Monday Morning Prayers 5-4-12

Abba Father, 

How glorious it is that we can enter into your presence without need of sacrifice or ritual. 

That through Your sacrifice we can come and experience your holiness

 and see your power move through our lives. 

Thank you Lord, for even this small prayer would have once been considered to bold and to rash to speak without the assistance of a priest. I pray that as we come before You, as we enter Your presence

 that we would grow to know you better, to understand Your desires.

Help us to revere these times as holy moments stolen from a demanding world 

Let us treasure them,  Lord, for it is in them that we see You better.

Amen

Old Testament Christianity: Faith

Old Testament Christianity: Faith part one: foundational and practical Several weeks ago while we were neck deep in Crazy Love, Francis Chan challenged us to look to what we believe and really look and see if it lines up with scripture, not just take it at the face value of the person speaking. Because we get taught a lot of things when we were young and we believe them, and we build our lives on them, and we make decisions on them, and sometimes they are wrong. At the same time he was talking about conversion and accepting Jesus. And challenging us to look at the bible, look at the believers of the church in Acts and see if what their Christian life was like looked anything like what we generally accept the Christian life to look like today. So I thought to myself "Fine. I'll do that." So I began to think and study and look at the actions and motives of the believers, both in the new testament and the old testament, and I came up with three things that defined the Christian life, and they all started with the same letter. Which if you're any sort of teacher you should know that three alliterated points is golden. Its pretty much awesome. These three things were Fear (or reverence), Faith, and Following (or obedience) Tonight I want to dig into faith. Will someone define for me what faith means? Does anyone have a verse to get us started? Hebrews 11:1-2 NKJV - Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. NIV - Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for. Awesome. Now really, what does that mean? Its the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, but what does that mean for me right now, and tomorrow when I go to work and you guys go to school Faith is defined by dictionary.com as "Complete trust or confidence in someone or something." Faith is acting like something is going to happen. Faith is expecting something to happen. Water balloon example? Its funny were we place our trust. We place it in weather reports, in turn signals, in status updates. Hebrews 11:13 13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. What does this mean? Who were these? Well we're still in Hebrews 11 so these are the elders, or those who had come before them. What were the promises? The promises have always been the same. God has always promised to save His people, to never leave them nor forsake them (Dueteronomy 31:6) "I see the salvation of God coming, I believe its coming, I'm going to live like its going to happen." There are two phrases that come up if you talk to me for any length of time. They are my mantras, or mottos, for this time in my life. This is one of them: "If we believe this to be true it must change how we act." James 2:17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. If we believe that God loves us, it must change how we act. If we believe their is a hell, it must change how we act. If we believe that God has promised to provide for our every need, it must change how we act. If we believe that God has promised to protect us, it must change how we act. Ect ect ect Now really quickly I would like to hit three things I (possibly stop here) You know, I was looking up quotes about faith last night and I could easily pick out the believers from the non-believers. For those without faith in God the idea of faith was so abstract, while for the Christians it was very important that you understood that it was a way of life. Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark. Rabindranath Tagore - humanist poet Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation D. Elton Trueblood - Quaker chaplain “[To have Faith in Christ] means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.” Part Two: Faith and the Supernatural Introduction and recap: George Mueller: From Wikipedia: The work of Müller and his wife with orphans began in 1836 with the preparation of their own home at 6 Wilson Street, Bristol for the accommodation of thirty girls. Soon after, three more houses in Wilson Street were furnished, growing the total of children cared for to 130. In 1845, as growth continued, Müller decided that a separate building designed to house 300 children was necessary, and in 1849, at Ashley Down, Bristol, that home opened. The architect commissioned to draw up the plans asked if he might do so gratuitously.[16] By 26 May 1870, 1,722 children were being accommodated in five homes, although there was room for 2,050 (No 1 House - 300, No 2 House - 400, Nos 3, 4 and 5 - 450 each). By the following year, there were 280 orphans in No 1 House, 356 in No 2, 450 in Nos 3 and 4, and 309 in No 5 House.[17] Through all this, Müller never made requests for financial support, nor did he go into debt, even though the five homes cost over £100,000 to build. Many times, he received unsolicited food donations only hours before they were needed to feed the children, further strengthening his faith in God. For example, on one well-documented occasion, they gave thanks for breakfast when all the children were sitting at the table, even though there was nothing to eat in the house. As they finished praying, the baker knocked on the door with sufficient fresh bread to feed everyone, and the milkman gave them plenty of fresh milk because his cart broke down in front of the orphanage.[18] In 1875, at the age of 70 and after the death of his first wife in 1870 and his marriage to Susannah Grace Sanger in 1871, Müller and Susannah began a 17 year period of missionary Comments on George Mueller: Transition into tonight's material: 1. God meets us at the level of our faith. Mark 5:22-24 22Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet 23and pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” 24So Jesus went with him. Matthew 8:5-13 5 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.” 7 Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?” 8 The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” Mark 5:27-29 27When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. This is a beautiful and wonderful thing, and I really should tell this story backwards because I think it would highlight the important thing. All of these people came in faith, but was there some fundamental difference in the end conclusion? No, all the people they came to ask Jesus to heal were healed. It is very easy to fall into the trap of believing that Christianity is some sort of video game where we're trying to level ourselves up and unlock achievements. I remember a couple of weeks ago, I was hearing all about this other youth group and phrases were being thrown around like "The Holy Spirit descended" and someone was healed of something and all this great stuff and was going on and I was jealous. I was so jealous. Because I want more than anything that this would be a place were you guys come and meet with God in some way or another. So I was all like: God, why can't all that be happening at my youth group? And He's all: First of all David, its not your youth group. Second, are you really going to try and measure what I'm doing by what you think you can see me doing? Fuel conference and speaking in tongues. 2. Faith is built on what God has told us. Joni Erickson Tada - “Faith isn’t the ability to believe long and far into the misty future. It’s simply taking God at His Word and taking the next step.” There is also the very real world of prophecy. Things that God has spoken into our lives through various means to encourage us and give us hope that He is doing this specific thing in our lives. Prophecy is amazing, and confusing, and much of the time you really don't want to believe it. But its God talking to us and telling us things. So if someone prophecies over you, write it down. You will want to remember that. Now for the most part I'm guessing that most of you do not have a little journal of God's prophecies over you, but you do have a substantial book of God's promises. Romans 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Flip open your bible. You can't read for longer than a couple pages without finding a promise from God. You can't get through a chapter without seeing God working or moving through the lives of those being talked about. God will... I will... You will... These are things that God has told us, these are promises of His. Realize that these are spoken to you just as much as the tribes of Israel or the early churches. Personalize them, because I think to often and too easily we slip into this belief that yes "God loves us, or God protects us" but thats true as a whole. He loves us all, and we rarely spend any time considering the weight of reality that God loves Jessica or that God protects Jaime or any of these things. It says in Galations Galations 3:14 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. 3. Faith creates an environment for the supernatural to take place. Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.Saint Augustine - Catholic saint But the alternate is also true. Matthew 13:58 And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith I think I did a double take the first time I read this passage, because its honestly one of the most sobering verses I've read in recent memory. I don't even want to comment on it other than to say "This should sober you." Not worry you, but goad you into action and really buckling down to look at what you believe. Romans 3:3

An open letter from the youth leader to the church leadership

Or perhaps I should call this the state of the Sanctuary address...

Greetings from Sanctuary Youth Group!
What an incredible time it has been these last two months. The youth group is growing (we average 10 to 12 teens most Wednesdays), nearing completion of Francis Chan’s series “Crazy Love” and we’re gearing up for our annual trip to the Acquire the Fire conference. Also, Shana Rugani-Byrne has really stepped into the youth ministry and been an incredible blessing. Faithfully coming and leading one of the discussion groups every week and helping with just about everything else.
How is this for great things God is doing? Last year I stepped out in faith and preordered 18 tickets. I now have to consider purchasing more because as I write this we have 22 people signed up to go.

22 people! Who would have thought?

With this added blessing comes a greater call to prayer, please pray for:
1. We need another female leader. I’ve asked Rachel Harmon but I haven’t heard back from her yet.
2. We need another van. I’m asking various people (including the Tabernacle of David) but still, pray.
3. People to continue to bless us financially. I don’t want finances to stand in any youth’s way.
4. God’s incredible power to pour out on the 1000’s of youth attending Acquire the Fire. No one should leave this event untouched. I’d like to see minds blown that weekend.

The second big thing is that we are wrapping up the “Crazy Love” series. This series has been a great blessing and a call to action in my life and the youth, and coming out of it I feel like there needs to be some tweaks to how I go about “youth group”.
Because it is so easy to go through something like a dynamic series or a high energy conference but let it slip away I feel that it’s important to create within Sanctuary strong relationships that go beyond the superficial. How is this going to happen? I’m not sure, but there are two or three things I’m going to try to do:

1. Small groups: We started breaking into small groups during the “Crazy Love” series for discussion. I’d like to continue this, breaking into even smaller groups for prayer.
2. Testimony Nights: Either monthly or bimonthly, I want to try having a sort of “open mike night” when the youth can come and share what they are going through or what God is showing them.
3. “Spring Cleaning”: This may be the hardest one of all: I remember that some of my deepest friendships were forged not on road trips or at amusement parks but working side by side with them. I want the youth group to be out serving the community in tangible ways, starting with the members of the church and hopefully branching out from there. What this would look like on a practical level I’m not sure of, so I’d appreciate your prayer as God shows me what it will look like.

Further out into the horizon are even more exciting developments:

Open Door youth groups: Recently I was able to meet together with Jeff and Marissa Page, and Kevin Escher (youth pastors from Open Door San Rafael and Petaluma respectively) and we discovered a mutual desire to do things together. Once again, I have no idea what that will look like, besides prayer, encouragement, sharing of resources, and meetings and events where those three Open Door youth groups gather together.

Screen Printing: I recently received an unexpected financial blessing and after much pondering I’ve decided to invest it into something I hope will bless the youth ministry: Getting myself set up for small scale screen printing (t-shirt printing). I’m hoping this will be an opportunity to not only create some economical shirts for the youth group but be a possible fund raising opportunity for Sanctuary in the future. If nothing else it will be fun.

Please continue to PRAY for Me, Shana Byrne, Jeff and Marissa Page, Kevin Escher and everyone else involved in helping with the youth groups. PRAY for wisdom and grace as we attempt to follow the path that God has prepared for us. PRAY for Matt, Jesse-James and other members of the youth group that have slipped away. PRAY for all the youth that are coming faithfully each week that God would continue to draw them nearer to him.

Thank you,
With blessings:
David Harmon

Tidbits: Chapter 5

As I read Chapter 5 in Crazy Love I was struck by two things:

1. Oh my God, this is painful. Soul-wrenching. Convicting to the max.
2. Conviction is a good thing.

And so I was thinking about conviction and santification and the verse in Psalms 66 that tells us "For we have been refined as silver is refined."

Silver is refined by melting it down, silver melts at nearly 1800 degrees f.

There is something wonderful and beautiful that God is bringing us to through this study, but the refining process is not a painless thing.

An old poem that came to mind while thinking through tonight.
Its old and not very good, please forgive me. I still like it though after all these years.

When The Hammer Hits The String

When the hammer hits the string
Before the melody beings to ring
Before there was a song to sing
What pain lies in the hammer blow?

And see the silver of the crown
How many times was it melted down
And now its brilliance shines all around
What pain lies in the forger's flame?

What pain lies in the hammer blow
When all has been turned white as snow?
And would the silver want to show
The dirt and dross above it's glow?

So what pain lies before the throne above
What pain remembered within His love
And all the tears that would remind us of
What pain lies in the hands of God...

All gone amidst the beauty

Introduction to Crazy Love

I have a few things to say before we dive into tonights video, and I'll try to keep it brief because I'm super excited about what Francis Chan has written here. I really love it.

I love the topic of Gods love. Whenever I need to speak or teach or preach or whatever and I have no idea what to talk about I'll always go back to this: God's love.

And its funny, because I'll never exhaust the subject. There will always be more to say and more to learn.

Its incredible. Like a child asking God how much He loves him and God opens His arms and tells the child "I love you this much." And as the child grows older and begins to realize just how big God is he begins to realize just how far those arms stretch, how much God loves us.

But? Wait? What? Excuse me, David. Crazy Love talks about us loving God. What does that have to do with Gods love?

I'll come back to that.

When I read this book last year it really redefined how I looked at loving God and what God desired out of our relationship. What I had once considered to be basic Christianity and extreme Christianity got tweaked. All of a sudden the bar was so much higher. It was an incredible thing, it was wonderful.

I really want to warn you about something you may deal with while reading this book: a small quiet voice in the back of your head.
Tell you "You don't love God like that, you've never loved God like that, I don't even think you'll ever be able to love God like that. Don't even bother. You're a failure, you don't deserve to call yourself a child of God if this is how you've treated your father in the past."

That. Is. A. Lie.

That is not conviction, that is condemnation and it comes from Satan, Satan wants to kill you, you should not listen to him.

So this leads us back to the question that really should be asked before we start reading a book.

Why do we love God?

1 John 4:19

and again in John 3:16-17

and the answer to this question "why do we love God?" really shows how vile of a lie it is that really is.

because God did not wait for us to love Him before He started to love us.

He did not wait for us to consider Him valuable before He considered us precious.

He did not wait for us to understand the cost of our redemption before He payed blood for us.

So yes, be convicted. Come out of this desiring to love God with everything within you but don't be condemned.

conviction calls you higher, desires your best, shows you were you can improve.

This is God. And God is love.

Ebenezer: a symbol of God's provision

The old hymns are awesome. Some of them are really difficult to sing and seemed to be written before people started writing catchy tunes and are as slow as . Sure, some of them are as exciting to sing as watching paint dry but a lot of them are theology lessons set to music. Of course language has changed quite a in the last 250 years so sometimes I'm singing along and I come to a bit where I have no idea whatsoever what the

Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I'm come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.

This one line made no sense to me whatsoever. Here I raise mine ebenezer? What? What does that even mean?

Does anyone know?

Well, I took a look. Did a little study. I liked what I found so I thought I'd share it with you as well. The answer can be found in Joshua 4.

Allow me to set the scene. Joshua is leading the nation of Israel out of the wilderness and into the promise land. In the next few chapters we will see the destruction of the city of Jericho. Now Jericho was kind of like the doorkeeper guarding the entrance of the promise land, or maybe the first level boss, but before the Israelites could even consider attacking Jericho that had one significant obstacle to overcome: The river Jordan.

Now, do not mistake the Jordan river for the creek that runs behind the church. This was a fast moving, large body of water about 45 feet wide. It would have been difficult to cross at the best of times, and some scholars believed that this was hardly the best of times. Some think that it would have been the flood season when Israel arrived at Jordan's banks. So, getting 40,000 soldiers and their families over this river would have been an impossible task for Joshua.

An impossible task that probably would have been doubly so once you start considering the tactical situation.
1. With a river like the Jordan there would have been only a few good places to try crossing it.
2. All of those places would have been known.
3. So, drop a couple hundred archers on the far bank and you'll turn someones river crossing into a blood bath. You think the people of Jericho didn't know this?

Also, much like how the Eygptians worshiped the Nile river so the people of caanan would have considered the Jordan a symbol of Baal's protection.

So when God simply stops the river in its track and allows the people of Israel to cross on dry land this is a wake up call to the people of Caanan. They've got 40,000 soldiers dropped on their doorstep, their "god" has proved to be absolutely powerless to protect them.
So its here that we pick up the story.

Joshua 4:1-4
1 When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua,
2 “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe,
3 and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”
4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe,
5 and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites,
6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’
7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”

Now, if anyone is thinking "so they made a pile of rocks, big deal, whose going to notice?" Remind yourself of this. Joshua sent a bunch of men, soldiers in fact, out into the river to get themselves a rock to honor God. Do you think they just wandered out and picked up any old rock or do you think they found themselves the biggest rock they could carry. It says that they carried these stones on their shoulders. You don't carry brick sized rocks on your shoulder. You don't even carry rocks the size of your head on your shoulder. You carry big rocks on your shoulder.

This was a pretty cool pile of rocks. This wasn't going to get accidently kicked over by some dude's passing donkey.

So....

Go, send a man from each tribe to get themselves a rock and make a tower so that, generations from now, your children and your children's children will ask you why that giant pile of rocks is there and you'll be able to tell them what I did for you. Tell them so what has happened today won't be forgotten.

Remember what I have done for you, and pass that on to your children. Remind yourself.

So that's an Ebenezer, a reminder of God's provision. Now, I've got a couple questions:

Can you think of any symbols like this in your daily life?

Anywhere else in the old testament? (just about everything)

At church? (crosses)

Did Jesus create? (communion)

Ones you're set up for yourself? (my sword)

The Widows Mite, or Loves Might

Mark 12:41-44
41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts.
42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.
44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

Now several weeks ago at First Friday Pastor Zack at Calvary Chapel pointed out that Jesus is examining all these peoples gifts based not on what they had offered, but what they had left over afterwards.
Now a story from my own life. Several years ago, on my birthday, I recieved a small box from my sister Lily which contained in it a couple quarters, nickels and dimes totaling up to a dollar. Now, she was what, seven at the time. She didn't have a job, she didn't have an allowance. A gift from her was usually a picture or a poem or something she made, but this year she decided that for whatever reason that she would give me a dollar.

And I still have that box, with the money that she gave me all those years ago, and to this day I cannot think of that gift without tearing up. Not because of how big it was, but because it was, I suspect, everything she had. Every single cent she possessed in the world. And she gave it for no other reason that she loved me.
And it reminded me of this parable, because that's exactly what that widow was offering. Everything she had. Sure, it was pocket change but the number wasn't the important part, the important part was she gave everything she had.
And I promise you this isn't about money. Its never about money because money is only numbers. But I ask you how many other things in our lives do we hold back because we don't think we have enough to make a worthy offering.

I can't pray out loud, I don't know what to say.
I can't sing during worship, they have such a better voice, I don't know the song very well.
I can't help that person doing that thing, I'm not very strong.
I can't share in front of the group, I have stage fright.

And so often it seems that we hold off on trying something until we feel like we'll be able to do it well. Because hey, isn't it better to not do something than to do it wrong? Sure seems like it. But if that was true then we'd never do anything, and if that was the case I certainly wouldn't be trying to lead this youth group, because half the time I don't think I have any idea what I'm doing. And don't even get me started on leading worship. That's something I never thought I'd be able to do.

In Paul's first letter to his young protege Timothy he tells the youth man what has probably become the theme verse to half the youth groups in America:
1 Timothy 4:12
12 Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.
Don't be discouraged because of your inexperience, because of what you haven't done. Because God is not looking at what you give, but what you're holding back. And what you are supposed to do are not things that need two to three years experience.
Because you don't have to sing like Phil Wickham or David Crowder to worship and you don't need to speak in tongues to pray and you don't need a degree from bible college to preach and you certainly have to attend a seven week training course to love someone.
Because if we are willing just to let go and give it our all and trust God then He's going to make up the difference. He's going to make our worship beautiful, He's going to give us words to pray, He's going to show us things in His word that will blow our tiny little minds. He will love people through us.
So at this time, when we look forward with anticipation to a day we devote to remembering a time when God sent His son to earth to save us, and we celebrate that gift by exchanging gifts with those we love...

Remember this, that God gave everything He had to see us freed of the burdens and condemnation of sin that would have otherwise locked us into an endless cycle of laws and an endless search for unattainable perfection.
But He promised to make up the difference in our lives if we would just trust Him and throw ourselves into this whole Christian thing head first.
Remember that we should love Him enough to give our all, even when we think our all isn't even enough to be worth mentioning. And that He will make up the difference.
Let us pray.