The Object of Our Faith

Punctuality is not a strong suit in our church family. Maybe that isn't such a bad thing in a world so corporate with everything timed to a tightly wound schedule. I doubt that Jesus was impatiently waiting for the crowds to get seated so he could start the Sermon on the Mount "on time." For what it's worth, in our summer period we're a bit loose on this point, but the warmth of our church family is visible everywhere as we gather on Sunday mornings. And it was another great message from our pastor today.

Pastor Brad came to the front and welcomed us as he always does. "I’m grateful you’re here today. Today I’m going to talk about the object of our faith. I am convinced that the size of the God we worship determines the trajectory of our lives." He summarized main points of previous sermons in our summer series and noted today's theme.

Announcements
1. Brooke showed us a blue binder in which everyone has been invited to sign up for the various activities and volunteer opportunities here at New Life Covenant.
2. Gwen mentioned that next Sunday is Rally Sunday, and thanked everyone who is making dirt pies. Bring lawn chairs, and kites if you have them.
3. Chuck noted that $1200 was raised for homeless and needy families in Duluth.
4. Elsa invited everyone involved with our youth to an all youth group bonfire at Borndal’s next Saturday evening. Also next Sunday is Elsa’s end of the year in service to us. She thanked us for our hospitality and the wonderful connections she made with us.

Darlene transitioned us into worship as Brad quotes from Psalm 24 saying "Lift up your heads O gates… that the King of Glory should come in.”

We sang a pair of hymns including Amazing Love.

The Scripture reading was from John 6:56-69 followed by a time of prayer in which we lifted up again the many needs in our church family.

The Object of Faith

Pastor Brad's sermon was based on a familiar old story from the book of Judges, the story of Gideon. He began by sharing one of the games he used to play when his kids were small. He'd ask, “How big are you?” And he'd say, “I’m so big.” The idea being that he wanted his children to feel boundless in terms of their futures. 

This was just a game, but the question Brad wanted us to consider is no game at all. How big is your God? How we live is a consequence of how we view God. Do you have an all powerful, all-present, all-loving, totally capable God? We will live differently if our God is shrunken and small. The result is stagnation and fear when our God is too small.

We do not serve a little tribal God. Whatever we need our God is bigger.

In Judges 6, before Israel had kings like David, the Israelites had problems, one of them being the Midianites. This was all setup for the story of Gideon.

The Midianites did more than harass Israel. They took Israel's crops at harvest time, ravished their lands and left Israel impoverished. For this reason the story begins with Gideon threshing wheat in a wine press. He was terrified of the Midianites who might spy him and take his wheat. A winepress is far from the ideal place to thresh wheat. It is a small, confined space. Furthermore it lacks the wind necessary to thresh properly. But for Gideon is was safe, because he lived in fear of the Midianites.

Gideon was not a Samson, nor a super hero.But the angel of the Lord came to Gideon and called him a mighty warrior. Gideon didn't see himself this way at all. When we have a little God we don’t believe things can ever change. Our job simply becomes a matter of survival. Gideon rationalized his passivity by his smallness, the smallest member of the weakest tribe, most insignificant.

God’s response: “I will be with you and you will strike down the Midianites with one hand."

What is unthinkable and undoable on our own becomes possible when God is with us. “You don’t have to live your life in hiding. You have a great big God and He has called you to do something, so get on with it. “

Gideon was told to knock down the altar to Baal, god of a fertility cult that involved infant sacrifice. 

Gideon and ten of his servants knock down the altar… at night. He was still scared to publicly carry out God's will. His dad had built the altar but responded in this surprising way: if Baal is God he will take care of it.

God then asks Gideon to lead Israel against the Midianites. Gideon asks God for a confirmation, and what follows in the famous incident with the fleece.God affirms that he is with Gideon. Gideon then rounds up an army, is told to go to battle, to lead.

Though Gideon army was outnumbered 4 to 1 God says he has too many men for this battle. Gideon is instructed to send everyone home who is afraid. 22,000 went home.

But the army was still not small enough. There was another sifting so that Gideon was left with 300 men vs. 120,000 Midianites, 450 to one odds.

God says, “It’s my battle. You don’t have to wrestle with fear.”

Brad reminded us that the single most repeated commandment in Scripture is “Fear not.”

Modern genome science claims to have found the worry gene. Worry is a common malady. Problems and outcomes we have no control over….. But at times when overwhelmed I sometimes here God say to me, “You and I are going to walk through this thing together. Just trust me.”

OK God, I will live this life with as much joy and hope as possible. God is enough to see us through. God is the inner reality. Nobody else can give this kind of peace. It is a peace that comes from God alone. God says, “I am bigger than your problems, your regrets.“

And in the empty tomb we see that God is bigger than death itself.

God knows about the Midianites in your life. He knows you. He knows about your worries. He knows about your kids. He knows what you’ve lost. He knows about the divorce. He knows about the divorce. He knows about the crumbling marriage. He knows about the affair. He knows about the abortion. He knows about the job failure. He knows about where you are stagnant. He knows where your dreams have died. But He has better dreams for you. If you just ask him, He will be a bigger presence in your life than you have known.

After the closing hymn we celebrated the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

Breath of Life

What a beautiful sunny morning. It may be that summer is finally sneaking into this corner of the world, like a breath of fresh air. And inside the sanctuary we were greeted warmly as well, Pastor Brad reminding us of our current theme: the Holy Spirit, who strengthens and gifts us to do God's work.

Chief among the announcements was that this week is VBS. A time of worship was followed by today's Scripture readings.
I Sam. 15:34 to 16:13
Mark 4:26-34

After a time of prayer the congregation sang Be Thou My Vision and then Brad stepped to the pulpit.

Breath of Life

Brad began the message by asking us to indulge him a moment. Sit up straight and take a deep breath, then just let it out. "It's funny how something that simple can help you relax and make you feel more alive."

Whereas breathing is something we all do without giving much thought to it, there are actually some people who have studied it extensively and are experts in breathing. Singers, divers, and many athletes devote a lot of time to learning how to breathe better.

Breathe out, breathe in. Exhale the bad things, take in the good and the necessary.

It's interesting, Brad noted, that in both Hebrew and in Greek, the word for breath that is used in each language is also the same word for spirit. In Hebrew the word is "ruha" and the first time it appears in the Bible is in Genesis 2:7.

7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Why did God create us this way? God breathed in us the breath of life and man became a living soul. Why didn't God just snap his fingers or say a word. No, God breathed into the man. God's ruha.

In the Old Testament, where the spirit is present there is life. For example, in Psalm 104 the writer said, When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust.

An interesting turn of phrase. When you take away their breath they die. That is what sin does to people. It makes them forget how to breathe.

The manner in which the Spirit worked in peoples' lives in the old Testament was different from today. The Spirit of God would come upon people and work in exceptional ways through them for specific purposes. David was granted empowered and also given wisdom. In the same manner Gideon likewise led Israel like a mighty warrior when the Spirit rested on him. When the Spirit came upon Samson in the book of Judges, he had extraordinary strength. It is written that on one occasion he struck down a thousand men. King Saul, when he began ruling there are evidences he felt dependent on God to rule.

Pastor Brad cited another interesting passage, this one in Exodus 31:1-5. It was interesting because it shows how the Spirit not only gave supernatural strength, God's Spirit gifted men to be craftsmen.

1 Then the LORD said to Moses, 2 "See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts- 4 to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, 5 to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship.

Gifted by God's spirit to build a new tent of meeting. Craftsmen, breathed on by God... empowered to design, and build by His Spirit.

Brad took this opportunity to go sideways and remind us of our own building project, that we should seek God's spiritual empowerment, should pray for his wisdom to produce a "tent of meeting" that bears witness to something bigger than ourselves. This may be our moment... a way to remind people in out community of God's presence here.

God was not AWOL in the Old Testament. He just manifest Himself differently. In the Wilderness God led Israel in the form of a pillar of fire. God ministered through the priesthood. There were a few people who prophesied, too, but Moses expressed a bigger vision when he said, "I wish all the Lord's people were prophets." I wish everyone had the Spirit he was saying. Moses knew God's heart.

And in Joel 2:28 we see this theme projected to a future day as the Lord said through Joel, "And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions." This became the great dream of God's people... and ultimately, this is what happened. Unlike the Old Testament where there was a single pillar of fire, on the Day of Pentecost when the Spirit rushed in that fire separated, split apart and rested on every individual.

There are other stories of the power of God's breath. Brad then cited the passage where Ezekiel was shown the valley of dry bones. God asked Ezekiel, "Son of man, can these bones live?"

God's breath has power. If God can make life from a lump of clay, and make dead bones live, He can do it for you.

Breathing matters. This is the whole reason Jesus came, to usher in the era of the Spirit. And to breathe on us God's air. John the Baptist said, "I baptize with water, He will baptize you with the Spirit."

Breathe... We must breathe out the bad stuff, rid ourselves of judgementalism, guilt, anxiety, and breathe in life. Breathe in the Holy Spirit. Carbon dioxide isn't the only toxic substance inside of us. Self-preoccupation, fear, guilt over unconfessed sin... breathe it out. Breathe in the breath of life. Breathe in His grace, mercy and healing.

Brad closed by leading us to consider Ephesians 6:18 where Paul wrote, "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests."The Spirit of God is with us, in us, when we pray. On all occasions, stop and breathe.