May 27-29, 2017 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: John 15:9-17 “REMEMBER TO REMAIN IN CHRIST’S LOVE!”

EASTER 7

May 27-29, 2017

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: John 15:9-17

“REMEMBER TO REMAIN IN CHRIST’S LOVE!”

1.     It’s what He chose you for.

2.     It’s seen in loving obedience.

John 15:9-17 (NIV 1984) “As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Now remain in My love. ¹⁰If you obey My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commands and remain in His love. ¹¹I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹²My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴You are My friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from My Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in My name. ¹⁷This is My command: Love each other.”

          Originally it was called Decoration Day, this day we know as Memorial Day. Back in 1868 a group of veterans from the Union Army during the Civil War located in Decatur Illinois established a day for people to decorate the gravesites of Union soldiers who had died in the war. People would turn out in droves bringing flowers and other decorations, remembering those who had died. Eventually some other similar observances merged to become a national holiday. Memorial Day. Did you know that in the year 2000 Congress passed the National Moment of Remembrance Act? It’s true. Now at 3 PM on Memorial Day all Americans are asked to stop what they are doing and to take a moment to remember those who died so we can enjoy freedom. I wonder why that was done. Do you suppose it’s because leaders in our country realized that too many Americans were not remembering? That for them Memorial Day had just become another paid holiday with a picnic if the weather is nice but too many were not remembering? You see, Memorial Day is a call to remember those who gave their lives for us.    In the words of Jesus before us today we also hear a call to remember the one who gave His life for all. Jesus calls on us to remember to remain in His love. And just like we need to as Americans check how well we are remembering those who died for our country, as Christians we need to check how well we are remembering to remain in Christ’s love.

Why? It’s what you were chosen for. Jesus said, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from My Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in My name.” Jesus spoke these words to His disciples as they were gathered in the Upper Room on Maundy Thursday when Jesus was betrayed. He wanted them to know things were going to be different. Their relationship would different. He called them His friends. Jesus has the right to call those who follow Him anything He wants but He chooses the word friends. Why? It gets to the heart of the matter, the age old question of why you do the things that you do. Because you have to or because you want to? Servants or slaves do what they are told because they have to. Now think of how it is with a friend. Have you ever had a friend who needed you? Was it a burden to help them, or a privilege? You know.

So is the way we live our lives for Jesus. It is our sinful nature that looks at God’s commands as burdensome. It is the inborn selfishness that chooses self over others. We all know how good it feels to get chosen for a position or a promotion. Just like He chose His disciples Jesus has chosen you and me. We didn’t decide to be loved by Jesus. We didn’t choose to be in His love. He chose us as friends. Friends of the King of kings and Lord of Lords. He picked us to be his own and appointed us to bear fruit that will last that means to do things that will have results lasting all the way to eternity.

How does that happen? When we remain in Christ’s love by obeying His commands. “As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Now remain in My love. ¹⁰If you obey My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commands and remain in His love. ¹¹I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹²My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴You are My friends if you do what I command. ¹⁷This is My command: Love each other.” Twice Jesus says it. “As I have…” As I have obeyed my Father. As I have loved you. He’s drawing our attention to the way we obey and the way we love so that we remain in His love. How did Jesus obey the Father? Perfectly probably jumps to your mind first and right there you are saying, “Well that’s not going to happen.” We know that no matter how hard we try the sinful nature even in us Christians is so strong we are not capable of perfect obedience. The only reason we are perfect in God’s eyes is because Jesus gives us His obedience. But there is another way that Jesus obeyed the Father that you and I can do. Willingly.

Children, I know that sometimes you struggle to obey your parents. And sometimes the only reason you obey them is so you don’t get in trouble, so that you don’t get punished. Did you know that doesn’t really make your parents happy? Sure they are glad that you obeyed but they don’t really enjoy forcing you. Do you know what makes them happy? Ask them. It’s when you obey willingly, because you want to without getting threatened. When you smile and say OK mommy. OK daddy. Just like Jesus said to His Father. Here I am. I have come to do your will. Not my will but yours be done. That’s love based obedience. And that’s a sign that we are remembering to stay in Christ’s love. Willing obedience. And we can do that because Jesus first loved us.

 And what to obey isn’t really hard to figure out either. “Love each other. As I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” That takes us back to Memorial Day doesn’t it? The history books are full of the true stories of soldiers who lay down their lives for their friends, who jumped on the grenade to protect the rest, who went through murderous machine gun fire to rescue an injured comrade. When you read about their heroic actions or see it replayed on TV or as a movie you easily recognize the honor of sacrificial love. As one chosen by Jesus you are uniquely equipped to see much more. You see a picture of Jesus. That’s how He loved us. He lay down His life for us.

His followers do the same. The Bible showed us the Deliverer Samson giving his life to free his people from the idol worshipping Philistines and Stephen trustingly giving his life for Jesus. Now we probably are not going to get opportunities or be asked to give our lives for each other but we certainly can live our lives for each other. Part of that is easy to figure out. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. How do you want to be treated? But Jesus adds something here. “Love each other as I have loved you,” said Jesus. Jesus cared about where we would spend our eternal lives. He gave Himself not for our perceived needs of food for our bellies and healing for our diseases. He gave Himself for our eternal needs. That’s how we show we are remaining in Christ’s love, caring about the eternal needs of others. Don’t get me wrong. Helping with physical needs is great. You’ve responded to food drives and clothing drives and shoe drives. You help each other with rides and meals when there is need. “As I have loved you,” said Jesus. “Fruit that will last,” said Jesus. When you pray for each other’s spiritual needs, when you have the Jesus talk with the family member, when you give offerings to proclaim Christ here or through missions, that’s fruit that will last. That’s loving others as we’ve been loved by Christ. It shows we are remaining in Christ’s love.

So what do you think you will do at 3 PM on Monday? Will you remember to remember? More importantly what will you do with the words of God we have heard? Remember. Remember to remain in Christ’s love. Amen.

April 29-May1, 2017 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: 1 Peter 1:17-21 “YOU DON’T BELONG HERE!”

EASTER 3

April 29-May1, 2017

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: 1 Peter 1:17-21

“YOU DON’T BELONG HERE!”

                                      1. So Live Your Lives in Reverent Fear.

                                      2. You’ve Been Redeemed.

                                      3. Your Faith and Hope are in God.

1 Peter 1:17-21 (NIV 1984) “Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. ¹⁸For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, ¹⁹but with the precious blood of Christ, a Lamb without blemish or defect. ²⁰He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. ²¹Through Him you believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him, and so your faith and hope are in God.”

          You. Don’t. Belong. Here. Those are four words. The tone with which you say them makes a big difference. “You don’t belong here!” are mean words when they are said to exclude a person from a playground game or planned sleepover. “You don’t belong here!” are loving words spoken by a mom scooping up a child whose crawling toward danger. It just matters how you say it. Through the Apostle Peter God says those four words to us today. You don’t belong here. How does He mean them? Let’s find out.

          “Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.” We call on a father who judges impartially. God doesn’t play favorites. With these words Peter reminds us that lip service to God does not cut it and never will. God did not put up with the lip service of the Jewish people even though His Son would be born from them. When they drew close to God with their lips but their hearts were far from Him God didn’t put up with it. Do you remember how they did that? Made sure they got to church each Sabbath but once they left the stole from each other and had no mercy. How would it look among us? Coming to church and then leaving only to curse at the guy who pulls out ahead of you in the parking lot or street. Worshipping God here, calling on His name for help, but then living the rest of the week with me in charge, giving no time to God, His word and prayer.

          Instead we are urged to live in reverent fear. There is a lot of fear mongering going on these days. And so you might find yourself fearing what North Korea is doing or Syria. You might fear growing crime. Maybe you fear how you will be treated as a Christian who holds to God’s Word and God’s morals in a country that more and more does not. Reverent fear is different. It means living with a desire for God’s approval and a fear of disappointing Him. Reverent fear happens when we hear God’s voice in our heads and our hearts saying “You don’t belong here looking at things that cause you to lust. You don’t belong here breaking up someone’s marriage by flirting with their spouse. You don’t belong here harming your body with drugs. You don’t belong here in this facebook post, chat room or Instagram/twitter feed that uses filthy language or is mean and derogatory.” You don’t’ belong in those places because you don’t belong here in a world filled with sin. Heaven is your home.

          Why? You are a redeemed child of God. “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, ¹⁹but with the precious blood of Christ, a Lamb without blemish or defect. ²⁰He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.” You don’t belong here, you aren’t really a part of this world because you’ve been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. To redeem means to buy back. They don’t seem to be real popular up here but down south there are pawn shops everywhere. If you need a little extra money you bring an item. They give you money. If you did that with something special to you, if you want your guitar or video game system back you have to buy it back. Not by God’s choosing but because Adam and Eve chose to sin they and we and all people were lost to Him. We pawned ourselves to the devil through sin. But God wanted us back. He wants us with Him in heaven. So He redeemed us. Even though God owns this entire world there is nothing in it that could pay the price so God paid the ultimate. Jesus. He came. He lived. He suffered Hell. He died. We are bought back. At the time Peter wrote this he acknowledged that the Old Testament believers didn’t know the whole story but New Testament believers like us do. It’s been revealed.

          And now we don’t belong here. We’ve been redeemed from an empty way of life. The empty way of life for people at Peter’s time included Jewish people whose religion was just a formality, a ritual. They went to church every Sabbath, they brought their tithe, they adhered to an outward keeping of the 10 Commandments but it was done just because that’s the way it was. It included Gentiles who tried to keep all their many gods happy knowing that in the end the Fates would decide what would happen to them. Today there are all kinds of empty ways of living. Think of a worker who hates his job, drudges through, gets home, falls asleep in front of the TV waking up to eat and go to bed, living for the weekend when a case of beer will make it seem bearable. Think of the teens who feel so empty only the drug high makes life bearable. Think of the millions who live to surround themselves with things only to realize to late that things don’t bring happiness. You don’t belong here says God. I’ve redeemed you. Heaven is your home. Because the tomb is empty your life is full. You get to live storing up treasures for heaven. You get to treat things as things. You get to have your  God sized heart hole filled with God. You don’t belong here.

          Your faith and hope are in God. “Through Him you believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him, and so your faith and hope are in God.” Think of all the phrases or mottos that talk about believing. “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. - Eleanor Roosevelt

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense. – Buddha. Think of how many sports teams urge on their fan base with sayings like “You just gotta believe!” But see there’s this thing about belief. It’s only as good as what you believe in. Did you believe the Bucks would advance in the playoffs? Why didn’t they? Because you didn’t believe enough? No, they couldn’t deliver. I can believe all I want that I have the ability to fly but if I jumped off of a high rise building I would find my trust in myself misplaced. I can believe with all my heart that a board will hold my weight as I step on it to cross a narrow canyon but if it is not strong enough I will fall no matter how hard or how sincerely I believe. We don’t belong here, trusting in things or people that will inevitably let us down.

          Your faith and hope are in God. He has the power to deliver anything. Go back to Easter. God raised Jesus from the dead. He has the power to do anything. So you don’t belong here getting your hope and confidence from how much money you have saved up. You don’t belong here only being happy when things seem to be going well and getting all down and worried when you have to face obstacles or challenges or dealing with sickness and death. You don’t belong here letting your inner peace be robbed by countries and politicians behaving badly. Your faith and hope are in God who has promised never to leave you nor forsake you. Who has promised to work all things for the good. Who disciplines those He loves.  Your faith and hope are in God who gives us back our dead so you can look forward to the life to come in our real home where the peace, joy and happiness never wavers or gets robbed because we forget where we belong.

          Because, brothers and sister, you don’t belong here and neither do I. God says that us in love. He saw before the Creation of the world that it would not be the perfect place he intended. He knew we wouldn’t belong here. So from the start He planned and carried out our salvation. He committed Himself to paying the price of His Son. The next time you see a believer dying or are gathering at their funeral, remember what really happened. God said, “Shh! You don’t belong here with hurts in your heart and a body that is failing. It’s time to come home.” And until that day happens for you live in such a way that shows, you don’t belong here. Amen.