iHOPE

Moving Pictures- The Game of Life

  It's time for 'Moving Pictures' again!

  Moving Pictures is the name of our summer sermon series where each week we begin with the clip from a movie.  Each summer we choose a theme and then find movies that match that theme with a short clip that raises a question or illustrates a particular point. In the past we have chosen themes like 'Heroes', "Families' or last year's: 'The Seven Deadly Sins' (lots to choose from on this one. The only trouble was finding clips we could show in worship!)

  With the Olympics coming up, 'Sports' was an obvious choice year's series. Actually, the upcoming political conventions and general election raised the possibility of 'Politics', but there were three reasons we chose not to use that theme:

• We're guys. We like sports.
• Do you really want to come to church and see a clip from a 'Political' movie?
• 'Politics' reminded us too much of last summer's theme.

  The title of the series is: 'The Game of Life' and it spans the month of August.

  One of the harder things to do was narrow down the choices to just four or five selections.  The qualifications for a sermon clip are pretty strict, but there were still so many to choose from.

  The movies we chose for this summer's theme are....

  We'll release those in a couple weeks. In the meantime, what are some of YOUR favorite sports movies?  If you send me a list of your top five, we'll tabulate the results. You can use the comment button below or email me directly.

  Let the Games begin!
 

 

The Only Decent Way to Live

  I've been thinking about self-control this week.  Its the subject of this week's sermon as part of our, The Good Life series.  Self-control is not a popular subject- especially when thinking about The Good Life. For many of us, our fantasies about the Good Life mean we don't have to exercise any self-control ("I could spend all I want.", "I can do anything I want." "I can eat what I want to eat.", etc.)

  At the same time, most of us admit we need more self-control. Check out your new year's resolutions for the last 5 years and see how many have to do with self-control ('I'm going to...eat less/exercise more/read more/watch less TV/learn a language/...you get the idea). When asked which of the Fruits of the Spirit (Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, Faithfulness, and Self-Control) needs most 'ripening' in their lives, most people will say, 'Self-Control'. In fact, most people recognize that if they had more self-control, they would also have more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and faithfulness.

  So there we are. The very thing that is key to a life that is 'good' is also the thing we wish we could avoid. Hmmm.

  While you are thinking about that, here is a quote from M. Scott Peck (in The Road Less Traveled) that speaks to the same point:

Delaying gratification is a process of scheduling the pain and pleasure of life in such a way as to enhance the pleasure by meeting and experiencing the pain first and getting it over with. It is the only decent way to live.

  We are used to scheduling our appointments and even our work. Who thinks about scheduling our 'pain and pleasure'? 

'Serenity' Prayer

As I mentioned in the sermon, I am posting what is sometimes referred to as 'The Serenity Prayer', written by Reinhold Niebuhr.  The first part is what is generally known, but what follows is also very powerful.

God grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change;

courage to change the things I can;

and wisdom to know the difference.

 

Living one day at a time;

Enjoying one moment at a time;

Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;

Taking, as He did, this sinful world

as it is, not as I would have it;

 

Trusting that He will make all things right

if I surrender to His Will;

That I may be reasonably happy in this life

and supremely happy with Him

forever in the next.

Amen.

  I am commending this prayer for daily use in the next three weeks as we explore and discover what it means to be a 'Spiritual' (Spirit-infused) person.

Sermon Sources

  I've added a couple new books in the "Books Worth Reading" list (its on the left side). Both were books that were helpful in my sermon on Sunday- and both are 'books worth reading' on their own:

  Henri Nouwen was a marvelous and prolific writer. He wrote more than 40 books before he passed away a dozen years ago. Towards the end of his life he wrote, Our Greatest Gift: A Meditation on Dying and Caring. Its a lovely book. The example of the trapeze artists came from the latter part of that book.

 

The Reason for God was written by Tim Keller, his first book. I predict others will follow. His chapter, The Reality of the Resurrection is powerful and some of it found its way into the sermon, too.

  Most people know I like to read (if you have been to my office you at least know I like to buy books!).  On any given sermon or class I will glean the insights and illustrations from many sources and the point of this is not to provide a bibliography. At the same time, I want to give credit where credit is due and these two books were especially helpful.  If anyone wants to go a little deeper on the subject matter, they would enjoy them both.

What I Believe and What I Do

  Last Sunday I quoted from Donald Miller's book, Blue Like Jazz. It is a unorthodox and thought-provoking book about what it means to be a Christian today.  The section I referred to (p. 110) was about the connection between what we believe and what we do. According to his friend Allen, there is no difference. As Don states Allen's position,

...what I believe is not what I say I believe:  what I believe is what I do.

  The particular issue was Don's reluctance to tell others about Jesus.  Allen told him that means Jesus wasn't that important to him.  When Don protested that he believed in Jesus with all his heart and he was supremely important to him, Allen  challenged his true beliefs.

...what I believe is not what I say I believe:  what I believe is what I do.

  I sure wish that weren't true, but I suspect it is. The issue of course, could be money, forgiveness, ethics, service, or any number of topics.  The principle is still the same.

  So, what will the actions I take (or hold back from) this week say about what I really believe?  What will your's?

Correction: We Are NOT #1

  I need to make a correction about a statistic I mentioned in the sermon (2/3). I recounted a conversation with Leslie about suicide rates in Douglas County and I misquoted her. I said that Douglas County had the highest suicide rate in the country.  In fact, it does not.  What I should have said was that the suicide rate in Douglas County was above the national average.
  The mistake was mine. I mixed up that statistic with a couple others and ended up giving out false information and I wanted to correct it for a couple of reasons:

1. Its good news that we don't lead the nation in suicide rates
2. It is a serious enough of a problem that we are still above the national average and I don't need  to sensationalize with inflated numbers.
3. The stats were wrong.

For more information about suicide prevention in Colorado you can follow this link:Colorado Suicide Report

 

The 5 x 5 Challenge

  Last Sunday, the title of the sermon was "Fleeced by Forgetfulness" and I gave the "5 x 5" challenge. It consists of:

1. Setting aside 5 hours a week for the kinds of things that help us become a 'spiritual household'- a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit.  This can include any of the 'Habits of Hope' (Worship, Devotional Life, Community and Service), or anything else that helps allow God into your life. 
2. Identifying five people who are far from God and praying for ways to become a 'bridge' between them and God. They can be friends, co-workers, neighbors or family members.  The idea is to get to know them well enough that you can offer prayers on their behalf.  It also means praying for an appropriate time to let them know how much God loves them and wants a relationship with them through Jesus Christ.

  There will be more about this in the next few days. The important thing to know is that this is more than just a momentary challenge. The 5 x 5 Challenge is for the duration of the building project.  Even as there is much work and effort going into creating an attractive and inviting facility for God to use to minister to our community, we want to do the work necessary for us to become a spiritual dwelling place for God to use to reach into our community.

Sir Edmund Hillary

  Sir Edmund Hillary passed away last week.  He and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were the first to successfully reach the top of Mount Everest in 1953.  They didn't do it on their first attempt, of course.  What many people today forget is that before there was the great success, there were many failures.

As part of our devotional time, the staff has started to read John Ortberg's If You Want to Walk On Water You Have to Get Out of the Boat.  In the first chapter, he talks about failure and Sir Edmund Hillary:

Failure does not shape you; the way you respond to failure shapes you. Sir Edmund Hillary made several unsuccessful attempts at scaling Mount Everest before he finally succeeded. After one attempt he stood at the base of the giant mountain and shook his fist at it. "I'll defeat you yet," he said in defiance. "Because you're as big as you're going to get—but I'm still growing."

Every time Hillary climbed, he failed. And every time he failed, he learned. And every time he learned, he grew and tried again. And one day he didn't fail.

  The sermon on Sunday was about how our identity is stolen (frauded) by failure when we let our failures determine our worth, our value or (even worse) our future.  This seemed to fit and act as a reminder that even (or especially) the giants among us who have reached the highest heights, failed regularly. Rather than let them defeat them, these folks found a way to use those failures as stepping stones to their eventual success.

Dove Film

  Several folks have commented on the clip we showed yesterday. It is on various Internet sites (YouTube, Photo Bucket, etc) or you can see it be clicking here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emQUHRlpeaE

  Its worth a second look.

The One We Didn't Use...

  I know it is hard to believe that a sermon that runs more than 20 minutes (as mine often do) has ectually been edited down.  I'm afraid it is true.  It is not unusual for more to be left on the cutting room floor than what shows up in a sermon.

  The clip we shoed on Sunday was one example.  It was a terrific clip and my first choice.  It was a little tricky downloading it and getting it into a format we could use.  If Di hadn't done her usual terrific job of making things work, we would have either viewed a clip from Snow White (with the Queen and the Magic Mirror) or this one, taken from an old episode of the Muppet Movie. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NblU3J_5mI

  Enjoy.