Simple Prayer: Luke 18:9-14

We are going to spend some time over the next several weeks studying about prayer. It is a paradox to me that prayer in one sense is so simple that a child can pray quite effectively and yet we adults frequently struggle with prayer. It is easy to feel guilty about prayer. No one feels like they pray enough. Our prayers often can seem self centered asking, asking, and asking God for all types of things.

It is not my desire to add to the guilt. I would like us to pray more, to pray more fruitfully but not as some act of self-control and self-will. I hope our understanding of prayer will increase as well as making prayer something more natural than something that is forced.

I. The Simplicity of Prayer
What is prayer? There are all kinds of definitions but today we begin with a simple one-- a definition defined in this short parable in Luke 18:9-14. The parable is simple, a comparison of two men’s prayers. One prayer is lengthy and seems to be reminding God about the man’s dedication and faithfulness. The other man’s prayer is short, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
Most of us have never met a Pharisee or a tax collector, for that matter. Maybe we should modernize the parable a bit. “Two people went into the airport chapel to pray. One person was on the last leg of a mission trip. The other person wore a biker jacket, had a huge gut and smelled of beer and cigarettes. The first person prayed, ‘God, praise your name for that awesome mission trip. We were able to do so much good in your name, help so many people. We worked hard and I am tired but at least I haven’t wasted my life like some people. God bless me on this trip home, Amen.’ The other person prayed, ‘God, I blew it again. Please have mercy on me.’ Guess what? This person went home right before God and not the first.” How does that parable make you feel? Are you a little offended?

The parable is directed toward religious people and that should make us sit up and pay attention, after all we are religious people. I don’t know about you but it is hard not to feel better than some people. I like watching those police video shows. Livonia even gets on there once in a while. As I watch some moronic episode I think, “people are so stupid.” The implication being I’m not. Of course my stupidity has never been caught on videotape and shown to millions of people.

A story of two prayers-- one is heard and the other doesn’t make it to the ceiling. As we think about prayer today we need to try and understand what we can learn about prayer from this parable.

The definition I see here is, “Prayer is a human heart crying out to God.” It is a simple definition for a simple prayer. All of us have prayed prayers like this. It may have been about some sin in our lives. It may have been about a crisis of health, relationship, or loss. This is the prayer of desperation, the end-of-your-rope prayer. Why would God listen to this prayer and not the other? It seems wrong doesn’t it? When was the last time the tax collector prayed to God? Days? Months? Years? The other man may have been a Pharisee but he prayed often. He was serious about his faith. What’s wrong with this picture?

II. Learning from Simple Prayer
The main point Jesus is making in the parable has to do with pride and humility. But there are other lessons we can observe from this parable. Prayer doesn’t have to be long or elaborate to be heard by God. Children can pray some profound prayers, as those of us who are parents know. Even though we know this, our prayers do seem to become more complicated as we grow older. God is looking for more than length and beautiful language.

Another thing we see is that anyone can pray. You don’t have to be a good person for God to hear your prayer. You don’t have to have a Bible degree. This is simple prayer, not difficult, not complicated, not even profound. There are other examples of simple prayer in scripture. Peter crying out, “Lord, save me!” (Mat 14:30) as he sinks into the sea. Another simple prayer is the thief who prays, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” (Lk 23:42)
To say that prayer is simple does not mean that it is easy. The simple prayer, the cry of the human heart comes in desperation and intense emotion. It may be the emotion of fear or despair or anger or awe. Whatever the emotion, it is that emotion that drives a person to cry out to God in a moment of intense crisis. I don’t like those intense emotions myself. Like most people I want to avoid the painful situations that drive me to simple prayer.

The thing about simple prayer is that it is honest. As I read this week, researchers have found at least three situations where we are not ourselves. The average person tends to put on airs when they are in the lobby of a fancy hotel. Another is when a person enters a showroom to buy a new car. And the third is on Sunday morning when try to get God to believe that we have been good all week. God is not looking for perfection when we pray; he is looking for honesty.
Jesus’ point in the parable is that there is humility in simple prayer. Simple prayer is a recognition that who I am, what I do, is totally inadequate in the face of my need. The barrier that pride represents in prayer is enormous. To truly pray a simple prayer we must abandon pride to come to God.

In Luke, this parable is followed by the story of children being brought to Jesus and the story of the rich young ruler. I don’t think this is accidental. The children and the ruler make requests of Jesus. The children are blessed and the ruler turns away in disappointment. Jesus wanted to bless the ruler but couldn’t. The children just held out their arms to Jesus to receive whatever he wanted to give them. It was a simple prayer.

Livonia Church of Christ: July 17,2005

Faith That Produces: Love

2 Peter 1:5-9; Colossians 3:14

Introduction: Today we come to the end of Peter’s list of things to add to our faith. You might think this would be an easy lesson, love. The Bible is full of statements about love. It is one of the central themes of scripture. While it is good to study and know about love today we want to listen to what Peter is saying to us.

I. A Divine Word
The Greek language had three basic words that we would translate “love”. The word frequently used in pre-Christian literature was “Eros”. Our word erotic derives from Eros. As in our day and time the Greeks had a lot more interest in the Eros type of love than agape. Another word for love that we looked at last week could be described by our word for friendship or love in a family.

Judaism and Christianity chose another word that became frequently used in scripture for love, the word “agape”. The word “Eros” is not used in scripture and “philo” is used only a few times while the root word “agape” is used over 200 times. While “Eros” described sexual or what we would call romantic love, the word “agape” was used for a love that was more focused on another rather than satisfying one’s own desire or needs. Agape love is action oriented seeking the good of the one who is loved.

How do we define love? While the Greeks did have words with enough flexibility to describe different types of love the Christian community still had to fill the word with meanings that communicated what God’s love is.

Scripture puts it plainly; God is love, 1 Jn. 4:16. God is revealed as a God of love in the Old Testament where the word “hesed” or “loving kindness” is key to understanding God. God is faithful and loving in the face of his people’s sin and disobedience, Lam 3:22-24.
In the New Testament God’s love can only be understood in light of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. John defines God’s love as God giving his Son for the world, Jn 3:16. It is this act of giving and ultimate sacrifice for you and me that defines love in the Christian context. God shows us what love is, Rm 5:8; 1 Jn 4:9-10.

II. Adding Love
In this series we began with faith and end with love. When we love we participate in the divine nature. We are created in the image of God and we are truer to that image when we love more than any other time. The goal of goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, and brotherly love is godlike agape love. A failure to add agape love to our faith is to make these things empty as Paul showed, 1 Cor. 13:1-3.

Since this kind of love is action oriented then what actions arise out of agape love? First, agape love is giving but giving in a special sense. Most of us are giving people. We enjoy giving to people we love, our children, our family and friends. We talk about this characteristic of giving in relationship to God who is overwhelmingly generous to us. But that is not agape love.
Jesus puts it plainly in the Sermon on the Mount in Matt 5:43-47. God’s giving is not just toward us but toward all people, good, bad, or indifferent. “Love your enemies,” Jesus tells his followers because that is what God does. That love is shown in giving and blessing those who are against us. What? Love the people who bombed the London subways this past week? Our desire is to destroy them, hate them, and not love them. I don’t know what your feelings were as the story unfolded this week but my feelings weren’t love for the bombers. I hope we can begin to understand how far we are from what God desires us to be.

As a church we set a goal to grow to be more like Jesus. We view ourselves as a friendly church, a loving church. And we are, among ourselves. It becomes more difficult when we think about people different from us and even more difficult when we think about those who may not like Christians. The fact is, we need to be adding love to our faith because the measure of our faith is not how we are but how God is.

Another aspect of agape love related to giving is our word, for-giving. Again, the cross becomes the measure of what this means as Jesus prays, “Father, forgive them,” Lk 23:34. The call for us to forgive is as plain as scripture can make it--as we forgive so we are forgiven.
The forgiveness of God is something we proclaim and celebrate. There is nothing that lifts our hearts more than to know that forgiveness. People who come up from the waters of baptism find a burden lifted that often they were not even aware of. God forgives; God gives life; God loves us.

We know this but how often are we burdened with unforgiveness, not God toward us but us towards others? Christians carry around offenses and anger toward those who have wronged them. Sometimes these are serious sins and betrayals but sometimes the offenses are petty and forgiveness is denied. We cannot love those we hate and fear. We cannot have agape love towards those we do not forgive. We cannot love God without loving the people around us, people who oppose us, people who may hate us, or just people who rub us the wrong way.
When Peter calls on Christians to add agape love to their Christian walk he is not asking us to do an easy thing, he is asking us to partake in the divine nature, to grow and produce the fruit that God desires to see in his people.

All the things that Peter lists here, from faith to love, are necessary for us to live productive lives in God’s house. Yet the challenge to add agape love to our lives may be the greatest challenge of all.


Livonia Church of Christ: July 10, 2005

Faith That Produces: Brotherly Love

2 Peter 1:5-9

Introduction: We have been looking at what we add to our faith in order to be effective in our spiritual walk. This week’s lesson and next week will be somewhat of a contrast. Both will deal with love and yet we often breeze over the word and concept of brotherly kindness or love to get to the more serious word for love, agape. Peter didn’t do that.
We live in a world that needs brotherly love, brotherly kindness.
I. A Neglected Concept
We live in a world where the concept of brotherly love or kindness is decreasing it seems. One example is a trend in architecture that separates family members. The children don’t fight as much because they can avoid each other. They don’t fight but they also don’t learn to be kind, to love in spite of the differences. As one person lamented, “People don’t even gather in the same spot to watch TV anymore.”
The decline in Christian brotherly love is seen also in the decline in civility towards people who differ with us. Opponents are shouted down, insulted, and called names. Only ugliness seems to be seen on the news, only the outrageous gets people’s attention and a hearing.
I wish I could say this was only outside the church community but in truth Christians do much the same. Instead of kindness we see the tactics of the world when Christians disagree and fight.
While we might want to rush on and talk about “agape” love I don’t think we can until we have some idea about brotherly love. The implication from Peter’s list is that brotherly love comes before the agape love that we will consider next week.
The word that Peter uses here is “philadelphia” which we know as the name of a city. It is made up of two Greek words, “phileo” which is love or affection, “adelphia” a word for brothers. “Phileo” is used less frequently in Scripture than “agape” even though it was a more common word in that day and time. It was often joined with other words. For example philosophy is to love wisdom. The word Peter uses here describes the love between family members.
II. A Human Word
Brotherly love is a very human concept, one that focuses on our relationships in the here and now. It is easy to forget how vital these relationships are. This is a word for community or family or church. The question is, “How do we add brotherly love to our faith?”
This doesn’t come naturally but it has to be purposefully worked at. I saw this in Kenya when we were at the Koma Rock church. We had about eight different tribes among our members and some were traditional enemies. It might be easy to settle for a false community in such cases much like the home I mentioned earlier. Everyone could go into their corner and avoid those that they don’t like or disagree with. It might be a type of peace but it isn’t brotherly love. Conflict doesn’t negate community and can even make a community stronger if brotherly love is present.
I don’t know your level of brotherly love. Some may feel like they are on the outside here. Others may feel I have my circle of friends and that is enough for me. We must add brotherly love, in increasing measure in order to remain productive in our faith. Complacency in this area is poison to our spiritual life.
Adding brotherly love begins with a decision, a decision to reach out, to build relationships with people. So many of us sit back and wait on others to take the initiative. Peter calls on Christians to add to their faith. That means action on our part, not passivity. It means taking an interest in others, learning about them, doing things they like to do in order to spend time with them.
We build brotherly love by listening to each other. James put it well when he wrote, James 1:19. Listening is a skill that often seems in short supply in our world of endless words. We need to listen to each other. Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it this way, “He who can no longer listen to his brother will soon no longer be listening to God, either.”[1]
One of the best ways to build brotherly love is working together. Our mission team is in Honduras for two weeks. They will come back closer to each other because of those two weeks. If you want to add brotherly love to your faith then join in some work or ministry that is going on. Vacation Bible school is coming up. People are still needed to do all kinds of things. Maybe working with children is not your thing but there are lots of other tasks that need doing and you will get to know the person you work with better.
We build brotherly love through our home groups. Those will be starting again the end of September. These groups study together, eat together, work together, and pray together. The result is they add brotherly love to their faith as well as other qualities that Peter has listed in this passage.
Lee Iacocca once asked legendary football coach Vince Lombardi what it took to make a winning team. The book records Lombardi's answer: "There are a lot of coaches with good ball clubs who know the fundamentals and have plenty of discipline but still don't win the game. Then you come to the third ingredient: if you're going to play together as a team, you've got to care for one another. You've got to love each other. Each player has to be thinking about the next guy and saying to himself: 'If I don't block that man, Paul is going to get his legs broken. I have to do my job well in order that he can do his.'
"The difference between mediocrity and greatness," Lombardi said that night, "is the feeling these guys have for each other."2]
Brotherly love isn't just an afterthought for Peter. It is vitally important to faith that is productive. If we add it, in increasing measure, as Peter commands we will grow and so will our church.

Livonia Church of Christ: July 3, 2005
[1] Leadership, vol. 16.4
[2] From Leadership vol. 15.3

Rusty and Laura Campbell

We said goodbye to Laura and Rusty a bit over a week ago. They returned to Mississippi where they packed a trailer and started the long journey to Portland, OR last Saturday. In a few weeks they will be returning to Japan where they will work as vocational missionaries in Hitachi.

These past three years have been a wonderful blessing. They, along with our other daughter Julie and her husband Josh, have been living in Memphis, TN where the guys have been in school. This has allowed us to see them fairly frequently and to get to know both couples. Laura and Rusty served three years in Japan just after they were married. They have a love for that country and the people there. Their work as English teachers brings them into contact with many different people and allows them to build relationships for sharing the gospel. I am sure the Lord will use them in His kingdom building.

It also gives us an excuse for going back to Japan again. We had such an enjoyable time there and found Japan a fascinating culture. Diane and I continue to be excited to see what God will do through them. Please keep them in your prayers as they travel and make the transition to a new work.

World Christian Literature Outreach

This past Sunday at the Livonia Church of Christ we had a guest speaker, Russ Lawson. Russ is a missionary coworker from Kenya. Back in the 1990's we were both supported and overseen by the Livonia church. Russ replaced me in Kisumu after we moved to Nairobi in 1989. While in Kisumu Russ, along with some others, started the World Christian Literature Outreach. It began as an attempt to help young Christians in new churches come to maturity in Christ. When Russ and Melody returned to the States about 1995 Russ, who is a printer, began producing materials here for churches in Kenya and other parts of East Africa. The work has grown and now World Bible School wants to partner with WCLO to distribute these materials around the world to young Christians. I found it very exciting and encouraging to here what the Lord is doing through Russ and this ministry. If you would like to learn more please visit their wedsite: http://www.wclo.net/.

Russ is now trying to raise funds so that they can expland this ministry. The Livonia church has been involved with this work from the beginning and will be taking more of an oversight role in the future. I want to highly recommend this work. God bless you Russ and may He expand your influence.

Our son, Matthew, graduated from Plymouth Christian Academy on June 9th. He has been such a joy to have in our home these past 18 years. In a few weeks he will be leaving for Abilene Christian University. Diane and I are looking forward to what he will do with his life and how he will serve the Lord.

Matthew has shown great patience with me using him and family situations as sermon illustrations. I try not to over do it but he has taught me many things through the years. I hope I have passed a few things on to him also.

This is Michaela Grace, born April 30, 2005 to Josh and Julie Marcum. Diane and I are so happy with our first grandchild. This picture was taken on Monday May 2 after I arrived from Michigan. Josh graduated with his M.Div. degree on May 7th so we were able to be there the entire week. God has blessed our family in so many ways through the years and Michaela is the latest blessing. Josh, Julie and Michaela will be moving to Bolivia in January 2006 and be involved in a church planting effort in that country. What a blessing to have children who love the Lord and desire to serve Him.
A proud Babu with his granddaughter.

This is my sermon from June 19th and is part of a series I am now preaching from 2 Peter 1:5-9. Several of the central ideas came from Jerry Bridges book, The Practice of Godliness.

Faith That Produces:
Godliness
2 Peter 1:5-9; 1 Timothy 4:8

Introduction: This lesson has been difficult to prepare. After all, what is “godliness”? I don’t think I have ever preached a sermon about godliness before today. I have referenced the word in a sermons, “God wants us to be godly people," but what does that mean? How does one become godly?

I. What is it?
When we start looking at other words that are used to translate this word we come up with words like “piety” or “reverent”. These are not words we use every day and they don’t help us a lot in understanding. Another word that could be used is “devoted”. We do use this word in various contexts like, “He is a devoted husband,” or “She is a devoted wife.”

I think most people would define this word in terms of character, that is “godliness” is being like God or Christ in character. God is love, therefore we should love; God is forgiving therefore we should forgive. This is not a bad approach but it doesn’t really fit what Peter is trying to say.
While we may have difficulty in defining godliness we generally recognize it when we see it in a person. There are some qualities that I believe are part of the concept. First, is the quality that can be described as “fear of the Lord”. This is language we have shied away from because fear is such a negative thing. We don’t like to be afraid. Yet the Bible speaks of the need for people to fear God. Fear in many ways is a healthy thing; it helps us avoid things and situations that are dangerous and bad. In a biblical sense fear of the Lord is to honor and respect our Creator. Fear of the Lord is also based on the concept that God will call us to account for our words and actions. We understand these feelings when we think about how we react to police. Respect and fear are companion feelings because the police represent the power of civil government and its laws. Paul, quoting from the OT makes a lack of fear of God a sign of those who are under sin, Rom. 3:18. Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, Prov. 9:10. It is our motivation in telling others about God, 2 Cor. 5:10-11.

If fear of God is one part of godliness then love for God is the other part. Only a Christian who understands the fear of God can appreciate the love of God. John tells us, “God is love,” 1 Jn. 4:8, and that love is demonstrated by God sending Jesus to die for us. Fear of God puts us in awe of his power, holiness and justice. God’s love for us calls for a response that goes from righteous fear to reciprocated love. The chief command of scripture is to love God. It is a love that is learned.

It is the combined power of these two characteristics, fear and love, that leads to devotion, to a desire for God. Psa. 42 states, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.” This is the essence of godliness, a devotion and desire for God.
The face of godliness can be seen in various people in scripture. David is one who showed this quality when he wrote in Ps 27:4,
One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple.

Paul is another who stateed it so well when he wrote in Phil 3:10-11,
"I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. "
It is easy to admire these great people of God and then to think that is way beyond us. But Peter calls on us to add this to our faith so it is not just for the great but also for us.

II. Learning Devotion
We become devoted to that which we love and honor. It doesn’t just happen but we become devoted in our thoughts and actions. But where do we begin? One way to begin is to think about God. I would challenge you to think about him, take a mental time out from what you are doing and consider God and be in awe of him. It may be contemplating a flower this time of year and thinking about the God who made it. It may be watching birds or clouds or a sunrise or sunset. You can look at a person at work and think about the God who created that person. You can remember your spouse, your children, your friends and think of God who brings these good things into your life. Thinking about God is not easy. It is a discipline but it doesn’t necessarily take a lot of time, just a pause to consider God.
A second way to build devotion, to add godliness to our lives is the way of thankfulness. There have been times when I have become angry with Diane. Usually the way I begin to get over that anger is to consider what Diane has done for me and being thankful for those things. The more things I am thankful for the pettier my anger becomes until it is just not that important. It is easy to forget to be thankful. Circumstances in life can be awful at times and they consume our attention but the more we can find things for which to thank God, the less consuming they will become. This too is a discipline and that requires practice.
Diane and all our children play the piano. It was a real battle to get our children to practice. They all said they hated the piano at one time or another but Diane was more stubborn than they are. Practice was essential. Playing scales was and is necessary. The more they practiced, the better they became until, and amazingly enough, they began to enjoy playing the piano. All of them have thanked Diane for making them learn. Adding godliness is like that also. It is tough at first; we may not like it. Yet the more we practice godliness the easier it becomes until we find a growing devotion to God. Listen to Peter and add godliness to your faith.

Livonia Church of Christ: June 19, 2005

Welcome to my blog

What an amazing two weeks it has been. This morning we put my mother, Nadine Stephens, on her plane back to Portland, OR. She was the last of our guests to leave after coming to be a part of Matthew's high school graduation celebration. Besides graduation Julie and Josh were here with our new granddaughter Michaela who is about five weeks old. She is our first grandchild and my mother's first great grandchild so that was special for her to hold Michaela. Laura and Rusty were also here and this was our last time to see them before they leave for Japan and their work there. Julie, Josh, and Michaela will be moving to Bolivia in January 2006 to begin a mission work in that country. We are very proud of these two couples and their desire to serve our Lord.

The graduation party had about 150 guest come during the four hour come-and-go affair. We had great weather and just a wonderful time with some many coming to our home and congratulating Matt. Diane's parents, Dean and Ruth Clutter, came from Coldwater, MI with Diane's sister so we had both sides of the family here for Matt's special day. He officially graduated from Plymouth Christian Academy, Thursday June 9th. We are looking forward with anticipation to see what he decides to do with his life.

It was wonderful having all the family here though it was a bit crowded in our house for about a week. We are greatly blessed with our children and our sons-in-law and now Michaela.

My mother is a bit feeble and can longer see so it is difficult for her to travel but we are so glad she was able to come and participate. We may get to see her again in a couple of months when my niece gets married in August.

Today I feel so very blessed as a human being with family. God has truly been good to us!