What does a life look like that is “Rich Towards God”?  READ Luke 12:21.  (Ask for responses from Congregation about what the phrase means.)

Consider the godly wealth that is yours. Luke preaches discipleship ~ what it means to be a follower of Christ.  Jesus Christ wants us to feel secure ~ a spiritual security.  The Lord wants us to have peace, based on His love for us, not in what we have accomplished or accumulated.  This scripture contrasts the person who is seeking security by gathering a bit more vs. the person who finds peace and satisfaction in seeking after the things of God.  The Monster Called More ~ Greed ~ does motivate people. 
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Once there was a burglar who was caught and brought before a judge. He was found guilty.  The judge asked the man  if he had anything to say before he was sentenced. He said, “Well, you know, Your Honor, it’s like this. The more a man has, the more a man wants”. The judge replied, “Is that so? Well, I tell you what. I’m going to sentence you to 15 years in jail. How many more would you like?” 

​For a number of years now, the phrase Would Jesus Be Pleased has made a lot of sense to me.  It was five years ago or more I first introduced WJBP in a sermon; I can still see one person in particular nodding his head and we talked about it for days/weeks/months cementing the idea of WJBP in my brain.  When I was a young adult the slogan WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) thought became popular.  It makes sense as a guiding principle for decision making, but to me, it has always been off just a bit ~ when I hear the phrase, “What Would Jesus Do,” my mind immediately thinks, but Jesus would never be in the position I’m in.  It makes more sense to me as I am sorting through one more dilemma to ask the question: Would Jesus Be Pleased.  I don’t think I can ever be as pure as Christ, take the risks he took, act with the wisdom he acted, so I feel  inadequate and hopeless to ask What Would Jesus Do.  But I can always ask, “Would Jesus Be Pleased.” 

Introduction (Story about trying to understand what Christianity is all about when he was in high school and how my father warned me to not ask too many questions or it might cause me to stray from my faith).....He meant be careful that you don’t ask too many questions because you will begin to doubt and if you begin to doubt you will eventually lose your faith. In my head I was thinking, if my faith can’t hold up to questions it must not be true. My dad was trying to protect my faith, I was trying to find out if it was worth protecting.

For some of you here today my story may resonate with you. Good people have tried to protect you from any type of doubt. They have told you to be careful and to keep you eyes on Jesus. To which you might have replied in your head or with your lips if you were daring, which Jesus? the one who compared a women to a dog or the one who loves children and died on the cross.

​Are we living in the last days? /// YES.  But it’s God’s timetable. I don’t know if the Lord will come today, a year from now, a hundred years.  My heart tells me I don’t know how much more this old world can take.  But I have absolute confidence in my spirit that we have God on our side and he is on the throne so we can withstand anything.
 
Earlier this week I woke to a chirping sound.  Two quick chirps then silent for 30-45 seconds.  It was the unmistakable sound of a battery running low, a smoke alarm perhaps, or the refrigerator door open, or some other electronic.  I could not get back to sleep with the intermittent chirp chirp.  I got up.  Stood in the hallway till I hear it again.  Chirp Chirp. Then the kitchen.  Listen for 45 seconds. Then a spare bedroom.  Then the garage.  Then back to the kitchen.  on and on it went.  I gave up, went to the office to work, and an hour later when Sally got up she found it (it was the phone on the coffee table).  There is a lot of chirping in our world, a lot of noise, can’t locate it, listen, wait, frustration, give up, try again, return to where you know it’s not.  

2001.  The Seattle Mariners won 116 games that year.  Ken Roberts, from Nooksack, was a life long sports fan, especially baseball.  He was a long time member of the Nooksack Church where I served as pastor in the 90’s.  Fans had been waiting a long time for a Mariners break out year. 

Ken was diagnosed with cancer.  As the Mariners year progressed, so did Ken’s cancer.  He spent his last months in his home with his wife Francie.  (One of Rich and Karen’s grandkids now live in that house.)  As it became apparent Ken may not make it, people talked about how it was too bad Ken may not live to see if the Mariners would win the world series… I saw Ken frequently in his last weeks.  We would talk about the mariners.  Even though his body was failing, his mind was good.  He was interested in the Mariners.  He was interested in the start of the Seahawks.  But not that interested. 

In the last weeks of Ken’s life, what he really wanted to talk about was Jesus Christ.  He wanted to talk about the second coming.  He gained energy as he considered what the Bible had to say about the last days and the mysteries surrounding the end of the ages.  He dreamed about heaven and eternity and wondered what it would be like.  I learned a lot about dying from Ken. 
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My mind went back to my own father’s death five years earlier.  He died from leukemia over a three year period.  Somewhere along the way I read a wonderful essay about what it was like spending time with the dying.  The writer posed the question, “What do you say to a dying man that has a foot in two worlds, this world and the world to come?”  the writer mused about how a person that is dying somehow is not quite as taken by the things of this world and how the things of eternity take on more importance. 
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Ken did not live to find out what happened to the Mariners, but he did not care.  He was a man of faith who was prepared to meet the Lord Jesus Christ.  Even as he lost strength physically, he found energy in his spirit. The closer he got to death the less he cared about the previous night’s game.  The things of this earth became hollow.  His family was still important.  He was very kind to me.  And his faith increased. Ken was renewed in his spirit as he reaffirmed the blessed hope of the coming of Jesus Christ to bring salvation to the world.  What a joy and inspiration it was for me to have a front row seat to watch a man come alive as he lived with a foot in two worlds.