Great Expectations

Don't be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ~ Philippians 4:6-7

Yeah, that's who I want to be. I want to be the guy who isn't anxious about anything, because that's the Jesus-y thing to do, right?

This is one of the great perks of being a Jesus follower - this whole "peace that transcends all understanding" thing - but sometimes, it seems hard to access. How do I take hold of this?

I know it's true. I believe it. I do. And I'm trying to live it out. But sometimes I'm still anxious. Sometimes, like right now, for instance, I am worried about the future.

I have great expectations for what God will do through Quest. I know he has great plans for us. And I know he means to make it happen in his time. But, in the meantime, I sweat and fret and pace and worry. I'm anxious. 

I bring my petitions and requests to God with thanksgiving, and I mean it. Every word. But still...

So, maybe the guarding of hearts and minds springs from the knowing. The four words that immediately precede this passage are these "The Lord is near." So maybe the guarding is on God; he's near, and he's on it. 

But maybe the knowing's on me. Maybe I'm still called to do my part. Maybe, in order to receive that supernatural peace of God, I need to quit pacing and fretting and sweating and worrying. Maybe that's MY part. Maybe I need to stop and make room in order for him to start.

Except, no. 

That's not what this is about.

This ties right in with what we've been talking about the last couple weeks at Quest - maybe this is a pride issue. 

Like Paul, who said he delights in God's law, but then finds his pride and his submission are at war, it seems that war is alive in me. One side of my heart wants to stop being anxious because God is in control, and the other side of my heart thinks I can actually make that happen through sheer force of will.

If my trust is just lip service, and I really think that everything's up to ME, how will I ever find peace? And before I can truly leave it all at God's feet, I have to let go of it. 

There's this great scene in the series "Arrested Development" where Lindsay is feeling guilty because she's received a wad of bills that were clearly ill-gotten. And she has this moment of conscience where she decides to throw it away, but she just can't. She physically can't release her fingers; she keeps flicking her hand, yet continues to hold the bills. Lindsay wants to feel better about herself, but she wants the money more. It was hilarious and a little sad

This is me with my worries. This is me, thinking that my great expectations for Quest are all about me. This is me, unable to let go and let God.

I want the peace, but maybe I also want the credit. God help me.

Courage is...

When we think of courage, we tend to think about people throwing themselves on top of an exploding hand grenade or battling a terrible illness or taking great risks to aid disaster victims. But courage comes in all shapes and sizes.

Sometimes it takes a surprising degree of courage just to get out of bed in the morning.

And while we may not be called to fight off wild dingos in order to save a newborn or jump onto a moving train in order to rescue the President, many of the things we ARE called to may require almost as much courage.

In fact, sometimes it requires enormous amounts of courage just to continue doing what you've been doing. 

We've been talking on Sundays about the value of waiting. We've been discussing how waiting on God is all about trust, but how sometimes it's really hard, because we don't see results. 

But here's the thing:

Sometimes the value is not in the receiving but in the trusting. Sometimes it's not about input/output or give/receive or cost/benefit. Sometimes it's all about persevering. 

This is why Paul tells us that "suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." (Romans 5:4-5) These things are listed in succession on purpose. Sometimes we must suffer to build strength and integrity, and only then can we experience hope. 

But notice that nowhere in that list do we find "quitting" as an option. It doesn't say, "suffering produces misery; misery, complaining; complaining, quitting." Whatever mission we're called to, there is intrinsic value in seeing it through to completion.

And this progression is absolutely critical if we expect to stay on mission. Perseverance is pleasing to God. He loves it when we respond to his call and hang on for dear life. This is why Jesus tells us that the one who takes risks and stays on mission will be considered faithful and will ultimately reap the rewards of their perseverance, which includes high praise and increased responsibility. 

"Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!" (Matthew 25:21&23).

If we play it safe, if we avoid risk, or worse yet, if we quit, the rest of that parable doesn't favor us. 

We know the passage that says, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" but shouldn't that lead to the logical conclusion that, if we know we're on mission, if we know God has called us to something, what could be better than that? Even if we aren't seeing the outcomes that we'd like or expect, why would we want to be anywhere else?

Most of the time, being bold and courageous is just about hanging on. It's about waiting well. It's about trusting God. 

Be bold and courageous. 

ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Change can be scary.

Sometimes it springs from necessity, sometimes just a desire for novelty. But change is neither categorically good or bad. It just is.

Admittedly, when considering the coming year, there's much to be nervous about. But there's also much to be excited about - at least from a Quest Church standpoint.

We have an unprecedented opportunity to reach a brand new segment of our community. Our move back to mornings (9 a.m.) and to Orbit Skate Center carries with it the possibility to connect with young families and their children in ways that have never been possible before.

So, what shall we do with this opportunity?

I vote we run with it.

We've been talking about how life - how walking The Way of Jesus - is either an adventure or nothing. Now's the time to embrace this. 

Not sure what it will look like, just yet, but, over the next month, things are gonna change big and fast. Let's grab that change and run with it.

There will be lots of ways you can do that. Stay tuned. 

Just do it!

Training is tough.

In today's modern world of 24-hour digital connectedness, where everyone has a personal computer in their pocket, you can receive a wide variety of training in a wide variety of ways. Or so it seems.

You can screen out best practices from a blog. You can purchase online education for almost any undertaking. Youtube has videos demonstrating everything from playing the guitar to repairing a carburetor, and google has pointers for every pursuit from breastfeeding your baby to house-training your pets. You can find twenty solutions to any problem, as long as you can articulate it and google it. Information is everywhere, and it can be in your hands at the speed of light.

But information is not the same as training. 

Despite the nearly omniscient nature of the internet, I think something often gets lost in translation. There's every sort of learning available on the web, but I think real training in most areas still requires three components that the internet struggles to provide: experience, accountability, and oversight.

In most cases, these components require real people in real relationships. In most cases, you can learn ABOUT a skill by watching others do it, but, in order to LEARN a skill, you have to actually PRACTICE it. Maybe hundreds of times. Maybe thousands.

It's no different walking the Way of Jesus. In order to learn and grow, you have to do. And everybody and their brother has an idea of what that should look like. Everybody has a plan or a program. But talk is cheap. And time is short. And there's just no substitute for doing.

Like the great angst-ridden, teen-aged philosopher, Holden Caulfield, I'm not a big fan of "phonies." But, sometimes ya' gotta fake it 'til ya' make it. Sometimes, you just have to figure out what needs done, and go do it.

Fortunately, the way this whole Jesus thing is set up is that you don't have to do it alone. You should always have experience, accountability, and oversight on the Way of Jesus, because they’re built right into the system. It's called the church. And if we’re doing it right, church should be the perfect example of training done right. But you can’t do it by watching, and you can't do it yourself. You can’t do it in a book or a pew or a laptop. That's not the way it works. You have to do. You have to try. You have to go. Together.

Just do it!

Pastor Ed

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Series Title: 7 THINGS

Message Title: God isn't gullible

Date: 5/8/16

Main Passages: Romans 12:1

Some questions for reflection or group study (or please comment on them, below):

• What is most unnerving about the fact that you can't fool God?
• What makes you most nervous about following Jesus?
• In what area do you feel least qualified in following? Love? Grow? Go?
• What's the main thing that's keeping you from truly following?

You never know

You can never know. Be immediately suspicious of anyone who tells you otherwise. You can be pretty sure. You can be confident. You can be sure enough to move. But, you can never be absolutely certain. About anything. Ever. You can never know.

So when you need to make a decision, you need something besides certainty. You need something that will make up the difference between what is and what might be. You need to have something that you can trust.

Merriam-Webster defines "trust" as - belief that someone or something is reliable, good, honest, effective, etc.

So you're always putting faith in someone or something else, feeling assured that one or more of these qualities - reliability, goodness, honesty, effectiveness, etc. - are present.

Placing trust in a thing requires physical evidence - I've sat in that particular chair or one just like it; so I can trust that chair, and I will put all my weight on it, being confident that it will hold me and not break and not cause me injury.

However, I'm sure we've all sat in a chair that broke, or know someone else who has.

Placing trust in a person requires relational evidence - I have taken that person's advice or followed that person into a difficult situation, and they stood behind their words, they did what they said they'd do, and the results were, more or less, what they insisted they'd be; so I will follow them again, trusting that the same will be true this time, as well.

However, I'm sure we have all placed our trust in people who've been trustworthy, and they've let us down.

Trust is hard and risky and dangerous. It just is. But, without trust, we can't do anything; we'd never get out of bed. Without trust, we can't interact with anyone; we'd never say anything. To anyone.

Trust is the engine for everything that's worth doing, and it's the bedrock of faith. When Jesus says, "I will never leave you or forsake you," or, "I will give you rest," or, "I'm preparing a place for you," or, "I will be with you," you can never know for sure that it's true; but you can be confident, you can be sure enough to move, you can trust.

Certainty is a vapor, blown away by a gentle breeze, but hope, trust, love - these are eternal.

Join us Sunday as we wrap up our series on trust with the story of Jesus calling the apostles to follow him. We meet every Sunday afternoon, 3:30 p.m., at the St. Peter Life Center, 111 W. Olive St., Arlington Heights. Come early for coffee, snacks and conversation. Follow the sign.

See you soon!

Pastor Ed

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Message title: “What’s Next?” (disciples)
Main Scripture passages: Luke 5:1-11, Matthew 4:21-22

Questions/thoughts for group discussion or personal reflection:

• When have you trusted and been betrayed?
• When have you trusted and been blessed?
• How does trust differ from something like Pascal’s Wager (google it)?
• What are some of the downsides of trusting? Not trusting?

What's the hold up?

Have you ever had one of those nightmares where you were being chased by a monster or a murderer or something, and you couldn’t run? As hard as you tried, you could only move really, really slow - like your feet were stuck in molasses, and your joints were too tight to move quickly. 

Or how about that dream where you were trying to defend yourself in a fistfight, but your punches were all completely powerless, doing no damage whatsoever when they connected?

Or how about the one where you have to get to the door and get out, but the door is at the end of the hallway, and the faster you run, the further the door gets, as it seems to stretch ahead infinitely?

In all those cases, there is this obvious goal that might even be life-or-death, but it was foiled by this inexplicable, debilitating resistance that prevented your action and drained you of momentum.

I think these nightmares spring from a real fear of powerlessness. In our day-to-day lives, we feel powerless to affect our environment, and in our dream life, this fear manifests as real, inexplicable, physical resistance. But while running in molasses or not being able to connect a punch or not being able to reach the end of a hallway are not real problems, sometimes our feelings of powerlessness are.

But, sometimes they are not. Sometimes we only feel powerless, and all we need is for someone we trust to tell us that we can do it. Sometimes, all we need is a word of encouragement and a little push. And sometimes we need to just hunker down and do what we know is right, regardless of the naysayers. 

Join us this week as we talk about young David and how he responded to people who said, “It can’t be done.” Meet us at 3:30 p.m., 111 W. Olive St., Arlington Heights.

See you then!

Pastor Ed

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Message title: “Why Not Me?” (David)

Main Scripture passages: 1 Samuel 17:1-51, 1 John 4:4

Questions/thoughts for group discussion or personal reflection:

• When have you stood against something you knew was wrong?
• What’s your worst recurring nightmare?
• When does something go from being courageous to crazy?

What is freedom?

Do you know anyone who’s stuck? Their life seems to be just one setback after another. They can’t seem to catch a break. It seems like their life is a fifty-mile stretch of quicksand, and they’re barely staying above the surface.

I’ve seen this many times, and it’s tragic and sad, but, it’s even more depressing when a person’s stuck like this, but it’s their faith that keeps them stuck. They’ve exchanged common sense for religious superstition.

I will admit that God’s will is sometimes hard to discern. But sometimes it’s not. You don’t need a sign from God to figure out if you should get a job. You don’t need to pray and fast in order to determine whether you should pay your bills. You don’t need to consult with a spiritual advisor to make sure you should love your next door neighbor, or your in-laws, or your boss.

Sure, when you set out to do what’s right, there’s often a gray area between what’s obviously right and what’s obviously wrong. But that’s no excuse to sit on your hands when things need to be done. You don’t have to wait until all the lights are green to leave your driveway. You don’t need to have a burning bush moment in order to get out of your La-Z-Boy. Going off half-cocked is often better than not going at all.  And God honors risk taking within the context of The Way of Jesus.

Remember the wise words of President Teddy Roosevelt, who said, "The only man who never makes mistakes is the man who never does anything," and Jesus' brother, James, who gave us a reminder of God’s forgiveness when he suggested that, in a cage match, mercy beats judgment every time.

Join us this coming Sunday for a challenging message about Gideon, and about how trust is impacted by doubt and risk and waiting and acting. It’s gonna be great fun. 3:30 p.m., 111 W. Olive St., Arlington Heights, IL.

Come and join us!
Pastor Ed

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Message title: “Is that You?” (Gideon)

Main Scripture passages: Judges 6:25-40, Matthew 16:1-4

Questions/thoughts for group discussion or personal reflection:

• Do you think you’ve ever felt the clear call of God? Explain.

• What are your experiences with “The Paralysis of Analysis?”

• When does waiting become hiding? When does caution become cowardice?