“Scripture Worth Memorizing” 2 Corinthians 5:17
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Scripture Worth Memorizing—2 Corinthians 5:17
May 23, 2010
by Rev. William “Buck” Day
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT)
Did you know that “Caring Works”? Do you “Care to Work?” I want to just take a minute and acknowledge all of you who were a part of our Main Street Days yesterday in Hopkins. We had a good turnout. We had over thirty people from our congregation that came and staffed the booth and encouraged people in our community to sign-up and to serve alongside of us. That is an amazing thing and I want to thank John O’Keefe for his leadership in this. He has been instrumental in making this happen and I think it is a wonderful thing that we need to continue to do as part of our church. We had thirty people involved in terms of getting people and talking to people and helping them see that we are a good lot and that we are about good things. But beyond that, and what I think is most impressive, is not only did we bring energy, I think, to Main Street Days, and we did, but we had over twenty-two people from outside our congregation, just people in the community, that signed up to serve alongside of us between now and October. How amazing is that? That is huge. That’s what it is about. That is what we are trying to do is to bring us to the community so that the community will know that Christ is alive and making a difference in people’s lives. If you didn’t have a chance to be a part of that, you have another chance. We are going to do it again on Raspberry Days which is July 17th and so come and be a part of it. We will have signups again. It is a great time. It is a great time to be together with people here at Faith, but it is also a great time to begin to build new relationships within our community and that is really what it is about, too. So, thank you for that. Caring Does Work, folks. That is what the world needs.
So before we get started, let’s start once again in prayer.
Lord God, thank you that you are alive and active and that your Holy Spirit is very much present in this place. So Lord on this day we ask that you would quicken it to speak to our hearts and move us as we talk about something that will be beneficial for all of us. Lord let your Spirit have it’s way, we ask that in your name. Amen.
Well it is spring. The fishing opener is now behind us and before you know it we are going to be donning our summer clothes and maybe even doing that this afternoon. With that, of course, comes the always hated, bathing suit, right? Perhaps maybe one of the reasons why we hate wearing warm weather clothing is because it reveals how well we have taken care of our bodies over the winter. For me, it was too many cookies, for you it may be too much of this or too much of that. But the result, at least for me, it means I need to watch what I eat and, probably more importantly, watch how much I eat. But it also includes working out and strengthening my core muscles just because I know that I feel about a bazillion times better when I am in shape. So that is what I am focusing on; but yet, even in the midst of working on those things, there is always this kind of struggle that goes on in the back of my head. The struggle is that I know that and I struggle about how much should I focus on working out and being in shape, because I know the Scripture from 1 Timothy 4 in my head and it is always kind of there. 1 Timothy 4 says, “Train yourself in godliness. For while physical training is of some use, godliness is of value in every way.” So in other words, working out is good, it has some value, but training ourselves in godliness, that has more value and that is what we need to be thinking about. And that got me thinking, as I am kind of going back and forth in my head going what can I do to continue to train myself in godliness? And, of course, being a pastor I am thinking about us here at Faith, as well. What can we do that can train ourselves in godliness? And it got me thinking and Joanna has already spoken to it and all you have to do is to look at the title of my sermon and you can get it. I have been thinking of memorizing Scripture. I did it during my college days, and obviously I bring some underlying values to that process about Scripture, but also Scripture also speaks to the value of it getting into our lives, as well. The Psalmist says that we are to “hide God’s word in our heart.” I can’t think of a better way to hide God’s word in our hearts than by memorizing it, whether it is sign language or just simply memorizing it.
Scripture also tells us that the word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, able to cut and divide soul from spirit. In other words, when we get Scripture inside of us it is able to reveal who we are, what our real desires are. The long and short of it is that Scripture refines us when we get it into us. So it is a good thing to get God’s word into our hearts and into our minds and into our thoughts. It helps us grow closer to Christ; it helps us overcome sin; it proves our witnessing; it reduces worry; just to name some of the benefits when we begin to take God’s word into our hearts.
So here is what I am thinking. I am scheduled to preach about five times between now and Labor day. So what I am thinking is that each time that I speak during the summer, what I am going to do is I am going to pick a different Scripture for us, and I hope you will join me in memorizing a verse of Scripture. Then what I will do, I will not only give us the verse but I will speak about that verse or some aspect of that verse as we go through the summer. The Scriptures that I have chosen are basic, they are foundational to who we are in Christ. They will lay a foundation to bear fruit in our own lives and then bear fruit in our church, as well. So we are going to be planting seeds of godliness this summer, and thus the title, “Scripture Worth Memorizing.
So whenever we start something new I want to get us all on the same page so we are all operating on the same wavelength and we can do it together. So I want to just talk a little bit about this idea of memorizing, to start with a little bit. The first is, as we begin to memorize a verse, memorize the reference, or where it came from in Scripture, as well. When you memorize the reference it helps you know where to find it in the Bible, but it also helps you to know and help others find it, as well. So what I am suggesting is we do it just like the old spelling bee days- so we say the reference, we will say the verse and then we will say the reference again. O.K. It may sound silly at first, but I think it will work over time. So, go with me on it. The other thing I want to say is that as we memorize Scripture, as you start memorizing a verse, start by taking some time where you can actually concentrate on that verse, whatever works for you, maybe it is first thing in the morning, maybe it is the last thing at night. As you are memorizing, as you begin to work it through, look for those spare moments in your days where you can kind of refresh and review it in your mind; maybe it is when you are driving, maybe it is when you are waiting for someone, maybe it is when you take a walk, whatever works best for you.
See what we are talking about is developing a habit. Developing a habit of taking in the word and, in that, what I want you to do is I want you to learn the verse perfectly, word by word, not just “I got the jest of it.” O.K. but learn it word for word. It is easier to start that way. Then it is always easier when it comes back to review because I am also going to want you to review the verses we have learned previously, so we can go back with them. So what I want you to do is to pick a translation that you like; and if you turn your order of service over, what I have done is I have given you three fairly popular versions of this verse, 2 Corinthians 5:17. You can pick one of those or one of your others, whatever you want to do, but pick the translation that you like best and then sit back and enjoy it. Enjoy and look forward to what God is going to do and bring into your life as a result of your faithfulness. Alright. So with that, we want to start with our verse. The verse that we start with is 2 Corinthians 5:17 and it talks about Christ being the very center of our lives. So let’s say it together, just like we are going to memorize it. Let’s start with the reference, then we will end with the reference afterwards. O.K.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
2 Corinthians 5:17
Do you want to say it again? O.K. I heard a “Sure.”
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
2 Corinthians 5:17
Wonderful! Well Paul tells us that we are this “new creation” in Christ and the reality is that is the message of the Gospel. That is the message of grace. Being a new creation, we become that new creation in Christ because of Christ, not because of what we do in that process. As I was kind of letting that settle in my mind it got me thinking about, for myself and for us, have we reflected on our new creature-ness, if you will? You are now in Jesus Christ. Ephesians tells us that kind of builds off that that we are to grow into him, him being Jesus, who is the head, head of the Church. In other words, we are to grow into the likeness of Christ. When you hear that term Christ-likeness that is where it comes from. So that we are in Christ as new creations and we are to grow into him who is the head, into Christ-likeness. We are to grow into being just like Jesus.
Now if you think about that for a minute, this is who we are in Christ, this is Christ-likeness. Do you ever feel like there is a gap? a gap between who we are and who Christ wants us to be? I do, I do all the time. I think when we see that gap it begins to create in us a stirring to try to get closer, to become more like Christ and that process usually goes something like this. We see that gap; we acknowledge it and we say we want to do something about it. So we think about what can we do to help us? So we think of things like a Bible study, maybe I am going to join a Bible study or small group. Or I am going to pray more or maybe I am even going to ….memorize Scripture. Whatever it is we choose, we are going to say, “OK I am going to do that. I am going to work harder and I am going to close that gap.” It usually goes something like this. A few years ago I heard about a person that I knew that I admired that got up at 5 a.m. every morning. They got up and they spent two hours in devotions and studying the Scriptures, usually in Greek. I thought “Wow! I like that commitment. I like that discipline. I could use that in my own life. That would be really good.” So I said “O.K. I am going to close that gap.” So I got up, began to get about it. It was 5:30 in the winter so it was a little dark. And by the third day I was dragging myself out of bed and I could barely keep my eyes open as I sat down. I know when I finally did get done I was pretty much a zombie the rest of the day. I wasn’t much good for anything. So by the time I got to the fourth day, when the alarm went off, I just rolled over and went back to sleep. When I woke up, then of course all the guilt just washes over you, right? That doesn’t happen to you, does it? Nah…
That is kind of how it works. We start this cycle of commitment then we jump into it and we get after it. We get fatigued after awhile and we then we eventually quit and we feel guilty about it. That is how the cycle goes for us and it is all too common for all of us. I think in the midst of that I think we need to live with a little more of the grace that we were saved with when we became new creations. So I think, as we think about becoming the person that Jesus sees us to be, (Because this is who Jesus sees us to be, not this new creation. He sees us as this.) I think it starts with this idea of acknowledging that we have this gap and also being open and honest with God about going “I want to close it God, but I am not sure exactly how to do that. I have tried it and I have not always been very successful at doing that.” Then it becomes leaning on the Holy Spirit (it is Pentecost) leaning on the Holy Spirit’s leadings to move us along in that process. I know I have talked a lot about following the leadings of the Holy Spirit from here time and time again; but what I want to do is to give us a way to begin to think about how we might begin to foster that in our daily lives. So I want to begin to think about it in terms of this. If I were to ask all of you “How would we measure our spiritual growth? How would we think of how we move someone to Christ-likeness?” If I were to ask all of you, I would guess the majority of us would think of it in terms of commitment that being Christ-like is all about being commitment, about being totally committed to Christ. So if we were to lay that out on a spectrum from not being committed to being very committed, it might start out with like: atheist, skeptic, seeker, convert, new believer, growing in Christ and totally committed, right? We kind of set that out as a continuum that we would fall somewhere in the middle of. What we would say is those who are more committed, are more like Christ. They are way over here at this end of the scale.
But Jesus talked about the ultimate commandment being love, didn’t he? Love God with all of who you are and love others as yourself. I am wondering if Jesus was thinking about growth in a little different way; where if we take that same continuum, maybe on one end for Jesus it wouldn’t be about commitment, but it would be about selfishly unloving at one end and at the other end would be radiantly loving. So if we have these two spectrums of ways to measure a person’s spiritual growth, how much they are like Christ, how does that work? We have commitment and we have this kind of love factor. Well let’s put the Pharisees on there and see how they do. What would we say about the Pharisees in terms of commitment? They are way over here aren’t they? You would say that they are totally committed to what they are about. But where would they be on Jesus’ spectrum? Probably be over here, wouldn’t they? Selfishly unloving. Jesus nailed them for that and lots of times. So now wait a sec. How can a group that Jesus didn’t have a lot of good things to say about be very Christ like at one end at one idea but be very un-Christ-like at the other? It doesn’t work, does it? It doesn’t work.
So maybe, just maybe, commitment is not the best way; it’s a way, but not the best way, to measure a person’s spiritual growth. When you think about someone who is focused completely on commitment, what tends to be the end result of their life? What did Jesus nail the Pharisees about more than anything else? It was about pride, wasn’t it? When you are totally committed, you go, “I’m committed. I do my devotions everyday.” I heard this week the president of Navigators, (Navigators is a para-church organization that works very much with discipleship and they call for lots of times very high level of commitment when you are part of a Navigators program.) he came out this week and he said, he confessed I should say, to company or corporate pride in the Navigators. Whoa. Bold statement by a guy, isn’t it? But you can see that commitment can lead to pride. We typically think of this idea of commitment in terms of devotional practices, don’t we? But what I am suggesting is perhaps that is not the best way to measure our new creature-ness, moving ourselves toward being like Christ. Maybe there is another question to ask. The question that I like is the question that Dallas Willard, actually two questions, that Dallas Willard asks himself every day. See if these fit a little better for you. He asks himself, “Am I growing more or less easily irritated?” Isn’t that great? Then the follow up question is, “Am I growing more or less easily discouraged?” So in other words, he is looking and saying, am I less irritated today than I was yesterday? If I am, I am making progress towards becoming more Christ-like. Or if I am becoming less easily discouraged I am moving towards Christ not away.
I lay this out for you because this is my growing edge right now. I want to kind of let you in on the mind of Buck. I know that is a dangerous thing. But this is what I have been thinking about and I have been thinking about it in this context of taking that Discipleship rock that we have here at Faith and say, “How do we make this thing work for us? How do we help us as a Church begin to really take seriously our discipleship, our growth in Christ? What does that mean? What does that look like?” Honestly, I am looking at some different things that we can get at that as a congregation, haven’t got them all locked down yet, but I am thinking, but I am thinking about those kind of things. One of the things that has come out of that, I think, is the understanding that every person grows best spiritually in a different way. So in other words, if we are all trying to grow spiritually, what might work for me may not work for you. And what may work for you may not work for me.
I think the great classic example of that is journaling. Have you ever heard journaling held up as, “Boy, you need to journal. That is the cat’s meow. It is the best thing.” What you do is you write down and you reflect. You can write out your prayers. It’s a wonderful thing to do, for those who like doing it, who get benefit out of it. But there are others who say, “O.K. I’ll try it” and they do it and they go “This doesn’t work for me.” It is of no use for them. I love the story of C.S. Lewis. C.S. Lewis was a wonderful journaler. He journaled regularly; but as he began to look and reflect on his journaling, he said, “I have become too preoccupied with myself in my journaling. He said, “I don’t want to be preoccupied with myself. I want to be preoccupied with things of God.” So he stopped journaling completely when he figured that out.
So what I want us to begin to think about is what kind of spiritual disciplines can help us and what might they look like. What kind of disciplines do you need, what kind of disciplines do I need that will help us grow in our new creation, become the creatures that God sees us to be. And a spiritual discipline, I think maybe we need to think of it a little differently than we classically think of it as. A spiritual discipline is any activity that makes us feel more fully alive and more fully surrendered to Christ. So what do you do that helps you become more fully surrendered to Christ? What makes you feel most fully alive in Christ? It is about letting go more than self improvement. I think we kind of get into a little touchy area because with Eastern religions you think of meditation and the goal is to empty ourselves of everything. That is not what we are talking about here. What we are talking about is creating space so Christ can come in and fill us up. I like the way Henri Nouwen puts it. He says, “A spiritual discipline is creating space for Jesus.” It is a way to point to Jesus, whatever that spiritual discipline is.
So the question I want us to begin to think about is: what makes you feel most fully alive in Christ? Is it prayer? Is it study? Is it solitude? Is it fasting? Those are things we typically think of as spiritual disciplines and we shouldn’t throw those away because they do help us; but I am wondering if a spiritual discipline can also be something like watching a sunset, reading a good book, maybe listening to music. That is what I want us to begin to think about. I want you to be thinking of that, as well, because the truth is that you are a new creation. You are a new creation. And because you are a new creation in Christ, your life with all of its old brokenness is gone, you are new. As you live in the grace of that newness, I want to invite you to allow Jesus to grow you, to grow you as you submit and surrender to him. For as you submit and you surrender to Christ, you will find the freedom and you will find the victory, I think, that we are all looking for.