Pastor Cal Lord's Recent Sermons
"Living the Life"
April 6, 2008 I Peter 1:17-23
A few years ago I met with a friend of mine from the Norwich Rotary club and he shared his
story with me. It was an ugly story of alcohol abuse and its effects on his life. My friend was
clean and sober when I met him and I would have never known he had a problem. Yet, he had
undergone a metamorphosis. He became a new man.
He told me the biggest change he made in his life was not quitting the alcohol, it was changing
his world. He had to escape from his old drinking buddies, he had to change his habits, his
activities and even his thought patterns. He had to find new friends who would support him in his
desire to change and take it one day at a time. He didn’t need to change one thing, he needed to
change everything.
I think the same is true for us as Christians. Once we say yes to Jesus, some things in our lives
need to change. If they don’t change, our Christian faith cannot grow.
Jesus told the parable about the sewer and the seeds. The point was that if the soil, the
environment the seeds were planted in wasn’t any good, then they didn’t take root.
I think that is why God created the church as a community of believers. We are here to
strengthen and support one another as we walk the Christian walk. God knew that if change was
going to take hold of us, we would need to find a place where the faith could be nurtured.
But I am getting ahead of myself. You see God calls us to be partners in transforming the world.
It begins in here, in our hearts. God meets each and every one of us and tells us of his love. Then
he invites us to accept him.
The apostle Peter knew this from his own encounter with Jesus. From those first moments
when he met him at the shore, Peter’s heart was captured by Jesus. For three years he walked
with him, learning and gaining new understanding every day. Peter was impetuous. He was quick
to act, quick to speak and often prone to stick his foot in his mouth. Yet he also was given the
insight to declare that Jesus was the son of God before anyone else could see it.
After Jesus was crucified, Peter’s faith and understanding rose to the next level. It was buoyed
by his most memorable encounter with Jesus, the one that took place after the resurrection. You
know the story. Three times Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me?” No doubt about it, this was in
direct correlation with the three times Peter denied the Lord on the day he was tried and crucified.
With his heart breaking, in embarrassment and shame, Peter says, “Yes Lord, I love you.”
Peter knew he had failed Jesus. His bold words just hours before proved how fragile his faith
had been. Peter was shaken to the core and his spirit was broken. Jesus looked at him and said, in
so many words: “If you love me, then feed my sheep.”
Peter didn’t get it right away. But in time he understood and he writes these words we read
today to a broken hearted people. In this epistle Peter begins by reminding the people that the
power of the Lord’s death to take away sin was real. Their sins had been forgiven. They were
nailed to the cross with Jesus. As result of that, the people now belong to Jesus.
We don’t talk about holiness too often because it is a scary term. We know ourselves too well.
But Peter isn’t afraid to use the word. He says that we ought to be holy, like Jesus was holy.
Now I know a lot of people think of holy and conjure up an image of someone who is either very
Pentecostal, speaking in tongues and rolling on the floor, kind of weird, or we think of someone
who is perfect in every way, like a Sister Theresa or a Billy Graham.
Now although both of them would say they weren’t perfect, I’d like to think of holiness in terms
of their lives rather than the former. Holiness simply means to be like God. To be holy is to be
loving, to do right, to seek justice, to have compassion, to be forgiving, to be generous, to seek the
good of all.
Now there are two things to be said about this. First, you don’t become holy overnight. You can
be saved in an instant. You can be born again by simply confessing your sin to Jesus asking his
forgiveness. You get a fresh start and new life by simply asking for it. But that doesn’t mean you
will be holy. That takes time.
That is the crux of what Peter says in this letter. He says in verse 13 and following “Prepare
your minds, be self controlled, set you hope on grace, be obedient and do not conform…” In
effect he suggests that to become holy, we need to work at it.
It begins with our minds and how we think. We need to see ourselves as belonging to Christ.
When Bill Bellicheck was asked about the Patriots’ success in bringing in players who have had a
history of being trouble makers, he simply said, “We are a team here. When you come to play for
us you buy into that or you don’t play for us.”
To prepare your minds means to be reading scripture, to spend time in prayer, to be engaged in
community where Christ is lifted up and honored, to be in worship. How often do you think about
Jesus on any given day? The more you do, the more apt you are to be moving towards holiness.
Peter also suggests that we learn discipline. I was thinking about this the other day. The world tells
us its all about what we want.
The world is trying to create a bunch of selfish, thoughtless people. Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton,
Survivor, American Idol, all are examples of how we are encouraged to think only about ourselves.
We want to be number one. You know who is behind that? It’s the devil.
Peter suggests that we need to deny ourselves once in a while. We need to work at focusing our
efforts in areas that make a difference. This is so counter culture: To think of others before
ourselves. But that is what God did and that is who we are trying to emulate isn’t it?
Next he says, “Set your eyes on the grace of Jesus Christ.” If you have committed yourself to
Christ, you have driven a stake in the ground where you have started from. But that is not the end.
We live in the future tense, with our eyes on the prize.
In this month’s newsletter I noted that we have five couples planning to be married in the next
several months. Each and every one of them is looking ahead to the future and what life will bring
them. You talk to them and you’ll hear them talk about the wedding dress, the all the arrangements,
what they are doing after the wedding, where they will be living. They are living with their eyes on
the future and what is ahead of them and that excites them.
As Christians we live with the expectation that one day we’ll meet Jesus face to face and hear
him say, “Well done.” That is what Peter is talking about.
Finally he says, “Don’t be conformed to your former desires.” A major threat to holiness is our
past life, the ruts we used to be in.
You may be old enough to remember what muddy roads were like. Cars on those roads made
deep ruts for the wheels. You may have wanted to drive outside the rut, but because the road was
soft and the ruts were deep, the car kept trying to fall into those ruts. You don’t stay out by
focusing on the rut. You stay out of the rut by staying on higher ground.
Sometimes the patterns from the way we used to live our lives pulls us back into the old ways.
Those old impulses keep trying to interfere. Don’t let them do it, Peter warns. Head for higher
ground.
If the first thing Peter told us was that we have to work at being holy, the second thing he notes
is that it is best done in community. He implies this when he talks about loving one another. You
see Peter understood that no one person can stand strong in the faith alone. In the courtyard, he
failed Jesus. As strong as he thought he was, he was no match for that situation. And neither are
we. We need community.
If we want to live the life, we need to be connected to a loving group of believers that are
committed to growing and serving God. We need to love and be loved. We need to be challenged
and to have a place to serve.
You see, serving is the most God like quality we can strive for. Jesus once said that “the son of
God came to serve, not to be served.” If we want to be like him, we need to be doing something.”
The community can offer us so many possibilities.
That’s why I am so glad we are hosting the interfaith luncheons each month. There is no greater
feeling than when you cook up a meal and see how much the people enjoy it, or when you wait on
tables and know you are blessing someone. Ask Muriel, or Sue, or Cynthia or any of the people
who have done it.
That is why I am so glad we are participating in the CROP walk. You hear the stories of children
going to bed hungry in u country and it seems unbelievable. It is so easy, and so satisfying to
know that with every step you take you can eliminate a bit of that nightmare for some family.
That is why I am so glad we are trying to offer some meals to those in our community going
through difficult times. This allows so many to share a small gift and more importantly, to share a
little love to someone in need. I think it blesses us as much as it blesses the family we are serving.
That is why I am so glad that our church is looking for ways to be more involved in bringing the
love of Jesus into the community. We want to expand the possibilities so that each one of us can
find an avenue of service so that we can be more like Christ.
In community we can do more and help each other grow in grace and holiness. When that
happens, our actions, our lives, will glorify God. We will be blessed and so will the world around
us.
Amen.
April 6, 2008 I Peter 1:17-23
A few years ago I met with a friend of mine from the Norwich Rotary club and he shared his
story with me. It was an ugly story of alcohol abuse and its effects on his life. My friend was
clean and sober when I met him and I would have never known he had a problem. Yet, he had
undergone a metamorphosis. He became a new man.
He told me the biggest change he made in his life was not quitting the alcohol, it was changing
his world. He had to escape from his old drinking buddies, he had to change his habits, his
activities and even his thought patterns. He had to find new friends who would support him in his
desire to change and take it one day at a time. He didn’t need to change one thing, he needed to
change everything.
I think the same is true for us as Christians. Once we say yes to Jesus, some things in our lives
need to change. If they don’t change, our Christian faith cannot grow.
Jesus told the parable about the sewer and the seeds. The point was that if the soil, the
environment the seeds were planted in wasn’t any good, then they didn’t take root.
I think that is why God created the church as a community of believers. We are here to
strengthen and support one another as we walk the Christian walk. God knew that if change was
going to take hold of us, we would need to find a place where the faith could be nurtured.
But I am getting ahead of myself. You see God calls us to be partners in transforming the world.
It begins in here, in our hearts. God meets each and every one of us and tells us of his love. Then
he invites us to accept him.
The apostle Peter knew this from his own encounter with Jesus. From those first moments
when he met him at the shore, Peter’s heart was captured by Jesus. For three years he walked
with him, learning and gaining new understanding every day. Peter was impetuous. He was quick
to act, quick to speak and often prone to stick his foot in his mouth. Yet he also was given the
insight to declare that Jesus was the son of God before anyone else could see it.
After Jesus was crucified, Peter’s faith and understanding rose to the next level. It was buoyed
by his most memorable encounter with Jesus, the one that took place after the resurrection. You
know the story. Three times Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me?” No doubt about it, this was in
direct correlation with the three times Peter denied the Lord on the day he was tried and crucified.
With his heart breaking, in embarrassment and shame, Peter says, “Yes Lord, I love you.”
Peter knew he had failed Jesus. His bold words just hours before proved how fragile his faith
had been. Peter was shaken to the core and his spirit was broken. Jesus looked at him and said, in
so many words: “If you love me, then feed my sheep.”
Peter didn’t get it right away. But in time he understood and he writes these words we read
today to a broken hearted people. In this epistle Peter begins by reminding the people that the
power of the Lord’s death to take away sin was real. Their sins had been forgiven. They were
nailed to the cross with Jesus. As result of that, the people now belong to Jesus.
We don’t talk about holiness too often because it is a scary term. We know ourselves too well.
But Peter isn’t afraid to use the word. He says that we ought to be holy, like Jesus was holy.
Now I know a lot of people think of holy and conjure up an image of someone who is either very
Pentecostal, speaking in tongues and rolling on the floor, kind of weird, or we think of someone
who is perfect in every way, like a Sister Theresa or a Billy Graham.
Now although both of them would say they weren’t perfect, I’d like to think of holiness in terms
of their lives rather than the former. Holiness simply means to be like God. To be holy is to be
loving, to do right, to seek justice, to have compassion, to be forgiving, to be generous, to seek the
good of all.
Now there are two things to be said about this. First, you don’t become holy overnight. You can
be saved in an instant. You can be born again by simply confessing your sin to Jesus asking his
forgiveness. You get a fresh start and new life by simply asking for it. But that doesn’t mean you
will be holy. That takes time.
That is the crux of what Peter says in this letter. He says in verse 13 and following “Prepare
your minds, be self controlled, set you hope on grace, be obedient and do not conform…” In
effect he suggests that to become holy, we need to work at it.
It begins with our minds and how we think. We need to see ourselves as belonging to Christ.
When Bill Bellicheck was asked about the Patriots’ success in bringing in players who have had a
history of being trouble makers, he simply said, “We are a team here. When you come to play for
us you buy into that or you don’t play for us.”
To prepare your minds means to be reading scripture, to spend time in prayer, to be engaged in
community where Christ is lifted up and honored, to be in worship. How often do you think about
Jesus on any given day? The more you do, the more apt you are to be moving towards holiness.
Peter also suggests that we learn discipline. I was thinking about this the other day. The world tells
us its all about what we want.
The world is trying to create a bunch of selfish, thoughtless people. Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton,
Survivor, American Idol, all are examples of how we are encouraged to think only about ourselves.
We want to be number one. You know who is behind that? It’s the devil.
Peter suggests that we need to deny ourselves once in a while. We need to work at focusing our
efforts in areas that make a difference. This is so counter culture: To think of others before
ourselves. But that is what God did and that is who we are trying to emulate isn’t it?
Next he says, “Set your eyes on the grace of Jesus Christ.” If you have committed yourself to
Christ, you have driven a stake in the ground where you have started from. But that is not the end.
We live in the future tense, with our eyes on the prize.
In this month’s newsletter I noted that we have five couples planning to be married in the next
several months. Each and every one of them is looking ahead to the future and what life will bring
them. You talk to them and you’ll hear them talk about the wedding dress, the all the arrangements,
what they are doing after the wedding, where they will be living. They are living with their eyes on
the future and what is ahead of them and that excites them.
As Christians we live with the expectation that one day we’ll meet Jesus face to face and hear
him say, “Well done.” That is what Peter is talking about.
Finally he says, “Don’t be conformed to your former desires.” A major threat to holiness is our
past life, the ruts we used to be in.
You may be old enough to remember what muddy roads were like. Cars on those roads made
deep ruts for the wheels. You may have wanted to drive outside the rut, but because the road was
soft and the ruts were deep, the car kept trying to fall into those ruts. You don’t stay out by
focusing on the rut. You stay out of the rut by staying on higher ground.
Sometimes the patterns from the way we used to live our lives pulls us back into the old ways.
Those old impulses keep trying to interfere. Don’t let them do it, Peter warns. Head for higher
ground.
If the first thing Peter told us was that we have to work at being holy, the second thing he notes
is that it is best done in community. He implies this when he talks about loving one another. You
see Peter understood that no one person can stand strong in the faith alone. In the courtyard, he
failed Jesus. As strong as he thought he was, he was no match for that situation. And neither are
we. We need community.
If we want to live the life, we need to be connected to a loving group of believers that are
committed to growing and serving God. We need to love and be loved. We need to be challenged
and to have a place to serve.
You see, serving is the most God like quality we can strive for. Jesus once said that “the son of
God came to serve, not to be served.” If we want to be like him, we need to be doing something.”
The community can offer us so many possibilities.
That’s why I am so glad we are hosting the interfaith luncheons each month. There is no greater
feeling than when you cook up a meal and see how much the people enjoy it, or when you wait on
tables and know you are blessing someone. Ask Muriel, or Sue, or Cynthia or any of the people
who have done it.
That is why I am so glad we are participating in the CROP walk. You hear the stories of children
going to bed hungry in u country and it seems unbelievable. It is so easy, and so satisfying to
know that with every step you take you can eliminate a bit of that nightmare for some family.
That is why I am so glad we are trying to offer some meals to those in our community going
through difficult times. This allows so many to share a small gift and more importantly, to share a
little love to someone in need. I think it blesses us as much as it blesses the family we are serving.
That is why I am so glad that our church is looking for ways to be more involved in bringing the
love of Jesus into the community. We want to expand the possibilities so that each one of us can
find an avenue of service so that we can be more like Christ.
In community we can do more and help each other grow in grace and holiness. When that
happens, our actions, our lives, will glorify God. We will be blessed and so will the world around
us.
Amen.
| Welcome to the First Baptist Church of Norwich 239 West Main Street Norwich, Connecticut Phone: 860-889-0369 |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |