The Vineyard Church of North Grand Rapids, MI

The new year is upon us! My birthday is New Year's Day, so I was born in the spirit of Times Square celebration. I like bright lights, big crowds, loud noise, and dancing in the streets . . . at least the idea of dancing in the streets . . . or maybe just dancing in the driveway! I actually do remember once dancing with my wife in Dan and Dawn Borreson's driveway. I think we were waltzing to a Vince Gill country song. Let's party!

The new year always seems to begin with big parties, big decisions, big resolutions, and big speeches. You can bet there are going to be some big "Let's Change the World" speeches in Iowa. I'm not against it; Big is fun! Sometimes churches have big services. One of the biggest and best I've every attended was a mega-church service in which a runner in Liberace-style sequined outfit, entered the back of the auditorium to a grand orchestral crescendo, ran down the isle with a flaming torch and handed it to the lead pastor at the stroke of midnight. The choir sang, the congregation thundered its applause and, the lead pastor raised the torch toward heaven in praise to God. What a moment. I loved it. I wished that I had been that pastor lifting it toward heaven, thanking God through tears for the gift of a new year. I would have like to have seen you in that Liberace running suit!

I've always enjoyed drama (and being in the middle of it) . . . but sometimes it's only a small step from drama to hype and, the difference can hard to discern. Hype is excessive drama. Even in preparing for year-end talks like this, my mind tilts toward the heroic . . . God creating the world with just a word, Moses parting the Red Sea with his big stick, David facing down Goliath with his sling, Elijah ascending to heaven in a flaming chariot. I actually spent half a day this week working on a text from II Samuel in which David returns triumphantly from exile (a great story for men and women who are asking God for a fresh start, a second chance at their dreams). May be next year!

But, I'm older and wiser now, feeling sort of mellow, getting better at discerning what's real and what's just hype. This morning I'd like to invite you to turn in your Bible to a NT passage in which the Apostle Paul calls Christians like us to a little less drama and a little more reality-I Thessalonians 4:9-12. Paul didn't write this piece of advice on New Year's Eve, but I think his counsel to the Christians in Thessalonica fits our need. READ & PRAY.

I. LET'S AVOID NEW YEAR'S HYPE! (cf. 5:14)

Paul was concerned about people in the church in Thessalonica who were given to hype. Scholars aren't exactly sure what the source of all the hype and bad judgment might have been. Perhaps it was the hope of Jesus' imminent return. Within this NT church and it's meetings there may have been a strong emphasis on ESCHATOLOGICAL ECSTASY . . . Jesus could be coming back at any moment . . . are you ready brother? . . . nothing else matters . . . may he find you watching and waiting . . . skip work to watch and pray? Of course! Pay bills or give to missions? You shouldn't have to ask! It was a good thing taken to an extreme. Their excitement isn't much different than any other expressions of hype that sometimes stir up a church . . . like ours: HOLY SPIRIT HYSTERIA, MISSIONS MANIA, INTERCESSORY PRAYER TRAVAILATHONS, SPIRITUAL WARFARE TERRORS, GLORIOUS SECRET PLACE RETREATS, END-TIME PROPHETIC PANICS, or MESSIANIC HOLY LAND HYPE.

Paul describes the people caught up in the hype in II Thessalonians 5:14. He categorizes them as idle and disruptive. They clearly have too much time on their hands and too much energy at the end of the day. The word Paul uses paints a picture of an army breaking down in chaos . . . undisiciplined soliders with guns and grenades in their hands, breaking ranks, deciding to pursue missions of their own making. They're like Christians who think of themselves as God's Might Warriors but who are really a danger to the people around them. They don't have the unity or discipline to fight a battle together, much less win a war.

It could rightly be said of these folks that they were so heavenly minded that they were of no earthly good. Paul doesn't think they need teaching; they need a warning.

This passage invites us all to look at our lives, our families, and our church . . . take out the hype meter . . . and get a fix on the reality levels in our lives. When we think of our commitments, our ministry teams, our home group relationships, our worship participation on Sundays are we more like disciplined soldiers marching and fighting in rank and in step-each one true hearted and trustworthy, carrying his weight, covering the backs of the others. . . or more like soldiers, away without leave, tearing up a bar while others are engaged in battle?

Most of us would like to see our church be as healthy and fruitful as it can be in 2008, and our church is a reflection of our individual lives, isn't it? Isn't it? Paul wants us to know that great victories are won by disciplined soldiers, marching in rank and fighting together for a future worth living. The actors who some of us remember as Hogan's Hero's were funny, but they weren't real soldiers.
TRANS: Paul has goofy, non-productive Christians in mind when he gives his advice in 4:9. He is going to appeal to them on the basis, not of soldierly courage or military vision or of the glory of battle, but of brotherly love . . . an appropriate starting place for thinking about a new year. READ vv. 9-10

II. We all long for a future filled with love -Everything else is optional (vv. 9-10).

Yes, we all long for miracles and revivals and angel choirs when we think of our peculiar little church services and home groups. But, get us together with our families over a Christmas holiday and what we most deeply long for is to grow up and grow old surrounded by a spouse, children, grandchildren, and friends who accept us for who we are, love us in spite of our failings, want to be with us, and are proud of us. There's nothing better than spending Christmas or New Year's Eve with men and women who love us like flesh and blood. If we had to pick-revival at my church or a life filled with family-love, we'd pick "loving family and friends".

Paul has just gotten a report from Timothy on the health of this church, so he's heard that this is a truly loving group of people. These people don't just sit near each other on Sundays, they are lovingly investing in each other's lives, building their ministries to children and teens . . . worshipping and gathering in small groups . . . out of real love for each other. This is much different than saying, "If you love your church, raise your hand". This is caring enough to ask about another couple's marriage and praying for them . . . caring enough about another family's children to serve in Kids Church . . . caring enough about others' lonliness to become a home group host. We don't know about the numbers in their congregation, but by the time Paul writes II Thessalonians, he can say that reports are that their love for one another is dramatically increasing over time . . . NO HYPE.

Taught by God. This real world love is no mystery or expression of good luck. Paul is not referring to an OT or NT Bible passage. He's referring to the inner influence of the Holy Spirit (cf. v. 8). Jesus said that when the Holy Spirit would come, he would teach us Jesus' will and ways. The Holy Spirit is always nudging Christians toward deeper and more practical expressions of love for others. It's only natural for Christians to treat fellow Christians like flesh and blood family-even fellow Christians we don't know personally (like Christians who live in other parts of the region or the nation (i.e., Macedonia).

Some of our guys are going to step into this reality when they fly to New Orleans in a couple weeks to join in the effort to continue cleaning up and rebuilding that city. You could ask them, "Why are spending your own money to fly to New Orleans? Why are you using your vacation time to work yourself to the bone? How is it that you go and seem to step into relationships with complete strangers and feel like family?

I haven't asked them, but I'd expect them to say that they feel an inner stirring within to pay the price and go. That's the Holy Spirit. What these guys are feeling and doing is natural for Christians. TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO SIGN ON FOR THAT TRIP.

You may not be going to New Orleans next month, but maybe you're still deciding whether or not you'll contribute to today's SEEDS OF HOPE offering. If you followed your heart, where would it take you? If you released your heart to run with your money, how generous would your heart be?

If you're a Christian, filled with the Holy Spirit, you really ought to trust your heart-that inner sense of leading. That's the Holy Spirit. He nudges to treat single mothers and fellow Christians like brothers and sisters . . . so consistently that it just seems natural and right to give generously to Seeds of Hope. Selfish, tight-fisted Christians aren't normal. They're . . . (to quote Larry the Cable Guy) just not right.

Should you give more than last year? Paul says . . . give more and more (v. 10) as the years go by!

TRANS: Interestingly, Paul now goes on to tell his hyper-spiritual readers that . . .

III. Hard work is one of the best ways to show real love (v. 11)

If you want to fill 2008 with real love for the people around you, consider the possibilities of hard work. Real go-to-bed-tired work . . . not praying and prophesying ‘till the cows come home . . . not worshipping and praying down spiritual strong holds ‘till Jesus returns . . . just getting down to business and making yourself useful in practical ways. . . hard work! THREE SOLID STEPS INTO THE NEW YEAR.

A. Stop marketing your opinions and look for practical needs you can meet.

Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life . . . like the Mennonites and the Amish. Don't put your views on highway bill boards. Don't take out ads in the newspaper. Don't preach your views around the office coffee pot. Just look around for practical needs you can meet and quietly pick up a mop or a laptop computer (whatever is needed). The best way to show love-real love-is to look around you for needs you can meet and quietly get busy doing what needs to be done. Help a neighbor with a car repair . . . give to the Seeds of Hope offering . . . volunteer for a Single Moms Servefest . . . clear the dishes after the meal . . . run for a seat on a school board, become a reading tutor, disappear from GR for a week to help clean up New Orleans.

Dick Beard, a fellow Christian, died last year. He was a child through the Great Depression. He graduated valedictorian of his high school class and scored a full scholarship to veterinary school. Yet soon after graduation, his father died of tuberculosis. So, instead of going to college, Dick worked several jobs to provide for his mother and his three younger siblings. Then, when he was 26, his country called him into service overseas. After four years he returned and found employment in a job he found mundane. His family needed him. At a time in American when most people got married in their early 20's, Dick waited until he was 29 to marry because he wanted to make sure his siblings, as he put it, "launched well". When his younger sister was nominated to her high school homecoming court, he heard that she was going to decline the honor because she didn't have a dress. Dick found her a dress. To this day Dick's family is puzzled by how he got the money. Dick Beard lived a quiet life that enriched the people around him in a thousand little, but meaningful ways. He didn't campaign for his private views; he didn't strut his stuff. He wasn't a great talker. He wasn't into hype. He just rolled up his sleeves and went to work for the people he loved.

Thinking about making 2008 a really exceptional year? No hype is necessary. Be the person who quietly picks up the broom, quietly puts some money in the offering, quietly prepares the food, quietly serves in Kids Church, and gets the work done. Talk is cheap. Hard work is one of the best ways to show real love.

B. Focus on the differences YOU can make.

You should mind your own business. That's a New Year's Resolution! Of course we can all see all the ways everyone else is failing to measure up, failing to pull their own weight, failing to get it right, failing to earn our respect. We can all see all the different ways the glasses around us are half empty. If you're becoming an arm chair consultant, a back row critic, an aspiring talk show host . . . please show some real love by focusing on what you personally can do to make the lives of other people around you a little bit easier. Don't be a busy body, spreading the word on other people's weaknesses, failures, unbelief, struggles, and sins.

Thinking about making 2008 a really great year? Just focus on what you can do to become a better employee, a more helpful neighbor. Focus on doing what you can do to strengthen your church . . . ministries to children and teens. Stop performing autopsies on your supervisor at work, your pastor, your professor to examine the causes of their breakdowns. Focus on doing what you can do. BECOME THE DIFFERENCE YOU WANT TO SEE IN YOUR WORLD.

C. Get a good job and give it your best effort.

Work with your hands. Don't just spend your days folding your hands in prayer or raising those hands in praise. Giving money is a great way to show love to fellow Christians in need. To become a generous giver, you've got to get a good job and give it your best effort.

Paul is not thinking like the average American Christian. Paul actually thinking that the career I choose and the attitude I take to work will actually be influenced by how much I love my church and care about people in need. Did you get that? We show our love for one another here in church by seeking out good jobs and giving those jobs our best efforts so that . . . a) we can pay our own bills and not have to ask others to take care of us and, b) we can be generous in building the church and blessing others.

If we spell faith R-I-S-K, maybe we spell love W-O-R-K. Have you ever said to yourself, "I go to work every Monday morning at . . . (you fill in the blank) because I love my church and my community and the people in need around me". That would be a different way to think about our jobs, wouldn't it? I go to my job day after day, not because I love my job, but because I love my fellow Christians-like family-and I want to bless them with my finances as well as my heart. Some of the most loving people you will ever meet will come to home group a little bit late, a little bit tired and quiet because of how hard they've worked during the day at their jobs.

TRANS: Want to make 2008 a special year? Forget religious hype; dial down your prophetic panic. Look around for the practical needs you can meet. Don't wait to be asked or paid. Stop talking about how others and letting you down and focus on the differences you can make right where you are. Find a good job and give it your best effort. Why? (Paul gives two reasons)
IV. A YEAR FROM NOW . . . (v. 12)

A. You'll be strengthening our reputation in the community. We are people of faith who take care of business, get things done, and add life to the city.

You'll be known as a person who gives more than he or she takes.

CONCLUSION:

In the book Middlemarch, British novelist George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) writes about an average, ordinary woman named Dorothea whose life was anything but heroic. She wasn't the Joan of Arc in her neighborhood. She didn't hear voices or shout from roof tops. She was no drama queen. She didn't take refugees into her home. She didn't die in battle. No one could accuse her of hyping up her walk with God. She just took care of her family's needs, added to the beauty of the neighborhood with her gardening, stopped to help a lost child here and an elderly neighbor there, served on church and school committees, and always gave to the collections for the poor.

"[Dorthea's] full nature, like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs" Middlemarch, George Eliot

Who knows what 2008 will bring. If revival breaks out, angels show up in church, and Jesus returns . . . glory to God. A few of us may become movie stars. Several of us might win the lottery. We may end up rich and famous after all! But, probably not. If 2008 turns out to be my last year on earth, I'm OK with the realization that no one is going to petition congress to have me buried along the Grand River next to President Ford.

But, in quiet ways, Grand Rapids is going to become a better city and Vineyard North is going to become a healthier church because of average folks like us, getting up day after day, doing small things with great love. Average folks like us come to church on Sundays like this and look for personal opportunities to meet practical needs . . . ordinary people like us gather with our home groups and focus on the differences we can make to strengthen community life, regular people like us reach deep into our pockets and-together- give an extraordinary Seeds of Hope offering that gives hope to our brothers and sisters in Christ, and changes our reputation in the city.

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