Following Jesus Spiritually and Materially - Vineyard Columbus


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Following Jesus Spiritually and Materially Rich Nathan March 13, 2011 Lent: 40 Days to Drawing Near to Jesus Series Luke 4:14-19 One of the great tragedies in the American church is the way that churches limit the message of Jesus according to the church’s own particular version of Christianity. A woman in our congregation was on a search for God for many years. She began reading Christian books and she started to go to the library to take out video tapes on the life of Jesus. She was looking for Jesus. She was also Roman Catholic. And a priest told her that her search was dangerous and that what she needed to do was simply attend Catholic church and participate in the sacraments, celebrate the Holy Days of Obligation, but don’t try to pursue a personal relationship with Christ. That’s dangerous! We see this limiting of Jesus’ message in almost every church. The Fundamentalists have historically reduced the message of Jesus to the saving of our souls for heaven. And while this is changing, very often in Fundamentalist churches, you won’t see much of a social program. There’s a very limited perspective on meeting basic human needs – offering job counseling, or citizenship classes, or drilling for clean water in Africa or Asia. In many Fundamentalist churches there is really no room in the church for psychological counseling or for the opening of a free medical clinic. Why would you want to do that, a fundamentalist might ask? You are just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Don’t you understand that this whole world is going down? Here you are wasting your time caring for all these material needs that people have when it’s all going to burn anyway. Mainline churches often restrict the message of Jesus. In many mainline churches you might hear a very strong political or social message, but you will probably not hear a plain message regarding the need for conversion, or the need for a regenerating experience with the Holy Spirit, the need to be bornagain to see the Kingdom of God. Some years ago I did a conference for an ecumenical group of mainline pastors. During one of my sessions I asked the assembled group, “How many of you pastors communicate the gospel message regarding Jesus’ atoning death for sin in such a fashion that people in the congregation know that what you’re looking for is for some immediate response to the message?” I said, “In whatever language your tradition uses, whether it is renewing your baptismal vows, or personally embracing the salvation that you gained at your baptism, whatever language you use in your tradition, how many of you communicate the saving work of Christ in such a fashion that people know that you’re expecting some kind of response?” © 2010 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

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I was in a room full of pastors. What percentage raised their hand? About 5%. 95% of the pastors said they never communicate the gospel message in a way that anyone would think a response was expected. One friend told me that at a particular mainline church that she attended that she was literally told at the membership class that the beauty of this particular denomination was that you could believe anything you wanted and still join the church. Conservative Evangelical churches historically limited the teaching of Jesus by eliminating the supernatural elements of Jesus’ ministry. Historically there has been almost no discussion of divine healing, or the gifts of the Holy Spirit, or deliverance, or the demonic. Many Conservative Evangelicals have drunk so deeply from the well of the enlightenment that there is simply no grid possibility of God communicating through dreams or visions or prophecy the way he did in biblical times. Demons are seen as holdovers from a medieval mindset. There is no possibility that today someone would be affected by a real demon. We know that any psychological ailment would be treated entirely by material means, by psychotropic drugs and therapy – period. Pentecostals and charismatics have historically limited the message of Jesus. In many Pentecostal and charismatic churches there hasn’t been much room for the life of the mind, for loving God with our whole minds. Again, historically, not so much today, but historically many Pentecostal leaders were proud of the fact that they never read any book other than the Bible. Historically in Pentecostalism there was a very negative view of education. I can speak about this in my own experience. When Marlene and I were in college, we attended a little church that was pastored by a Pentecostal pastor. He was a good and decent man. But after I came to Christ, he took me aside and said, “Rich, why are you wasting your time going to college?” I was 18 years old and this older Christian man, who I deeply respected, began pressuring me to quit college and to go to this little Pentecostal Bible School. By God’s grace, I knew myself even at age 18, well enough to know that that would be wrong for me. I wanted a strong liberal arts education. I knew that I loved school and that I loved to read and that I loved learning. So I had to politely decline this older man’s counsel. A couple of years later when Marlene and I were preparing to marry, he gave us marriage counseling which involved not using birth control and instead, just trusting the Lord. After we met with him, I said to Marlene, “If we don’t use birth control, I trust the Lord will give us 14 children!” No room for education. No room for science.

© 2010 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

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Maybe you could look back at your own church experience and see some area of life that your prior church just lopped off and said, “Well, that subject was not something we talked very much about in my prior church.” Today the church in America is divided between those who limit the message of Jesus to the spiritual realm and those that limit the message of Jesus to the material realm. The spiritual-realm-only folks say, “Christianity is simply about getting as many people as possible to invite Jesus into their hearts so that when they die their souls will go to heaven.” The spiritual-realm-only people also typically talk about private morality – morals dealing with our sex life, marriage and divorce, and perhaps appropriate gender roles. But the spiritual-realm-only people say almost nothing about public morality – the whole rest of life: immigration, poverty, public school education, war and peace, racism, global hunger. All of those areas of life are turned over to the politicians and economists and military leaders. It is as if the Bible has nothing to say or at least nothing distinctive to say about anything other than personal morality. And then there are the material-realm-only folks and when you listen to them its almost as if Christianity is only about material concerns – the economy and minimum wage legislation, unions and the environment. And these materialrealm-only people have almost nothing to say about personal sexual holiness, or about the Holy Spirit, or experiencing God’s presence, or most importantly, about the death of Christ which atones for our sins. And some of the material-realmonly churches, the spiritual realm, how we get in touch with something beyond material reality, that whole spiritual realm is turned over to Buddhism, or well, its not something we do in our church. If you want that sort of thing, you need to go to one of those emotional churches, or maybe an ethnic church. We’re too educated for the spiritual stuff. Friends, if you want to understand Vineyard Columbus, you need to understand that from the beginning our church has sought to be a both-and church. If you want to understand this church at all, you’re checking churches out, and you’re asking, “Where does Vineyard fall on the whole Christian church landscape,” we’re a both-and church. The reason that we celebrate the diversity that we have here that is represented by having people born in 104 different nations and the reason we celebrate the fact that 40% of our attenders have given their lives to Christ here at Vineyard Columbus is because we are a both-and church. The reason we have tutors over 100 kids every day in our after school program and introduce kids to Jesus is because we’re a both-and church. The reason we have a community center that offers free medical and dental care and also healing prayer, is because we are a both and church. The reason we have a food pantry that feeds hundreds of people a month and holds weekly worship services, is because we are a both and church. The reason we have planted churches throughout Africa and Asia and South America and been

© 2010 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

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involved in significant community development projects throughout the world is because we are a both-and church. See, we at Vineyard Columbus believe that Christ really is Lord of the whole universe – both the spiritual realm and the material realm – and he came to redeem the whole universe – both the spiritual realm and the material realm. So when we talk about spiritual concerns, it is because we believe Christ is Lord of the spiritual realm. And when we talk about material concerns, it is because we believe that Christ is Lord of all. As we celebrate this first Sunday of Lent, the 40-day period in the Christian church’s calendar preceding Holy Week – Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday – we believe that during this 40-day period God wants to change us both materially and spiritually. During this 40-day period leading up to Easter, I believe that God can change thousands of us regarding our eating habits and our prayer habits. During this 40-day period, I think that God wants to challenge our buying and our bitterness. I’ve called today’s message, “Following Jesus Spiritually and Materially.” Luke 4:14-19 14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.15He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Here is what we read in Luke 4:14: Luke 4:14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. And in Luke 4:18: Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,

© 2010 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

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Jesus came to give us the Holy Spirit You know, everything about Jesus’ life was connected to the Holy Spirit. In the gospel of Luke we read that everything in Messiah Jesus’ life demonstrated that he was the Spirit-anointed one who was going to usher in the age of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit was involved in Jesus’ virginal conception. When the Angel Gabriel told Mary that she was going to give birth to Jesus the Messiah, Mary asked, “How could this be since I’m a virgin?” She understood how women got pregnant. Its not like people in the 1st century didn’t understand how babies were made. How in the world am I going to conceive a child? I haven’t had relations with a man. Here was the answer from the angel Gabriel, Luke 1:35: Luke 1:35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Jesus’ virginal conception came about by the power of the Holy Spirit. And after a period of relative silence, we read nothing of Jesus’ ministry other than him confounding the teachers at the Temple when he was 12 until he was 30 years old. And then we read about his baptism in Luke 3:21-23: Luke 3:21-23 21 When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” 23 Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph, the son of Heli, The Bible is very clear that Jesus’ entire ministry began only after the Holy Spirit empowered him at this baptism. The gospel writers very clearly say that Jesus’ Messianic ministry of teaching, healing, deliverance, working justice, began with the coming of the Holy Spirit upon him. This is what we read in Luke 3:23: Luke 3:23 Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph, the son of Heli, Jesus himself was about 30 years old when he began his ministry. And in John 2:11: John 2:11 What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples put their faith in him. © 2010 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

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Jesus did not work any miracles before his baptism. You need to understand the connection of the Holy Spirit, who came upon Jesus at Jesus’ baptism, with the carrying out of Jesus’ Messianic tasks. See, Jesus did all of his miracles, he carried out his Messianic tasks as the Spirit-anointed one, not as God, not as Deity. You never hear Jesus say, “heal the blind man? No problem for me. After all, I created people’s eyes that I might heal.” Jesus worked his entire Messianic ministry as a man who was relying on the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ ministry began when the Spirit of God fell on him at his baptism. The apostle Peter sums up Jesus’ ministry this way in Acts 10:37-38: Acts 10:37 - 38 37 You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. And in Acts 1:8, Jesus says right before his ascension: Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. The Holy Spirit is frequently associated with power in the New Testament. You say, “Well, why do I need the power of the Holy Spirit?” When you get a handle on the size of the task that has been entrusted to you as a Christian, namely to spread the gospel to the world, to your family, your coworkers, your friends, and your neighbors, and not only to preach the gospel, but to demonstrate the gospel in healing, ministry to the poor, tutoring kids, feeding people, and deliverance – when you get a handle on the size of the bothand message that has been entrusted to you – and you get a handle on the greatness of the opposition that faces you, the power of the enemy to blind people’s minds, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:4 when he says: 2 Corinthians 4:4 The God of this age blinded the eyes of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. When you see the enormity of the opposition from Satan, the resistance of secular university faculty, and the false philosophies and trivial pursuits that people give themselves to, and in addition when you recognize your own utter

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inadequacy to fulfill the task in light of the opposition, you will cry out for the power of the Holy Spirit. So often someone from the church will come up to me and say, “You know, I considered this particular ministry in the church. I was thinking about leading a small group, or teaching in this particular setting, at one of the local prisons, or a women’s group. I was thinking about becoming a peer counselor, a marriage coach, or working in children’s ministry, but I really feel inadequate.” They think that in sharing that with me that their sense of personal inadequacy will let them off the hook. I almost always want to say with affection, “Well, it’s good that you have now come to the recognition that you are inadequate. Of course you are. How could you or I ever think that we could produce spiritual fruit in someone else’s life apart from the power of the Holy Spirit? Of course we are inadequate. Now that we’ve gotten that truth out of the way, what are we going to do about it?” Cry out for the power of the Holy Spirit! Friend, may I ask you a personal question? Have you ever had a felt experience of the Holy Spirit? How long has it been since you had an experience with the Holy Spirit that you know that you know that the Spirit of God has fallen upon you? Have you ever felt empowered by the Holy Spirit? Have you gone after the Holy Spirit? Have you considered coming to one of our monthly Holy Spirit Empowerment Nights? We have these Empowerment meetings every month usually on the 4th Friday at 7:30 p.m. Have you considered coming to one of our Holy Spirit Weekends that we host six times during the year and which are listed in The Mix or on the Empowered Life cards available in the lobby? At this moment in our church’s history, and at this moment in the Christian church’s calendar, it is absolutely crucial that you and I recognize our complete inadequacy apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit. Here is what I’m going to ask you to do. Next weekend we are hosting a conference with Simon Ponsonby titled “More, Lord.” I mentioned this last week, but Simon is one of my favorite teachers in the world. And I’m going to ask you to come out. If you can’t do the whole conference, then come out for just Friday night with your small group or your family, or with a friend. Or come just for Saturday morning. Or come for Friday night and Saturday morning. Digital Video Record (DVR) your favorite television shows; trust me, friend, you need the Holy Spirit way more than you need more entertainment. • •

Holy Spirit Conference: “More Lord!” – Friday and Saturday, March 18-19, 2011. Holy Spirit Empowerment Night: Usually the 4th Friday of each month at 7:30 p.m. © 2010 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

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Holy Spirit Weekend – April 29-20, June 3-4, August 26-27, October 7-8 (at 7:30 p.m. on Fridays and 9:00 a.m. on Saturdays)

One of the marks of the great men and women in both the Bible and the history of the church is that they all wanted to experience more of the Holy Spirit. They wanted more of the Spirit’s power, they wanted more of the Spirit’s holiness, they wanted more of the Spirit’s comfort, and they wanted more of the Spirit’s love. I wonder sometimes if the fact that so many of us Christians find ourselves drawn into trivial pursuits and we spend hours watching absolute nonsense on TV. I wonder at the fact that so many of us find ourselves drawn not only into trivial pursuits, but into illicit pleasures. I wonder if all of this doesn’t indicate that we have experienced in our lives a drought of the Holy Spirit. Many of us are in the place that the Jewish people were in at the time of the prophets and before the coming of Jesus – the drought of the Holy Spirit. Jesus certainly thought it was possible for a Christian believer to gain more of God. Indeed, in the gospel of Luke, Jesus commands us to ask, seek, and knock that we might experience a greater filling with the Holy Spirit. We read in Luke 11:913 these words: Luke 11:9-13 9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.10 For everyone who asks receives; those who seek find; and to those who knock, the door will be opened.11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Jesus is talking to Christians and saying, “Son, daughter, ask for more of my Spirit.” One of the great Bible teachers of the 21st century, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones once thundered at Christians who claimed to have it all, who claimed there is nothing more of God to receive and to experience, Got it all? I simply ask in the name of God, why then are you as you are? If you have got it all, why are you unlike the New Testament Christians? Got it all? Got it all at your conversion? Well where is it, I ask? Many people who have taught that it was possible to have more of God’s presence and power in our experience have taught that Christians need to ask for a second blessing – an experience of God following salvation that will result in greater holiness or greater power, or the release of spiritual gifts, or some other greater manifestation of God in one’s life. I love Anglican Bishop David Pytches’ © 2010 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

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response to whether he believed in second blessings. “Yes,” he said, “I believe in the second blessing – it comes after the first and before the third.” In other words, God has many, many experiences of himself to share with us. My first kiss with my wife, Marlene, was not my last (praise God!). God wants to kiss you again with Holy Spirit. We have had multiple experiences of love. The same disciples who were filled on Pentecost were filled and refilled again and again: Acts 2:4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Acts 4:8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! Acts 4:31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. It is impossible to be the woman or man that God intends us to be without more of God in our lives! It is impossible to fulfill Jesus’ call to heal the sick, cast out demons, preach the gospel, or do justice without more of the Holy Spirit. It is impossible to feel God’s love, to know that we are daughters and sons of the living God and to live in that reality without more of the Holy Spirit. Ask God for more. Be grateful, but don’t ever be satisfied with what you have experienced of God. Let’s imitate the Apostle Paul, who after a quarter century of walking intimately with God, cried out saying: I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, More love! More power! More of you, Lord, in our lives! Jesus came to preach good news to the poor Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, Who are the poor? When it says here in Luke 4:18 that Christ came to preach good news to the poor, who are the poor? © 2010 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

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Well, right off the bat when churches read what Jesus came to do which was to preach good news to the poor, churches line up either on the material-only side, or on the spiritual-only side. The material only churches say, “See, right here the gospel is about bringing good news to the economically disadvantaged, to people who are living in public housing units. It is about helping the homeless. It is about giving food to hungry people. The gospel is about caring for the marginalized – foster kids and immigrants, people who can’t do life well without a hand-up. And the spiritual-realm-only churches say, “No. No, Jesus wasn’t talking about the economically disadvantaged. Jesus’ message is for the spiritually poor, the ones we read about in the Sermon on the Mount when we read Matthew 5:3: Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The spiritually poor are the people who recognize their own spiritual inadequacy before God. They’re the ones who deeply feel that they have nothing to offer God. The spiritually poor are the ones who profoundly sense the weight of their own sins and their need for a Savior. The spiritually poor are the folks in every economic bracket who are spiritually open to God. Well, which is it? Who did Jesus come to preach good news to – the economically disadvantaged, hungry people, homeless people, foster children, or the spiritually poor – folks who know their desperate need for God? Here at Vineyard we would say, it’s both. Certainly in the context of Luke’s gospel both the materially and the spiritually poor are continually addressed. Jesus came to bring good news to everyone who experiences their inadequacy whether materially or spiritually. What would it mean to follow Christ during Lent? How can we bring good news to the poor? I’ve said this before, but really every day of the week just about brings more good news for the wealthy. In Friday’s paper there was an article on the front page about Bob Evans moving their headquarters from the poor Southside of Columbus to wealthy New Albany. I’m sure that their move was a good business decision for the company. I’m sure that’s the reason they did it. New Albany officials were celebrating because they’re going to gain 500 new jobs in the next few years. And with the income taxes generated from those jobs, and the nearness of those jobs to the New Albany community that will really benefit the New Albany community.

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And the southend of Columbus? Who knows? City officials are still looking into it. Every day brings more good news for the wealthy. My mail is stuffed with good news every day. Gold card offers just for me. Platinum card offers just for me. I’ve been invited to be part of Elite Diamond Clubs. I haven’t asked to be part of The Emperor of the World Club yet, but I’m checking my mail. And the poor? What has the news been like for the poor in the last few years? Well, sorry, but we as a country have made a decision that we will just preach bad news to the poor. We’ve decided as a country to cut back on early childhood assistance. We can’t afford so much assistance for toddlers and preschoolers. We’re going to cut back on food assistance because there are too many hungry people eating. And we’re going to cut back on public school funding and we’re going to cut back on assistance for people with disabilities. It’s bad news for the poor. There’s been recent talk here in our city about cutting a very effective intervention program in the Columbus Public Schools that are keeping kids from dropping out of Columbus Public High Schools. They are talking about entirely eliminating an intervention program that is keeping at-risk kids attending high school until they get their degrees. It’s bad news for the poor. And so we’ll have more kids out on the streets. More kids wandering into gangs and crime and ending up in jail. Every day there is good news for the wealthy. And every day there is more bad news for the poor. So how can we as followers of Jesus follow Jesus’ example of bringing good news to the poor? Nicholas Kristof, one of my favorite editorial writers, recently wrote a piece about a guy by the name of Kevin Salwen. Kevin is a writer and entrepreneur in Atlanta. And Kevin was driving his 14-year old daughter, Hannah, back from a sleepover in 2006. While they were waiting at a traffic light, he saw a black Mercedes on one side of the street and a homeless man begging for food on the other side of the street. Hannah said, “Dad, if that man had a much less nice car, that man over there could have a meal tonight.” Kevin tried to explain to his daughter that, well, you know people make different choices in life and we really don’t know how he spends his money. But Hannah, the 14-year old, was too young to be reasonable. And so she kept pestering her parents about their own choices. Her mom finally, after weeks of pestering, said to her daughter, “What do you want us to do? Sell our house?” Here’s warning. Never suggest some grand gesture to an idealistic teenager. If you don’t want to do it, don’t suggest it to a teen because they will take you seriously. © 2010 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

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And so Hannah, the 14-year old, seized upon this idea of selling their luxurious family home and donating half of the proceeds to charity and then using the rest of the proceeds to buy a more modest replacement home. Now, that’s what the family actually ended up doing. Now this totally crazy, radical and utterly inspired action is chronicled in a book by Kevin and his daughter, Hannah. It is a book titled The Power of Half. Now, any of you who have teenagers, you do not want to leave this book out around your house because one of your teens might get a hold of it and then they might say, “Mom, Dad, what if we did something like that?” And then pretty soon you are downsizing. Well, the Salwen’s said that actually as a family they are much happier in their new house. And because they had this enormous house, they were really quite well off in Atlanta. They were able to donate $800,000 to sponsor health, microfinancing, food and other programs for about 40 villages in Ghana. In writing the book, the Salwen’s said their aim wasn’t actually to get people to sell their houses. They know that most people aren’t that nutty. But they did have an aim in writing this book, The Power of Half, to encourage people to step off the treadmill of accumulation and to start defining themselves more by what they give than what they possess. Hannah, who is a high school senior now said: No one expects anyone to sell a house. That’s kind of a crazy thing to do. For us, the house was just something we could live without. It was too big for us. Everyone has too much of something, whether it is time, talent, or treasure. Everyone does have their own half, you just need to find it. Kevin said: This was the most self-interested thing we’ve ever done. I’m thrilled we can help others. I’m blown away by how much this has helped my family. Do you know, friends, that we have a family in our church that is actually doing what the Salwen’s did? There is a family in our church that recently sold their house, downsized, and took part of the proceeds from the sale of their house and what they’re going to do with that is build an orphanage in Haiti. I know that this stuff is really radical and it is way beyond what most of us are able to do, or maybe even are called to do. But surely, especially during Lent, there must be some ways for most of us living here in America to practically and materially follow Jesus in being good news to the poor. Let me just bring this down to another level. What can you personally do in cutting back on your purchases or your entertainment choices during this season of Lent before © 2010 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

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Easter so that you could give a sizeable donation this Easter to the poor? What could you do? What could you give? What purchase can you give up so someone else can eat? But the poor in the Bible, as I said before, are not just materially poor. The poor in the Bible are also the spiritually poor to whom Jesus also wishes to preach good news. No matter how much money you make, Jesus came to bring you good news, if you will receive it. How can we receive good news for the poor? Friends, what do you need to do to be more open to God? What is it that in your life would put you in a posture of being able to receive more of God’s love for you, more of God’s kindness towards you, more of God’s help in your life? What would you need to do to be more open to God? Is there anything that you can think of that is just getting in the way of your relationship with the Lord? Lent is a great time to clean out the clutter. Maybe you are a person who would say, “God, it’s been a really long time since I felt close to you. I want to make a few changes in my life to get myself in the place where you are.” You could move yourself into God’s neighborhood; maybe even move yourself onto God’s street, maybe even into God’s house. We can’t earn God’s presence, but we can put ourselves in the way so that if God does come, we’re there to meet him. For some of you during Lent, this would be a great time to finally join the church. God’s here in this church. Connect. It will be spiritually good for you to make this commitment. For others of you here, Lent would be a great time to join one of our small groups. Connect. God shows up in our small groups and he blesses Christian fellowship. Hook up finally with a coed group, or with a women’s group. God wants you to receive good news. And finally, Jesus came to bring freedom to the oppressed Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, The freedom Jesus came to bring involves, Freedom includes material freedom Three times in this text there is a promise of freedom that’s made: proclaiming freedom for the prisoners, to set free the oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. The year of the Lord’s favor is a reference to the celebration of © 2010 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

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the Jubilee Year which we read about in Leviticus 25. Every 50 years in Israel was the Jubilee Year in which the slaves were freed, all debts of whatever kind were cancelled, the land was left fallow for a year to be rejuvenated and if you sold your land, it would be returned to your family so that no one in Israel would be permanently left without capital, without the means of production. God designed an economic system in ancient Israel which would not permanently consign people to generation after generation of poverty. In God’s economic system there was a limit to the legacy of poverty. Every 50 years we start over again. The parents could have been alcoholics, lazy, slothful. They may have died. But their grandchildren would not be caught in this downward cycle of poverty. Their grandchildren would get the farm back; they could get the house back. Lent is a time to gain material freedom. A few years ago Vineyard Columbus, as a church, took the most amazing offering I’ve very heard of in my 24 years of pastoring. Members of this church gave over $625,000 in the depth of the recession to help other people who were part of this church to be set free materially. We wanted to, in some way, practice Jubilee here as a church. We can’t change the whole economic system, but we can work out some of these biblical principles here in the church. So, part of what we did with the money is we hired three individuals on staff to help people financially and vocationally. We hired a social worker in our community center, a woman by the name of Christine Childers, and along with other things she runs something called The Ohio Benefits Bank. We are one of the sites that the State chose to house The Ohio Benefits Bank. It is in a number of locations around the State, but Vineyard Columbus is one of them. To find out if you qualify for food stamps, Medicaid or income tax assistance, contact the Ohio Benefit Bank Appointment Line, 614.529.5352, or Christine Childers (Intake and Care Coordinator), [email protected]. For help with job search, resume writing and career coaching, contact Bill Canonico (Employment Specialist), 614.259.5506 or [email protected]. For help with budgeting, foreclosure and financial coaching, contact Kent Irwin (Financial Ministry Director) 614.259.5505 or [email protected]. Lent is a time to get materially free. You may not need the church’s help. Praise God! But you may choose during Lent to simply refuse to buy any new clothes, or to simply refuse to spend any money on entertainment. But Lent also is a time to become spiritually free.

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Freedom includes spiritual freedom Now, from what does Jesus, the liberator, free us as human beings. What will Jesus set us free from? Jesus comes to set us free from guilt. In verse 18 we read that Jesus said he came to release the oppressed. A great alternative word for release is often used in the New Testament – forgiveness. Forgiveness literally releases you from the guilt of your sins. The great English preacher, John Stott, once said that no one is free who hasn’t been forgiven. It is absolutely the case that when you drag around in your life the weight of regret concerning something you have done, something you have said, the kind of parent you are, the kind of spouse, what you did in relationship with a friend or a parent, or child, the hurt you’ve caused, or a duty you’ve neglected, if you carry around the weight of regret or guilt, you are not free. Jesus came to open up the way of forgiveness for us. Through his death on the cross, Jesus paid the penalty for our sins. At the cross, Jesus became the sinbearer. And he invites us to come to him and place our sins, our omissions, our failures upon him. To unburden our souls of our own guilt and sin and place them upon him. Psalm 130:3, 4 says: Psalm 130:3, 4 3 If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared. Friend, do you know in your life the reality of Psalm 130:4? But with God there is forgiveness? Do you live with a sense of freedom because you know that you know you have been forgiven? Or do you live with a constant sense of accusation, dragging around with you regrets of the past, the could-haves and would-haves and should-haves. Friends, as you are sitting here today, do you feel forgiven? Are you free? Jesus didn’t just come to free us from the guilt of sin; he came to free you and me from the power of sin. Gerald May, in his book titled Addiction and Grace…says, [Before we meet Jesus] all of us are addicts in every sense of the word. We are slaves to sin. Romans 6:16 says this: Romans 6:16

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Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? Romans 7:23 … but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. Let me close with this story. This past Thursday a reporter called me and asked my opinion regarding Charlie Sheen, a subject that I have no given almost any thought to in my entire life. But since I’m from New York and I’m Jewish, I can come up with an opinion about almost anything. So the reporter asked, “Do you think that Charlie Sheen is responsible for all of the destruction that is happening from his life, or is it just his addictions? Is the disease of his addiction responsible?” Here is what I answered: You know, to be a human being at its most fundamental level is to have the freedom to choose. We are not simply products of our environment or of our genetics. It is not just nature and nurture that determines where we human beings end up. There is something else going on here; there is the mystery of human freedom. We all know people who are raised in really tough circumstances who exceed beyond anyone’s expectations. Some of you are those people. We aren’t environmentally determined. And we all know people who have been raised in the best and most loving families and who have failed miserably. There is a mystery of freedom. But then I said: You know we human beings, we can take our wills and we can nail them to an object or a substance so that we are on our own cannot change. We can so nail our wills to alcohol, or food, or to pornography, or to some other substance, person, or object so that we by our own will power cannot change. But even there we still have a choice. We can choose to get help so that we can get free. So I said: Charlie Sheen and other addicts are responsible. They are responsible to get the help they need so that they don’t destroy their families and they don’t drive drunk; and they don’t endanger everyone around them. If you want to follow Jesus during this Lenten Season, Jesus wants to lead you into freedom. Friend, if you are a person who has nailed your will to something, to some object, or some substance, or some person, so much so that you can’t on your own make different choices, you are responsible to seek help. Here is what I want to recommend. We have a meeting here every Friday night for folks

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who have chosen to experience the freedom Christ came to bring. It is called Celebrate Recovery. Celebrate Recovery – Friday Nights at 7:00 p.m. in the 2nd Floor Ministry Center During this Lenten season, why don’t we join together to follow Jesus spiritually and materially, both-and. Let’s pray.

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Following Jesus Spiritually and Materially Rich Nathan March 13, 2011 Lent: 40 Days to Drawing Near to Jesus Series Luke 4:14-19 I.

Jesus came to give us the Holy Spirit

II.

Jesus came to preach good news to the poor A. Who are the poor? B. How can we bring good news to the poor? C. How can we receive good news for the poor?

III.

Jesus came to bring freedom to the oppressed A. Freedom includes material freedom B. Freedom includes spiritual freedom

© 2010 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

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