Hello again. I hope that you are well. Its hard for me to believe that I am leaving one week from tomorrow. Things have been pretty zany for us lately as we are moving out of our house and getting it ready to go on the market, preparing for an even bigger move out to Arizona the end of December, working 3 jobs between us, raising babies, and trying to find time to be a family. I sat down last month to write about how things were not going well for us and we needed your prayers. We still need your prayers but things are really looking up. That's not to say that this isn't a stressful period but all in all we're feeling pretty chipper. Anyway, I wanted to thank all of you who have donated money and prayers for this trip. If you haven't please pray about giving. Its not too late. As a group we are under our target (I am personally only slightly over half way to reaching my goal) and so we still need funds. The church will be applying donations received after the trip towards the expenses for it. So please pray about it. We have so many incredible things planned for the people there.
I received my flight itinerary today and I thought I'd post it here.
United Airlines (operated by Lufthansa) UA 8830
Depart Atlanta 10/25/07 at 4:30 pm
Arrive Frankfurt 10/26/07 at 7:20 am
Lufthansa LH 0582
Depart Frankfurt 10/26/07 at 8:55 am
Arrive Cairo 10/26/07 at 12:55 pm
Lufthansa LH 0585
Depart Cairo 11/03/07 at 5:15 am
Arrive Frankfurt 11/03/07 at 8:45 am
Lufthansa LH 0444
Depart Frankfurt 11/03/07 at 10:25 am
Arrive Atlanta 11/03/07 at 3:50 pm
Please pray for me as I am super involved with this team through preaching and writing and coordinating the children's programs. We get back Sat. afternoon and I have to be back at both jobs on Monday. Fatigue and anti-climax are huge factors as I have experienced from trips in the past. It will be great though and I look forward to telling you about it.I also wanted to include my sermon which, if you've been reading this blog, you know I've been really nervous about. Its a little simplistic for the sake of translatability and the audience. This is a rough draft and I am still working on tweaking and finessing it but take a look. I would love to hear your criticism's. Thank you again for your prayers, your love, and your support. Talk to you soon.
I hope that you are all very well.
My name is Joshua Sanders and I am so pleased to be able to speak with you.
I am the husband of a beautiful woman named Josalyne.
I am the father of two wonderful sons, Elisha who is 3 years old and Phoenix who is 1 year old.
Tonight I want to talk to you about community and relationship and loving each other.
The Old Testament tells us that God looked at the world during the time of Noah and saw great evil.
Man had fallen away from God and into total wickedness.
So, God found one righteous man named Noah and told him that a great judgment was coming.
And it did. He sent a flood that killed everyone on earth except for Noah and his family.
A few thousand years later God once again saw wickedness and evil in the hearts of men.
But, this time he did not send a great judgement.
He sent his only son Jesus Christ.
In the book of John the writer tells us, “ in the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God,
and the word was God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
The word dwelt in Hebrew is skenoo which means, “He pitched his tent among us.”
Our God is all powerful. All knowing. And he is able to do whatever He wishes.
He could have sent another flood.
He could have sent another 10 plagues.
He could have snapped his fingers and destroyed humanity.
He could have sent a great king on a horse with a sword to save us.
All of these would have solved the problem of our sin.
But, He didn’t do these things.
He knew we didn’t need a temporary solution or an earthly king.
He created us for relationship and to need each other.
So He sent His son to have those things with us.
We can see this further along in the book of John.
The first thing Jesus does when He begins His ministry is to find people who will come with Him.
I say again, Jesus did not need anyone but He desired to have fellowship with us.
One thing I should say here too is that Jesus did not choose religious leaders or the wealthy or powerful to follow Him.
Instead He chose poor people like Peter and John who were fishermen.
He chose hated people like the tax collector Matthew.
And He chose untrustworthy people like Judas who would eventually betray Him.
After Jesus had chosen his disciples the first thing He did with them was an act of fellowship and love.
Jesus and His mother and the disciples went to a friends wedding.
Some of you might know this story because at this wedding Jesus turns water into wine.
But I want you to look at this story in a different way.
Jesus had not yet begun His ministry.
He was just a carpenter at the time.
Jesus was spending time in fellowship with his family and friends enjoying good food and good drink.
They were probably telling stories and laughing just like you or I would do.
I tell you this because I want you to see that Jesus who was the son of God loved people and desired to have relationships with them.
It is important that you see Jesus in this way.
That you understand that Jesus was not just God but he was also man
and as a man he loved and ministered to everyone around him.
We can see evidence of this by looking at his miracles.
He didn’t perform magic tricks so that people would be impressed and believe in Him.
Instead, He healed the lame and the blind.
He was patient which we see when He explains things over and over again to his disciples.
And sometimes he spoke hard truth’s out of love.
Several times in scripture Jesus tells people that they are wrong or they need to stop doing what they are doing
but he says these things because He cares for the people he is talking to.
The book of Matthew gives us a perfect example of this.
If you have a Bible please turn to Matthew 22: 35
“One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question,
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love you neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
What Jesus is telling us here is that the two most important thing in all of Scripture and life is for us to love Him and love each other.
When we look around at the world we live in we don’t see a lot of love for God or for man.
What we do see is hatred and sometimes so much of it that we end up fighting each other.
Every time you turn on a television or read the news someone somewhere is hurting someone else.
God wants for us to love each other.
To care for each other.
To listen to each other.
To minister to each other.
To protect each other.
To give to each other.
He never said, “Love each other unless you disagree on political or religious issues”
As we see in the verse we just read he only says, “love your neighbor as yourself”.
So, how can we do that when it is sometimes so hard?
There is a true story from World War I that shows us how.
On Christmas eve 1914 French, Scottish, and German troops were engaged in intense combat.
That night during a pause in battle a German soldier began to sing the Christmas song O Holy Night
As he sang in German a French soldier began singing the same song in French.
The Scottish joined in and by the end of the song every soldier had put down his gun and walked out onto the battle field
where hands were shaken, cigarettes, wine, and food were shared and more songs were sung.
As the sun rose on Christmas day the men were supposed to pick up their guns and start fighting again.
But…they could not.
The people who were once enemies had now become friends.
There is great power to transform our hearts when we love each other they way Jesus told us to.
It also goes beyond loving those around us.
When we love we are also loved in return.
The people who love us will take care of us when we are sick.
When we are hurting.
When we lose someone we love.
When we are choosing to do things that will hurt us.
Especially for the community of Christians there is great strength in living our lives together
When we try to live our lives without that community we will suffer.
I can tell you from my own experience this is true.
My father was a pastor and so as a young person I spent a lot of time in church.
It was not a very big church but almost everyone there loved each other and lived life together.
We ate together,
We played together,
We worshipped together,
We learned about God together,
and we helped our brothers and sisters whenever they needed it.
Sadly, there was a very small group of people who didn’t like how things were being done.
They decided they would break apart the church and force my father to leave.
This is I important for you to understand…
It only takes one or two people who don’t love those around them to destroy an entire community
After my father was forced out things were very difficult for my family.
I began to hate the church and Christians.
I didn’t want to be a part of a group of people who could hurt each other so much.
And for several years I stayed as far away as I could.
The longer I was away the more weak I became
I had no other followers of Christ to support me and love me
Eventually it became easier for me to sin than to serve
I began to take drugs and drink and be with different women
And I did all of this so I would not feel empty.
But it all made me feel more empty.
A couple of years ago I met my wife and we had a son.
We decided to give church one more chance and we found Mt. Lake which is where all of us here go.
Every week we would go to church but I never met anyone or let anyone get to know me
I had been hurt by Christians before and I didn’t want to get hurt again
I’m not the first person to be hurt by those who claim to follow Jesus.
Jesus himself was hurt by his disciples.
The night before Jesus was hung on a cross he went into the garden of Gethsemane to pray
He asked His disciples to stay awake and pray with him.
He wasn’t asking for much.
But the disciples could not even do this small thing.
They fell asleep and missed an opportunity to talk with Jesus and comfort Him
I think if they had known that this would be their last night with Jesus they would have stayed awake.
Its easy for us to say, “I know that my friend needs someone to talk to but I am so busy
I will talk to them later when I have more time.”
The problem is that we are not promised tomorrow.
In 1998 I went on up into the mountains to spend the weekend with my family
On our way back we stopped at a gas station for a break.
I stood in the store with my father while my mom and sister used the water closet.
I didn’t know what to say to my father.
I knew that he was disappointed in me because I was using drugs and sleeping with different women
I wanted to say I was sorry
I wanted to tell him that I was hurting and that was why I was trying to live my life without Jesus
I wanted to tell him that I was proud of him for not giving up on his calling after losing his church
I wanted to tell him that I needed him in my life and I really missed him
But…I said nothing.
When we got back into our cars to go in separate directions I went over to my father’s car
He rolled down his window and I told him that I loved him
He smiled at me and told me he loved me too
24 hours later my father died
I will never have another chance to say those things to my father
We never know when a chance to love someone will be our last chance
I don’t say this to scare you
I just want you to understand that we have to make the most of every opportunity that God gives us to love each other
I eventually met Colin who preached last night
God used Colin to teach me about loving other people and letting them love me
I am only able to talk to you about community because God loved me enough
To place me in a community of Christians who cared about me and supported me
I know I have said a lot tonight and I appreciate your patience
