The Man Who Changed Everything

Two hundred years ago, the most influential person on earth was Napoleon, Emperor of France.  He had managed to conquer most of Europe.  But then he met his Waterloo, as they say, and I can’t think of a single way his life directly influences us today.  One hundred years ago, arguably the most influential man on earth was Kaiser Wilhelm II, the ruler of Germany.  His nation was the prime mover that caused a regional conflict in the Balkans to turn into World War I.  Wilhelm died in exile, and today, very few people know much about him.  Who is the most influential person in the world today?  You could make the argument that it's the late Steve Jobs, who pioneered so much of the technology that has changed the way we live.  But there will be new and greater innovations in the years to come.  Someday--probably soon--we’ll look back on the name of Steve Jobs the way we today look at the name of Marconi, the inventor of the radio. 


Now consider this: There was a man who lived over 2000 years ago whose life directly impacts this planet in too many ways to list.  History is literally divided into everything before Him, and everything after Him.  To this day, putting His face on a magazine cover--any magazine cover--virtually guarantees a 50% spike in circulation.  Even people who are not believers in His divinity are astonished at the range of His influence.  For just one example, here’s a quote from HG Wells:  “A historian like myself, who doesn’t even call himself a Christian, finds the picture centering irresistibly around the life and character of this most significant man…the historian’s test of an individual’s greatness is ‘What did he leave to grow?’  Did he start men to thinking along fresh lines with a vigor that persisted after him?  By this test Jesus stands first.” 

            All this year, I am preaching on the theme, “Who is this God?” We’re talking about the attributes of God according to Scripture.  We’ve already seen that God is holy.  But according to Scripture, God became a man named Jesus.  That means that for 33 years, God lived in flesh on this Earth.  So the best way to know Him fully is to study the life of Jesus.  Starting this Sunday--Feb. 12-- and continuing until Easter Sunday, that is exactly what I will be doing.  The title of this series is, “The Man Who Changed Everything.”  I strongly suggest that you study the Gospels—Matthew through John—during this series.  If you’d like to read something supplemental, I recommend the book Who Is This Man? by John Ortberg, from which I will be using some quotes, stories and ideas.  I will be focusing on some of the ways the life and teachings of Jesus still impact the way we live today, 2000 years later.  I hope you will invite friends to this series, especially friends who haven’t yet decided what they believe about Jesus.  But the series isn’t only for them. I have discovered, over and over again, that the richest, most exciting and fulfilling thing I can do is get to know Jesus better. If you will go on this journey with me, it will bless your life…and may change it forever.

Holy Fear

He was the richest man in the world, and was also the most brilliant man who had ever lived.  Combine that with absolute political and military power, and you have a man who was literally living the dream of every human, and especially every male, on earth.  So what do you get the man who has everything?  Well, this particular man wanted happiness, fulfillment, a sense of purpose.  He wanted his life to count.  So he used his riches and power to woo beautiful, desirable women.  He could have literally any woman he wanted, and took full advantage of that fact.  He embarked on huge building projects.  He designed cities and conscripted workers to build these majestic monuments to his greatness.  He enjoyed the best food, wine and entertainment money could buy.  He pursued greater knowledge in every field of learning available at that time, and then made himself famous.  People came from other nations to listen to his wisdom and knowledge, and they showered him with gifts, making him even richer than before.  Then he reached that point in life when he began to assess things.  He decided to write a memoir, something that would offer the lessons of his life to future generations. That memoir is what we call the book of Ecclesiastes.  It’s the diary of an old man who regrets most of his life.  It is unique among all the books of the Bible, because it focuses primarily on what NOT to do.  Ecclesiastes was written by a man who calls himself The Teacher (Qoheleth in Hebrew), but it’s obvious from the way he describes himself that this is Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel.  Nothing brought him the happiness and fulfillment he sought, not sex, achievements, power, pleasure, riches, fame or knowledge.  But note how Solomon ends his depressing diary:

            Now all has been concluded, here is the end of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

            Let’s put this another way: Imagine you had lunch with a man who has the power of a president, the lifestyle of a rock star, the riches of Warren Buffet, the knowledge of Stephen Hawking.  He’s done everything there is to do, owned everything there is to own, and learned everything there is to learn.  And you say to him, “What can I do to live the best life possible?”  He says, “Fear God.”  Then he hands you a Bible.  You open it to find that he has highlighted over 300 references to the fear of God.  As you read, you find that, according to Scripture, a person who fears God lives a life full of delight, joy and increasing knowledge.  He becomes the person he was created to be, and steers clear of the self-destructive choices that others make. He influences the people around him as well as the generations who come along after him, for good.  In other words, the person who fears the Lord truly lives a life worth living.   But you’re still confused.  You say, “Fear God?  What does that even mean?  I believe in God, but how do I know if I truly fear Him?  And if I don’t, how I can learn to fear Him as I should?”  We’ve been talking since the first Sunday of the year about the holiness of God. Scripture makes it clear that the only proper way to relate to a God this holy is in holy fear.  But we don’t tend to talk about that in churches these days.  So this Sunday I want to answer those three questions I asked earlier: What is the fear of God?  How do I know when I have it?  And what can I do to get it?

My response to Coke's Super Bowl ad

Did you see the Coke Ad during the Super Bowl this year?  Every year, it seems, there is at least one Super Bowl commercial that becomes a point of public discussion.  This year, it's Coke's ad, featuring the song "America the Beautiful" sung in several different languages.  The controversy revolves around angry comments made by some viewers on Twitter, who resented "their" song being sung in languages other than English.  I will not rehash those comments here; they can be found with an easy search, and some are referenced in Jim Denison's excellent commentary that I link at the bottom of this post.   

My response to the "controversial" Coke ad:

 1. I doubt there is much controversy, actually. The internet allows people to anonymously say awful things they wouldn't have the courage to say in public. And we give them attention for this! (Yes, I realize I am doing that right now. The irony).

 2. One of the great things about our country is that is a melting pot of hundreds of different cultures and languages. Yes, my forefathers spoke German when they first got here.

3. As ...an American, I am happy to hear people sing for God to shed His grace on my country in any language, thank you very much. 

4. I live in the most diverse city in America. Whether or not I am comfortable with that fact, my Christian faith demands that I see it as an opportunity, not a burden. This commercial, whatever its motives, reminded me that the mission field is here.

 5. As Jim Denison's article (linked below) says so well, we are called to hospitality towards aliens and strangers. Period. 

http://www.denisonforum.org/cultural-commentary/950-america-the-beautiful-super-bowl-ad-sparks-controversy

The Truth about Wrath

When we were expecting our first child, we had to decide how to decorate the baby’s room.  We didn’t know whether our baby would be a boy or a girl, so we couldn’t get gender-specific; no footballs or kittens.  We decided on a Noah theme.  My brother, who is an artist, drew a great picture of Noah and the animals entering the ark, and other friends gave us books, paintings, mobiles, and assorted Noah paraphernalia.  One of these was a cloth book about Noah.  When Kayleigh was old enough, she wanted us to read books to her, and this is one of the books she often chose.  I remember the first line of the book (I should, since I read it to her at least 10,000 times).  It said,

“Noah was a good man.  He loved the earth and all the animals on it.” 

My wife and I agreed that there was a substantial difference between that and what the Bible actually says.  So when we read the book, we told her, “One day, people made God mad, and so He decided to drown them all like rats.  All except Noah.” 

No, not really.  But we did change that first page to say, “Noah was a good man.  He loved the Lord and all His commands.”

It’s interesting what we’ve done with Noah's story.  We tend to want to emphasize the cute aspects, like Noah building a big boat and filling it with animals.  But God’s anger at humanity was as much a part of the story as Noah and the animals were.  We don’t really know what to do with that, so we just sort of ignore it.  That’s what we tend to do with ALL references to God’s wrath in Scripture.  We’d rather not think about it, so we pretend those references aren’t really there.  We rarely hear sermons about the wrath of God.  In fact, I'd be willing to bet most Christians have never heard such a sermon.  But that’s a problem.  If you read the entire Bible, you’ll find that there are more references in Scripture about God’s wrath than about His love and mercy.  Some people say, “Well, it’s true the Old Testament has a lot of stuff about God’s wrath, but in the New Testament He’s much more kind.” It’s almost as if people think God used to have an anger management issue, but He got over it.  Read the teachings of Jesus from the Gospels, and you’ll see He had much to say about the wrath of God.  Or there's this nugget from 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10: The Lord Jesus (will be) revealed from heaven in blazing fire…He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus.  They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of His power on the day He comes to be glorified.  Trust me when I say there’s a lot more where that came from.

We get uncomfortable when we hear that stuff.  It makes us think God might be like some primitive pagan deity, who requires the sacrifice of young virgins to satisfy Him, or that He wants us to be like the stereotypical street preachers of long ago, standing on the corners yelling, “Turn or burn!”  But I’m here to tell you today that God’s wrath is one of the most wonderful things about His character.  We should thank God for His wrath.  This Sunday, I will tell you why.

The One Thing You Can Count On

My friend Joe McKeever was pushing his eight-year-old granddaughter in a swing one day, when she suddenly looked up and said, “I don’t want to have any children.  It hurts too bad.”  What he didn’t realize is that his daughter, this little girl’s mom, had been talking to her about childbirth, or as we used to call it, “explaining the birds and the bees.”  Joe is one of the wisest men I know, but even he had a hard time coming up with a response.  Finally, he said, “Yes, it does hurt.  But then you have this beautiful baby, and it’s all worth it.” She replied, “You’re a man.  What do you know?”

 

That girl is going to go far in life.  But her point is more true than she knows.  What do we (men or women) really know?  It’s funny in a way to look back at some of the predictions that experts made this past year.  They were convinced that it would be a record year for hurricanes, and it wasn’t. They didn’t predict a record year for the flu, and it is.  And they were certain that the Texans would be one of the best teams in football this year (No comment).  And those are experts!  It is a scary world we live in.  We don’t know what will happen tomorrow.  As a pastor, I counsel people all the time who suffer sudden, unexpected losses: They get a phone call from the hospital informing them that their child has been in an accident; they get called into the boss's office to hear that due to budget shortfalls, their position is being eliminated; they visit the doctor for their regular checkup only to find out that something is seriously wrong.  We fool ourselves into thinking that the man-made empires we construct are impervious, but they're actually houses of cards.  There really is very little we can be certain of in this life.     

 

            But there is one thing.  Our God is eternal and unchanging.  Theologians call this the immutability of God.  Psalm 90:2 says, Before the mountains were born and you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.  Sometimes little kids will ask, “Who made God?”  It’s a great question; even a child understands that everything has to have a reason for being.  If you walk into your office and find a gift-wrapped box there, do you assume that it materialized out of thin air, or that someone snuck into your office while you were out?  When cosmologists talk about the origins of the universe, they talk about a big bang millions of years ago.  But they don’t ask the obvious question: Who made all the stuff that went “bang?”  Ultimately, there has to be an eternal first cause for all matter in the universe, and we know that first cause is God.  No one made Him.  He has always been.  Not only is He eternal; He is also unchanging.  This Sunday, I'll talk about what that means in practical terms, as well as the difference His immutability should make in our lives.

The Inventor of Awesome

Take a moment to notice how often we use superlative words like "awesome" "amazing" and "epic" in everyday language.  "That movie was awesome."  "This steak is amazing."  Could it be that we are so lacking in transcendent experiences that we have to take ordinary things and make them seem "epic?"  If a meal or an amusement is "awesome," what would we think if we truly encountered God? 

We think too small.  That’s certainly true in the way we think about God.  I could cite any number of little anecdotes or statistics, but let me just say this: I think we all know that church attendance in our nation is lower than it has ever been.  But I think even a great percentage of those who come to church do so for the wrong reasons.  They come, hoping that sitting through an hour’s worth of religion will cause God to be impressed with them.  That way, He might overlook some of the selfish stuff we’ve done this past week.  And He might choose to protect our loved ones, ensure that our next doctor’s appointment goes well, give us a little advantage at work and in our bottom line.  Let me just say it clearly: God is not impressed with our church attendance.  You don’t get any extra credit for singing the songs, listening to my sermon, or even for contributing to the offering (I hope you still come anyway!).  We have such a transactional relationship with God.  In our minds, He’s like a small-time gangster in the old neighborhood; pay Him a little tribute, and He’ll take care of you…or at least, there will be one less thing to worry about.  Or, to use a less offensive illustration, He’s like taking vitamins.  No one can really tell that it’s doing any good, but they say it’s worth it, so we keep on popping those one-a-days, just in case it helps a little.  Our theology is cheating us out of so much.  God watches us practice our version of Christianity, and I imagine He wants to say, “Do you really think that’s all there is to knowing me?”        

That's why this year at Westbury, we're seeking to know God better than ever before.  I am preaching all year on the attributes of God.  We’re studying His holiness currently.  A big part of God’s holiness is His majesty and greatness.  We need to see how incredibly awesome God is.  In fact, He’s really the only thing in the universe that deserves an adjective like awesome.  He invented awesome.  Isaiah 40 is one of the great chapters in all of Scripture for reminding us how awesome He is.  When this was written, God knew that His people, the Jews, were discouraged.  They felt abandoned by God, and they felt like their lives were worthless.  So right there in v. 9, He gives the order: Say to the people of Judah, here is your God!  This Sunday, we'll discover what makes God so awesome. 

Thank you!

Mrs. Bland, my English teacher my senior year of high school, took an entire class period one day to teach us how to write a proper thank you note.  At the time, we all thought the old girl had gone batty; but today, I am grateful to her for this.  When someone has done something significant for you, they deserve the courtesy of a thoughtful note of acknowledgement.

               So today, I want to write a note of thanks to you, my church family.  Mrs. Bland would not approve of me using Microsoft Word instead of pen and paper, but if you don’t tell her, I won’t either. 

               Thank you, Westbury, for your generous giving to our recent World Missions Offering.  We set a goal of $25,000 and exceeded it by several thousand!  Only the Lord Himself knows the impact this will make on a world deeply in need of Christ’s love.

               Thank you for continuing to support our McNamara fund.  Through these funds, we were able to buy a Christmas gift for every teacher and staff member on the McNamara Elementary campus.  This is in addition to the many other generous things that you do individually and as Bible study departments for the kids and families of our adopted elementary school.

               Thank you for your faith, vision and encouragement as we start our new worship schedule this month, and as we continue to implement the proposals of Westbury 20/20.  I can’t tell you this often enough.  In fact, a new member of WBC told me he was listening to the recording of our WBC 20/20 presentation on our website, and he said it gave him chills. He was excited to be joining a church that was so committed to do whatever it takes to reach new people. 

               Most of all, thank you for simply being who you are.  It is a profound privilege to serve here, and I am excited about the future!  And now, to sign off the way Mrs. Bland taught me…

               Sincerely,

               Jeff Berger