Passion Week – Focus and Mission

Put God First – In our attempt and desire to put God first this year it would seem that Easter is a time of year where it is easy to have Jesus at the center of our lives and yet, it doesn’t always play out that way.  Even at church.  I am convinced that as Jesus followers, the Passion Week and Easter should be one of the greatest weeks of the whole year for us. An opportunity to remember what Jesus did on the cross, focus on the fact that he is no longer in the grave and celebrate the freedom that his blood and resurrection brought us.  But I also believe God wants more than remembrance; he wants us to take another step (no surprise there).  Our remembrance and focus should move us to continue the mission of the cross by reaching out to those who are far away from God and are in desperate need of the message of the cross.  As disciples of Jesus we should see this time of year as one of our greatest chances to invite people to meet Him.

That is why I am so excited about our plans at The Chapel for Passion Week and Easter this year.  We are going to do several things that I believe will help bring Jesus to the forefront of our celebration and provide opportunity to invite others to join us.

First we are going to put on hold all of our regular ministries during Passion Week (the week before Easter).  I believe doing this helps us step out from the ordinary and provide us time to focus and celebrate.  It also gives us a chance to plan several special events centered on the meaning of Easter and mission of Jesus.  Below is the schedule of events we have planned. Look also for a special invitation that you can use to invite friends or family to The Case for Christ and to Easter Sunday.

Monday – 3/29  Seder Dinner

Wednesday – 3/31  The Case for Christ

Friday – 4/2 Good Friday Night of Worship

Sunday – 4/4 Easter Sunday

Church, let’s begin to pray now that God would use this time to help us fall more in love with him and that we would have our hearts broken for those who don’t know him.

In our efforts to put God first in everything we do I think it is important to remember that we cannot be the ones who define how we put him first, we must let him define it.

In Proverbs Solomon puts it this way.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.” – Proverbs 1:7 (NIV)

The New Century Version says: “Knowledge begins with respect for the Lord,but fools hate wisdom and discipline.”

My father has always been a very wise man, he has always strived to give me wise counsel and direction. When I was younger I was foolish because I did not respect him, I felt that he did not hear me or understand the things I was going through and therefore could not know what was right for me. Years later I can now see how that pride caused me to miss something very critical about my Dad. Beyond all that wisdom and experience that he had, his driving motivation in trying to guide me was because he loved me.

Did he make mistakes? Sure. Are there things he might do differently if he had the chance? Most likely. But I would never ask him to change his motivation, it is because of that I have gained a respect for him that now causes me to seek out his wisdom and counsel.

Jesus said, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” - Matthew 7:11(NIV)

We will never put God first in our lives until we believe that he is wise, loving and cares for us. We simply won’t until we gain a healthy respect for who he is. Until we “fear” him. I am not talking about being afraid. Listen, I was afraid of my dad when I was younger, he could do things to me that I did not want him to do, but that fear did not drive me to seek his counsel, it just kept me from doing things that would bring consequences. It was my fathers love and consistency that earned my respect, and now it drives me to seek out his counsel and wisdom. God’s desire is for us to run to him as a loving father. Putting him first means we desire to know what he thinks and that we respect him enough to take his advise. You know one of the greatest mysteries is that God completely deserves our respect and yet he gives us the choice as to whether we will give it to him or not.

So, let me ask one question. What else does God need to do to earn your respect?