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 If you were God, would you give up on Adam?  He breaks your rules, blows the one chance humans have to always make right choices, fathers a murderer, and other than living a long time, doesn’t do much else with his life.
If you were God, would you give up on Jacob?  He cheats and schemes his brother out of his inheritance, lies to his Dad, fathers children with four different women, favors one child over another, and seems to always be bargaining with God.  The legacy he passed on to his children seemed to be one of chaos – they were always up to their necks in trouble with each other or the law.
If you were God, would you give up Moses?  Sure he puts his murderous past behind him, but he can only get a job working for his father-in-law.  He certainly doesn’t raise his hand when God tells him he is the man for a mission, and he keeps the arguing up when God wants to wipe out the troublesome Israelites (I wonder if he ever regretted that decision?).  Even with all of God’s power behind him, he couldn’t persuade Pharaoh to quit while he was ahead.  He didn’t even get to make it to the finish line because he finally reached a breaking point with those hard-headed people he was trying to lead.
If you were God, would you give up on David?  He composed some nice songs, and had a good run as a warrior, but as an administrator, he was terrible.  He played favorites too and it almost cost him his kingdom when the favored son persuaded everyone the old man wasn’t really the leader for the future.  His moral failure was big news - a love triangle that had all the makings of a great TV movie – adultery, pregnancy, intrigue, murder, and a dramatic confrontation by his favorite preacher.
The list can get a lot longer.  But here’s what I learn from this Biblical sampler – God doesn’t give up people because they fail.
If you were God, would you give up on you?  Could it be that God believes in you, loves you, pushes you even more than you do yourself?  Could that be the real message of Jesus dying on a cross for you?
There’s one more lesson – I’m glad you aren’t God.  Aren’t you?

Great attendance today!  Any day we baptize 6 people is a good day.  Great to see many people come to the altar and pray about facing the conflict in their family.

I hope First Family has been positive series of messages for you.  I know it has been challenging for me.  Be sure and join us this Sunday as the series wraps up and we celebrate the Lord’s Supper.

An enduring child hood memory was listening to long prayers at church.  People seemed so fervent, so earnest.  Brother Henry Tomlinson used to punctuate his prayers with “Our Heavenly Father…”  We kept count - and one night during a closing benediction he used the phrase 76 times.

When I was in college, the pattern continued.  We were entreated to pray long prayers, filled with conviction, to demonstrate our sincerity. 

Falling in a preachers, this habit was only re-enforced.  No preacher worth his seminary degree would think about offering a prayer for a meal that lasted less than 8 minutes.  Blessing on significant ocassions - Thanksgiving, family gatherings with sinners present, the dedication of the new Coke machine at the high school, Rotary luncheons - were times when prayers need to stretch out for 10 to 15 minutes.  These prayers were often less conversations with God and more opportunities to preach sermons wrapped in the disguise of prayer.

The other day, I was nodding off during the Georgia- Alabama game (I was pulling for Alabama, but I am reminded of what Larry Munson, the great Georgia broadcaster once said when asked who he favored between Yale and Harvard, “Neither - you are both Yankees and I hope you both lose) when I felt a sense of great peace - the presence of God.  Several names came into my mind - people I knew I needed to pray for.  I turned off the game and for a few minutes voiced a prayer to my Father in heaven.

Here’s what I learned.  Sometimes prayer needs to be fervent and earnest.  Sometimes, our hearts need to be stilled and open - so we can hear from God about who should be on our prayer list.

I was in a lunch meeting with some very busy people, including one high profile, nationally known pastor.  We were trading ideas back and forth about doing church, reaching people, and growing disciples while gobbling down our salads.
The well-known pastor’s cell phone rang.  Normally something like that irritates me – but I was seeking good advice for the price of a lunch so I took another bite of my salad as he got up from the table.
He turned back to us and asked, “Do you know any good devotional books for men?”  Someone fired back an answer, and he returned to his cell phone. His conversation went on another minute or two and then he returned to the table.
“That was my daughter,” he said apologetically.  He then grinned sheepishly and said, “If I don’t answer, she’ll keep calling till I do.  She’s thirty years old and still needs to talk to her Dad.” 
Two shots ricocheted through my brain.  First, despite all the fame that had come to this preacher, he remembered that he was a father first.  If his daughter needed him, he was going to be there for her, even if it was about something as small as needing a devotional book.
The second thought?  I hope my daughters will be calling me when they are thirty wanted a little bit of fatherly advice. 
I wonder if how I parent now will have an impact on whether they call me or not?

I was listening to NPR today and heard both Obama and McCain tell campaign crowds that their economic problems were not their fault.

I know economics is complicated - and I have the grades to prove it!  But think through this for a minute:

You borrowed money you couldn’t pay back - but it’s not your fault.

You put things on credit cards and paid them off with a home equity loan because you didn’t have cash - but it’s not your fault.

You bought into the “I gotta have it now” way of American thinking - and so you bought somenthing new just because it was new.  As a result, you have a lot of junk, a lot of debt - but it’s not your fault.

Whose fault is it?

Where does personal responsibility kick in?

When you get hurt, what do you do?
 

Do you blame the other person?  “It’s your fault!”  Sometimes it is their fault.  Is blame a stopping place?
 

Do you get angry?  Anger can be a protective wall we erect to push a person back and provide ourselves with a bubble where we can feel secure.  Is anger a stopping place?
 

Do you resolve to get even?  Maybe that happens in the moment – when you fire back a catalogue of ways the other person has hurt you.  Maybe you wait until just the right time – and you bring out all the failures of the other person to justify yourself and to gain advantage.  Is getting even a stopping place?
 

Do you accept that it is your fault?  We are flawed people so there is usually enough blame to go around.  But some of us are conditioned to accept all the responsibility.  Because we have low self-worth, we receive the message of blame too quickly.  Is accepting fault a stopping place?
 

Do you withdraw?  Withdrawing to pout is really an invitation for the other partner to pursue.  “Is anything wrong?” “No,” is the terse reply.  What is really being said is, “Yes something is wrong and you had half a brain, you idiot, you would know something is wrong and you would seek me out and you would apologize in advance for hurting me.”  Is withdrawal a stopping place?
 

Do you act like nothing happened?  This is the “Mr. Spock” response.  In the face of feeling, you shut down and go into a logic loop.  Though your emotions may strain against the lock, you want to pretend like it is a hurricane that must pass.   Is acting like nothing happened a stopping place?
 

All of these are stops on the journey toward forgiveness.  They may be the first emotional responses we give – because that’s what we know.  To have healthy relationships, however, we go further – we forgive. 
 

Forgiveness is the essential skill to sustain a relationship.  That’s why we need to learn it from God.  That’s why we need to extend it toward each other.
 

This Sunday, I’m talking about forgiveness – I hope you will come and get unstuck from your stopping place.

I think famlies and the leaders of families have to passionately fight temptations that will destroy relationships.  As I shared this morning, these temptations are are best seen in the first family:

1.The temptation to listen to those who want to manipulate your family for their own gain.  How to fight this temptation?  Check the motives of those who have an agenda for your family.

2.The temptation to install legalism in your family - asking rules to do what they cannot do - change a heart.  How to fight this temptation?  Do a rule inventory.  Pray for God to change hearts.

3.The temptation to listen to those who encourage you to doubt God’s way of being family.  How to fight this temptation?  Decide that you will trust God and you will trust His way of being family.

4.The temptation to be passive and give in.  How to fight this temptation?  Live with the tension of “no.”  Take drastic steps if necessary to get the evil out of your life and out of your family.

5.The temptation to hide - to cover our failure and shame.  How to fight this temptation?  Have the hard conversation.  Deal with the problems.  Deal in reality, not fantasy

6.The temptation to play the blame game - “It’s not my fault - I’m the victim.”  How to fight this temptation?  Step up  and own your responsibility for issues in family relationships.

Bottom line - you won’t fight unless you grow some passion and anger about the danger these temptations pose to your family.  So fight!

I just finished talking with Scott Shipes who led our mission team to Old Naledi, Botswana.  His passion was contagious.  I felt a sudden rush that I needed to go to Africa right now!  So I rushed upstairs to my computer and tried to capture what this feeling of passion is all about.

It’s about knowing something you do makes a difference.

It’s about seeing what could be - and knowing it will take a movement from God to make it happen.

It’s about being the hope of Jesus to the least of these.

It’s about realizing you have been blest to be a blessing.

It’s about having a true religious experience - serving widows and orphans.

So, mark it down - I am going to Africa.  Still don’t know when - but I am going - because I have caught the passion.

Have you caught any passion from God?