Always and Everywhere

Sunday Sermon: Always and Everywhere 1/26/2014

Follow Me

In case you're wondering what it looks like to shovel snow at twenty below.

Fresh white snow creates a beautiful playland for riding around on a sno-go (Snowmachine for the Alaskans, Snowmobile for everyone else). But when the snow is freshly falling and you are going for a ride there is zero definition in the landscape. You can't tell where the edge of the trail is, if the trail goes up/straight/or down. I went Ptarmigan hunting a couple weeks ago and was following behind another sno-go that, as we were clipping along, suddenly disappeared. They had discovered the the trail suddenly dipped and off they shot, and fell, probably about 10 feet. Thank goodness for suspension systems. It helps to be following someone.

When you follow someone, you are putting a significant amount of faith in them. Do they know where they are going? How to get there? What the dangers are? Do they remember that you are following them so they don't lose you? It takes tons of faith to follow someone.

And it is in this imagery that Jesus speaks of His disciples: "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." (John 10:27) It sounds so simple, yet Jesus was saying this to people who would not follow him. The Pharisees saw the miracles that Jesus did, yet could not bring themselves to believe what He said about himself. So there are three things Jesus says which connect us to Him: (1) His divine voice. (2) His divine knowledge (3) Our divine faith.

• His divine voice: When Jesus says "They hear my voice" he doesn't mean that they can simply audibly hear him. The Pharisees can hear Him, yet they do not believe Him. When Jesus says that His sheep "hear his voice" he means that there is understanding and obedience in those that are His. In the same way a parent giving instruction to their child says "Listen carefully to me as I'm about to speak to you." The expectation is understanding and obedience. Another way to say this is that to hear the voice of Jesus means we believe and repent. Repentance is not simply stopping a bad action, but turning to a Godly action. Apart from true belief we don't know what we are to be turning from or turning to. How do we hear His voice today? Jesus has appointed us to be his witnesses. (Acts 1:8) Our responsibility is to speak as those who have read His Word, heard His voice, and obeyed His commands. We preach, evangelize, teach, share, worship, and serve only out of the abundance of hearing His voice. The very voice of Jesus has been entrusted to those who are redeemed by Him, so that out of experience in Him we can say as the blind man did, "I was...and because of Him I am now..." My Sheep hear My voice.
• His divine knowledge: What more comforting thing could there be in all the universe than to hear your creator say, "I know you". Jesus says "They are My sheep". A divine "Mine" is placed over us. But it's not an obscure, aloof, unattached "mine". Rather it is Him saying "I know them." He knows who we were made to become, what our strengths are, where we are weak, what our temperament is and what we're going to choose to eat for lunch. In everything about us, He can say, "I know them." There is a marketing push today to "empower" people. Recently someone showed me this in the big DIY box stores marketing. One says "You can do it! We can help." and another says "Let's build something together." Both say you are empowered in yourself to accomplish what you set out to do. The greatest empowerment message we can hear today is that Jesus says "I know him(her), he's(she's) mine." It's were we can find our identity, our validity, and our purpose. We were made to be truly known and Jesus says of those who hear his voice "I know them."
• Our divine faith: The final statement is that those who hear His voice and are known by Him, follow Him. "Follow me" is how Jesus says we become like Him. 20 times the Gospels record this phrase. It's Jesus saying: go where I go, do what I do, say what I say, behave like I behave, love like I love, give like I give, think like I think, die as I die, live as I live. When Jesus said "follow Me" it was enough for men to drop their livelihoods and find a new life in Him. This is why in John 10:27b-28a Jesus' next statement is "they follow me, and I give eternal life to them." Eternal life is not found apart from following Christ. Herein is genuine faith, supernatural, divinely authored faith. Without His voice, His knowledge, and his command we are lost. Grace alone saves us. And grace alone keeps us. Look what His whole statement is:

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one. John 10:27-30 

• Before we first heard the voice of Jesus, God gave us to Him. We were loved by God before any action on our part. And we were redeemed by Jesus before any belief, repentance, or obedience of our own. Now in Him, Jesus says that NO ONE can snatch us from His hand. Covering this Jesus says that NO ONE can snatch us from God's hand. So we are in God in Christ double secure. Grace that saves and grace that keeps. No works, no boasting just Jesus. So how then do we know we are saved? 

Jesus says "follow Me."

Do you?

Listen to the full sermon HERE

Joseph: God's will and our change

The story of Joseph in Genesis is a familiar one for many of us. God had a plan and purpose for Joseph that he himself could not have imagined. Without change, sometimes very painful change, we can never see or be what God wills us to be. In this sermon Pastor Chris Kopp explores the narrative of Joseph to see how we can follow God's will for our change. Delivered to the Galena Bible Church, Sunday January 12nd, 2014.

Joy for the sake of the Gospel

Joy for the sake of the Gospel (Sermon)
What word or phrase have you heard that elicited Joy? 
"Looks like you'll get to keep your eye." - Spoken by Dr Arnold concerning my orbital blowout fracture of the left eye when I was 11.
"It's not cancer." - diagnosis from a doctor concerning my dad in my early teens.
"Yes!" and a subsequent "I do." - From my now wife of almost 13 years.
"Your baby(boy/boy/girl) looks really healthy." - Medical staff in natal unit of Women's and Children's Hospital.
"I Love you. I'm proud of you." - Said by my grandfather.
"He died peacefully in his sleep." - Said of him the following morning.

All of these things brought a great deal of joy in the moment. There was pain involved in some of the statements, but always a sense of hope. There is always a great deal of hope in joy. Hope that there is something better coming. Hope of restoration, second chances, and the unexpected. Joy and hope can never be separated.
What about this statement? Does it elicit joy? Read it carefully:

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Did you feel that? Did you feel anything? Joy, indifference, familiarity, regret, fear...what do you feel when you read those words? These are monumental words that speak to deepest hope. Surely we feel something. But unfortunately too many will read this phrase and be unmoved. Why? Could it be that the weight of the word "Condemned" has been lost in our Gospel.

Condemned means you're days away from 6000 volts coursing through your dying chest as you're strapped to an electric chair. Condemned means the jury has heard the multitude of witnesses and has handed down a guilty verdict. Condemned means endless suffering in hopelessness. Condemned means you're dead.

Somehow the Gospel that is heard by so many does not contain the force that makes it "good news". When we, by God's grace, can realize that we are dead, separated, and condemned for our sin, only then can we see the good news. 

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

No longer condemned. The Governor called. You are pardoned. They take your prison clothes and dress you in Armani. Record expunged, sentence remunerated, charges dropped...forgiven. But how?

No condemnation...in Christ Jesus.

Sometimes we can become so comfortable "in" our salvation that we forget the joy "of" our salvation. Remember: Joy and hope can never be separated. Those things that bring me joy in this world would be for nothing were it not for the Gospel.What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world (should be some joy somewhere in there right?) yet forfeits his soul? Because of Christ I have hope. Hope that my children could grow to know and cherish Christ. Hope that my parents would continue to walk faithfully with the Lord as they have loved so long. Hope that my marriage would honor God and model Christ's care for the church to all that know us. Hope that I can walk in the love of Christ like my grandfather did. And hope that I will one day see him again. All of this is because of the Gospel! Joy for the Gospel's sake.

Apart from Christ you stand condemned already. In Christ you are forgiven and free to feel His joy.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

... How do you feel about that?
Joy for the sake of the Gospel (Sermon)

The Keys To The Kingdom | galenamissions

The Keys To The Kingdom | galenamissions

Who is Jesus? This is the most important question we can answer according to Jesus. "Who do you say that I am?"
This sermon is in a series on church planting delivered by Pastor Chris Kopp to the Galena Bible Church, Sunday December 29th, 2013.

It's just different here

As I look out the window this cold December afternoon and gaze at the ice fog that -45F creates I cant help but be reminded that it's just different here.  Not different bad, not different good, just different from what was once normal. The week leading up to Christmas framed that well for me. Though the outcomes would have all been the same, the challenges and difficulties are just...well different.

Sunday of that week a friend asked me to come check out the plumbing situation at his home. To his and my chagrin we discovered that the boiler line that is supposed to keep the sewer tank from freezing was not working. This created a 4 foot by 3 foot by 6 foot block of...bush learning opportunity. There are a couple of things that are different here: First, who asks their pastor about plumbing problems? Outside the bush you call a plumber or boiler repairman. Second, who has a sewer tank in their home? Well most of Galena does. This has to be pumped out periodically by the city. We set up a heating system to thaw the pipes and tank and let it be to do it's work. It's just different.

The following day (Monday) I decided that I needed to go to the post office and stop by to check on our plumbing progress. I made a right hand turn but my van decided that it really wanted to move diagonally rather than follow the path that I was telling it to go. This resulted in me running into the drivers side corner of a community members truck. Mortified I got out, made sure he was OK, and assessed the damage to his rig. It was all surface damage to the bumper, fender, and door. Nothing mechanical, or structural. There are a couple of things different here: If I lived on the road system, we would exchange insurance, call a cop, and then call a tow company.  Higher insurance rates would come later, his truck would be fixed and that's the end of it. Here we have no cop, no insurance, no body shop, no wrecker company, nothing. So as I've committed to fixing his truck I'm still calling around to auto parts companies and dealing with the challenge of "we don't ship to Alaska". Once I locate parts I'll have to borrow someones garage and replace all the parts. It's just different.

The following day (Tuesday) I went to pick up our mail from the Post Office and when I put the van into reverse, the shifter on the steering column broke. It would go into Neutral, Drive, and Reverse, but not Park. No problem I'll just drive it over to the local auto shop and ... oh we don't have one of those. No problem I'll just stop by the auto parts place and pick up what I need to...oh we don't have one of those either. No, I'll order the part on Amazon and wait for it to arrive. A week later, the part has since arrived and the shifter has since broken further which has the van stuck in drive. The negative 40 temperatures outside have made it where I am not encouraged to work inside the van. (The repair involves me disassembling the steering column.)  It's just different.

The following Friday, our dog that we've had since we got married over 12 years ago decided to eat some uncooked bread dough that Shell had rising by the woodstove. She looked miserable when we found her, but we thought nothing of it since she's a dog and has been known to eat too much of things she wasn't supposed to. By Saturday morning she was unresponsive, and Sunday morning she died. Unbeknownst to us uncooked bread dough when ingested by dogs will let off Ethanol in sufficient volume to cause alcohol poisoning. If we lived where there was a vet we probably wouldn't have brought her in until it was too late anyway, but they would have made that discovery for us rather than us discovering it on our own. The outcome would have probably been the same, but the way it all happened was just different.

Two days later was Christmas Eve. We had a nice Christmas Eve service planned for the church body. However around 1pm I got a phone call from someone who stopped by church and told me that the thermostats were showing 40F. This is the lowest temp they display meaning it could be colder than that. I hurried over and found that the circulating pump on the boiler had seized up and wasn't heating the building. How many of you have a spare circulating pump sitting around? Galena Bible Church does! It's just different. After that was fixed and the heaters were working I left. When I returned at 5:30 to set up for the 6:30 service it had warmed up to a balmy 46F. In my experiences people would normally have said, "We should cancel church" or something like that. But these people kept their parkas on, drank coffee, sang beautiful Christmas Hymns of the joy in Christ's Advent, and observed the Lord's Supper. Never once a complaint, even from the kids warming their hands over the advent candles. It's different...and I love them.

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.... Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.     James 1:2-4&12

The call to follow Jesus is just different. It's different from this world and it's different from how we normally think our lives should flow. We are always uncomfortable with different. I'm so glad that Jesus is not concerned with my comfort. Rather he is concerned with my joy in Him. He's just kinda different that way.

Things you can be praying for:

• It would be great if we had a working vehicle again.
• The Hornfischer family is still stuck in Germany awaiting the US Government to clear their religious workers Visas. Pray that they can return home soon.
• Pray that the Lord would lead us to persons of peace in villages all across Alaska. 
• There have been crisis reports up and down the river. Pray that the Lord would hold back the spiritual darkness that leads so many men to self harm.

Why Christmas?: The Wisemen and the fool

Earliest known depiction of the Magi, Mid 3rd Century fresco in the Catacomb of Priscilla

Does anyone else other than me judge the value and validity of a nativity set by how many wise-men it contains? We recently purchased a PlayMobile set and it came with one wise man. ONE! Haven't they read the Bible? I mean it says right here......hang on let me find it......I know it's here somewhere........it's right after the little drummer boy, right? Hey, there's no little drummer boy in my set either! I'm calling heresy!

All joking aside (I hope you were following that) the magi (or wise men) contain for us a mysterious element of the Christmas story. Who were they? From what nation did they come? How did they know that this star would lead them to the King born of the Jews? All questions that scripture does not answer. It just says:

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him."     Matthew 2:1-2

Most scholars and traditions understand what was said about them to mean that they were astrologers from Persia. Men who's daily responsibility was to "read" the heavens. How a star moved through the sky and in what constellation it appeared was understood as a sign or omen about events in their world. It's interesting to note that this practice was expressly forbidden in the law of Moses. Herod, who was a puppet king of Rome, was a madman. Paranoid and murderous Herod would kill even his own children if he felt they were a threat to his power. No wonder the response of Herod to these magi's declaration is one of suspicion and espionage.

 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him...Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying. "Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I to may come and worship him."

Funny how the man who was to lead the Jews was ignorant of the Scriptures yet these pagan astrologers were willing to leave their home, their king, their gods and worship this baby born in the obscurity of Bethlehem. 

And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. They, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.

The magi brought kingly gifts that were worthy of a royalty(Gold), worthy of a Divinity(Frankincense - incense for worship), and worthy of a mortal man  (Myrrh - used for embalming the dead). Valuable gifts that speak to what they believed about this newborn baby. They fell down and worshiped. Herod, more concerned about the security of his kingship, missed his King. The Magi, more concerned with worshiping Jesus, turned from idolatry. What can we learn from Herod and the Magi about Christ Worship (Christmas):

1. Worship is about submission: 

- Just as a wicked man sat on the throne at Jesus' birth, so too a wicked man sits on our thrown as well.

- Following Jesus means we give up our thrown to the only one worthy to occupy it.

- Herod thought he could thwart God's plan. That NEVER works.

2. Worship is about giving BECAUSE we've received. 

- Jesus is worthy of our worship because of who he is and what he has done. 

- Our worship is just our responding to who he is.

- The magi brought kingly gifts because God had given them a king.

3. Worship is about repentance:  

- Turning from idolatry to Jesus is about us exchanging what has no value to what holds greatest value.

- Repentance is not us being sorry for what we've done. It's about us turning from rebellion to submission.

- In the Magi's worship of Jesus they were acknowledging that what they had worshiped was not worthy of their worship. Our sin never leads us to great joy. 

It dawned on me that Herod did believe that Jesus was the Messiah. That's why he asked where he was to be born. He just didn't put his faith in him to follow him as the Magi did. Too many today do exactly as Herod did. They believe that Jesus is the Christ, Messiah, Savior of the world, but are unwilling to follow him by faith. Don't be a fool: follow and worship. Then one day maybe others would refer to us as wise men too.

Merry Christmas!