Sunday Messages

Jesus-followers must openly admit our brokenness before God by falling into the embrace of our loving Father which is the first step to revival.

Waking up to see Jesus is a worthy endeavor. It’s time to study Jesus with fresh eyes, laying aside for a time what we already know—or think we know—about him. Christianity, in its purest form, is nothing more than seeing Jesus. Christian living, in its purest form, is noting more than imitating him who we see. To see Jesus’ Majesty and to imitate him…that is the sum of Christianity.

We remember the nursery rhyme about Humpty Dumpty, the egg who sat on a wall. Actually, Humpty Dumpty was not an egg, but a powerful cannon during the English Civil War. It was mounted on top of the St Mary's at the Wall Church. The tower was hit by enemy cannon fire and the top of the tower was blown off, sending "Humpty" tumbling to the ground. Naturally all the King's horses and all the King's men (Royalist cavalry and infantry respectively) tried to mend "him" but in vain. But here’s the rhyme:

“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,

All the King's horses and all the King's men,

Couldn't put Humpty back together again."

Does that nursery rhyme bring back memories, or what? Do we have any "Humpty Dumpty Christians" in Churches today? Sure, we all know some, or maybe we have been one at some time in our life. Hummmmmm.....Something to think about here! Sometimes they are not recognized until they have a great fall.

Many Jesus-followers are just like Humpty, who was pictured as "an egg". We see him in his bow tie with his 'cute little hat' perched on top of his funny looking egg-shaped body. With his stocking legs and cute smiling face, he looks all safe and secure....... until he has a great fall! What was Humpty happily doing before he fell? He appears to be "just sitting,” unbroken. Is it the same way today in Churches across the land or not? Many sit on a wall in fear of what is happening in the world around them. We don’t hear these Jesus-followers singing as David the Psalmist, "I have run through a troop and leaped over a wall by you O Lord". Many are too busy sitting on the walls of safety instead. They are afraid to deal with the fact that they are susceptible to brokenness. So they remain unbroken.

Perhaps they are just waiting for the Lord to come back.

• Instead of “working..... they are waiting,”
• Instead of "walking......they are talking,”
• Instead of "dining......they are whining,"
• And instead of "trying...they are sighing,"
• Instead of "feeding.... they are feuding,”
• Instead of "praying...... they are playing.”
• And.... instead of really "trying,
• most of these actually.... are dying"!!!

All of us as Jesus-followers, like Humpty have experienced brokenness in life. It has no demands; it makes no requests. The King’s horses and King’s people of this life can’t help us. But brokenness is falling into the embrace of our loving Father and finding him to be enough. God can put us back together again. It is not just saying, “God, I need you,” but “God, you are all I need.”

Brokenness =“empty handedness before God”

Brokenness is saying “no” to the clamoring voice of our flesh. It is saying “no” to the pride and self-confidence that has made us restless and unhappy for so long. It is saying “yes” to the longing for God that he has planted deep within the soul of each person. It is saying “yes to see Jesus!”

Before a horse can be useful to its owner, it has to be broken. An unbroken stallion is proud and strong. It will paw and snort and let no one ride it. But then a bit goes in its mouth, a saddle goes on its back, and someone climbs up and hangs on. The stallion immediately starts to buck, because it doesn’t want to be broken. But eventually it stops fighting and surrenders to the will of its owner.

Sometimes we have that same stubborn, rebellious, I-can-do-it spirit within us. God has to break those attitudes because they keep us from experiencing true intimacy with him. “What exactly is going to be broken?” Here are some of the big ones:

1. Stubbornness. “I am going to do this my way.” If we are one of God’s children, that attitude is on its way out. We can fight with God for a long time if we want, but our stubbornness will eventually be broken.

2. Pride. “I know better; I am better.” God hates pride in the hearts of his children. People who have been greatly used by God have come to grips with the need to dispense with all pride.

3. Willfulness. “You can’t make me. You can’t tell me. When I am good and ready, I will.” That’s willfulness, and it is also on its way out. If we are one of God’s children, he is going to use
whatever he has to use to get that out of our heart and life.
4. Independence. “I can make it without you.” Nothing will inhibit our intimacy with the Father like an attitude of self-sufficiency. Those who have been used greatly by God have recognized their weakness and relied on God’s strength.

All of these attitudes keep us from experiencing true intimacy with God. That is why God will do whatever it takes to break us.

We say, “Well how does God break us?” Here are some of God’s most common tools:

• Broken health
• Broken careers
• Broken dreams
• Broken relationships
• Broken promises
• Broken hearts
• Broken finances

God uses these tools to rid our lives of the things that hinder our intimacy with him. Some people say, “I thought God was supposed to be loving? If I was God, I would never let my children go through hard times like that.” Well, we’re not God! God’s love is not a pampering love; it’s a perfecting love. God is trying to produce something in us—the likeness of his Son—and God is going to do whatever it takes to make that happen.

Perhaps life is going very well right now, and we can say, “I’m not going through this breaking thing.” That’s not very comforting, actually. If we’re not going through any hard times, then God is not working on us. And if God is not working on us, we are either too self-righteous or perhaps we are not one of his children. Maybe we need to examine ourselves, our righteousness, and see whether we are in the faith. In our brokenness we will never experience true intimacy with God until we are able to come before him in genuine humility, utterly desperate for him. We need to be broken.

Mark Buchanan wrote in his book, Your God is Too Safe, that there is one soil that usually withers stubbornness, pride, willfulness, and independence. It is brokenness. He goes on to write that brokenness "molds our character closer to the character of God than anything else. To experience defeat, disappointment, loss—the raw ingredients of brokenness—moves us closer to being like God than victory and gain and fulfillment ever can."

We hear the statement many times that someone or something broke my heart. Since God created us in his image, he is the only one who can break our hearts. God is also the only one who can fashion them back into wholeness.

Bad hair day is just that; a bad hair day. Everyone, including you, sees it. But bad breath is different. Others smell it, but you can’t. Self-righteousness—believing you can’t be broken or thinking you are better than someone else—is like bad breath. Other can smell it, but you can’t.

We see this self-righteous attitude which blocks brokenness in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18:9-14:

9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' 13 "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' 14 "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."

The context is prayer in the Temple. The devout observed three prayer times daily—9 a.m., 12 midday and 3:00 p.m. Prayer was held to be specifically effectual if it was offered in the Temple, and so at these hours many went up to the Temple courts to pray. Jesus told of two men who went to pray.

A Study on Brokenness

We can observe that this parable would have shocked Jesus’ listeners. This story is a study on brokenness. Let’s contrast for a moment the nature of each of the key characters in this parable.

The Pharisee—Religious Good Guy

11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'

While many of Jesus’ parables were delivered to Pharisees, this is the only parable that includes a Pharisee as one of the actors in Jesus' story. The term “Pharisee” is presumed to have come from parûš, which in Hebrew means “Separated One.” “The Pharisees were a movement (not a denomination in the modern sense) within Judaism devoted to observing the Torah, including ritual purity, and piety toward God” They were regarded among the devout portion of the Jewish people.

So this Pharisee is truly a good guy—he recycles his trash, pays his bills, mows his lawn, gives money to charities, coaches his kid’s baseball team, attends church regularly, loves his wife, and doesn’t chase other women. He is John Q. Citizen at his very best.

The Tax Collector— Social Outcast

13 "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'

Tax collecting, in the time of Jesus, was a profession that was riddled with corruption. This tax collector must have been Jewish because he is at the Temple praying. The occupational tasks were to collect tolls, market duties, and other local taxes. The Roman system of tax collection almost made corruption inevitable. People were routinely unfairly overcharged by the tax collectors. Because of the despicable nature of tax collectors, none of Jesus’ audience would have ever imagined a tax collector entering the Temple to pray.

So this tax collector is a social outcast. He had sold out to the Roman government for money. He is the developer who puts in strip malls while ignoring the environment, the logger who clear-cuts virgin timber without reseeding, the stockbroker who advises you to sell just to make a commission. He doesn’t so much disobey the law as use the law to line his own pockets. Every society has “tax collectors,” and society hates them.

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus comes down hard on people who are self-righteous, believing that they cannot be broken, especially the Pharisees. So Jesus likes this tax collector better than the Pharisee because the tax collector sees what he really is—a broken mess—while the Pharisee denies his true heart. The tax collector knows he has a bad hair day, but the Pharisee doesn’t know he has bad breath.

The Lesson: The lesson of this parable is clear: No one really has it all together. Everyone’s life is a bit of a mess. All of us need help because of our brokenness.

The Pharisee’s arrogance overpowers his ability to see himself clearly. He just doesn’t get it. But the tax collector knows his life isn’t working, he knows that his life has been centered on himself, playing God, running roughshod over people. He knows it and hates it, so he turns to outside help. He doesn’t just need an assist from God, he needs a complete makeover, so he cries out, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” The tax collector has come to the earth-shattering conclusion that he, not his circumstances, caused the mess in his life. Even his body language reflects his heart—he stands at a distance, not even looking up, beating on his chest. He can’t do life on his own anymore. Jesus finds this man’s honesty more attractive than the proud accomplishment of the Pharisee.

"Brokenness and freedom go together, in that order;
first suffering, then comfort;
first trouble, then joy;
first felt unworthiness, then felt love;
first death to the self, then resurrection of the soul."

Admitting our Brokenness

It is a huge relief to admit that we are broken: that we turn inward and instinctively take care of our needs first. Let’s try this little exercise by filling in the blanks of the Pharisee’s prayer. It’s a simple way to get in touch with our inner Pharisee.

“God, I thank you that I am not like (a group of people that drives you crazy) or even like (one particular person who drives you crazy). I (something good you do that those other people don’t do).”

Knowing that we are broken means we can stop pretending we have it all together. Jesus says to people, “Relax—you’re much worse than you think!” It is a little scary to move in this direction because we lose control of our image—of how others see us. But did we ever control it anyway?

Jesus doesn’t want his listeners to stay broken, he wants them, like the tax collector, to turn to God and say, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Getting in touch with our inner tax collector make room for God’s energy in our lives. Jesus concludes the parable saying: 14 "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."

According to Jesus, we all need forgiveness. Knowing we are inadequate before God and other people leads to compassion, but thinking we are good before God and others makes us self-centered and difficult to live with. The better we think we are, the less we can love. The more we see our need, the more we’ll turn for help…and the more we’ll help others because we are able to see their need.

The first step toward God is realizing we are on the wrong path going the wrong way. It’s actually quite freeing if we think about it. We all know that when we have bad breath, we need some mouth wash or mints to rid us of the bad odor. One such product is “breath assures.” But with the acknowledgement from God that we have bad breath, we can get real and relax by taking the “breath assures” of God’s forgiveness. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17 NIV). When we realize that we don’t have it all together, we can care for people because we no longer feel morally superior to them. Consequently God’s “breath assures” or we might even say “Spirit assures” enable us to be quicker to help than to give advice, quicker to listen than to lecture. O Lord, I realize that I don’t have it all together. Help me deal with my brokenness in… ___

Heal me so I can help care for people, to be quicker to listen than to lecture. Amen.

So paradoxically, as Jesus-followers, we are all—every last one of us—more or less unbroken in our stubbornness, pride, willfulness, and independence. The Christian journey is one of God bringing us out of the trash represented by the tree of knowledge—such as sinful, rule-based, self-righteous, self-sufficient, prideful dependence upon our own strength, wisdom and knowledge into the treasures represented by the tree of life—such as brokenness, humility, worship of and dependence upon God. These are God’s highest desires for all of his children to bring us to revival. God’s desires are always what are best for us. They are highly prized by God, and once we begin to understand and bear the fruit of them, we will prize them highly too. Amen!

Jesus-followers must continually allow God to break up our fallow ground, taking off the handcuffs from what's wrecking our insides and locking us up.

Waking up to see Jesus is a worthy endeavor. It’s time to study Jesus with fresh eyes, laying aside for a time what we already know—or think we know—about him. Christianity, in its purest form, is nothing more than seeing Jesus. Christian living, in its purest form, is noting more than imitating him who we see. To see Jesus’ Majesty and to imitate him…that is the sum of Christianity.

Our prayer for this series on Waking up to see Jesus is that the Divine Surgeon will use these messages as a delicate surgical tool to restore sight. That blurriness will be focused, that darkness disposed, and that dryness lubricated.

We want to continue our thoughts on holiness. Holiness means wholeness; to be separated; to be set apart for God’s use. Rob Bell, the founding pastor of one of the fastest growing churches in American history, gives us a perspective of holiness from Old Testament Judaic tradition. The tzitzit (seet-see) first appear when God says to Moses in Numbers 15:38-40…

38 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘Throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments, with a blue cord on each tassel. 39 You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by chasing after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes. 40 Then you will remember to obey all my commands and will be consecrated to your God.

God tells his people to attach tassels to the corners of their garments so they will be constantly visually reminded to live as he created them to live. The word in Hebrew here for “corners” is kanaf. The word for “tassel” (or “fringe”) is tzitzit. To this day, many Jews wear a prayer shawl to obey this text.

The word the prophet Malachi uses for wings is kanaf—the same word in Numbers that refers to the edge of a garment, to which the tassels were attached. So a legend grew that when the Messiah came, there would be special healing powers in his kanaf, in the tassels of his prayer shawl.

Now let’s fast forward to the time of Jesus and focus on our text from Mark 6:53-56…

53 When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. 54 As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. 55 They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he went—into villages, towns or countryside—they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.

Now people ran throughout the villages, and towns carrying the sick on mats. Wherever Jesus went they begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all those who touched him were healed. Now we must remember, Jesus is a Torah-observant Jewish rabbi who keeps the Scripture commandments word for word, including passages like Numbers 15. This means Jesus would have been wearing a prayer shawl. So when the people grab the edge of his cloak, they are demonstrating that they believe Jesus is the Messiah and that his tassels have healing powers. They believe that Jesus is who Malachi was talking about four-hundred years earlier.

If we were in the crowd, what would we think about these people? They truly believe that this man is the Messiah, the Holy One of God. They touch his tassels and are healed, just like Malachi said. But we must not think the physical healing is Jesus’ point here. What Jesus desires here is that they part their ways whole. Again, we must remember that holiness is the quality of being holy, set apart, sanctified. Holiness means wholeness; the full development of the entire person - personality, virtue and gifts.

So when these people leave Jesus they are whole. Jesus is placing the blessing of God on all of them who touch him for healing. Not just their physical bodies. Jesus is blessing them with God’s presence on their entire being. So God’s desires when it comes to partaking of his holiness that all Jesus-followers live in harmony with him—body, soul, spirit, mind, emotions—every inch of their being.

Meaningful Touch =

“ a gentle touch, stroke, kiss, or hug given by significant people”

A noted neurosurgeon did his own study on the effects of brief times of touch. With half his patents in the hospital, he would sit on their bed and touch them on the arm or leg when he came into the hospital room to see how they were doing. With his remaining patients, he would simply stand near the end of the bed to conduct his interview of how they were feeling. Before the patients went home from the hospital, the nurses gave each patient a short questionnaire evaluating the treatment they received. They were especially asked to comment on the amount of time they felt the doctor had spent with them. While in actuality he had spent the same amount of time in each patient’s room, those people he had sat down near and touched felt he had been in their room nearly twice as long as those he had not touched!

Additionally, in a study at UCLA, it was found that just to maintain emotional and physical health, men and women need eight to ten meaningful touches each day. This study also estimated that if some “type A driven” men would hug their wives several times each day, it would increase their life span by almost two years! (Not to mention the way it would improve their marriages.)

So its people who encounter meaningful touch with Jesus that experience wholeness. Jesus is placing the blessing of God on all of them who touch him for healing. Not just their physical bodies. Jesus is blessing them with God’s presence on their entire being. So God’s desire when it comes to partaking of his holiness is for all Jesus-followers to live in harmony with him—body, soul, spirit, mind, emotions—every inch of their being.

The Power of Meaningful Touch

Meaningful touch provides the means for healing. It has many beneficial effects. The act of touch is a key to communicating warmth, personal acceptance, affirmation—even physical health as seen in Jesus’ encounters throughout his ministry.

Mark’s text reports that Jesus entered Gennesaret with his disciples. Gennesaret was an area about three miles long and one mile wide, located on the western shore between Capernaum and Tiberius. The region's fertile farmland helped it sustain a fairly significant population, thus affording many towns and villages for Jesus and his disciples to visit. By believing in Jesus' power and accepting Jesus' message, the crowds that surrounded him could experience not only physical healing but also receive the keys to spiritual salvation.

Anyone here have redeye problems? If we have allergies, or if we like "chick flicks" (movies that make us cry), or if we cry easily, we have redeye problems. If we like a shot of espresso in our morning coffee, we order a redeye. If we like two shots of espresso in our morning coffee, we order a black-eye. Anything more than two shots is a zombie, which is when we REALLY have a redeye problem.

If we need to get from the west coast to the east coast in a hurry, we have the bleary-eyed pleasure of taking a redeye. We also know that the longest hours of our redeye flight are those spent waiting around for the flight to leave in the all-but-deserted airport. We don't dare fall asleep, for fear of missing our departure or having someone liberate our personal belongings. But by 9 PM all those shamelessly overpriced airport restaurants have closed. Even Starbucks has pulled the plug on its coffee pots. For redeye flights the only sleep-fighting food to be found (sugar and caffeine) is dispensed out by vending machines -- those always-temperamental vending machines. Inevitably about half of the ones located in whatever satellite of the airport we are waiting sport the dreaded out-of-order sign. There we are -- starving, sleepy, stressed-out -- and all we can do is stare longingly at the Oreo cookies, peanut butter and cheese crackers, and instant bad-breath nacho chips tempting us from behind two inches of unbreakable safety glass. No amount of change, no amount of jostling, kicking, glass-thumping, or swearing will convince those out-of-order machines to give up their empty, fat-laden calories. The goodies seem within easy reach. But the goodies are totally inaccessible.

How many people do we know who have all sorts of goodies, all kinds of goodness locked inside them, but we can't get to it because they are out of order? Something has gone wrong in their insides and all those Oreo cookies and other goodies are within reach, but impossible to get at? What renders us out of order? What happens to our insides that locks our best inside and leaves our friends and family in the lurch? We're stressed, depressed, and self-obsessed. Like most redeye travelers, we're stressed, depressed, and self-obsessed.

Let's look back at some first-century travelers. Let's take a look at those disciples who journeyed and jostled along with Jesus as he walked the length and breadth of the land. What do we see? Those selfsame characteristics -- stressed, depressed, self-obsessed -- are still evident. We need meaningful touch with the holy One of God.

1. We get stressed with life’s challenging circumstances

53 When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there.

With all the anxious, ill, exhausted crowds of people pressing for cures and compassion, Jesus recognized that he and his disciples were prime candidates for stress. Jesus' solution -- to come away to a deserted place with me and rest awhile (verse 31) was his cure for stress 2000 years ago. It's still the best cure for stress today. Harmonizing hustle and bustle with intentional down time, harmonizing activism with quiet periods of prayer and reflection kept Jesus' arms open to the crowds, his heart open to their needs. Because he was not stressed Jesus could get off his boat and face the throngs with heartfelt compassion instead of a short-temper. The disciples are another story. They were . . . stressed about where their next meal was coming from, stressed about the cost of keeping all these people around them, stressed about getting away from shore and getting back to shore. Even their downtime, the serenity of a boat trip along the lake, was spent stressing out about where they were going instead of considering that they were with Jesus.

We get stressed with life’s challenging circumstances over arrival times, departure times, luggage destinations, security checkpoints, terrorist threats, thunderstorms, ice-storms, seat assignments, and connecting flights.

2. We get depressed with life’s complicated circumstances

54 As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. 55 They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was.

Then there was the endless sea of needy, sick, poor, crippled, confused and hopeless people who approached Jesus and the disciples. Every person the disciples met offered good reason for sliding into depression. Everywhere the disciples and Jesus disembarked, every new village or town they reached, the same desperate crowds pressed in upon them. No matter how long Jesus stayed, no matter how many astounding miracles he performed, there was always more, more, more: more people in need, more ills to cure, more desperate situations to address.

For Jesus compassion checked and checkmated depression. Compassion [or in Greek splangnizesthai] overrode any paralyzing feeling of depression. Compassion meant action, healing, teaching, feeding, comforting, and loving. There was so much to do; there was no time for moodiness and broodiness. The disciples, however, with their inability to see the big picture, their confusion over Jesus' identity, their fixation on their preconceived messianic images and expectations, were easy prey for depressive thoughts and feelings.

Reunited with their master, plunged into the midst of a crowd eager for Jesus' message and touch, the disciples gloomily fret over where their next meal will come from. In 6:52, the text immediately preceding Mark's conclusion in verses 53-56, the disciples refuse to open their hearts and souls to the truth of Jesus' identity to such an extent that despite witnessing Jesus walking on the water their hearts were hardened and they did not understand. Now that's depressing!

We get depressed with life’s complicated circumstances like time lost, long and lonely flights, the shrinking seat sizes (which may indicate some growth on our part), the mounting cost of travel, the growing sense of fear and insecurity that comes with increased security precautions.

3. We get self-obsessed with life’s changing circumstances

56 And wherever he went—into villages, towns or countryside—they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.

But where the disciples really excelled was in being self-obsessed. Even with all the healing that took place in the lives of the sick, they weren’t amazed over the work of Jesus. They were mute as the crowds marveled. They didn't rant and rave about the movement of the spirit through Jesus’ healing ministry. They didn't celebrate the power of Jesus' name. There is no mention of the disciples celebrating God's activity among the people. Jesus never blinked when others stood before him in need. And Jesus calls us not to blink when people stand before us in need.

Despite the wearying crowds, despite his own need for prayer and spiritual refueling, when Jesus escaped to what he had hoped would be a deserted place and was confronted with a crowd that had reached that deserted place before him, his response was compassion, not exasperation. When Jesus looked at desperate, needy, redeye people, Jesus saw them as sheep in need of a shepherd, not bothersome hangers-on in need of a swift kick. Jesus' first response was to give of himself, to teach them many things, filling their needs with his words and wisdom. He provided not only physical healing for their bodies, but spiritual healing for their souls.

We get self-obsessed with life’s changing circumstances to the point of seeing only ourselves being inconvenienced by schedule delays. We grouse about a flight canceled due to severe weather without ever considering those people and communities caught in the middle of those dangerous conditions. We complain about the security precautions now in effect without acknowledging the risks taken by those who search for weapons, explosives or violent individuals.

Breaking Up Fallow Ground

Our souls are wrung with anxiety, grief, and pain. Our lives are dry and we need God to rain righteousness upon us. We need God to soak and break up our fallow ground. Are we stressed, depressed, self-obsessed? Are we out of order in more ways than one?

Fallow ground is a land that has not been seeded for one or more growing seasons. It is hard and may be filled with weeds. It is undeveloped but potentially useful. In order to plant seed and reap a bountiful harvest, we must break it up, plow it, and prepare it to receive the seed.

Let’s focus upon our potentially fallow ground in ten areas. As we prepare for personal revival, we must ask ourselves the following questions. We can respond to each question in one of three ways: Yes; Not really; and Not as much as I need to.

Is prayer a vital part of my life?

Do I hunger to go deeper in my understanding of what God’s Word has for me?

Does the reality of heaven and hell move me to action in sharing Jesus?

Do I feel that I’m ministering the way God would like me to serve?

Is my thinking dominated by my desire to be more like Jesus?

Am I deeply grieved in my heart when I think upon impure motives?

Do pointed spiritual discussions make me more confident in my faith?

Do I feel true joy in my relationship with God?

Am I dissatisfied with the level of my intimacy with God?

Do I do what it takes to break up fallow ground and aggressively deal with sin?

We need to pray and ask the Lord to develop in our lives a willingness to do everything necessary to be ready to receive everything God wants to sow and rain down on our lives. We need the desire for change in these areas so we can experience afresh the Lord’s power and presence in our “out of order” state.

Maybe we can all identify with the following story. “I was sitting at a stop light this morning. The woman in front of me was going through papers on the seat of her car, and when the light changed to green she did not obey its command -- a green light is a commandment -- NOT a suggestion. When the light turned to red, and she had still not moved, I began (with my windows up) screaming at her and beating on my steering wheel. My expressions of distress were interrupted by a policeman, gun drawn, tapping on my window.

Against my protestations of, "You can't arrest me for hollering in my car," he ordered me into the back seat of his. After about two hours in a holding cell, the arresting officer advised me I was free to go. I said, "I knew you couldn't arrest me for what I was yelling in my own car. You haven't heard the last of this." The officer replied, "I didn't arrest you for shouting in your car. I was directly behind you at the light. I saw you screaming and beating your steering wheel, and I said to myself, 'What a jerk. But there's nothing I can do to him for throwing a fit in his own car.' Then I noticed the cross hanging from your rear view mirror, the bright yellow 'WWJD’ license tag, the 'Jesus is Coming Soon' bumper sticker, and the Fish symbol, and I was sure you must have stolen the car."”

Jesus is here to break up our fallow ground. Jesus is here to free us from what's wrecking our insides and locking us up. There's a key that can take the handcuffs off our hearts, the shackles off our souls. That key is a relationship with Jesus. If we would only see and touch Jesus. The key is to see Jesus, and to touch the hem of his garment. The healing we receive is an extension of Jesus’ holiness. Amen!

Prayer

We confess, O God, that when left to our own devices as followers of our own ways, we become self-centered and spiritually off-center. Draw us near to you that we might touch you, that we may know the heart of all things. Center us.

We confess that prejudice and self-interest distort our vision of people and events. Grant us the ability to view the world with slanted eyes of faith. Help us to see with clarity that only your love can give. Focus us.

We confess that in our lives we give weight to the insignificant and take too lightly the things that matter most. Enable us to make wiser decisions and judgments so that we set our priorities with the help of your discerning Spirit. Balance us.

We confess, O God, that we look into our own lives and refuse to see the goodness that you created. Open our eyes to view the grace and grandness that's a part of us as a gift of love and to see your goodness in the hearts of others. Open us.

We offer this prayer with confidence in your power to forgive, to heal, and to guide. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

Jesus-followers must orient our attitudes, aptitudes, and latitudes in a Christ-ward direction so we may become the holy presence of Christ in our world.

Despite all the attention Jesus gets, most people have little idea of who he is as a person, even those who worship him. When we see Jesus portrayed, he often comes across strangely. In most films Jesus talks slowly, walks slowly, and moves slowly. Who really is Jesus?

Waking up to see Jesus is a worthy endeavor. It’s time to study Jesus with fresh eyes, laying aside for a time what we already know—or think we know—about him. We need to experience what Albert Einstein did when he read the Gospels. He reflected:

I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene…Jesus is too colossal for the pen of phrasemongers, however artful…No man can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word.

In spite of our backgrounds, Jesus is hard to ignore. Almost two billion Jesus-followers claim to pursue the way of Jesus; more than one billion Muslims honor him as a prophet. Leading Jewish theologians esteem him as a great rabbi. Jesus’ image can be found even in Hindu temples. Many cult leaders claim to be a reincarnation of the spirit of Jesus. Jaroslav Pelikan, professor of history at Yale University writes:

Regardless of what anyone may personally think or believe about him, Jesus of Nazareth has been the dominant figure in the history of Western culture for almost twenty centuries…It is from his birth that most of the human race dates its calendars; it is by his name that millions curse and in his name that millions pray.

Most of us have lacked good models to follow in life. We don’t even know what’s normal anymore. Let’s suggest this truth: the person of Jesus is a portrait to which we may focus our perspective on life. He brings our focus for a hero into perspective—someone who is both holy and hard-wearing—to change this world.

One of the many excellent models that Jesus represented was a life of holiness. All too often we try to bring Jesus down to our own levels and see him as a common, ordinary friend just like us. Now, this picture is true in scripture; he is a friend of sinners. However, we first need to see Jesus in his exalted state of greatness and holiness. Jesus came to save. We need a Savior who is able to handle the problem of our sin nature. We are unholy people. Jesus came to bring us into right relationship with God. Jesus’ holiness makes him the perfect sacrifice to rescue us from our sin.

Holiness =

the quality of being holy, set apart, sanctified.

Holiness implies wholeness; the full development of the entire person—personality, virtue and gifts. The verb to consecrate hagiazo means to set a place apart for God, to make it holy, by the offering of a sacrifice upon it. The root idea of holiness is that of separation. The Jews were the holy people, the nation which was quite separate and different from other peoples. Jesus-followers today have been dedicated and consecrated to God by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to be a people in the world, but not of the world.

Holiness does not consist in mystic speculations, enthusiastic fervors, or uncommanded austerities; it consists in thinking as God thinks and willing as God wills. –John Brown.

Holiness is the everyday business of every Christian. It evidences itself in the decisions we make and the things we do, hour by hour, day by day. –Chuck Colson.

Eugene Peterson in his book entitled, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction writes:

In our kind of culture anything, even news about God, can be sold if it is packaged freshly; but when it loses its novelty, it goes on the garbage heap. There is a great market for religious experience in our world; there is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness.

So let’s awake from our sleep and see Jesus. Let’s look into God’s Word from Mark 1:21-28 and see Jesus who is described as “the Holy One of God.” Jesus is at work in a less than holy situation as he encounters a man possessed by an evil spirit.

21 They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23 Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, 24 "What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!" 25 "Be quiet!" said Jesus sternly. "Come out of him!" 26 The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. 27 The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, "What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him." 28 News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.

It’s in these verses that Mark really begins describing how Jesus will be known by what he says and does. Mark's first demonstration emphasizes Jesus' authority—an authority fulfilled in his ability to cast out evil spirits, thereby trumpeting Jesus' identity (already revealed in 1:11) as “the anointed one, the Holy One of God.” Mark weaves together these declarations of authority and identity in Jesus' appearance here at the Capernaum synagogue.

Holiness Unwrapped

Mark reveals the power that lies behind Jesus' authority. Typical of Mark, Jesus' initial good impression is immediately ("just then") followed by a direct challenge to his authority by the man possessed of an evil spirit. Among the numerous confrontations in Mark that pit Jesus directly against the power of Satan, the gospel writer's favorite alternative term for "demon" is "evil spirit" (eleven times in Mark). To be evil or unclean was the equivalent to being ungodly for pious Jews who struggled to observe all the instruction of the Law in order to remain clean and unblemished before God.

Jesus proclaims a new message and represents holiness unwrapped—promising a new future, a new possibility, for all those possessed. Jesus started one mind at a time, one spirit at a time, saving and healing person by person.

All we have to do is open a Wall Street Journal, read a tabloid headline at the check-out counter, or hear five minutes of the nightly news to know that evil spirits still stalk the Earth. Mid-twentieth century biblical scholars invested not a little time and gray matter trying to modernize all the biblical references to evil spirits and stores of demonic possession into psychological diagnoses and their therapeutic cures. But after a half-century of world-wars, cold-wars, nuclear-wars, guerilla-wars, genocidal-wars, terrorist-wars, and now WMD-wars (WMD="Weapons of Mass Destruction"), who among us has any reason to doubt the straightforward biblical perceptions that evil spirits and demonic powers roam in our midst? We may have a better grasp on how these evils come to bloom in the tortured minds of tormented men, women (and increasingly children), but in the end, the actions of these personal and social demons is nothing less than EVIL. EVIL and Life are so intertwined that EVIL is LIVE spelled backwards.

There are hundreds of insidious evil spirits that lurk in our communities, our churches, our homes, and our hearts. What evil or unclean spirits have their hold on us? How do we release their grip upon our bodies, minds, and souls? In fact, as we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. this weekend, he claimed that the three unclean or evil spirits in our world today are racism, militarism, and materialism.

Mark's text today focuses on the very start of Jesus' Galilean ministry, a ministry that begins with Jesus revealing three truths about himself:

Jesus had Attitude.

21 They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.

Jesus had Attitude. Some saw it as an attitude problem. Attitude is another word for spirit. Jesus knew that the "Spirit of the Lord" was upon him, and Jesus sent out that divine spirit wherever he went. Jesus' Attitude was one of unmistakable authority and righteousness. Mark's text repeats again and again how even the common crowd in the Capernaum synagogue could discern an undeniable atmosphere of authority that enveloped Jesus, informed his teaching, and transformed his touch.

A story is told of Christian Herter when he was governor of Massachusetts. He was running hard for a second term in office. One day, after a busy morning chasing votes (and no lunch) he arrived at a church barbecue. It was late afternoon and Herter was famished. As Herter moved down the serving line, he held out his plate to the woman serving chicken. She put a piece on his plate and turned to the next person in line. "Excuse me," Governor Herter said, "do you mind if I have another piece of chicken?"
"Sorry," the woman told him. "I'm supposed to give one piece of chicken to each person."
"But I'm starved," the governor said. "Sorry," the woman said again. "Only one to a customer." Governor Herter was a modest and unassuming man, but he decided that this time he would throw a little weight around. "Do you know who I am?" he said. "I am the governor of this state." "Do you know who I am?" the woman said. "I'm the lady in charge of the chicken. Move along, mister."

Jesus' whole and pure spirit detected the fissures and fractures in the attitudes of others, not to condemn them, but to help them. Part of Jesus' healing ministry was precisely this healing of the mind or change of attitude that followed in his wake. One of the reasons for the enduring resonance of Charlotte Elliott's beloved hymn "Just As I Am" is that it's one of the few hymns to mention healing of the mind as a consequence of salvation.

Just as I am, though tossed about with many a conflict, many a doubt,

Fightings and fear within, without, O Lamb of God, I come! I come!

Like Jesus, we need attitudes that send out God’s Spirit.

2. Jesus had Aptitude.
23 Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, 24 "What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!" 25 "Be quiet!" said Jesus sternly. "Come out of him!" 26 The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.

One of the most momentous reactions to Jesus ministry was "He does all things well." The evil spirit came out of the possessed man. Jesus' aptitude in diagnosing and treating those who were of diseased body, mind, and spirit circulated throughout Capernaum and attracted many literal well-wishers.

When it comes to aptitude and the ability to accomplish things for God, it is almost presumptuous as Jesus-followers for us to think we can do everything as to think we can do nothing. Between the great things we can’t do and the little things we won’t do rests the danger that we will do nothing at all. Jesus did all things well so we struggle with this truth about ourselves. However, we must remember that Jesus tells us that if we have faith [rely upon his power] in him, we will do even greater things than he did. Our aptitude, like Jesus, depends upon the authority given to us by Jesus himself.

So Jesus' special aptitude, of course, came from his singular and authoritative attitude—an authority revealed by the Father in Mark 1:11… "You are my Song, the Beloved" and broadcast by the evil spirit… "You are the Holy One of God.”

Like Jesus, we all need aptitudes that are empowered by God’s authority.

Jesus had Latitude.

27 The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, "What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him." 28 News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.

Jesus always traveled in a heavenly trajectory. His life brought amazement and pointed toward the kingdom. His life was always open to receive any and all people into God's kingdom. No one was outside the radiance of God's love and concern. No one ever offered more latitude in life than Jesus. Though Jesus walked the land of Galilee, he was always changing the landscape into the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God was God's dream for creation being brought to life by Jesus' incarnation. The salvation Christ offers all people isn't just a spiritual pie-in-the-sky-bye-and bye. It's a gift that changes our lives and alters our minds here and now.

For centuries people believed that Aristotle was right when he said that the heavier an object, the faster it would fall to earth. Aristotle was regarded as the greatest thinker of all time, and surely he would not be wrong. Anyone, of course, could have taken two objects, one heavy and one light, and dropped them from a great height to see whether or not the heavier object landed first. But no one did until nearly 2,000 years after Aristotle's death. Legend has it that in 1589 Galileo summoned learned professors to the base of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Then he went to the top and pushed off a ten-pound and a one-pound weight. Both landed at the same instant.

The power of belief was so strong, however, that the professors denied their eyesight. They continued to say Aristotle was right. This prejudiced way of thinking illustrates perfectly what is going on in the world today. We could show the terrible ravaging effects of AIDS and people will still have promiscuous sex anyway. We can show someone a diseased liver and cancerous lungs and people are still going to abuse alcohol and smoke regardless of the facts.

You know what I wish? I wish someone would just climb to the top of the tower and push off a ten-pound argument and a one-pound argument and we will see which one reaches the ground first. That would finally prove who is right and who is wrong. But then I am reminded that when Galileo did that no one believed him. Even with the authority of obvious visible proof, i.e. the two weights reached the ground at the same time, the professors did not believe. The problem here is obvious. Most people are going to believe what they have always believed regardless of the facts.

However, something different occurred in the life of Jesus—something persuasive. When Jesus came to Capernaum, on the Sabbath day, and entered the synagogue and taught, the crowds were amazed. Why? Because of Jesus’ latitude. He traveled with heavenly authority. He taught, not as the scribes taught, but as one having authority.

Orientation =

"turned towards the east; where the sun rises."

Until very recently, it was a big deal to build Christian churches facing towards the east. In fact, Christ First faces the east. Churches are supposed to face Eastward, or the Orient. Why? Because every church is supposed to face the future, and the East is the direction of the return of Christ. Churches orient us. The church orients us toward the Christ who has come, the Christ who is here, and the Christ who will come again.

Like Jesus, we all need latitudes that orient the traffic control of God’s presence.

Now, let’s get personal when it comes to the holiness of Jesus. Have you oriented your "-itudes" toward the living Christ? Are your Attitudes, Aptitudes, and Latitudes facing in a Christward direction—toward the living Christ? If you are, then you're becoming the REAL PRESENCE of Christ in our world. You are waking up to see the holiness of Jesus in what you believe, receive, and achieve.

The Jesus "-itudes," the right Attitude, Aptitude, and Latitude, cast out evil spirits, vanquish demonic powers, and banish the forces of evil and death. Our hope of escaping the evil that harasses our days and haunts our nights revolves around our willingness to put on the right "-itudes" and to release the resurrection powers of Christ in our lives.

Put right the world? Put on the right "-itudes." Will you wake up to see Jesus? Will you embrace your identity as holy sons and daughters of God, and set your sights on making God's dream a waking reality in our world?

Will you give your "-itudes" the right orientation? Will you orient your Attitudes, your Aptitudes, and your Latitudes in the right direction toward the risen Christ? "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Live on in my love" (John 15:9). Are you living on in Christ's love, with Christlike Attitudes, Aptitudes, and Latitudes? Amen!

Jesus-followers can experience the feeling of clean this New Year, only because Jesus keeps sin in the past and cleans people in the present.

The opening days of a New Year have always been a time for looking back to the past, and more importantly, forward to the coming year. It's a time to reflect on the changes we want (or need) to make and resolve to follow through on those changes.

One of my favorite comic strips is Peanuts. It seems that as a New Year was approaching Lucy and Charlie Brown were in the following discussion. Lucy says to Charlie Brown, “Charlie Brown, life is like deck chairs on a cruise ship. Some people face their chairs to the stern of the ship so they can see where they’ve been going in the past. Other people turn their deck chairs to the bow of the ship so they can see where they’re going in the future. Charlie Brown, in which direction is your deck chair pointed?” Charlie Brown replies, “Lucy, I can’t even get my deck chair open!”

Some of us might feel this way as we enter a New Year. Perhaps we are just not ready to resolve to follow through on the changes we need to make. Do our New Year resolutions make the top ten list?

1) Spend More Time with Family & Friends

Recent polls conducted by General Nutrition Centers, Quicken, and others shows that more than 50% of Americans vow to appreciate loved ones and spend more time with family and friends this year.

2) Fit in Fitness

The evidence is in for fitness. Regular exercise has been associated with more health benefits than any other remedy for a positive well-being. Studies show that it reduces the risk of some cancers, increases longevity, helps achieve and maintain weight loss, enhances mood, lowers blood pressure, and even improves arthritis. In short, exercise keeps us healthy and makes us look and feel better.

3) Tame the Bulge

Over 66 percent of adult Americans are considered overweight or obese by recent studies, so it is not surprising to find that weight loss is one of the most popular New Year's resolutions. Setting reasonable goals and staying focused are the two most important factors in sticking with a weight loss program, and the key to success for those millions of Americans who made a New Year's commitment to shed extra pounds.

4) Quit Smoking

If there are those who have resolved to make this the year that they stamp out their smoking habit, over-the-counter availability of nicotine replacement therapy now provides easier access to proven quit-smoking aids. Even if they’ve tried to quit before and failed, they must not let it get them down. On average, smokers try about four times before they quit for good. They start enjoying the rest of a smoke-free life!

5) Enjoy Life More

Given the hectic, stressful lifestyles of millions of Americans, it is no wonder that "enjoying life more" has become a popular resolution in recent years. It's an important step to a happier and healthier life!

6) Quit Drinking

While many people use the New Year as an incentive to finally stop drinking, most are not equipped to make such a drastic lifestyle change all at once. Many heavy drinkers fail to quit cold turkey but do much better when they taper gradually, or even learn to moderate their drinking. If people have decided that they want to stop drinking, there is a world of help and support available.

7) Get Out of Debt

Was money a big source of stress in our lives last year? Then we join the millions of Americans who have resolved to spend this year getting a handle on their finances. It's a promise that will repay itself many times over in the year ahead. It’s a fact that the average American family spends 10% more than their annual income.

8) Learn Something New

Have we vowed to make this year the time to learn something new? Perhaps we are considering a career change, want to learn a new language, or just how to fix our computer? Whether we take a course or read a book, we'll find education to be one of the easiest, most motivating New Year's resolutions to keep. We challenge our minds in the coming year, and our horizons will expand.

9) Help Others

A popular, non-selfish New Year's resolution, volunteerism can take many forms. Whether we choose to spend time serving at our church, helping out at our local library, mentoring a child, or building a house, there are many nonprofit volunteer organizations that could really use our help.

10) Get Organized

On just about every New Year resolution top ten list, organization can be a very reasonable goal. Whether we want our home organized enough that we can invite someone over on a whim, or our office organized enough that we can find the stapler when we need it, these tips and resources should get us started on the way to a more organized life.

Those who stay the course and fulfill their resolutions share these characteristics:

1. They believe in help from God and friends for the ability to change.
2. They did not indulge in self-blame or excuse making.
3. They avoid wishful thinking and concentrate on results.
4. They understand their motivators and reasons why the resolution is important

Maybe we as Jesus-followers in this New Year are ready for a change. Perhaps for Jesus-followers the answer lies, not in making resolutions, but in experiencing renewal. Renewal just may relate to a good hot shower. Spiritually we may need a good shower today—because we’re carrying the weight of guilt for failing our Lord, for a habit that has ruled us too long, for someone that we’ve hurt, or for a pattern of lying that continues to haunt us. Simply making resolutions won’t help us when we know the feeling of being dirty.

I once participated in a “fight night” decades ago when I was a youth pastor. Unfortunately, it was really a waste of food and time. I wouldn’t do it again. The kids got us into this thing at camp where we had to fight each other with chocolate, breakfast cereal, butter, and eggs. I have never felt as gooey in my life as I did at the end of that evening of utter chaos. After the fight was over I immediately went into the shower. I was feeling sticky and dirty when I walked in the shower, and I felt so good getting clean. That was shower power!

A Call to Cleansing

Our word for this first Sunday of the New Year from the Word of God comes from

Hebrews 10:19-22…

19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

The writer to the Hebrews in these verses says we have a profound duel confidence in approaching God: confidence in our access to God, and confidence in our assistance before God. That access and assistance is Jesus Christ. It is a result of Christ’s cleansing of our consciences, our hearts and our bodies so that no trace of guilt remains to cause us to cower in fear before a holy God. This cleansing, like shower power, leaves no residue of sin. Instead we are filled with a joyful freedom and confidence to come into the presence of God.

I remember as a boy I mowed the lawns at home. At first I made ragged, twisting channels through the grass as I struggled to keep the lawnmower steady. Then my dad showed me that to mow in a straight line, I needed to stop looking at the ground ahead of me, to fix my eyes on a pair of landmarks, and keep them lined up as I moved across the lawn.

The writer to the Hebrews says we have landmarks to guide us as we approach God. We see Jesus, our cleansing sacrifice. And we see Jesus standing before God’s throne, our High Priest. When we hold unswervingly to the hope this provides, we will have confidence to enter the most holy place at any time to receive our daily cleansing before God.

This confidence to enter into the presence of God provides shower power in two distinct ways:

We are cleansed for full access into God’s presence

19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body…

Our access into God’s presence, like the early followers of Jesus, comes from the torn curtain of Christ’s crucified body. The rending of Jesus’ flesh on the cross, which brought his death, carried out a simultaneous tearing from top to bottom of the curtain that had hindered the way into the Holy of Holies. We can walk confidently through the torn curtain of Christ, so to speak, into the presence of the Father.

The word “access” is found only three times in the N.T. (Rom. 5:1-2; Eph. 2:18, Eph. 3:12). These three passages teach us four things about access.

1. We have access into grace (Rom. 5:2) God’s throne is the throne of grace (Heb 4:16).

2. We have access unto the Father (Eph. 2:18). Though He is sovereign, we can still approach Him as a child does a father (Luke 11:11-13, Rom. 8:15).

3. We have access through Jesus Christ (I Tim. 2:5). The blood gives us boldness (Heb. 10:19).

4. We have access by our faith (Rom. 5:2; Eph 3:12). The essential ingredient is prayer (Heb. 10:22).

Whereas there was only stand-in access through the high priest, who slipped behind the curtain once a year for a heart-pounding few minutes, now there is permanent access through the blood and torn body of Christ. Therefore, we as Jesus-followers today don’t swagger into God’s presence, but we can have real confidence to come before God because of what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross of Calvary.

We are cleansed for full assistance in God’s provision

21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

This confidence in access is especially strong because it is coupled with a confidence in Christ’s priestly assistance. The appointments of the Tabernacle and the daily vestments of the Aaronic high priests were specifically spelled out only to Moses by God, because they were merely shadows of Christ’s ultimate heavenly help. God’s instructions demanded that the Old Testament high priest wear twelve stones on his breastplate—over his heart—to represent his people (Exodus 28:21). Now Jesus, our ultimate advocate or helper, bears our names not just over his body and heart, but in the very center of his being, for we are in Christ, our assistance! Even more, he is our constant high priest. His intercession for us never ceases!

We are living in a culture that really has little time for relationships. The people we turned to in the past to help us in a time of need were friends at church, work, club or family members. In his book Bowling Alone, Robert Putman says the following statistics are indications of the decline in community life in America over the past 30 years: Attending church or club meetings—down 58%; having friends over—45%; and time with family members—down 33%. Even though we are more resistant to earthly aid, we must never be resistant to God’s divine assistance through Jesus Christ’s heavenly help!

It is hard today to get the assistance we need. Many of us get frustrated with automated voice systems because we want help from a real live person. How about the following example?

Welcome to the Psychiatric Assistance Hotline!

If you are obsessive-compulsive: please press 1 repeatedly.

If you are co-dependent: please ask someone to press 2.

If you have multiple personalities: please press 3,4, 5, and 6.

If you are paranoid-delusional: we know who you are and what you want. Just stay on the line so we can trace the call.

If you are schizophrenic: listen carefully—a little voice will tell you which number to press.

If you are manic-depressive: it doesn’t matter which number you press. No one will answer.

So in the midst of a frustrated culture where access and assistance is limited, we must see Jesus’ access and assistance, the dual sources of our confidence, together. They provide shower power for strength and cleansing. Jesus is both the curtain (our access) and the priest (our assistance). His torn body and shed blood provides our access to the presence of the Father. And in our access Jesus is our priestly assistance.

So before we receive Holy Communion on this first Sunday of the New Year, let’s look to God’s power to cleanse and forgive us in Jesus Christ. It comes through shower power—God’s downpour into our lives. Beginning this Wednesday night for twelve-weeks we are calling the church to repentance, revival and renewal. We need a Downpour from God. God will come to us like the rain.

The prophet Hosea reminds us that, when we return to God,

“he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth." [Hosea 6:3]

Through this unique and powerful study, we can bring this message home to our church. Using the examples of revival both in the Bible as well as in history, this study offers a clear and simple road map back to God. If we're unhappy with our spiritual life, if our love for God has grown cold, or if our desire to put God first needs rekindling, Downpour can help us experience an absolute soaking of God's Spirit and bring about a biblical, joyful, and radical revival in our lives. It will provide shower power!

With its powerful call to revival, this study leads Jesus-followers to lift up our eyes and return to the Lord. The landscape of our lives has become dry and scorched. So if our church is thirsty for spiritual renewal, heaven is bursting with the blessings God wants to rain down upon us.

The biblical pathway to revival is channeled through five subjects. These subjects offer a way to get under the downpour that God is ready to shower upon our lives:

• God on the Throne: A Picture of Holiness
• Sin in the Mirror: A Picture of Brokenness
• Self in the Dirt: A Picture of Repentance
• Christ on the Cross: A Picture of Grace
• Spirit in Control: A Picture of Power

These are the five things we want to study with one another from God’s Word throughout the weeks together. Again, they are the pathway to revival. Let’s travel this road together, but first there must be a crisis of returning to God. May we experience a downpour of God’s grace as we participate in this study with other Jesus-followers!

Last year the motion picture “End of the Spear” was released to be shown in theaters across the southland. There was an accompanying interview with some of the Auca men who murdered those five missionaries. Today they are serving Christ, and one of them is a native pastor. He said, “We did a terrible thing when we murdered those missionaries, but we know that God has washed our hearts.” Do we know that’s how the missionary finally found a way to say “forgive” to a culture that had never heard of the word? We had our hearts washed. That’s great. A heart that was dirty has been washed. It’s finally clean.

Maybe we need the feeling of clean, and God has promised it to us, but only because Jesus Christ keeps sin in the past and cleans people in the present. Today, we can step into God’s cleansing shower called forgiveness. When Jesus said, “Father forgive them” on the cross, he was forgiving what we had done. When he said, “It is finished,” he meant the bill for our sin. When he said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” it was so we don’t have to be forsaken by God. We leave our sin at his cross. We let him stamp “forgiven” on our sin, if we will accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. Forgiveness is a new beginning. As the murderers learned so beautifully, when we’re forgiven, our hearts are washed. We aren’t dirty anymore. We are finally clean. Now, that’s shower power. Amen!

Jesus-followers need to escape from a smaller world with the comfort of its familiarity by facing the bright limitless horizon God opens before us.

Opening

I remember as a young boy that my parents would take my brother and me to our church’s New Year’s Eve celebration. We would gather early in the evening and share a dinner together as a church family. Then the different age groups would break out in activities for an evening of fun and games. However, at 11:00 p.m. we would all gather together in the Sanctuary and worship together in a watch night service. We would sing a few songs, listen and meditate upon a New Year’s message from God’s Word, take some time for personal reflection, and receive Communion together. At the stroke of midnight we would all proceed to our outdoor courtyard. We stood in a circle with hands held and sang the beautiful Chorus “Spirit of the Living God.” This song reminded us that we needed to look to God’s Spirit to fall fresh on our lives—melting us, molding us, filing us and using us in the New Year.

We come on this New Year’s Eve to worship together in a watch night service. As we gather, we will sing songs of worship and praise, listen and meditate upon a New Year’s message from God’s Word, take some time for personal reflection, and receive Communion together. We will enter the New Year by gathering on our outer courtyard and sing together “Spirit of the Living God.”

Message

One of the most beautiful chapters in the Bible comes from the writings of the Prophet Isaiah. It highlights the time when the people of Israel would return to their own land, marching across a desert transformed by flowers, singing and dancing (yes dancing) for joy. But (perhaps even more wonderfully) we as Jesus-followers as we enter a New Year can apply this beautiful chapter which speaks of a desert coming alive to our experience this evening.

Today when we read "highway" we imagine a wide straight pavement with cars traveling at high speeds. But back then they didn't even have cars. And furthermore that analogy would be closer to the road that leads to destruction as Jesus wrote,

"broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it." Matthew 7:13.

So what was understood by "highway"? It literally meant a "high" way. What was envisioned was a road which was high, a road of holiness, being near to God. The road of redemption, the highway to heaven, is a restricted road, being only for the redeemed, who have been ransomed through the blood of Christ.

"For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all." 1Tim 2:5, 6.

What is the way to God?
Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way? Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." John 14:5, 6.

Let’s ask God to disclose to us this Way of Holiness, and experience a desert coming alive as we focus on Isaiah 35:1-10…

1 The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, 2 it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God. 3 Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; 4 say to those with fearful hearts "Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you."

5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6 Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. 7 The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.

8 And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it. 9 No lion will be there, nor any ravenous beast; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there, 10 and those the LORD has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

We may observe in these verses a progressive transformation. Let’s note the distinction between transformation and change:

Transformation = an inner molding (bonding); newness of being

Change = an outer manipulation (bondage); barrenness of being

So this transformation begins on the inside and is manifested on the outside. True transformation doesn’t happen by pressure from the outside, but by persuasion on the inside. Mere change looks good, but there remains an empty inner being.

We all need to look into the New Year anticipating God’s transforming power at work in our lives. Paul speaks about this transformation we go through as Jesus-followers…

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17.

In every transition of our lives—birth, baptism, graduation, marriage, promotion, moving, parenthood, old age—we encounter a two-headed fear. The first is the anxious question:

“Where is the life I am used to?”

Many of us feel a strange depression and lethargy as we face a new year. The old familiar routine is challenged in favor of the new. We will become strange new persons. But at the same moment we are struck by the second, equally terrifying question:

“But will I ever really move an inch?

Many of us wonder if we will ever really move an inch. If we will be up against the same old ‘me,’ caught in the same old habits. So this progressive transformation includes our fear, and our longing.

Highway to Holiness

This highway or Way of Holiness unfolds transformation in three sequential steps:

Step One: The desert is turned into a garden (vs. 1-4).

1 The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom… 4 say to those with fearful hearts "Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you."

The “desert” or “parched land” may be a hopelessly dull office, a loveless home environment, a frustrating ministry situation, a lonely room. If we feel ourselves in a “desert” of any kind, we need to read again verse 4. We must note specifically, “he will come to you.”

Let’s make sure we claim the promise of God that he will come to us and save us!

Step Two: Affliction is turned into strength (5-7).

5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6 Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. 7 The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.

The afflictions mentioned here are physical—blindness, deafness, lameness, speechless. With us they may not only be a lingering health need, but they may also be a sense of inferiority, and in ability to tackle a certain situation. It may even be concern a decision that has to be made. All can be changed.

Let’s make sure we claim the promise of God that streams will come in the desert!

Step Three: Life is turned into a highway (8-10).

8 And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it.

When we look closely at life, it seems like a series of obstacles and detour. Looked at by a faithful Jesus-follower, its’ a grand highway leading straight to Zion—God’s very presence.

Let’s make sure we claim the promise of God that a highway will lead directly into God’s presence!

In closing, there is an insightful story entitled “Shadowbound,” written by David M. Griebner that helps us to look to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in this New Year for the progressive transformation God desires to accomplish in each of our lives.

Shadowbound

Once upon a time there was a man who lived in the middle of a desert. Yet, that was not quite true. It would be better to say that he was a prisoner of the desert. You see, somehow and sometime in the past our friend had acquired the habit of following his shadow, and only his shadow. It was a relentless and unbending compass, which he obeyed completely and followed without question. Every morning when the sun came up he began walking in the direction his shadow pointed. As the sun traced its slow crescent across the sky he followed the subtle bending of his shadow. By the end of the day he had traced a rough oval and was nearly back to where he had started in the morning. While his course varied a little with the seasons of the year and the speed he walked, it wasn’t much, and it was never enough to allow him to leave the desert.

This had been going on for as long as he could remember. It was familiar and comfortable, the only way he knew. Yet he also had to admit that it often left him feeling trapped and alone. Sometimes he wondered what it would be like to face the sun instead of always turning his back to it and walking the other way. And he longed to see if there might not be something more to the world than the desert, but he never seemed to have enough resolve ever to do anything different.

Then one morning, while it was still dark, as he was preparing to set out again, something came and spoke to him. It was a voice. At least it was more like a voice than anything else. It said, ‘JUST STOP IT.’ That’s all, ‘JUST STOP IT.’

JUST STOP IT? He didn’t know how he knew, but he knew without a doubt that what was meant by this was following his shadow. Just stop it. Could it be that simple? What a lovely thought. Yet it was a foreboding thought as well. Certainly there was joy and hope in what the voice suggested, but there was also fear and dread because following his shadow was the only way he knew to get around – such as it was!

About this time the sun came up, and with it the powerful tug of his growing shadow. He tried to resist it but could not. Yet all that day, even as he obediently followed his shadow, the memory of the Voice and the experience of the morning stayed with him. It stayed with him through the night, too. And while he made no significant changes over the next few days, it was enough just to have some hope.

Then one morning, just a moment before dawn, he suddenly turned his back to the dark, western horizon and faced the glow in the east. It was done almost before he realized what he was doing. The freedom to do it happened in a moment. And he recognized in his new freedom the presence again of the Voice, which lovingly offered him what he could not offer himself.

The rising sun in front of him was brighter and more wonderful than he had imagined anything could ever be. As the sun cut across the sky that first day it was all he could do just to stand there and face the light, turning slowly now to keep his shadow in back of him! There was no question about going anywhere. Yet, as the day passed, his shadow became less and less intimidating and his new freedom more and more familiar, even if it was just to stand still.

Finally, one morning, the Voice came again. As with the other times, he could not fully describe what happened, only that the Voice brought him another gift. The gift this time was a sense of direction. Slowly, he put one foot in front the other, fixed his gaze on some distant mountains, and set out. He wasn’t sure where he was going, but at least he wasn’t still going around in circles. And he certainly didn’t feel alone anymore.

This story should feel somewhat familiar to most of us as it depicts a pretty common human predicament. To be shadowbound is to be caught up in an habitual cycle of being; living within the circle of conclusions made, or made for us, in the past; a pattern of living out one’s life, day after day, pretty much stuck in the same old place; stuck with the same conclusions that limit the horizons of our lives; stuck in the same emotional posture that constricts and constrains, resulting in our walking an always familiar, predictable and unfulfilling path. In the story this predicament is presented as following one’s shadow as opposed to facing the sun.

Now this shadow that is cast by our lives can be the result of many different things. It might be the shadow cast by some mistake for which we have never been able to forgive ourselves. It could be the shadow of some deep resentment over having been wronged by another. It might be the shadow of grief over a loss from which we have not healed. It might be the shadow of our legacy fashioned out of the early experiences of our lives; a legacy that shaped for us an image of ourselves and of the world in which we live; a world and an image within which we find ourselves trapped.

Every one of us gathered here this evening to some degree is shadowbound, and our commitment to spiritual growth could be described as our effort to break free from that smaller world, with the comfort of its familiarity, and face the sun and the bright limitless horizon that the Son, Jesus Christ opens before us!

Personal Reflection:

1. What “desert” or “parched land” am I presently experiencing right now?

_____

Remember to claim God’s promise that God will save you!

2. What “affliction” or “perplexity” am I presently experiencing right now?

_____

Remember to claim God’s promise that streams will come in your desert!

3. What “obstacles” or “detours” am I presently experiencing right now?

_____

Remember to claim God’s promise that a highway will lead you directly into God’s presence!

Closing Thought:

Is it possible to experience this Way of Holiness while at the same time feeling for the sufferings of so many of our Jesus-followers?

Let’s pray for God’s transforming touch in the lives of all Jesus-followers in this New Year. May each of us find the courage to so live within this tension between the shadow that always tugs at us and God’s voice that says “Just stop it. Turn and face the sun and let the music play.” Amen!