Theme: Keeping Familiarity from Getting
the Best of Us
1) With God
2) With Church
Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the
heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5
having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by
which He has made us accepted in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His
grace (Ephesians 1:3-7).
We speak and study God’s Word today as
found in Ephesians 3:14-21:
For
this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in
heaven and on earth derives its name, 16 that He would grant you, according to
the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in
the inner man; 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and
that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with
all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to
know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to
all the fulness of God. 20 Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly
beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,
21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations
forever and ever. Amen.
Everyone likes something new don’t they?
New clothes, new cars, new electronics, new movies, and on and on. New
restaurants provide a fresh dining experience. New hobbies turn into lifelong
enjoyment. Things that are new are shinier, cleaner, cooler, and pretty much
better in every way. Sometimes we get new things because old things wear out.
We need to replace something. But, more often than not, we get new things
because old things are just old.
The longer we have something, the more
familiar it gets. The excitement we had when it was new fades away and in our
eyes it becomes common. Things that are familiar generally lose their special
status in our eyes. But not all familiar things are like that. Some things
stand the test of time. Some possessions or activities survive the “new” craze
and they become lasting treasures. When this happens, whatever it is that is
familiar is forever galvanized in our minds as precious. It takes on
sentimental value for us. It becomes greater than any “new” thing we could ever
get.
That’s the way familiarity works; it’s a
two sided coin. On one side is the contempt and dissatisfaction that comes
along with something common and well known. On the other side is the joy and
true gain from having something that is near and dear to your heart. The
difference is substantial, but it’s also razor thin. Today we look at two
important areas of our lives: God and Church; and how familiarity affects them both.
May the Holy Spirit teach and guide us as we study His Word.
Part 1: With
God
Though none of us want to admit it, we
have all allowed God to become familiar and common in our lives. This is an
especially pertinent danger in a church like ours, one that takes the time to
instruct from early on about God’s Word. Teaching young people and raising them
in the correct faith is something that the Lord Himself commands so we know how
important it is. And we can see for ourselves what life becomes without God.
There’s a reason that the Christian morals that kids learn from early on
influence their thoughts and actions in the future. These things are all part
of getting to know God and we can clearly recognize how important it is.
But important as it may be, it doesn’t
keep us from letting our relationship with God become familiar. This
familiarity can have a drastic effect on our soul care. The Bible stories about
God that once fascinated us as children become common and boring after a while.
As we grow older and hear them again and again we forget how special they
really are. Time goes by, we learn more about other subjects, our knowledge and
experience increase, but when it comes to religion we often feel stagnant; as
if we’ve reached a point where we’ve exhausted everything we can learn from the
Bible.
For many, this point hits after
confirmation instruction. For years, as a young child, you have a regular and
steady dose of the Bible from lessons in school, devotions at home, and
consistent confirmation classes. After confirmation vows are made, you now take
responsibility of your faith for the first time in your life. You are now in
charge of when you read your Bible and how often you study. It shouldn’t
surprise us that when this freedom arrives, we lack the proper discipline to
stay focused on the truth.
We hit the same point in other areas of
life, whenever we experience new freedom. I remember when I first moved out of
my parent’s home into my own rental. I basked in the new freedom I had. I could
come and go as I wanted. I could eat whatever I wanted. I could do whatever I
wanted. I didn’t have any higher authority to answer to, I was my own boss. It
didn’t take long for life to catch up with me. Soon, I missed having the
company of my family. Soon I missed having good, nutritious meals to eat. Soon,
I realized how my lack of discipline was destroying the joy of my new found
freedom.
How is it that we allow the same thing
to happen in our relationship with God? He becomes so familiar that we forget
how special He really is. We are so used to hearing about everything that He’s
done for us; how He provides for our daily needs, how He is always in control,
how He has saved us from the eternal condemnation of our sins. We’re so used to
it that it no longer feels new and fresh. And when this happens, we start to
drift away from God. We start to look for something new, something better, something
that feels more exciting.
It’s good to be reminded that God is
anything but common. It’s helpful to be snapped out of our familiarity and
recognize once again, how majestic and almighty God really is. That’s why Paul
wrote in our opening verse that he had reason to “bow his knees to the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul knew a lot about God, but he had
barely scratched the surface of his understanding. A few verses earlier he
wrote: To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was
given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of
Christ, 9 and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from
the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through
Jesus Christ (Ephesians 3:8-9).
It’s good for us, like Paul, to
recognize that in Christ Jesus we are faced with a great “mystery.”
Through our Savior we have a limitless supply of “unsearchable riches.” Paul wrote elsewhere to the Romans: Oh, the depth of the riches both of the
wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments and untraceable
His ways! 34 For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His
counselor? 35 Or who has ever first given to Him, and has to be repaid? 36 For
from Him and through Him and to Him are all things (Romans 11:33-36). God
is so far above our ability to reason and think that we should never categorize
Him as common or boring.
Is God familiar to you? I sure hope so,
but take a moment to think about what that means. We certainly want Him in our
lives. We want to know Him well. We want Him to be personal for us. But we
don’t want the familiarity that breeds contempt. We don’t want to turn God into
something ordinary, because He most certainly is not ordinary.
There’s no better time to consider God’s
power than on Trinity Sunday. If there’s one thing that speaks to God’s
limitless power, it would have to be the fact that He reveals Himself in three
persons, yet is only one God. How can we ever call our Triune God “familiar” in
a condescending way? How dare we ever act as if we have Him figured out, as if
we’ve exhausted our ability to learn more from Him? What a disrespectful
attitude that is!
Paul brings the thought of God’s power
home as He applies it to Christ. He says, that Christ may dwell in your
hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may
be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and
height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,
that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God. Even when God came in
human form, just like you and me, He was still far above us. We search the
Scriptures so that we may measure out the width, length, depth, and height of
God. This is not to say that God can be measured. Rather we seek to bring Him
into our limited understanding. We seek to know Him better so that we may have
a greater assurance of what He has done for us. And in Christ, we have the full
picture. As Paul said to the Colossians, “in Christ is the fullness of the
Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9).” Everything that God is, that God stands
for, that God has done, is seen in the greatest possible way through Christ
Jesus our Savior. He is the connective link that helps us comprehend what
little we can about the Triune God. But He is also the one who keeps God’s Word
fresh in our hearts. He does this by daily taking our sins away through
repentance and forgiveness. He equips us to run the race of life with
confidence, so that we may serve and fear God in everything we do. And so Paul
tells us that we comprehend (v.18) Christ by faith. Literally, we take hold of
Him, we make Him our own, by believing what He has done for us. If this seems
common and too familiar to you, you need to take a deep look at yourself.
Part 2: With
Church
Here we see how important church is, for
in church we have a great opportunity to grow closer to God. But church is
often despised even more than God is. We barely need any time in church before
we get tired of bored of it. There is obviously a blessing in being comfortable
and familiar in church. We want to know what is going on and why. There’s great
comfort in worshipping with those who believe and confess the same things I do.
But how quickly those things fall to the wayside. If there’s one area of our
spiritual lives in particular that we seek something better and newer, it would
have to be church.
The structure of the service is usually
the same; at least it contains the same parts. The hymns, Scripture readings,
sermons, prayers, are all good and nice but they become so familiar. Do you
ever get tired of the same format? Do you ever wish that things were more
exciting or entertaining? It’s not wrong to think those ways, I have before.
But in the course of your questions do you ever stop to think about why
you feel those ways? There’s nothing wrong with changing up the way we worship.
We should always be examining ways that we can better share the Word of God
together. But have you ever stopped to think about why we do things the way we
do? When you desire something different, what makes you desire it? Why do you
need it?
Now, I’ll be the first to admit it, our
worship is not very entertaining. Some would call it solemn. Some would call it
unenthusiastic. Some would call it boring. But ask yourself this: Why do you
worship God? Do you do it to be entertained? Do you come to worship because you
a need a way to stay awake on Sundays? The next question is this – what do you
need in order to worship God? A hymnal? A bulletin? An organ? A video screen?
An Ipad? A potluck? A coffee shop? A full orchestra? A rock band? A more
charismatic pastor? Sure, any of those things can help, depending on what you
like. But you don’t need them. You need one thing only, the Word of God.
If you have a church that teaches God’s
Word truthfully, and I hope you have one here, ask yourself; What’s holding you
back? What more do you really need? Why is it that church becomes familiar in a
bad way? Different things are nice. Paul talks about encouraging one another
through hymns and spiritual songs. But if the Word is present, what makes
church so cumbersome? It’s easy to blame other things, like entertainment
value, ambiance, and the people around you. It’s easy to blame tradition and
the way things have always beem. It’s not so easy to look into your own heart.
Is it possible that you’ve allowed church to become too familiar? Is it
possible that you resent it because of that familiarity? Is it possible that
you need to change your attitude too? Of course it is, it happens to us all.
But how do you get out of that rut?
Return to the limitless power, authority
and love of you Triune God. If you feel too familiar with church, maybe it’s
because you haven’t approached it as you should. Maybe you haven’t taken the
time to learn and appreciate why church should be reverent and respectful
instead of hip and entertaining. Church should be approached as God instructed
Moses, “Take off your sandals, for the place you stand is holy ground
(Exodus 3:5).” You should think of church the same way in which God spoke
to Peter when He said, “What God has cleansed, you must not call common
(Acts 10:15).”
Church is just like the God would
worship there. It’s not common. Something special takes place at church. When
we’re here and God’s Word is present, God Himself is with us. We are standing
on holy ground and should act accordingly. God isn’t my college buddy whom I
treat however I want. Church isn’t playtime where I do whatever I want. Church
shouldn’t have to entertain me in order to make it worth my time.
When we come before the Triune God, we
come with respect and awe. We come understanding that He is a mystery to us.
Without His powerful Word we wouldn’t know anything about Him. We come to learn
more every Sunday, never thinking that we have it all figured out. And most
importantly, we come for cleansing. We come to have our sins washed away in the
blood of our Savior. We come to know that God the Father sustains us, that God
the Son redeems us, and that God the Spirit equips us. Can we ever call
something so significant and special “common?” Can we ever be too familiar with
our God?
I pray that if you have such thoughts,
you examine your heart in the light of God’s Word to find answers. I pray that
if there are things we can do better to communicate the truth, we are bold
enough to try them. I pray that we always hunger and thirst for righteousness,
as if our very lives depended on it, because they do. To God alone be the
glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
The peace of God which surpasses all
understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen.
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