Laying Issac Down

Battling through blood pressure and sinus issues, we had a great time in the Lord on Sunday continuing our series on "Giving Back to God". The worship of the Lord was high long before the "traditional time" because God blessed our Sunday School time.

The Lord instructed us to restructure our Sunday School and remove the separation and sexism that existed. One of the classes we added was a "Marriage class". Husbands and wives studying the Word of God together from a tag-team teaching approach with couples teaching couples. Deacon Kevin Howard and his wife Sister CoCo Howard stepped out of their comfort zone and started teaching. Today, Deacon was in A-flat at the end of the lesson. The growth and energy of that class carried over into service as we had a great time in the Lord.

The Choir was on point and the mixture of hymns with praise songs felt right today. I wasn't too concerned with being limited physically as every Sunday I am limited mentally but I can do all things spiritually so we challenged Macedonia to Lay down their Issac. Issac is that beloved thing; that cherished item, that sought after blessing, the thing you love more than life itself. What if God said to you today, "Give me your Issac"!

Carol Kent in her book, "When I Lay My Issac Down": Unshakable Faith in Unthinkable Circumstances replays her "Issac Moment"-- situations that are thrust upon us without warning or instructions and all we can do is follow God. Her moment was when her son, a U.S. Naval graduate with an impeccable record shot and killed his wife's ex-husband. She had to lay down her Issac.

The losses that are Thrust upon us which can be Issac experiences can be: Terminal illness, infertility, death, loss of job, giving birth to babies with disabilities, unwanted moves, the desire to marry with no one in sight, however, there are other Issac experiences that are personal choices such as: giving up on a dream for a greater good, giving up our control over a child who is becoming an adult, surrendering my ideal life for the reality of what I actually have, longing for a more ideal spouse but staying in a difficult marriage and believing in God's promises even when our lives are in a personal Hell.

This personal Hell is what Abraham must have faced when God said, "Give me your Issac; however the way he handles this situation teaches us how to lay our Issac Down. Abraham did two things so God could do one:

Abraham Relinquished--He Let Go--Laid Issac on the Alter
Abraham Relied--He Trusted God- Lifted His Hands up To God
God Returned- God Gave Back- God Exchanged--Ram in the Bush

Laying down your Issac is following a simple outline: It is:


Trusting in God without knowing why you are doing it
Trusting in God without knowing when it will be over
Trusting in God when you don't know How it will be done.

One might say it is impossible to do this, that's because you are so busy trying to figure out the when, how and why you haven't discovered the who. Jehovah-Jireh, The Lord Will Provide. "Jireh" translates into "Provide" which is a word with wonderful Latin roots. Pro means "before" and video means "to see". So it means to see in advance or before the need is known. God is preparing an answer before we know that it is a need. It was over for me after that and although I felt bad, I felt better right there. Many surrendered to the will of God today and we give HIM the glory for those who came.

The IMA had the MLK service today and Pastor Raymond McDonald II of the St. John Baptist Church in Gary, Indiana killed everything in the house from Acts 16:9-10, Keeping The Dream Alive. Great day all day. Dr, Ziboh, see you this week!!!!!!

Owens

Abide Here with the Ass

We continued our series on Giving Back to God this Sunday from the Biblical Passage of Genesis 22:1-5 where Abraham is called to worship with God. We do a lot of things in church, but in all of our doing we don't always worship. We sing songs but don't worship; give money but don't worship, listen to the Word but don't worship.

We have cultivated the climate in church of "sit back, relax and enjoy the program". If the audience feels entertained, they say we had a good worship service; however, worship is not about us it is about God. It is not for the created but it is for the Creator. While there are benefits for us in worship, we must never forget it is not about us. Our questions should not be, Did I like the service or the sermon but rather it should be, "Was God pleased with the service or the sermon".

Although Worship appears for the first time in "word form" in Genesis 22:5, it runs all the way back to the beginning of Genesis. The Lord blessed our efforts in this sermon and the presentation was much cleaner than the preparation. We opened talking about The Man, The Moment and The Mountain. This lead us into a Walk into Worship. Within the confines of this text but in the overall picture of Giving Back to God, our outline was:

I. Worship is being Submissive to the Will of God. (Vs.1)
II. Worship is giving Sacrificially to the Word of God (Vs. 2-3)
III. Worship is being Separated for the Workers of God (Vs.5)

It was this last point where I was the most intrigued. Why would God allow this part of the story to remain in the Holy Writ. What purpose does this serve for us today to hear the instructions that Abraham left for his servants and why is it even necessary for the workers to stay with the donkey. After all, the custom would be to tie the donkey up so it doesn't stray away. After it is tied, it's not going anywhere, so why the need to stay with the donkey.

We all learn differently so I am grateful for Pastors in this town and Pastors in the nation that you can bounce ideas off of. One local pastor suggested to look at this text in the KJV. I mainly preach out of the ESV, and there it was "Abide ye here with the ass". I understood then.

It is very possible that if Abraham would have allowed the servants to go along, they would have interfered with the worship of God and Abraham would have missed "THE LORD WHO WILL PROVIDE". If they would have seen Abraham sacrificing Issac, surely they would have tried to stop it.

I said that so that I might say this, everyone is not meant to go with you on your mountain. Some people will just get in the way and as much as you might want to take them along, some people you have to leave with the ass. We must separate ourselves from any and everything that will distract us from seeing and worshipping God.

Two examples from the Bible spring to mind, II Kings 4:1-7, the famous passage about the widow and the oil. She is instructed to gather all the jars she can find and after she has done it, "Shut the Door". Why is that necessary? Some people will get in the way of your worship and you will miss your miracle of "The Lord Will Provide" so you have to leave them....., you understand. Luke 8:48-56 is the story of raising the little girl from the dead and vs 51 says, "He suffered no man to go in, save Peter, and James, and John, and the father and the mother of the maiden".

Why didn't Jesus allow everyone inside? Vs. 49 gives the answer as the outside people said, "Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master". The presence of these people would serve as a distraction and the miracle of "The Lord Will Provide would be missed so leave them with the....., you understand.

Everybody does not belong on your mountain. Worship is separation for the workers of God. I can see Abraham saying I made this mistake before. You told me to leave everything but I took my nephew Lot and I remember how that worked out, so thank you workers for your efforts in getting me here, but I must go higher now, so I must leave you where you are, but I will be back.

The night before a game all the players stay at the hotel together, even if its a home game. They do this to separate themselves form the duties and cares of life and get their mind focused on the game plan for tomorrow's game. It is meant to shut out and let in.

By saying to leave some people with the ass, it is not meant to be disrespectful of other people but in order for me to go higher, I must shut some things, situations, circumstances, acquaintances, family, friends out in order to let God in. Dead weight can prevent you from seeing God's Divine will.

I have decided to let some people "Abide here with the Ass", I am going yonder to worship.

Owens

Cell Phones in Church

I had the unique encounter Sunday Morning while preaching to look through the congregation and see the "cell phone church" busy at their "Blackberry Bibles" texting, surfing and playing away. To see someone on a phone is not an uncommon sight as many teenagers have their phones glued to their hands; however my problem on Sunday was I wasn't looking at teenagers but I was looking at grown adults playing with their toys during service.

I have wrestled with this all week. It is not uncommon during preaching that the devil uses things to try and disrupt and distract the preacher. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. For me Sunday, it worked! What is a pastor to do? Should we just ignore it? Maybe we should embrace it?! Is the old school method of the pastors that trained us to tell them to shut it off the right thing to do, and if so, how is this done as so to the message does not get lost in the medium it is conveyed. Maybe its your fault reverend, stop being Biblical and be more topical so the sermon can be interesting. What is a pastor to do?

Some churches clearly ask their members not to chew gum, not to walk during certain times and refrain or turn off their cell phones during service. Others have created "cell phone safe zones" where the uses of cell phones, PDA's, palm pilots, laptops and pagers is encouraged. The idea behind this is if a piece of technology helps an attendee pay better attention to the service, it should be welcomed.

To this end, many Pastors/Teachers, preachers and members have Bible software loaded on their phones and use them in church for word study, note taking and various translations of the text. When the babies give their Christmas speeches or participate in the choir, many parents pull out their cell phones to take pictures and record videos, surely this is fine, but to what end, when is it too far?

In this user friendly, technology driven church, how far is too far? What happened to the fear and reverence that used to exist for God's sanctuary. I grew up in an era where if you were chewing gum the saints would walk behind you in church, extend their hand, never saying a word because you already knew, take your gum out. Disagreements certainly happened in this era but the respect for the building would prevent people from "cussin" each other out with the phrase, "If i wasn't on church grounds I would......." What has happened to the reverence?

Some things don't belong in the sanctuary during worship. I shouldn't hear the ringtones of "Bedrock", "Grippin' on My Bed' and "How Low" in the middle of service. If Young Money, Ludacris, Lil Wayne, Lloyd, etc want to come to church, they are more than welcome to fellowship with us but honoring God comes first. To answer your phone in church and conduct a conversation while church is going on without the decency to at the very least excuse yourself from the sanctuary is disrespectful to God and His house.

I don't think its that much of a sacrifice to leave your Facebook, Twitter, and text messages alone for two hours to commune with God. I realize there are legitimate reasons for why a phone would be on but everybody is not that important.

So, What did you do reverend?! The old man in me (my home church would say the Woodberry in me) rose up. I stopped and told everyone to turn their phones off and put them up. It was a disservice to God and distracting to me. I am sure there was a better way to deal with it. I could have ignored it and talked to the offending parties in private but I believe you clean it up where it was messed up. It was done in public so the reprimand or rebuke must be public. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe I just need to be more exciting in the presentation, or maybe we just need to have more reverence for God, quit being so selfish and put God first by turning off our phones in church.
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Thanks for the rant,

Owens

What Shall I render

I pray that everyone had a great experience in the Lord Sunday worshipping at your church. God blessed us Sunday at Macedonia as we kicked off our emphasis for January on "Giving Back to God" using Psalms 116 as our launching pad and verse 12 as our fuel to ask the question, What shall I render, What do I owe God, What should I be giving to God for all He gives and has given to me?

This Psalm, arguably, is one of the greatest Psalms in Scripture. It is a love song born out of thanksgiving because of the deliverance of God. It is a simple outline that naturally rests within the confines of the text: God Hears vs 1-5, God Helps vs 6-13, God is Holy, vs 14-19 and because of all that he has done it begs the question, How can I Honor Him, vs 12.

We live in a very selfish age. We owe God so much but yet we walk around as if God is just supposed to give, but when do we give? Our songs for worship, our sermons, our religious language is all about us, my time, my moment, my breakthrough, my miracle, my healing,etc. We brag about how I come to church to get my word and then I leave, well I must ask, when is it ever enough?

In this text God gave His Ear, vs 2, His Escape, vs 3, His Emancipation, vs 16, so surely after all of this, I ought to give him something. What do you give someone who owns everything? What can we give God? However therein lies the rub. We don't talk much about giving back to God. Review the text messages, twitter posts, Facebook messages that you received and the majority of them was from someone "encouraging you" to let you know 2010 will be your year, your year of prosperity, health, to be revived, restored, to recover and to "take back everything..etc, but when is it God's time. When do we stop walking into church with our hands out and start lifting our hands up?

How much better would our churches be if we stop walking into them thinking we are entitled to something, but rather had an attitude of what can I give to God because He has done so much for me! The writer of this Psalm left some good breadcrumbs to follow so that we can leave the wilderness of selfishness and dwell in the land of selfless living.

We should love Him, vs 1, We should Speak for Him, vs 8-10, We should Offer to Him, 13-17, We should Praise him, vs 18-19. I want to give God more of me, not just the pieces I gave Him in 09 but I want to give Him all of me.

I had an interesting event happen Sunday while preaching, still meditating on but will share this week for clarity and Pastoral counsel.

Owens