Figuring what's important in your life!

We’re in the second week of a new sermon series looking for the reason we’re breathin.
As I said last week… nobody can have it all. Even if we had the resources, we don't have the time. We don't have the time to do it all. So we have to decide what it is we are going to do with the precious time we have here in the land of three dimensions. But how do you decide what you are going to do? How do you decide what you are going to build your life around? How do you decide what’s important? How do you make sure you don’t waste that small dash between the dates? Four suggestions this morning to get started.
1. CHOOSE THE VALUES THAT WILL DETERMINE YOUR VALUABLES
Your values are basically the foundation upon which you build your life. The bedrock. And it is those values you hold on to… either by design or by default… that will ultimately shape what becomes important in your life. And what you believe to be important, will ultimately determine what you do with your dash. This is big stuff. We’re talking about the only dash you get. One run at it.
So where do we get our values? We get them from a lot of places. We pick them up from our parents. We pick them up from our peers. We pick them up from magazines and books we read, from the music we listen to. Movies. Television. The internet. I read a study that said, media is the number one purveyor of values 2
today. Especially television. If you’re an average American you watch about 1000 hours of television a year. That means if you’re an average American, by the time you’re 65 you will have amassed 9½ solid years of TV viewing. 1/6 of your dash will have been spent in front of the T.V. And that doesn't include computer screen time.
Well what about the church as a purveyor of values in life and culture? Do the math. Let’s say a guy went to church every single week his entire life… and spent that time hearing about the values of forgiveness and love and grace and kindness and compassion and inclusivity… that would only come to a total of only four months out of his life… verses 9½ years – Which venue is getting the most playtime in advising us what’s important?
When you boil it all down, you are going to get your values – the basis upon what you will decide is important in life from one of two places…The Spirit or Society. The Word or the World. Christ or the culture. Your wise self or the voices of outside influence. Do your values incorporate a love and purpose and design and spirit behind all that there is… or do they reflect more of a this is all there is philosophy. Where do your values come from? Instinct? Is there a moral absolute in the DNA of creation, in our hard wiring… and then we are tempted to stray from that for other reasons… or is it the other way around and we are hard wired to be selfish and egocentric and we learn to be compassionate along the way. 3
Are your values based on the belief that we are souls with bodies… or are we bodies with souls… or are we just bodies, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry there is a story of old Satan and he having a challenge in the wilderness. For 40 days (whenever you see 40 something it’s an ancient phrase for "a long time" and not meant to be taken literally) for 40 days Jesus was being tempted to make some other things the focus of his life. This experience or story about Jesus and the temptor, is a metaphor about deciding what is important in life. At the beginning of Jesus public works, he had to confront the reason he was breathin. He had to decide which way to go… guided by his own sense of who we was and his relationship with God… there was a WAY he knew to be right for him… but even knowing that… when faced with some other really attractive offers can be tough. Out there in the wilderness all alone with his thoughts… Jesus wrestled with the temptation to buy into the values this world is based on. Three values that haven’t changed in 2000 years. That’s what makes this so relevant. We are sitting here challenged with the same decisions Jesus had to make. Here you go… this is what the world says is important.
1. Pleasure. Your needs are number one. Turn these stones to bread, the Prince of this world encouraged Jesus. Eat all you want. Indulge. Party On. Jesus starts making food out of rocks, he’d be the most popular person on the planet. If 4
you ask most people, "What do you want out of life?" They’ll say, "I want to have fun…. I want to be happy … I want to feel good.,, I want to be liked." The culture I grew up in is the most successful culture in the history of the world. They wrote right into our inalienable bill of rights… the pursuit of happiness. That's bedrock in the states. There is an obsession with pleasure. The largest economy in the world… you know what America's number one industry is now… Entertainment!
More cash is spent in the pursuit of happiness than on anything else in America.
2. Privilege. And with it Prestige. Power. Position. The dominant image of success in the western world has been a ladder. Climbing the ladder of success. We want people to look up to us. We want people to think we are successful and we have value. We create symbols so that we can let people know just where we are on the pecking order. Image is everything.
In the temptation story, Satan took Jesus to the biggest city in Israel, the highest point, the pinnacle of the temple, and told him he could jump off without being hurt. He would be huge. The talk of the town. Who would even think about messing with a guy who could jump off buildings in a single bound. No one else had ever done that before. He’d be the first, the only one.
Pleasure, power and the third value the world teaches is important.
3 Possessions. Personal assets. Our entire economy is built upon consuming. That’s how a capitalistic society thrives. We are consumed with our consumption, 5
We are conspicuous about our consumption. We quarterly measure our consumption in the consumer index. And when it is up, that is a good thing. Satan took Jesus to a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world. Everything his eyes could see, would be his just for signing on. I was at a time share presentation once that had a very similar feel to it… Sign right here and it is all yours.
Pleasure, Power, and Possessions -
We just watched the Superbowl and all those high powered commercials advertisers paid millions of dollars per spot. What do you suppose they were selling? Pleasure, Power, Possessions? Sort of… but even marketers know what people really want, down deep, what is really important. Relationships. But you can't buy and sell relationships… or can you? Pay attention to the next car ad you see… "Buy our car and you’ll have great looking friends. You’ll never be lonely again. All these people will want to just stand around your car!"
What about the stupid phrase I saw the other day… "Get to know your Geo…" as if it has a personality. I’m so hard up, I’m so lonely, I’m going to get to know my car. Nobody else wants to know me but I get to know my Geo! The implication is, "Buy our car and you won’t be lonely.
I saw a hamburger ad from one of our Florida stations and the whole commercial, not one word about taste. Not one word about the quality of the 6
hamburger. They just tried to convince me that I had to be number one and if I was number two I was a loser, worthless. Well so, I guess I want to be number one and if I eat a hamburger at Burger King, I'll be number one. I wasn't even aware that eating a hamburger would give me prestige. Now at the Taste of Texas, I can see how a degree of prestige would be there. But the Burger King commercial… that wasn't about hamburgers… it was about the competition to be top dog, number one, smartest man in the room… by eating their product.
We could go on but the point is this: Romans 12:2 "Don’t become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking."
Time magazine cover. Rolls Royce with a cross. If you buy into the world’s value system, that the ultimate value in life is pleasure, prestige and possession, you are going to miss out on the real reason your breathin. If you get seduced into the system that you should spend your entire dash trying to get more pleasure, more prestige and more possessions, on and on without end… then that's what you will spend all your time on and you most certainly will not have the time or energy to nurture that passionate flicker you feel inside as perhaps your divine calling to be you… in your fullness and fully free.
So the first step in building a foundation is choose your source. Who are you going to listen to? In the cacophony of voices telling us what we should be about… where are you going to get your values? And they are YOUR values, not mine, not 7
the church's, not your parents, not your spouse, not your neighbors… you get to choose what is important to you.
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Joshua 24:15
After choosing the source of the values behind our valuables, the next step is to
2. CLARIFY WHAT’S IMPORTANT
Job 34:3-4 "We should choose to follow what is right but first we must define what is good." Make a mental list in your head… the three most important things in your life… can you do it. Nobody will know, nobody can read your mind, You can actually pick what is important to you, not the person sitting next to you, not your parents, not your boss. Its your life, just think to yourself what are the three most important things in life..
Usually, our value sytem, isn’t something that we normally think about… unless there is a crises in our lives. Where everything is falling apart and we stop to ask, what is the meaning of life? A spouse dies, or leaves or is unfaithful. You go through a divorce, bankruptcy. That promotion you had been expecting doesn’t come through. Donald Trump tells you, you’re fired. You get a major illness. You move to Costa Rica. Retire. And all of a sudden these waves of "what is life really all about? Why am I here? What is the reason I’m still breathin?’ Often we don’t even think about it until the pain comes and gets our attention. Then all of a sudden 8
there’s a wake up call and we start thinking, "Maybe my values are off a little bit. Maybe I’m too much of a workaholic. Maybe I’ve been investing all my time and energy in a person or a relationship or a job or a goal that I’ve wasted way too much time on." Where do I go from here? Where are my values leading me… what are my values.
Those three things in your head… what you feel to be the most important in life… that is your personal definition of success. I talked last week about moving from success, to significance… one of the ways you do that is by simply redefining success as maybe everybody else around does… as the world sees it, to understanding success under your own terms based on your own list of values. Don’t let anybody else define for you, what success is. Not the culture, not your family, not success magazine, not the preacher. Your own list… Success in my life is…
I’ll give you a hint. Success has a lot to do with the satisfaction and fulfillment of living out those values. Its not something you ever reach. You’ll never be able to say, I’ve finally made it… until your done… until that second date is chiseled in on the other side of your dash. If success in life is living in harmony with your values, 1. Nobody can ever take it from you, 2. You can never be too old or too young to be successful. 3. Nobody can ever outdo you because its your own list. 4. There is no pressure to keep up with anybody. 5. And your success is never measured by 9
outward circumstances. It comes from within.
That’s why Jesus said that it is possible to be outwardly successful – financially, socially and every other way – and yet be dead on the inside. Mark 8:36 "What does it profit a person if they gain the whole world but lose their soul?" lose their passion, lose their reason for breathin.
Look at your life ten years out, twenty years out, thirty years out. Look at it from eternity, Ask this question (this question sifts through values faster than any other question I know): "What’s going to matter, what is going to make a difference down the road? And the things that really honestly don't matter… maybe I shouldn't spend so much time on them.
When you take that question – "What’s going to last?" – and you apply it to the world’s value system of pleasure, possession and prestige notice what the Bible says about their longevity. Pleasure: Hebrews 11:25 "The pleasures of this world last for a short time." You have your kicks but then you have your kickbacks.
Possessions aren’t going to last. 1 Timothy 6:7 "We brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out." When you move out of your house for the last time… yeah, you won’t have to worry about calling the movers. It all stays. Then Mark 10:31 tells us prestige isn’t going to last. "Many people who seem to be important now will be the least important in eternity." And the next part of the verse says, "and many who seem least important today will be most important in 10
heaven."
You choose your source – where am I going to get my values, the word or the world. Then you evaluate what’s important and you make a list of the things that you really believe are valuable.
3. CHANGE WHAT YOU ARE DOING TO MATCH THE LIST
You start bringing your life into line with what you say is important. That’s called congruency.
I recently read a George Gallup poll. After polling all kinds of Americans, he said that the number one source of stress in America is not, being too busy, It’s not being strapped for cash. It’s not relational conflict. His conclusion was that the number one source of stress in America today was what he called incongruent values. When my walk doesn’t match my talk. When I say this is important to me but my lifestyle says it’s not really important to me at all. That causes stress.
We do it all the time. If you were to ask most Americans, "What’s the most important thing to you?" Most Americans would say, My family is number one. Without a doubt. But survey after survey shows that the average father spends less than five minutes a day with his children. But, "Family’s the most important thing to me." Woman’s magazine in a recent survey found that 21% of women today have had an extramarital fling and twice as many men. But family is the most important thing. 11
Number two is, "My health is most important to me." Oh really. Do you exercise? No. Do you eat right? No. Do you sleep right? No. Do you take days off and rest? No. But my health is important. It’s as important as my family.
If I were to ask most Americans, "Are you materialistic?" they’d say no, everybody else is but I’m not! Are you more in debt today than you were 5 years ago. Yes. Do you have unpaid credit charges? Yes. Do you have any savings? No, Why not? I spend it all. That’s called materialism.
People say, "God’s number one in my life." But what does that mean? What does it look like to have a life in tune with spiritual things? What does that look like in a day timer? Incongruent values cause stress.
You might be thinking, "I’d like to change. I know that what I say is important to me I don’t make time for and the things I don’t think are important I spend all my time on. Its just that I don’t have the energy or the power or the strength or the wisdom to do it."
You’re right. That’s where you just give it over to God. That's where you tap into this amazing power of the Universe I have been tapping into my whole life. It just happens… you put it out there and it happens. God gives you the power and strength and intuitive wisdom to do what it is you want and need to do. And even better and more than you imagined. Its not like you have to generate it from within, pull yourself up by the bootstraps. It’s the power of God’s spirit cascading through 12
the Universe. You just have to decide to grab hold of it. Imagine a river flowing by. The power of God. You decide to jump in and go with the flow… to adventures only God knows.
4. CHECK MY VALUES DAILY
What if you were to put up your list of what's important where you would see it. What if instead of three you came up with 5 or 10. And you posted it on your car dash, in your wallet, on the refrigerator, your computer start up page, give it an icon, and everyday, boom, there it is, what you think is important. and you look at those and review and hold yourself up to this plumb line and say "Is my life in harmony with what I say is important? Is my schedule? Is my budget? Are my time and money and relationships in harmony with what I really believe I am here on earth to be about? If it’s truly that important, and the basis and foundation of your entire life… wouldn’t you want to spare a few minutes everyday to reflect on that?
And if you are like me, there will be many more days than not where you are saying, "No, I need to bring that back in line."
1 Timothy 4:16 "Keep a close watch on all you do and think. Stay true to what is right and God will bless you and use you to help others." Next week as we continue our journey toward the reason we're breathin'…

Reflections on the Reason we're Breathin'

Golf magazine reveals that
the golf club people spend the most money on is what? The driver.
If you would look up the word
"drive" in a dictionary, you would find that it says "to guide,
to control, or to direct." When you drive a golf ball – hopefully – you
drive, control, direct it down the fairway.
When you drive a car, you guide, control, direct it down the
street. When you drive a nail, you
drive, control, direct it into the wood.
Every life is driven by
something. Every human being is driven
by something. Some people are driven by
guilt. Some people are driven by worry
or fear. Some people are driven by insecurity. Some people are driven by anger. Some people are driven all through life by
resentment. Some people are driven by
their past and they spend their whole lives running from their past. Some people are driven by their possessions
and the desire to acquire overwhelms them and they’re consumed by their
consumables. Some people are driven by
their parents. Even twenty, thirty, forty years later and maybe their parents
are passed away they’re still trying to do what Mommy and Daddy would approve of.
The Bible teaches very
clearly that God has never made anything without a reason behind it. Proverbs 16:4 “The Lord has made everything for His own purpose.” Everything – there’s nothing that you see
that God created that He’d
say, “What was I thinking,
no idea.” There’s a purpose for
everything He creates which means if you’re alive, if your heart is beating,
you are here for a reason. Regardless of
the circumstances of your birth, you are not an accident. Your parents may not have planned you but God
did. And if you’re alive, He has a
purpose for your life and a reason for your existence. You are not an accident. . You
were made to be you and God designed your life plan even before you were
born. Ephesians 2:10 (Good News) “God is our Maker and in our union with
Christ, He has created us for a life of good works which He has already
prepared for us to do.” You have been set up. You came into this world with God’s plan in
mind. But still there are no guarantees
that that’s the life you will lead. When
He planned you, He planned your purpose even before you were born.
People live life at one of
three basic levels.
The first level, the lowest
level is what you could call the survival
level. Most people live in the survival mode. They get by in life. They’re not really living, they’re just
existing. They put in their time, punch
the time clock and live for the weekends.
They never really have any major goals, major drive in life. They just get by. They find themselves frequently fanaticizing
about escaping to Costa Rica. Just
hangin on.
Now, most of you, probably
everyone here, are in the second level, a little higher level called the
success level. By the very nature that
you already are in Costa Riccan swing being in Costa Rica, means you’re in this
group. Most of the world would love to
have your problems. We worry about
paying our mortgage. Other people worry
about having food for their children for the next meal. Most people would love to have your problems
in the world. At the success level
you’ve got a comfortable lifestyle. You
have achieved a certain level of success, your needs are met. You have a home. You have possessions. You have prestige. You have pleasures in your life – But
still… something is missing. Its like
there should be more. And you can’t
figure it out… if I am so successful, why do I feel so unfulfilled?
There is an innate, divinely
created, spirit in every human being who longs for the third level of being,
one of significance, to know that one's life matters.
Significance is when you
know THE REASON YOU’RE BREATHIN’ There is meaning behind it. Significance
This sermon series that
we’re going to be in for a number of weeks is going to help you consider moving
from survival mode or success mode to one of significance.
The obvious place to start
is why bother at all. Why should I spend
the time writing it… and why should you spend the time coming to church and
hearing about it. Here you go: The benefits of figuring out the Reason we’re
breathin.
1. IT WILL REDUCE MY
FRUSTRATION
If you don’t know your
overall direction in life, daily decisions become very very difficult, because
you have no basis, no basis at all, for making decisions. You make them haphazard. As that great theologian Alice in Wonderland
once said, “If you don’t know where you’re headed, any road will get you
there.” If you don’t know where you are going, or the
reason you’re going then all the
day-to-day decisions become difficult.
In the world today we are bombarded with choices – Take it or leave it
is no longer an acceptable choice today.
Over 200 new magazines hit the market every year. Over 200 new grocery products hit the stores
every week. If you don’t have any
general, overall view of life, making day-to-day decisions can be frustrating.
The big problem dragging
people down in modern societies is not overwork. The real problem is meaningless work. We don’t know why we’re doing what we’re doing. And that’s paralyzing.
This is not a new
problem. Look at Isaiah 49 “I’ve labored to no purpose. I’ve spent my strength in vain and for
nothing.” My guess is somebody can
identify with this verse. “I’ve labored to no purpose. I’ve spent my strength in vain and for
nothing.” Fortunately, the guy who
wrote this, Isaiah, figured it out because in Isaiah 26:3 (Good News) it says “God grants perfect peace to those who keep
their purpose firm.” Peace and
purpose go together. If you don’t have a
purpose in life you’re going to be awfully frustrated.
2. Knowing the reason
I’m breathin WILL INCREASE MY MOTIVATION
Isn’t it a lot easier to get
out of bed in the morning if you have a really good reason to get out of bed in
the morning. If not, why make the
effort.
The alarm goes off and it
like, here we go, same thing, same place, nothing to look forward to, put in my
time… that sounds more like a life sentence than a life. Maybe you feel Job felt. “My
life drags by. Day after hopeless
day. I’m tired of living. My life makes no sense.”
Let me tell you the secret
of energy, of motivation, of enthusiasm in life. Figure out the reason you’re breathin. And the second you do that, boom, you’re
motivated to get out of bed. You can’t
wait. I’ve said it before, it’s the
difference between Good Morning, Lord… and Good Lord, its morning.
When I ask the kids to do
something, if its not obvious, their first response is WHY? If I say, I dunno… they probably won’t do
it. If I say, because I said so… they
will grumbly do it. But if I can explain
why its important, I might even get a little enthusiasm.
The reason you are here, the
reason you do what you do, the way you do it… is what gives you
enthusiasm. Do you know where the word
“enthusiasm” comes from? It comes from
two Greek words: en and theos. En
in Greek is the word “in” and theos
is the word for God. Theology is the
study of God. The name Theodore means
“lover of God.” The point that I’m
making here is when you get in God, en
theos, you’re going to be naturally enthusiastic. When you get in the center of God’s reason
for who you are and where you are… You can’t help but be enthusiastic. And I’ll give you a hint… the reason you’re
breathin, is way bigger than you can even imagine. We read Eph. 3:20 last week, “God is able to do far more than we think or
ask or imagine, infinitely beyond our highest prayers, hopes and dreams.
3. A third
benefit is that it WILL ALLOW CONCENTRATION.
Knowin the reason you’re
breathin not only helps you define what you do… it helps you get clear about
what you don’t do. Would you agree that
you just don’t have time to do it all.
Of course. There is too
much. As soon as you try to do
everything, you burn out. Our culture
tells us “You can have it all!” But that
is so not true. You can’t have it
all. You don’t have time. That means selection is the name of the game
and you have to choose what you’re going to build your life around. And the Good News is God doesn’t expect you
to do everything in life. And on top of
that, there’s only a few things worth doing in the first place. Knowin the reason you’re breathin eliminates
a bunch of the minutia.
Peter Drucker, the father of
American management, revered by every businessman and entrepreneur once said
and I use this often: “There are only
two questions in business: One, What is
my business? Two, How’s business? Those are the two questions every owner,
every manager, every CEO, every church council, has to constantly ask. What is our business? And, How’s business?” Likewise as a person you can ask, “What is
the reason I’m breathin, what is the purpose of my life? And, How’s it going? Am I moving toward it?” It’s a good way to evaluate our lives now and
then.
Proverbs 4:25-26 “Look straight ahead and fix your eyes on
what lies before you. Mark out a
straight path for your feet. Then stick
to the path. Don’t get sidetracked.” Would you agree that it’s easy to get
distracted in life? It’s real easy! I’ve discovered that most people don’t intend
to waste their life. They don’t
intentionally mess up. They don’t
intentionally blow it. Most people don’t
plan on a divorce. Or alcoholism. Or just missing what they could have
become. Or any number of other things,
crises that come into our lives. We
don’t plan those things. They come by
default. Because we weren’t paying
attention. You will go through life and
you will live your life either by design or by default. Intentionally or just muddle through. And if you are muddling its easier to get
distracted from what’s really important.
There was a special on T.V. about moms in jail and a new program to
periodically hook them up with their kids… and interview after interview said
the same thing… I didn’t realize what I had until I lost it. I just got distracted from what’s really
important.
The Apostle Paul said it
this way. Philippians 3 “I’m bringing all my energies to bear on
this one thing. Forgetting what is
behind and looking forward to what lies ahead.” Paul was a man of incredible focus. He knew the reason he was breathin and it
kept his priorities straight.
You ever fry a bug with a
magnifying glass… were you ever a seven year old boy? The power of the sun's rays focused like that
is powerful.
So too there is nothing
quite as powerful as a focused life. Now
I don’t know who it is, but there is a person here this morning who is trying
to do too much. You know who you
are. You have so many irons in the fire,
you’re putting out the fire. You’re
burning the candle at both ends and you’re not as bright as you think you
are. You’re headed off in a dozen
different directions and you’re scattered and spread thin. You’re like a bad photograph: You’re overexposed and underdeveloped. You’ve got too much going on.
It’s not like you are doing
a bunch of bad things... and you have to
choose between good and evil. I doubt
any of you here need to say, “I want to spend more time with the family so I’m
going to stop dealing drugs.” Or “I want
to spend more time reading the Bible so think I’ll stop being a
terrorist.” It’s not a matter of good
and bad. Your schedule is filled with
good things.
But, you can still miss the real
reason your breathin even if your life is filled with good things. And you’ll always feel like something is
missing even though your busy and life is good.
Again, its not so much a question of what you do but why you do what you
do.
4. IT WILL ATTRACT
COOPERATION
When you’re knowin where
you’re goin’, other people will be stowin.
When you are living your vision from God its contagious. You’ll find that other people want to jump on
your bandwagon, other people want to help.
People follow passion, and passion follows purpose. If you want to look at the people who have
made the greatest impact in this world, they weren’t the smartest or the
wealthiest or the best educated. They
are the people who have a purpose that they feel passionate about.

Is prayer wishful thinking... or something more?

How many of you made new years resolutions at the beginning of the year? How many are still

with you now a couple months in? Many of us realize, with the wisdom of passing years… that

New Year's resolutions rarely work. In Mexico, I learned on New Year's Eve, they have a

tradition with grapes… do you know that one? 12 grapes, 12 new year's wishes. Think it works…

Do wishes come true… and if so why? Why would wishing make anything happen? How about

prayer? Does anybody here ever pray? Does prayer work better or about the same as a New

Year's resolution. Or is a New Year's resolution actually a prayer. Is it possible to just lay it out t

here before God and then it actually happens? Does prayer change anything? Of course a

conversation about prayer presupposes an earlier acceptance that there is in fact a God. That

there is a spiritual world beyond time and space. And then given the belief that there is a God

out there beyond time and space, for Christians, particularly revealed in the life and ministry of

Jesus, the question becomes, can our prayers actually influence God to intervene and change a

set of circumstances? Of course the Bible is full of examples of God hearing the prayers of the

people and then entering the physical world to bring about certain results. And we can look at

the Bible and say, yeah, that happened… its in the Bible. But what about in the new year of 2012? Is God still at the work of answering the prayers of the people? And how do you know, beyond a reasonable

doubt? In other words, do reasonable people pray and expect their prayers to be answered?

And if I decide to try it… where do I begin?

The largest study of its kind was recently concluded in which researchers attempted to actually measure the effectiveness of prayer. The John Templeton Foundation gave 2.4 million dollars to Harvard University Medical School to apply scientific methods to measure the influence of prayer on 1800 heart bypass patients. Half the group had people from an anonymous church praying for them… 70 prayers for each patient. The other half had none. The study, published in the American Heart Journal, reported that there was no difference whatsoever in the survival or complication rates. Naturally, some observers were delighted at the results. They think the study proves conclusively that prayer doesn’t work, and it’s time for people of science to “stop dabbling in the supernatural,” as one academic put it. So what do you make of a study like that? Does it once again put science and faith in opposing positions. Even among Christians our experience is that you have a bunch of people who will talk about all their answered prayers and say, yes, prayer is effective… I had cancer and was healed… and we also know a bunch of people who did not get healed - and died…

The problem with trying to measure results of prayer in a controlled scientific study is that you can’t. How can you ever be sure that in the group that were supposedly not being prayed for – you didn’t have some family members or friends offering up some unauthorized prayers for healing? And whenever we pray we know there are always four possible answers… yes, no, wait, or God has something else in mind. The Harvard study only measured the answer YES to the prayer request for healing. The other answers require us to speculate on the very mind of God himself, herself. Why does God do what God does?

The first thing we have to acknowledge is that there are all kinds of prayers. We pray at bedtime, at meals, prayers of thanksgiving when really great things happen, prayers of intercession… prayers for other people who need a special blessing – that’s the kind the Harvard study focused on, there are also prayers of lament and frustration when life takes a turn for the worst, there are emergency prayers when we desperately need God’s help and intervention like right now, prayers to get stuff we think we need, prayers when we want God to get somebody else to do something. Just to see where you all are on this: How many of you have prayed? How many here think prayer is an important part of your faith? How many of you are on the church’s prayer chain or

in a prayer group? How many of you pray as often as you think you should? What if we did a

man on the street question and asked people about prayer… take a look…

In my old church we did a study in our community and one of the questions had to do with prayer. 200 adults responded in our congregation. Out of those 200, you know how many said they were very satisfied with their prayer life. In my church of 20 years… Only 12. 12 out of 200 were very satisfied. 40% said they were satisfied. Which to be fair, is good. One out 4 said they were dissatisfied. 6 people said they were very dissatisfied. And 30% didn’t have an opinion either way.

I am guessing those stats would bear true in most of the towns we come from… except perhaps here where Catholicism is the official National religion. Why do you think in general people aren't way more ecstatic with their prayer life? Six possibilities. Real Quick

1. The obvious. The time factor. Work, family, the beach, projects, hobbies, just doing life. Praying is important, we believe, but in a busy life… it just doesn’t happen as often as we would like. But that excuse is too easy, because we always have time for what we think is important.

And here in Costa Rica the pace of life and setting gives us ample opportunities to be alone and reflect on God, life, the pura vida, and the reason we're breathin'. After the time thing is dismissed as a real reason, its usually one of these others.

2. Don’t want to be a hypocrite. I’m mad at God. God and I have issues. I blame God for something bad that happened or some lousy things going on in my life right now and we’re not that tight. Or God wouldn’t approve of the things I got going on in my life right now… so any prayer I would offer would be kind of hypocritical and so I just don’t do it very often.

3. I don’t know how. Who can't relate to this scene… Most of us could throw out some lines from a song or remember enough of now I lay me, Come Lord Jesus, Our father who art in heaven… But in terms of a real prayer, that I thought would work… don't know how.

4. I don’t think it will do any good. Stuff seems to happen or not happen regardless of whether or not I pray about it. The Harvard Study is a convincing piece of evidence for you. If way down deep you don’t believe it will really make a difference one way or the other. You are not going to pray. This one is subtle… you might not even realize that you feel that way, until you notice you are not praying much and ask yourself, why?

5. I don’t personally get anything out of it. It doesn’t seem to give me a lift or make me feel better, or fill a need I have. Praying seems like a chore, I get sleepy, it’s boring, my mind wanders. So I don’t do it much.

6. Don’t feel its my job… Its not my area. I am not good at it. I don’t feel comfortable praying, Most of the people I hang around don’t pray so I don’t either. Its awkward. This one is easily evidenced by the number of gatherings I attend in which the host or hostess says, Pastor Allen, would you be willing to say grace. Of course… Oh Lord, hasten the day, when the laity learn to pray.

There are probably more reasons than these six but I think that pretty well sums up why people don’t pray more.

Now what I want to leave you with today is a better understanding about what prayer is,

what it is supposed to do, and whether or not prayer delivers. I’m just going to say three things

about it.

* Prayer is not as much about talking, as it is about listening!

People confuse this all the time. When we put the girls to bed we talk about saying our prayers…

Now I lay me… God bless mommy daddy, the rest… and when we are done talking we say, Amen. All done. And as kids that’s how we learn to pray… and we grow up and our prayers are a bit more

sophisticated sometimes… but we still tend to do all the talking and then say Amen…

Goodbye Lord. Nice talking to you.

Imagine a phone conversation in which you called up a person, did all the talking and then

after 3 or 4 minutes said, well, bye and hung up. That wouldn’t be very good for the relationship

with the person you had called… and if it happened over and over again… that person wouldn’t

be so excited when you called. The nature of a relationship is that the communication goes both

ways. And when one of the persons in the relationship is the author of the universe, who is a

spirit… we have to learn to listen in different ways than when we are talking with other people.

Just go to the book store, the relationships section… and notice how much stuff is there on

communication. Look up couple communication on line. Parent/child communication. There is

one book for when they are little, another book when they are in Jr. Hi… another after they get a

driver’s liscense… the lines of communication are ever changing. We can never learn or know

enough about how to communicate. Communication is tough. And that’s just with other people.

Throw in the whole Creator Creation communication factor and its tough… its different. But in

all the stuff out there about how to improve communication… the key is always first and

foremost in listening. And that’s the key in communicating with God as well. Putting it out there

to God, Yahweh, Allah, the Universe… the ground and source of your being… and then listening

with your heart and your intuition and your passion and your enthusiasm… en theos

That’s how Jesus experienced prayer as related in the Bible. Much more about listening than

about talking.

“Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened… and he heard the voice of God.” Luke 3:21

That’s prayer. Being connected to God in such a way… our spirits with God’s spirit, that we are able to see or hear or understand something that we wouldn’t have been able to without that reflective moment of prayer. That’s when prayer is exciting and fun and relevant and helpful and inspirational… when you get an insight or a perspective that comes from a place bigger than just you, deep inside, or from way outside, from your wise self… the part inside of you who knows best, and is most perceptive to matters of the spirit.

We are so not done praying when we say Amen… we’ve just said our prayers… you know you have really prayed when heaven opens, and something happens, you have a new sense or inspiration or motivation, you see something, for those of faith, that is hearing the voice of God.

I love horseback riding. We owned horses for years. Last time I was up at Rincon I was riding last in a group of 8 when all of a sudden my horse stopped… in his tracks… ears went up… and he was looking into the jungle. I looked around and listened but nothing. Gave a little all is well kick… no way… not budging. You see, being defenseless animals of prey, horses have learned to hear things that you and I can’t hear. Sounds are going on all around us but we have not developed our sense of hearing to the degree that we can respond to those sounds. The skeptic would say those sounds aren’t there because we can’t hear them… the horse would say otherwise, something is out there.

There is a story in Numbers, chapter 22, which tells the story of Balaam. Balaam was out riding one day... not his horse but his donkey. Close enough. Balaam was a man of God, on a mission from God. But he was about to do something that wasn't quite a part of that plan. So the Lord sent an Angel with a sword down to block his path and send him in another direction. The only problem was... Balaam didn't see the angel. But the donkey did... and it left the road... So Balaam starts beating his donkey brings it back onto the road. The angel appears... donkey veers off into a wall and crushes Balaams foot. Donkey gets beat. Third time it happens, the donkey lays down. Balaam beats it and yells at it. But then an interesting twist to the story. God allows the donkey to speak. Hey what are you doing? Have I ever acted like this before? No. Give me a break. God is trying to get your attention, numbskull. And then Balaam saw the angel and it said, if not for this donkey you'd be dead.

You and I, when it comes to hearing God, need to develop donkey ears. God is speaking all the time and what happens is we miss it. We think we are praying but most of the time we are talking over God.

* Prayer is not as much about what God needs to do, as it is about what we need to do!

Think about it. Aren't a lot of our prayers requests that God do this or do that on behalf of ourselves or our loved ones or our country or the world. Like a magical incantation to get some genie in the bottle to grant us a wish. And then we measure whether or not prayer works based on the requested outcome. Like in the Harvard Study, given those narrow parameters… that is pretty easy to measure… and will always conclude that prayer doesn’t make a difference. Because you can’t measure the mind of God.

“Prayer that craves a particular commodity… is vicious. Prayer as a means to an effect a private end is meanness and theft… As soon as man is at one with God, he will not beg. He will then see prayer in all action. The prayer of the farmer kneeling to his field is to weed it.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

Prayer is not a certain formula in which saying the right words gives you access like to a

computer program, prayer is not a letter to Santa Claus... Prayer is not something we do with

our lips - prayer is something we do with our lives.

“Do not deceive yourselves by just listening to God’s word; instead, put it into practice.” James 1:22

The point is not to say the Lord's Prayer. The point is to be the Lord's Prayer. Jesus gave us an example in that prayer. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That's not what God needs to do, that is what I need to do. Prayer is our faith in action. It makes us get busy. It clears our mind. It sets us to work for the sake of other people. And the final thing to be said about prayer this morning.

* Prayer is not as much about a request as it is about a relationship.

I just got back from a wonderful week in Mexico with my whole family. It was especially

nice to get caught up with my boys. It still catches me by surprise, they are so my kids yet

at the same time such mature young men. I think back over the years of all the different

conversations we have had… Sometimes they would be telling me about their day,

sometimes about what they need, sometimes about what’s bothering them, sometimes it

was about learning something, sometimes it was for advise or correction and sometimes

it was just snuggling on the couch saying to each other I love you.

Its no coincidence that the primary metaphor Jesus used to describe our relationship to

God is that of a heavenly parent. Our communication would be on that kind of a level.

Prayer would involve the kind of conversations that we would have with our own kids.

The prayer Jesus used as an example starts out… Our father who art in heaven…

The prayers Jesus prayed were addressed abba father… in Aramaic Daddy.

We try to make prayer more confusing than it is supposed to be. Like God is hiding out

there and we have to find a way to get in touch with him. God is not hiding. God loves us

like a parent loves his kids. It says in I John that God is love. Prayer is a language of love.

God wants you to be successful and happy and fulfill your life's purpose as we would

want that for our children. God is not casually interested. God is committed to you.

Just like we imperfect people are committed to our children... and would give our lives

for their success. How much more God. Matthew 18:19-20 (TEV)

Jesus said: “whenever two of you on earth agree about anything you pray for, it will be

done for you by my Father in heaven. (And that is where we usually focus... whatever you

ask it will be done) But the real caveat is the next line... "For where two or three come

together in my name, I am there with them."

So back to the title of the sermon… Does prayer work? I would say yeah! Sometimes it

changes the circumstances, sometimes it doesn't. That one we'll never have figured out...

God's ways are not our ways... but prayer always changes one thing. It changes the

pray - er. The one praying. True prayer makes a new person out of the pray -er.

And when that happens, and we listen with those donkey ears...

all of a sudden the thing we were originally praying for is no longer the same thing…

Cause true prayer leads the pray - er, now a new person, to pray a new prayer. You follow?

When Jesus is with us in prayer, which he just promised us in that passage, our prayer

becomes more about giving unconditional love than getting it, Our prayer becomes more

about reconciliation than what is owed, our prayer is more about God showing us the

way, than about the manipulation of circumstances.

Picking up those good vibrations!

          Little survey.  How many here believe in a God, in some form, who is essentially the creator of all that is?  How many of you believe that there is more to reality than what we experience and measure in height, width, and depth.  The notion of spirit…something other than what we could have scientific knowledge.  And since spirit is unseen, none of us has ever seen it.  No one has seen God.  And that my friends is a huge stumbling block to faith.   And then assuming the Universe as Spirit, God, is out there and among us and actually loving and sustaining us… how would we go about communicating with such a benevolent force… and then if successful, how would we talk about that experience to a world in which seeing is believing, in which we look before we leap, in which we watch our backs, in which we read the signs... 

          It is interesting to note, that absolutely no one at all in the history of the biblical record, EVER, gets to SEE God.  Like face to face… and like most of us probably, Moses really wanted to.  But clearly THAT wasn't going to happen.    

Exodus 33:20  I will not let you see my face, because no one can see me and stay alive...

          but here is a place beside me where you can stand on a rock.  When the dazzling light of my presence passes by, I will put you in an opening in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.   Then I will take my hand away, and you will see my back but not my face.”   You know, that would make a good name for something… a song… If you really must know, if you really must prod… You will find me chillin' on  the "Backside of God"

            So if we can conclude that God, according to our best theological witness, just doesn’t appear to people visually.   So how does God get our attention.   Back during the Reformation in the 1500's, Martin Luther insisted that God is a “deos loquens”, a speaking God.

          Compare God’s words to Moses... no one can see me and stay alive...

to Isaiah 55:3... “Listen... so that you may live.”  We are not allowed to see, but we are encouraged to listen.

          You heard read a great story from the Bible in which God gets the attention of young Samuel... who goes on to become a great leader in ancient Israel.  His mentor was the priest Eli, who was getting old now.  And the scene has Eli asleep in his own room there at the church and Samuel asleep in the sanctuary.   Which some of you are struggling with this morning. 

          It says the Lord called Samuel.  We don’t know what it sounded like, how it happened but Samuel heard it,  popped out of bed and immediately ran to Eli’s room.  Here I am, you called.   No I didn’t call you, go back to bed.

          vs 6-7  The Lord called Samuel again.  The boy did not know that it was the Lord, because the Lord had never spoken to him before.  So he got up, went to Eli, and said, You called me, and here I am.” 

          How come he didn’t recognize God’s voice,  why did he think it was somebody or something else.  Simple... because the Lord had never spoken to him before.  How was he to know. 

          Some of you here today, maybe most of you hear today, are saying the same thing.  You know, I don’t think the Lord has spoken to me before either... and if he did I would probably wouldn’t have guessed it was God.  I’d just figure it was bad pizza or something. 

          But the encouraging thing here, is that God doesn’t give up.  He keeps calling him.  A second time, a third time.  At last, Eli, who did have a relationship with God... recognizes what’s going on... and is able to give him some direction.   But it even took the experienced old veteran of spiritual matters three times to get it.  If it happens again, here’s what you say.  Speak Lord, your servant is listening.”

          The Lord calls, Samuel is ready... and says, Speak Lord, your servant is listening...  and God gives him a word for the whole people.  The truth is God is regularly trying to get your attention too.  Maybe right now this morning he is calling you by name... that’s why you’re here, God wants to say something.  But notice in the story of Samuel that there is no Word from the Lord until what.  Samuel had a better idea what he was listening for... and then he listened. 

          There is a story of an old indian chief who was in New York City for a conference.  He was walking with some business men... when all of a sudden he stopped and said do you hear that.... you mean the traffic and horns and sirens and  people... no, no, I hear a cricket.   How is that possible?  There is so much commotion, its so noisy out here.  I’ll show you.  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of change.  Held it out and dropped it on the sidewalk.  Immediately every head in the vicinity whipped around and looked.  You see, it all depends on what you’re listening for. 

          There are almost 800 references in the Bible about listening for a word from God.  Clearly one of the great theological dimensions of who God is and what God does is sound.

          I mean from the very beginning of Genesis, the creation of the world was a speech event.  And God said, let there be... and there was. 

            According to Genesis God created the world from sound.  And what is sound?  Waves, Vibrations.   Today, celluar biologists find themselves agreeing with this ancient metaphor that the world was created from sound.  They say all living, biological beings are basically moving energy.  Not only does the world around us hum with the sounds of life, but your genes, your liver, your brain waves, every one of your cells vibrates.  We have huge satellite operations that do nothing but listen to the vibrations of outerspace.  Vibrations are everywhere. 

          We had a little deaf foster daughter for a few years and one of the ways to get her attention if she is busy doing something is to stomp on the floor.  She hears the call through the vibrations on the floor.

          To hear God speak is in the same way to feel his vibrations internally, auditorially, emotionally, spiritually.  You feel the vibes as they used to say in the 70's.  You ever use that phrase?  Could it be that God is the ultimate source of the vibes.  I think so. 

          I also learned through the experience of our foster daughter, that the deaf community enjoys music and dancing... and that surprised me...  but they listen to music which uses a heavy bass beat... the vibrations of the sounds are felt internally.   That’s what music is at its base.  A set of vibrations. 

          That’s what make those sub-woofers so popular in the cars of teen-agers... they crank em up and they can actually feel the music... the whole car vibrates... heck... my whole house vibrates as they drive by.

          My favorite part of organ music in the church used to be those low tones that make your chest vibrate.  It was like I could physically feel the music. 

          And think about it, we often use musical phrases to describe relationships... phrases like being “in tune”  with somebody else who thinks like we do.   Or we’re on the same wave length.  We talk about harmonious relationships.   Or if we are just not quite at the same place we say we march to the beat of different drummers.  God is forever trying to get us on the same wave length that he is on.  One which says the most important things in life are not things.  They are those which you can’t see... which you can only experience, sense, feel the vibrations... 2 Cor. 4:18.. “For we fix our attention, not on things that are seen, but on things that are unseen.  What can be seen lasts only for a time, but what cannot be seen lasts forever.”    The Bible calls it spirit.  The spiritual.  John 3:5  Jesus said, I am telling you the truth, no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.  A person is born physically of human parents, but he is born spiritually of the Spirit.”

          Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the LORD of hosts.

Zech. 4:6

          “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."  

John 4:24

          “The wind blows wherever it wishes; you hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going.  It is like that with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”  John 3:8             

          Jesus is reported to have said to Governor Pilate of Rome just before he was sentenced to die, “My kingdom does not belong to this world.”  Our belief and conviction that that is indeed true... that there is more to reality than this often bitter and petty world around us is at the very heart and soul of what it means to be a Christian. To be Jewish, to be Muslim, to be Buddhist… or your own homemade flavor… the belief that there is more to reality than meets the eye.    Paul was way blunt the way he put it to the Corinthians... “If our hope in Christ is good for this life only and no more, then we deserve more pity than anyone else in the world.”  15:17 

          In other words if this is all there is... if what you see is what you get, if there is no spiritual dimension to life... we are fools.   Anybody here like playing the fool... I don’t.  But if you live your life, like something is true, but in reality it is not true at all… you are a fool.  So my whole life I am asking what is true… really true… about everything that is here and why it is here and what is my role in this huge amazing miracle of self conscious human life in a most spectacular three dimensional total experience.  At sunset last night on the hill, we wanted to just applaud… God put on another show full of amazing beauty and creativity.  How creative do you have to be to come up with the idea of planet earth?  Don't get me started.

          A number of years ago there were parts of the South that were wet and parts that were dry.  Well there was this one county that had been dry but now was in the process of becoming wet.  And there was this tavern owner who came to town and started building a tavern so that when it became legal to serve alcohol he would be set and already have a business going.

          Well the Biblebelt Christians had their own ideas and didn’t want to see this tavern go up and so they got organized and held an all night prayer vigil asking for God’s help and that he would somehow intervene.  A couple of weeks later there was a massive storm, as we regularly see on the news in that part of the country... thunder and lightening.  Well a bolt of lightning hit that structure that was being built and it burned to the ground.

          So what does the tavern owner do.  He hires a lawyer and they sue the Christians.  The Christians in turn hirer a lawyer and say... we weren’t responsible.  When it came to trial the judge began the hearing with these words...

          I don’t know how this trial is going to come out, but going in we certainly know one thing...  the tavern owner believes in prayer... and the Christians do not.

          It is now well documented by sociologists that our world can no longer be categorized as being in the "modern era" as it has been for the last 500 years.  We are now in what era?  Post- Modern.  One of the heresy’s of the modern age we now know is the notion that the trees move the wind.  That its the physical, rational, visible world which has all the power.   Today, scientists, physicists, astronomists, physicians are all concluding that is not the case.  There is more to life than meets the eye… like sound waves, vibrations calling in the night… the Spirit of God.  That passage from Exodus  Exodus 33:20  I will not let you see my face, because no one can see me and stay alive...

    Why… maybe because it takes being dead to see God… but for now, alive in these present moments… we have glimpses, and breakthroughs, and foretastes of the feast to come… every day listening for the voice of God.  Maybe the Beach Boys had it right… we can be picking up those good vibrations…

God vibrations a happenin' with us every day!