. The Elders asked the Youth Pastor to step into the position. After a three year transition period, Pastor Jeff officially step down from the position he held for roughly 17 years, and became the church’s Community Pastor. It was then I stepped into the position I am in today, and then in 2021, Pastor Jeff passed away, a loss to this ministry and to his family, but a gain for a servant who walked well the path God laid out for him. 

We are now in a new season of ministry here at the Alliance Church of Quartzsite. We see new faces all the time, those that founded the church have either gone on to be with the Lord, such as Maude Burdett, and others are on the cusp, such as Herb and Rylis Kell. Yet the ministry God has called this body of believers to accomplish and what so many of you stand with, is the work to reach out to the young families of our town. In two years we come to the 40 year anniversary of the official Alliance Church being founded in Quartzsite, but we are living in the 40 years of work that started in the 70s. A work that started because there was no room for these young families, so they had to make room for themselves. 

God has spoken and said that this is the work that he established this church to do, and if ever we stop, our lampstand would be taken. 

The Alliance Church of Quartzsite does not have the best facilities. The carpet is getting ragged, things break all the time. The chairs wobble, the paint is chipped, the tile on the roof falls down. We make improvements as we can, but it takes time, because our ministry isn’t to build a nice building, it’s to minister to the people of Quartzsite. We try to be good stewards of what God has given to us, but ministry takes precedence over ascetics. 

“1 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’” 

In the passage, the house where Jesus was, was full of people. So much so that a person in need wasn’t able to get in. His friends, undeterred by the crowds, dug through the roof and lowered the paralyzed man down to be healed by Jesus. And it says, “When Jesus saw their faith…” Jesus forgave sin and eventually healed the man, because of the faith the friends showed in their action. 

I’m sure that when the digging began the home owners were not very pleased, but the work of God was more important. This is the philosophy of the ministry of this church. Everything that God gives us, is to be used for his work. The ragged carpet, though an eyesore, has a story of ministry being it. The whole in the wall, the not so nice paint, has stories of God’s work in them. The loud ruckus on a Sunday morning, the booming noise on a Friday, those are sounds of God’s work. The money that is given, to keep the vans gassed up and going, are vehicles of the Gospel at work. 

By all means, with in the purview of what God has given us, we use to accomplish the work that he started in the 70s and continues today. We are just another called group of people, who have joined this work of God, though we didn’t set out to do so. And we are both inheritors of this work and relayers to the next group.

I have wanted to share this for the last year, and God did not allow it until today. Now I see why. We needed to walk through the work of the seven churches to realize that the work God calls us to can be taken away by him if we do not continue in his will. And I thank God for you that you have join in this work. 

We can so easily think that it is us who accomplish what God sets before us, but we are simple workers in God’s vineyard, servants of the King, who mere do as the Master says, and it is he that completes his work. Praise God for that!

And that’s my challenge for you this week. Each of us comes from a different place, yet God has brought us into this work of Quartzsite. Let us praise him that he has done this good work here. That together we are to work in the fields he started cultivating 40 years ago. And may we each take a moment to ask, “Lord, how can I be used in the work of Quartzsite?” I pray that God leads us to do all that he has for today, and prepare the way for all that he has in store for the future. Amen.