Sunday, January 25, 2015

Revival 3 of 6 "There But for the Grace of God Go I"

• Third Sunday after Epiphany
With Romans 4:1-5 and 5:1-2
3 of 6 on a series with Adam Hamilton’s 2014 book Revival: Faith As Wesley Lived It

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• Ever experience a storm in life? Death of loved one, loss of job, health crisis, something you’ve prayed about that never seems to change…
It may lead you to question God, question Where IS God, question Why me, God? Am I being punished? Is this “Part of God’s plan… everything happens for a reason…”?
That’s not how God works. I don’t believe God says “You’re bad” and strikes you or makes storm happen… I don’t believe God says “I want you to learn to appreciate life so I’m going to give your loved one cancer”…
• But. What if, in midst of storm, in midst of circumstances, one is drawn near to God
in such a way that wouldn’tve happened in calm sea?
God can use storms.
Great good and great strength can result from storms.

• Last week John Wesley was teaching at Oxford and developing what I called “habits of holiness.”
A problem with HOH, though, is they can become ends in themselves, instead of means… A problem with HOH is that a person may begin to feel proud of their HOH, that they deserve God’s grace, and that simply isn’t so. God’s grace is pure gift.
And JW began to fret. Year was 1735 and JW convinced his brother and some friends to journey to America to minister to colonists and convert the natives (would those be some feathers in his cap!) (remember, friends, God’s free grace… as Romans 4&5, not by our works but by faith of Christ)
• 3 month journey at sea, fraught with actual storms. During which the young Englishmen, terrified, observed some fellow travelers, German Moravian missionaries, singing hymns. Same storm, different response.
Spent a year in Georgia, not like expected. You might say he tried too hard. Daily 5am prayer services (which is fine) as prerequisite for communion (which is not fine). Wooed a girl, but valued celibacy more. His heart was broken when she married. He refused to serve her communion. He made some ungracious choices.
Within a year he returned to England (3mo at sea again) felt like a failure.

• What do you do when you feel like a failure?
Give up? Quit? Press on?
JW sought pastoral counseling. He was dejected.
He confessed he wanted to quit ministry b/c no faith.
Sought advice from German Moravian missionary
(remember the folks who sang hymns in the storm?)
Peter Bohler famously told him
“Preach faith until you have it,
and then, because you have it, you will preach faith.”
• HOH: continued to preach, continued to study & act. (I often give this marriage advice, that there are times in your marriage when you may not be feeling it, so you have to choose to act in loving ways)
& God met him in his acts of faith. (read Aldersgate experience, below)
In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death…
              From John Wesley’s journal, May 24, 1738

• Contemporary wisdom/cliché: If you’re going through hell, keep going!
• God can use storms.
Seek God, & don’t go it alone.
Practice HOH.
Represent God to others.
ILYATNYCDAI comes from God, too.
• Response to accepting God’s free grace: praise and life.
Hymn 57 is such.

• Hymn 57 O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing

Romans 4:1-5, 5:1-2  (Common English Bible)  1/25/15
4 So what are we going to say? Are we going to find that Abraham is our ancestor on the basis of genealogy? Because if Abraham was made righteous because of his actions, he would have had a reason to brag, but not in front of God. What does the scripture say? Abraham had faith in God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. [Genesis 15:6] 
Workers’ salaries aren’t credited to them on the basis of an employer’s grace but rather on the basis of what they deserve. But faith is credited as righteousness to those who don’t work, because they have faith in God who makes the ungodly righteous.
5 Therefore, since we have been made righteous through his faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand through him, and we boast in the hope of God’s glory. 

Revival: Faith as Wesley Lived It, by Adam Hamilton

Chapter Three: A Crisis of Faith
In the 1720s John Wesley, himself in his 20s, struggled to figure out the balance between being loved by God and striving for holiness. In his head he knew that salvation was a gift, but in his heart he seemed to want to earn God’s acceptance. Wesley traveled to America in the 1730s, hoping to convert the natives, but he felt the entire journey was a failure and that it was his fault. But something happened in 1738 that changed his tune…

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