Church is Where God Shows Up
Church is Where • Sermon • Submitted
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Intro
Intro
In 1908, Crayola hit the market with its carton of 8 now world-famous colors, and revolutionized kindergarten as we know it!
Our company has inspired artistic creativity in children for more than 100 years - since the first box of Crayola crayons rolled off the assembly line in 1903. The company began when cousins Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith took over Edwin's father's pigment business in 1885. Early products included red oxide pigment used as barn paint and carbon black used in car tires.
After noticing a need for safe, high quality, affordable wax crayons, in 1903, Crayola produced the first box of eight crayons and sold them for 5 cents.
Survey re: best colors...
Love creativity, and all together, wide taste… (in spite of one winner in all age groups, US regions differed greatly…)
REflects God’s creative work… (Cf deep sea fish, butterflies…, scientists say XXXMillion species extinct, yet we still have…, and are still finding new ones… (that’s just animals; consider plants… species…)
But
*** what’s so fascinating to realize is this—Crayola has never invented a new color. All they’ve done is find a way to mimic a small portion of teh ones God already made.
For a lttle perspective, ocnsider that in the early days of computers, there was one color—green agains black. then later Mac and windows gave us black agains white, or opposite. Eventually they gave 8 colors, then began to give us multiples of that.
When computer screens went to 64 million colors, it was an explosion of technological beauty. But they still weren’t finished. Ever increasing sophistication in video displays and computer processors and memory kept enhancing the color-depth of computer outputs.
Even more fascinatingly, they were using calculations and computations to do digitally what TV makers had been doing already for half a century with only 3 colors. I remember getting up close to the tv when I discovered this in elementary school—back when tv was furniture and you could anchor a battleship with one—and you could see that all across, all the way down, it was a series of just 3 colors—RGB. Even though modern tv and computer screens don’t work that way any more, every color that shows up has a number value of R and G and B, because no matter how sophisticated our computers become, they can never be smart enough to do more that Zenith or Westinghouse or RCA could do back in the ‘60’s with just RG and B.
WOW!
And yet those tv companies never made a new color. the only thing they even did was to mimic the ones God had already made. In fact, they did that using just 3 basic colors! How did God do that? Create color complexity so vast and make it possible to harness it with just 3 colors.
IN print, we do the same with CMYK, and teh K isn;t really necessary. It’s just equal parts of the first 3 with no shading applied.
Go into HD and watch them mix paints, you’ll see…, but in reality, those colors are all just premixed measures of the original basic 3 that makes paint mixing more efficient, so the gallon cans don’t overflow, and so not as muxh of that expensive coloring is necessary.
However, sometimes all that color opportunity makes people uncomfortable. Aks Sherwin Williams how we liked our colors, and you’ll find that i teh 30’s and 40’s we liked…, 60’s it was…, and most recently...
And look around communities in GA, and it can often get much more narrow...
In Atlanta’s Olde Vinings collection, on outside of house, 6 variations of 3-color schemes—that’s it. 18 colors, in 6 sets—that’s all the choice you get.
Why? order and conformoty bring comfort. Variety threatens peace for many people, because sameness is soothing and familiarity is easy on the mind. (science??)
And it can be the same way in our relationship with God.
God has an infinite number of ways to work in the world to bring about good. One time when he wanted to confront a king, he sent plagues and destroyed his army. Another time, he drove him crazy and made him live outside for a few months? Still another he let his body be attacked by worms. When Joshua needed help winning a battle, God made the sun stand still. When Gideon needed help, he ised clay pots…. When it was time to bring Jericho down, it was marching around a wal for a week. When it came to Sodom and Gomorrha, it was brimstone. Consider tah when Jesus wanted to heal a blind person, he might…, or …, or just .... One time Jesus crosses the stormy sea its in a boat asleep, another time it’s walking on the water.
God just keeps doing things in all kinds of ways. God is entirely consistent in His motivation of love and His character of righteousness, but completely unpredictable in his range of methodologies.
That’s great if you love adventure. But for most of us, we prefer predictability. Which often puts our faith in God on a collision course with God’s loving work in our lives.
...
rocking their world...
the one thing Jesus would rather not do is the one thing God is about to do
Cf prayer...
And yet, while in one sense Jesus prefers…, Jesus in fact freely chooses…, because He knows that the path to the thing he really wants goes through teh moment he wishes never had to be
*** The path to the thing that you most want will go through places you wish you never had to be.
Knwing that is one of the most freeing, and most comforting, and most empowering realities in your life!
Info- The prayer God loves to answer is teh one already at work deep inside of you--”God, do something big in me”
It’s teh hunger we all have and He built us that way. Whether it’s G Patton driving tanks across north africa or Wilbur and Orvill Wright… even those folks who get in front of the news cameras jumping up and down and waving with their big goofy smiles—it’s that urge for greatness--”did you see me?!”!!!!
** glory
imago dei
sin—fall short… (church and world so consumed with good and bad—those are legitimate concepts, but they don’t get at the heart of wta we’re after—that’s why good people still go wrong, and why bad people don’t want to become good people (good people still searching…, or still unhappy…?)
interestingly- when Jesus was deciding to go to cross, he was taking 12 guys with him into that moment. He was ready, they weren’t. And is part of the time Jesus was talking with them to help get them closer to ready than they had been.
Implication— God will do God-sized things that often run contrary to human-sized ideas
** “Saveing” made perfect sense. The difficulty was God’s “senseless” activity (seemed so according to world’s best wisdom)
small times threaten big vision
hard times threaten big vision
cf day of small things
cf Job’s friends—difficulty managing life when the lights go out (talk of that with storm)
cf “sow in tears”—hard, becasue most are more interested either in indulging the tears or changing teh tear-driving circumstances—Jesus on cross—sow in tears
*** And look at Q’s of disciples in this evening’s gathering…—they WERE CLUELESS!
beautiful news—if you have ablolutely no idea what in the world God is doing, you may be just where He wants you! (God siftens hard ground with hard rain)
We are often like Job’s friends—our need to make sense will threaten our desire to [make a difference] (or freedom to make something gloriuous]
*** But all along, God is still working to fulfill that one prayer he planted deep in the soul of every human being, and teh one that he turned into a purpose in your spiritual DNA when you were born again
By definition, sin is lawlessness
By practical effect, sin is corruption of the glory of God in our lives—corrupted motivation and corrupted methodologies
IOW—both our want to and our how to is broken inside us (Cf Riom 7)
And what is salvation—the redemption fro sin’s effects in our lives?
“Work out your own salvation...”
*** It’s what lets us get back in touych with teh inherent glory of who we were created to be
23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”
Here in , Jesus is ready for the thing…, because He knows that thing… How? Because He trusts His Father in Heaven, and tahtt’s teh thing His Father has chosen...
We are most fulfilled when God is fulfilling His glory in us.
that’s true of your whole life--
deep yearning...
confuion threatens...
[prefer safety over glory—even if have to forsake ...
get defeated by hard times and small times…, not understanding that often these are the God-tiomes...
Cf Jesus--”this hour”
He didn’t just live day-by-day, he lived hour by hour
literally… (in Garden)
gospel of John—moving slowly through a few hours at a time...
it was all about the moment—what is God doing in this moment that might be something we are trying to escape or avoid—but then we hear a call of the GHold Spirit--”step into the fog with me… hold my hand...
cf footprints in the sand...
In the words of the preschooler in you—let go of the crayons...
throw out the rules of your HOA
*** return to your yearning for glpory...
And realize it just may be in the small time and the hard time you’ve been avoiding—like a kid afraid teh water is going to be too cold, you’re standing on the edge, and Jesus is splashing in the middle--”come on, jump in!”
Let go of the colors.
You wanted plain old blue, God has chosen...
[statement]
most freeing...
most comforting...
most empowering...
** hear what I believe is the heart of God for us—we are here...
hard times, small times, these are the very times that God uses...
Cf Thomas Paine--”these are the times that try men’s souls...” (use earlier and here return to?) I believe these are the times stir churches’ hearts…, that liberate our futures from the restrictions of our expectations, and even our imaginations—what if the best you could imagine for our church—or your part here—was the biggest limitation...
What if your greates fulfillment...
Let go of the box!
About 20 years ago… you are the lines. she is the color...
I’m having the joy of rediscovering ...
I believe God is allowing us an opportunity to rediscover...
__________________________________
Idea-
Church is where we normalize the reality of God’s glory in myriad unexpected ways—we make it normal to see God do glorious things—we cultivate the expectation of God’s glory and a willingness to cooperate with His creative ways of accompmlishing it
Sometimes God’s most glorious work happens in places we would rather never be
God is a God who works glory in gutters; with God you’re as likely to find glory in gutters and garbage heaps as you are in Grand Cathedrals and Gilded halls.
Cf Crayola
With Jesus...
It’s the juxtaposition...
We identify because it’s in our hearts...
Our problem is a problem of packaging—for us the feeling of the moment too easily becomes the meaning of the moment...
Implication
The meaning of the moment can never be determined without considering the impact of redemption in the glorious work of God
“sow in tears...”
“do not consider suffering worthy to be compared...”
It’s in our hearts...
*** The reason for the voice—God wants us to connect the two—glory happens in gutters
Inspiration--
Reframe the equations--
day of small things...
time of hard things...
*** the material of this hour are simply the ingredients, not the finished product
*** I never mistake the eggs I’m beating in the bowl for teh omlette I will soon sit down to feast on. Yet I can’t get there without being here.
Jesus is creating a connection in the minds of his followers because one day this will be them.
CF chapter 17- teh pattern He sets is the one that He expects them to follow.
...
Gdo wants it to become normal that His people pour their hearts and souls into these unpredictably creative moments of God’s glory chemistry that seem so often too small, too hard, and too [useless]...
[??Movie Glory]
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.
13 Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, 14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
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