A New Covenant, A New Heart

March 25, 2012 Year B Fifth Sunday of Lent Jeremiah 31:31-34 John 12:20-33 The marriage covenant To have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until we are parted by death. This is my solemn vow. The marriage vow is one of the most sacred vows that two people can make to one another. It is a very personal vow, where two people promise to live 2 lives as one. They promise to live and love one another no matter what. Lent is the season where we look at our covenants, the sacred promises that we have made in our lives. Are we living inside of the promises that we have made, or are we ignoring them. Just as in marriage, two people make promises. Scripture shows that God has made promises to each of us. Promises that were made before we were born, we did nothing to facilitate them. There are two kinds of covenants – there is the convenant such as marriage between two equals. ( the Methodist marriage covenant is between equals – that has historically not always been the case). But the other covenant is always between a greater party and a lesser party. For instance, there is also a covenant between parent and child. The parent is the responsible party – so the terms of the agreement are always set by the parent. That is like the promises that God made with us. God did not ask our permission, God did not ask us to agree. God said this is what I will do, and this is what I expect of you in return. Jeremiah 31 has a covenant from God. God says I will be your God and you will be my people. The conditions of this covenant – I will make a new covenant that will be written on their hearts. Why? Because the people broke the old covenant. The story of the promise of marriage Thornton Wilder, in his play, The Skin of our Teeth, depicts a WWII soldier, George, who returns home to his wife Maggie. He’s been away for years, and the experience has broken him. George announces to his wife, Maggie that he’s decided to leave her for another woman. Faced wither her husbands moral weakness, Maggie mounts a spirited defense. I married you she says because you gave me a promise…That promise made up for all of your faults. And the promise I gave you made up for mine. Two imperfect people got married, and it was the promise that made our marriage. To this, George objects that the war has changed him. But Maggie refuses to let it go: Oh George, you have to get it back again. Think, what else kept us alive all those years? Even now, it is not comfort that we want, we can suffer what is necessary, only give us back the promise. In the play, George and Maggie do reconcile. It’s a difficult road, but they find a way to get the promise back. Jeremiah is also concerned with how to get the promise back, only he’s not talking about marriage, but about the relationship between the people, Israel and their God. All the people had to do was to obey the covenant, and they couldn’t do that. George said that the war had changed him. Life has a way of changing us. Of giving us excuses of why we could not obey God. We can choose to live in the promises of God or we can live above them. It can get so easy to live above them. God is our husband I found it interesting that in Jeremiah, God says I was the husband of the people and they broke the covenant. The people didn’t make the covenant, yet for some reason they disrespected it. They were given the law as terms for the promise, but they broke them. They refused to live according to the law. And maybe that is just it, there is a difference between obeying God and making a commitment to live within God’s will. Obeying is about outer behavior, it is about control, it is impersonal, it sets us up to make justifications of why we cant do it. Living within the law is a personal commitment to do what is right. The convenant of forgiveness God says that I will be God and you will be my people. But the condition of the new convenant is that God will forgive and forget your sins. You are able to live in freedom, most importantly you are able to live in hope. Our scripture starts out by saying – the days are coming. Jeremiah is intentionally creating a future. New circumstance bring new reactions. A town with no hope A Little town in Maine, flagstaff was scheduled to be flooded in order to make way for a new damn. People knew for months that their town was doomed. Roofs needed to be repaired, buildings needed to be fixed. But no one was willing to spend on a house that they knew was going to be destroyed in the future any way. People noticed that as time got closer for the town to be destroyed – thinks started to look more and more bedraggled. No one was willing to fix anything or clean up anything. There was no hope, there was no freedom, no reason to try to do anything different. If God doesn’t love you, if God is threatening to divorce you and to forget all about you – what is the point of living in God’s will? Why obey laws that are designed to mess you up? Jeremiah knew that he had to create a new future, a future with hope, a promise that if you mess up, God will let you start all over again. God wont hold sin against you. Jesus says the time is now Jeremiah says that the time is coming – Jesus says that the time is now. In John 12 Jesus says that it is now time for God to be glorified. But throughout the gospels Jesus reminds us that the future is now – don’t wait for it – but live in it now. The cross ratifies the covenant When Jesus goes to the cross – God is glorified – God has already forgiven and forgotten our sins, our new life can begin. We don’t have to carry our sins around, God wants more for us, but God wants more from us. He is God – we are his people. We are a forgiven people If we are forgiven we don’t have to obey out of obligation, we are free to live in honor, and respect. We are free to change from the inside not the out. Son moved by fathers tears Wangerin has a wonderful story, called "Matthew, Seven, Eight, and Nine" about how he tried to stop his son Matthew from stealing comic books. He tried various uses of the law over several years and continued to fail. Finally, he resorted to something he rarely used: a spanking. He did it deliberately, almost ritualistically, and he was so upset when he finished that he left the room and wept. After pulling himself back together, he went in to Matthew and hugged him. A number of years later, Matthew and his mother were doing some general reminiscing, and Matthew happened to bring up the time when he kept stealing comic books. "And you know why I finally stopped?" he asked. "Sure," she said, "Because Dad finally spanked you." "No!" replied Matthew, "No, because Dad cried." He cared for me, and his tears made all of the difference. The passion of Christ The story of Jesus is our chance to respond to God’s passion. Next Sunday is palm Sunday –the beginning of our journey through the passion story. The story of Jesus pain on the cross, but also the story of God’s love for you. He was so concerned about your sins that he led his son to the cross. Jesus says that if he be lifted up, he will draw all men to him. All will understand God’s love. The cross a chance for our inner transformation Many say that the cross was a ransom for our souls, a sacrifice of God, the supreme act of obeying God. Most important reason, - knew it would create a new community of people committed to transformation, willing to have a relationship with god. A new relationship based on that forgiveness on the cross. We the Easter people, the body of Christ, the church – are the people who dwell in forgiveness. Jesus showed us a new way of being human. A new relationship with God. A new life, full of renewal, full of life, full of hope. The united Methodist marriage ritual says that the covenant of marriage is just life the covenant between Christ and his church. He is our savior – we are his body. In a marriage ritual there is the exchange of rings. In the covenant of Christ and his church there is the cross. It is our symbol of how much God loves us. A symbol of God’s love A baby bird asked his mother, that is air – she said no words to her baby, she just spread here wings and flew. A baby fish asked its mother- what is water – she said nothing, she just swished her tail and started to fly. A baby ant ask his mother what is dirt, she said nothing she just dug a little more. A baby child asked her mother what is love – she opened her arms and hugged the baby. A God fearer asked God what is forgiveness – he sent his son to the cross to die for you. What better promise do you need of God’s love for you? Live your live dwelling in the love of God. Let us pray…..

Lift up Jesus

March 18, 2012 Numbers 21:4-9 John 3:14-21 Lift Up Jesus Fourth Sunday of Lent Year B Complain, Complain, Complain The story is told of a young man who entered a very strict monastic order. It was so strict that members were permitted to speak only two words per year to the abbot. At the end of year one the young man appeared before the abbot and spoke his two words, "bad food." At the end of the second year the young man appeared before the abbot and spoke two more words, "hard bed". At the end of year three he came to the abbot and spoke his last two words, "I quit." The abbot responded, "Well it is about time. Complain, complain, complain - that’s all you’ve done since you came here." We humans are people of darkness. People, who complain, rebel, work against the Kingdom of God. Death is all we know. Lives filled with the patterns of sin. However, God does an astonishing thing. He brings the light. He erects a cross of death that we might look up and live. He leads us out of the darkness. He loves the world and does not condemn it. He does not condemn you, if...if you will believe. It seems that no matter what the situation, no matter how many words we get to use, complaining is a part of our nature. There is always something to complain about. There is a saying which says that Jesus can take care of any situation. Jesus can do miracles, Jesus can turn water into wine, but he can’t do anything about your whining. Complaining in Numbers Interestingly enough, in many ways you can call the book of Numbers – the book of complaining. It is the story of the exodus generation. The generation of Hebrews who were born and raised in the wilderness – that is all that they ever knew of God. It could also be called the book of lost faith. Because this is the book of discouragement, and lost faith. They were following Moses, but not really sure of why. And what do we usually do when we are discouraged, and unsure of what is going on? We complain. If you read the book of numbers, there is the story of the wanderers complaining about not having enough meat – God gave them more quail then they could eat. They complained about water – and God them water. And in the scripture for today, they complained about bad food, and God sent them poisonous snakes. There is a lesson in that complaining for us – whatever it is going on in your life, if you don’t like it don’t tell God. Jesus can turn water into wine, but he can’t do nothing about your whining. But of course that does not seem like the God that we know. But if you look at the bible, later God does indeed say that he punished that nation with more exile, because they complained. More importantly it is not their complaining that was a problem, but they were more interested in being negative, then trusting God. God heard their prayer, and was working it out, and they were so busy complaining, that they could not see what God was really doing. The lesson in that for all of us But there is a bigger lesson in all of this for us – and that lesson is in realizing the power of our God. Our God can do anything. Our God is omnipotent, Our God can do anything. God caused the snakes to bite for a reason, and God gave them a cure for snake bites. The lesson for us – what does it mean to worship an omnipotent God. A God fully in charge of our lives. When the people realized their sin of complaining and Moses prayed on their behalf – God tells Moses to take a snake and out it on a pole and anyone who looks upon the snake will be saved. How do you worship an omnipotent God? A God who takes the very things that we are afraid of and makes it a tool of our healing? A God who takes our problems and makes them a part of the solution? A God who challenges us to trust our lives to him? The fiery snake parasite Parasites were a big problem in the ancient world. And in many poorer parts of the world that don’t have clean water – parasites are still a problem. There is one called the fiery serpent. Poisonous means fiery. The fiery serpent lives and grows very long in the body. It forms painful scabs on the body where it feeds on the skin. The only way to get it out of the body is to make a slit in the skin, when it starts to come out- a special healer must take a stick and let the worn wrap itself around the body. You have to be very careful though – because if the worm breaks, it will continue to grow in the body. The need for a special healer to take care of this worm – that today – it is the universal sign of healing. The universal sign for a doctor is a snake wrapped around a stick. So this story of God telling Moses to wrap a stick around the stick, so that those who looked upon it could heal. It wasn’t the snake on a stick that healed them or the person with the stick – it was God- an omnipotent God. A God who can do anything – even heal our wounds. John picks up the theme Perhaps that is why John picked up this theme in his gospel. At the beginning of the scripture for today – Jesus says And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of God be lifted up, that whoever believed in him may have eternal life.” The cross is the source of our salvation What does that mean? All lent we have been talking about the meaning of the cross. Why did Jesus have to die on a cross? What does Jesus on the cross mean for us? The cross is the source of salvation. When we sin against God – we can look to the cross, and be healed. What does it mean to worship an omnipotent God – it means that he loves us enough to be the source of our healing. Healing physically, mentally and spiritually. When Jesus was lifted up on the cross – if we believe in Jesus as the son of God, of we can look on that horrific scene and see the love of God – there is salvation for us. John 3:16 is the gospel in a nutshell For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life Other religions accept Jesus, but don’t accept the cross What does it mean to worship an omnipotent God? Interestingly enough – Jesus is not just the center of Christianity. There are many religions that see value in the gifts of Jesus Cross. Those religions love Jesus, but they hate the cross. They can’t do nothing with that cross. The Jews don’t understand a messiah who suffers and dies. The Muslims love the story of Christmas, but the story of Good Friday is offensive to them, Hindus only want to hear about the peaceful part of the story. Buddhist, Thich Nhat Hanh says the cross is a very painful image, it does not contain joy or peace, and it does not do justice to Jesus In order to be a true follower of Jesus – you can’t separate Jesus from the cross. If there was no Cross – there is no salvation for you. Without the cross Jesus is just a nice, wise person, not the Son of God. Jesus says that he has to be lifted up. It is in John 12 that he says that if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me. God Is Seeking You in Love Fred Craddock tells the story of his father, who spent years of his life hiding from the God who was seeking him out: “When the pastor used to come from my mother’s church to call on him, my father would say, 'You don’t care about me. I know how churches are. You want another pledge, another name, and right? Another name, another pledge, isn’t that the whole point of church? Get another name, another pledge.' My nervous mother would run to the kitchen, crying, for fear somebody’s feelings would be hurt. When we had an evangelistic campaign the pastor would bring the evangelist, introduce him to my father and then say, 'Sic him, and get him! Sic him, get him!' May father would always say the same thing. 'You don’t care about me! Another name, another pledge. Another name, another pledge! I know about churches.' I guess I heard it a thousand times. One time he didn’t say it. He was at the Veteran’s Hospital. He was down to 74 pounds. They had taken out the throat, put in a metal tube, and said, 'Mr. Craddock, you should have come earlier. But this cancer is awfully far advanced. We’ll give radium, but we don’t know.' I went in to see him. In every window—potted plants and flowers. Everywhere there was a place to set them—potted plants and flowers. Even in that thing that swings out over your bed they put food on, there was a big flower. There was by his bed a stack of cards 10 or 15 inches deep. I looked at the cards sprinkled in the flowers. I read the cards beside his bed. And I want to tell you, every card, every blossom, every potted plant from groups, Sunday School classes, women’s groups, youth groups, men’s bible class, of my mother’s church—every one of them. My father saw me reading them. He could not speak, but he took a Kleenex box and wrote something on the side from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. . . . He wrote on the side, 'In this harsh world, draw your breath in pain to tell my story.' I said, 'What is your story, Daddy?' And he wrote, 'I was wrong.'” It is not until you know God is seeking you in love, not in condemnation; it is not until that moment that the gospel becomes Good News for you. What poison inside of you needs to be healed? What does it mean to worship an omnipotent God? It means that God loves you. It means that Jesus went to the cross for you. It means the lifting up Jesus- is the source of our healing. What poison needs to be removed from your body? Your soul? What healing needs to be done? Where do we need to go for salvation and healing? What does God do in order to save us? How do we worship an omnipotent God? We go to the cross – and follow Jesus to the resurrection. Let us pray….

No other god Before God

March 11, 2012 No other god before God Exodus 20:1-17 John 2:13-22 Year B Third Sunday of Lent God’s Grace God’s grace is God’s way of telling us that God loves us unconditionally. God’s grace is God’s way of telling us that our lives are of value, that our souls are of value, and that God desires the best possible life for all of us. God’s grace is the most important thing in life, sometimes it has to go out ahead of us, and pave the way for us to have what we need. God’s Grace goes before us Several years ago, psychiatrist Scott Peck wrote a national bestseller called The Road Less Traveled. It was filled with what he had learned about life from his work with people with all sorts of mental ailments. One thing he observed was a tendency toward mental wellness even among patients who had reasons to seek psychiatric help. Some of these people had survived serious emotional traumas much better than the circumstances seemed to warrant, and Peck came to think of a force of goodness in the world. He eventually identified this force using the word “serendipity,” which the dictionary defines as “the gift of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for.” As a Christian, Peck also realized that the word “grace” fit that definition too. So in the book, he wrote extensively about this force, using both words. Associating grace with serendipity was one of his original contributions to the subject of grace. Several years later, Peck was on a flight to Minneapolis. He usually took advantage of flying time to do some writing, so when a man took the seat next to him, Peck gave the usual nonverbal signals one gives when one doesn’t want to engage in conversation. The man soon buried himself in a novel, and they flew side by side in silence for most of the flight. Finally, the man looked up from his novel and said, “I hate to bother you, but you don’t happen, by any chance, to know the meaning of the word ‘serendipity,’ do you?” Peck responded that as far as he knew, he was the only person who had written a substantial portion of a book on the subject, and that it was perhaps serendipity that at the precise moment the man wanted to know the meaning of the word, he happened to be sitting next to an authority on the subject. This, of course, led to further conversation, and Peck explained that his book was a kind of integration of psychology and religion. The man said, “Well, I don’t know about religion anymore,” and went on to tell Peck about some doubts that had him thinking he needed to leave the church. In response Peck explained how questioning helped individuals move from the hand-me-down religion of childhood to a mature, personal one. When the two landed in Minneapolis, the man said, “I don’t have the foggiest idea what all of this means, but maybe I don’t have to leave the church after all.” (M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled and Beyond [New York: Touchstone, 1997], 260-261). That was God’s prevenient grace, running ahead of the man, putting him into a conversation with someone who could help him when he needed it on his spiritual road. You see, prevenient grace is just as amazing as saving grace. It runs ahead of us, preparing the way for us to respond to God. We just couldn’t do that without him. God’s grace on the cross During our Lenten journey, we have been looking at the grace of the cross. How did Jesus turn a symbol of pain and shame into a symbol of grace, of God’s love for us. If we were headed into a life of sin, how and why did God send Jesus to take out place. God took our place There is a story about a man who visited a church. He parked his car and started toward the front entrance. Another car pulled up nearby, and the irritated driver said to him, "I always park there. You took my place!" The visitor went inside and found that Sunday School was about to begin. He found an adult class, went inside, and sat down. A class member approached him and said, "That's my seat! You took my place!" The visitor was somewhat distressed by this rude welcome, but said nothing. After Sunday School, the visitor went into the sanctuary and sat down in an empty pew. Within moments another member walked up to him and said, "That's where I always sit. You took my place!" The visitor was troubled, but said nothing. Later, as the congregation was praying for Christ to be present with them, the visitor stood, and his appearance began to change. Scars became v isible on his hands and on his sandaled feet. Someone from the congregation noticed him and cried out, "What happened to you?" The visitor replied, "I took your place." Some things that happen in church are silly. Some things are down right scandalous. Some things may even be sacrilegious. But the Church is still the body of Christ and it was for the Church that Christ died. Jesus took our place, so that we could have a better life. The greatest gift that God gave us and will never take away from us is our free will, our freedom to experience life. Exodus 20 If you look at the beginning of Exodus 20 – before it tells you the 10 commandments, it says that these are the words of God for us. Once again, you will notice that God introduces Godself. Who is that God speaking to us – I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Out of the house of slavery. In other words I have set you free. Grace is freedom Freedom is a wonderful thing, the problem is that we don’t always know what to do with it. We have no idea of how to use it in our best interest. The 10 commandments are guidelines in how to use our freedom in a way that benefits us, not hurts us. Why freedom hurts us A preacher was depressed that he lost his bike….. In a small town there were two preachers, one Methodist and one Baptist. They both liked to ride bicycles around town, and they would greet each other when they met on their way somewhere. Well, so one day when they met, the Baptist preacher was on foot. Methodist preacher asked him, "What happened to your bicycle?" Baptist preacher said, "I don't know. I put it somewhere, and can't remember where. I hope somebody didn't steal it." So the Methodist preacher said, "I know what we can do to get your bicycle back. This Sunday we'll both preach on the Ten Commandments. When we get to 'Thou shalt not steal,' we'll dwell on it long and hard. I'll bet that'll get your bicycle returned." So they proceeded to do this, and one day the next week they met up again, and the Baptist preacher had his bicycle back. "Hello, friend," said the Methodist preacher. "I see one of our sermons did some good." The Baptist fellow hung his head and said, "Yeah, but not how you'd think. I preached on the Ten Commandments, just like we said, and when I got to 'Covet not thy neighbor's wife,' I remembered where I'd left my bicycle!" I don’t want to get into what the 10 commandments are, and the meaning of each commandment means, we all know right from wrong. Our relationship with God and our relationship with others But I do want to remind us that the 10 commandments remind us of our relationships. Our sacred relationships first of all with God. And then with our family and our community. The first 4 commandments talk about our relationship with God, and the last 6 talk about our relationship with one another. All of them ask us how is our relationship with freedom. How do we use freedom? For ourselves, or for the good of all. Always remembering that there is no benefit of freedom for ourselves, without our connections with others. Not a mirror, but the word of God I went to visit the students of Urban Prep this week. And right in the front of the classroom, there was full length mirror as the students come in the door. There was a sign on top of it which said look at the man in the mirror. The thing is, God is asking not that we look at the mirror at ourselves, but to look at God’s word. Not to adjust ourselves according to what we see in ourselves, but to adjust ourselves according to the word of God. 10 questions that 10 commandments ask us There is a tradition- instead of calling the laws of God the ten commandments, they are the 10 words. 10 words to order all of our life and all of our relationships according to. the Ten Commandments ask us ten questions, "Do you honor anything or anyone above the one true God? Has God been replaced by something physical or material in your life? Have you dishonored God’s name by using it in a frivolous manner? Is your work more important than your relationship with God? Do you honor your father and mother? Do you value human life? Have you kept your marriage vows? Do you respect other’s rights of ownership? Do you tell the truth? Are you content with what you have or do you covet the possessions, relationships and successes of others?" To God, our answers to those specific questions about behavior and morality demonstrate our willingness to follow Jesus to the cross. Jesus simplified 10 to 2 commandments Jesus simplified the 10 words to two - Mark 12, Matthew 22, and Luke 10 – Jesus says the first commandment is to love the lord our God with all of our mind, our heart, our soul. And he second commandment is to love your neighbor as you love yourself. That all goes back to the fact that the first 4 commandments tell us how to have a right relationship with God and the last tell us how to have a right relationship with each other. How to be in right relationship with our freedom. We are in the third week of lent – our journey to the cross, our time to get in touch with our sinful nature and the control that it can have on our lives. But also our chance to truly experience the grace of God’s love for us. To come out of slavery, and to look at freedom in a way that we never imagined, never saw before. If God sets us free- then there is nothing that can hold us down, no situation. The interesting thing about the 10 commandments – it that there is not situation attached to them. There are no circumstances . how many times in our lives do we- put circumstances on our freedom. I can be free, as long as others are treating me right, as long as things are going me way, as long as I am happy. God gives us freedom in every situation, in every relationship. Why follow Jesus to the cross Why follow Jesus to the cross – because God knows what you need better than you do. God has given it to you, before you even knew what it means. If you are willing to go the cross, whatever it is, it will all make sense with the coming of the resurrection. Jesus promises us that. Iive your life, not in the confines of the situation, but in the freedom of your relationship with God and with one another. The God gene Time magazine reported that there is a gene inside of each of us that seeks a relationship with God. Something that causes us to look to God for the ultimate answers of our lives. Remember these 10 words to have the best relationship with God Remember these 10 words Recognize that God comes first in all things Put nothing in God’s place in your life Honor the name of God Worship God faithfully Honor one another Protect the truth Having an attitude, a selfish attitude can be destructive to yourself and to others. If you obey God’s rules – you will truly understand what it means to be free. If you follow Jesus to the cross you will understand what it means to be saved. Let us pray…

The Covenant and the Cross

March 4, 2012 The Covenant and The Cross Second Sunday of Lent Year B Genesis 17:1-7,15-16 Mark 8:31-38 A father and a son are in a sports store admiring a set of weights. The son asks if he can have them, “ I Promise dad I will use them every day” – can we buy them? “I don’t know son, they are pretty expensive”, yeah but they would really help me to get in shape. – If I had them I promise you will not be disappointed. The father gives in and buys them. The son looks as him – you mean you are expecting me to carry these heavy things to the car? So much for making a promise. It is our second Sunday in lent, our journey with Christ to the Cross, how are we doing with keeping our promises? Have they become as heavy as dumbbells? I have to confess, that keeping my Lenten promises are a struggle. I said that I would go to bed on time. – And I have not made it yet. Truth be told, I have had a harder time going to sleep in the last two weeks, then I have any other time. But that is how it is – when you are trying to change, all of the reasons that you can’t change come to the surface. That is how it is for us – there are some promises that we have no problem with, and there are some that we struggle with. Some we have to work on. And yet God does not give up on us. God never breaks his promises to us. I want to start out this morning (afternoon) talking about the promises of God. I found this wonderful article on the things that God has promised us What can be said about God's promises to us? 1. He has promised to supply every need we have. The Bible says: "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus". That's Philippians 4:19. Now notice, God has obligated Himself only to the extent of our needs. That would include food, clothing, shelter, companionship, love, and salvation thru Jesus Christ. It would not include the multiplicity of luxuries that we have come to think of as needs. 2. God has promised that His grace is sufficient for us. (II Corinthians 12:9). In fact, He has made provision for our salvation by His grace through faith. Read Ephesians 2:8. It is through an obedient faith that we have access into the grace of God according to Romans 5:2. 3. God has promised that His children will not be overtaken with temptation. Instead, He assures us that a way of escape will be provided. This promise is recorded in I Corinthians 10:13. Jude wrote: "Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you’re faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy" (Jude v 24). Darius, King of the Medes, said to Daniel, "Thy God whom thou Servest continually, he will deliver thee" (Daniel 6:16). He did deliver Daniel from the den of lions. 4. God has promised us victory over death. He first resurrected Jesus by way of assuring our resurrection. Peter said: "This Jesus hath God rose up, whereof we are all witnesses" (Acts 2:32). Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures" (I Corinthians 15:3,4). Later on he adds: "but thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (I Corinthians 15:57). 5. God has promised that all things work together for good to those who love and serve Him faithfully (Romans 8:28). It may be difficult for us to see and understand how this is accomplished at times, but God has promised it, and He will deliver. 6. God has promised that those who believe in Jesus and are baptized for the forgiveness of sins will be saved. (Read Mark 16:16 and Acts 2:38). 7. God has promised His people eternal life (John 10:27,28). In closing, let me appeal to you to live so that the promises of God will be yours. All of those promises come from the promise that God made to our mother and father in faith Abraham and Sarah. That they would be the parents of a large nation, kings shall come from this promise. Today – according to recent statistics – 50% of the population of the world attribute Abraham as the father of their faith. That means that there are 3 billion people on the earth who are a part of Abraham and Sarah’s family. There are Christians, Muslims and Jews – the people of the book. Who are a part of God’s promise. And yet in the story, Abraham was 99 years old, Sarah was 89. He already had a son by Hagar, and he had gone on with his life, accepting things just as they were. He had done the best that he could in his life, he was only a man – so when God says that he will have another child, and create another nation – he laughs. And yet God did not ask Abraham about his future, God promised him a future. And God does not break God’s promises to man. God had come to Abraham when he was 75 and made a promise that he would be the father of a great nation. When he comes again at 99 I want to point out that he introduces himself as God Almighty – meaning El Shaddai – interpreted as the one with breast. Or the God of the mountains. Also in psalm 34 God is referred to as the all sufficient one. The breasted one – a baby depends on its mother for all things, and a baby does not have to ask a mother just takes care of them. In psalm 34 it says Hear what Ps 34 4-10 says I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. 5 Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. 6 This poor man called, and the LORD heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles. 7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them. 8 Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. 9 Fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing. 10 The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. Seek him and get to know him as the One who is all sufficient. God takes care of all of our needs. God says that I will make a covenant with you – a promise, a committed relationship with you God says walk before me and be blameless and I will make a covenant between you and me. What’s so hard about that? It seems pretty easy to do. Let me tell you another story – a story that we have all heard before. Once upon a time there was a little girl with a red hood. Her mother sent her to her grandmother’s house with some cookies. In order to get to grandma’s house she had to pass through the forest. In the forest she met a wolf - she told the wolf where she was going – and he wolf wished her well. As a matter of fact, things went so well, they sat down together and ate cookies and told stories all afternoon. And lived happily ever after. We all know that is not how the story goes. The wolf does not wish her well, as a matter of fact, he gets to the house before she does and eats grandma. Before they can live happily ever after – they both have to be saved. The stories of our lives don’t have happy endings – there has to be some drama, some struggle, something bad to overcome. In a perfect world – it would be easy to live blameless before God – the problem is we don’t live in a perfect world. We live in a world of sin and of suffering. Things don’t go our way. God made a promise to be the all sufficient God –but somewhere along the way – life, situations circumstances problems got in the way. God had to make a new promise to us – the promise of Jesus Christ being the messiah of the world. In mark 8:29 – right before the story for today – Peter makes a confession – that Jesus is the messiah. God’s promised one. The one who would come and make everything right. Peter’s messiah was a fairy tale messiah – where everyone lived happily ever after. Peter believed that they were following Jesus, who was going to stand up and fight the Romans, win and gain glory for himself, his disciples, and his people. Jesus told him that the messiah would die, they would die, and instead of glory, there would be shame. Jesus has to remind him that we still live in earth. In earth things happen, life gets in the way. There are no happy endings. In life we suffer in some way, and in life the messiah must suffer also. The truth of the gospel is not so exciting – but Mark wants us to know the truth. Mark is the gospel of Good Friday – the cross is God’s greatest event. God asks Abraham to walk blameless with him, Jesus tells us that we must go to the cross with him. He talks not just to the twelve, but to all of us – If you want to become followers of me, you must deny yourself, take up you cross and follow me. For Mark, the cross is everything. And the only way to be a true Christian is to be willing to follow Christ. We have to suffer as he suffered. The good news is that he had to suffer because we suffer. In this world, life gets in the way for all of us. Life is a struggle. God does not ask us to endure suffering for suffering sake. God does not ask us to take abuse for abuse sake, or to neglect ourselves for neglect sake. Everything that God does for us is done for the sake of love. And when we make the journey to the cross, we have to make that journey in love. If we are obedient to Christ, then the cross is salvation, freedom, redemption, grace. Everything God is – the cross is for us who are faithful. I am god almighty, walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly fruitful. That is not a promise that we can make to God – But it is a promise that god makes to us. A promise that has been fulfilled in the cross. Wherever you may be in your promises, remember – faith does not believe in things that we don’t understand, it is in being obedient without reservation. God says walk blameless before me, Jesus says follow me to the cross. Life will get in the way of your obedience, but an all sufficient God will lead the way. Let us pray…..