We met in the Upper Crust downtown this past Sunday, and it worked great.  Aarik led the music while Luke took a much-deserved Sunday off.  I preached from Luke 19:11-27.  The liturgy and sermon points follow below:

Karis Community Church - The Gathering - Sunday, May 24th, 2009 10:00 am
The Call
Psalm 47 - Aarik Danielsen

Opening Songs
O Praise Him (David Crowder)
Colossians 1:15-17
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing (Words: Robert Robinson, Arr. by Matthew Smith)

The Gospel
Confession of Sin 2.2.53 (The Worship Sourcebook)
2 Timothy 2:11-13 - Aarik Danielsen
All I Owe (Words by Robert Murray McCheyne and Matthew S. Smith, Music by Matthew S. Smith)
Better is One Day (Matt Redman)
Psalm 138:1-5

Welcome
Passing the Peace
Welcome - Rob Gaskin
The Word Preached - The Almighty {and the} Dollar: Be Faithful With Your Finances (Luke 19:11-27) - Kevin Larson

The Supper
Dearly We’re Bought (Joseph Hart, Matthew S. Welch)
Serving the Bread and the Cup
The Bread and the Cup

The Prayer
Prayers of the Church - Ryan Worley

Song of Sending
Take to the World (Aaron Tate)
Receiving the Offering

The Blessing
Benediction 9.2.20 - Aarik Danielsen (The Worship Sourcebook)

“Be Faithful With Your Finances” (Luke 19:11-27) - Kevin P. Larson

Context: vv. 11, 28

Point: v. 11 - During the interim period, be faithful.

Parable

Calling:

1. Be faithful with what we have been given by the king (vv. 15-19)
2. Display our faithfulness in three key, concrete ways (Time: Eph. 5:15-16; Talent: 1 Pet. 4:10-11; Treasure)
3. Understand we are only stewards, not the owners of our resources (v. 13)
4. Utilize our resources according to the desires of the king (v. 15)
5. Realize our faithfulness displays the genuineness of our salvation (vv. 17, 22)
6. Admit our obedience communicates our heart for our king (v. 21)
7. Live urgently in light of the return of the king (vv. 12, 15)

Warnings:

1. Don’t vacate the world
2. Don’t put off faithfulness

Subpoint: vv. 14, 27 - The unfaithful will be judged when He returns.

Note that tomorrow, June 24th, we will not be meeting at our regular gathering space, the Missouri Theatre Center for the Arts.  Rather, we’ll be meeting at the Upper Crust, just around the corner, on Elm Street, near the Coldstone Creamery.  Click here for directions.

In preparation for our coming summer Community Group series “Awakening” on biblical revival, I turned to a book Ray Ortlund recommended to me, Revival by Martyn Lloyd-Jones.  How did I miss this book?  What a treasure it is already proving to be!  In His first chapter, “The Urgent Need for Revival Today,” he looks at Mark 9:28-29, the passage following the inner core’s return from the Mount of Transfiguration with their Lord, where they are greeted by a father with a demon-possessed son.  He asks for the Lord’s help, and Jesus casts the demon out, healing the boy.  A bit later, the disciples ask, “Why could we not cast it out?”  And the Lord says to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”

Lloyd-Jones then launches into a discussion of the approaches used in the church in his day to reach their culture that, like what the disciples tried, weren’t enough.  They were those designed to reach people with a modernist mindset,.  Utilize apologetics, particularly targeting science and archaeology, and people will be reached, they thought.  Use modern methods, like modern Bible translations, advertising, and media, and people will be won, they concluded.  In addition, he points to a reliance upon evangelistic methods to build the kingdom.  Just share a compelling message, they reasoned, and people must come to Christ.  Their desire was to reach people who had rejected all things spiritual.  But the author says, these things won’t work.  Something more was needed.

As I reflected on this, and this will be obvious to most, we’re in the exact opposite cultural situation than that of Lloyd-Jones.  We’re in a postmodern context, where people are very spiritual indeed.  It’s akin to Paul’s situation in Athens he addresses in Acts 17.  In verse 22, he says, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.”  That’s America.  That’s Columbia.  Spirituality is everywhere.  But Christianity at least seems to be disappearing (see here for why I think it’s truly not).

What is the solution?  We can’t do the modernistic things we’ve done before, for sure.  But Lloyd-Jones was criticizing the dependence on such methods right in the middle of modernism.  The answer isn’t postmodern apologetics and methods.  We need something on another order, of another kind.

Ray Ortlund puts it so well in his work, When God Comes to Church, that what is needed today is a church with a dynamic spirituality that compels people to come to her.  We need to be people who create thirst for those around us with our lives, so that they desire the living waters only Christ can give.  We must be people of great joy.  We must have a spiritual vitality that blows all of the others away.  We must be shaken out of our lukewarmness toward a white-hot zeal for the gospel of the kingdom of God in Christ.  And this only comes from the Lord.  We need revival.

Hear Dr. Jones:

So what our Lord said to the disciples is this: you will never deal with this sort of problem until you have been praying, concentrating in prayer, waiting upon God, until he has filled you with power.  When you know you have got it, then you go out with authority.  That is the way, and that is the only way.  Surely no one should need to be convinced, today, that nothing short of a mighty outpouring of the Spirit of God is adequate to deal with our situation in this mid-twentieth century?  Are you really still trusting to these other things?  Here is the vital question.  Have you seen the desperate need of prayer, the prayer of the whole Church?  I shall see no hope until individual members of the Church are praying for revival, perhaps meeting in one another’s homes, meeting in groups amongst friends, meeting together in churches, meeting anywhere you like, and praying with urgency and concentration for a shedding forth of the power of God, such as he shed forth one hundred and two hundred years ago, and in every other period of revival, and of reawakening.  There is no hope until we do.  But the moment we do, hope enters.  Oh, when God manifests his power, it happens as it happened in the case of this poor boy.  With apparent ease, in an effortless manner, the devil is excorcised and the boy healed and restored to his father.  When God arises, his enemies are scattered, that is the story of all the great revivals of history.  But we shall not be interested in revival until we realise the need of ‘this kind’, the futility of all our own efforts and endeavours and the utter absolute need of prayer, and seeking the power of God alone (Lloyd-Jones, Revival, p. 20).

Our last Gathering of the “semester” was great.  Jeremy Linneman preached God’s word from Luke 19, Christ’s interaction with Zacchaeus, and did a smashing job.  Luke and the band kicked it, as usual.  Below is last week’s liturgy, along with Jeremy’s sermon points.

Karis Community Church - The Gathering - Sunday, May 17th, 2009 10:00 am
The Call
A Call to Worship Amdist Economic Crisis (Psalm 95:1-6) (Sojourn Community Church)

Opening Songs
Come You Saints (JonRyan)
Our Great God (Fernando Ortega, Mac Powell)

The Gospel
Call to Confession: Repenting of Our Fear for Our Finances (Ecclesiastes 5:10-11) (Sojourn CC)
Silent Prayer of Confession
Psalm 103:8-18
The Glories of Calvary (Steve Cook, Vikki Cook)
Come, Ye Sinners (Lyrics: Joseph Hart; Music, alt. Lyrics: Dan Hamilton, Robbie Seay, Ryan Owens, Taylor Johnson)

Welcome
Passing the Peace
Welcome - Kevin Larson

The Word Preached
The Almighty {and the} Dollar: Leave Your Junk and Follow Jesus (Luke 19:1-10) - Jeremy Linneman

The Supper
The Lord Will Provide (Lyrics by John Newton, Music by Matthew S. Smith)
Serving the Bread and the Cup
The Bread and the Cup

Community Life
Introduction of New Member - Natalie Noack
Prayers of the Church - Isaac Bruning

Closing Song
Take My Life (Frances Havergal, Chris Tomlin, Louie Giglio)
Receiving the Offering

The Sending
James 2:14-17 - Luke Daugherty

Leave Your Junk and Follow Jesus (Luke 19:1-10) - Jeremy Linneman

I.     The Mission of Jesus:

a.    The Context
b.    The Text
c.    The Mission Statement: For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed (Daniel 7:13-14).

“If a system could give us what we need, Jesus would never have come.” Tripp

II.     The Pattern of the Kingdom:

The pattern: Leave and follow.

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” Bonheoffer
“He is no fool who loses what he cannot gain to gain what he cannot lose.” Elliot

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then, in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Matthew 13:44

“When we hear words like transformation, renewal, or growth, we conceive of those benefits as being primarily personal and internal—my transformation, my growth, the gospel renewal of my heart. And the gospel is personal and internal. But it’s also much more than that. When God’s grace is working on us and in us, it will also work itself out through us. The internal renewal of our minds and hearts creates an external propulsion that moves us out in love and service to others.” The Gospel Centered Life

The inward movement of God’s grace in the heart:
a. Seeing sin
b. Repenting, exercising faith
c. Experiencing joy
The outward movement of God’s grace in love:
a. Seeing opportunity to love and minister
b. Dying to self, stepping out in faith
c. Rejoicing

III.    The Implications for Living and Giving:

“Why we obey is as important as how we obey.” Patrick

From:     What is the least I must give?
To:    How can I most glorify God?

Here is Sunday’s liturgy followed by my (Kevin) sermon points.  I talked about the Rich Young Ruler of Luke 18.  My extensive quotes from Luther are also included below.  We are thankful for a great Sunday of worship at Karis.

Karis Community Church - The Gathering - Sunday, May 10th, 2009 10:00 am
The Call
Psalm 34:1-3, 8-10, 22

Opening Song
Praise to the Lord (Joachim Neander)

The Gospel
Be Merciful To Me (Randall Goodgame)
Silent Prayer of Confession
Romans 5:1-2
Jesus Paid it All (Elvina M. Hall)
I Boast No More (Isaac Watts, Sandra McCracken)

Welcome
Passing the Peace
Welcome - Bobby Schembre
The Word Preached - The Almighty {and the} Dollar: Don’t Worship Your Possessions (Luke 18:18-30) - Kevin Larson

The Supper
We Give Thanks (Andrew Osenga)
Serving the Bread and the Cup
The Bread and the Cup

The Prayer
Prayers of the Church - Jeremy Linneman

The Creed
The Apostles’ Creed

Closing Song
On Jordan’s Stormy Banks I Stand (Samuel Stennett, Christopher Miner)
Receiving the Offering

The Blessing
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

Don’t Worship Your Possessions (Luke 18:18-30)

The Market As God

• the market as omnipotent - can do anything - “no conceivable limit to its inexorable ability to convert creation into commodities.”
• the market as omniscient - knows everything - “The Market, we are taught, is able to determine what human needs are, what copper and capital should cost, how much barbers and CEOs should be paid, and how much jet planes, running shoes, and hysterectomies should sell for.”
• the market as omnipresent - is everywhere at the same time - “ The latest trend in economic theory is the attempt to apply market calculations to areas that once appeared to be exempt, such as dating, family life, marital relations, and child-rearing. Henri Lepage, an enthusiastic advocate of globalization, now speaks about a “total market.” Saint Paul reminded the Athenians that their own poets sang of a God “in whom we live and move and have our being”; so now The Market is not only around us but inside us, informing our senses and our feelings. There seems to be nowhere left to flee from its untiring quest. Like the Hound of Heaven, it pursues us home from the mall and into the nursery and the bedroom.”

–Harvey Cox, The Atlantic, March 1999

1. The question we all ask (v. 18)
2. The standard we all have (v. 19)
3. The tactic we all use (vv. 20-21)
4. The idols we all hold (vv. 22-23)

Luther on Idols
“All those who do not at all times trust God and do not in all their works or sufferings, life and death, trust in His favor, grace and good-will, but seek His favor in other things or in themselves, do not keep this [First] Commandment, and practice real idolatry, even if they were to do the works of all the other Commandments, and in addition had all the prayers, obedience, patience, and chastity of all the saints combined. For the chief work is not present, without which all the others are nothing but mere sham, show and pretense, with nothing back of them… If we doubt or do not believe that God is gracious to us and is pleased with us, or if we presumptuously expect to please Him only through and after our works, then it is all pure deception, outwardly honoring God, but inwardly setting up self as a false [savior]….”

–Martin Luther, Treatise Concerning Good Works, 1520

Luther on Idols (cont.)
“Many a one thinks that he has God and everything in abundance when he has money and, possessions; he trusts in them and boasts of them with such firmness and assurance as to care for no one. Lo, such a man also has a god, Mammon by name, i.e., money and possessions, on which he sets all his heart, and which is also the most common idol on earth. He who has money and possessions feels secure, and is joyful and undismayed as though he were sitting in the midst of Paradise. On the other hand, he who has none doubts and is despondent, as though he knew of no God…

So, too, whoever trusts and boasts that he possesses great skill, prudence, power, favor, friendship, and honor has also a god, but not this true and only God. This appears again when you notice how presumptuous, secure, and proud people are because of such possessions, and how despondent when they no longer exist or are withdrawn. Therefore I repeat that the chief explanation of this point is that to have a god is to have something in which the heart entirely trusts…

Thus it is with all idolatry; for it consists not merely in erecting an image and worshiping it, but rather in the heart, which stands gaping at something else, and seeks help and consolation from creatures, saints, or devils, and neither cares for God, nor looks to Him for so much good as to believe that He is willing to help, neither believes that whatever good it experiences comes from God.

Ask and examine your heart diligently, and you will find whether it cleaves to God alone or not. If you have a heart that can expect of Him nothing but what is good, especially in want and distress, and that, moreover, renounces and forsakes everything that is not God, then you have the only true God. If, on the contrary, it cleaves to anything else, of which it expects more good and help than of God, and does not take refuge in Him, but in adversity flees from Him, then you have an idol, another god.”

–Martin Luther, commenting on Exodus 20:3

Webb on the Ruler
poverty is so hard to see
when it’s only on your TV and twenty miles across town
where we’re all living so good
that we moved out of Jesus’ neighborhood
where he’s hungry and not feeling so good
from going through our trash
he says, more than just your cash and coin
I want your time, I want your voice
I want the things you just can’t give me

so what must we do?
here in the west we want to follow you
we speak the language and we keep all the rules
even a few we made up
come on and follow me
but sell your house, sell your SUV
sell your stocks, sell your security
and give it to the poor
what is this, hey what’s the deal?
I don’t sleep around and I don’t steal
I want the things you just can’t give me

because what you do to the least of these
my brothers, you have done it to me
because I want the things you just can’t give me

–Derek Webb, “Rich Young Ruler”
5. The calling we all share (v. 22)
6. The problem we all face (vv. 24-25)
7. The hope we all need (vv. 26-27)
8. The promise we all want (vv. 28-30)

Time on Excess

• “Admit that we are powerless over addiction to easy money and cheap fossil fuel and living large — that our lives had become unmanageable.”
• “Believe that we can, individually and collectively, restore ourselves to sanity and normal living.”
• “Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves and be entirely ready to remove our defects of character.”

–Kurt Andersen, “The End of Excess: Is This Crisis Good for America?”, Time, March 26, 2009

Whoa.  Luke did an awesome job in the Gathering Sunday.  Our normal music leader preached from Luke 16:19-31 and it was grrrreat.  Aarik Danielsen again stepped in for Luke, and did fabulous, also.

The liturgy from Sunday:

Karis Community Church - The Gathering - Sunday, May 3rd, 2009 10:00 am
The Call
Psalm 113

Opening Songs
At Your Feet (Tim Smith)
Our Great God (Fernando Ortega, Mac Powell)

The Gospel
Confession of Sin 2.2.55 (Poverty) (The Worship Sourcebook)
Ephesians 1:7-8
Satisfied (Clara T. Williams; Music: Karl Digirness)
The Wonderful Cross (Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves, Isaac Watts, J.D. Walt, Lowell Mason )

Welcome
Passing the Peace
Welcome - Kevin Larson
The Word Preached
The Almighty {and the} Dollar: Be Fearful of Riches (Luke 16:19-31) - Luke Daugherty

The Supper
Jesus, Cast a Look On Me (John Berridge, Matthew Perryman Jones)
Serving the Bread and the Cup
The Bread and the Cup
Receiving the Offering

The Prayer
Prayers of the Church - Amy Larson

Closing Song
Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken (Henry Lyte, Bill Moore)

The Sending
Sending 9.1.22 (The Worship Sourcebook)

And Luke’s sermon points:

Be Fearful of Riches – Luke 19:19-31

1. The Judgment – Why?

a. Lack of compassion

i. presence of Lazarus in the rich man’s life revealed why he was blessed: to be generous

ii. nothing new: the Scriptures had been clear (v. 29)

a. For Israel

b. For us

Quote: “God helps those who help themselves.” (Benjamin Franklin)

Heading: Poverty Around the World

· In 2005, almost 1.4 billion people lived below the international poverty line, earning less than $1.25 per day

· 963 million people across the globe are hungry

· Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes–one child every five seconds

· More than 80 percent of the world’s population lives in low and lower-middle income economies

b. The heart problem: idolatry (If doesn’t fit, split to two slides)

i. Jesus’ words early in chapter 16: “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

ii. Idolatry revealed in his lack of compassion (vv. 19-21, 24, 27)

iii. Idolatry revealed in his attitude toward God’s Word (vv, 27-28, 30)

2. The Judgment – What?

a. The full fruition of his idolatry

b. The wrath of God – His just punishment for the rich man’s idolatry

i. Horrible anguish (vv. 23-24)

ii. Earthly riches all left behind (v. 25)

iii. “Fixed” and permanent: Eternal (v. 26)

4. Our Need: The Compassion of a Rich Man – Jesus

i. His compassion frees us that we might free others (Deut. 24)

ii. His generosity makes us rich, that we might make others rich:

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” (2 Cor. 8:9)

iii. A different kind of riches: “…where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Luke 12:34)

5. Our Task: Proclaiming the Kingdom of grace, as a community of grace

Bobby Schembre, an intern at Karis, preached last night at the “Freak Show” east of Columbia. Here is the video. The quality isn’t great, but you can hear his strong, helpful words, at least.

Freak Show 2009: Bobby Schembre from Karis Church on Vimeo.

Watch the Karis guys play a version of “Blessed Be Your Name” with the style (and they include a section of the tune) of U2’s song “One.” They then follow it up with the tune “What Love Is.”

Karis Band: Freak Show 2009 from Karis Church on Vimeo.

Check out Brady Didion playing his acoustic at Sunday’s “Freak Show.”

Check it out on the Tribune site here, but the text is below.  I (Kevin) guess this means I’ve gotta get the bike rolling tonight.

Karis church joins citywide green event

Columbia’s Karis Community Church will hold a “Bike (or Hike) to Church Sunday” event tomorrow as church members meet at 10 a.m. at the Missouri Theatre Center for the Arts, 203 S. Ninth St.

The event is held in conjunction with Get About Columbia’s Bike, Walk and Wheel Week. Congregants and guests will be coming to Karis in creative, healthy and environmentally friendly ways. Pastor Kevin Larson will bike to church with his 5-year-old son, Hadley. His wife, Amy, will walk to the worship gathering with their other two children.

The annual Mayor’s Challenge: Bike, Walk and Wheel Week will begin with a kickoff celebration from 1 to 4 p.m. today at Flat Branch Park. The event is free and for all ages. Register and pick up your Bike, Walk and Wheel Week T-shirt and enjoy music and a variety of family events, including a bike polo match and a “Float Your Boat” kids’ activity, bike safety and commuting tips, and bicycle tire and tube recycling.

— Lynn Israel