December 2011 Newsletter

FROM THE PASTOR:  

Remember:  Jesus is Better than Santa—

Santa lives at the North Pole.  Jesus is everywhere. 

Santa rides in a sleigh. Jesus rides on the wind and walks on the water. 

Santa comes just once a year.  Jesus is an ever-present help in time of need.

Santa fills your stocking with goodies.  Jesus supplies all your needs.

Santa comes down your chimney uninvited.  Jesus stands at the door of your heart and knocks.

You have to stand in line to see Santa.  Jesus is as close as the mention of His name.

Santa lets you sit on his lap.  Jesus lets you rest in His arms.

Santa doesn’t know your name, all he can say is “Hi little boy or girl, What’s your name?”  Jesus knew your name before anyone else did. He knows your address.  He knows your past and your future and he even knows how many hairs are on your head.

Jesus has a heart full of love.

Jesus offers health, help and hope.

Santa says “You better not cry.”

Jesus says “Cast all your cares on me, for I care for you.

Santa’s little helpers make toys.  Jesus makes new life, mends wounded hearts, repairs broken homes, and builds mansions in heaven.

Santa may make you chuckle.  Jesus gives you joy that is our strength.

While Santa puts gifts under your tree, Jesus became our gift and died on the cross. 

It’s obvious there is really no comparison.  Jesus is still the reason for the season.

 FELLOWSHIP DINNER

 This month’s fellowship dinner will be held Wednesday December 7^th at 6:30 pm in the fellowship hall.  Everyone is welcome, even if you don’t have time to make something to bring.

FELLOWSHIP BIBLE STUDY GATHERING

Those interested in a time of sharing, praying, and fellowshipping together are welcome to gather at the home of Henry Procopio on Wednesday December 21^st    at 6:30 pm.  This is a monthly gathering but anyone is welcome to come whenever they can come. The group will be studying the Gospel of Luke.  You can start at any time.  Desserts are provided.

UPCOMING DATES

January 7^th                    Unhanging of the Greens

CHURCH CLEANING SCHEDULE

For December 4^th           Steve & Sheri Lain

For December 11^th         Matt & Renee Huestis

For December 18^th         Brenda & Tony Alcorn   

For December 25^th         Open

For January 1^st               Open

COMMUNION

We will celebrate Communion Sunday, December 4^th. 

TRUSTEES MEETING

The Trustees will meet Thursday December 8^th at 6:30pm.  The trustees are:  Steve Lain, Doug Baxter, Grady Garton, Henry Procopio, Tim Garrett, Martha Neeley, Patsy Clark, Sandra Robinson.

CHILDREN’S CHRISTMAS PARTY

The Children’s Christmas Party with Pizza and fun and a visit by Santa will take place after church on Sunday December 11^th.

 CHURCH CHRISTMAS DINNER

 A sheet is being passed around at church to sign up for our annual Christmas Dinner at The Rawlings, 5395 Rawlings Road, Joelton, Friday December 16^th at 6:30pm.  The cost for the buffet is $20.75/person and your payment can be given to Sandra Robinson.  Each person should bring a wrapped gift for the “dirty Santa” part of the evening!

CHRISTMAS SERVICES

Our Christmas Eve Service will be held surrounded by the beauty of poinsettias and candlelight at 5:30pm on December 24^th.

On Christmas Day we will celebrate the birth of our Savior at 10:30am. 

MEMBER ADDRESSES NEEDED

The church is responsible for keeping up with its members’ addresses even if they move.  We are missing addresses for the following members:  Charlie Brown, Johnetta Brown, Mitch and Vickie Skelton.  If you can get an address and phone number for any of these people please write it down and give it to the pastor. 

WHERE THERE’S A WILL THERE’S A WAY

It requires proper planning for your survivors to avoid probate and minimize estate taxes upon your death.  When you are doing this, don’t forget to remember your church in your will. 

ARE YOU HAVING DIFFICULTY HEARING DURING WORSHIP?

Our damaged hearing assistance system has been replaced.  This system allows you to sit anywhere you want to in the sanctuary and hear anything that is being broadcast over the microphones through the use of special receivers and earphones.  If you would like to try one, ask the pastor. 

JOELTON HOPE CENTER –Neighbors Helping Neighbors

The Hope Center is located 212 Gifford Place, between Curves and the Laundromat.  There are now over 170 client families being helped by our center.  This does not include homeless persons and persons just passing through who are in need.

A barrel is in the entryway of the church to receive donations for the Joelton Hope Center.  [You can also take them directly to the Hope Center.]  There is always a need for cooking oil, sugar, corn meal and flour.  These are items that the center has to buy most often.  There is also a need for diapers size 4 and 5. 

The Hope Center is open Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 10-4 and 10-2 Saturday.  The Hope Center Board set a goal of being open 6 days a week, so additional volunteers are needed any day Monday-Saturday.   Call the Hope Center at 876-1778 if you can help.

CHURCH BLOG SITE Update

If you haven’t visited the church blog site, go to www.forestgroveumctn.blogspot.com. Each sermon is posted there as they are delivered and most times there will be a link to an audio of that sermon. The monthly newsletters will also be posted. You can post comments, questions and even things you have for sale.

If you want to post something other than a comment on that particular sermon, just email Peg and she’ll post it for you (pegbillman@yahoo.com). If you want to be notified when something new is posted, become a follower of the blog. Soon I hope to have a Facebook page for Forest Grove, too, so keep checking for that on the blog or in this newsletter. If you have an interest in being an admin for a Facebook page, let me know!

Forest Grove Prayer Chain

Forest Grove has a prayer chain that is called when emergency needs arise during the week needing prayer right away.  To start the prayer chain all you need to do is call Janice Baxter with your prayer request—876-0489.

EMMANUEL OUTREACH

This year’s Emmanuel Outreach Christmas party for needy children in the Joelton community will be held December 10^th at the St. Lawrence Community Center.  Eighty five children will be given Christmas gifts and the Joelton Hope Center will give each of the families a Christmas dinner food box.  Many thanks to all those who contributed to this project and to Jennifer Lee and Donna Kemp for shopping for the gifts.  Help is needed to wrap the gifts at St. Lawrence Community Center Sunday December 4^th at 3pm.  Bring scissors and tape.

 COOKIE EXCHANGE

Saturday, December 3^rd we’ll meet in Fellowship Hall at 9am to exchange cookies. Plan to bring as many as you can to exchange. Bring extra containers and make up gift boxes to give away to our shut-ins if you don’t “need” a lot yourself!

OAKWOOD CHRISTMAS BAZAAR

Oakwood UMC’s United Methodist Women will be holding their annual Christmas Bazaar Saturday December 3^rd 9-3.  Soup and Sandwiches will be served all day!  There will be homemade desserts, crafts, gifts and their famous fried pies.  The church is located at 1001 Old Pinnacle Road, Joelton. 

Un-HANGING OF THE GREENS

Volunteers are needed to gather at the church at 9 am on Saturday January 7^th to UN-decorate the church from the Christmas Season.  Many hands will make quick work of it!

CHRISTMAS CAROLING

Pastor Billman and Brenda Alcorn will be taking a bunch of Christmas Carolers to the homes of some of our shut-ins and elderly members to sing and bring them communion on Saturday December 3^rd.  The gang will leave the church parking lot at 3 pm.  If you would like to join the fun and bring joy to some of our members meet in the parking lot at 2:45. 

ADVENT COIN FOLDERS

Advent coin folders are available this month in the entryway to the church. By saving quarters during the weeks of Advent by Christmas Eve you will have collected $20. Our coin folders collection will go to our local and foreign mission projects. Local: Joelton Hope Center and Aldersgate Renewal Ministries. Foreign: the Wertzes in Tanzania and the Harrisons in ministry to the Muslims in the Middle East and the Billmans in Brazil.

A CHRISTMAS VERSION OF I Corinthians 13

As you prepare your heart and home for Christmas this year, consider the following words of wisdom and have Christ be the center and essence of your celebration.

If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows,
strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls, but do not show love to
my family, I'm just another decorator.
If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of
Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a
beautifully adorned table at mealtime, but do not share the true meaning of
Christmas, I'm just another cook.
If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing
home and give all that I have to charity, but do not demonstrate
kindness to strangers, it profits me nothing.
If I attend a myriad of holiday parties and sing in
the choir but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.
Love stops the cooking to hug the child.
Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the husband.
Love is kind, though harried and tired.
Love doesn't envy another's home that has
coordinated Christmas china and table linens.
Love doesn't yell at the kids to get out of the
way, but is thankful they are there to be in the way.
Love doesn't give only to those who are able to
give in return, but rejoices in giving to those who can't.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all
things, and endures all things.
Love never fails.
Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost,
golf clubs will rust, but giving the gift of love will endure.
 

Author Unknown

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of
 these is love." 1 Corinthians 13

A CHRISTMAS LETTER FROM GOD

Dear Children,

It has come to my attention that many of you are upset that folks are taking My name out of the season. Maybe you've forgotten that I wasn't actually born during this time of the year and that it was some of your predecessors who decided to celebrate My birthday on what was actually a time of pagan festival. Although I do appreciate being remembered anytime.
                How I personally feel about this celebration can probably be most easily understood by those of you who have been blessed with children of your own. I don't care what you call the day. If you want to celebrate My birth just, GET ALONG AND LOVE ONE ANOTHER.  Now, having said that let Me go on.

If it bothers you that the town in which you live doesn't allow a scene depicting My birth, then just get rid of a couple of Santas and snowmen and put in a small Nativity scene on your own front lawn. If all My followers did that there wouldn't be any need for such a scene on the town square because there would be many of them all around town.
                Stop worrying about the fact that people are calling the tree a holiday tree, instead of a Christmas tree.  It was I who made all trees. You can & may remember Me anytime you see any tree. Decorate a grape vine if you wish: I actually spoke of that one in a teaching explaining who I am in relation to you & what each of our tasks were. If you have forgot that one, look up John 15: 1 - 8.

If you want to give Me a present in remembrance of My birth here is my wish list. Choose something from it:

1. Instead of writing protest letters objecting to the way My birthday is being celebrated, write letters of love and hope to soldiers away from home. They are terribly afraid and lonely this time of year.  I know, they tell Me all the time.
                2. Visit someone in a nursing home. You don't have to know them personally. They just need to know that someone cares about them.
                3. Instead of writing George complaining about the wording on the cards his staff sent out this year, why don't you write and tell him that you'll be praying for him and his family this year. Then follow up. It will be nice hearing from you again.
                4. Instead of giving your children a lot of gifts you can't afford and they don't need, spend time with them. Tell them the story of My birth, and why I came to live with you down here. Hold them in your arms and remind them that I love them.
                5. Pick someone that has hurt you in the past and forgive him or her.
                6. Did you know that someone in your town will attempt to take their own life this season because they feel so alone and hopeless? Since you don't know who that person is, try giving everyone you meet a warm smile it could make the difference. Also, you might consider supporting the local Hot-Line: they talk with people like that every day.
                7.  Instead of nit picking about what the retailer in your town calls the holiday, be patient with the people who work there. Give them a warm smile and a kind word. Even if they aren't allowed to wish you a "Merry Christmas" that doesn't keep you from wishing them one. Then stop shopping there on Sunday. If the store didn't make so much money on that day they'd close and let their employees spend the day at home with their families.
                8. If you really want to make a difference, support a missionary, especially one who takes My love & Good News to those who have never heard My name. You may already know someone like that.
                9. Here's a good one. There are individuals & whole families in your town who not only will have no "Christmas" tree, but neither will they have any presents to give or receive. If you don't know them (and I suspect you don't) buy some food & a few gifts & give them to the Marines, the Salvation Army or some other charity which believes in Me & they will make the delivery for you.
                10. Finally if you want to make a statement about your belief in and loyalty to Me, then behave like a Christian. Don't do things in secret that you wouldn't do in My presence. Let people know by your actions that you are one of mine.
 P.S ~ Don't forget; I am God and can take care of Myself. Just love Me & do what I have told you to do. I'll take care of all the rest. Check out the list above & get to work; time is short. I'll help you, but the ball is now in your court. And do have a most blessed Christmas with all those whom you love and remember. I LOVE

11-27-11 Sermon - THE SCANDAL OF CHRISTMAS

Listen to today's sermon, "The Scandal of Christmas" by clicking here. Below is the manuscript version if you'd care to read the sermon.

THE SCANDAL OF CHRISTMAS  11-27-11 Sermon

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made.  He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?”  The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’”  But the serpent said to the woman, “You shall not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.  Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. 

They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.  But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”  He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”  Genesis 3:1-10

This morning I want to say something that needs to be said at Christmastime, something that is not often mentioned.  And that is that Christmas began with a scandal.  It’s easy to avoid this scandal, because the occasion of Christmas itself is bathed in so much loveliness.  Think of the pictures.  There’s a baby; what could be lovelier than a baby?  And a star in the sky; one that has a heavenward pull.  And there are angels singing, and wise men on a quest with gifts.  The manger itself, if the truth be told, was not a pretty place, but artists through the ages have kindly hidden its distasteful elements in mystical shadows.

But the church calendar prepares us for the Christmas scandal, and as a result, so has some of the music related to that calendar.  We begin the season of Advent this morning, a season celebrated in the church since the 6^th century.  As you can see on the altar and the pulpit the color of Advent is purple, which is symbolic of repentance.  And it is in that mood of repentance that earnest Christians over scores of generations have prepared themselves for the celebration of our Lord’s coming by reminding themselves of our great need for a Savior.  We modern Christians don’t easily get into that mood.  At Christmas, we’re planning festivities, and the music around us encourages it.  Not just “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” and “Jingle Bell Rock,” but the festive church music.  You may hear “Joy to the World” and “Silent Night” in a shopping mall, but you probably won’t hear “Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus,” or “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.”

That’s because we don’t face up to the Christmas scandal.  And if we don’t comprehend the scandal, we’re not likely to get the full magnificent impact of Christmas. It may well be that one of the reasons so many people have to deal with depression at the Christmas season is because in our cultural patterns, Christmas is so tied to fun, celebration, childhood memories, and a sense of belonging; and because we have so little grounding in the theology of Christmas, we can be quite empty when these elements are missing.  As a result, we’re easily susceptible in the Christmas season to feeling of loneliness or depression.

So here’s the hard fact.  There wouldn’t be a Christmas, there wouldn’t be a need for Christmas, if it weren’t for our scandal.  Note that I said OUR scandal.  Stay with me, and I’ll tell you what I mean.  There are many ways to tell the story, but the book of Genesis really tells us the reason for Christmas. 

Genesis tells us that once there was this couple.  The Bible calls them Adam and Eve, but, in truth, we could just as well call them Frank and Peggi, or Henry and Martha or Tony and Brenda, because we know them well.  Anyway, they had everything going for them, living as they were in a garden of exquisite beauty and perfection.  But they turned their lives into a shambles by disobeying God. 

There’s a word for what happened to them, and for what they did.  It’s called SIN, and that’s where the scandal comes in.  The human race became a race of sinners.  They weren’t created that way, they became that way by their own choice and actions. 

Now let me be clear about this, because most modern people aren’t very good at understanding sin; but for that matter, we humans never have been.  If we think of sin (and a great many don’t; they find the word distasteful and therefore judge it to be outmoded and inappropriate), we generally think of rather dark, back-street matters.  “Sin” brings to mind pictures of addiction, pornography shops, criminal conduct, and adulteries.  Yes, those are sins, but they can distract us from the larger, more compelling facts. 

That is because sin is a problem all of us have to deal with.  It’s a fact of life for ALL of our lives.  You see, the basic sin is disobeying God.  The ways in which we disobey God may be crude or sophisticated, naïve or knowing, but the root issue is the same.  To be specific, it’s the issue of self; and the reason it’s so complicated is that we have to live with self, and self is so familiar that it doesn’t really frighten us. 

So there we have it.  Sin is our problem, and it’s related to self.  Every generation has found ways to excuse its sins, but our generation has raised this skill to a particularly high level.  We have euphemisms for sin that take away its sting.  We identify sin as a personality disorder, a genetic predisposition, a problem in our genetic code, a pattern of antisocial conduct.  Or, at a simpler, everyday level, our word for sin is mistake.  Have you noticed how often we hear persons guilty of everything, from corporate fraud, to child abuse or murder, offer an explanation by saying, “I made a terrible mistake”?  We find it very hard to describe our conduct for what it is.  That is, we hate to admit that we are sinners—or, to put it another way, to confess that we’re part of a scandal.  The human scandal.

Isn’t it interesting that we sometimes identify newspapers as “scandal sheets”?  Why?  Because they tell us about some of the particular acts of sin that are going on in our world.  They rarely get at our deeper problem, nor do they often compel us to face some of the hidden sins that affect the lives of even model citizens.  But it is quite true that when the newspapers report on the world in which we live—a world of war, poverty, rape, murder, fraud, slander, corruption—we call them scandal sheets.  And the term is well chosen, because this is what we’re dealing with—the scandal of our human condition. 

But let me bring the matter closer to home, because probably not many of us feel very scandalous at this moment.  We may well have some chapter in our lives that we wish we could forget, and certainly some thoughts that we’d rather were not broadcast in the lat-night news.  But because I’ve used such a strong word, scandal, we may think sin relates more to others than to ourselves. 

Consider the following poem:

I was shocked, confused, bewildered/As I entered Heaven’s door,

Not by the beauty of it all, Nor the lights or its décor.

But it was the folks in Heaven/Who made me sputter and gasp—

The thieves, the liars, the sinners,/The alcoholics and the trash.

There stood the kid from seventh grade/ who swiped my lunch money twice.

Next to him was my old neighbor/ Who never said anything nice.

Bob, who I always thought/ Was rotting away in hell,

Was sitting pretty on cloud nine, Looking incredibly well.

I nudged Jesus, ‘What’s the deal?/I would love to hear your take.

How’d all these sinners get up here?/ God must have made a mistake.

‘And why is everyone so quiet,/ So somber—give me a clue.’

“Hush, child,” He said,/ “They’re all in shock.

No one thought they’d be seeing you.”

So hear me. When we live below our best potential, when we’re anything less than godly, it’s because we’re involved in this scandal called sin.  Not just those other people, but you and I.  You and I are part of the scandal.

Now what makes our human scandal even worse is the way we deal with it.  Look again at the story in Genesis 3 because the experience there sounds so much like our own. By their sin, Adam and Eve felt guilty before God.  Good sense would suggest that they therefore should have sought God’s forgiveness, in order to get back on the right track.  Instead, the Bible tells us, they “hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the tress of the garden. “  The trees of the garden ought to have been instruments of revealing God to them, and for giving them still another reason to appreciate God’s blessings.  Instead, Adam and Eve used them as a way of hiding from God.

And so do we.  Almost any wondrous thing in this world can be turned into a means of holding God at a distance.  We absorb ourselves with “the trees of the garden”—family, work, sports, politics, music, TV, even church work—all of them good things.  But we can easily use these things the way Adam and Eve used the trees of the garden, to hide ourselves from God—or perhaps more correctly, to distract ourselves from God.  All of us know that people flee from God through alcohol, drugs, gambling, pornography, but we aren’t as quick to recognize that we may use the good things of life to hide us from God and from God’s demands. 

And that is a scandal.  God has provided a wonderful potential for our human race, and we squander it.  Then, to make it worse, we flee from God, and we use God’s own gifts to hide ourselves from him.

And that’s why we need Christmas.  Christmas didn’t come to our human race because we worked ourselves up to it, or because we evolved to a state of deserving such a favor; Christmas came because we are a scandalous lot.  Christmas is, indeed, a gift, the ultimate gift, because it is a gift undeserved and unjustified.

We try, generally, to avoid these crucial facts about the Christmas story.  That’s why we don’t really “get” this Advent season. When we sing, in a true Advent hymn, “Come, thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free; from our sins and fears release us, let us find our rest in thee,” we’re inclined to sing it in a detached sort of way, not really applying it to ourselves.  Who wants to know that Christmas happened because there was a scandal, and that we are the obvious inheritors and perpetuators of that scandal?

Here’s something that is fascinating.  The secular Christmas stories we love best are remarkably true to this original Christmas story, in their own special way.  Perhaps the classic Christmas story of the Western world is Charles Dickens’s Christmas Carol.  It’s the story of that mean man, Scrooge.  See how Dickens describes him:  “Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge!  A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!”

Did you get that?  Dickens called Scrooge a sinner!  And so he was.  Scrooge was the quintessential sinner, though he broke no laws and was quite safe from prison.  But he was a miserable human being who was all wrapped up in himself, and who seemed almost to enjoy making other people miserable.

And do you remember how the story ends?  Scrooge is converted!  Dickens doesn’t use that theological term, but that’s what happened.  So, as the story ends, Dickens sums it up this way:  “It was always said of Scrooge, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge.”  The man who violated Christmas worst became the man who kept it best. What a conversion!

These days one of the most popular secular Christmas stories comes to us from Dr. Suess, How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  Dr. Suess doesn’t get around to Dickens, in calling the Grinch a sinner, but he surely describes him as such—so much so that the term “Grinch” now competes with the name “Scrooge” as the epitome of everything that is bad.  But as many of us know, at the end of the story, the Grinch is completely changed (converted, though Dr. Suess wouldn’t use such a word), so that every “Who down in Who-ville” has the greatest Christmas ever.

I’m trying to say that our secular Christmas stories can’t help saying what the original Christmas story has always said.  We humans have a scandal to deal with, whether our name is Scrooge, Grinch, Adam, Eve, Frank or Peg.  We all need to be converted—to be born again. And that’s why we have a Christmas. 

That’s also why we change the style of the word, and often also the melody, when we move from Advent music to the songs of Christmas.  Advent songs are so often cast in a minor key, and with slow, deliberate timing.  They’re songs of longing and of waiting. 

But Christmas music is an entirely different matter.  Mind you, it may be quiet and thoughtful, as is “Silent Night” or “O Little Town of Bethlehem” but the mood is peace, not longing.  And more often than not, the words and music of Christmas are light and celebrative.  One like:

God rest ye merry, gentlemen, let nothing you dismay,

Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day;  {Why?}

To save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray. 

[there’s the scandal]

         O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy;

         O tidings of comfort and joy.

         There’s a song to be sung by people of scandal—people who need to be saved from Satan’s power, and who realize it, and who now have found the way.  This is the good news that turns our scandal into laughter.  Tidings, indeed, of comfort and joy!  The power of the scandal has been broken.  The Savior has come.

11-20-11 Sermon "Overcoming the Fear of Losing Control"

The recording today missed the first few minutes of the sermon. If you'd like to listen to the sermon, click here. When looking at the manuscript below, the recording starts at the ***.

OVERCOMING THE FEAR OF LOSING CONTROL

Freedom From Your Fears  -  Part 9 of 10

Selected Scriptures 11-20-11 sermon

Have you ever gone away for a short time and when you come back your yard and flower gardens are completely out of control?   Even if there was no rain while you were gone, the weeds grow just fine.  Or you get all the leaves raked in your yard and a big windstorm comes along and they’re back.  Your yard is out of control again! 

Oftentimes life gets out of control.  And the fear of losing control is a real fear.  Actually, although we think we can get our lives under control, most of our lives are out of our control.  Life happens!  And we react to it rather than controlling it.

There's a better way.  The answer ultimately to overcoming the fear of losing control is not self help or more self management. It's self surrender.  It's saying "I'm giving it up.  I can't control this thing but I'm turning it over to the one person who can.  God almighty."

I want to give you a crash course in God's sovereignty.  I'd like to build a picture for you of how big God is and how qualified He is to run your life. 

God's sovereignty is His kingship over everything based on His infinite power, wisdom, and authority.  It's God being God. God's kingship over everything based on His infinity, His infinite power and wisdom and authority. 

         God's sovereignty over nations.  "The most high is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to any one He wishes." 

         God's sovereign over people.  "Many are the plans in a man's heart but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails."

         God's sovereign over circumstances.  "The Lord works out everything for his own ends, even the wicked for a day of disaster."

         God's sovereign over nature.  "Worthy, Oh Master!  Yes, Our God!  Take the glory!  the honor!  the power!  You created it all because you wanted it." 

God’s sovereign over spiritual powers.  Ephesians 1:21 tells us that Jesus sits enthroned above all principalities and powers-- that's in the natural realm and that's in the spiritual realm.

God is sovereign over all of it.  As a theological proposition, you might say, "I'll buy that.  God's sovereign over all of that. He made it all.  He's in charge." 

***But it leaves you with a question of, "If God's in control, just how in control is He? Did He just wind this thing up and is now sitting back in heaven, sort of presiding over the big picture?  He doesn't sweat the details but He watches the big stuff?  Every once in a while He reaches down and makes a mid course correction or works a miracle just to keep things going on an even keel?” Is that the way it is? 

Or is God really in control?  This is where providence comes in. God's providence is simply God's sovereignty in action.  When you get a feel for how active God is, not just in the big picture but in the details it will knock your socks off!  God is providentially in charge of everything.  Providence is not “Christian luck.”  That's what most of us think.  Something good happens to me and I'm a believer so I don't just chalk it up to chance, God did it.  God was provident there.  That's true but it's way bigger than that. 

It's like in Hebrews 1 "Jesus upholds all things by His powerful word."  In Colossians 1 it says the same kind of thing, "Jesus is before all things and in Him all of creation holds together." Acts 17 "In God we live and move and have our being."  God is passionately into the details of life.  The fact that this whole place holds together, the universe holds together, the fact that you're alive here today is because Jesus, right now and at every moment, is actively upholding all things by His powerful word. 

All the hairs on your head are numbered.  That doesn't mean that God knows how many hairs you have.  He does, but it means that He has assigned a number to each one of your hairs.  Jesus said that.  Every hair on your head has a number.  If you're losing your hair or pulling out your hair because you're losing control, God has to recalibrate your head!  Because every hair has a number.  That's how into the details He is. 

Jesus said a bird doesn't fall without God's will being involved. Jesus said take the most common of all birds, the sparrow.  You can buy two of them for a penny but not one of them dies apart from God's will.  The Bible says that dewdrops don't just happen. God fathers the dewdrops.  They are birthed by God almighty who is into the details.  The Bible says that sunrises don't just happen, but that God gives orders to the morning and causes His sun to shine.  Storms don't just happen.  The Bible says that God calls up clouds from the ends of the earth.  He cuts a channel for the thunderstorm and a channel for the rain that falls.  The Bible says that rainbows don't just happen.  Rainbows have less to do with light refracting through water than it has to do with God wanting to remind you of a covenant He made in the Old Testament to His servant Noah.  The Bible says that animals don't hunt their own prey.  The Bible says that God hunts the prey for the lioness.  The Bible says that when the doe gives birth to the fawn that God is there overseeing the process. 

The Bible says that God is looking over all the details of your life.  He has set out for you the exact number of days that you should live.  You can read it in Acts 17:26.  And not only that, He's determined the place you should live. You might have thought you went out and bought your house and you made the decision.  God was in that decision too.  He determined the length of your days and exactly where you should live.  If you catch hold of that truth, that God's not just presiding over the big picture but that He is passionately into orchestrating the details of all of life.  That's a truth that will set you free from having to control your own life.  I'm not qualified to control my own life but God sure is.  He can do it. 

How do we respond to that picture of God?  I like the way Psalm 115:3 sums it up, "Our God is in heaven; He does whatever he pleases."  Not just sometimes but all the time, everywhere, at every moment.  How do you respond to that?

Basically what we need to do is get out of control for good. We've got to respond to God's sovereign claims on our lives and yield control to Him.  As you sit here today, whether you're a Christian or not yet a Christian, God's got an awfully big claim on your life.  Half or more of who you are today, you had nothing to say about.  You were handed a package from your parents -- a physical and psychological package that you can't change.  The software was programmed into you and you're running on it ever since.  No amount of psychotherapy or self help or exercise or plastic surgery can change it.  You are you and you've always been and you had nothing to say about it.  But God's got a claim on your life.  How are you going to respond to it?

There are three basic things I think we need to do in response to God's sovereignty.

A - We need to COOPERATE with it. 

God's sovereignty allows me to participate in a life full of certainties.  This is a mystery.  Are you a robot?  Did God program everything and you have no free will?  No, not at all.  The Bible says that God is sovereign over all the details and yet somehow you're still a moral free agent with choice and responsibility.  In God's universe, both of those principles operate.  We don't know how to reconcile them.  We're too finite to know that.  But they both operate.  So you have a role.  You have a response to make to God's sovereignty.  The first response is to cooperate with it. 

Ephesians 1:8-10 (The Message) "He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making.  He set it all before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in Him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth." 

That is a certain life.  Most people think life is uncertain. We've got good news for them.  Life is certain!  We don't know all the certainties but God does.  He has let us in on a whole lot of them.  We know what life is about, as believers.  Life is about loving God with all your heart and loving your neighbor as yourself.  It's about glorifying God with your life and sharing the good news with people in a lost world.  We know how everything is going to wind up.  We know Jesus is coming back, justice is going to be served, you're going to receive your ultimate and final salvation.  You're going to party in heaven with God for all eternity. 

We know a whole lot of His program to get us there.  We know that He's trying to conform us to the image of Christ.  He's making us like Jesus.  He does that by putting us in a family of believers where we can share our gifts together.  He also does it through problems and difficulties that come in and test our faith and build our character.  We even know that when life gets out of control and we're not even sure what God is doing, we sort of know what God is doing. 

That's the whole lesson of Job.  Job was a righteous man.  He had no need for any tragedy to come into his life to teach him a lesson.  He was righteous and blameless and humble.  Yet, God in His sovereignty, allowed Satan to wipe Job out.  He lost ten children to death.  He lost all his wealth.  He lost his health. He was just left with his nagging wife.  And Job never knew why.  But we do.  God put it in his Word for a reason, so that we would know.  All God was doing with Job was making a massive display before all heaven and hell of how faithful a person can be and how he can keep a person in His grip even when his life is out of control.  Job never renounced His faith.  God got in satan's face and said, "You're trying to kill this guy's commitment but you can't.  I'm too big!  And Job is too tightly in My grasp.  You can't take it away."  Even when life doesn't make sense, maybe God just wants to use you to make that kind of open display before all the spiritual powers in the world and say, "Look at how close this son or daughter of Mine is.  Look at how much they love Me.  Look at how much they believe in Me."  I'd be willing to do that.  If I've got to suffer so God can get in satan's face and make His point that's great.

Life is pretty certain.  We don't know it all but we know a good bit of what's going on.  That calls us from us two specific responses.  We obey in response to God's sovereignty.  "In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight."  We pray in response to God's sovereignty. "I cry out to God most high, to God who fulfills His purpose for me." 

When I obey I align my actions with God's will and sovereignty. When I pray I align my own will and my own thoughts with God's will and sovereignty.  The fear of losing control, the stress that comes from that comes from two different agendas operating. I've got mine and God's got His.  They are cutting across the grain of each other and creating friction and difficulty and stress and fear.  But when I cooperate with God's sovereignty and I obey and I pray, just like Proverbs 3:6 says, "He makes all my paths straight."  He makes things a whole lot smoother than they would be otherwise.  James 4 says "When you say today or tomorrow I'm going to go do something, you boast and you brag."  Instead, James says, you say, "God willing, this afternoon I'm going to the mall.... God willing, tomorrow morning I'm going to go visit a client...."  That's how in tune with His will we're called to be. 

B.  A second response we make to God's sovereign claims on our lives is we CONTEMPLATE it.

God's sovereignty allows me to relax and see the big picture.  If you're like me when difficulties strike and your life is going out of control you make two responses:  anger and action.  When something bad happens my initial reaction is "What is going on here?  Why is this happening?"  My second response is to take action.  I want to jettison that problem out of my life.  I want to smooth over that hassle as fast as I can and get it out of there.

Two better responses are:  rest "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty."  Psalm 91:1

and reflect  "Be still and know that I am God."  Psalm 46:10

Biblical illustration:  King David was traveling along at a time of turmoil in his life.  Things were out of control. His son, Absolom, prince of Israel, led a insurrection, was trying to grab the kingdom for himself.  David is traveling with some of his companions and a punk of a guy named Shime-i comes out to meet him.  This guy Shime-i, while this little civil war is going on, is pelting David with rocks and calling out insults. "You're a man of blood!  You're getting what's coming to you! You're a warrior!  You've caused a lot of grief in other people's lives and now it's all coming back on you.  Get out of here. You're cursed.  You're a man of blood."  Abishai, one of David's right hand men, responds with anger and action.  He says two things (2 Samuel 16) "Why should this dead dog curse my Lord, the King."  And then he says, "Let me go over and take off his head." That's action.  Abishai is saying, “I'm going to jettison this problem right out of your life.” 

David, a man after God's own heart, turns to Abishai and says, "Sometimes you and I have so little in common.  Let's not do anything.  Let's not get angry.  Let's rest.  Let's not take action.  Let's reflect.  How do I know that God didn't send Shime-i into my life to tell me something I need to hear?" Shime-i, was still responsible for his actions and he was still wrong for doing it but David saw God behind it may be sending him a message he needed to reflect on a bit.  There was truth in what Shime-i said.  God didn't allow David to build the temple because he was a man of blood.  He was a warrior.  There was some truth in what Shime-i was saying.  David was wise enough not to take action and get angry but to rest and reflect on what God might be doing with this circumstance. 

C - A third response we need to make is critical.  If all we have to do is cooperate and contemplate we can easily give way to fatalism.  "God's going to do whatever He wants so I have to go his way when He dumps a truckload of trouble on me, all I can do is sit there and contemplate."  It gets real fatalistic. 

It's like a guy a who, the first time he was confronted with God's sovereignty, he stormed out of the church, went home and fell down his stairs.  He got up, brushed himself off and looked up to heaven and says, "I'm glad that one's over." Like, “God's just laying in wait.  He's waiting to ambush me with a truckload of pain.  I'm glad that one is over, I'll move on to the next one." 

That might be the way it is if all we had to do was cooperate and contemplate but there is a third response that is so key to God's sovereign claims on your life.  That is to CELEBRATE it.  You can look back, if you're a Christian, and you've been through some good times and some bad times but can't you look back and see that God was in control of it all the way?  Aren't you thankful for it?  Aren't there some tough lessons you've learned and some tough rows you've had to hoe that you're glad God gave that to you because it worked some character into you?  It gave you a bigger image of God than you had before.  We need to celebrate God's sovereignty over our lives.  A lot of you, as you look back over your life you've seen God's hand in it all the way.  His handwriting is all over it.  You celebrate God's sovereignty.  Even when you have gone through tough and painful times God has brought you through.  He's led you to this point safely and He's making you into the image of Christ.  Why fear the future?  Why fear losing control?  He's just going to keep you on the same program He's got you on.

Some of you need to get on the program.  You are not qualified to run your life.  If you think you can get it all under control it's not ever going to happen for you. 

Romans 8:28 "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." 

Are you afraid of losing control of your life?  I'm afraid of being in control of mine.  I can't do Romans 8:28.  I can't work all the things in my life for good.  But God can.  I hope today your image of God has been expanded just a little bit. Christianity is about serving a big God.  Not a knee high God or a head high God or even a sky high God.  It's about serving the most high God who sees the big picture but is passionately into the details of your life and He wants to run it for your good.

Abdicate the throne!  Get out of the cockpit.  Get off the bridge!  God's the only one who can control your life.

Prayer:

      Father, I love the verse that says, "Our God is in heaven and He does whatever he pleases."  I'm so proud of that because You're my dad.  God, I pray for me and for all of us here that we would be able to say, "God, do what You please with me."  And that we'd get off the throne, get out of the cockpit, and put You in charge.  You're the only one qualified to control our lives.  I pray, Lord, You'd help us to cooperate with the process, to contemplate just how big a God You are and to celebrate all the things You do for us. You work all the things for our good.  We love You and thank You for it.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.