Frank

About Frank

Frank Hart is frontman for Atomic Opera, a singer, musician, songwriter, producer, and artist. Happily married to his high school sweetheart, Kim since 1984, working at being the world's greatest father since 2000, founder of NewChurch.

Posts by Frank Hart:

Fantastical Amazingly Jesus Christmas Album

Frank / Albums and Recordings, Living Creatures Project /

2016/12/12

I’ve wanted to record this project for years but I had two problems: it never felt right recording a Christmas project in the summer, and once the holidays got closer it was always too busy to fit in the schedule. That happened a few years in a row.

Which gave us time to really hone the arrangements, so this year we just knocked it out. A day and a half of Mandy on viola and harmony, a day of drums with Johnny, a couple evenings of bass with David, an afternoon with Kemper playing and singing, an evening and a morning with Rob on keys and a half a day with the other Rob on percussion. Jonathan came over one evening to sing on a couple tracks and Angela came over one afternoon to sing on a couple others. I handed all the tracks to Alan and he had ten days to mix and master. I promised a Thanksgiving Day release and I had the final mixes in hand the day before Thanksgiving. Quickest recording project I’ve ever been part of!

I asked my daughter, Von Behr, to do an oil painting for the cover and her art teacher Elizabeth gave her some direction as she went. The idea was to paint a blue and white wintery abstract with a black skeletal Christmas tree in the foreground. The tree would be partially decorated with lights symbolizing how we mostly celebrate Christmas during the Advent preparation time leading up to Christmas day. It is a Christmas tree in progress—which could also be understood as the world in the process of being adorned by the Gospel, awaiting the arrival of Christ in glory. That’s why the album ends like we’re standing outside a church with the organist playing the final hymn inside.

Christmas songs are some of the oldest songs most of us know. Each generation takes the familiar melodies and reincarnates them, bringing them to fresh life for their time. That’s what we were attempting to express on this project by playing these songs in a variety of musical styles.

I hope you enjoy the Fantastical Amazingly Jesus Christmas project as much as we did making it. I hope it brings you joy and deepens your understanding of what it means that Christ has come to us and become man.

— Frank

Two Secrets For A Happy Thanksgiving

Frank / Featured, FrankThoughts, God, NewChurch Messages, Teaching /

2016/11/29

Proverbs 30:7-9

“Two things I ask of you, Lord;
do not refuse me before I die:
Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God.

The book of Proverbs is a collection of wise sayings. They’re not promises, they’re not law and they’re not Gospel. They’re looking at the world from the perspective of God and His holy people. Looking at everyday reality and saying, “This is how things usually work.” If a comedian is funny, it’s probably because he’s looked at the world and simply pointed out things that are true but you never looked at them that way before. Like Jerry Seinfeld talking about Pop Tarts: He was explaining how to write a joke to the NY Times—”How did they know there would be a need for a frosted, fruit-filled, heatable rectangle in the same shape as the box it comes in? And with the same nutrition as the box it comes in. Two in the packet, two slots in the toaster—why two? One’s not enough, three’s too many and they can’t go stale ‘cause they were never fresh.” As they say, it’s funny because it’s true.It’s the same basic idea in any artform, the more it reflects truth about the world, the better the art will be. Songs, movies, books, TV shows, paintings—the more we can relate to the work in our everyday life, the more it resonates with us, the more we trust the artist’s insights and message. Even if the message is about pop tarts.

Proverbs is like that, only instead of a comedian or some artistic renaissance-man making deep thoughts about the universe, it’s the Maker of the universe Himself. We’d be wise to pay attention, don’t you think?

This particular Proverb is really special though, it’s the only prayer in the book of Proverbs. It’s the only proverb teaching us how to pray. And you may have noticed a slight resemblance to the prayer that Jesus taught us when it mentions “daily bread.” I don’t think that’s an accident. In fact, look at the paragraph just above this prayer:

“Who has gone up to heaven and come down?
Whose hands have gathered up the wind?
Who has wrapped up the waters in a cloak?
Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is his name, and what is the name of his son?
(Pr 30:4)

Come on! How cool is that? Imagine teenage Jesus reading through the scriptures, knowing He’s the Son of God, looking for anything He can find out about His real dad—and He comes upon this! What is His name and what is the name of His Son? Proverbs is wisdom that fathers have written down to teach to their sons. So, I’m just guessing that the Son of God noticed this one. The only prayer in a book of practical wisdom.

It starts off with this line:
“Two things I ask of you, Lord;
do not refuse me before I die:

That’s a confident prayer tone. “Do not refuse me before I die.” It’s like a demand. Do you ever pray like that? Also, it’s like if you could only ask for two things from God, only two and nothing else ever—this proverb is saying these are the things you should probably ask for.

But, these aren’t the things we would have thought of, at all. If you could only ask God for two things, what would they be? Fame? Fortune? Long life? Wisdom? Peace on earth and good will toward men? Two more wishes?

See, that’s just it. God’s not a genie and this isn’t a fairy tale. This is the real actual world that God created and we’re His children that He dearly loves and He wants us to understand how to live a real, honest, satisfying life. Fame, fortune and pie in the sky wishes don’t have anything to do with the day to day life He wants for us.

But these two things do:

Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.

Keep falsehood and lies far from me. Keep me from being deceived. Do you remember who is called the “Father of Lies?” Do you remember who is called the “Great Deceiver?” When Adam and Eve lost everything in the garden it was because they were lied to, they were deceived, and they bought it. When Jesus teaches us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer, He says “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil” which is also translated as “Deliver us from the Evil One”—the enemy of truth, the Devil.

And his lies are always believable. He gets close enough to the truth that the joke is really funny. He paints a picture of a world that looks like it makes perfect sense to disobey God and risk death so you can taste something forbidden and sweet. The packaging is almost irresistible—New Kellogg’s chocolate cream pie pop tarts, more delicious than ever—we buy the box and rip into it, only to find it’s the same pasty, stale, non-nutritive food varnish that we’ve been deceived into buying before. But we still love them, we eat box after box, rotting our teeth, storing sugar as fat, destroying our pancreas, and slowly starving ourselves to death by eating counterfeit food. We eat up deception like candy.

So, yeah, we need to pray that God will keep the Devil’s lies far from us. The Devil’s lies and the lies of all the other liars. You know why lies are dangerous? Here’s a hint, it’s not because we know they’re lies. Lies are dangerous because we’re so prone to believe them. We even want to believe them if they support our particular opinions or if they help us rationalize things we don’t want to change about ourselves. We’re lied to all day every day—by advertisers telling us that we’ll be happy and sexy if we buy their product, by politicians telling us that if we vote for them they’ll do all these great things and give us everything we want, by friends and family members who don’t want to hurt our feelings, and by enemies who pretend to be our friends who lie in order to take advantage of us. We need to pray that the Lord will keep us far from these lies or else we’ll believe them. We’re all pretty easy to deceive.

But the lies that other people tell us aren’t the most dangerous lies.

The truth is, we deceive ourselves more than anyone else ever will. The falsehood and lies that are the most soul rotting are the lies we tell ourselves. Those are the lies we are trying to drown out by eating our feelings with junk food. Or maybe your self medication doesn’t come packaged in a brightly colored rectangular box. Maybe yours comes in six packs, or wine bottles, or maybe you have to inhale it, or secretly search for it in a private browser, or try it on at a department store—we all have our things. Our things aren’t a big deal though, right? We could quit any time. One of the most subtle and destructive self deceptions is pretending like our things aren’t nearly as bad as other people’s things. I mean, we’re okay—but those other people, they’re just nasty and evil. We judge ourselves by our intentions but judge other people by their actions. I’m just gonna eat this piece of fruit, just taste it, one little bite, I don’t see why God would have a problem with it, I mean, He wants me to be happy, right? “You will not surely die,” says the serpent.

“Keep Falsehood and lies far from me.” “Deliver me from the evil one.”

[Nagging self doubts and self accusations]

What lies do you tell yourself? Do you tell yourself negative things? Man, I sure do. I’m lucky to go more then ten minutes before I remind myself that I’m overweight—so people probably don’t like me—so I’ll probably never succeed at anything. Do you have anything like that in your head? Nagging self doubts and self accusations. Maybe doubts that God really loves you, that He really forgives you—you know, because you keep doing the same stupid things over and over. We let the little voice in our head say the most horrible things and make us feel so small, so insignificant and alone. Like God’s not really gonna take care of us. There’s so many ways we lie to ourselves. We tell ourselves that we need this or need that to really be happy. We let the Devil focus our hearts on what other people have, success we wish we had, someone’s house, or wife, or husband, or children, or job—really, there’s nothing too big or too small or petty that we can’t turn it into an obsession that distracts us from the life that God has given us to live.

Discontentment is a way of looking at the world, it’s not about the things we envy or covet—it’s a lifelong habit of envying and coveting. If it wasn’t this particular house or car, it would be something else. We’re like a dog— we really only want it because it’s in someone else’s hands. We can’t be happy as long as they have it and we don’t. How often do we hear that someone got a big break in their job or career and we think, “Why can’t that happen to me!” Instead of being happy for them we feel sorry for ourselves. We stare at what other people have, and it robs us of all our joy, it robs us of the ability to be thankful for what God has given us. It’s all a lie, and it’s a lie we tell ourselves.

“Keep falsehood and lies far from me” that’s the first thing, what about the second? “give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.”

When we ask for our daily bread, we are asking to have enough for today. Neither poverty nor riches, neither more or less than I need. Who would pray this? “Lord, please don’t give me too much good stuff!” Why would we ever pray such a thing?

He goes on to explain: “Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.”

When we have too much, we are tempted to think we don’t need God. America, the land of wealth and opulence, we pretty much ignore the Lord until something comes along and rocks our world—sickness, a hurricane, a presidential election—then we pray like a preacher who’s just been set on fire by a bunch of teenagers. We pray like we mean it.

When we have too much, we get used to having too much. We get greedy. We get jaded. We eat too much and make ourselves miserable. Thanksgiving is Thursday and most people won’t just eat a sensible portion of food. Louis CK says, “”I don’t stop eating when I’m full. The meal isn’t over when I’m full. It’s over when I hate myself.” That’s what most of us think of as Thanksgiving. It’s pretty much how we’re tempted to live the rest of our lives, too. We know if we do certain things we’ll be miserable but we do it anyway.

God put Adam and Eve in a Garden of “yes” with one tree of “no” and they couldn’t take their eyes off of it, and the Devil said, “Yeah, but look at that tree of “no.” She’s a beauty! Why would any of those trees even matter if you can’t have that one.

To be discontent is to open yourself up to sin and misery.

How much of what God has told us not to do basically comes down to “be satisfied with what I’ve given you and stop trying to take things from other people!”

How much of our sin is driven by an ungrateful attitude for what we have. Always wanting more, what someone else has, the grass is always greener somewhere else.

I can’t stand when people say they’re bored. We’ve always told our kids that they’re not allowed to be bored because boredom is a sin. What is boredom if it’s not complete contempt for the time that God has given you? Is there a better picture of the discontented heart than a whiney child saying they’re bored when they’re surrounded by a room full of toys, each toy given to the child as a gift of love with the desire to make the kid happy? When I hear people say they’re easily bored, it reminds of the look on my mom’s face one Christmas break when one of my brother’s was complaining that there wasn’t anything to do—he was sooo bored! She suggested that it might be fun to get all of his Christmas toys and throw them in the trash. It changed his perspective pretty quick.

There’s nothing uglier than childish discontentment. And the cure isn’t to get more of what you want. Every toy box proves that.

A man who has a million dollars thinks he just needs a million more. A man with a bowl of beans thinks he just needs a few more beans—enough for tomorrow. Discontentment lives in the heart. Discontentment doesn’t come from lack, it usually comes from abundance.

There is a cure for discontentment—it’s a thankful heart.

To be thankful for today’s bread is to live in the moment and enjoy today’s bread. Not worrying about whether you’ll have bread tomorrow.

[The cure for discontentment is a thankful heart.]

Remember the prayer is for God to give us our daily bread. If we are thankful to God for what we have today then we can trust that we’ll have enough for tomorrow. Thankful to God. Not rely on our own ability to earn bread or bake bread. See, that’s what happens when we have too much. We start relying on ourselves and we forget the Lord.

And if you have extra—give it away. Let someone else be thankful for it. Blessed to be a blessing! God gives us extra so we can share. It’s how we can teach ourselves to be less attached to stuff and more dependent on the Lord. “Otherwise, I may have too much and disown Him.’

The name for God in this prayer is significant. It’s “LORD” with all caps. It’s the personal name of God in the Old Testament. YHWH. It’s the name God gave Moses when He appeared in the burning bush and sent him to Pharaoh. It’s the covenant name of God that means “remember that I am the God who delivered you from slavery in Egypt.”

So, the prayer is “don’t give me too much or I will forget that You are the Lord who saved me.” Then he prays that he would have enough so that he isn’t tempted to steal and dishonor the name of the LORD. I think there’s a little attitude on this part of the prayer, too.

Think about it, it’s basically saying “If you don’t give me enough I’ll be forced to steal and make you look bad.” He’s also saying he doesn’t want to make the Lord look bad—on the other hand he doesn’t want to go hungry.

But to pray for daily bread implies that he wants to be hungry enough to appreciate his food. I’m always saying to the kids, “The secret ingredient is hunger.” Food always tastes better when you’re hungry.

“Two things I ask of you, Lord;
do not refuse me before I die:
Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.

What does it look like to walk in truth, and not in self deception? It’s all about not listening to the lies of the devil, the lies we tell ourselves. Lies of shame and condemnation—selfishness, pettiness. It looks like Jesus on the cross where He gave us exactly what we need, Jesus rising from the grave and breathing the Holy Spirit into us, Jesus at the right hand of God the Father hearing our prayers and answering them. What do you need? What do you need today? Don’t worry about what you need tomorrow—He’ll take care of that tomorrow.

[Living in the moment] Here’s a little secret that might help you with this idea: tomorrow never comes, it’s always tomorrow. There’s only today. Now. Live in this moment. Be here. Be thankful for what God has given you in this moment. This is where God is meeting you. This is where His Spirit is giving you life. You have everything you need for this moment. Trust God and be thankful.

This Thursday is Thanksgiving. Many of us will have some time off to be with family and friends. There’s gonna be a lot of opportunities for conversations to go bad, for dinner rolls to be burnt, for little kids to annoy us by being too loud and bigger kids to annoy us by being on their phone and acting like they don’t want to be there. Some of us will be unhappy because someone is at the table that we wish hadn’t been invited, some of us will be sad because someone is missing from the table this year, some of us won’t have anywhere to go at all and we will be alone. But we don’t have to listen to the lies we tell ourselves that make us miserable—to wish for something more, to feel sorry for ourselves and rot in our discontentment.

Let’s do it different this year. The secret ingredient to make a great Thanksgiving is a thankful heart. Before you sit down at the table and say grace, try walking around the room showing grace to the people who are there. Put your phones away, take your headphones off, get down on the floor and play with the noisy kids for a while, then get back up and shove earplugs in your ears and drink a glass of wine. Remember the past but don’t get stuck in it. Plan for the future but don’t forget to live in this moment—it’s the only one we really have.

May you rest in the abundant mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself for You and calls you to live in repentant joy receiving His salvation and new life. May you be thankful for all that the Lord has done and all that He have given us, both now and this week week, and always.

Let us give thanks to God our Father for all his gifts so freely bestowed upon us. For the beauty and wonder of your creation, in earth and sky and sea. We thank you, Lord.

For all that is gracious in the lives of men and women, revealing the image of Christ, We thank you, Lord.

For our daily food and drink, our homes and families, and our friends, We thank you, Lord.

For minds to think, and hearts to love, and hands to serve, We thank you, Lord.

For health and strength to work, and leisure to rest and play, We thank you, Lord.

For the brave and courageous, who are patient in suffering and faithful in adversity, We thank you, Lord.

For all valiant seekers after truth, liberty, and justice, We thank you, Lord.

For the communion of saints, in all times and places, We thank you, Lord.

Above all, we give you thanks for the great mercies and promises given to us in Christ Jesus our Lord; in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, AMEN

Fantastical Amazingly Jesus Christmas Concerts

Frank / Albums and Recordings, Living Creatures Project, Uncategorized /

2016/11/29

Join Frank Hart & Living Creatures

Westminster UMC December 11, 9am
(FREE admission)
5801 San Felipe St, Houston, TX 77057
http://www.wumc.com/
Map

NewChurch December 17, 6pm
(FREE admission, FREE childcare, FREE potluck after party)
610 Katy Fort Bend Rd #220, Katy, TX 77494
www.NewChurchTexas.com
Map

Help Frank Kickstart an AMAZINGLY Jesus Christmas Album

Frank / Albums and Recordings, Living Creatures Project /

2016/10/17

The Fantastical Amazingly Jesus Christmas album is a collection of beloved Christmas songs that have been fine-tuned over the past several years as my friends and I have played our annual Christmas concerts. We bend well known songs and twist them into some pretty fantastical amazing arrangements. Every year we get the same question, “Are you ever gonna record the Fantastical Amazingly Jesus Christmas music?”

This is the year, but we need your help!

This is the way many music projects work these days. Rather than trying to find a record company to front the money for studio time, production, musicians, artwork, manufacturing and distribution—many artists raise the money for their projects by pre-selling the album and offering their fans, friends and supporters the opportunity to help make the music come alive through various packages and incentives. We live in an amazing time.

The project will be recorded and co-produced by the amazing Alan Doss.
Musicians will also include Johnny Simmons, David Wallace, Mandy Campbell, Rob Leslie, Rob Camper and Kemper Crabb.

The Songs:
Joy to the World
Hark the Herald Angels
Silent Night
ChristmasDay
Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
O Come O Come Emmanuel
Ave Maria
O Come All Ye Faithful
Angels We Have Heard on High

The $8,000 gets the project done but we also have a “stretch goal.” If we are able to raise $15,000, then we will film the concert and release it as a concert movie.

We hope you will consider generously helping us bring this project to life.

Joyride — The Book Begins

Frank / Albums and Recordings, Book Preview /

2016/02/09

Limited tickets are available for the Joyride Book Release Event at Agave Real in Katy, Texas. PURCHASE NOW.

Join us in celebrating the release of Frank Hart’s much anticipated memoir, Joyride, A Beginning in Every End. Hosted by Matt Popovits, Joyride – The Live Show, promises to be an evening filled with infectious laughter, intimate conversations, and moving acoustic music by Frank and members of Atomic Opera.

Relax before the show with a drink from the bar and stay after for a reception meet and greet where you can purchase Joyride (ahead of the scheduled release date!) as well as music from Atomic Opera and Frank’s solo projects. This concert, hosted at the amazing Agave Real in Katy, TX is sure to be a night to remember; one you won’t want to miss!

Tickets are limited. There are package options that include a book or entry for two. Click the ticket link to purchase.

Here are some more very entertaining invites by friends of Frank:

JOYRIDE: A Beginning In Every End

Frank / Albums and Recordings, Book Preview /

2016/01/06

FrankHart.com is excited to announce Frank’s book, JOYRIDE, is now available for order! Stay tuned for upcoming book signings and events. Order Book Here!

I have some big news.

I spent three years writing a book and it’s available for order!

Here is a blurb to entice you to read the book:

There are a lot of reasons why you might read a book. Maybe you want to be entertained, maybe you want to be inspired, maybe you want to peek into the secret closets and junk drawers of an almost famous, almost rockstar’s psychology. This is the story of a Midwestern son of a coal miner who couldn’t decide between a pulpit and an electric guitar. At a young age, he saw God while looking up at the stars in his backyard and never looked back. Years later, his band, Atomic Opera, tasted success after signing with a major record label, poised to become the next great rock band. What is a person supposed to do when it all slips away? Frank gives us a glimpse into his triumphs and struggles, in music and in his personal life, and how he never lost hope.

Joyride is a candid look at a man following his talents and the call of God through the many roles he’s been given: Rock Star, Husband, Father, Artist, Worship Leader, Teacher, and Pastor.

Frank Hart is the frontman for Atomic Opera, a hard rock band from Texas, part of the “Houston Sound” created by Wilde Silas Musicworks (King’s X, Galactic Cowboys). The band was signed to Warner Brothers Records, released four albums and toured with Dio. Frank is now a worship leader and preacher at NewChurch in Katy, Texas. He has released two solo albums and continues to rewrite the ending of his story.

“I’ll tell you about how I saw God in my backyard while looking up at the stars and I’ll tell you about how He saw me before I saw him. I’ll tell you about coming so close to my wildest dreams that I could have licked the frosting with my tongue. JOYRIDE was supposed to be the song that put my band, Atomic Opera, on the map. What? You have never heard of JOYRIDE? Exactly. You know the difference between a happy ending and a tragedy? It’s all where you stop telling the story.” —Frank Hart

Demystifying Worship Pt 1

Frank / FrankThoughts, NewChurch Messages, Teaching /

2015/09/30

Listen Here

It’s one thing to know something intellectually but it’s a very different thing to know it by experiencing it. Like, you might know you are afraid of heights but you know it in a very different way if you find yourself standing on the edge of a tall building peeking over the edge at the sidewalk down below when the people look like tiny ants and you have that intense feeling in your gut and you start to freak out—you know it differently then.

You might know that you were proud of your son or your daughter because of something they said or did, maybe some amazing accomplishment or the way they handled something—you know it intellectually—but if you’re like me and you start telling someone the story you start to FEEL it. You get a lump in your throat and your heart swells in your chest.

You might know that God so loved the world that He sent His Son so that anyone who believes in Him will have eternal life. You might know that. What American doesn’t know that? It’s the most well known Bible verse in the world. But when you realize that God loves YOU, that He sent His one and only Son to earth to die for YOUR sins, so that YOU can believe in Jesus and have the hope and assurance that when you lay down to go to sleep for the last time you will wake up in eternity wide awake and fully restored, refreshed and redeemed, like you had the best night’s rest with the most wonderful dreams.

Tonight I’m talking about worship. What does worship mean? Why do we worship? We’re here at NewChurch every Saturday night to worship God. We end the previous week and begin the next week together here in the presence of God. Why? What are we doing?

I figure this is a pretty crucial thing to get right since we’re starting a church together. Don’t you think? The tagline for NewChurch is “worship GOD. Love people.” What do we mean by “Worship GOD?” What does loving people have to do with it?

Does worship God simply mean going to church? The main auditorium in most church buildings is called the “worship center,” we talk about “going to worship” as a euphemism for “going to church.” Or is worship just the music part? For eleven years one of my titles at the previous church was “worship leader,” and let’s be honest, I was called that because I led the music and the singing. There is a genre of music called “worship music” populated by people who are called “Worship artists.”

I want us, as a church, as NewChurch, to be on the same page for what “worship” means. Over the next couple of messages we are going to talk about a Biblical view of worship from my and Kemper’s perspective.

Does that make sense? If we are going to start a church together—a worshiping body of believers—doesn’t it make sense that we should want to have a unified understanding of what worship is and what we are starting? What we’re actually doing?

There are several words in the Bible that are translated as “worship” and all of those words mean different but complimentary things. The English word “worship” really only carries the connotation of one of the concepts. Our word “worship” has the basic meaning of “to ascribe worth to” or to be worthy. You’ve heard that before, right? It’s why we have so many English worship songs that say things like “You are worthy of my praise” and “You alone are worthy” etc.

About twelve verses in the Bible convey this concept directly, and they’re usually talking about “praise” rather than “worship:”

Deuteronomy 10:21 says
“He alone is your God, the only one who is worthy of your praise”
2 Samuel 22:4
“I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise

In the New Testament—Romans 9:5
Christ himself … is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise!
Revelation 5:12
“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”

Actually, “praise” is what most of us really mean when we say “worship.” Praise is when we talk about the greatness of God, sing about the marvelous works of God, thank God for all that He has done for us—that is praise. God alone is worthy of our praise. Praise is part of our worship but it is only part of our worship.

Kind of like taking care of a baby. Holding, loving and talking to your baby is part of taking care her but it’s not everything involved in taking care of a baby. You also have to feed her, change her, bathe her, dress her and teach her everything she needs to know to grow up to be a human being.

We praise God because He is worthy is part of worship but there is much, much more to it.

I like to think of worship as “gathered worship” and “scattered worship.” There is the worship we do when we come together as a church, to sing together, hear God’s Word together, pray together and be together over a meal. Then there is “scattered worship,” which is everything we do once we walk out those doors and back into the real world where we live the rest of our lives.

I think a good overall definition of worship is this: Everything we do in response to God. God calls us to Himself through Jesus, He saves us and we respond in worship. We worship by praising Him with singing, we worship Him by thanking Him through prayer and we worship Him by living our lives as a living sacrifice—giving Him everything that we have to offer.

Worship is everything we do in response to God.

Throughout the Bible the words that are most often translated as “worship” in the Old Testament and in the New Testament are words that mean to bow before a king. To bow down, face down, pledging our devotion, honor and service to our king. To submit our will, our life, our treasure, our sword and our future in service and allegiance to our King. Our King who is Jesus who is the Lord God almighty maker of heaven and earth. It’s a big deal.

Like Exodus 20 where the ten commandments start with “You must worship God alone” and John 4 where Jesus says “Those who worship God must worship in Spirit and in Truth.” and in Luke 4 when Jesus says “You must worship the LORD your God and serve only Him.” This is the meaning of the word “worship” used over 165 times in the Old Testament and fifty-four times in the New Testament.

This is strange concept to modern western man. Think about it, most of us, if we were to meet the most powerful man in the world, our modern equivalent of a king, we would walk up to them like an equal, look them in the eye and extend our hand like we think we’re the king of some imaginary land in our mind. That’s not the picture we are supposed to have when we think of worshiping God. We are to think of bowing to a king and submitting our life in total service and humility—it’s a foreign concept to us in this culture.

Another word throughout the Bible that is simply translated as “worship” should actually be rendered more as sacrifice or offering. It is referring to sacrifices, offerings and service that takes place in the Temple. It is used specifically to detail Old Testament sacrificial worship but it is carried forward into the New Testament in verses like Romans 12:

“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual act of worship.”

In response to God we present our lives, our whole lives, our talents, our money, our opinions, our intellect, our emotions—everything that is in our power we sacrifice to God in worship.

Worship not only means to bow down but also to serve, and the two ideas are completely interconnected—we can’t bow down to God without serving Him—not if it is going to be considered “worship.” We can’t have faith in Jesus without also obeying His commands and bearing fruit—faith without works is what? Dead. We can’t say we love God and hate our brother. We can’t expect God to forgive us if we are not walking in forgiveness toward those who have trespassed against us. We can’t remember what God has told us to do and then not do it—in a Biblical sense that would mean we forgot. Worship includes not only remembering but doing, not only bowing but serving.

Gathered worship is like our bowing and scattered worship is like our serving. Does that make sense?

In our gathered worship what do we do together? What are we trying to accomplish? As we respond to God in worship we want to be thankful, entering His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Why? Because God has given us so much to be thankful for, even in hard times and dark times. He has given us hope that no matter what— we’ll wake up in the morning to a new day—no matter what, even if we die, one day we’ll wake to eternity.

We gather together we can bow together in the presence of God, responding to all He has done for us and all that He is. He is our God and King.

When we stand, we are once again reminded that we are holy, it’s like we are knighted, we can scatter to the rest of our week filled with God’s grace and empowered by the Holy Spirit. We come as we are, everyone is welcome, and God meets us here—but He challenges us to leave changed—He invites us to come as we are but He loves us too much to leave us as we are. We come wounded and tired but leave healed, revived and wearing the king’s armor.

Worship is everything we do in response to God.

We respond to God in worship because God first loved us, in 1 John 4 it says: God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

I started this by talking about how we can know something or we can really know something. Worship is like that. We experience God’s grace and mercy when we lift our hearts and voices here. When we gather together for worship let’s respond to God with everything we have, all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. Let’s bow down as deeply as we are able pledging our service to our God and King. Let’s sing our faces off with loud voices, lifting our hearts, our eyes and our emotions to honor the God who invites us to worship Him boldly—so that as we remind ourselves of who God is and what He’s done for us, we feel it, we experience it again.

We end the previous week and begin the next week together here in the presence of God. Real worship is when we respond to God’s love as we gather together and then live out that love when we scatter to worship Him with the rest of our lives. Worship God. Love people. They are actually the same thing when you come right down to it.

AMEN

Demystifying Communion (Em why ess tea Eee are why)

Frank / FrankThoughts, NewChurch Messages, Teaching /

2015/08/03

Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion —It’s called a lot of different names, all of them pointing to different aspects that are important to consider. It’s referred to as a sacrament. The word “sacrament” means “mystery” but it refers to a mystery that’s both physical and spiritual. A “sacrament” is understood to be an outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual divine grace. Baptism is also a sacrament.

It’s called “the Lord’s Supper” because it was instituted by Jesus at “The Last Supper” and because we feast with Him, through Him and on Him.

John 6:53 is the very familiar but very strange passage,

“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”

It’s called “The Eucharist” because it’s thought to be a feast of thankfulness for Jesus, the cross and salvation—the word “Eucharist” means “thanksgiving”; It’s called “the Breaking of Bread” “the Memorial of the Lord’s passion and resurrection,” some call it “the Holy Sacrifice” because they believe it mysteriously makes present the sacrifice of Christ. It’s called the “bread of angels” and “bread from heaven.” It’s most common name is “Holy Communion” because through this liturgical mystery meal we are all in union (communion) with Christ and with each other.

WARNING
I’m pretty sure I’ll say something that bugs you tonight. There will be some part of this message that each of us will think, “Oh, that’s not right, I’ve never heard that before, that’s different from the way so and so explained it to me in such and such church.”

How about if we all just take a deep breath and promise up front to not get all bent out of shape over this. Can we go ahead and agree on that up front? We’re not going to let Holy Communion—the sacrament intended to bring us together in union with Christ and each other—to cause us to start fighting with each other in disunity. How stupid would that be?

I’m going to walk through some scriptures that talk about The Lord’s Supper and give you some of my thoughts on the subject, but I’m not pretending to have it all figured out. Actually, I hope that by the end you’ll see that that is my main point—we don’t need to have it all figured out.

ORIGIN
All four Gospels describe the institution of this meal by Jesus. It is a multi-layered deeply meaningful thing we are doing. When we break bread in worship we’re remembering the Passover, the Last Supper, Christ’s death and sacrifice, our thankfulness for receiving salvation, our unity with Christ and the body of believers, and the promise of a future heavenly banquet when the Lord returns. There’s a lot going on, layers within layers, mysteries within mysteries.

Fortunately, for all of us, I’m going to clear it all up tonight once and for all in this message. Even though people have argued about it for thousands of years, brothers against brothers, sisters against sisters, churches have split and blood has been spilled—I’m going to put it all to rest right now. Isn’t that thoughtful of me?

I’m kidding but we really could find common ground if we could be satisfied with this: It’s a mystery. Em why ess tea Eee are why. Mystery. If we could teach and embrace all the layers of meaning but remember that it’s a mystery we would be fine.

DISAGREEMENTS
I think most of the silliness surrounding disagreements about Communion happen when people get backed into a corner that they can’t get out of, they get into an argument and they stand their ground defending the undefendable.

It all started when Jesus sat down to His last Passover meal with the disciples. In the synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke, it says it was the actual Passover meal and it probably was. Jesus would have kept the Passover strictly in accord with what Moses said in Exodus 12, which seems to have been on a Thursday that year, but the Gospel of John says the Last Supper happened before Passover. So which is it? They can’t all be right can they?

You may remember that the Temple was controlled by the Sadducees who were looser in their beliefs and ran a much looser calendar. They had long ago stopped believing in anything supernatural and were pretty much a stuffy, powerful, Jewish culture club. You know how we sometimes move the observance of a national holiday to Monday if it suits our purposes?—they did that, too. They wanted Passover to fall on Saturday, probably because it was good for business, so the official national Passover was observed on Sabbath that year. This means when John says the Last Supper was just before Passover—he is also correct.

If you were considering losing your faith because of some apparent timeline difference between the Synoptic Gospels and John you can return to your regularly scheduled devotion. Also, John wants us to understand what is written in 1 Corinthians 5:7, that Christ is the Passover Lamb who was sacrificed. Jesus is the Lamb who was slain for all our sins, so he points out that Jesus was killed at the same time as the official Passover Lamb on the day of preparation. Jesus was able to both celebrate the Passover with His friends and be the Passover Lamb for the whole world. Those goose bump chills you might be experiencing are a perfectly normal reaction to how awesome God is.

Anyway, the Passover was the biggest celebration in the Jewish year. It was their Christmas, and it was a giant family event. They looked forward to it all year. They remembered and celebrated being set free from the tyranny of Egypt, they told the story of how the Angel of Death passed over every home that had lamb blood on the door frame and didn’t kill the first born son. They ate a meal together, sang songs, played games with the kids, and remembered who they were. It was a celebration of their birth as a people.

There’s a lot that can be said about the correlation between Communion and Passover—the different cups and symbols in the meal, how they point to Jesus—but I’ll save that for another time. The bottom line is the Lord’s Supper is to be understood in the context of Passover. For the Church, it replaces Passover as our covenant meal.

Keeping this in mind clears up a couple things that people argue about—at least for me. Like how often should we do it?

People argue about how often we should celebrate Holy Communion in worship. Well, Passover was once a year and the early church broke bread and worshiped together every day. In Acts 2:42 it says:
“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” An early document of the church called the Didache says to Break Bread on each Lord’s Day in worship. So, clearly this means we should either have Communion once a year or every day—or anything in between. In other words, he told us to do it but we have freedom in how often.

At NewChurch we’re gonna go with once a month for now, we may do it more often as the Lord leads us.

The other thing people argue about, and this can get ugly, is who is eligible to receive Communion. Do we have to be a certain age? Do we have to have a certain understanding of what is happening? Do we have to be super awesome holy doubt-free believers who are perfectly unified in our theology and understanding of what we are doing?

Well, let’s look at Passover for our answers. It included the whole family, from the youngest to the oldest. They ate the Passover meal because they were in the family and were God’s people. I think it’s the same with us.

All baptized believers are welcome to the table.

You may wonder why I said baptized believers and not just believers. It’s pretty simple. Communion is a covenantal meal, a sacrament. Baptism is the covenantal entrance to God’s family. Why would you take part in the covenantal meal if you refuse to enter the covenant? Why take part in the second sacrament if you aren’t going to do the first?

I’m not going to spend much time on baptism tonight but the Old Testament practice that baptism replaces is circumcision. Circumcision was the old way of entering the covenant family, and it took place when the child was eight days old. That’s why we baptize our children. We baptize our children for the same reason—because we intend to raise them as part of God’s family, we raise our children as Christians. We are not raising them hoping they will become Christians. Do you see the difference? Do we raise our kids hoping they’ll become Americans? Texans? Do you hope they’ll one day decide to take your last name and become your child? Come on, that’s nonsense. We raise them as our own Children, as God’s own children, as Christians who have received the grace and mercy of Jesus just as we have. If you baptize your little ones, then why wouldn’t you bring them to the table?

We had Von and Angel baptized as infants so, when I brought them to the altar for the first year or so, I would dip my finger in the wine and touch it to their tongue saying, “This is the blood of our Lord which was shed for you.” And when they got old enough to take the bread, I would break off a piece and give it to them saying, “This is the body of the Lord which was broken for you.” It was an awesome experience.

Maybe you’ve never heard of such a thing. Paedocommunion is a fancy word for communing the very young. I know it’s different than some of the churches we’ve come from. That’s okay. You don’t have to commune your little ones if you don’t want to but I’d like to encourage you to pray about it.

In our case Von and Angel were Communed until I started working at a church that didn’t practice Paedocommunion, then they stopped for a few years until they took a Communion class and received their First Communion. It wasn’t the end of the world but it might have been a little confusing for them.

NewChurch is affiliated with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, the LCMS, and they allow Paedocommunion, leaving it up to the individual congregations. NewChurch will embrace bringing our little ones to Jesus in every way, in all the sacraments, in the Word, in teaching—we will receive them as our little brothers and sisters in the Lord. If you have questions or concerns about this please feel free to ask me or Kemper, but let’s not allow it to cause any disunity among us.

So at that Passover meal in Luke chapter 22,

Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me.”

Do you think the disciples understood what was going on?—What He meant by that? One of them was about to leave the party and get the cops. A couple of them were wanted terrorists, one was seen as a traitor to his country—they were a ragtag bunch, compared to respectful citizens they were kind of a mess. In a few hours they were all going to scatter and hide when Jesus got into trouble and none of them seemed to understand the whole “I’m going to die and on the third day rise from the dead” thing He kept talking about. So my question is, why did Jesus Commune them? Shouldn’t He have guarded the altar a little better? Taught a Communion class first? No, Jesus instituted this meal and it is to be served to all the baptized saints and scoundrels who gather around the table—everyone who’s following Him.

After supper he took another cup of wine and said, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you.

I’m sure they understood exactly what He was talking about. Or not.

This brings us to another one of those pesky disagreements we awesome Christians like to punch each other in the face over. Some say that the bread and wine are just bread and wine, they symbolically remind us of His body and blood—but come on, don’t be silly, we all know it’s just bread and wine. Other’s say, “No! The wine literally becomes Jesus’ blood and the bread literally becomes Jesus’ flesh. Another camp believes that in a spiritual way the bread and wine are the real presence of the Lord—and another COMPLETELY different camp says that’s absolutely wrong because the bread and wine are actually the spiritual presence of the Lord. And many wars were fought, enemies made, bodies were broken and blood was spilled over the subject of this meal that unifies and unites us with Christ.

Like I said, NewChurch is affiliated with the LCMS which teach that His body and blood are truly present and distributed to those who eat and drink at this table. That in a spiritual mystery we experience the Real Presence of our Lord in Communion.

I think it’s best not to get too caught up in it all. Jesus said “This is my body, this is my blood” and we want to take Him at His word. Any attempt to explain it further will corrupt His words and be fruitless dogma. Any attempt to explain it away with scientifically enlightened reductionism is a denial of the supernatural miraculous power of God. There are mysteries and they should be embraced and savored. Part of coming to this table is laying aside the enlightened idols of our culture. We take our intellect captive in obedience to Christ and accept this mystery in no other way than by faith.

BREAD AND WINE
I think it’s worth considering what bread and wine represent from a Biblical perspective. Jesus was born in Bethlehem which literally means “house of bread,” everything we need in daily life is referred to as our daily bread, God fed the children of Israel in the wilderness with bread from heaven, Jesus multiplied bread to feed the five thousand, and He said He is the Bread of Life. There was a piece of bread in the Passover meal called the Afikoman, it was hidden somewhere in the house to be found by children, and it represented the coming Messiah. Jesus said that bread was Him. Bread is awesome. It smells good, it tastes good, it fills you up and leaves you satisfied.

Jesus said the wine is His blood, He also said He is the new wine, He made water into wine, in Psalm 104 among a list of other things it says God gave wine to make the heart of man merry and bread to sustain our strength. Wine changes our attitude, it goes to our head, it makes us feel happy, it’s medicine for our soul. What would Communion be like if we ate enough bread to feel satisfied and drank enough wine to feel it?

Kim and I used to be part of a church where the minister was expected to drink the leftover wine remaining in the chalice after Communion was served. Most of us did intinction, where we dipped the bread in the wine, so there was not only a lot of wine left over each week, it was riddled with floaties. Kemper was one of the ministers, and he doesn’t like wine at all. Is it wrong that we took so much pleasure in watching him have to down a big ol glass of wine all the way down to the dregs? Probably, but it’s a good memory anyway.

INSTRUCTIONS ON WORSHIP
In 1st Corinthians chapter eleven St Paul is giving instructions on worship and has this to say about the Lord’s Supper:

For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me.” In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me as often as you drink it.” For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.

Every time we eat and drink Holy Communion we are proclaiming the Gospel—that Jesus died on a cross and rose to life on the third day—and we continue to proclaim this until He comes again.

So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself. That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died. But if we would examine ourselves, we would not be judged by God in this way.

First question, what does it mean to be unworthy? Is there anything we can do to become worthy? Do we save ourselves? No, of course not. We are saved by grace alone through faith—and faith is a gift from God. This is a warning to those who would take this sacrament lightly, a warning for those who have not been washed clean and made right with God through the saving work of Jesus. It’s a warning to examine ourselves. Search our heart. Remember what Jesus has done for us. This meal will either be a way for us to respond to the grace God has shown us through Jesus or it will be an invitation for God to judge us on our own merit—which is not something I would wish on anyone.

This is why many branches of Christ’s church guard the table carefully. They don’t want to be responsible for serving God’s judgement to people. But I believe this is the wrong way to look at it. The warning is not to those who serve the meal but to those who receive the meal. Paul did not chastise the leaders for serving everyone, he chastised the people who were eating and drinking without examining themselves. So, the NewChurch Communion table is open to all baptized believers who love and serve the Lord. It’s His table not ours.

CRIPPLED, BLIND VAMPIRES AND ZOMBIES
When we come to His table we do not come by our own authority. We do not presume to be worthy because of anything we have done. We are carried to this table as a cripple, led to the table as one who is blind, invited to this meal like a beggar. None of us are worthy on our own. We are all guests of the Lord who brought us back from the dead so that we can share this meal with Him. Like vampires we drink His blood and it gives us eternal life. Like zombies we eat His flesh and we will not die. Unlike monsters, though, we are invited to this table as beloved children of God who no longer sees us as His enemies but sees us through the mercy and forgiveness of Jesus.

A CALL FOR UNITY
As people we have a tendency to disagree over things—pretty much over anything—to draw lines in the sand, fight and argue. It’s not our most attractive feature. Can you join me in trying to be a little more gracious about things? Too many Christians are known mostly for how opinionated and dogmatic we are about everything. What if we held things with a little more open hand? What if we didn’t take ourselves so seriously all the time? What if we just accepted what God tells us in His Word and left plenty of room for mystery? We don’t have to close the loop on every little thing that comes up. I gave up trying to find a church that I agree with on everything, I don’t think I even agree with myself on everything. Leave room for mystery, trust in God, have faith in Jesus. AMEN

Demystifying Prayer

Frank / Featured, FrankThoughts, God, NewChurch Messages, Speaking | Teaching | Preaching, Teaching /

2015/07/28

People say they believe in the power of prayer, they ask for prayer when they are facing tough situations. I hear people all the time saying “Our prayers are with you,” “Our thoughts are with you,” “I could definitely use some prayer. Please pray for this or pray for that. You would think people are praying all the time.

I don’t have faith in prayer. I know it’s a bit of a Jesus Juke but prayer is the part we do. I believe in God and His ability to hear us when we pray and do something about what we are requesting of Him. I don’t have faith in faith or faith in prayer, I have faith in God.

That’s called a Jesus Juke. A Jesus Juke is when you kick the legs out from under a person by saying something that shows you are more spiritual than them. Like when you tell someone about your new favorite TV show and they say, “Oh, I gave away my TV, I just didn’t have time to watch it any more because I spend so much time praying.”

A recent survey found that 48% of Americans say they pray every day but when asked if that extends beyond “God is great, God is Good, and we thank Him for our food,” or “Now I lay me down to sleep…” 36% tried to change the subject. Even so, if 48% of the people are praying every day that means more people will pray than have sex, that’s more people than will go to work every day. More people pray every day than exercise daily. Of course this counts all kinds of prayer, even prayers that might not seem very spiritual. Like if they’re praying to win the lottery so they don’t have to go back to work. I wonder if it counts people who are blurting out prayers like “Oh God, please let us get a touchdown” or various other highly emotional uses of the phrases “Oh God! and Oh Jesus!” Do you suppose prayers by shoppers driving in endless circles on the verge of parking lot road rage are included?

What about “mad prayers?” Angry prayers. Praying for some jerk to get fired or for a pox to come upon them—is that part of the 48%?

I just wonder what the 48% consider daily prayer.

People say they believe God answers prayers but what does that mean? Does it mean that He always says “Yes?” Like a Genie that grants our wishes in Jesus Name Amen? Because I’m pretty sure “no” is an answer, too. Genie’s don’t get to say no.

And who are we praying to? Who do we think is listening? Let me be specific about what I am talking about here, I’m talking about praying to the One True God, the Creator the Universe, The Father who revealed Himself through the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is Holy and we can only speak to Him because of Jesus.

I’m not talking about the kind of prayers that are synonymous with “Our thoughts and positive vibes are with you.” More and more people believe in prayer but don’t necessarily believe in God. To me that’s weird.

It’s not the subject of my talk tonight but either everything happened by chance over billions of years and there is no God—in which case prayer is just delusional self hypnosis where mankind is talking to our imaginary friend in the sky that we dreamed up in our own image, or it’s the opposite. God created all that exists and then made all of us in His image. Which if that’s the case then prayer is the most amazing thing imaginable, mankind communicating with our Creator. Almighty God, Creator of heaven and earth is listening to us—to our cries, our requests, our thanksgivings and our incoherent babbles. When I speak of prayer, I’m talking about Jesus.

A lot of times I pray when I go to bed or when I wake up in the morning.

Sometimes I feel sorry for God. I feel sorry for the lame sleepy prayers that start off as a list of things on our heart and end up as a list a things we need to pick up at the grocery store, just before we fall back asleep and dream about forgetting to wear pants when we show up for church. I think there might be a special room in heaven where we are forced to listen to our most nonsensical prayers. It’s right next to the All You Can Eat Buffet featuring the grossest things we ever ate because we didn’t know what was hiding in our food. In my imagination heaven has a few strange attractions.

I want to talk about prayer tonight, demystify it a little bit and challenge all of us to grow in our prayer life. I’m going to touch on a bunch of scriptures that reveal to us some of what prayer is all about. This is not meant to be the final word on prayer. I am not world’s greatest expert, and I’m by no means the world’s shiniest example. The things I am sharing tonight are as challenging for me as they are for you or anyone else.

Here’s the thing, I don’t think most of us pray much at all. When our friends ask for prayer we click “like” because we like the idea of praying for them, we don’t want to lie and pretend that we will actually do the praying. If we do say we’ll pray then what do we mean? What does that prayer look like? Are we are going to stop everything we are doing, drop to our knees and plead before the LORD with tears? Ripping our clothes and pouring ashes on our head? Lock ourselves in a room and not eat for days because we are praying? I don’t think so. I think we quickly pray for them, get it out of the way by just thinking words like “Lord, please be with so and so and help them to such and such.” It’s okay, that counts, I do that sometimes, too. Our part is just to pray, it’s God’s job to make the miracles happen. But, it seems kinda lame, that’s why I’m more likely to type out a prayer as a response to the request or as a reply with an actual prayer to a text message. That way at least I have to think about the specific words that I am praying and it might be encouraging or comforting to the person who asked for prayer—maybe as they read it, they will pray with me. Like I said, it’s our job to pray, it’s His job to make it mean something.

But, I don’t want this message to be a big guilt trip, making us all feel bad for how much we don’t pray. So let me start with the most comforting good news I know about prayer. God desires for us to pray. He is always more willing to listen than we are to speak. He is always more willing to speak to us than we are to listen. I know this still seem like a guilt trip but it’s not. God loves us and wants to talk so He made it possible—because of Jesus we are able to enter the throne room of God and pray. Listen to this from Hebrews 4:14:

So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

Boldly. We are to approach God boldly. Then He will show us grace and offer us help where we need it most. Maybe what we need the most is to start at the beginning—having faith to pray at all. Maybe as soon as you start to pray you are confronted with doubt. Maybe as soon as you bow your head and close your eyes your next thought is “what if there’s not really a God and I’m just talking to myself?” Then boldly start there.

In Mark chapter 9 a man came to Jesus and asked Him to help his son. He said,

“Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.”
“What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”
The father instantly cried out, “Lord, I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”

If you go before God and your first thought is “hear my prayer if you can,” “hear my prayer if there is anyone really there who listens to prayers,” then make your first prayer “Lord, I do believe but help me overcome my unbelief!”

Doubt is natural but doubt is a jerk. It’s just looking to pick a fight. The only answer to “what if there is not a God” is “What if there is!” That will be enough. We don’t have to have perfect faith to pray, we just have to have faith. And with that tiny little bit of faithful prayer Jesus says in John 14:13-14

You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!

Philippians 4:6 says

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.

And it couldn’t be said any more clear than when Jesus said in Matthew 21:22

“And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”

Even if it’s the tiniest little bit of faith, like a mustard seed. So, if that’s the case, why don’t we always get what we want? TV evangelists seem to think it’s because we don’t have enough faith, and apparently the best way to show we have more faith is to give them more money. Other believers walk around like the Church Lady, judging everyone for their lack of faith. Jesus juking every unanswered prayer with an accusing raised eyebrow. “Hmm I wonder why your prayer wasn’t answered—could it be Satan?”

Like I said earlier maybe the prayer was answered—maybe you just didn’t like the answer. No is an answer.

In Matthew 7:11 Jesus was teaching on prayer and He said:

“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
“You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.

The concept works the other way, too. If my son asks for a bucket of candy covered in ice cream I tell him “no.” It’s good that he’s coming to me and asking. He is letting me know he is hungry and wants to eat something—that’s good, too. I might let him have a small piece of candy that won’t ruin his dinner or I might just say, “No, we are going to eat in a little while.” But he’s asking for something that wouldn’t be good for him so I’m not going to let him have it.

It’s the same with prayer. We ask for something and it may not be what we actually need. God hears our prayer and might tell us “no” so that He can keep us from something bad for us and instead give us what we actually need.

In James 4:3 the half-brother of Jesus tells us:

And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.

You might be thinking, “Okay, but if that’s the case what’s the point in praying at all?” If God knows what we need and is going to give us what is good for us no matter what we ask then why bother asking? The simple answer to that is that He wants us to.

If you, as a good parent, are only going to give your kids what you think is good for them, then why should your kids bother asking you for anything? Why should they bother speaking to you at all? If parents and children don’t talk to each other, then obviously something is wrong. God loves us and wants a relationship with us, we love Him and are thankful—that’s why we pray.

There are other reasons why God doesn’t give us what we want or do what we ask of Him in prayer. Sometimes it’s because we don’t believe. Sometimes it’s because we have unrepentant sin in our lives or unforgiveness in our hearts. I know it’s uncool to talk about how our sin is repulsive to God but you are not reading the same Bible I am if you haven’t noticed that God has a negative view of mankind’s inclination toward evil. At the risk of sounding intolerant and uncool, sometimes God doesn’t answer our prayers because of doubt and sin.

For example in Mark 11:24 Jesus is explaining how miracles happen:

Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours. But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too.”

I know it’s kind of a drag that God doesn’t want to move the mountains that we’re praying for if we refuse to forgive people or ask God to forgive us but the beautiful thing is that He wants to forgive us. He sent Jesus to the cross so we can be forgiven, and Jesus obediently humbled Himself and went there for us. While He was hanging there He even said “Father forgive them.”

We all have miracles we want to see, mountains we want to be moved, prayers we really hope God will answer, so how can we make sure there is nothing in heart that is in the way of Him hearing and answering our prayers? In 1 John 1:9 we are given an amazing promise:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Then we are clean. Pure. Free to boldly ask for our heart’s desires. Like that bucket of ice cream, so the LORD can tell us that it’s almost dinner time and He doesn’t want us to spoil our appetites—now go wash your hands, get ready for dinner and stop asking for ice cream.

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray He gave them 66 words. Six petitions. We call it the Lord’s Prayer. It was very different from the flowery, long prayers of the religious leaders at the Temple and in the synagogues where they went on and on with vain repetition and impressive liturgical pomp. Jesus taught them a simple prayer any four year old can memorize.

Martin Luther said “The fewer the words the better the prayer.”

One of the most dangerous things we will ever do, from a spiritual perspective, is public prayer. There are so many ways to sin while praying out loud in front of other people. Like, there’s the person who wants to look super spiritual to the people they are praying with so they use big theological words and put on a radio evangelist voice, “Holy Omnipotent LORD who in Thy most gracious mercy hath granted us to commune with Thee by bespeaking in the most impressive manner that we are able.” Trying to impress people with our less than humble prayers is not cool.

There’s the nervous prayer of someone who feels insecure and doesn’t really know what to say so they use a bunch of Christiany sounding phrases that seem like they were thrown in a prayer blender, “Lord we just thank You for the grace and mercy that You just show us through Jesus, Father we just come before You now and just ask for a hedge of protection, Lord, for traveling mercies, Father, we just ask that You would just be with us, Lord, that You would just pour Yourself on us, Father, Jesus, that You just, we just, Father, Lord, mercy, we just grace, Lord Jesus in Jesus’ Name, AMEN.” I’ll start counting the “Fathers” or “justs” in those prayers, which has to be pure evil on my part. By the way that was ten “justs” five “Lords” and four “Fathers.”

Can I just say that I’m thankful to Jesus that I’m not going to hell?

Another highly annoying public prayer transgression is the “I’m gonna preach a little sermon while I’m praying” prayer. You ask them to say grace and they’re like: “Lord, You told us in the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Mark that A large herd of pigs was browsing and rooting on a nearby hill. The demons begged him, “Send us to the pigs so we can live in them.” Jesus gave the order. But it was even worse for the pigs than for the man who had been filled with Legion. Crazed, they stampeded over a cliff into the sea and drowned. In this way, Lord we ask that You would bless these pork chops and mashed potatoes to the nourishment of our bodies, which are the temple of the Holy Spirit. AMEN”

There are just so many ways to sin in prayer time.Whenever I’m at a church and they make us hold hands I’m just thinking about how weird it is to hold someone’s hand, like we’re going for a romantic walk or something. If they tell us to hold hands and don’t start praying right away, it’s especially awkward, and if they pray so long that I start noticing their sweaty palm I want to scream. When the prayer is over I secretly hate the little squeeze some people give right after “amen.” Am I the only one?

While I’m confessing how dark my heart is, you know what else I can’t stand? Prayer requests. You know like when we make lists of prayer requests before we start praying, it’s even worse if after the listing of the prayer requests we divvy up the list and take turns praying for the things we were just talking about. We spend five minutes listening to someone tell us about their sad situation then we spend another five minutes explaining the same sad situation to God in the form of a prayer. Which pretty much becomes an exercise in short term memory.

Let’s see, how else can I ruin prayer for you…

I’m sorry, look there’s nothing wrong with any of those things—hold hands, make lists, pray using King James English, knock yourself out—but I’m talking about how easy it is to sin during group prayer. For me, it can be one of the main soul killing ways that I rack up the need for repentance and God’s grace. I have to start with confession so God can hear my prayers then I have to end with repentance for how much of an evil jerk I have been during the prayer.

“This is the strangest sermon I’ve ever heard on prayer, this guy is weird.”
“Be quiet I think he can hear us.”

You might think, well I know how to avoid all of that, I just won’t pray out loud—but that’s just another way the devil gets what he wants! We have to pray. God told us to pray. He wants us to talk with Him when we come together as a church. Listen, in 1 Timothy 2:8 it says

When believers come together, I want men to pray with holy hands lifted up to God, free from anger and controversy.

and in James 5:16 we are told to:

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.

When we gather together we are supposed to pray together, and like most things that we do with other people, if we are not careful we can hurt each other.

When it comes to public prayer it is wise to remember Martin Luther’s words: “The fewer the words the better the prayer.”

We also need to spend time praying when we are alone. It might be a surprise to you but we are encouraged to spend a lot of time praying alone. Jesus is our example in this. The busier His ministry became, the more people who wanted to hear Him teach, the more people crowded around Him, the more He got away to be alone and pray. This is just one of many, many examples we are told about but in Luke 6:12 it says:

And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.

He got alone and prayed all night.

Have you ever prayed all night? Have you ever prayed for more than an hour? I think there is something important that happens when we pray for a long time, something very different than what happens in quick prayers.

It’s not exactly the same thing but I think it’s kinda like charging your phone. Like when you notice the battery is getting low so you plug in the charger—Okay, the phone is on the charger, I need my phone to keep working so I plugged it into the source of power and restored battery life, I don’t want to stand here watching it charge so I hope that’s enough, AMEN. If that’s all you did then you unplug it and go about your day what would happen? It would die. It takes time to recharge. You didn’t actually recharge at all. I think prayer is like that in some way.

Sometimes we have to stop everything, get away from all the distractions and plug in to the true source of life and spiritual power. Prayer doesn’t just mean talking to God—it’s not supposed to be a monologue. God doesn’t need us to corner Him and talk His ear off. Sometimes we need to be still. To wait on the Lord. To quiet our mind. We need to listen. Meditate on His Word while in a state of prayer, asking Him to speak to us through His Word, through His Spirit.

When we are weary and in trouble we don’t always have words for what we have to say anyway, that’s why in Romans 8:26 it says:

Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Stay plugged in a bit longer, don’t be in such a hurry. Think through your life and surrender everything to God. Give Him your worries, think about the people who are on your heart, your hopes and dreams. Be thankful for everything in your life. Sometimes we need to practice slow deliberate lengthy time of prayer. Maybe that’s a new idea to you, give it a try.

There is also a sense in which we should always be aware of God and in a state of prayer. It says in Ephesians 6:18

Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.

God is with us everywhere we go and and is always more willing to listen that we are to pray. He expects us to always have our heart inclined toward Him. He always has. In 1 Chronicles 16:11 He said:

Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:17 we are told to:

Pray without ceasing.

Without ceasing. What does that even mean?

Brother Lawrence was a monk who in the 1600s wrote a book called “Practicing the Presence of God.” He talked about how he communed with God all the time no matter what he was doing. He felt especially close to the Father when he was working in the kitchen or doing other menial tasks. He said,

““There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful, than that of a continual conversation with God; those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it.”

You’ll never know unless you try it. So how about it? What if we put down our distractions? Turn off the television when we are doing the laundry or washing dishes, silence the radio when we are driving to and from work, quiet our mind instead of keeping it in a constant state of stimulation and turn our eyes to the Father. “Our Father who art in heaven, I am listening. Speak to me.”

People say to me all the time, “I’ve never heard God talk to me.” Maybe it’s because they’re never listening. I think God speaks to us all the time. Through His Word, through His people, through situations in our lives and I believe He whispers to our spirit in a quiet gentle voice, one that you might not hear over the drivetime barrage of news radio or your Spotify playlists or audio books. Those things are fine but sometimes we need to pray, God is listening.

Psalm 145:18

The LORD is near to all them that call on him,
to all that call on him in truth.

Prayer isn’t easy. It’s simple, it’s not complicated, but it isn’t easy. We live in a world that is bent and broken in just the perfect way so that we can’t quite see exactly who we are praying to. It can take a tremendous amount of willpower to get our stubborn hearts to pray. The good news is that God is always drawing us to Himself, once we lift our eyes and lift our heart our voice will be carried all the way to throne room of the Father, with Jesus sitting at His right hand hearing our prayers by the power of the Spirit. Perfect reception no matter where we are.

We shouldn’t only pray when we feel like it, or when things get so bad we see can’t see anything else to do except pray. Prayer is not a last resort. Prayer should be part of our daily rhythm. The first thought in our mind as we open our eyes in the morning should be to God, “Thank You for rest and another day to serve You.” We should schedule times to pray, put it on our Google calendars, appointments to seek the Lord, lay our troubles before Him, confess our sin, and listen to His voice, listen to His Word. We should pray at meals, pray when people ask you to pray—stop and type out a little prayer on Facebook or send a prayer as a text message.

Here’s a bold challenge: If you are talking with someone and you feel the Spirit leading you, pray with them right then and there—it might feel awkward the first few times you do it and it might blow their mind, but it also might mean the world to someone. It’s our job to do little things like this, it’s God’s job to make the miracles happen.

There’s so much more to be said about prayer. So many questions, so much we will never understand but it is clear that we are to pray—there’s no question about that.

May we be people who pray. May we be a church that prays. Hear these words from Philippians 4:6-7 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. AMEN

Here are ten simple ideas about prayer:

1. Pray Everywhere. Wherever you are, God is always present and ready to listen. Do this always.
2. Pray Alone. Find a quiet place where you can fix your mind deliberately on God, apart from confusing distractions. Do this often.
3. Pray simply and naturally, like a conversation with a friend. Tell Him whatever is on your mind.
4. Be Thankful. Remember the things God has done for you.
5. Repent of sin and God will forgive you. He is near to a humble and contrite heart.
6. Ask for whatever you need or want.
7. Pray for others. Lift up the people who are on your heart.
8. Pray for the big needs of the world. Nothing is too big for God.
9. Pray that God’s will may be done in you and that you will walk in faithfulness.
10. Listen for Your assignments. What does God want you to do? Maybe you are the answer to someone else’s prayer.

When We Have A Crushed Spirit

Frank / FrankThoughts, God, NewChurch Messages, Speaking | Teaching | Preaching, Teaching /

2015/07/03

Sometimes we are sad for no good reason or depressed and can’t logic our way out of it. Elijah is one of the coolest guys in the Bible who just happened to be a bit of a melancholy.

He is one of the most important people who ever lived but most of us don’t know much about him, we’re going to look at some of his story. Turn to 1st Kings 18. 1st Kings is one of the books in the Old Testament that talks about the kings of Israel. Elijah’s time was a particularly dark period, his job was to be God’s prophet and speak His Word to the people and especially to the king. In this case it was King Ahab, you might have heard of him, he was a very bad man but his wife is even more notorious than he is. Her name was Jezebel—The Jezebel, the original. Ahab was a turkey on his own but she pushed him to be probably the worst king Israel ever had. And that’s really saying something.

Half the kingdom had turned away from God and were worshiping a false god named Baal, who was Jezebel’s demonic god of choice. She had all the true prophets of God murdered except for Elijah, and not because she didn’t try but because God had kept him hidden from her.

There had been a drought for three years and things were desperate. Crops had died, livestock had died and people were starving. God told Elijah to come out of hiding and go to King Ahab and tell him “I will soon send rain.” This is the setting for our story.

1st Kings 18
Ahab went out to meet Elijah. When Ahab saw him, he exclaimed, “So, is it really you, the troublemaker of Israel?”
“I have made no trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “You and your family are the troublemakers, for you have refused to obey the commands of the Lord and have worshiped the images of Baal instead. Now summon all of Israel to join me at Mount Carmel, along with the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who are supported by Jezebel.”

So Ahab summoned all the people of Israel and the prophets to Mount Carmel. Then Elijah stood in front of them and said, “How much longer will you waver, hobbling between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!” But the people were completely silent.
Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only prophet of the Lord who is left, but Baal has 450 prophets. Now bring two bulls. The prophets of Baal may choose whichever one they wish and cut it into pieces and lay it on the wood of their altar, but without setting fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood on the altar, but not set fire to it. Then call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by setting fire to the wood is the true God!” And all the people agreed.

It was a throwdown of the gods in a simple game of “which one knows how to light a fire and burn some meat.” The prophets of Baal went first. They cut up the bull, placed it on their altar and called out to their god from early morning until noon, but nothing happened. At Noon Elijah started making fun of them, “Maybe you have to shout louder! Maybe Baal is relieving himself or daydreaming, maybe you need to wake him up.” This taunting really got them going so they started dancing and chanting, they cut themselves with knives and swords until their blood was gushing out—You have to hand it to them, they were very committed, they really went for it. They continued to act like lunatics until evening came but nothing happened. Baal was a no show.

Then Elijah said, “Okay, out of my way boys. My turn.” He prepared the altar, cut up the bull and laid it out for sacrifice to God but he wanted to make sure there was no doubt about the power of the One True God. He dug a trench around the altar and told the skeptics to pour water all over the offering and wood. He had them do this three times until the water filled the trench and the whole thing was soaking wet. They couldn’t have set it on fire it they had tried.

Notice that he poured all this water on the altar during a drought. Water was scarce but he had them use a ton of it anyway.

This is what happens next:

At the usual time for offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet walked up to the altar and prayed, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. Prove that I have done all this at your command. O Lord, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God and that you have brought them back to yourself.”
Immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the trench! And when all the people saw it, they fell face down on the ground and cried out, “The Lord—he is God! Yes, the Lord is God!”
Then Elijah commanded, “Seize all the prophets of Baal. Don’t let a single one escape!” So the people seized them all, and Elijah took them down to the Kishon Valley and killed them there.

To show that the LORD is the One True God and to bring the people back to serving Him alone, God answered Elijah’s prayer in a big way. He even burned up the dust and the water in the trench, leaving a steaming dry patch of ground. Imagine how the prophets of Baal felt, who I’m sure were true believers in their false religion up to that point. They are standing there with their big pile of wood and meat with flies all over it, not looking very impressive at all—feeling stupid. The people turned back to the LORD and Elijah had all the false prophets put out of their misery.

This was a good day for Elijah. Can you imagine being him? Can you imagine how vindicated, affirmed, and encouraging this must have been? Then like the end of a supernatural fantasy thriller, he prayed for rain, and after three years a mighty rainstorm soaked the land. The people turned to God and the drought was over. This would have been a great time for the credits to roll and for everyone to leave the theater. The difference between a happy ending and a tragedy is where you stop telling the story.

When Jezebel heard about all of her pet prophets being killed and about how Elijah had ridiculed her fanatical faith in Baal, she was furious. She vowed on her own life to kill him within the next day.

This is where our hero takes a strange turn. See, I would fully expect Elijah the prophet who has the courage to soak the sacrifice before asking God to set it on fire to just laugh in her face. “Kill me if you can, you, you… Jezebel!” Shouldn’t he just call fire from heaven to strike her dead in her pretty little sandals? But for some reason, and logic has nothing to do with it, Elijah was done, he was tired. It says that he became afraid and fled for his life. He went out into the wilderness alone and prayed that God would just kill him. He had had enough.

Maybe he thought, “If the King and Queen aren’t going to repent and believe after what just happened with the whole “fire from heaven” thing then they are never going to get it. What’s the point? I give up, Jezebel wins.” And he laid down and went to sleep, hoping to die before he wakes.

Proverbs 18 says, “The human spirit can endure a sick body,
but who can bear a crushed spirit?”

Have you seen the Shia LaBeouf motivational videos? We kind of expect God to get in Elijah’s face: “Just do it! Do it! If you’re tired of starting over, stop giving up!” We expect God to call Elijah out for being a baby and a quitter but that’s not at all what happens.

God is always more kind and patient with us than we are to ourselves.

It says the Angel of the LORD came to him while he was sleeping and touched him on the arm. A lot of people think when the Bible speaks of the “Angel of the LORD” it is referring to a pre-Christmas Jesus, I think they are probably right. So, Jesus shows up, let’s him sleep a little longer while He makes breakfast, then gently wakes him up and offers him bread and water. It says Elijah wakes up ate and drank then went back to sleep. This happens again, He wakes him up feeds him and hangs out.

Elijah got depressed and wanted to be by himself and wallow in his sadness but God didn’t leave him alone. He met him where he was and comforted him. He didn’t say “Let me know if there’s something I can do for you.” He just showed up and brought food.

People used to know how to do that but many of us have forgotten. When your friends are sad go to them, make them food and sit with them. Don’t just ask because they will usually say they don’t want anything. They don’t know what they want, it’s part of being sad.

After the visit he must have felt a little better because he got up and went on a forty day walk. Kind of like Forrest Gump. “Momma always said you have to put the past behind you,” I think that might have been part of what he was doing. He walked a couple hundred miles toward Mount Sinai, the mountain of God, the same mountain where Moses met God and was given the Ten Commandments. This is always a good and healthy thing to do—go for a walk to clear your head, and go toward God. Seek first the Kingdom of God.

It takes a while but he finally gets there and spends the night in a cave. Once again God doesn’t leave him alone, He shows up and says to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Elijah says this in response:

“I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.”

Elijah felt like he had been left alone. There was no one else following the LORD, and his people wanted to kill him. He had been a good prophet, he had done his job, he was brave, and no one listened. He had done everything God had asked of him and he felt like it didn’t make any difference. He had seen amazing things, done amazing things, and no one cared. They just wanted to kill him anyway.

You might think God would comfort him by saying how his ministry had accomplished good things, give some examples of people he had helped but God wanted to make His point using a multimedia presentation.

God told him to stand before him on the mountain. He sent a mighty windstorm to blast the mountain sending rocks flying and making a thunderous sound but Elijah noticed the LORD was not in the windstorm. After the wind God sent an earthquake that shook the mountain impressively—probably very frightening. After that He sent a fire. In all these mighty acts it says the LORD was not in them.

Elijah had seen these kinds of things before. He had been the prophet of God used to shock and awe people with giant displays of supernatural power. But God doesn’t speak to the heart of man in a thunderous voice of signs and wonders.

The LORD spoke to Elijah in a gentle whisper. God asked him again, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Elijah gave the same answer, he basically said, “I’ve done everything You asked me to do but no one cares. I’m the only one who is following You. I’m all alone and the people I am trying to help want me dead.”

God listened to Elijah, He fed him, He sat with him and then He spoke words of comfort.

First He assures him that he is wrong about being alone. God says there are 7,000 others who have not bowed to Baal, including a young man named Elisha. He sends Elijah on a mission to anoint a new king (which is music to his ears because it means Ahab and Jezebel are about to be dog meat) and to find Elisha and hire him as his assistant, to anoint him and train him to be his replacement.

These are all great words for Elijah. You are not alone, Your life’s work is important, I am not done with you, your enemies will be destroyed, and I’m going to give you a friend. You don’t have to do this by yourself.

Do you know what the most beautiful words in the English language are? They’re not “I love you” or “I want you,” they’re not even “Here’s that $500 bucks you loaned me.” The most beautiful words in the English language are “I’ll be there for you.” “I’ll be there for you.”

God gives Elijah a friend. Someone to walk with him. Someone to share the burden. The Bible records several times when Elijah tried to run away and be alone again but Elisha would not leave his side, no matter what he said. Eventually, after many more adventures the day finally comes when Elijah is going to hand his job over to his protege. He asks his friend if there is anything he can do for him before he is taken away. Elisha, who loves and respects his mentor asks for a double portion of his spirit if he is to follow in his footsteps. Here’s what Elijah says and what happens:

“You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah replied. “If you see me when I am taken from you, then you will get your request. But if not, then you won’t.”
As they were walking along and talking, suddenly a chariot of fire appeared, drawn by horses of fire. It drove between the two men, separating them, and Elijah was carried by a whirlwind into heaven. Elisha saw it and cried out, “My father! My father! I see the chariots and charioteers of Israel!” And as they disappeared from sight, Elisha tore his clothes in distress.
Elisha picked up Elijah’s cloak, which had fallen when he was taken up. Then Elisha returned to the bank of the Jordan River. He struck the water with Elijah’s cloak and cried out, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” Then the river divided, and Elisha went across.

They continued to search for Elijah with fifty men for three days. They had seen a lot of crazy things with Elijah and they thought God might have transmogrified him onto the top of a mountain somewhere, but they abandoned their search and realized he was gone. God had taken him.

There are only three people in the Bible that I am aware of who are taken directly to heaven. A man named Enoch, Elijah and Jesus. This is a very exclusive club.

The next time we see Elijah he will be repaying the kindness shown to him by the Angel of the LORD who had visited him when he was alone and sad. Elijah shows up, along with Moses to minister to a very weary Messiah on the Mount of Transfiguration. They showed up to encourage Jesus and the Father said, “This is my beloved son, listen to him.” kinda cool.

Sometimes we are like Elijah and our hearts are heavy and we just feel sad for no good reason. Sometimes it’s right after our greatest victories. Sometimes we feel like all the work we have done is just spinning our wheels and nothing matters. We don’t matter. We feel alone and tired.

“A crushed spirit who can bear?”

Everything is hard when our spirit is crushed.

You know what the most amazing thing about the story of Elijah is? That we know it. That the Word of God would tell us the truth about such a flawed hero. That He didn’t think He should spin the story so that Elijah comes off as a better person. That’s what we would do. We always use the spin machine to put our religious leaders in the best possible light. Or the worst possible light. I think it is a great testimony to the truthfulness of God’s Word that The Bible is full of real people who have the same struggles we have, it’s not full of ideal people and superheroes that we could never live up to. It’s like real life and sometimes it’s confusing and messy.

What can we learn from this story?

There are many things we can learn about God in a thousand different areas, that’s the amazing thing about God’s Holy inspired Word. Every passage speaks on a multitude of subjects and levels. I’m going to focus on what I think it says about dealing with a crushed spirit.

First, even the best of us are going to get depressed. Not many people can go toe to toe with Elijah, he was a great man. Remember that it doesn’t make you a bad person or a loser if you have seasons of your life when you feel sad. Don’t let people shame you for feeling melancholy. Sometimes you’ll have a reason and sometimes you won’t. It happens to the best of us.

Second, if you find yourself in a slump, cast down, with a crushed spirit—there are some simple things you need to do. You need to rest and you need to be around people who care for you. It might be time to take a lighter load at work for a while, take some time off. Take a sabbatical, take a vacation, rest.

Last year was a dark season for me, there came a point when I knew I was spent and needed to recharge. I took a two month sabbatical from the church I was working at and for part of that time I got away from everything. I stayed in a cabin in the desert, I read the Bible, prayed and took long walks. I also met with a pastor who specializes in helping ministers who have been damaged by the churches where they serve. He is a ninja and was very helpful to me. I’ll be happy to share his contact information with you if you need it, just send me an email.

You need to rest and you need to be around people who care for you. Don’t push people away. Don’t hide from the world, don’t crawl inside yourself. Eat good healthy food with other people, don’t self medicate with junk food. Drink plenty of water, don’t spend your days drowning your sorrows with your mood altering beverage of choice. I’m the last guy to say there’s anything wrong with having a beer to take the edge off but don’t try to live there. Don’t be filled with wine but be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Third, get moving. Take a walk, and while you’re walking seek Your Heavenly Father who loves you and is always more willing to listen than we are to speak. Get outside, look up at the sky, breathe in the air, feel the wind. Listen to the gentle whisper of The LORD.

Here are some of the comforting words He will say to you when you turn to Him and listen:

Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
If anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous.
God loved the world so He gave his one and only Son, that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

We just have to lift our hearts up to the Lord.

God will answer our prayer by giving us rest. He will also send people to us to help us and be our friends. God will not leave us alone in our despair.

Here’s the other side of that. We need to be listening for our assignments. We need to be ready and willing to be there for the people God is sending us to. There are going to be days when you are sad and God will send one of His angels to minister to you. To touch you on the arm, feed you, and sit with you until you are ready to get back up. There are going to be other days when you are the angel He will send to someone else.

When it comes to answering our prayers, God’s “Plan A” is to work through people. Growing in our faith mostly boils down to us learning to listen for our assignments and following through on them.

When God puts someone on your heart, pray for them. If you wake up in the middle of the night thinking about a friend, pray for them. Then when you get up in the morning, call them. Invite them to lunch. Go to their house. Take them food. Just sit with them and do nothing. Be there for them. Listen to them. Don’t judge them, criticize them, or give them advice and try to fix them. When we are sad we mostly just need to be understood. Most of the time if someone wants advice they’ll ask for it. Don’t play “that ain’t nothin’”—you know, when they tell you what’s bothering them and you say, “That ain’t nothin’, let me tell you about when something like that happened to me.”

It’s not easy because if you’re honest, everything everyone has ever said reminds me of something about me.

I look around the world we live in and it’s so strange. Everything is amazing and yet everyone seems so apathetic. We all have riches that the ancient kings couldn’t even dream of, comforts they couldn’t imagine. Solomon in all his glory never felt air conditioning or tasted ice cream. Yet over 250 million people are on some form of antidepressant medicine in the United States alone.

The world we live in says “if you’re sad there is something wrong with you—take a pill.” Religious people tend to say “if you’re sad you are doing something wrong—you need more faith, you need to stop feeling sorry for yourself, stop sinning, remember the joy of the Lord.”

God didn’t give Elijah advice and He certainly didn’t give him a prescription of Zoloft. Jesus is known as a “man of sorrows” who wept for the people He loves. He came to make everything new, to give us new hearts, and to wipe away every tear. We believe God came into our world to meet us, feed us, be with us and give His life for us. No other religion has this view of God.

God invites us to pour our hearts out to Him. Our sadness, anger, confusion, to take our messiness and spew it out to Him. To truly lift our hearts up to the LORD. We don’t have to hide from Him.

When we don’t feel loved. When we wonder if we matter. When we feel alone. Jesus wants us to know that He is with us, we have the love, approval and acceptance of the One who knows us the best, the One who made us. Jesus is the gentle whisper of God, the Word of God, in human form.

We will feel alone but we will never be alone. In the world we will have trouble but He has overcome the world. We will feel the pressure of work that is before us but Jesus wants to remind us of the cross. Everything that can crush us He took upon Himself and He declared once and for all, “It is finished.” AMEN

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Frank

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[The cure for discontentment is a thankful heart.]

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I have some big news.

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All baptized believers are welcome to the table.

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