A look into your future

February 1, 2015 Deuteronomy 18:15-20 Year B Fourth Sunday of Epiphany We seem to have an obsession to be able to predict the future we need to know the outcome of everything. I noticed that there have been more predictions about who is going to win the superbowl than I have ever seen. I have seen all kinds of stories about how dogs, tigers, and crocodiles have been given a choice between the patriots and the seahawks. And that the animal made some choice. What Amazes me about these stories, is not so much that they were able to make a choice, but people start to brag about the record of these arbitrary events. This particular tiger has predicted the winner of the superbowl for the last 4 years…really? A tiger being able to predict the future? Tomorrow is ground hog day, where we watch to see if the ground hog will see his shadow. This arbitrary ground hog has the power to tell us what the next six weeks will be like? Really? Desperate and lonely for female company, a frog telephoned a psychic telephone service to find out what his future held. The person on the other end of the line said, "You will meet a beautiful young woman who will find you very interesting and want to know all about you." Excited and amazed, the frog asked excitedly, "That's wonderful! Where will I meet her? At work? At a party?" "No," said the psychic. "In a biology class." We are not frogs, we are children of God. So why would we leave something so sacred as our future up to tigers, and ground hogs, and arbitrary guesses of other people. Personally, I can appreciate John Wesley’s belief on the future. What we will become, or what happens to us has not been determined yet. We learned last week, that God knows our future, God knows what will become of us. But even God can change God’s mind. Prayer, faithfulness, and repentance can change things. Who I will be, and what will become with me, is not stored up for me in a book. My ultimate future is contained in my relationship with God. The bible says that eternity starts today. It starts with my ability to have a relationship with God. Our obsession with trying to predict the future stands in the way of us understanding what a prophet is and what a prophet does. When we think of prophecy, we think of it as a word about our future. It is about what is going to happen to us in the future. Deuteronomy 18 says that one way to test whether a prophet is true, is to see if what they have to say comes true or not. But Deuteronomy is not talking about the future, it is talking about today. In Hebrew belief, all there is is the here and now. Life is not so much about what it going to happen tomorrow, it is about today. All that we have any control of is what we are doing today. That is why it is called the present. We cant do anything about what happen yesterday, we cant do anything about what will happen tomorrow. All that we have is the present. A prophet is not someone who can predict the future, a prophet is someone who speaks for God about the conditions of today. In Deutoronomy, God says that he will send someone who can speak God’s word in the present situation. A prophet is someone who is able to listen to God. To have a relationship with God. And who is able to speak God’s word to the people. Deutoronomy says that the mark of a prophet is someone who God chooses, they don’t choose themselves. Someone who is a mediater between God and thepeople, and who speaks god’s words and not what comes to his own mind. Moses was the ultimate model of what a prophet should be and what a prophet should do. If we look at Numbers 12- Moses says that God speaks clearly to him face to face, and not in riddles. Moses was one of the few people who had a relationship with God, as if he was talking to a person. Moses has a relationship with god that was so intimate, that he was able to talk to God in a conversation, and to get answers, not just for his life, but for the lives of all of his people. As a matter of fact, in the story of numbers, Moses brother and sister criticize him for being so close to God. God gets mad at Miriam, and punishes her. Moses prays to God to be merciful to Miriam and she recovers. But it is her own encounter with God that changes her. She repents of her ways, and is allowed to be restored, so that she can begin a new relationship with God, with a new understanding, and a new respect. How many of us have had those encounters with God, that have challenged you, and caused you to have a new respect for the power of God in your life. I have those encounters each and everyday. The meaning of prophecy changes with each revelation of God. Moses is known as the founder of the jewish religion. Moses was known as the redeemer of his people. He was known as the one who had such a close relationship with God that he was able to bring the law of God to the people. But since then, we have a clearer example of one who has a relationship with God. We have someone who God chose, who god mediates with us, and who says and lives the words that God gave him. That person is Jesus Christ. And today, we cannot have a relationship with God without having a relationship with Christ, and a relationship with God’s word. Just as Moses sat on the mountain and had a lively conversation with God. We have to sit with our bible everyday and have a lively conversation with God’s word. How do we know what will become of our future, how well do we know that bible? How well do we do the will of Christ? How well do we live in the situations of today- according to the life of Christ? When we went to Malaysia in 2002, my son and I bought an electric shaver each. One of the good things about the shaver is that it has a rechargeable battery, meaning you can use it unplugged. But when you do, it gives off a low buzz. But if I plug it in it immediately steps up the revs and emits a high buzz. Unplugged it does a passable job. But plugged in it does a very good job - it works the way it was meant to. If you don't know Jesus, you can get along in everyday life without ever acknowledging Him. You can be an atheist, and get along fairly well. Before I knew Jesus Christ, I thought I was fine - but that's because I didn't know any better. I was like the unplugged shaver. I could never really do what I had been designed to do, fulfil my full potential, the plan of God for my life. There are lots of people who are getting by, but they don't realise they're not plugged into the power source. To plug into the power source, you have to be connected to God Himself through Jesus Christ. To be connected to Jesus, you have to be connected to the word of God, for today. Your today determines your tomorrow. Amen. Children’s Sermon: The Glue of God's Love by Thomas A. Pilgrim Passage: Mark 1:21-28 • Lectionary: Epiphany 4 Item 7 of 15 | Back to Results Object: A bottle of glue Lesson: Good morning boys and girls. I am glad you are here. Today in the Scripture lesson we will be reading about Jesus going to a town called Capernaum. Today I want you to look at this bottle of glue. They call this "School Glue." This is the same kind you use in school. As you already know this is really good glue because you can stick anything together with this glue. You can glue paper, plastic, wood, cloth, and just about anything else you can think of and it will stay together. Another good thing about it is that you cannot glue yourself to the floor. I was using some really strong glue one time and I actually glued myself to the floor. But you will not do that with this glue. Also, this glue will wash off your hands and clothes. So it will not make a mess you cannot clean up. Your mother does not have to worry when you use this glue. Now, let me ask you this question. Have you ever heard the expression, "I'm stuck on you?" Do you know what that means? It means, "I love you." It is something one of you boys might someday say to one of these girls. There is a glue in life that joins us together in the church. It helps us stick with our friends and our family members. Who knows what that is? It is God's love. God's love is like glue. It will hold you together when nothing else will. Jesus said to his disciples one time, "Children, love one another." He loved each one of them. And he wanted them to love each other. Everywhere Jesus went he called people to come follow him. And in doing that he was teaching them to have the same love and concern for other people that he had. Still today he wants us to be people who love him, love God, love each other and love other people, who more than anything, just need someone to love them. I am glad you came here today. May we pray: O God, help us to love each other and to love you. Help us to share your love with others. Amen. Extra Illustrations…….. There's a Spanish story of a father and son who had become estranged. The son ran away, and the father set off to find him. He searched for months to no avail. Finally, in a last desperate effort to find him, the father put an ad in a Madrid newspaper. The ad read: Dear Paco, meet me in front of this newspaper office at noon on Saturday. All is forgiven. I love you. Your Father. On Saturday 800 Pacos showed up, looking for forgiveness and love from their fathers. Bits & Pieces, October 15, 1992, p. 13. Asking for Help The early church asked for the Spirit. They acknowledged His power and His way. Sensitive souls have always turned to the Spirit for help. The Spirit does not add qualities of life we do not possess. Those qualities are not something poured into us from the outside. They are inside humans and respond to the Spirit, developing every potential to its fullest. John Milton asked the Spirit to aid him as he began his epic poem, Paradise Lost. But it would have been of little help had he not possessed the genius of a poet. John Wesley declared that the success of his work was due to the Spirit, but we must remember that Wesley was a born leader. The Spirit used him. There was something in Wesley that responded to the Spirit. A legend is told of how Moses once heard a shepherd praying, “O God, show me where you are that I may become your servant. I will clean your shoes, and comb your hair, and sew your clothes, and bring you food.” Moses rebuked him with the words: “God is Spirit and needs not such ministrations.” Thereupon the shepherd rent his clothes in dismay and fled to the desert. Then Moses was rebuked by God, saying: “You have driven away my servant … I regard not the words that are spoken but the heart that offers them.” —Eugene A. Hessel Dealing With Difficult People Earl Nightingale told how on one National Secretaries Day he gave his secretary some flowers. She remarked how beautiful they were, but wondered why they didn't have any scent. He informed her that the flowers came from a hothouse and explained that because these flowers were raised in an isolated environment, they didn't attract insects (bugs) to pollinate them. As a result, they lost their scent. In the same way, fruit raised in a hothouse, because it doesn't need to attract insects to scatter its seeds, doesn't taste as good as fruit grown in its natural environment. (Weekend Encounter, Oct. 28, 2010). When we withdraw and isolate ourselves from people who "bug" us, it might make us feel safe from harm, but it affects us in other ways. We lose a part of what God created us to be, like a rose loses its fragrance and fruit loses its taste. God uses those people who bug us to bring out the best in us. Rather than running away from those people, let Jesus live His life through you, and the fragrance will come out. (Kent Crockett, www.kentcrockett.com)