Following Through with Repentance

Did anyone sense God speaking to him or her this last Sunday when Pastor Tim spoke of "Repentance: the Hardest Part"? If so, what have you done about it? 

If you are just joining us we have discussing the theme “Lord Change Us.” In the first week of this series Pastor Rey encouraged us to “Look Up,” to look to God, the true source of change. The following week he outlined the formula for doing that: complete cooperation.

This past Sunday Pastor Tim continued the series with his talk: “Repentance: the hardest step.”  He told the story of the crippled man who had lain beside a pool for 38 years, hoping for a miracle, wishing for someone to help him into the pool, and that an angel would stir the water and he would be healed. Instead of an angel he met Jesus, who, when learning about the length of his infirmity, asked him: “Do you want to get well?” (John 5:1-14)

The man replied with an excuse, but it didn’t satisfy Jesus. He told him: “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk.” In other words: stop making excuses, leave your old life behind, and step out in faith towards God.

Pastor Tim related it this way: every one of us who doesn't change has an excuse, just as the man did on the mat. But, also like the man, we need to have a conversation with God, so that God can get at the real reason change is not happening in our lives.  

Perhaps many of you are like me and you sensed God speaking to you in this message. What was God calling you to do Sunday morning? And what have you done in response?

To me, the most fascinating aspect of this story is what the crippled man did after he was healed. He began to make excuses again! When he got in trouble with the Pharisees for carrying his mat, he replied: “I’m just doing it because the man who healed me told me to.”

The light of the miracle must have faded in the everyday pressure of 2^nd Temple Judaism.  He was healed, but he chose not to live differently. Jesus would not have it. He came back to him and fought against the crowds to reach and warn the man: “stop sinning, or something worse might happen to you.”

What did God reveal to you on Sunday? And have you followed through with repentance, or are you back to your old ways, leaving the back door open to old habits, old friends, and hidden stashes of the old way of life?

What Happens When You Surrender in Complete Cooperation

Many of us desire change in our lives but we aren’t ready to cooperate fully with God. Well, we aren’t the only ones.

Peter, in the Bible, found himself in a similar situation. When Jesus invited Peter to follow him, he threw down his nets without hesitation. But he didn’t really know what that would entail.

For three years Peter lived and learned from Jesus. He had good moments and triumphant failures. One time, Jesus accused him of speaking for Satan, another time he fell asleep when he was needed most.  Then, when things got heavy, he sliced off a man’s ear and turned and ran like a coward. At one point, Peter even denied he knew Jesus!  After such an awkward turn in ministry, Peter must have been thinking: “I was right.  Jesus made a BIG mistake in choosing me.” 

Many of us find ourselves in the same position. Once we were stirred by a whisper - “follow me.” But after years of mistakes and awkward turns in ministry, we begin to wonder if Jesus was wrong in choosing us. Or maybe we have messed up so badly that God decided to move on to someone else.  But this is not God’s way. God delights in rehabilitation, as we see in Peter’s story.

Three years after they began, Jesus invited Peter to follow him once again. But now Peter had a better understanding of what that invitation meant. To replace the ugly words that had once come out of his mouth, Jesus invited Peter to speak out loud his love for him, three times. And then Peter was ready - for complete cooperation.

For life change to happen, we must cooperate fully with God’s desire to transform us.

When Peter cooperated fully with Jesus, when he gave his whole self to him and threw aside the cares and concerns of the world, he became a changed man. His prayers of “Lord, change me” took dramatic effect when he surrendered in complete cooperation. He became the leader of a movement which was described as turning the world upside down (Acts 17:6).

Where are you at in this journey? Have you surrendered in complete cooperation to Jesus? What is holding you back?

Look Up

By Rey Diaz

I have a guilty secret to share with you. I hate to admit it…and I might deny it in public, but I LOVE musicals.  I have seen every single one that comes to the 5^th Avenue and Paramount theaters. I even like the dorky ones, like “Joseph and his Technicolor Dream Coat.” My wife always makes fun of me, because this love of song and dance and jazz hands just doesn’t go along with my football-playing persona.

My favorite musical of all time (and favorite book for that matter) is Les Miserables.  The opening begins with dramatic orchestra music; then the prisoners come own and sing out their desperation in their baritone voices: “Look down! Look down! You’re here until you die.”

Isn’t that how we feel after years of failure in our attempt to change?  We feel trapped in a prison with no hope to escape.  We feel hopeless and it becomes harder and harder to raze our gaze from our failure, our defeats, weakness, and brokenness.  

But the Bible sings a different song, no matter how long we have looked down and lived in defeat.  In one of the most beautiful poems ever written we find God’s response to our failure to change:  “Look Up.”  It sounds too simple, too easy. But in Psalms 121 the author replies “I look up to the mountains— does my help come from there? ² My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth!” 

I don’t know why this is…but every time I “look up,” a miracle happens…it’s as if God’s hand reaches down to me and a huge smile breaks out across his face…”I’ve been waiting for you to ask me!” And things change.

For all of us who have this nasty human tendency to look down and focus on our failure, let’s look up instead and focus on God’s perfection.  Let’s look up and focus on God’s victory over sin and death.  Let’s look up and focus on God’s righteousness. 

I invited everyone at Washington Cathedral to Look Up and transfer their trust to Jesus.  I make the same invitation to all of you who have never embraced the name of Jesus.  Change is possible.  But instead of trying and stating “I’m going to change,” we need to pray “Lord, change me.”

Have any of you experienced true life change?  I would love to hear your story. Are any of you struggling with believing this incredible news?  Let me know what I could address.  Or let’s talk offline. 
 

Is the Pandemic Spreading?

Searching for a Host...

 ¹ In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple...⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:1,8)

One of the themes we see in the Old Testament is God’s search for a messenger.  In Isaiah 6, we are invited into a heavenly scene where God asks: “Who can we send?  Who will go for us?”  In Ezekiel, God is looking for someone who would “stand in the gap” but couldn’t find one person.  After reading the Old Testament, we are left with a feeling of unfulfilled potential.  We are left with a feeling that God made an invitation and very few responded. 

In the New Testament the Gospels seem to follow the same pattern of God’s open invitation. The book of Matthew closes with Jesus’ invitation to his followers: “go and make disciples.”  At the end of Mark, the women are invited to share the truth of the empty tomb.  In Luke, Jesus invites his followers to wait in Jerusalem for the arrival of Holy Spirit to empower them to serve as his witnesses.  Finally, in the gospel of John, Jesus invites us into a dynamic relationship with the Father “as the Father has sent me (Jesus), now I send you.”  If we just to read the Gospels (and not the rest of the New Testament), we would be left wondering if anyone ultimately responded to God’s invitations.  

How the Pandemic Spread -

This is why the book of Acts is so important for us today.  The book of Acts tells us how the first Christians responded to Jesus’ invitation.  In Acts we see ordinary people living extraordinary lives because they were infected with God’s love.  These first Christians followed Jesus as their king, learned from him as teacher, and experienced him as savior.  Once they were thoroughly infected with God’s love, they would then in turn infect others. They would become the host for which God has been searching. The early Christians traveled from town to town, city to city, and from people-group to people-group, infecting every willing host with God’s love. The movement was just too contagious to contain (no matter how much the authorities tried). And the world was transformed….it was turned upside down, by a small group of contagious Christians, thoroughly infected with God’s love.

Do you think God’s love is as contagious today as it was 2,000 years ago? If it is, what is getting in the way of its infectious spread to those around us?

Would love to hear your thoughts,

-          Pastor Rey