1. Thanking God for His Grace God spoke powerfully to me through pastor Cari’s sermon last week. In some direct way, God spoke to me about his love and care for me personally—so much greater than others have for me. So much greater than the care I even have for myself! But also God spoke indirectly to me. He spoke to my heart. He did not meet me in my mind with rational arguments about Sabbath; he spoke to my heart, stirring me with his love and convicting me that so often I focus on my own rational arguments and on bringing God’s words to your minds as well. But, of course, we know that God comes to us as whole people and cares about us as whole people! He does not only approach our minds, he does not care only about our thoughts. He meets us based on our experience and based on our limited understanding. God’s goal is never first to get us to understand more. Instead, he desires to turn our hearts toward him in openness and love. When our hearts are turned to God, then we will desire him more. When we desire him more, we will see the truth more fully and learn the things we need to know. This is how God is with us and how God calls us to be with each other! So this morning, as it is Thanksgiving weekend in Canada and as we have installed new leaders; we look to God’s Word and to God. In doing so, we will grow thankful for God’s grace! God had put Adam and Eve in the garden. And the Bible tell us that although God had made the whole world, including many creatures, he only created humanity “in his image and likeness”. Creation was the overflow of God’s grace and goodness—he even shared himself with us. [READ Genesis 3:1-7] The serpent was a common picture in ancient religions. As the story of Adam and Eve was first told to God’s people, they would have been familiar with the serpent in Akkadian, Egyptian, and maybe even Canaanite mythology. The serpent, for these other people was one of the many gods of the world. These ancient gods always tried to barter with people—ask for something, then promise a bigger return. So the serpent asks Eve to ignore God, promising that she will be like God—on her own terms! She would not have to depend on God anymore. In Genesis, the serpent tempts humanity not only to question God’s Word, but then also to substitute God’s grace and God’s provision with our own ideas and our own strength. There’s nothing new under the sun. What I’m describing is not some new progressive threat. This is literally the way it was from the beginning. We are looking at the first two humans on earth—Adam and Eve—and they face exactly the same temptations that we face every day: be like God independent of God. 2. Forgetting God There are two ways that we always are tempted to be like God independent of God (without God). One way is that we ignore God’s instructions entirely and go with our own ideas. Remember the book of Judges? “In those days, Israel had no king; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” This is what Adam and Eve do! In a moment, they “forget” God and did what seemed wise in their own eyes. They tried to be “like God” but without him. Adam and Eve saw that this fruit was useful for gaining wisdom! But what kind of wisdom and what kind of success? Wisdom that comes from God leaves us obedient to God. The wisdom of this world leads to sin. Proverbs reminds us that, “the fool says in his heart, ‘there is no God!’” and warns God’s people to “answer a fool, according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.”. Adam and Eve were mother and father of humanity—our first leaders. But they failed because they selfishly did what was right in their own eyes. In this first way, sin leads us to think that we are wise in our own eyes. Maybe you have tried this too! Maybe you have tried to be in control, or to be satisfied, or to get justice, or to make someone else learn! If you try these things without first drawing near to God and listening to him, you will always end up frustrated, discouraged, and ashamed—just like Adam and Eve. God does not need our money; our wealth is less than pennies to him. God does not need our cleverness; our wisdom is foolishness to him. God does not need our strength. Our greatest power is still unimaginably less than God’s biggest weakness! God wants our hearts, our minds, and our will—devoted totally to him. Adam and Eve, humanity’s first leaders, chose to ignore God. But thank God for his grace! God made us in his image and he does not abandon us, even when we abandon him! 3. Imagining We are Wiser Than God Yet there is a second, equally dangerous way that we tempted to be like God independent of God. In this second way, we turn away from God and to our own ideas by imagining that God was not clear enough. That maybe, God needs our help to better clarify and codify exactly what is necessary to please God! We imagine we are wiser than God. In this way, we do not hide from God! Instead, we add burdens to others and keep them from meeting God, except through our terms. And because we are focused on others’ beliefs, we forget to focus our own lives on God! This is what was happening with the Israelite leaders in Jesus’ day. In Jesus’ day: community leaders were so worried about the sin of Adam and Eve (forgetting God) and so passionate about keeping God’s law that they created endless lists of specific ways in which their community could be sure to keep God’s law. God’s law was not clear enough, they said. We will provide exact details for how to obey him. So for example, the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law looked at the Old Testament command to give a firstfruit or a tithe. And they mandated a tithe of everything they could imagine—not just tithing from financial income, but tithing the time in your day, and tithing from commercial crops. They even mandated tithing for smaller personal gardens. For a wealthy person, giving a tithe from a family garden is no problem; they grow their garden out of enjoyment as a hobby. But for a poor person, they have a garden because they need to have enough food for themselves to eat. They hardly have enough—they cannot afford to give it away. Responding to this situation, Jesus says: “Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.” […] “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.” (Luke 11:42-46). This was the mistake of the Jewish leaders in Jesus’ day. They did not forget God, but they loaded people down with burdens, rules, and laws; so that people could hardly carry on; and then they did not lift one finger to help them (Luke 11:46). They thought they were wiser than God and that they could be more clear than God was. 4. The Role of Godly Leaders The role of leaders is not only to provide clarity It is not only to speak to people’s minds. I confess I have done this too often; but God is working in my heart. Jesus did not always provide clarity. Jesus many times confused his disciples and confused the people following him. The role of leaders is to help people with heavy burdens. This does not mean that leaders can perfectly carry others’ burdens. Not at all! But it means that leaders walk with people and point them to the only one who can carry their burdens! Scripture points us to Christ, who did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage, but emptied himself, became a servant, and humbled himself—even giving his life unto death! (Php 2:6-8). Thanks be to God for his grace! Jesus Christ emptied himself of God’s glory, power, and strength. He took on our sin and our sorrow upon his own shoulders and carried that impossibly heavy burden to the cross so that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! Christian leaders model this for us—even if imperfectly. Christian leaders show Christ carries our burdens for us. Christian leaders show how to build our identity on Christ, thankful for God’s grace. And Christian leaders show how to empty ourselves in love for others. The question for us, before we close today, is how can a diverse community live out this identity? 5. Our Identity: Built on God’s Grace In a Diverse Community You may not know of this, but “Christianity” was not established at Pentecost as such. Peter and the apostles did not say, “We are Christians now! We are no longer Jews!” Not at all! Christianity began as a sub-group of Jews! But these Jews believed that Jesus was their long-awaited Messiah. When they could not convince the rest of the Jews about Jesus; the majority of Jews removed them from their synagogues. So by the time Paul gets to Corinth and is writing the letter to the Corinthians, Jews have come to believe that the way of Jesus is incompatible with Judaism. At the same time, Gentiles are coming to believe in Jesus too! How should this diverse community behave? Some of them are culturally Jewish and live by Jewish purity laws. Some are Gentiles, who have left behind worship of serpents, worship of other animals, and worship of other gods. But they have only the political/national laws to guide them. The Jews, the ones who were there first, have strict laws about food sacrificed to idols. If you remember, the Old Testament prescribed that food should be sacrificed only to God and that all the blood should be drained from it. If the food was dedicated to God, it could be enjoyed by God’s people. At the same time, the Roman world and especially Corinth, was full of many temples to many different local gods. These are demonic powers or forces, they were the powers of this world called by whatever name, and who had small and limited influence. Some of these gods were imagined and did not really exist at all! But still people made sacrifices to them! So it was that the followers of a certain cult would buy an animal, use that animal in a sacrifice to that god, and then resell the leftover meat in the market—at a discount! And everyone loves a discount! So what will you do? You know the price of groceries! If you can get discount meat, even when you know it has been dedicated to worship another god, will you buy it and cook it and eat it? Or will you pay more than twice as much for free range, organic meat? A diverse community of people with different ethnic backgrounds, but also different religious upbringings AND different financial situations—individuals answered that question very differently. Here is what Paul said. [1 Corinthians 10:23-33] Do you see how the Bible always points at exactly the heart of the issue? How godly leaders (1) refuse to allow people to ignore or “forget” God’s Word AND (2) refuse to allow too many laws or rules to bind people’s consciences and life situations? We are not bound by what others think or what others intend! Christians can eat anything or do anything; so long as Jesus is the center of our lives and our intent is to glorify and thank him! On the other hand, if some person is trying to drag you along into some behavior, even a good thing; do not go along with them if it removes Jesus from the center of your life. The work of the Lord requires constant discernment and the constant exercise of wisdom. There is no wisdom gained in an instant fix or a blanket solution. An instant fix might be, “eat the fruit and be like God”. That approach is a human approach—it was a mistake from the beginning. Likewise, a blanket solution might be, “you may never eat food sacrificed to idols”. In our daily lives, we do not often encounter either of these situations. We do meet Disney witches promising to fix our problems with apples. We do not find grocery stores stocking meat dedicated to other gods. Yet, in every situation in our lives, Paul’s words still apply: 31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 32 Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God—33 even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved. How can Paul say this? It is because he is following the example of Christ. Jesus removed all barriers for people to come to him, yet still required them to come. Jesus did not seek his own good, but died for the good of many, so that they may be saved. Jesus was Paul’s lord and master. Jesus was also Paul’s example and guide. Jesus is for us ,and for our leaders as well. Let us thank God for his grace—giving us his Son, giving us his Wisdom in his Word, and giving us godly examples to learn from and follow with. Let’s Pray.