The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Category: Matthew (Page 11 of 24)

The Church is on a Mission

April 7, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Two positive observations following the Rangers’ season opener: 1) tonight will be better; it absolutely cannot be any worse, and 2) the Rangers are still mathematically alive. For Evan Grant’s five reasons Rangers fans should not be panicked today, click here.

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In case you’re keeping score at home, Kevin Schaffer won our church office bracket contest and the free lunch and dessert that goes with it. Well, actually, his wife Michele won it for him. Kevin doesn’t know a Blue Devil from a Demon Deacon. On the strength of Duke’s come from behind win in last night’s title game, Vickie Nelson, our office manager, edged past Hannah McNeill for second place and the other free lunch. With all the guys on our church staff, three ladies finished in the top three. I’m glad Connie retired before she could fill one out.

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One more sports angle: how can anybody ever trust a guy like Tony Romo? Doesn’t it say something about the guy’s integrity, his character, when he’s born and raised in Wisconsin, but shows up in Indy last night wearing Duke colors and openly cheering for the Blue Devils against his home state university?!? It would be like Troy Aikman flying to Atlanta to wear blue and white and cheer for BYU over Oklahoma. It makes no sense. How do you trust a guy like that?

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In Ephesians 3, Paul prays this beautiful prayer for the Church. He prays about transformation: that God may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, that Christ may dwell in your hearts, that the church would be rooted and established in love, that we would have power together with all the saints, to grasp the love of Christ, to know the love of Christ, and to be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…”

The request here is that God would do a whole lot with the power that is at work in the Church. This prayer is not a wide open plea for God to demonstrate his power in the world in random ways and by random means. This is a specific request for God to act in spectacular ways through his Church. The transforming power of God belongs to us. So we’re not asking God to do great things while we sit in our church buildings and wait on it. And study it. And talk about it. The Kingdom of God is not a matter of talking, but of power!

God’s Church is on a mission.

In Matthew 9, Jesus asks his disciples to pray for workers to send into the fields. Pray about it, he says. This is what we want God to do, to raise up these workers. And then in the very next sentence, just one verse later, Jesus is giving them the authority and the power and sending them into those fields to do the work. You ever notice that?

Be careful when you pray. The answer to your prayer may be the power of God moving you to mission. If you pray for God to use your church or to work through your church, be prepared to get off your pew and in to the mission. Go ahead and pray for the hungry and the sick. Please pray for God’s will to be done in your town just as it is heaven. Yes, pray those things. And then open your eyes and your ears and your heart to how God wants to work through you to do it.

Peace,

Allan

All On A Mission

April 6, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Opening Day. And I can’t remember a spring in my lifetime when the Rangers appeared to be as undermanned and ill-prepared. Brand new manager. No ace. Bullpen a work in progress. Questions in the outfield. Predictions for last place. Again. The Cactus League never gives the full picture, but the Rangers only won nine out of 33 games. And they looked bad doing it. First innings exploded against the starters, late leads were squandered by the relievers, and the offense has never really looked like it clicks. But I can’t wait for the first pitch tonight at 9:05. There are a lot of supremely talented young guys on this team. Choo and Fielder are both healthy. Who knows? It’s a long, long season. A lot can happen. It’s finally baseball time in Texas. Go Rangers.

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All children of God and disciples of Jesus are on a mission. In Genesis 12, when God decides to tell us how he’s going to restore the world, how he’s going to fix the problem of sin and evil and rebellion and death, when he shares his plan with us, he lets us know clearly that we are in on it with him. God is not interested in saving the world by himself. He calls Abraham. He calls him and sends him. “Go,” God says, “to the place I will show you… All peoples on earth will be blessed by you.”

In Isaiah 49, God calls his people out of exile. He saves them and changes them for the purpose of participating in his mission: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”

In Matthew 6, Jesus teaches his followers how to pray: “Our Father… Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

And that’s exactly what happens. Jesus heals the sick because there is no disease in heaven. He feeds the poor because there is no hunger in heaven. Jesus raises the dead because there are no cemeteries in heaven. He turns the other cheek because there is no violence in heaven. He eats dinner with everybody because there are no divisions or distinctions among people in heaven.

And on that last night, he sends his disciples out: “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do the same things I’ve been doing. In fact, you’ll do even greater things because I’m going to live inside you! Go! Go do it! And, remember, you didn’t choose me, I chose you! You are the light of the world! You are the city on a hill! Your good deeds will bring praise to our Father in heaven!”

Every one of us is on a mission. No one is exempt.

Matthew 25 says on that last day the King will separate us according to who was on a mission and who wasn’t.

Peace,

Allan

Beyond Your Sin

March 24, 2015 / / 1 Comment

“…your Father who sees what is done in secret…” ~Matthew 6:3, 6, 18

Remember the old church song about the All-Seeing Eye? It was creepy. It was scary, actually. I think it must have been written to keep church people from leaving during the invitation song. The All-Seeing Eye. And the song created this terrible picture of our God as this angry, arbitrary, ogre in the sky who just can’t wait to nail you. To grab you by the scruff of the neck and throw you out. Or destroy you.

Yes, our God sees everything. He sees all the good things you do. And, yeah, he definitely sees all the bad things you do. He sees your sin. He sees everything.

That means he not only sees your sin, he sees under your sin. He sees behind your sin. God sees above and below your sin. He sees beyond your sin to your pain. He sees the fear and the scars. God sees the hurts and the wounds that cause your sin. He knows.

God doesn’t just want you to stop sinning — yes, he definitely wants you to stop sinning — but he also wants to heal you. He wants to make you whole. He wants to get to the pain that drives you to those websites. He wants to fix the hurt that causes you to lie. God wants to cleanse the wounds that push you to anger or stealing, addiction or gossip. God loves you. And he wants to transform you. He wants to make you whole.

Peace,

Allan

Eating and Drinking with Losers

January 26, 2015 / / 0 Comments

“When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind.” ~Luke 14:13

“Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” ~Matthew 9:11

“Bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame!” ~Luke 14:21

“Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” ~Matthew 11:19

The gospels show us that the Kingdom of God is a big party with a bunch of losers. Jesus wants us to see that God’s idea of a great time is a huge feast with a bunch of people you wouldn’t be caught dead with on a Saturday night. Or any other time of the week. Jesus came eating and drinking with losers.

And you are one of those losers. So am I. We are all losers together at the table of our King.

We’re all coming to the table with a limp. We’ve all got a wound or a chronic pain. We come to the table with a horrible story or a distorted view or a serious issue. All of us are maimed. Or dysfunctional. Or disabled. And broken. All of us.

The Pharisees at these dinner parties — the ones “watching closely,” the ones criticizing Jesus and complaining — are so self-righteous and smug with their nice and tidy lives in their pressed and flowing robes. They set themselves apart from and above the losers. “They’re sinners; but we’re saved. Their lives are a mess; but we’ve got it all together. They need a whole bunch of God’s grace and forgiveness; we just need a little grace to get us over the top.”

No! In Luke 14, Jesus says, at these dinner parties, don’t choose a place of honor for yourself. You’re not as great as you think you are. And these people you categorize as losers are my cherished children.

We are all sinners, every one of us. We have all sinned and fallen terribly short of the glory of God. And we are all being saved together by the lavish grace of our Father. Yes, the ground is level at the foot of the cross. And, yes, all the seats are the same around the table of our Lord.

Scripture says we’re all going to eat and drink together with Jesus forever. We’re all going to take our places with him around the table at the wedding feast of the Lamb. And I think Sundays are the warm-up. I think Sunday mornings are party practice. Sunday mornings together are like the chips and hot sauce to the fajitas and enchiladas. Eating and drinking with sinners, sharing a meal with broken losers, with each other, together on Sundays, teaches us how to live together. It’s one of the places we learn to bear one another’s burdens. We learn to help each other, to encourage each other, to challenge each other.

We look at all the faces around the Lord’s Table on Sundays and they’re all looking back at us. No doubt, seeing very clearly our messes, knowing fully our sins. And, yet, still choosing to eat and drink with us. And we know at that moment that Jesus was crucified for the lousy company he kept. And he still is.

Peace,

Allan

It’s About Today

January 20, 2015 / / 0 Comments

“Today this Scripture is fulfilled.” ~Luke 4:21

The good news of the Gospel is not just helpful advice or even truthful statements. Scripture is all about what God is doing right now. Right here. Today. I think Jesus’ sermon in that synagogue in Nazareth really hits home when he says “Today! Today this Scripture is fulfilled!”

It’s one thing to say God will move. God will act. God will save. It’s quite another thing to say God is moving today! God is acting right now today! God is saving right here today!

Today!

That’s exciting. It’s immediate. It’s right now, in your face, all around you, in your space, and it demands a response. Look at it. God is speaking, he is doing, he is disrupting things, he is changing people, he is saving men and women, he is renewing the world! Today!

Do you read the Scriptures the way Jesus and his disciples read them? Do you look in the Bible for what God did back then or for what it says God is doing today? It’s all about today. Do you see his potential in your today? Do you feel his possibility in today? Do you know what he is doing in you and through you right now today?

Take a minute today and read a psalm or two out loud. Real loud. Pray a passage from Matthew 5-7 or John 17 or Ephesians 1-2 out loud. Real loud. Ask God to speak to you. Ask him to show you. Now praise him. Give him thanksgiving and honor. He is not distant or aloof. Our God is not uncaring or inactive, hesitant or restrained. He is gloriously at work right now today!

Peace,

Allan

The Gospel is for All

January 15, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Jesus was a preacher. Jesus preached all the time. And, like every preacher I’ve ever met, he had a couple of common themes he returned to over and over again in his sermons. His favorite was the Kingdom of God. Jesus preached the coming of the Kingdom of God. Constantly.

“Repent, for the Kingdom of God is near!” ~Matthew 4:17
“The time has come! The Kingdom of God is near!” ~Mark 1 :15
“I must preach the good news of the Kingdom of God !” ~Luke 4:43

As he heals the blind and the deaf and the crippled, Jesus proclaims the Kingdom of God is near. As he sends his disciples to preach all over Israel, he directs them to declare the good news of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God was the steady beat that drove Jesus’ preaching, it was the flag at the front of his sermons: the good news of the Kingdom of God.

So, what was Jesus trying to show us in these sermons? What does he want us to know about God and the eternal Kingdom of God? What are we supposed to see?

I think Jesus’ main point in all his sermons is that the Kingdom of God is for everybody. The Gospel is for all. It was a radical idea then, and it’s still very much a dramatic idea today.

In his very first (and, I assume, last) sermon in his hometown synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus preached that the Kingdom of God was for all people. He reminds the listeners that there were many poor widows in Israel during the great famine, but Elijah didn’t feed any of those good Jewish women. He only fed the one alien woman of another nation and race. He points out that there were lots of suffering lepers in Israel, but the only person Elisha healed was a violent, non-Jewish army officer of the occupying Syrian forces. Jesus preaches that, yes, God has come. But he’s not really come in exactly the ways you expected. God really enjoys working the other side of the street.

This sermon and all the others like it didn’t go over so well in front of congregations full of people who believed they were the only ones who had gotten it right. When Jesus says God is doing a new thing, it doesn’t fly with a bunch of people who are holding tight with a white-knuckle death grip to things that are old.

The Kingdom of God is for everybody. That’s what Jesus wants us to see.

Jesus made friends with the poor and oppressed. And we celebrate that. But he also made friends with the rich and the oppressors. And that’s maddening to us because we’re always trying to divide the world up between us and them. Good and bad. Worthy and unworthy. Called and not called. Those who might accept the Lordship of Jesus and those who never will. Those who are a good investment of the church’s money and energy and those who would be a waste of the church’s time and resources.

Jesus wants us to see that his Kingdom is for everybody. Everybody! The curtain is torn! The walls are down! The barriers are destroyed!

That’s the message. It’s what Jesus preached. It’s what he lived. And it kept him in hot water. It got him disfellowshipped from his home church and nearly killed.

And Jesus sends us out to preach and to live the exact same good news. In the exact same ways.

“As you go, preach this message: the Kingdom of God is near!” ~Matthew 10:7
“He sent them out to preach the Kingdom of God.” ~Luke 9:2
“Go and proclaim the Kingdom of God!” ~Luke 9:60
“Tell them, ‘The Kingdom of God is near you!'” ~Luke 10:9
“The gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations!” ~Matthew 24:14

Jesus calls us to speak and to live this same message. We spread this word around liberally. Lavishly. We live it out with others generously. Abundantly. We forgive. We love. We share. We help. We compliment. We bring the gospel to everybody without reservation. We treat everybody like Jesus the Christ came to this earth to save them. We treat them like the Kingdom of God is for them. We speak to a mean neighbor like they belong in God’s Kingdom. We talk about the terrorists like God loves them. Like the rain that falls on the just and the unjust, whether they want it or not, whether they ask for it or not, whether they accept it or not, here it is! The love of God. The forgiveness of Christ. The mercy of the Holy Spirit. Freely and joyfully we proclaim and live the good news of God’s Kingdom with all.

Because that is God. That is the Kingdom of God. It’s the truth. And if we live it, it will truly set us and everybody we know free.

Peace,

Allan

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