“
Matthew 22:15-40
Objective
Statement: Every person can
practice a simple faith by remembering the basics:
1)
Love God
2) Love People
Open: Kelly, the boys and I moved to
One of our
favorite activities is camping. We love
to get out of town, away from the computer, away from the phone, out in the
woods, up in the mountains, back to the basics, where life is simple.
Simple – I like simple. Think I’ll
plan a camping trip. Let’s see, what do
I need?
-
Sleeping bag -
Flashlight - Bug Repellent
-
Therma-Rest - Boat - Camp Chair
-
Tent -
Firewood - Hatchet
-
Camp Stove -
Pump - Knife
-
Matches -
Food - Lantern
-
Raft -
Water - Cards
Oh yeah, I
might also need:
-
SUV
-
Camper Trailer
-
Jet Ski
What happened to my SIMPLE camping trip!!
We’re embarking on a
new series of messages entitled,
Simple is something we have to work hard for and we’ll be doing
that in the next few weeks at AF, through a series of messages entitled, “Simple
Church” which will help us focus on our process of becoming like
Jesus.
We live in a world
that is increasingly complex and it tends to gravitate toward complexity!
Think a little bit
about your own life...
Is it
simple or complex?
I tend to think of
myself as a pretty simple guy, but then I start thinking about things…
- Bikes – I have a road bike and
mountain bike (got a cruiser?) - Skis – X-C and downhill (got a pair
of rock skis or AT?) -
Vehicles – We have a van and a car (anyone have a
four-wheeler?) - Tires – Snow tires
now, and all-seasons stored under the deck! -
Computers – Got a desktop, laptop, and 2 at home (’97 and XP) -
TV Remotes – Seems like those things multiply! -
Credit Cards – Oh my! How many
statements come in your mail? -
Magazines – NG, NG Adventure, Xty Today, World,
Bicycling - Taxes – “My, oh
my!” W-2, 1099, 1040, 4361, 4090 -
Phones / Email accounts
Stop!
No doubt about it, we
live in a very complex world that seems to be getting more complicated.
People seem to be
hungry for simplicity.
Look, for instance, at
Apple Computer, the
Pioneers of SIMPLE
Eg: iMac
- They market a computer that you take out of one box, it has one cord, it has one button.
And if you want to manage your music and movies, just buy an iPod – just
plug it into the
Eg: iPod
– A musical device that has one button (with multiple functions), but one
button, nonetheless.
Apple has even taken
the notion of SIMPLE to their logo
Eg: Early
Apple Logo
Eg: Current
Apple Logo
Think about the
marketing of other companies:
Simple Shoes
(the name and design)
Southwest Airlines
– no food, pick your own seat, direct flights (no trips to
SIMPLE
has hit the
thinking of graphics, interior design and even search engines
Eg:
Eg: Yahoo!
Eg: Google
– 20-40 words, lots of white space / 75% of the search engine market!
These folks are
responding to a screaming need: the
world is getting smaller, but more complex.
Simple is
in.
Simple is
understandable.
Simple
works.
------------------------
But Simple is hard.
Look up The Second Law of Thermodynamics on
Wikipedia and you’ll get the definition:
“An expression of the universal law of increasing entropy.”
In other words… in nature, things tend to move from order to disorder in isolated systems.
It’s almost a law of our existence that things in
the world tend to move from simple
to complex.
The same is
true in the life of the church!
Look up The First Law of Churchdynamics
and you’ll see that things tend to move from simplicity to
complexity.
In other words… in churches, things tend to move from
straightforward to complicated in organized systems.
For instance… look at the Garden of Eden.
It was simple… God said, “Don’t eat the fruit.” But Eve made it complicated: “Don’t eat the fruit or touch it.”
One command and they made it complicated!
A few centuries or even millennia later, God gave his people
another set of commands – ten of them!
God had Moses go up the mountain, where he received the Ten
Commandments.
Ten.
Fast forward 1440 years to the time of Christ (and think of how
the simple becomes complex…)
Ten had become 613! (613?!) The Jews had
come up with 613 commandments.
Here’s how they figured it:
- There were 613
words in the Ten Commandments. -
248 positive commands / 365 negative commands
- 248 for all the
parts of the human body (as they knew it)
- 365 for every day
of the year
And they had categorized the rules into lesser and greater in
terms of importance.
And at the time of Jesus, there several different groups who had
their own take on the commands – Herodians,
Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Zealots – it was a
very complicated and complex religious world.
And these guys spent their days debating the rank of the commands.
Enter Jesus.
Jesus
didn’t think much of their complex rules and debates. You can see this in Matthew 22
Matthew
Matthew 22:23-33 – Encounter with the Sadducees, who
didn’t believe in angels, demons or the afterlife.
Matthew 22:34-40 – Encounter with the Pharisees,
specialists in law complexity.
Jesus
hated the rules and ranking of the commands of the Herodians,
Sadducees and Pharisees!
He
would rather hang out with tax collectors and “sinners”!
Jesus
saw how these people had erected a barrier between people and God by
fabricating a special monetary system for the temple, where they could make
money off people through the exchange.
It
infuriated him to see them turning a house of prayer into a “den of
robbers”. No wonder he threw over their
tables!
Jesus
stepped into a world where many different rabbis, with their own
interpretations filled the land. Their
special interpretation of the law and their teaching was referred to as their
“yoke”.
Jesus
despised the man-made complexity that these rabbis had laid upon the people.
The
“yoke” that was supposed to be a teaching tool of an elder teaching a youth had
become more like a back-pack filled with bricks, weighing people down!
Matthew 11:28-30 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle
and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my
yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
In a
world filled with ranked rules, religious
“funny money” and burdensome “yokes”, Jesus came
offering grace and a relationship with God.
Eg: Simple Church – Last fall Lavon handed me a book and said, “You need to read
this.”
Alliance Fellowship’s first service was Mother’s Day, in
1998. Do the math and you can see that
this year we’ll be celebrating a 10 year anniversary.
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking of where we’ve come and The
First Law of Church Dynamics has sure happened to us!
As pastors we went to a conference this past fall and I had to
chuckle when I heard the speaker say, “You know you’re in trouble when your
church’s Policy and Procedure Manual is thicker than the Bible!” J
So we’ve been trying to fight against the tendency to be complex:
“
Has become…
“Transforming hearts that transform the world.”
And we’re working on a logo that represents what we’re about.
<Logo>
Elders and Pastors went on a retreat last November. One of the things we did was compressed our
11 Core Values
Down to Five: Prayer,
Discipleship, Community, Cultural Engagement, World Missions
And our graphic that sought to represent the purposes of the
church:
<Purposes Graphic>
We have replaced with our “Circle of Life”.
We clearly want to “Transform hearts that transform the world,”
And a discipleship process that is clear, focused, indicates
movement and has every programmed aligned with it will help us reach our
mission.
Connect. Grow. Serve.
Reach. à Simple.
You’re going to be hearing about those things constantly in the
future and specifically in the next four weeks.
We want people to connect
with Christ.
We want people to grow
as followers of Jesus.
Disciples of Jesus learn to serve.
And as we become more and more like Jesus, we cultivate a
lifestyle that reaches out to our
family, other folks in the church, our co-workers, fellow students, our
community and the world.
And we’re going to cap the series off with Bob Fetherline,
Director of International Ministries for the C&MA on March 16th.
----------------
So what do we take home today?
Jesus took 613 of complexity and broke them down to two: SIMPLE
“Love God. Love
People.”
How do we love God?
I
gave this some thought and pondered:
“What makes me feel loved by my boys?”
I
feel loved by my boys when:
- When they don’t grumble.
- When they’re thankful.
- When they do the right thing without
being told.
- When they tell me so.
- When they’re glad to see me!
We
know we’re loving God when we enjoy Him.
Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the
LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
We
know we’re loving God when we savor the moment of each
day, enjoying the reality of the present.
It’s
all a gift from God’s hand – the good and the bad!
Love God.
Then
Love People.
How do we love people?
What
makes you feel loved? The things that
make me feel loved:
- When
somebody shows true appreciation for hard work.
- When
somebody notices.
- When
somebody asks thoughtful questions.
- When
somebody listens.
- When
somebody really seeks to understand.
- I
feel loved when somebody gives me a genuine greeting!
It’s
pretty SIMPLE.
What did Jesus say?
Love
your neighbor as… yourself!
Notice.
Pay attention to what makes you feel loved, then
go do the same!
Close: My boys will often say, “I love you,” in response to my own
declaration. One true way that I know
that my boys love me is when I obey them.
You want
to let God know you love Him?
Then obey this simple
command:
1 John
<Prayer>
Benediction