September 22 & 23, 2001 Sermon

September 22 & 23, 2001

"Hold Up The Light"

Mike Slaughter

Luke 12:35-40
35: "Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning,
36: like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him.
37: It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them.
38: It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night.
39: But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.
40: You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him."

Echoing our president's words, we are a country awakened to danger. We are very aware of our vulnerability in a new way. We realize that we are no longer isolated from the venom of terrorism that much of the world has known for centuries. I have been inspired by the spirit of the American people. People want to do everything. So much blood has been given that blood banks have said to wait until they say that they need more. Volunteers from all over America are going to New York to relieve the rescue crews there. Fire personnel are in intersections holding boots to take donations and people don't mind waiting in traffic to donate. Athletes and ball players are donating a day's wage. Just imagine if everyone in America donated a day's wages . . Entertainers were on thirty channels and every major network with a two-hour benefit. Some entertainers are giving as much as a million dollars of their own money. Attendance at places of worship was standing room only last weekend. O Lord, that we could continue in humility to realize that our strength is not in our ingenuity but our strength is in the Lord. People praying without apology has inspired me the most. I don't think in the ensuing weeks we are going to see any court cases about praying in public places. This tragedy has served as a wake up call. In light of what I hear some pastors saying, I want to tell you that God did not cause this tragedy. God does not deal in evil for God loves the whole world. God deals in love - not destruction. If we as American people will humble ourselves and turn to God, God will redeem this. In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, "This time like all times is a very good one if we but know what to do with it."
I want to deal with that question with you, the church. What do we do with this time? Open your Bibles to the gospel of Luke, the 12th chapter. In reading the holy words of the Lord Jesus, please stand. "Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit. Be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes. Truly I tell you he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat and he will come and serve them. If he comes during the middle of the night near dawn and finds them so, blessed are those slaves." Listen to what Jesus is saying. It is in the night and in the darkness that we need to be most alert and most attentive. "But know this, if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour." The call to God's people is to be dressed for action. The call of Jesus Christ is not a call to attendance. It is a call to mission and it requires nothing less than total commitment. As we see evil committed every day, we are discovering how patient and committed for the long term these terrorists are. The call to mission is nothing less than total commitment. We are at a state of war. Our troops have been placed on alert and they are ready to go. Reserves have been called up. Life will not go on as usual. We have been told to prepare for a long, protracted, difficult war. There will be drastic changes all around us. One will be economic. Look at the thousands who are being laid off in the airline industry right now. That will affect other industries. Look at what is happening in the stock market. I have already lost about one third of my entire retirement plan that has been building for the last thirty years. We will notice price increases at the gas pump. We are going to have difficulty traveling. It will be a major inconvenience, but we will be willing to put up with this inconvenience for the wellbeing of those we love and for a way of life we believe in. How much more for the Kingdom of God?
I've noticed that differences don't matter as much in times of darkness. Isn't it amazing that the aisle in our Senate that divides the Republicans and Democrats has become invisible in the last few weeks? For so long in the church we have been caught focusing on trivialities. This is not a time to bicker over trivial differences in worship styles, preferences of music, or doctrinal differences. This is the time for the people of Jesus to be of one mind, to come together in our love for the Lord Jesus Christ, and to commit to loving God and serving all people. We have been placed in the world by God to commit acts of extreme love and be committed to a conspiracy of kindness in the name of the Prince of Peace. This is going to require sacrifice. Here is a picture of people standing in line waiting for sugar during World War II. There were rationing coupons for everything - sugar, gas, nylons, and tires. One of the things that is good about the time we are in right now is that fewer people are talking about self. I am hearing words like sacrifice and commitment for the overall wellbeing of the whole. Carolyn and I got our $600 rebate check from the government. Immediately that was set aside for the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and the work of the Kingdom of God. People are asking if in hard times God's people will be there. Let me make this statement before all cohorts of evil tonight. The people of God will make sacrifices to be faithful to God in this world because there is one thing we know. My future is not dependent on my 401K. I don't even think about things like that. I am not even disturbed that I lost a third of it. Why? Because God is our provider. Our sacrifices will go beyond resources. Carolyn and I are the parents of a 19 year-old boy. Many other parents sitting here know what I am talking about. I want to tell you something. Some of our children are going to die. How much more for the Kingdom of God? Have we prepared our children to be radical for the Lord Jesus Christ? To be totally sold out?

I. Be Dressed For Action
When I was on my sabbatical in August, I picked up my morning newspaper with my cup of coffee. I read about the government of Afghanistan arresting eight Christian humanitarian workers. I think five are European and three are Americans. They were there giving humanitarian aid. They were arrested for sharing their faith with other people. They are on trial with a possible penalty of hanging. One of the mothers was there before the World Trade Center situation broke out and had to leave her daughter. She was there during the trial and may never see her daughter again. Do you know what I thought as I read that? Do I believe that Jesus stuff that much? Am I willing to put my life on the line because I believe in Jesus Christ as the way of peace for the whole world? If I could give my children's life for the United States of America how much more for the Kingdom of God. Be dressed for action. This is a time for the people of God to get personally prepared. The president says that this will be a war of ground troops. The first troops to go in are the special forces. He was asked if our special forces were trained to fight in this kind of rough terrain. The president said that these people have been training for years for all different scenarios. Just because evil suddenly shows its face, you can't go off to war because you want to go off to war or because you have suddenly become emotionally engaged. You have to go through basic training. There is a shaping of a whole new lifestyle. You have to develop a whole new identity. You have to turn that flab into stab.
Two weeks ago I was in Connecticut and had dinner with my daughter's future uncle through marriage. I was meeting her fiancé's family and we were all out to dinner. Brendan's Uncle Al was a 19-year-old student at MIT during World War II. Our government took him out of MIT, a prestigious engineering school, and placed him in the Air Force. They sent this 19-year-old kid to various bases all over the country for pilot school where he learned to be the captain of a B17 bomber. As a 20-year-old he went to England where he flew 31 missions from England to Berlin - bombing missions. This was a nine-hour round trip flight. I asked how high he was when he dropped those bombs. He said, "27,000 feet." I said, "You didn't have heat up there." He said, "It was minus 50 degrees." I said, "What was the flack like that we see in all the movies? He said, "It was amazing. The skies could be so clear and all of a sudden you would see those black dots in the sky right ahead of you and you flew right into a black dot of flack. Twice his plane suffered so much damage that he was forced to land - once in France, once in Belgium and once with only one engine. It is time for the church to quit fantasizing about mission and commit to mission. Be dressed for action. This is a time of training and shaping in the church. You can't just show up occasionally to pray or come once a week. This is a time of discipline, a time of growing and knowledge, and a time of learning the language of prayer. Building spiritual stamina. It is going to get harder and you will want to quit if you don't go through the discipline of training.
I have been walking around this campus on Wednesday nights. I walk to all of the classes. On Wednesday nights every room including storage rooms on both of our campuses is used for training. I am seeing hundreds of you working with children, teaching children the language of prayer. You are demonstrating the love of Jesus. Last Saturday night over 500 teenagers from the area gathered in the Avenue and prayed for the victims of this horrible tragedy. Eleven of those kids accepted Jesus Christ that night. I walked into a parenting class and parents are dealing with establishing boundaries with their children. They are committed to building healthy families. This is what it means to be dressed for action. Sixty-four of you signed up last week to take down a pole barn in Covington, Ohio, and move it to the South Campus. It is going to be a showroom for folks who are connected to our outreach ministries in order to select used furniture. The other part will be the car repair ministry. This is what it means to be dressed for action.

II. Have Your Lamps Lit
The Lord goes on and says in times of darkness not only are we to be dressed for action, we are to keep our lamps lit. The darker it gets, shine brighter. Keep your lamps tended. Don't let your lights go out. As children of light, we are here on Planet Earth to be armies of light. I am going to say this and I know this is not going to be politically correct but this is not a time for political correctness. All faith is not equally true or right. There is a difference between religious fervor and spiritual truth. Just because we are fervent about faith does not mean that our faith is true. How can you tell whether or not it is true? Character is always revealed in crisis. If it is of God, it will always honor God. The truth will never be death or destruction. Anything that is of God will always be a source of life and blessing and will always serve people. If it is of God it will not be limited to a few people based on nationality, ethnicity or regional boundaries. Every religious group tends to form itself around the familiar.

John 3:16
16: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son."

But this is the Gospel of Jesus: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son." Jesus came into the world to tear down the walls that religions have put up between us. The Bible says that He, Himself, is our peace and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. Not only did Jesus destroy the hostility between God and us, Jesus destroys the hostility between us and all people.
Pentecost was the day that God made the Spirit available to all people. It is no accident that the Bible says this about Pentecost: people from every nation under heaven were gathered when the Spirit fell. People from English speaking nations were there. Arabic speaking nations. Hebrew speaking nations. Swahili speaking nations. When the Spirit spoke it wasn't just in English. It wasn't in one language. Remember, every nation under the sun heard God speak in their own cultural context and in their own language. This is so important. God is the God of all people. Jesus is not just Savior for Christians - Jesus is Savior of the world.

John 13: 34-35
34: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
35: By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

I want to tell you why I am a Jesus follower and why Jesus and the people of Jesus are the hope of the world. Jesus brought to the world a new global code of conduct. Do you know what that is? It is in John 13. I give you a new commandment. This is a commandment unlike any other religion that has ever existed. Religion has always insisted that you go by our rules. You play our game and you are part of our community. Here are the new rules and the new code of conduct for the people of Jesus. "I give you a new commandment that you love one another." What? You are to love people like you who speak the English language? People like you who are from the same ethnic background? No. That has already been established. People from every nation under the sun were gathered when the Spirit of God fell. Love one another just as I have loved you. How did Jesus love us? What is the weapon of the Kingdom of God? It is the cross. The cross is foolishness to the world because the cross does not fight back with evil, it surrenders itself to the power of evil and trusts God with the power of the resurrection. You also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples - not by what you believe, not by what you are able to recite, but by the way you love one another. Following Jesus isn't so much about what we believe. Someone said to me last week that they came to this church and they were here several years as an agnostic. Now they call themselves a tentative follower of Jesus. They said, "Mike, do you ever struggle with belief?" Yes, I struggle with belief. I do. But being a Jesus follower is not as much about belief as it is about connectedness.

John 15: 4-5
4: Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5: "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

In John 15:4 & 5 Jesus is speaking. "Abide in me as I abide in you." One thing that gives me so much hope is that Jesus believes in me. Jesus believes in me even when I struggle to believe in Him. "Abide in me even as I already abide in you." This relationship has a whole lot more to do with Jesus than it does with me. "Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me." It is not as much about believing as it is about staying connected. "I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit because apart from me you can do nothing." This is not about trying to be godly. Every time I try to be godly I mess up. This is not about maintaining total confidence.
I have to get on a plane tomorrow with Kim and Chris. I have been a little nervous thinking about this. I heard that Todd Beamer prayed with the telephone operator before his plane went down. He said, "Lord Jesus, help us." You and I must stay connected to Jesus, even in our doubt. As a vine stays connected to a branch. Then it is not me trying to be like God but all of God's life then is demonstrated through me. All of God's resources pass through us. It is amazing that, in spite of my doubt, when I stay connected to Jesus I become a source of God's life and a blessing to people around me.
We are going to be in Sacramento and then in Stockton, California. We are going to be with American Baptists on Monday and Tuesday. Todd Carter is in San Diego with church leaders from all over the country teaching about media. They told us at the first of this week, "We understand if you want to cancel." I said to Carolyn, you know that I have to hold up the light that God has placed in me. Every one of us has to hold up the light of the giftedness that God has placed in us. We are going to die anyway so we might as well do something about it. Todd Beamer was a 32-year-old businessman and Sunday school teacher at Princeton Alliance Church. We have all seen his wife on television. While on the plane, Todd was speaking to an operator for 15 minutes on the phone. They recited the 23rd Psalm together then they prayed together. There were 20 some folks on that plane that made contact with family through cell phones. Through them Todd heard about the World Trade Center. The operator asked him to drop the phone and keep the line alive so that she could hear what was going on. The last words the operator heard from Todd's mouth were, "Are you guys ready? Let's roll." And they took action against the hijackers aboard United Airlines Flight 93 shortly before the plane crashed in a western Pennsylvania field. I know no better words than the words of our brother in Christ, Todd Beamer, "Are you folks ready? Let's roll in Jesus name." Be dressed for action and hold up the light.