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Sermon & Worship Packages: Time to Remember
There is no fear of God before their eyes."
Romans 3:10-18 (NIV)
“Don’t you fear God?” is a great question. It’s a question that I don’t think we hear much anymore. And if we’re not careful, the next generation will miss entirely this all important characteristic of God.
That’s why I’m glad Disney and Walden Media is releasing C.S. Lewis’ “The Lion, Witch and The Wardrobe” this December. If you don’t know anything about this, let me encourage you to pick up the book and make plans to see this movie. In this story, Lewis chose a Lion to represent Jesus. At times the children in the story felt comfortable to run their fingers through his mane, take rides on his back and enjoy being in his presence. But his roar was ferocious enough to introduce an element of fear. It prompted 1 of the children to ask, “Is Aslan safe?” The thoughtful answer was, “No, He’s not safe, but He is good.”
God is a God of love and justice; grace and wrath, and sometimes I think we need to hear Him roar to remind us of His holiness.
I used the famous Gene Kelly scene from Singing in the Rain as an illustration of Romans 5:17. The Sermon title was Singing in the Reign. Kelly’s dance was full of the child-like love we can feel and experience in knowing that God has freely given us His abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness. Kelly’s exhuberant joy is dampened by the appearance of the policeman - an apt illustration of moving from grace and the free gift back into legalism!
Are You Being Served? was a British sitcom that ran from 1972 to 1985. It was set in the very old-fashioned Grace Brothers department store, owned by Mr. Grace. The program deals with the working life of the staff of the Ladies’ and Gent’s outfitting departments. Captain Peacock is in overall charge on the floor and Mr. Rumbold is the Manager. Gents’ Outfitting is staffed by Mr. Grainger, the flamboyant Mr. Humphries and Mr. Lucas. Ladies’ Outfitting is staffed by witty, plump and multi colored haired Mrs. Slocomb and the typical blonde character Miss Brahms. This sitcom is a humorous look at the workings of a department store. The title comes from the idea that when customers come into Grace Brothers they are asked, “Are you being served?”
When it comes to Christianity are you the one asking, “Are you being served?” Or are you the one to whom the question is asked. Christians should be like these characters in the department store and ask “Are you being served?” Many times Christians believe that they are the customers. As Christians we are not the customers, we are the service workers.
Many ask, "Where can I get the best deal" instead of where can I serve? We are the Mr. Humphries and Mrs. Slocomb’s to the world.
Yes, from time to time, we need to be served but this should not be our mindset. Our first instict as Christians should be to serve not to be served. Jesus said(Mark 10:45 NIV) For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Grace - an illustration of the effect of grace.
By grace, Jesus took our place on the cross, enduring what he didn’t have to, so that we could have a relationship with our father. As an illustration of this, there is a scene in the Hugh Grant movie ’About A Boy’. Towards the end of the movie, the young boy ’Marcus’ is humilating himself by singing a solo in front of his entire school because he thinks it will make his mother happy. Hugh Grant, in his compassion for the young boy, decides that he can’t bear to see M...
In one of the biggest movies of the year, Talladega Nights, Will Ferrell who plays the race car driver Ricky Bobby is at the table getting ready to eat. And when he asks the blessing, he prays to “the baby Jesus.” But in the middle of his prayer in which he returns thanks for the bountiful harvest from dominoes pizza and taco bell, his wife interrupts him and tells him how she doesn’t like the fact that he always prays to the baby Jesus. She says, “Jesus did grow up, you know? You don’t always have to call him baby!” To which Ricky Bobby responds, “I like the Christmas Jesus best and I’m the one saying grace. When you say grace you can pray to grownup Jesus or teenage Jesus or bearded Jesus or whichever Jesus you like.” I think we all like the Christmas Jesus best.
SWEET GRACE
My new favorite movie is "Chocolat", about a little French village in 1959 that is governed by "tranquilité".
In this town, you knew what was expected of you and where your place was. If you happened to forget, someone would remind you. They trusted in the wisdom of ages past, including tradition, family, and morality.
The Mayor, Comte de Reynaud, is the self-appointed guardian of the town. He writes the preacher’s sermons, guides the townspeople in their moral decisions, and overall, tries to maintain the status quo at all costs.
Into this town sweeps a vibrant, young woman named Vianne who is anything but traditional.
She does nothing by the book. She does not go to church, has a daughter without a father present, and has the gall to open a chocolaterie in the middle of Lent.
Her chocolaterie and her grace unexpectedly transform the town and its people. A wounded woman finds the courage to escape her abusive husband. A grandmother renews a broken relationship with her family members. Even the Comte de Reynaud, after an intense Easter Saturday conversion experience, is described as "strangely released".
If a young woman selling chocolate can make that much of a difference (albeit in a fictional town)- mending family relationships, breaking free from abusive situations, opening their hearts for love - Just think what a difference can be made by the life of a man named Jesus.
Born into a captain’s family who traded at the East India Company, John Newton (July 24, 1725 – December 21, 1807) embarked on sea voyages at the young age of 11. He soon entered the prosperous slave trade until he nearly died on a voyage that would change his life forever. He proclaimed, “Only God’s amazing grace could and would take a rude, profane, slave-trading sailor and transform him into a child of God.” This would influence his famed hymn Amazing Grace, in which he declared he was once blind but now could see. Newton wrote the hymn after converting to Christianity in 1748 and abandoning his participation in the slave trade. In1764 he was ordained in the Church of England.
William Wilberforce first met John Newton when he (Wilberforce) was a child. Newton was the pastor at the church Wilberforce attended. He (Wilberforce) became reacquainted with Newton in his twenties when Wilberforce was on the brink of a career as a British MP (Member of Parliament). Wilberforce’s outspokenness on the abolition issue may well have also led Newton to make his first public confession of guilt over his past involvement in the slave trade. In the Amazing Grace, Wilberforce visits John Newton twice. The first time he asks Newton for advice about whether to leave politics and join the clergy. And, in hopes of using Newton’s testimony as a former slave trader, Wilberforce visits Newton for a second time, now at St. Mary Woolnoth Church in London. Here Wilberforce discovers that his former pastor is indeed blind.
He (Wilberforce) incorporated Newton’s confession into his plea for abolition. The vote to abolish the slave trade throughout the British Empire finally passed in 1807—the same year John Newton died. This year marks the 200th anniversary of the date when the abolition act first passed the vote of Parliament
Not limiting himself to just abolitionist work, Wilberforce dedicated his life to what he called his "two great objects:" abolishing slavery in the British Empire and what he called "the reformation of manners [society]." To this end, he advocated for child labour laws, campaigned for education of the blind and deaf, and founded organizations as diverse as the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) and the National Gallery (of Art). He managed to get written into the chart of the East Indies Trading Company the right of missionary to also go to India. In short, he paved the way for Christian missionary work in India, but also in West African countries such as Sierra Leone.
Film: The Green Mile
Tom Hanks – Paul Edgecomb; Michael Duncan – John Coffey
Coffey had the ability to reach inside and remove one's sickness. Hanks had a kidney infection/stone. Coffee reached out and touched him and was able to literally take on that sickness and remove it from Hanks.
The warden's wife had a tumor in the brain and was terminal – she was very close to death. Hanks and his Guards took Coffey to the Warden's house where upon Coffee proceeded to touch the warden's wife and ...
“Magic mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” These words are familiar to children of all ages. These are the words spoken by the queen in Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, as she gazes into her enchanted mirror. “Magic mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” The wicked queen looks to the mirror to tell her that her beauty is unparalleled throughout the land.
Mirrors are tools for reflection. They show who we are, both the positive and the negative. The queen looked into the mirror to see that she was the fairest lady in the land. And for a long time, the mirror would reply that indeed she was the fairest. But eventually a young lady came along whose beauty exceeded that of the queen. And the mirror did not lie. “Famed is thy beauty, majesty. But oh, a lovely maid I see. Rags cannot hide her gentle grace. Alas, she is more fair than thee.”
Unless you’re in the “Hall of Mirrors” at the fair or a circus, a mirror doesn’t lie. It gives an accurate portrayal of the person or thing standing before it. It shows the good along with the bad.
Rocky and Spiritual Victory
When I think of training, my mind often wanders to almost every underdog movie from the 80's and early 90's. Maybe you know what I mean.
Think of Rocky...any Rocky, really. Have you seen that movie? Yea, I thought so. If you're not familiar with the movies, let me bring you up to speed with Rocky III...the greatest Rocky movie of all times. Rocky Balboa is the champion of the world. He beat Apollo Creed for the world title. He is then challenged by the newcomer Clubber Lang, played by the illustrious Mr. T. After avoiding him for months, the two finally meet in a showdown that ends in tragedy for Rocky. He is beat. Really, he is creamed by Clubber Lang. Defeated, Rocky falls from grace, depressed and angry with himself. But encouragement comes from an unlikely place: Apollo Creed, his old opponent. Creed pushes Rocky to get back on his feet and reclaim his title.
What follows is a staple of underdog movies of this era: the classic training montage to the classic theme song. The montage lasts three minutes and shows Rocky go from down and out to the hardened warrior. In the climax of the film, Rocky defeats Clubber Lang and is once again the champion of the world.
What Rocky knew is that to defeat his formidable opponent, Clubber Lang, he had to train hard. He had to work hard to be able to overcome the odds and defeat his enemy. Do you see where I'm going with this? Now, I'm sure Sylvester Stallone didn't intend to have such strong spiritual parallels, but we can get so much out of that.
As spiritual warriors, we cannot simply go into battle against our opponent. What we need to realize is that our enemy is fierce and strong and on our own merits, we cannot beat him. But we have been given help. We are not alone in our fight. God is with us and he has given us tools to help defeat the enemy.
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