Semester Plans

In my attempt to be more disciplined, I am blogging twice this week. Hurray! I just want to fill all of you in on my plans for the semester. If you read the last post, then you already know that I hope to do an outreach bible study, so I got that going on.

The next thing I am planning on starting is a help group for self mutilators. As I study the community, I see more people with this problem than you might think. Also, there is very little to no help for them. Sure there are trained therapists, but even they would tell you that the best cure is hanging out with others with the struggle and hearing how they have succeeded in not hurting themselves anymore. Since I used to do this, I think I can be a real help to people who do it. The plan is to have a 12 step type group that meets in MERCYhouse on Saturday afternoons. At least that is plan for now. We will see how it goes. Both the time and day are able to be changed, but I figured I needed a starting point.


I plan to continue the leadership house church. It continues to grow, and I don't know where we will put everyone, but it is bearing so much fruit I would hate to not have it.

I also am planning to devote 20 hours a week to Umass. To meeting kids on campus, eating lunch on campus, doing that doubt night on campus, getting all my coffee on campus, and even getting a table on campus. I figure if I want to start a church on campus in September, I better start fishing now.

The general idea is to find some seekers who are not really Christian yet, and get them to become Christians, and then get them to start a church with me. The only way to do this is to be on campus, so that is what I will be doing.

That is generally my plans I will keep you posted. I also will hopefully blog about something more interesting next week. See you then.

Recently I was on the MERCYhouse website ans noticed that Robert is blogging with intentionality, and it has inspired me to do the same. He has a lot more to offer in some sort of concerted teaching effort though, so what I will be doing is going to look a little different.

Over the next semester I plan to sow the seeds for a new MERCYhouse service starting at 7pm and hopefully meeting in the Southwest Residential Area. One of the ways I hope to sow seeds is by starting an evangelically focused house church, of sorts. The idea right no is a "Doubt Night" group. Here's how this thing would work.

Every Wednesday night, or some other day, yet to be determined, I would set up a pizza party in the dorms and invite all the non-Christians to come and ask whatever they want. I see it as a safe place where real questions can receive real answers. There won't be anything that is not allowed. I will answer what I can to the best of my ability, and find out the answers to question I don't know by the next week. I think that this kind of candid intellectual setting will draw in non-Christians, as well as give a safe place for Christians to bring their questioning friends. Food will be provided, and, since we meet every week, people will have the opportunity to build relationships and feel comfortable hanging out church guys. I hope to build a core of people who never went to church before, and through this experience decide to help me with this new service.

More than this, I will be gathering their questions, and then using them as a jumping off point for my sermon series in the Fall. The idea is that if one person asks a certain question, certainly more people have it, and if I preach on it, maybe they will come to here the answer to what their heart has been asking. That is the idea right now, anyway.


What does this have to do with me blog and being more disciplined with it? A lot. See I also intend to use my blog to answer the questions that Umass is asking as well. I will post questions that I received that night, and then through out the week, ( I am aiming for an update on Fridays and Tuesdays) I will answer the questions in a more thoughtful manner that I could during the Doubt Night meeting time. I figure both the Doubt Night, and the subsequent answer time on my blog will stretch me to the point were I am going to have to rely on God for answers.

Also, since the culture around me is very "Electronic", I have plans to let people submit questions on my blog that will be answered both at the group and online. And as I type, I wonder how cool it would be to actually record some of these questions and answers every week and make them a Podcast? That is a lot of work, so I don't intend to do it right away, but maybe someday.

What does this mean for this blog? Well there are a few possibilities. To do the question and answer thing effectively I may need a full website. If that is the case, then I will only be blogging here twice a month or so about my family and stuff to keep all of you in our lives. The theology will be moved to my website, as well as the rants. If, on the other hand, I don't get a website, you can look forward to seeing a lot of crazy conversations happening right here. More than likely there will be some mixture of the two options.

Regardless, I promise to blog more. I really do think it is important to keep all of you informed about what is going on in my life, as well as thought I am having. Thanks for reading.

Sermon and Stuff

SO the title is kind of misleading, because there is not much stuff- just another sermon. I apologize to all of you for being a slacker, and I will blog non sermon things soon.

Here is this weeks sermon though:

This week brings us to the final installment of our Winter Series, and fittingly enough, we will be talking about the final commandment. Does anyone know what Commandment this is? That’s right, don’t covet. Before we jump into the text, let me just say that I know half of you in this room are coveting right now. Who is it that is coveting? Well I think it is pretty clear that I is the men. How do I know this? Because this is an awesome shirt. Guys, stop coveting it. Now ladies, let m tell you that I got his shirt on sale, it was originally 200 dollars, and I paid 20 for it. Now all of you are coveting too. So all of you stop coveting, you’re breaking the tenth commandment. Now that that is out of the way, I think we can safely begin to look at the text.

Turn with me to your programs. In Exodus 20:17 we read:

17 "You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s."

I don’t want to assume that we all know what this commandment means, and before we unpack what the entire commandment means, I think we need to define the word covet. Merriam Webster defines covet as follows

Pronunciation:

\ˈkə-vət\

Function:

verb

Etymology:

Middle English coveiten, from Anglo-French coveiter, from Vulgar Latin *cupidietare, , from Latin cupiditat-, cupiditas desire, from cupidus desirous, from cupere to desire

Date:

14th century

transitive verb 1 : to wish for earnestly <covet an award> 2 : to desire (what belongs to another) inordinately or culpably intransitive verb : to feel inordinate desire for what belongs to another

So coveting is simply desiring or wanting something that isn’t yours. That commandment tells us not to want anything that isn’t ours, a woman, a man, property, status, servants, money, reputation, job, anything.

It seems fitting that this is the last commandment. The other commandments either had to do with God directly, or with our actions against people. This commandment is completely different though. This is a prohibition against the heart, against out thoughts. It is also impossible to break one of the other commandments without also breaking this one. Why? Well, why do we steal? Because we covet someone else’s stuff. Why do we commit adultery? Because we covet someone else’s spouse? Even the command to keep the Sabbath relates to not coveting. Why do we work on the Sabbath? What is the real motivation? Because we covet someone else’s success, we desire to look as good as other people, we covet their Puritan work ethic. So God saves this commandment for last.

As I just mentioned, the other reason that God saves this commandment for last is because it deals with motivations, with the heart. Before we go any further with this, we need to take a step back for a second. We have to put this commandment is context. At the moment when God is giving these commandments, what is happening? Israel has just been brought out of 400 years of slavery. God has rescued them from Pharaoh. He then leads them through the desert. They have no food, water, or road maps, so God provides all of this. He leads them by day with a pillar of smoke, and by night with a pillar of fire. He gives them water from rocks and bread from heaven. He is leading them to the Promised Land, but first they make a brief stop at a mountain in the middle of nowhere. God meets Israel’s leader- Moses- on this mountain, and here he is going to give Israel the rules by which they will be known as his people.

The entire reason that God has done any of this is because way back in the day he made a promise to a cowardly idol worshipper named Abram. God changes Abrams name to Abraham and begins a relationship with him, even though he was unworthy. God’s promise was this, that he would be Abraham’s offspring’s God, and they would be is people. So hundreds of years later, on a mountain named Sinai, God is telling this man’s offspring, who become known as the nation of Israel, how to be his people. He gives them Ten Commandments. But he gives these commandments is a specific order.

The first thing God does is remind Israel of who he is and what he has done. He says I am the LORD who brought you out of slavery. Then he tells them to worship him, and him only, then he gives some behavioral laws, and then he ends this tutorial on how to be his people with the tenth commandment, do not covet. Why I am making such a big deal about this? Because it is a big deal. There are two things happening in just this simple giving of the Ten Commandments. The firs thing that is going on is that God is reminding them of Grace. He brought them out of Egypt before any of these rules were given. He remembers them because of who he is, not because of what they have done. That is why before giving any of the laws, he points them backward. The first thing he tells Israel is that he is the LORD who brought them out of slavery.

This is possibly the most important point in this sermon. God gives them the rules after he establishes a relationship with him. He doesn’t give these rules to Israel while they are slaves and tell them he will see them in another 400 years if they follow them. He saves them, calls them his people, and then he gives them the Ten Commandments. These rules are not the way that Israel gets God to love them, he loves them already. It is necessary to see the rules in this light. God is not some tyrant trying to impose his will on humanity. He doesn’t demand that they perform to gain his love. Israel had his love when he brought them out of slavery. The rules he gives them are ultimately for their good. He is a loving Father who wants his children to thrive.

As many of you know I am a father. As many of you also know my daughter Kiera is kind of dead weight. Let m explain. She doesn’t do anything for me. She has no job, she sleeps like 16 hours a day. She eats my food and uses my house, and doesn’t even do chores. She craps her pants, and I have to clean it up. She doesn’t say thank you for changing her diapers or giving her clothes to wear so she doesn’t freeze to death. Now I know what you’re thinking, she is only one, but that’s not the point. She is lazy, selfish, and rude. But I love her. I love her in spite of all this. How evil would it be of me to say to her I will only love you if you follow these 10 rules? Pretty evil, huh. One the other hand, her mother and I do have rules that Kiera must follow. She isn’t allowed to touch the stove, or electrical sockets. She is not allowed to play in traffic, or use sharp pointy objects.

We love her because of who we are, parents, not because of what she dos, but we still have rules that we need her to follow. Occasionally she breaks these rules. She is always trying to eat the cat food, which me and my wife have a rule about. We discipline her, pull her away from the food, and lock her out of the kitchen, but we don’t love her less. She is no less our daughter, I am no less her father.

This is the relationship that God has with Israel, and with us. He tells them remember that I am the loving Father who brought you out of slavery. In light of this grace, obey these next rules. He sets them up, not for His sake, but for Israel’s.

The first thing God is doing is showing his grace with the giving of the commandments. The second is just as important. After setting up his grace, he gives them a list of things that they should and should not do. Do not have idols, do keep the Sabbath, do not murder, do honor your parents, don’t steal. As Israel is hearing these, I imagine they are setting up check boxes in their head. Don’t murder, got it. Don’t steal, got it. Most of them are thinking that they are all set. It is relatively easy not to murder someone, right? How many of you in here have ever murdered someone? How many of you know a murderer? I do, so that makes one of us. See, it is easy to follow that commandment.

How many of you have ever committed adultery? How many of you know an adulterer? I know one. I know a lot of commandment breakers, huh. I just noticed that. Not too many of us though. It is relatively easy to follow that one too. Just don’t have an affair. More of us have probably stolen or know a thief, but for the most part, we can follow these commandments right. So could Israel. So we, like Israel here them, and we start patting ourselves on the back.

Hey, I’m alright with God. I have never stolen or had an affair. But then we get to this last commandment. Don’t covet. Have you ever wanted to steal? Have you ever wanted to have an affair? Have you ever, not even wanted to steal, but been jealous of someone else’s things. Have you ever wanted what they have? Have you ever looked at a married man or woman and wish you could be with them, even if you would never have an affair? Now we are in trouble. I mean all of you coveted my shirt earlier, so you are all in trouble.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus speaks to this also. He is teaching about the Ten Commandments, and he says:

21 "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' 22But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire. 23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.^] 27 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' 28But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

He is speaking here to Jews, who, like us, for the most part feel like we keep the commandments- at least the first nine. He is reminding them that the tenth commandment has to do with their hearts. It seems like God is setting us up to fall, sort of, doesn’t it? Here are all these rules, can you follow them? Yeah, you think so, well here is one more. But what is God really doing? What he is doing is calling us back to himself. He is calling for Israel to have a greater dependence on Him. He is calling us to have a greater dependence on him.

We are going to break these commandments. God knew that, Jesus knew that. The question is not then will we break the commandment, but when we do, what do we do? Do we run back to God and the cross, or do we try to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps and just try harder. The reason God saves the tenth commandment for last is to let us know that our outward actions are of no value. It does us no good to follow 9 of the 10 commandments. We must follow all of the law, or we have broken all of it. God is not concerned about how holy you look, but with how holy you are. The tenth commandment is given at the end as a final reminder that we are not holy. It is to call the people to a greater dependence on God. Remember, like Kiera and myself, God does not change based on Israel’s actions. His relationship with us is not based on what rules we have kept. He loves us the same. He loves us because of who he is, not because of what we have done.

Not only does Jesus talk about the Ten Commandments, but Paul also has something to add, and it is right along the lines we have just been talking about. Paul says in Romans 7

Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." 8But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness.

What does this mean? What is the point of this commandment? It would seem from what Paul says that the point of the Law is to point out our sinfulness. Not to beat a dead joke, but let’s quickly get back to my shirt- because it is an awesome shirt. I assume no one was really coveting my shirt, or even think about it until I pointed it out in my introduction. And the, because you have good taste, you did begin thinking about and coveting my shirt, and the awesome deal I got on it. In the same way, Kiera didn’t know that she should not play with our fire place until we told her. Once we told her she couldn’t go near it though, it attracted her more than ever. That doesn’t mean that she could touch the fire before we told her she couldn’t- the prohibition was always there- however, once we made it taboo, it became even more an object of desire. She coveted it.

This is the same way in which the Law works, according to Paul. Remember, though, that the law didn’t produce the sin. The prohibition was always there. The Law just told us that it was wrong concretely.

But again, the point of the law has always been to point out our iniquities. Again in Romans 7:10 Paul tells us that,

…the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.

The commandment was death. Not because the commandment was bad, but because we are broken. In these Ten Commandments are Gods standards of holiness. We see them, and slowly we realize that we don’t measure up. Maybe we have broken some earlier commandments, and so even outwardly are seen as unholy. More likely we have broken this last commandment about the condition of our heart, and although we may appear outwardly holy, we are inwardly sick, twisted, broken and dirty.

The point of these commandments has always been to draw us closer to God. I don’t know if you remember, but in the first sermon on this series, I said the way to keep all the commandments was to remember the first. The commandments were given the way they were to first, draw us to God, next, point out our fallenness, and finally, draw us back to God. Never did God require that we keep his commandments to be loved by him. He pulled Israel out of Egypt before these commandments were given. The first thing he tells them is who he is. I am the LORD who brought you out of Egypt he says. He is teaching these people, us, to depend on him for everything.

And this brings me to the practical part of the sermon. The final reason for the prohibition about coveting was so that the Israelites would rely totally and fully on God. How? Well let’s take a step back and examine why we covet. Why is it that we see someone else’s stuff and want it? Why do we see someone else’s spouse and want them? Why do we see someone else’s position and want it? It is because we are not fully trusting in God.

One of the ways we may not be trusting in God is not believing that he is going to provide all that we need for us. So we start looking at others things and wanting them. We think that we need whatever everyone else has. Maybe we are having problems in our marriage (I know this doesn’t effect most of you yet, but someday it will), and instead of trusting God to help us work through them, we think that we can make ourselves happy by coveting another’s husband or wife. We don’t trust God to give us a family, so we covet another’s. We don’t trust god to give us a house so we coven another’s promotion.

We don’t depend on God for what ever it is, and so we start seeing all that everyone else has, and we want it. But there is even more that this. Our desire to covet goes deeper than just not trusting God. When we are coveting we have not only broken the Tenth Commandment, but the second also. We elevate something to the place of God. We worship money, so we covet another’s house. We worship sex, so we covet another’s wife. We worship security, so we covet another’s promotion. We worship power, so we covet another’s promotion. This prohibition against coveting is, as all the other commandments, a call to worship God, and God only. As I said before, if you don’t have the first commandment, none of the pothers matter. In fact, they all point to the first. This commandment is teaching us to rely solely on God.

And this truly is the heart of the commandment.

I want to take it a step further and say that the reason we break this commandment, and any of them for that matter, is that we truly don’t believe the Gospel. Saying this is during a worship service, I am sure the Christians in the audience are saying, “But we are Christians, so how can we not believe the Gospel.” And I will answer that if you break any of these commandments, you don’t fully believe the Gospel.

Let me explain. Again, I ask, why do we covet? It is not simply because we want more money, or a better job. It is because we don’t believe that God is good and gives good gifts. It is because we don’t find our security in Him. It is because we don’t fully recognize that we are God’s children, and that he loves us.

God himself tells us that he has plans to prosper us and not to harm us. Jesus tells us that God gives us good gifts. Paul says that God did not withhold his son from us, how will he not give us all things also. But we don’t really believe all this, so we covet. Instead of finding our security in God, we find it in money, so we elevate money to a place of worship, and then we covet it. Instead of looking to God for our happiness and joy, we look to others, and when we don’t find it in our marriage, we begin to covet other people’s marriages. Instead of finding our worth in Christ and his resurrection, we find it in our reputation and job title. We really don’t believe the Gospel.

But the only way to obey these commandments is to believe it. We can’t do it on our own. The law, with out the Gospel is a dead end. The commandments lead only to death if we don’t have this Gospel. God brought you out of Egypt first. Follow him, and then stop coveting. Follow him, and in his power, stop coveting.

Believe the Gospel, and find your all in him. Find your security, your happiness, your joy, your love, your self worth, your salvation. See how God has brought you to his holy mountain. See how he has had a relationship with you all along.

If you are here and you are not a Christian, hear all this again. God doesn’t require you follow all these rules before he loves you. He loves you right now. He desires a relationship with you right now. Have you tried to follow these commandments and failed? He knows. He is there anyway. The good news is that he did what you could not. When God gave Moses these commandments, he was talking to a murderer. The people were at the bottom of the mountain breaking every commandment given. He knew they could not keep them. When Jesus was telling those people in Matthew 5 that if they became angry they broke the commandment against murder, and if they lusted they broke the prohibition against adultery, he knew that they couldn’t keep his words. He knew as he spoke to these masses that he was going to die for them. He knew that, just a few years later, he would hang on a cross, dying as sacrifice for all the mistakes, blunders, and sins they had committed. He knew that you also could not keep his commands, and he died for that too.

The way to God is not following some rules, even these rules. It is through the crucifixion. Jesus did what we could not. He followed all the rules that we break, and he went willingly as a sheep to be slaughtered. As he hung from the cross, his last words were “It is finished.” What does this mean? What was finished? Everything. The Law was finished, these Ten Commandments were finished, God’s redemption of his people was finished.

When God gave these rules on Sinai, he gave them as a way to point to Jesus. The laws themselves were never supposed to give us salvation. Following these rules makes you no more or less loved in God’s eyes. These laws were supposed to point out our insufficiency. It is of infinite value that God saves his people first.

If we look to the last to save, we are going down a dead end. Paul said that the law lead to death. So it is for us. Bu the free gift of God is life in Jesus.

God calls us when we are sick, broken, and alone. He can heal you now. He can fix you now. He can forgive you now. All he demands is that, as the first commandment states, you would call him your God. All he wants is for you to accept his embrace, ask for his forgiveness, and become his child. These commandments brought death, but Jesus is offering you life.

It is not God who demands you follow rules before he calls you his child, but religion. God calls us as we are, not as others would have us be. We can not follow these rules on our own. In the Old testament there are 613 rules, the Ten Commandments being just the first. If we can’t follow these first 10, how can we hope to follow all the others? We can’t. That is why Jesus came. These Laws point the way to Jesus. They were set up to demonstrate God’s holiness and call us back to him. They were never designed to be our salvation.

Religion demands you become clean before you are rescued from slavery, Jesus only asks that you would follow him as he rescues you. The Gospel the good news is that it is finished. You can be with God right now, if you would only ask.

If you are a Christian know that Jesus is still the answer for your coveting. Remember your slavery in Egypt and worship God once again. Cast out your idols and ask God to purify your heart. Search yourself, ask God to search you, and bring all the baggage, jealousy, and coveting to the cross, where it has already been paid for. God is no different today that the day in which you first followed him.

If you have heard me preach before, you know that this is where I usually stop, but not today.

Usually the structures of my sermon are a weak introduction, some commentary on the text, and then I try to break all of you and show you how you need Jesus, and then I end. But I realize that at times I am doing a disservice. Yes it is true that you, whether a Christian or not need Jesus. Yes it is true that in your own power you can not follow these commandments. And I want you to hear that. Apart from God we are powerless. We are told that we were saves to sin, dead in our transgressions before we were redeemed through the work of Jesus Christ.

But Scripture doesn’t end there. That is not the final chapter in our life. Paul says that although we were dead, we have been raised, that although we were slaves to sin, we can now become slaves to righteousness. The Good News, this Gospel that Jesus proclaimed, wasn’t just that he was going to die for our sins and then we could be in heaven. The Gospel was also for the here and now. In the book of John we have some of the final conversations that Jesus is having with his Apostles- the people closest to him. And what does he tell them? Well, lots of things, but one of the final words spoke was this:

John 10:10

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

He also says that his peace- the peace of God- he is going to give. Paul tells us that he can do all things through Christ who strengthens him. He also states that it is no longer he who lives, but Christ lives in him. We are told that we can be slaves to righteousness, that the Spirit who raised Christ from the dead now dwells in us.

So what does this mean. It means that we can now follow these Ten Commandments. It means that we are already holy in God’s sight, and can also be holy right now, today. It means that, in the Power of Christ, we may truly live.

This Gospel isn’t for some far off land called heaven. I mean it is, but that isn’t all. It has something to offer right now. We don’t nee to be stuck in the same patterns. Our hearts truly can be changed, and we can stop coveting. Through what Jesus has done, we now have the ability to live as God would call us to live. You don’t need to be stuck in the same sns. YOU don’t need to be a slave to your addictions. You don’t need to live in despair, just waiting for the day when you will be in heaven. You can have it all now.

The first thing we see Jesus doing in the Bible is walking around and saying he Kingdom of God is here. It is not some far off land we need to u down and wait to arrive. It is here.

W I am not saying that there won’t be struggles, or hardships, or pain. I know we will all screw up again, and if you are like me, again, and again, and again. But we can live redeemed lives now. You no longer need to bow down to sin in your life. This Gospel, this Good News, is for today. This salvation that God is offering is right now. This Redemption is as much for the present as for the future.

I don’t know what you are coveting, I don’t know what you have stolen or what your idols are, but I do know that God is offering you freedom and new life right now. He will never abandon nor forsake you. He knows that by yourself you can not keep these rules, but he also offers you himself that you may live a new life, that you may truly be holy.

In front of me is a symbol of that new life. On the night he was betrayed he took bread and broke it and said, “This is my body, broken for you, do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he took the cup and said, “This is the blood of the New Covenant. Do this in Remembrance of me.”

At this table is offered more than bread and juice. It is new life. It is freedom. Christ paid the price we could not pay, that we may live the life we were meant to live. If you are a flower of Christ, whether you have been one for years, or have just decided that you too want to follow this Jesus and have a life abundant, I invite you to this table. Bring before God all that you have coveted, all that you have worshipped, all your brokenness and sin. Come just as you are, broken and imperfect. Come to the table and worship the God who died for you. Come and believe this Gospel that offers a life abundant.