November 1-2, 1997 Sermon

November 1-2, 1997

Tom Tumblin

Stamped For The Dance
I am a lousy dancer. I really am. Now you need to know in sixth grade though, I learned how to minuet and to square dance. Did very well those two dances and by junior high I started to get introduced to the fast dance. I was in trouble. So I kinda laid backed while all my friends jumped and spun to "Shaft" and "Saturday Night Fever" and those songs. By the time I had gotten to high school, I thought that somehow I ought to be able to come close. And so, I mustered up the nerve and I walked out onto the gym floor and tried to step out the beat of "Born to be Wild." By the time I was done my friends had convinced me I was born to be seated.
This month we are going to focus on what it is to dance with our walk in Christ. Using the word from I Thessalonians 4, verses 1 through 7, we will learn that we indeed are invited not to a dogged religious plod, but to a living, spirited dance. Especially for the rhythmically impaired like me. I want us to focus our time together as we lay out the dance steps of the truth that God has made us. You see the truth is, we were made to dance. We were created to move in sync with the God who created us for Himself --to be in relationship with Him. Listen to Paul’s insights from I Thessalonians 4

I Thessalonians 4:1-7
1: Finally, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, you do so more and more.
2: For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
3: For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from unchastity;
4: that each one of you know how to take a wife for himself in holiness and honor,
5: not in the passion of lust like heathen who do not know God;
6: that no man transgress, and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we solemnly forewarned you.
7: For God has not called us for uncleanness, but in holiness.

We ask you- --urge you is more like it --that you keep on doing what we told you to do to please God, not in a dogged religious plod, but in a living, Spirited dance. You know the guidelines we laid out for you from the master Jesus. God wants you to live a pure life .... God hasn’t invited us to a disorderly unkempt life but into something holy and beautiful --as beautiful on the inside as the outside.
Imagine a conversation between the BIG THREE -- you know --Father, Son , and the Holy Spirit. It’s just before the world was created and imagine they are sitting there sipping their Celestial Seasons herbal mint tea. The Spirit says to God, "I’m just a little bit nervous about this idea of giving human beings free choice. I mean you know we already suffered that loss in the angels department with Lucifer when he tried to have his own free choice and bailed on us. Are you sure you want to allow humans to make their own choices? You know everything, but I would guess that these humans will try to become God instead of being like God.
Father shifts his weight for a moment and speaks up. Yes, I know it’s a bit of a risk to give them so much freedom, but I want to give them every advantage. In fact, I will send Jesus to them in Human form help them get the message. I will do whatever it takes to help them choose to love me. Love means risk. It always requires the right to choose. Here’s the edge I’ll give them.. . I will stamp them with my image. I’ll put my very character in them. I will design them to be in loving relationship with me."
Here’s the truth: God created us to be beautiful on the inside and the outside. We were made for the Dance. The artistry, grace, rhythm, power, all that is beautiful about God, he has put within us from the very beginning of time.

The Stamp Of God
In my first church was a Vietnam veteran named Charlie. While he had been raised in the church, the trauma of serving in the Navy off the Tonkin Bay had marked him deeply. Now, almost a decade after that nightmare, he started attending our little church. He was a craftsman --excellent with working with wood. In the hot days of summer he would volunteer his services around the church and then stop by my house to talk. One afternoon, we were sitting on my couch drinking some lemonade and as we were talking, Charlie pointed to the collection of tattoos on his arms, some of them rather obscene. "You know, " he said, "I am really embarrassed by these tattoos. When I was in Nam, I didn’t care and I didn’t worry about them at all when I got them put on me. But I didn’t think I’d live long enough to get home. Now that I can’t get them off, they make me feel ashamed."
I looked Charlie in the eye and said, "Charlie, you need to know something. We all have our scars; yours are just more obvious than most of ours. That’s the only difference. And by the way, Charlie was just as much in relationship with Jesus as I was. Charlie, you need to know something else. Jesus took on some scars, too. And by the scars that Jesus took on, he turned all of our scars, all of our wars into battle ribbons, into medals of honor. He is delighted to put us back into the same condition that God had put us in in the first place ---BORN OF GOD

I. The Dance Of Your Destiny
A few years ago the news reported the recent cleaning of the ceiling of the Cistene Chapel. Over the centuries, dirt and dust had caked on the masterpiece and a crew of experts were brought in to clean away the grime. I was struck, as they wiped away the dirt, with the beauty of the original as the masterpiece was uncovered. It was stunning. The color, the bold paint strokes, all of the ceiling was just as it was when Michelangelo first created it. That’s Paul’s idea of being beautiful on the inside and the outside. It isn’t just that God comes inside of us and somehow cleans up the mess we’ve created. It’s much more than that.
It’s that God literally comes inside of us and restores us to the original beauty He created us for in the first place.
He made us so His image can shine through again --- uncovering the stamp of God ---cleaning us up for the Dance. You and I were destined to dance.
A movie out this fall and now the cover of Time magazine reminds us that America has become enamored with Buddhism. This idea of escaping through meditation and selflessness has lured thousands of people into that pursuit of emptiness. All will become nothing. Fulfillment comes in removing every bit of concern and self. Every thought evaporates. And, ironically, Buddhism (and most of the eastern religions) has very little to offer us. The best they can give us for hope is that we might find a personal and cosmic void that will merit somehow our coming back in a better form someday. Something like a spiritual version of extreme sports. If I can get out there far enough, if I can jump away from life’s care skillfully enough, then I will really have arrived. Nirvana!
The magazine puts it’s this way. There is such a craze that there is: A new make up call "Zen Blush", A new sitcom call Dharma and Greg, A designer fruit-juice container that has printed on it: "Please recycle this bottle. It deserves to be reincarnated, too." If you watch TV at all, you know that there are even now Monks that star in computer commercials. I used to debate with my Buddhist friend: Now talk to me a second. Isn’t it more attractive to peace in the person of Jesus Christ than to find emptiness in Buddhism? I mean, after all, which sounds better: To run on empty forever? or to have a forever relationship with the God who created you through Jesus. Yes, God calls us to a life of prayer. Yes, we are called to unselfish service. Yes, Jesus models for us that sense of generosity and sacrifice, but not to become part of a cosmic black hole. The invitation of Christ is to the Dance.
Now let’s see for a second: On one hand we have a life of nothingness, forever without God. On the other hand, we have God with us and we with God forever. Tough choice??? God made us for Himself. He made us to experience the generosity of His love for us and He made us to walk in that same groove of generosity all of our lives.

II. The Groove Of Generosity
Several months ago the United Nations had discovered that there was a way in which to wipe out all of the world poverty. They determined that for 80 billion dollars, which they would find in the 7 richest people in the world, they could provide enough access of basic social services that poverty would no longer be existent in the world. A great idea. But how do you get these 7 richest people to get rid of their money. How do you get these folks to give up a few bucks for something like that? FAT CHANCE!
And then, on September 18th to everyone’s surprise, Ted Turner announces that he is going to give 1 billion dollars --one-third of his net worth to the United Nations. This founder of the Turner Broadcasting Network and CBN had determined that he would give that one-third of his wealth --which is generous by anybody’s measure -- for the sake of this mission. You can imagine the press!! When Larry King asked him "Why would you do something like that? Why would you give a billion dollars away?" Turner said, "You know, I’ve discovered, the more good I do, the more money comes to me. This idea of giving does not come naturally. You have to learn how to give. You’re not born that way. You’re born selfish. But, once it’s all over, I want to be remembered as one of the good guys."
And Turner is almost right; he almost had it right. But he was just little bit off. We weren’t born selfish -- we were born to give. And there’s been some research done by some physicians and hospitals that tell us now that we were created to be generous.. Norman Cousins and other researchers have said that generous people have these kinds of advantages: The live longer, have less stress, have an enhanced immune system, have better circulation, sleep better, and are in generally better health. They sense a greater connectedness to God, are more open to spiritual guidance, have a sustained peace of mind and a greater sense of purpose. Not bad, huh?? Here’s the kicker --when people are generous, there comes a chemical reaction literally inside our brains. We get a rush. Just as when a runner, an athlete, will come to the peak of their performance and the chemicals will start to work in their brain and will give them the added boost to finish the race. In the same way, when we are generous, the same chemical reaction happens. Now, I used to say, "Give until it hurts." Now I say, "Give until it feels good."
How someone is marked by God --how they use their time, money, and energy --these things speak volumes about whether they are dancing yet. You can track their steps --you know where they’ve been; you know what they’ve done! What is on the inside jumps onto the pages of what we can all look at on the outside. We need to examine our date books and our checkbooks. Dancing with God leaves a paper trail.

III. The Cadence Of Character
For most of us, it does not take an IRS audit or a review of our calendar to check us out. If folks are around us long enough, they see right through us. Sooner or later, they will be able to tell what’s real and what’s not real.
It’s like that Hallmark commercial. Folks are always turning us over in their minds to see if we are the genuine article. The genuine article has a cadence of character.
The truth is that God pressed into our souls before we even understood who God was that print, that image of God. The Character of God was stamped into our very beings the moment we were created. Most of us have gotten away from those lifestyles that God designed to keep us clean and close to Him. We’ve simply allowed the dust and dirt of our bad choices to mar the beauty of what God created us for. Look at it this way: If the God who made this Tumblin nose can make it so easy to recognize other Tumblins, don’t you think He can put in you His family resemblance? We all take on God’s family features, God’s dance, symphony of movement.
In the Michael Flatly videos, Lord of the Dance, we get an image of what God had in mind when He stamped us for the dance.

Watch this clip.

Scene from the movie "Lord Of The Dance" in which a whole line of dancers on stage are in perfect step with each other.

Isn’t that mesmerizing? Isn’t that a sense of the power and beauty of them all being in sync? That’s what God had in mind. Every dancer in sync, gracefully stepping out the rhythm of the music with precision , coordination and unity. And when we all in the body of Christ get in sync and dance with God, the same power and beauty draws others into the dance. It kind makes you want to put on the kilt and jump up on the stage.

Stamped For The Dance
That’s what this month is about. We have been stamped for the Dance. Made for God.. And these seven lifestyles help us to keep the grime off of God’s mark in us. The lifestyles of living in the Word, practicing prayer, being generous, serving, worship, evangelism, and healthy relationship are the grace steps of God in our lives that we might stay close to our creator. Some of you have gotten or will get this week this newsletter and in it are testimonies of the seven lifestyles. When you get it, take time to read those brief testimonies. Let them inspire you as you see how those same lifestyles are stepped out in your life. Over the next three weeks, take time to assess how God has made you. Get gut-honest. Who are you in Christ and what is God’s purpose for you life? How are you living out the seven lifestyles of the Spirited Dance? We have work to do!! By the time December comes, you will have heard about the Spirited Dance all over the place .. Right before Thanksgiving, some 3000 of us will step out of sync. We will celebrate our commitment and offer our lives as proof of the mark of God on us.
We are stamped for the Dance. We are tired of faking it. It’s time to be the genuine article ---made for God.
As we prepare for communion, I want to invite you to know the Power of God from the inside out. I want to invite you to know the beauty and power of God’s spirit entering your body, making you clean and preparing you for the great dance with our Creator.