Tuesday Memo

Hi Five Oakers,

I have a couple of things I want to share with you today.

#1- It was fun having Dan leading and Justin on electric guitar. I also enjoyed seeing some newer faces to the worship team. One of the people at the Summit debrief on Sunday evening got choked up talking about his joy of seeing high schoolers on the team most weeks. He remembers leading high schoolers in our once per year or so youth led worship years ago...before they were this good! He was thankful that this is a value. I agree in a big way.

#2- Here are all your comments from the Communication Cards:

• I’ve never been a person that sings, not even in church, but Justin and the entire music team has helped me to do that. It feels good to sing with the Angels and fully participate in the service. [Yeah, I'm afraid some people may be missing out just because they don't feel comfortable singing out loud. They could connect with God in singing, but they are too reserved or something else. All that said, there are some that are singing loud in their souls as they take it all in. For some people it might be a lot like trying a food you didn't like from time to time to see if your tastes have changed. We had sauerkraut with the hot dogs after the Saturday service and I told the people at my table how I hated even being in the cafeteria in elementary school on the days they made sauwerkraut. Hated it that much. Now I love it.]
• Just love “How Great Thou Art”. Great message.
• Daniel, you never sounded stronger or better. Your face shone with joy this morning. [I agree. Dan, you were a blessing.]
• Have been on vacation. Nice to be back. Thanks for a wonderful message, Henry.
• Thanks for the great rendition of lyrics! Loved the bow with the electric guitar and beat to “How Great Thou Art”. Thanks for the message. I won’t look back! Well done. Thank you for the closing set! [I love it too when Nathan does the bow thing. I also LOVE that opening beat for How Great Thou Art.]
• So inspired from the GLS! Thank you Henry and staff for the special relationship we have that allows so many of us to attend! [Yes, great Global Leadership Summit, as usual. So inspiring and many practical take-aways. Thanks for coming!]
• I liked the hymns.
• “How Great Thou Art” – love it!
• Thank you for the effort put into the service and worship experience. It’s very difficult to hear the vocalist over the instruments. Singing time may be more worshipful experience if instruments are less loud at least for some songs. Last week was great. [We'll look into this. Thanks.]
• Could we try doing the greetings/ice breaker after the message? Or, perhaps have a question on the screen before the service starts? The timing of it feels awkward now – either we have trouble with discussing the question or it feels like we don’t have time to all answer it and make a connection which I assume is the point of having the ice breaker. [We'll look into your ideas. It can be hard to answer the question if you have it sprung on you or if you're not given enough time. Thanks.]
• I didn’t care for the first intro song, not the people doing it, but the words were confusing. Hard to figure out, almost like they were thrown together. Saw a bit of it, but not great. I like to be able to think about the words, hard to do with that song. [That was Dan's song. He would tell you he slaved over the words, but he would also tell you that he understands his style won't connect with everyone. He almost pulled the song because of this kind of concern (not that it wasn't deep with meaning but that it is harder to access its meaning). I fully appreciate your comment and value it. At the same time, I want us to do some songs that stretch us in this kind of way for a variety of reasons I won't go into here. I love the usual sytle of contemporary Christian worship music. There is a reason for its popularity. It connects and it's made for singing. But there is more out there for us to drink from. I've strongly encouraged our worship leaders to tap into the variety of worship music that being produced that doesn't fit the usual mold even if it takes some time to broaden our tastes and to write their own stuff and use it. Again, I mean it when I say that this kind of feedback you gave is good, helpful and honest. I'm not interested in cramming things down people's throats regardless how they feel about it ("Welcome to worship. Eat your vegetables!") I just want you to understand the reasoning and thought behind what we're doing.]
• Another amazing service. I can feel God’s presence here. Any recommendations on praying more efficiently/deeper? Trying to demonstrate prayer to my step-kids being more than a list of things done in a day. [My best recommendation is to read A Praying Life by Paul Miller. Can't recommend it enough.]

 Thank you for being a great church! Pastor Henry

Weekend Message Q&A

Piece of advice: If you're about to delete a file and it says it will be deleted permanently, make sure you're deleting the right file. I spent about two hours writing this post today. I deleted it. I think I can rewrite it, but it will never be as good. It was the best post ever! It was brilliant. But now it's gone. Oh well, here's a poor substitute for most amazing post ever.

Here are the questions I received about yesterday's message:

Q – (1) In this weekend's message, you talked about how God wasn't being vengeful but was simply hurrying on judgment for decisions that people had already made. That decision being to live on their own and to reject God. If His will was to speed up judgment then, why does he not do the same now? Is Jesus the main difference? Why give us a chance when but not those of Lot's or Noah's times? I guess it falls under the idea of why does God not strike down those who decide to ignore Him? I realize that this is probably something that we don't get to know on this side, but it's one of those things that I've been curious about. (2) What about everyone born before Jesus? Do they not have the chance for salvation? (3) How do we help others prepare for the kingdom of heaven without being shut out? (4) And how do we keep from turning back? I know you mentioned that going deeper in the word helps us to live a life of not turning back but how do we know if we're turning back because we want what we had or if we're turning back because we want those who were there at that time?

A – I took the liberty of numbering your questions since you have several in there.

(1) Actually, ever since Adam and Eve the default mode of God has been to delay judgment. Judgments like the one on Sodom and like the flood are the exceptions in the Old Testament. And God does bring swift judgment in the New Testament as he does in Acts 5:1-11 and as Paul may allude to in 1 Corinthians 11:30. Again, it’s the exception. And we don’t know that he doesn’t do the same thing now from time to time. Unfortunately people look at present day tragedies and pronounce God’s judgment, but that’s not a good idea. It presumes knowledge that those people don’t have.

From a biblical standpoint, the question is why does he delay judgment? The ultimate answer is above our pay grade, but we do know it has to do with his mercy and his bigger redemptive plan (2 Peter 3:8-10).

(2) Romans 1-3 may provide some of the answers to your question. I’ll highlight two. First, Paul says that everyone has the opportunity to know God but everyone suppresses the truth about God. All humans are culpable for their own sins and rebellion against God. Second, Paul says that the Jews who lived before Christ came and put their faith in God (as God’s chosen people) and participated in the covenants to Abraham and Moses (including the sacrificial system that was always pointing to Christ), will be saved.

(3) We help others by pointing them to Christ. We're called to be signposts to Christ in our everyday lives. We announce the Kingdom. One of the most effective ways of doing that is by sharing your own faith story and including the basic gospel in your story. Second, demonstrate the Kingdom by loving others concretely—caring for hurting people, living a life that is focused on serving others, sharing your stuff, etc. Third, avoid self-righteousness like the plague by humbly confessing your sins to others. 

(4) The bottom line is that ultimately we don’t keep from turning back; God keeps us from turning back. The Bible underscores this in countless ways but several passages drive it home. Take a look at John 10:27-29, Ephesians 1:13-14, Romans 8:29 and Philippians 1:6. You are family now. God will not let you go. When he gave you his Spirit, he sealed the deal. You are in his grace. When he saved you he committed to finishing what he started. Your effort is involved, but it’s always an outworking of his grace and all our efforts to stay in Christ flow from grace.

Q - You mentioned in your sermon that God is speeding up what was going to occur
in the OT. How is that supported biblically?

A – That’s not exactly what I said but what I said is not exactly what I wanted to say either. So let me try again: When God brings swift judgment like he does in Sodom, he is, in essence, simply speeding up the inevitable consequences of what we’ve unleashed on ourselves.  In other words, our choice to sin unleashes forces of chaos and disintegration and death and human conflict. When God intervenes, as he sometimes does in the Bible, and he exacts violent judgment here and now, he is actually (and quite simply) speeding up the inevitable. He’s making happen now what inevitably will happen later as a result of our own choices—death and destruction. I don’t know that there is a chapter and verse supporting that idea. It’s more of a theological reflection on what can be observed in the Bible. And the idea is not original with me but has helped me come to terms with these kinds of passages.

Q - Yesterday, you mentioned not looking back that we should look to the Cross. We should lean into grace more to help us. If I understood you correctly, the more we embrace grace the less you look back. Do you have any books that you recommend about grace?

A – Yes, the deeper we embrace grace and lean into it the more we become the kind of people who are not preoccupied with this world or attached to our stuff and our way of life apart from Christ. A book I’d most recommend on grace is The Prodigal God by Tim Keller. But study and reflection on the Bible is one of the primary ways of going deeper with grace, so I also highly recommend participating in our Story of God small group experience. It majors on God’s amazing rescue mission and how the whole Bible tells the story of God’s grace from beginning to end.

Q - Are there Old Testament references to a second coming?

A – Actually, the whole Old Testament points to Christ in obvious and subtle ways (Luke 24:25-27,45-47). Sometimes it’s referring to him in his first coming (e.g., the whole sacrificial system and the suffering servant of Isaiah 53) and other times to what happens at his second coming (e.g., references to putting all things right and a kingdom that lasts forever). The prophets evidently were not able to distinguish between the first and second coming. Theologians compare it to looking at a mountain in the horizon and not being able to see that it’s really two mountains, one shorter than the other but blending to our eyes. So also the prophets would see both events as one, sometimes in the same sentence.  

Okay, I'm seriously disappointed I lost that other post. So sad.