"The Marks of a Changed Heart" - Doug Rehberg

Three mean-looking guys on motorcycles pulled into a truck stop café where a trucker was eating his lunch at the counter. As soon as they entered the café and spotted the little man on the middle stool, they walked up behind and grabbed his food. Next, they spun him around and laughed in his face. And you know what the trucker did? Nothing. He simply paid his bill and walked out without saying a word.

One of the bikers was unhappy that they hadn’t succeeded in provoking the small man into a fight; and he bragged to the witness, “He sure wasn’t much of a man, was he?” The waitress replied, “No, I guess not.” Then, glancing out of the window she added, “I guess he’s not much of a truck driver, either, because he just ran over all three of your motorcycles.”

Remember the old adage, “Don’t get mad, get even.” That pretty much sums up the natural inclination of the human heart – not only to others, but to God.

Have you lived long enough, and thought deeply enough, to know that most problems people have with God are not theological, but personal? I think of Elizabeth Elliot’s whose first husband was murdered by cannibals to whom he and several others had come to minister. Her second husband died of cancer. And she wrote about it.

“The experiences of my life are not such that I could infer from them that God is good, gracious, and merciful necessarily. To have one husband murdered in the cause of Christ and another one disintegrate, body, soul, and spirit, through cancer, is not what you would call a proof of the love of God. In fact, there are many times when it looks like just the opposite. My belief in the love of God is not by inference or instinct. It is by faith.” And that’s exactly what we see in Sunday’s text – Genesis 50:15-21.

After the Civil War, Robert E. Lee visited a woman in Kentucky who took him to a grand old tree that once stood in front of her house. There in front of that tree she wept bitterly that the Union soldiers had come and destroyed its limbs and trunk. She looked for a word of condemnation from the general. Surely he would see her plight and share in her mourning. But, after a brief silence, the God-fearing general looked her in the eye and said, “Cut it down, my dear madam, and forget it.” But how do you get there? How do you get to the place where you don’t only forgive and forget, but love? Joseph shows us.

In preparation for Sunday’s message, “The Mark of a Changed Heart”, you may wish to consider the following:

1. How long has it been since Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery?
2. How long has it been that they and their father have lived in Egypt?
3. What would prompt them to think that Joseph may wish to pay them back for all their evil?
4. What does their message in verse 16 signal about their desperation?
5. Why does Joseph weep? (Note verse 17)
6. Do you see any similarities between these brothers in verse 18 and the youngest son in Luke 15?
7. What does Joseph’s response in verses 19-21 say about his changed heart?
8. Who does Joseph most resemble in the Scriptures?
9. In what ways does the story of Joseph mirror Jesus’ story?

See you Sunday!

"A Peculiar Faith" - Dan Weightman

Has anyone ever called you strange or different? What if they were to call you peculiar? Would you shy away from such a distinction or embrace it? Likely, if they were referring to your favorite socks or interest in exotic foods, you might take offense. But what if they were referring to your faith?

Interestingly, in Titus 2:11-14 Paul outlines how followers of Jesus Christ were to be different, even “peculiar” when compared to the world around them. This week’s sermon is going to explore what it looks like to have an authentically peculiar faith that is both Christ-like while at the same time a credible witness to the world around us.

To do so we are going to do a character study of the life of Joseph and see how he exemplified a peculiar trust in the Lord through his proclamation of God’s peculiar promises, a peculiar integrity, and maximizing the peculiar position given to him.

In preparation for this message, I invite you to spend some time in Genesis 37-50 reviewing the life of Joseph. This study includes a number of chapters, so try reading a few each day leading up to Sunday asking yourself the question, “How was Joseph’s example of a peculiar faith a powerful witness to those around him?” Also, as you go through your week, I invite you to examine yourself by asking the same question.  

"The Money Trap" - Scott Parsons

Sunday will be the last day in our series, "Walk This Way". Today's passage, 1 Timothy 6:17-19, presents us with a subtle warning that the path of walking with Jesus may not be as we would like to believe. 

In Luke 9, we read that everyone wanted to walk with Jesus. I mean, why not? He was healing them and feeding them, and telling them things that stirred their souls. Just when He seems to have the masses on His side, He turns to them and says, “If anyone would come after me he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me.” In others words, Jesus calls to the crowd and says “Follow me and die!” Not exactly a stellar church growth motto! But He means it. Shortly after this a man says to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus looks at him and says, “I’m homeless. Come live like me.” Jesus calls another man to follow Him, but the man says, “Let me go home and take care of my family first.” Jesus says, “Let the dead bury their own dead. You go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

Seems harsh, doesn't it? It doesn't seem to fit with our image of a meek, kind, easy to follow Jesus.  But in our series we have learned that though Jesus is accepting and kind, He is also the eternal Son of God who will not accept second place in anyone’s life. Walking with Jesus means dying to everything we are and have, and following Him on the path He desires to walk. That's why idols are such terrible things. They are things we keep in our lives that are more important to us than Jesus. And the idol that tends to be most troublesome in our lives is wealth. We may be reticent to talk about money, but God is not. Money or wealth is mentioned in the Bible over 800 times. Read 1 Timothy 6:17-19 and ask God to lead you on an idol hunt in your own heart.

"Men of Athens" - Doug Rehberg

One evening last week I came home late from meetings to have a card handed to me. It was from Max, a neighbor kid who’s as cute as can be. The card read, “Dear Doug & Barb. I’m sorry for making skid marks on your patio. Will you please forgive me?” I looked at Barb as if to say, “What’s this all about?” But if you know anything about my wife, you know that she was filling me in as soon as my eyes diverted from the card.

It seems that Max and a neighbor girl were using our driveway and patio as a race track. That’s nothing new. What is new is that Max had decided to change the mode of transportation. Instead of using the #1 toy of last season – a cool, plastic 4-wheeled car that surpasses any “big wheel” variant I’ve ever seen – he opted for his bicycle. Now it’s one thing to ride your bike on the “Rehberg long course”; it’s another to lay rubber for more than ten feet a dozen or more times! It seems that Jimmy Buffet was right when he sang, “There’s a woman to blame.” Max has fallen into the common male trap of trying to impress the girl. After all, if one skid mark doesn’t impress her, maybe eleven more will!

When Barb filled me in on the details it turned out that Max’s indiscretion spread like wildfire. His parents sprang into action trying to remedy the problem before Doug set his eyes on the carnage. Really, for the life of me, I still can’t figure out this fear of me. (Maybe I’m not as sweet and lovable as I think I am!)

Anyway, the rest of the story happened two days later when Max’s mom marched him over to face me. He stood there, directly in front of me, sheepishly repeating his written plea. “Doug, will you forgive me for making skid marks on your patio?” Instantly I grabbed him, hugged him, and said, “Of course I forgive you, Max. You’re my buddy!” His mother looked like a five-hundred-pound weight had been lifted from her shoulders, and the smile on Max’s face was the stuff of Norman Rockwell.

I’ve thought about that incident in the last few days, especially as I’ve focused on Acts 17:16-34 and Paul’s ministry in Athens. Look at what he says in verse 30: “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent…” It’s a fascinating statement for a lot of reasons. First, he’s not speaking in the synagogue, he’s in the Aeropagus. Second, he’s not talking to Jews, but Gentiles. Third, he’s not talking to God-fearers, but polytheists. Fourth, he’s not talking about what commonly passes for repentance in evangelical circles these days (turning around), he’s talking about biblical repentance – a whole life change. Rather than addressing behavioral change based on a concerted human effort, he’s talking about a thorough life change founded on the totality of the divine effort in Jesus.

There’s a lot in this text that further informs us as to what walking with Jesus looks like. But to boil it down to its root, what we have is a picture of a man living what Martin Luther refers to as “a life of repentance” – the surest sign of walking Jesus’ way. (By the way, how do you think skid marks on a patio compare to lash marks on the back of Jesus?)

In preparation for Sunday’s message, you may wish to consider the following:

1. What was the first of Martin Luther’s 95 theses? Why did he start there?
2. What is Jesus’ point to Simon the Pharisee when He tells him the parable of the forgiven debt in Luke 7?
3. Why is Paul in Athens?
4. Why does he leave the synagogue and expand his ministry to the marketplace? (see vs. 17)
5. What is an agora?
6. What does Luke mean in verse 16 when he says that as Paul looked around his spirit was “provoked”?
7. What is the result of his spirit being provoked?
8. What does he mean in verse 22 when he says that he “perceives” that in every way they are religious?
9. What is the result of this perception?
10. What is the ground of true repentance?

See you Sunday!

"Freedom" - Doug Rehberg

In 1924 William H. Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover founded Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland. The purpose of Congressional was to provide the political and business leaders of Washington, D.C. a spectacular venue for golf, dining, and relaxation. Located just thirteen miles from the Washington Monument, Congressional was an immediate attraction.

Since its inception Congressional has hosted five major golf championships, including three U.S. Opens and one PGA Championship. In addition, it has been the site of the Kemper Open, the AT & T National, and this year’s Quicken Loans National Tournament.

The stories of Congressional are legion. In the 1950s Congressional was one of the favorite golfing venues of Dwight D. Eisenhower. It’s said that whenever Ike was on the course, the Secret Service would station sharpshooters in the trees lining several of the fairways and greens. In the early 1980s a federal judge, who no one seemed to like, was disbarred and incarcerated for killing a Canada goose on the 17^th green. The reason for its untimely death was a poorly timed “honk” in the middle of “his honor’s” putting stroke. He missed the putt, but not the goose!

Over the years there have been a number of significant changes to the championship course at Congressional. In 1957, 1995, and 2006 several of the holes were redesigned by famed golf course architects. In 2006 Rees Jones flipped the 3 par finishing hole from number 18 to number 10. When I returned to Congressional more than a decade ago, so much had changed, that in many ways, I hardly recognized the place. And that’s saying something, because from 1976 to 1982 I logged thousands of hours at that Bethesda jewel.

During my graduate school days and years working as a policy analyst for the federal government, I worked at Congressional as a caddie and bag room attendant. On the course I caddied for Sam Nunn, Tip O’Neill, Bill Marriott, Tom Watson, Craig Stadler, and other notables. But there’s one person I caddied for who I remember most vividly not for her fame, her golf prowess, or any personal achievement. I remember her for what she said to me on the 17^th hole.

It was early spring. She and her husband were my second loop of the day. On their 17^th hole, my 35^th, I was waiting in the rough on the right side of the fairway. She had hit her second shot to the right and I was standing by her ball waiting, with her husband’s bag on my shoulder and hers on the ground. Suddenly I began sneezing uncontrollably, like I had never sneezed before. I started itching my eyes and wiping my nose with my handkerchief. And when she arrived she asked a question I had never been asked. She said, “Do you have allergies?” I said, “No, I don’t think. I’ve never had them before.” And then she said something I’ve never forgotten. She looked at my watery eyes and said, “We all change!” How simple, yet how profound. For that’s the essence of the Christian life, isn’t it? We all must change!

In the Book of Ezekiel the Lord tells His people that there was coming a day when He would change them. He says it this way, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remake your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” You know what He’s talking about? He’s talking about what He was planning to do through Christ. He’s talking about the change He will execute in every Christian through the finished work of Christ. He’s talking about a time when His Holy Spirit will inhabit every one of His redeemed children. He’s talking about what He has done in every Christian heart and life.

Paul says it this way in II Corinthians 3, “And we all, with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed (changed) into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

Indeed, one of the clearest signs that we are His is the change He is working in each of us. How have you changed? How are you changing? Those are the questions that are at the heart of walking with Jesus.

This week we are in Acts 16 where Paul, Silas, and Luke have come to Philippi. The fact that they are there, and not hundreds of miles away, is a testimony of God’s power to change the heart and mind of Paul. Paul wanted to stay on the eastern side of the Aegean Sea, but God said, “Go west,” and so he does. He changes his mind. And that’s only the first change we see in this text.

This Sunday we are going to dig into Acts 16:16-24 and see 4 “Ds” that each signal change in the minds, the hearts, and the circumstances of those who are walking with Him.

In preparation for Sunday you may wish to consider the following:

1. Why don’t Paul, Silas, and Luke go to the synagogue at Philippi when they arrive?
2. What are those women doing down by the river? (16:13)
3. What does Luke mean when he calls Lydia “a worshipper of God”?
4. How do we know that she embraces the Gospel spoken by Paul?
5. What is behind her invitation to have these men stay in her home?
6. What is the result of this act of hospitality?
7. How does the story of Lydia prove that Paul has been changed by the power of the Holy Spirit?
8. Why does Paul become greatly annoyed by the slave girl? (16:18)
9. What is the effect of Paul’s command in verse 18 on the girl, Paul and Silus, the jailer and his household, and the church?
10. How does the imprisonment of Paul and Silas signal an outbreak of freedom throughout Philippi and beyond?

See you Sunday!

"The Gift of Giving" - Doug Rehberg

When I was in my last two years of high school we began a coffeehouse ministry in Tidewater, Virginia at the farm on which Pat Robertson and his family lived. The fact that the coffeehouse was on property where Pat Robertson resided was lost on nearly every one of the hundreds of high school, college, and military kids who trudged there every Friday and Saturday night. All they knew was the House of the Risen Son was a cool place for live music, worship, teaching, and occasionally, some amazing miracles.

One night as I was leading, a guy from high school showed up with his guitar. Now I didn’t know a whole lot about him, except that he had a scarred past and no deep knowledge of who Jesus was.

So he shows up and I say to him, “You want to sing tonight?” He’s shocked. “But I’m not really that religious, and besides I don’t know any of the music that’s usually played around here.” so I say, “That’s alright. I see you have your guitar with you. I’d love for you to come up and sing something for us.” He smiles and says, “Let me think about it.”

Later that night, after a number of worship songs and a brief message about the grace of God in Jesus Christ, he nods to me, as if to say, “I’m ready”. He gets up on stage and says, “I’m not really clear on all this about Jesus, but I’m interested. Doug asked if I’d like to sing. The only song I can think of that relates to what we’ve heard tonight is this one.” And he begins playing, Santana’s 1969 hit, “You’ve Got to Change Your Evil Ways”.

He played and sang it well. But later that night I was excoriated by several Christian colleagues for inviting “a pagan” to come up front and perform. Even at 16 I thought, “What’s wrong with this picture?” Since that time I could regale you with scores of other prejudicial vignettes perpetrated by Christians. Indeed, the ministry of Jesus and the early church is full of them.

This week we turn to Acts 11 and find the same man we profiled last week, Barnabas, at the heart of Christian prejudice and fear. This time he’s called upon to travel nearly 500 miles north to Antioch to investigate reports of Orthodox Jews, Gentiles, and Hellenists coming to Christ and entering the church. Remember, those who send him are the same Christians that Barnabas must convince of the legitimacy of Saul’s faith.

Think of all the natural biases against Christians in Antioch. Antioch is the third largest city in the Roman Empire behind Rome and Alexandria. It has a population bigger than Pittsburgh – over 500,000 people. It was a center of commerce. It was a crossroads for travel and trade between Europe and the Orient. It was a melting pot for races, cultures, and religions. Moreover, it was a city known for sexual immorality. Five miles outside of town was the grove of Daphne, where worshippers of Artemis and Apollo pursued their religion of pleasure with temple prostitutes. The Roman satirist, Juvenal, once opined that the moral pollution of Rome came from the sewage of the Orantes River that flowed through Antioch, then into the Tiber River that flowed through Rome some 1300 miles away.

So when the Christian leaders of Jerusalem hear that good things are happening in Antioch, they can’t believe it; and they send Barnabas to check it out. Why Barnabas? Why this Jewish Christian from Cyprus? You say, “Because they trusted him.” Undoubtedly. But I think there’s another, more powerful reason than that, and we are going to examine it this week. For what Barnabas discovers in Antioch is what, perhaps, he alone could truly perceive – three marks of a genuine, growing walk with Jesus. In short, he had it and he could recognize it in others.

In preparation for Sunday you may wish to consider the following:

1. Three times in six verses – Acts 11:21 to 26 – Luke describes the church at Antioch the same way. How?
2. What was the reason for this description? See verse 21.
3. Why would Christian leaders in Jerusalem be suspicious of the Gospel breaking out in Antioch?
4. What does “Barnabas” mean?
5. For whom is that same description used in the New Testament?
6. What three marks of walking with Jesus does Barnabas see in those at Antioch?
7. Why does he react as he does? See verse 23.
8. Why does he travel another 200 miles to get Saul?
9. How is walking with Jesus all about replacing getting with giving?
10. Someone has said, “A saint is a dead sinner, revised, and edited?” How much death, revision, and editing has occurred in you?

See you Sunday!

"You've Got a Friend" - Doug Rehberg

Remember, “Remember the Titans”? I have a friend whose son was playing junior high football back when that movie was released. He and his friends went to see the movie together and when they emerged they announced that their greatest desire was to be just like the Titans. They wanted to be that tightly knit. They wanted to be that successful on the gridiron. But what they didn’t count on was all the effort that was required to get there.

Think of all the pain and struggle those Virginia high schoolers had to endure to meld those disparate players into a single-minded team. There were coaching changes. There were racial divisions. There were social pressures inside and outside the team. There was even the paralysis of one of the most gifted players that had to be overcome. What’s more, all of that pain and struggle doesn’t even represent the two-a-days, the multiple mile runs, and the seemingly endless hours in the weight room and on the practice fields. To become like the Titans wasn’t the product of a wish, it was the result of diligent hard work. To become like the Titans required the surrender of scores of egos. It was a long, hard process of change.

The same is true of walking with Christ. While it’s often assumed that becoming a Christian is a moment in time, or an hour of decision, it’s much more than that and the Bible proves it. Think of the Apostle Paul. It’s often assumed that his experience on the Road to Damascus changed his life. And in one sense that’s true. There, on the road, the trajectory of his life was forever altered. He’s humbled. He’s blinded. He’s made to wait three days for healing. He’s received by brothers and sisters in Christ. He’s given the opportunity to preach Christ in the synagogues of Damascus and Jerusalem. But that’s not the whole story. There’s much more to Saul becoming Paul than all of this.

In Matthew 11 the Lord Jesus utters some seminal words that fully describe what the Christian life entails. He says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heaven laden, and I will give you rest.” That’s what we see Saul doing in Acts 9:1-19. He’s become a Christian by coming to Jesus; or to be completely accurate, when Jesus comes to him. But that’s not all that happens to transform Saul to Paul. And that’s not all Jesus says in Matthew 11. He continues, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Just like the Titans, for Saul to become Paul requires some extraordinary hard knocks and hard work. It didn’t happen overnight. There were some serious, core jarring life lessons that Saul needed to learn to become a useful tool in the hands of Jesus. Simply put, Saul had to assume the yoke; the same yoke Jesus requires us to wear.

This Communion and Father’s Day Sunday, we will be digging into the final portion of Acts 9 (Acts 9:19(b) – 31) that deals with Saul’s emerging walk with Jesus. There are at least four major lessons that each one of us can draw from Luke’s account of Saul’s early years of walking with Jesus. Not only does Saul come to Jesus, he becomes yoked to Him, just like you and I must be.

In preparation for Sunday’s message, you may wish to consider the following:

1. How does Saul epitomize the new Christian in verse 20?
2. Why would the reaction to his proclamation in the synagogue be amazement?
3. How does Saul increase in strength as indicated by his proclamation in verse 20 and his “proving” in verse 22?
4. How are the disciples in Damascus a means of grace for Saul?
5. Who is Barnabas and why does he take such a risk on Saul?
6. How does Saul’s Christian life demonstrate the critical importance of the Body of Christ?
7. What is the significance of Luke’s words in verse 31, “So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up?” in Saul’s absence?
8. Why does Saul go back to Tarsus? How long is he there? Where does he next show up in the book of Acts?
9. How does Acts 9:1-31 describe what Jesus is saying in Matthew 11:28-30?
10. How are “coming to Jesus” and “taking His yoke” two separate actions?

See you Sunday!