What's Important to God?

Friends, tell me, what’s important to God? Come on. I know someone here has an opinion about what’s important to God. In fact I’d wager that all of us have our very own thoughts about this. And we’re probably pretty certain that what we believe is the way it is or at least the way it should be. Am I right?
I think it would be very helpful for us to know what’s important to God. Because whatever’s important to God should be what’s important to us, right? So where do you go to find out what that is?
Maybe you are one of those who are blessed to hear God speak to you. Now I’m referring to those who actually hear God’s voice in their ear or maybe in their mind. Whatever it is they hear God speaking and they know first hand what’s important to Him. But what about those who haven’t been blessed with this gift? How do they find out what’s important to God?
I’ll tell you how I find out what’s important to God. The first place I go, the place I believe has the most authority, is the Bible. Reading, meditating, praying, and contemplating God’s Word for us is how I believe we can discover what’s important to God.
The Word read this morning is God speaking to us. He shared with us this morning what was important to Him. What did you hear Him saying to you? I think it’s not the same for everyone. Why do I think that?
Well, it’s this way. Men, you know how your wives are always telling you something, something they would like you to do or some bit of information they want you to retain in your memory banks. You know how it is that later they ask you something about what they said or they remind us to not forget to do this chore and darned if we didn’t hear and interpret what they told us differently from what their original intention was. You see, in case you haven’t heard this before, men and women are different, our minds take in information and process it in different ways and therefore what is said and heard is not always the same. And to make it even more difficult, two or three men could have heard the same directive and each heard something different.
I believe it’s the same way when we hear God’s word read. Men and women hear it differently. God speaks to us differently. And I guess he would understand since he created us, each of us, just the way we are. Since we’re all different and in different stages or places in our walk with the Lord then what’s important to God for us may be different for each of us.
But what does his word speak to us today? What’s he saying to us that’s important to Him as our Creator? Which reading should we start with?
Let’s begin with James’ epistle. What’s important to God here? James, I believe wants us to know that we can’t just listen to what God speaks to us and then not act on what we hear. We shouldn’t just let God’s message for us go in one ear and out the other. We are mandated to Act on the word we hear from God. But what’s important to God from the epistle of James?
What’s important is “reaching out to the homeless and the loveless in their plights, and guarding against corruption from this godless world.” Friends, this is what’s important to God. Is it important to you?
We must ask ourselves, “Are we living out God’s word today?” If we aren’t, why aren’t we? Is what’s important to us what’s important to God, that’s the question?
We all know that we should try to live as Jesus lived. Jesus is the model we should try to emulate. So what’s important to God in the gospel lesson from Mark?
Jesus was saying, “It’s not what you swallow that pollutes your life; it’s what you vomit—that’s the real pollution.”
I hear Jesus telling us we need to look at our church rules, the written and the unwritten. What’s important to God? Traditions that enhance our worship and that enable worshippers to be closer to God are not bad but traditionalisms that keep people from entering the church to worship and pray to God for forgiveness because they aren’t clean or like us is wrong.
It’s not what we look like or how we dress or what kind of work we do that’s important to God. It’s the condition of our heart that’s important to Him. It’s not what’s on the outside but what comes from our hearts.
Friends, what’s important to God? I go back to how Jesus answered the question about what the greatest commandment was. Love God with your whole being and love your neighbor as much as you love yourself. Care what God wants and desires and care for our neighbors as we would like to be cared for. Take care of the homeless and the loveless that’s what’s important to God.
Friends, it doesn’t get any clearer than that. Let those with ears to hear, listen. Thanks be to God for his grace and love. Friends, God loves you and so do I. Amen.

Make a Meal of Jesus

The gospel lesson from John begins where we left off last Sunday with Jesus explaining to his disciples that only by eating his flesh and drinking his blood are they able to enter into him and him into them. In the same way that the God, the Father, gives him life and he lives because of the Father so anyone who makes a meal of Jesus lives because of him, Bread from heaven…Whoever eats this Bread will live always.
Jesus invited his disciples to make a meal of him and many of those who were following him had problems with his words. They understood him to mean literally eating his flesh and drinking his blood. This repulsed them because the Law given to the Moses by God strictly prohibited drinking blood from any animal and eating human flesh just wasn’t right. So you can understand how people might have been put off by Jesus’ words.
When you hear these words what comes into your mind? As you hear these words of Jesus again what words or phrases speak to you? For me it was, “…the one who makes a meal of me lives because of me.” How can we begin to “make a meal of Jesus?”
If we take what Jesus is saying literally it is “tough teaching, too tough to swallow.” I don’t think he meant for us to take his words literally especially after hearing his explanation in verses 61-65, “The Spirit can make life…Every word I’ve spoken to you is a Spirit-word, and so it is life-making.”
So we make a meal of Jesus spiritually? How do we do that? Friends, in the words of Jesus, “…no one is capable of coming to me on his own. You get to me only as a gift from the Father.” It’s God’s grace that allows us to make a meal of Jesus.
And it’s only by hearing God’s word read again and again and again that we are able to be fed with the Bread of heaven. It’s only when we hear, meditate, pray, and contemplate the Word that we are truly fed by the body of Christ.
I’m in the process of finishing a book that I started a year ago and just this week picked up again. I realized that I had never finished it. It’s called “Eat This Book” by Eugene Petersen. What I read this week was about how we can make a meal of the Word of God.
I would imagine that everybody here this morning has a Bible in their homes. Maybe you have more than one. And I suppose that you pick it up and read it every day. Now, let me ask you, do you read it silently or do you read it out loud so you can hear the words echoing off the walls, so you can hear the different inflections and different nuances?
The Israelites only heard the word God spoken. Even in Jesus’ day most of those who went to the meeting place to worship didn’t read a Bible or from the scroll, they heard the Word read. And it was through the reading and hearing the Word that it came alive and became part of them. The Word went into them and they were fed by God.
It’s through the hearing of the Word that we are fed. It’s, as Jesus said, a Spirit-filled Spirit-led experience.
So to make a meal of Jesus we have to hear with our ears the Word read. And it’s probably not enough to hear it just once but we need to hear it multiple times in order for the particular Message God has for us to sink in and nourish our souls.
What do you think? When you hear the Word read do you hear the voices of those saints who have gone on before us, the ones who are gathered in heaven watching us and cheering us on as we make a meal of the Word, Jesus the Christ?
Before we can fight the battle against evil that Paul talks about in his letter to the Ephesians we have to be strengthened by eating the Bread of heaven. We have to take in the Word and make it a part of us. And it’s only through God’s grace through faith that we are able to do that.
I asked you last Sunday what you would ask God for if you could have anything. I pray that you ask him to fill your body and soul with his Word. Because if you are filled with Jesus then you have everything you could ever want, love, peace, forgiveness, quietness, everything.
Friends, make a meal of Jesus and be fed by his Spirit. God loves you and so do I. Thanks be to God. Amen.

What Would You Ask God For?

If you had been in Solomon’s place what do you think you would have asked God for? If you had been the his age, a teenager actually, do you think you would have asked God for “wisdom?” I don’t think it would have entered my mind. But then I’ve never thought of myself as Solomon.
Let’s put ourselves in Solomon’s place and think for a moment about what we would ask God for if he spoke to us in a vision like he did to Solomon. Some of us have lived a few decades and so have more life experiences to draw from than others gathered here today so those who are more senior may have an advantage of our less experienced in life members.
Solomon asked God for a God-listening heart so he could lead God’s people well, discerning the difference between good and evil (1 Kings 3:9). Did Solomon know what to ask God for because he had lived in David’s presence so long that God was a personal friend he talked with? I don’t know but he did have the advantage of growing up in the royal household and had the advantage of being instructed by the best scholars of his time. At any rate he was very astute in answering God. I’m afraid I might stutter and stammer quite a bit if asked the same question.
Friends, God is speaking to you today in the Word. What have you heard him say to you and how will you respond? Solomon asked God to bless him with a heart that was tuned to God, Paul wrote to the people of Ephesus and told them make the most of every chance God gave them and to sing songs to Christ from their hearts, sing praises for everything. In the gospel of John Jesus tells us that he is the Bread of Life and if we include him in our normal diet we will live forever. And not to leave the psalmist out, he praises God for everything with everything he has. Everything from God is a gift, a blessing, never out of date, never poor quality, lasting forever. God has paid the ransom for all of us and this good life begins in our reverence of God, the fear of the Lord.
You may not have ever asked God for anything specific or you may have asked him for many things but they weren’t like what Solomon asked for. But today, God is offering you whatever you desire, what will you ask him for? What’s the most important thing for you to receive from God?
Every one of us is different and we’re all at different points in our lives and in our walk with the Lord so of course we may need different things from God. But what is your heart yearning for today that you know only God can give you?
Friend, take the time right now and make your thoughts known to God. I know he is listening and he wants to hear you put into words your deepest desires. Let him know what you need.
Jesus wants us to be filled with him inside and out. He wants us to take our nourishment from him by being in his Word. You may not have considered eating the Word but that’s what Jesus is asking us to do. Take the Bread of Life, Jesus, into our very souls and be filled and nourished by him. And then, friends, whatever you need for the work God has for you will be given to you.
Quite a few people in the last weeks have gone away from home on trips for work or vacation and what’s the first thing they need to do when the get home? No, it’s not the laundry! They need to replenish their pantries. Most of them don’t have any bread or milk or eggs. Friends, aren’t these the basic necessities for us to have in our kitchens? You can’t make a good peanut butter and jelly sandwich without bread. Nutritionists tell us that bread should make up a large percentage of our diets. The vitamins and minerals and the fiber are things our bodies need. And we’re so used to having these things in our kitchens that we never think about them as the staff of our lives.
Do we think of God and Jesus in the same way? Have we become so complacent to God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit that we don’t understand the importance of having daily communion with them? Have we quit asking God for the things we need?
What do you want from God today? What would you like Jesus to give you today? How is God’s Spirit talking to your heart today?
Right now, right where you’re at, ask God for what your heart is aching for. Don’t wait until you get home. Don’t put it off until tomorrow. Do it right now.
If you haven’t asked the Bread of Life to take up residence in your heart now is the time to do that. If you have let your relationship with God slip today is the day to let him know you need him. Just open the door of your heart.
What do you need today, bread, peace, forgiveness? Whatever it is, ask. God is waiting to hear from you today.

Friends, God loves you and so do I. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Looking for Free Food

It seems that today there are so many people who are looking for things that are free, free food, free housing, something for little or nothing. But isn’t that just human nature you ask? It would seem so.
The people of Galilee came looking for Jesus because he had fed them the day before with just 5 barley loaves and two fish. And so they came looking for him to feed them with free food again. But Jesus said enough is enough.
Jesus told them to quit wasting their time looking and hoping for things that wouldn’t really satisfy them. And they wanted to know what they needed to do. Not so different from all of us today. Isn’t everyone looking for something to satisfy the cravings of their souls? Aren’t we all looking for something to make our lives more full and meaningful?
The problem is that we are all looking in all the wrong places as the country song puts it. So where do we go you ask?
What did Jesus say? He said, “Throw your lot in with God. Work for food that sticks with you, food that nourishes your lasting life, food the Son of Man provides. I am the Bread of Life. The person who aligns with me hungers no more and thirsts no more, ever.”
But what do we do? What is required of us? Remember when the Pharisees asked Jesus what the most important commandment was. Remember the answer he gave. Listen, Israel. The Lord your God is one: so love God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy. And love others as well as you love yourself.
When we read and study the Bible we find the word “love” used quite often. And that, I believe, is what it’s all about. Love God and love our neighbor as we love ourselves. We can’t love our neighbors without loving God and we can’t love God without loving our neighbors.
Friends, we need the Bread of Heaven for nourishment so we can love. We need this bread that Jesus provides us so that we can be filled with compassion for our neighbors who are suffering because of the poor choices they’ve made in the lives. Even so they deserve our love. We are commanded to love them, unconditionally.
And friends, the Bread of Heaven is free. It’s a free gift from God. All we have to do is accept it. There is no price put on this bread. It’s been paid for by Jesus.
So accept this free food provided by God for our nourishment and we will never again be hungry or thirsty. Trust in the Lord and you will be filled with the bread that never runs out.
Ask God to come into to your heart today. Believe in his Son, Jesus the Christ. And through the power of the Holy Spirit you will be convicted of your sin and God will forgive you and welcome you as one of his children. And friends, your life will be fuller than you’ve ever imagined.
Friends, God loves you and so do I. Thanks be to God. Amen.