Sermon: A Great Dancer

A Great Dancer"

Sermon by Rev. Laurel Bobb

God saves us for a purpose. How many of you have ever seen great dancers? You know when you re dancing with a great dancer. They aren't preoccupied with their steps; in fact they aren't looking at their feet at all. They are looking at their partner--the reason for the dance. They can lead so that even clutzes in their arms look like pros. God is our partner in the dance of life. God beckons us to look up at him, let him lead, and not worry about our steps, for he has already designed the steps we should take to accomplish the good works he wants to be our way of life.

In the same way God was Israel's partner. God had a plan for Israel, but they disobeyed. Sending the snakes was God's way of bringing Israel's focus back to where it belonged. Even so, God provided salvation from their punishment. It involved Israel not being preoccupied with the snakes at their feet, but the healing available by looking up at the bronze serpent on the pole. Certainly we realize that a snake on a pole has no inherent ability to save; it was only effective through faith. What they were displaying as they looked up was their willingness to disregard the stinging serpents at their feet to look to God and follow his command. Just so way we are to look at the cross of Christ to be saved from the dangers that threaten to destroy us. When we are looking up we are freed from worrying about our circumstances, take the next step and can get on with the business for which God created us--revealing God through our good works.

Have there ever been times in your life when you were "looking at your feet" as it were--when you were so pre-occupied with the bad things that were happening around you, you couldn t see the positive things and get on with life? I know there have been times like that for me. Even though I knew I should have been looking up and trusting God my eyes kept refocusing on the things around me that were unfair and hurtful. Eventually, however, I realized what I was doing, and following God's way did win out. The circumstances melted away and my life was given a new direction. If it hadn t been for those circumstances, I probably never would have gone on to be a pastor and I wouldn t be standing in front of you today. Now while some of you may think that you wouldn t have to be sitting here listening to me right now and from your perspective that might be a good thing, from my perspective my life would not be as rich as it is today if I were not called to be a pastor. God loved me enough to guide me to what he wanted me to do. God loves you that much, too.

God knows what is best for us and longs to show each of us the immeasurable riches of his grace. God is like a star-struck lover who prodigally lavishes gifts upon his beloved. Feeling this awesome love of God, our lives overflow with this love. We desire to return that love in tangible ways. How do we do that? We try to be about fulfilling God's purposes for our lives.

Through the cross we are freed to go out and love others just as God loves us. We do those works God has designed to be our way of life. We meet the needs of others and teach them that God loves them and has a purpose for them as well. Rick Warren in his book The Purpose Driven Church [Grand Rapids:Zondervan, 1995. p. 119] wrote of five categories of works to which the Church has been called. The five are outreach, worship, fellowship, discipleship, and service. These five categories deal with the five basic human needs that people have; Warren designates each of the with a word starting with the letter "P". The 1st comes through outreach--a purpose to live for--namely to share the Good News about what God has done in Christ, bringing others with whom we come in contact to meet God and invite them to become a part of God's family. This gives us a focus for our lives.

The 2nd need is the one met through worship. Warren calls this power to live on. As we worship we are brought into the presence of a holy and mighty God where we both magnify God and hear about how God has acted in the past to save and empower the Church. We are given renewed energy to go out with power to encounter the struggles of our daily lives. We are a force to be reckoned with that is more powerful than the one Luke Skywalker of Star Wars had. The 3rd need is met through fellowship. This need is people to live with. We need others to encourage us to fulfill the ministries we have from God--those works that God has prepared beforehand to be our way of life. We were not meant to be solitary creatures. In the garden of Eden God declared it was not good for the man to be alone, so God provided a way to bring others into the world through the gift of family. In Christ we are all made into a new family, the family of God with brothers and sisters who are to accept us as we are, warts and all, because we know that none of us is perfect except for through Christ's death on the cross and glorious resurrection.

The 4th need that is met through the Church is a series of principles to live by. God makes it very clear in Scripture that to follow his ways bring life, but to follow the ways of the world lead to death, both physical and spiritual. Our goal is to grow up to the full stature of Jesus Christ so others see him in us and are drawn to know and love God. We declare this in our baptismal service as we [will do] for Brian today. We give a candle to the newly baptized person and say, "Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." This becomes the foundation of our lives. Others know who and whose we are because of the way we live.

The final need the Church meets is a profession to live out. That is done through service. A couple weeks ago our congregation again took food and necessary supplies to the homeless. On a regular basis we help those who have been hospitalized by making food for them. We support missionaries, who in turn start the cycle all over again by being an arm for outreach. Service gives us a function in life. We come together to be trained to be God's hands and feet in the world, showing forth God's love.

In addition to meeting those basic human needs, the five areas provide a way to meet peoples emotional needs as well. These Warren describes with five "'s's". They are significance, stimulation, support, stability, and opportunity for self-expression. If any of you have studied psychology you may have learned about some of these emotional needs we all have. God knew what he was doing when he formed the Church. God saw to it that our basic human needs, both spiritual and emotional would be provided by being involved in Christ's Body. It is through this Body that those who have physical needs may be cared for as well, so God thought of it all. He lavished us with his grace by calling us into a fellowship where our deepest needs could be met.

We know that we deserve punishment, but instead God freely gives us gifts in and through each other. These gifts are so many and precious we can t put a value them. God transforms our lives by leading us, helping us to focus on him, and enabling us to look up and rise above the serpents of life that threaten to bite us. When we occasionally are bitten God invites us to look up to the means of salvation he provided in the cross.

God has brought us to the dance of life. He prepared our steps--the good works we are to do--even before we were aware of ourselves. He now invites us to focus on him, our partner. He calls us to look up and let him lead. Then we will have a purpose for living, a power to live on, people to live with, principles to live by, and a profession to live out.

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