Riddle: I am weak with no power, yet everyday millions listen to me and obey.  What am I?  [a stop sign]. 

The shape, color and word “STOP” of a stop sign tell you that you must stop, but the stop sign itself has no power to make you stop, its what the symbol represents that gives it the power…The cross is a symbol... a symbol with multiple meanings.  The cross on our wall is wood, made by Andy Anderson out of the posts of an old sign outside…

The Christian cross has always been controversial.  In the wreckage of the World Trade Center of 911 a worker found two intersecting beams…. The Ground Zero Cross, as it became known, was erected on a mound of rubble and sprinkled with holy water by a Catholic priest. The cross attracted devout pilgrims and curious tourists without controversy.  Only when it was brought into the National Sept. 11 Museum the lawsuits began.  It was argued the cross was a slap at the non-Christian victims of 9/11 and had no place in a publicly funded institution. The museum prevailed in court on the grounds its exhibit had already made the transition from religious symbol to historical artifact.

1 Cor. 1:18 says, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

I graduated from NVHS in ’79.  I took every math class Nooksack had to offer and got almost all without doing a day of homework… naturally, my first semester of college, I signed up for pre-calculus.  I thought it would be good to include a no-brainer class so I could ease into college life.  How hard could a math class be that had the prefix “PRE” in it.  From day one I was lost.  I was in way over my head.  I was lucky to barely not fail the class.  That was a wake up call.  / a blow to my ego.

Ever get in over your head?  Dig yourself into a hole unsure how to get out?  a math class is one thing; quite another when it’s relationships, situations that impact others…
 
We are looking at Jesus’ final week leading to Easter.  It’s Thursday, the day before Jesus dies.  It’s the night of the last Supper (which is the basis for our once a month communion).  Jesus offered a most amazing prayer found in John 17.  The disciples and Jesus go to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus suffered knowing what was coming.  Jesus is betrayed and arrested. The disciples are lost as their world falls apart.  I am limiting the scope of this message to the arrest of Jesus in John 18:1-12.  

​[Illustration: Table set up cluttered with objects ~ put together a puzzle without moving any objects ~ then show better way ~ “Do you give me joy….”  sweep off table to use clean surface for a puzzle.]
            A short version of this sermon: Jesus cleansed the temple.  De-clutter your spiritual life so you can have a fresh beginning with Christ. Amen! ////
 
We complicate our lives, the clutter, the junk, the things we worry about, the intensity, just let go of the clutter and get back to a simple relationship with Jesus Christ.  That’s what it’s all about when Jesus goes into the temple and clears out the business people, the banks, the buyers and sellers…. Even more important, he emphasizes the purpose of the temple: “My house shall be a house of prayer for all nations.”  

Welcome to Bethany!  My prayer is that you will find your stay refreshing, illuminating, restful, transforming ~ Bethany is a place of love, acceptance and forgiveness: the broken find a home. The weary find  rest.  The sick are healed. 
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Some people find great peace by walking in the woods, spending a day at the beach, reading a good book ~~~ tell me about your go to place of personal rest and revival?...... Bethany holds a special place in the heart of Jesus Christ.  Bethany is the place where Jesus chooses to lodge the night before the Triumphal Entry and that fateful week which ends with his death and resurrection.  Bethany is the place he travels the half hour journey back, night after night, during Jesus’ final week, after another hard day….  Everyone needs a Bethany.  I want this church and our Christian Community to be a Bethany where the weary find rest, and sinners discover the forgiveness of Jesus Christ.  

Real Men Don’t Wear Pink! [I'm wearing a pink tie! Subtle joke, I know.]   Lots of opinions out there as to what the role is of men in our society/family. 

We’ve been walking through Jesus’ family tree of imperfect men and women.  Today is the final character study: Joseph.  Interesting the way the genealogy describes Joseph: READ Matt. 1:16.  Mary, of course, is made pregnant through the Holy Spirit.  Yet the line of Jesus is traced through Joseph in Matthew 1.
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It’s clear Joseph knows he is in the family of David; likely he would be King if Israel were a sovereign nation….READ Luke 1:26-27.   King David is part of the family heritage.  [QUESTION: Who has a famous relative in their family tree from generations past?]   God made a promise to David, a promise that would not die.  No doubt Joseph at least had a general thought that God was not yet finished and the fulfillment of the promise was still coming, someway, somehow… who knows if he thought he’d see the promise revived or if a centuries old tradition….

A person is as good as their promises!...I like this old joke:
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A dying man gives each of his best friends -- a lawyer, doctor and a pastor -- an envelope containing $25,000 in cash to be placed in his coffin. A week later the man dies and the friends each place an envelope in the coffin. Several months later, the pastor confesses he put $10,000 in the envelope and sent the rest to a mission.  The doctor confesses his envelope had only $8,000 because he donated to a medical charity. The lawyer is outraged, "I am the only one who kept my promise to our dying friend. I want you both to know that the envelope I placed in the coffin contained my own personal check for the entire $25,000."

A person’s character is defined by how they keep their promises.  same with God….
 
Today and next week are the final sermons from the series, God’s Imperfect Family.  I’ve learned a lot…. In Matt. 1 the N.T. opens with a genealogy of Jesus’ family tree.  The character of Jesus’ family is a mixed bag of good and bad, powerful and commoners, Jewish men and gentile women, servants and tyrants.  During the ups and downs, the promise of God holds the family tree together.  

1989.  San Francisco.  Young pastor… not hard to meet the people since there were only a dozen on many Sundays.  I also went out to meet former members of the church, including a man whose father had been the pastor of the church years earlier.  I encouraged this man to re-join the church…. I will never forget his words: “I have no need for the church.  I know where I’m going” [as he pointed towards heaven]. 
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Today I wouldn’t be shocked, but I was then.  I was committing my life to the organized church as an expression of living out the Christian life.  I haven’t changed my mind!  The church is the primary means for the gathering of the Christian community.  The church is where spiritual gifts are practiced, believers go into the world, The church is God’s idea for the purpose of loving one another, learning who Jesus is, encouraging one another, accountability….  The mission of the church is still to share the good news of Jesus Christ with others and to provide a place where disciples gather to serve Christ by serving others.  

This story was read to prepare our hearts to receive communion @ SACC on Sunday, Feb. 3, '19.  It is our custom to receive communion every first Sunday of the month as a reminder of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Communion is a time to recommit our lives to Jesus Christ, receiving anew the forgiveness of our sins.  

​The testimony of Josiah is a call for recommitment to the Lord.  Here’s a story about recommitment.  It was a bright Sunday morning in 18th century London, but Robert Robinson’s mood was anything but sunny. Everywhere He looked there were happy people smiling and waving at one another on their way to church. But Robinson wasn’t one of them. In fact he was a very lonely and unhappy man. The sound of church bells reminded him of the time in his life when his faith was strong and the church meant so much to him. But that seemed like only a distant memory on this particular morning. It had been years since he had even set foot in a church. He had gotten away from the Lord, and spent the last several years disillusioned, wandering farther and farther away from the God that He had once loved so much.  His love for God—that was once so hot and passionate—had slowly burned out leaving him dark and cold inside.

I read many stories of forgiveness that results in reconciliation….  But in reality, forgiveness is often one sided.  Forgiveness is messy.  Jesus spoke on the cross, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.” And they crucified him anyway.  Sometimes a person hurts you and they don’t even know it, or they blame you, or they don’t care.  Sometimes you can’t forgive yourself.  Sometimes, you are harder on yourself than God is…
 
Today we continue with the imperfect family of Jesus ~ character studies from Jesus’ family tree in Matthew 1.  Today King Manasseh.  Manasseh is the son of Hezekiah, the King Chad preached about last Sunday.   Manasseh was king for 55 years.  As we study Manasseh there is a wrinkle that is hard to reconcile.  He is considered to be one of the most evil of all kings, yet towards the end of his life he gives his heart to God.  The story of Manasseh is a story of messy forgiveness.  What I mean by that is that the forgiveness and transformation is real ~ Manasseh really does become a God follower, but on earth the damage is so profound of the sinful life that the damage cannot be undone. Messy forgiveness is when God forgives you, but the consequences of the sinful life is so profound it’s hard for the living to let the past go.  Messy forgiveness takes place when you desperately want to forgive somebody, but the person who has hurt you wants nothing to do with you.  A disconnect.  Or maybe it’s the parent that abused the child and the parent has now died.  Messy forgiveness is when you want to forgive the other person but they are not cooperating. 

​Why do some people run to the Lord Jesus Christ in times of crisis, while others run away from Him?  This week I spent time with two people who were living on the streets.  Not exactly the same because one a way of life the other temporary. 

• The first young man has major struggles.  He was raised in a Christian home and spiritually is  fluctuating between bitterness against God and uncertainty if God  really exists.  Major struggles…. I can only pray for him because in the end he refused help….
• The other young man, Elton, was a delight.  Ivan and Anne Oakes were honored to host him their home one night.  He is 27, born to an alcoholic mother, raised in a foster home and is the primary care giver for his ailing foster mother because he is so grateful. (what a powerful story of the difference a foster parent can make).  Elton is committed to the Lord Jesus Christ. Several of us got to hear his story at the Coffee Hour on Wed. and the Thurs Bible Study… he works with youth on the Yakima Reservation.  He has a passion for Christ and showing others the better way, that you can be a member of the Yakima nation and a Christian.  He got stuck in Sumas a few days because he was on a road trip with friends to visit other friends in Canada and he did not have proper documentation to get into Canada ~ he chose our church ramp to get out of the wind while he waited for them to return.  I enjoyed so much spending a part of three days with him….

Why do some people rise above their circumstances and embrace Christ and other reject him in times of trouble?  Only God knows the heart.  

Most people become Christians during a crisis.  Growing in faith is often in response to a crisis.  A Crisis is any life changing event.  Life is more about change/crisis than it is stability.  We are constantly facing changes/crisis.  Yet we cling to that which we know!

How you respond to crisis determines your character/spiritual depth.

The day after Christmas I got a phone call from a friend who wanted to know all about my new twin grandkids, Sally, Christmas… she was chatty.  In the time surrounding his death, my friend was in a dark place.  She was lost.  She could not think.  I received many late night phone calls asking for prayer; she was feeling oppressed. Then BOOM! something changed.  Mother’s day last year she felt a peace she hadn’t felt in years, God was telling her to choose life and living over death and confusion.  It was like putting on glasses for the first time and suddenly seeing details you never knew existed…

The day after Christmas, as the conversation wound down, she said matter of factly, “My husband died a year ago today.”  Aha, that’s why she called…. I thought of the contrast of what her phone calls used to be like compared to what they were now.  She spoke of faith, of missing her husband, but knowing all is well.  She spoke with confidence of her life situation and her life journey. 

Sometimes it takes time to make it through a crisis, but for those who trust in God and believe in his promises, there is the promise of a new day, a new life, a new mind, a new strength, a new heart.  God will always find a way for those that trust him!  

The Bible Reading from Ephesians 3:14-19 is from the New Living Translation: 14 When I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the father, 15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.  16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you might inner strength through His Holy Spirit.  17 And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in Him.  May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love.  18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high,  how deep his love really is.  19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it.  Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God. 

​The birth of Jesus is the story of the Christ coming as a baby searching for a home…

• in the book of Luke, Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem because of a government censes and they search for a place for Mary to give birth.  The only room is a stable for the animals and a feeding trough for a bed… in search of a home…
• in the book of Matthew the story is told of the wisemen going to King Herod in search of the child.  When Herod hears of the news at a King has been born he is angry, so Joseph, Mary and their child Jesus escape to Egypt.  Jesus is driven from his home….
• As a grown man much later when Jesus is with his disciples at one point he declares, “The son of man has no place to lay his head” (Matt. 8:20).  No home.  The Lord Jesus came to earth in search of a home…

Prov. 3:5-6: NIV: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

In order to understand the Bible, it helps to understand what sort of writing you are reading.  The O.T. has many straight forward stories.  Sometimes there is commentary to make the lessons obvious, but often it is left up to us determine how to apply it…Today, as we continue character studies from genealogy of Jesus in Matt. 1, we come to King Asa.  Last week I handed out list of Kings of Judah and Israel… if you don’t have one….
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As I read through the story of Asa, his story is one of Trusting God.  Prov. 3:5-6 makes a wonderful caption.  His kingship is a living example of great trust, but towards the end of his life, he abandons his faith and “leans on his own understanding.”  Many of Jesus’ family/ancestors are people of faith who trust the Lord, but often those same people show an imperfect faith and drift away from God.  Sounds like us.