The Story Chapter 8 - When Your Mistakes Land You Before A Judge

I will never forget my first time in a courtroom.  It was early on in my pastoral ministry and a member in my church had crossed a legal line.  He found himself in a jail cell, awaiting trial.  He had certainly committed the crime and he was about to face the consequences of his actions.  No matter his guilt or innocence, I wanted to be there to support him.  After all, we have all made mistakes.  Maybe we have even broken a few laws that we didn't get caught breaking.  He, however, did get caught.

As I sat in that courtroom, I hear those words... "All rise!"  Keep in mind, I wasn't the one on trial.  I wasn't guilty of any offense.  I was there to be supportive of a member of our church who was broken.  Even though I was not on trial, I still felt that sense of uneasiness and fear when the black clad judge emerged from her chambers.

Judges elicit a sense of fear, don’t they?  They never call you in for something you have done right.  We think of them as someone who harshly tells us what we did wrong.  And they seem to be everywhere these days on television.  There’s Judge Judy and Hatchett.  Mathis and Christina.  And my favorite—Judge Brown.  

Then there are some judges you may not know.  They even have a book in the Bible with their name on it.  Judges.  These judges appeared on the scene to help sort out right and wrong.  They also helped people get out of trouble.

God’s people kept putting themselves into a never ending cycle of disobedience, discipline, declaration of wrong, and deliverance.  Judges like Deborah and Gideon and Samson helped them find their way back to God.  

What did the people do that was so bad they needed judges?  Two things.  First, they failed to put God first in their lives (Judges 1:28).  And secondly, they did not teach their children to know God (Judges 2:10).  These two “sins” led to their downfall and ruin.

Are you making the same mistakes they made?  If so, you have a judge that can help you––Jesus.

The good news is that when he “calls” you into his office after you’ve messed up, you will look up to see your judge’s face and see your savior there.  His purpose is not to incarcerate you, but to free you and redeem you.

The Story Chapter 7 - The Battle Begins

When someone keeps telling you to “be strong and courageous,” you might suspect you are up against something big.  And the Israelites were.

About to enter the land that had been promised them 600 years before, they had a giant-sized task awaiting them.  Literally.  Forty years earlier ten spies had come back and told the Israelites that the inhabitants of the land were so big they felt like they were the size of a grasshopper in comparison.  Fear took them captive without a battle and sent them off as a group to wander around in a wilderness where they took their chances against wild animals rather than face their giants.

They wandered so long that those who had grasshopper-sized faith died out.  Forty years later their children were ready to take the land.  They were physically no taller than their parents had been.  The enemies in the land were no smaller than before.  But the Israelites’ faith muscles had grown.  

There were two spies who had reported the land was theirs for the taking. One of them, Joshua, is now the Israelites’ leader.  He was courageous.  And God wanted to keep him that way. So God tells him three times in the first nine verses of the first chapter of Joshua: “Be strong and courageous.”  He also reminds him “the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

My guess is you have a few giants in your life too.  Some uphill battles that appear insurmountable.  A task demanding more than you think you have to give.  One too many things on your “to do” list than you have the time or energy to do. Unemployment is staring you down.  Depression has a grip on you.  Bills have raided your bank account and left it empty.  An illness hovers in your life like a threatening storm.  You’d rather just run and wander.

But God's challenge for you is the same, "be strong and courageous."  Never forget, no matter what giant you may be facing, that He is with you and He has the power to overcome anything.

The Story Chapter 6 - The Journey And The Destination

If I may digress from the very beginning...... It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes (not really), it's dark....and we're wearing sunglasses.....Hit it.  (Just for those Blues Brothers fans out there)

Every parent has been there.  The trip ahead is long.  The travel schedule is tight.  You double check to make sure everything is packed and you hit the road with a full tank of gas.  But twenty minutes down the highway you hear a small squeaky voice from the backseat.  The artillery bombardment commences.  The questions.

Are we there yet?  How much longer?  Can we get something to eat?  I suppose after all, that's just part of the journey.  It's part of our journey of faith too.

Just like kids on a trip, we get tired of the journey.  We want to know when we can stop.  We get tired of serving.  We get tired of waiting.  We get tired of the people we are traveling with.

That's what the children of Israel did on their journey to the promised land.  They complained about the food, their destination, their origin, and about their 'driver' Moses.

At one point, they actually made it to their destination.  They were on the boarder of the Promised Land.  Then they got 2 reports about their future home.  One was a fear-filled report from ten spies.  The other was a faith-full report from Joshua and Caleb.

It was decision time.  Which report would they choose.  They were in the right place to make the right decision.  But the majority made the wrong one.  They let fear overtake them.  The people wished they had died in the desert.  So God granted them their wish.  They would wander further until this unbelieving generation died out.

They wandered for forty more years before they would enter the Promised Land for good.

Our journey as Skyline has been a bit of wandering as well.  This weekend we celebrate a decade of ministry.  It has indeed been an incredible journey.  Certainly there have been ups and downs, but the journey hasn't simply been a decade.  It has been a decade of difference.

No doubt, many have asked some of the same questions our children ask on a long journey.  Are we there yet?  How much longer?  When can we stop?  There are times we get so caught up in asking those questions that we fail to enjoy the journey itself.

Join us this weekend as we take a look at Chapter 6 in "The Story" and connect it to our lower story of the journey of Skyline Church.  We will celebrate 10-years as a church and most importantly, we will celebrate the journey through baptism.

The Story Chapter 5 - God The Kill-Joy

Rules, rules, rules....All I see are rules.  If that is all that we see, we are completely missing the point when it comes to God and the Bible.  The truth is that many people shy away from faith because of these "rules".  I think it is fairly common knowledge that we, by nature, hate those rotten things.  We like to do our own thing.  We like to do it our way.  "How dare anyone tell us how we should do anything?  It's my life and I will live it how I want to."

As parents, it frustrates us when our children don't follow our rules.  Certainly there is frustration because they are disobedient, but for me that frustration really comes because I wish they could see why I give them rules in the first place.  I certainly don't give them rules to abide by to make life miserable.  I give them rules for their own good.

All of that said, there are times in our lives that we espouse the ideology of "Do as I say, not as I do." We are grown-ups.  Things are different for us.  We know what life is all about and we know how to navigate anything life throws our way.  We don't really need anymore rules.  Sure we have the government that sets a few laws in our way, but we are capable of making our own choices.

While that may be true, some of our choices come with consequences because we "choose" not to follow some "rules" that another parent has given us.  Do you think that our Heavenly Father sometimes can look down upon his children with frustration in his eyes?  It is not a frustration that comes from the fact we choose to be disobedient.  He, as a parent, is no different than us.  I think His frustrations come from the fact that He wishes we would understand why He gave us "rules" in the first place.

As we continue on with "The Story" in chapter 5, we read one of the most famous stories of the Bible.  This story conjures up images of Charlton Heston standing on a mountain with 2 huge stone tablets that contain some "rules" for the people of Israel.  This weekend, we will take a look at the "Why" behind The Ten Commandments and we will discover that God is not some cosmic Kill-Joy, but a loving father that wants the best for his children.