Creekside Church Sermon of May 15, 2005 "Therefore..." Romans 12:1-8	Rev. David Bibbee
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At the end of the marriage ceremony I say to the couple, "Forasmuch as you have covenanted together in marriage, and have witnessed the same before God and this company by joining hands, exchanging vows, and by the giving and receiving of rings, now, THEREFORE, by virtue of the authority vested in me as an ordained minister, I pronounce you husband and wife…"

When he was president of Bethany Seminary, my mentor, Paul Robinson, told me about a remark written on a final exam by one of his students. It said, "Only God knows the answer to this question!" When he returned it, the student read Paul's response: "I noted your remark that, 'Only God knew the answer to question five.' THEREFORE, God gets an A. You get an F."

Life is a series of therefore scenarios. "We are your parents. You are our 16-year- old daughter. THEREFORE, you cannot stay out until 2:00 A.M. with your friends." "I am your doctor. Your heart catheterization shows three major blockages. THEREFORE, you will have bypass surgery in the morning." "I am the Lord your God, THEREFORE, you shall have no other gods before me."

Therefore is a link between conditions and consequences. Let me take you back to when the monarch King George V was to deliver a critical speech to the British parliament. Through the magic of radio, millions of Americans were poised before their radios to hear him. But just as the King approached the microphone, a cable snapped in the New York station that was the connecting link. Repairs would take at least twenty minutes, and by then, the speech would be over. Watching everyone in a state of panic, a junior mechanic named Harold Vivien stepped in. This is how an observer described it:

Seizing the ends of the broken wire, he held them, grimly and gallantly, as current conveying the royal message was transmitted. Electrical charges of 250 volts shook his body, convulsing him from head to foot and causing him considerable pain. But he did not relax his grip. Resolutely, desperately, he clung to the cable till the people heard the King.

We don't know if Harold received a commendation or a funeral for his efforts. Hearing about Harold, the human electrical conduit, causes me to reflect upon these important days in the life of our 113-year-old congregation. We stand between a condition and a consequence, or, to put it better way, between our God and our goal.

It began in 1997 with questions… Who are we? What would a desirable future look like? What will it take to get there? What is God calling us to be and do? Little did we know where these questions would lead.

God showed us the link between questions and consequences. We needed an honest appraisal of our assets and liabilities; therefore, an extensive congregational and community study was done. Remaining the same was not an option. We had a choice. Should we remain at Benham and Wolf and making dramatic changes necessary to draw people of different cultures, or relocate to an area where our identity would be an asset? A difficult decision led to another therefore.

We had no money to purchase land, nor did we know where land was available, therefore, we initiated a successful "Walk by Faith" capital campaign. Three churches wanted to buy our building, thereby insuring a continued church presence; therefore it was sold to the Agape Missionary Baptist Church. We sold the church before we secured a place to go; therefore people thought we had lost our minds. Therefore, we secured temporary home at the Seventh Day Adventist Church. The Cornerstone Team was formed, and for the past eighteen months the team has defined and designed a $1.3 million facility to help us accomplish our vision and mission.

It hasn't been easy, but God provided what we needed when we needed it. Therefore, we are now in our second capital campaign-- the last hurdle before excavation begins; therefore a challenge is laid at our feet in the amount of $300,000. It isn't just a financial challenge, but a sacrificial calling for us to extend the reach of our dollars, but more importantly, our faith, our commitment, and our notions of what is possible when we rely upon God, not just with our lips, but our lives.

You've been around long enough to know that when pastors mention money, the first thing they say is, "It's not about the money." So let me be honest with you-- "It IS about the money." You'll hear no timidity from me about reaching and even exceeding our $300,000 goal. But how we achieve it is a spiritual thing-- a matter of the heart-God's, yours, and mine.

This brings to mind another therefore. A couple Sundays ago in the Overcomer's Class, Dave Eis said that if he had to pick a chapter of the Bible, which captured the essence of our faith, it would be Romans 12. In the first eleven chapters, Paul expounds upon the great theological themes of justification by faith, peace through Christ, dying with and being raised with Christ, the tension between law and sin, and the grounds for our hope as Christians. He wrote soaring theology, but he didn't stay in the stratosphere. He returned to practical application. Pulling together all he had written, Paul continued…

I appeal to you, THEREFORE, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God which Is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the Will of God, what is good and acceptable, and perfect.

Worship in the Temple in Jerusalem was more like the Chicago stockyards than at Notre Dame's Sacred Heart Cathedral. Bleating lambs and moaning bulls had their throats slit. These sacrifices were hacked in two and portions were burnt. Blood ran from the altar. A stench was in the air. The prophets told the people that their burnt offerings were making God sick to his stomach. God desired sacrifices, but a different kind.

Paul told the Romans, "It's you! You're the sacrifice God is after! God wants living, breathing, falling into his merciful arms sacrifices. Real worship is offering your "blood-pulsing-through-your-veins" lives to him.

It's not an easy way to worship. You may remember several years ago when I picked up Katy McFadden and sat her on the altar. I said, "It is not a question of whether we shall sacrifice our children, but to whom." Will it be to the world that can't wait to get its hands on them, or to God who entrusted them to us in the first place? Someone said, "Everyday life is lived in the crossfire between two worlds."

Disciples aren't chameleons who change color to blend in with the environment they inhabit. Disciples are the light of the world. We are meant to be seen. Present yourselves as living sacrifices. Don't be conformed to this world. Don't resemble your surroundings. Be transformed by the renewal of your minds.

God can't do anything with dead sacrifices. But living sacrifices present another problem. Every Sunday we place ourselves on the altar in an act of worship. Someone noted, however, a problem with living sacrifices-they keep crawling off the altar! Getting us there isn't as hard as keeping us there.

There is an Aesop fable that may be unfamiliar to you. It is called, "The Goblin and the Huckster." A student lived in the same house with the goblin and the huckster. The goblin was envious of the student because he was engaged in a wonderful world of learning. The student was forced to live in the attic. To stay alive, the huckster gave him a ration of cheese, but he sacrificed the cheese in order to buy a book of poetry. The goblin peeked through the keyhole and saw that the old, opened book filled the attic with brilliant light, spreading rays over the student's head like a great tree with leaves and flowers and fruit shining like stars and with strains of beautiful music.

How he longed to be with the student and experience the wonders of learning, but in order to do it, he would also have to make a sacrifice. Every year at Christmas the huckster gave the goblin a large bowl of jam with a chunk of butter on top. The student couldn't afford jam. The little spirit lived in a warm corner of the huckster's house, staying alive on the jam, and trying to be content sneaking upstairs and peering in the keyhole at a life he longed to live.

In the middle of the night the goblin was awakened from sleep by a tremendous commotion. He looked out the window and saw flames. He couldn't tell if was their house or the neighbor's. Everyone in the house grabbed what was most precious to him or her. The huckster's wife grabbed her jewelry. The huckster grabbed his business papers. The servant grabbed her silk mantle. The goblin raced upstairs to the student's room where he grabbed what he knew was the most valuable thing in the entire house-the book of poetry.

As it turned out, it was the neighbor's house that was on fire. But in the crisis of the moment, the goblin leaned the true desire of his heart. He wanted the light of the tree. He wanted to learn. He knew he would have to make a decision between the huckster and the student. But as much as he wanted to learn, he couldn't pry himself away from the huckster. He didn't think he could survive without the jam.

Such is the jam in which we find ourselves. We know we should choose God. In our hearts we feel the desire for God. We know that to choose the way of Jesus is the only way to be free. We know there is nothing that compares to following him-there is no food other than living bread that can satisfy us; there is no drink other than living water to slake our spiritual thirst; there is no other to whom we can dedicate ourselves that will not disappoint us; there is no one in whose service we can know what it means to be free.

Jesus loves us this we know… but we keep wiggling off the altar and wandering back to our jam. We know that the most important things in life are not things, yet we still have a problem with loving our possessions more than God. Our bowls only holds so much. Bills must be paid. We get sticker shock from filling up the gas tank. We give to the church already and we're not sure how we will manage to do more.

These concerns are understandable. Maybe even reasonable, were it not for the fact that God imposes no limits on his generosity toward us. It took Paul eleven chapters to lay out what we have received. Then he said, "I appeal to you, THEREFORE, by the mercies of God, present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God…"

We have been part of a very big project that has been eight years in the making. It has been hard. We have been tested and tempted. But we have not turned back. God has been, and will continue to be faithful. Today, one hurdle remains… it's the last one to be crossed, and when it is, we will before next year at this time, live in a new church home. Today finds us between God and our goal. Like Harold Vivien, we hold on to God with one hand and the goal with the other. Offering ourselves as living sacrifices, we are the link that brings both together.

INASMUCH as God has provided a way for us to these past eight years,

THEREFORE let us trust that God will continue to lead us on.

INASMUCH as we believe that God has a plan for our church,

THEREFORE let us believe that God will provide us a new home as a tool to realize it.

My most memorable meal wasn't in a four-star restaurant, but in a hospital room. Days before Hal Heeter passed away, we were eating one of his favorite foods-onion rings-big, fat Doc Pierce's onion rings. He didn't eat them... he savored them. After he had his fill, and said what a wonderful meal it was, he spoke of the wonderful church to which he was blessed to belong. At this point we were still looking for land. This week Hal's words came back to me. He said, "I would love to see our new church when its built, but I know I won't be able to do that. It's the right thing to do, David. I want everyone to know that I'm cheering him or her on. Tell them to GO FOR IT!" "We will," I told him.

We will… won't we?

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