Dive In: Holding Your Breath

Well, I missed a cou­ple Sundays for this series. Good stuff that I have missed. Fortunately, Pastor Jeff did a good job at sum­ma­riz­ing what I missed. To sum up so far, this series is all about get­ting involved in some sort of min­istry for Christ. It is a call to us to stop sit­ting like a bump on a stump in the church pews (or chairs) and get involved with the the life and fam­ily of the church that we attend.

First, my ser­mon notes:

First week, is to get on the board. Be will­ing to do some sort of min­istry in the Church. The sec­ond week was “Bounce on the Board.” Do the sim­ple things of min­istry. The next week was the call to “Jump”, do things that make you stretch, take a chance. And then, this Sunday,  hav­ing jumped we are in the water hold­ing our breath and it is time to panic — or at least that is what seems to hap­pen at times..

Luke 23–23 [show]Luke 23 Then the whole com­pany of them arose and brought him before Pilate. [2]And they began to accuse him, say­ing, “We found this man mis­lead­ing our nation and for­bid­ding us to give trib­ute to Caesar, and say­ing that he him­self is Christ, a king.” [3]And Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him, “You have said so.” [4]Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, “I find no guilt in this man.” [5]But they were urgent, say­ing, “He stirs up the peo­ple, teach­ing through­out all Judea, from Galilee even to this place.“ [6]When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. [7]And when he learned that he belonged to Herod’s juris­dic­tion, he sent him over to Herod, who was him­self in Jerusalem at that time. [8]When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desired to see him, because he had heard about him, and he was hop­ing to see some sign done by him. [9]So he ques­tioned him at some length, but he made no answer. [10]The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehe­mently accus­ing him. [11]And Herod with his sol­diers treated him with con­tempt and mocked him. Then, array­ing him in splen­did cloth­ing, he sent him back to Pilate. [12]And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other. [13]Pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers and the peo­ple, [14]and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was mis­lead­ing the peo­ple. And after exam­in­ing him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him. [15]Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Look, noth­ing deserv­ing death has been done by him. [16]I will there­fore pun­ish and release him.“ [18]But they all cried out together, “Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas”– [19]a man who had been thrown into prison for an insur­rec­tion started in the city and for mur­der. [20]Pilate addressed them once more, desir­ing to release Jesus, [21]but they kept shout­ing, “Crucify, cru­cify him!” [22]A third time he said to them, “Why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no guilt deserv­ing death. I will there­fore pun­ish and release him.” [23]But they were urgent, demand­ing with loud cries that he should be cru­ci­fied. And their voices pre­vailed. [24]So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted. [25]He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insur­rec­tion and mur­der, for whom they asked, but he deliv­ered Jesus over to their will. [26]And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was com­ing in from the coun­try, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus. [27]And there fol­lowed him a great mul­ti­tude of the peo­ple and of women who were mourn­ing and lament­ing for him. [28]But turn­ing to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for your­selves and for your chil­dren. [29]For behold, the days are com­ing when they will say, ‘Blessed are the bar­ren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ [30]Then they will begin to say to the moun­tains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ [31]For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will hap­pen when it is dry?“ [32]Two oth­ers, who were crim­i­nals, were led away to be put to death with him. [33]And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they cru­ci­fied him, and the crim­i­nals, one on his right and one on his left. [34]And Jesus said, “Father, for­give them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his gar­ments. [35]And the peo­ple stood by, watch­ing, but the rulers scoffed at him, say­ing, “He saved oth­ers; let him save him­self, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” [36]The sol­diers also mocked him, com­ing up and offer­ing him sour wine [37]and say­ing, “If you are the King of the Jews, save your­self!” [38]There was also an inscrip­tion over him, “This is the King of the Jews.“ [39]One of the crim­i­nals who were hanged railed at him, say­ing, “Are you not the Christ? Save your­self and us!” [40]But the other rebuked him, say­ing, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sen­tence of con­dem­na­tion? [41]And we indeed justly, for we are receiv­ing the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done noth­ing wrong.” [42]And he said, “Jesus, remem­ber me when you come into your king­dom.” [43]And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.“ [44]It was now about the sixth hour, and there was dark­ness over the whole land until the ninth hour, [45]while the sun’s light failed. And the cur­tain of the tem­ple was torn in two. [46]Then Jesus, call­ing out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I com­mit my spirit!” And hav­ing said this he breathed his last. [47]Now when the cen­tu­rion saw what had taken place, he praised God, say­ing, “Certainly this man was inno­cent!” [48]And all the crowds that had assem­bled for this spec­ta­cle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beat­ing their breasts. [49]And all his acquain­tances and the women who had fol­lowed him from Galilee stood at a dis­tance watch­ing these things. [50]Now there was a man named Joseph, from the Jewish town of Arimathea. He was a mem­ber of the coun­cil, a good and right­eous man, [51]who had not con­sented to their deci­sion and action; and he was look­ing for the king­dom of God. [52]This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. [53]Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had ever yet been laid. [54]It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was begin­ning. [55]The women who had come with him from Galilee fol­lowed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. [56]Then they returned and pre­pared spices and oint­ments. On the Sabbath they rested accord­ing to the com­mand­ment. (ESV)
. The dis­ci­ples up to this point think they are “in”. When Jesus becomes king, they would be the top dogs. But instead they find them­selves fol­low­ers of a man arrested, cru­ci­fied, and buried. They sud­denly found them­selves under­wa­ter, dis­ori­ented, and panicked.

We too can get involved in min­istry and it just doesn’t go right. We can get dis­ori­ented won­der­ing what in the world is going on. We can become dis­il­lu­sioned, dis­ap­pointed, and dejected. We can feel like giv­ing up.

What do we need when we are under­wa­ter, hold­ing our breath and not sure what to do.

1. Trust our life vest. The Holy Spirit helps us when we are under­wa­ter and dis­ori­ented. John 14:26 [show]John 14:26 [26]But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remem­brance all that I have said to you. (ESV)
   . We need to stop fight­ing it, relax and let the Holy Spirit move us in the right direc­tion. Then we need to move with the Holy Spirit.
2. Tread water. Once we get back to the sur­face, our nat­ural reac­tion is to try to get out. In rapids, if you just stand up, you will sim­ply get knocked back down and poten­tially drown. But if you stay in and tread water you can asses the sit­u­a­tion and make the right deci­sions. We need to seek God’s will. Get help from a life coach.
3. Finish the assign­ment. God’s plan A is the plan. We need fin­ish it. We will want to give up. But when you per­se­vere, you will feel great and know that the next time you face adver­sity God will take you through it. Acts 20:23–24 [show]Acts 20:23–24 [23]except that the Holy Spirit tes­ti­fies to me in every city that impris­on­ment and afflic­tions await me. [24]But I do not account my life of any value nor as pre­cious to myself, if only I may fin­ish my course and the min­istry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to tes­tify to the gospel of the grace of God. (ESV)
   . Finish the race.

This was quite pos­si­bly the best ser­mon mechan­i­cally I have heard Pastor Jeff preach. It was tight, focused, and kept our atten­tion. I didn’t find my mind wan­der­ing, or try­ing to fig­ure out what I was going to write for this blog post. Quite frankly, I still don’t know what to write. What is God speak­ing to me about here?

1. I need to stop strug­gling with won­der­ing what in the world God would have me do now. I need to trust in the Holy Spirit, that He will lead me in the direc­tion He desires and then move in that direction.This strug­gling really does pre­vent us from hear­ing God. Thrashing about, jump­ing hither and thither can drown out the quite calm voice of the Spirit. It is time for me to take a few weeks and just lis­ten. Spend time in prayer and meditation.
2. Don’t swim to shore. It is so tempt­ing to hide, avoid get­ting involved. But God calls us to stay in the stream of His call.  I must llet Him take me to where He wants me to go.
3. I need to con­tinue with what I know God has already put in front of me. Maybe more impor­tantly, I need to get bet­ter focused on that work. I guess I am not dri­ven by any­thing so I let things lan­guish but God calls me to have zeal and deter­mi­na­tion. Again, this comes from prayer and med­i­ta­tion as much as anything.