A gift worth giving!

 “Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, 2 “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.”-Matthew 2:1-2

The Wisemen that travelled from the East were on a mission. A mission to worship. We are not certain how long or how far they travelled, some scholars believe they could have traveled 400-700 miles.  Depending on the conditions, that journey could have taken some 30-60 days to complete. However, regardless of how long it took them; they still came intending to worship! That commitment to worship is what carried them to the very feet of Jesus.

 When the Wisemen arrived, not only had they come intending to worship, they came prepared for worship; each one carrying a specific gift to offer the newborn king. None of them came empty handed. They prepared themselves to meet a King. Each of their gifts was unique, but valuable in it’s own right. 

" 11 They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 When it was time to leave, they returned to their own country by another route, for God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod."-Matthew 2:11-12 

I am reminded of the Christmas Song- “The Little Drummer Boy”. Although we don’t read of him in the Bible, we glean the sense of the story to be connected with that of the Wisemen. Take out the Rum-Pum-Pum-Pums and you get to the heart of the story: 

Come they told me

A new born king to see

Our finest gifts we bring

To lay before the king

So to honor him

When we come

Little baby

I am a poor boy too

I have no gift to bring

That's fit to give our king

Shall I play for you

on my drum

Mary nodded

The ox and lamb kept time

I played my drum for him

I played my best for him

Then he smiled at me

Me and my drum

The little drummer boy didn’t think he had a gift worth giving. All he had to give was his very best worship, but it made Jesus smile. You may feel like you are too poor to give Jesus anything of value: poor in talent, poor in skills, poor in resources, but none of us are poor in praise.  

“Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.”-Hebrews 13:15

 It wasn’t the value of the items brought that was impressive, it was the wisemen’s willingness to open up their treasure chests and give it all to Jesus that causes us to remember them today:

“They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”-Matthew 2:11

Gold, Frankincese, and Myrhh. You and I are the ones who are so fascinated by what was inside. We are the ones who have spent years studying and analyzing what was given. However, the gift was never what was inside. The gift was their willingness to open up and give Jesus their very best!  Are you willing to open up? Are you willing to give Jesus the very best of what’s inside of you? It’s time to open up your treasure chests!

Scott Burr

Dayspring Community Church 

Stop the funeral (Pt.2)

(Part 2)

“Then he walked over to the coffin and touched it, and the bearers stopped. “Young man,” he said, “I tell you, get up.”-Luke 7:14

 

Sometimes we are so busy focusing on what’s been lost that we have fail to see what is right in front of us. The widow of Nain was on a collision course with Jesus. When Jesus saw the woman, his heart overflowed with compassion for her and He stopped the funeral! Come on somebody! Jesus stopped the funeral. He put His hand on the coffin as if to say, “That’s far enough”.  He even caused those tasked with carrying the dead boy out to be buried to stop in their tracks. 

 

 Just because you put something in a coffin, doesn’t mean it’s dead, especially if Jesus is in the room. You can try and put 2020 in a coffin, but you can’t call it dead. We need to quit trying to bury things that Jesus still has His hand on! Obviously, Jesus didn’t see a dead body. He saw an opportunity; an opportunity to demonstrate compassion. He was about to breath life and hope into a helpless situation.

 

Some would say, that just like the widow’s son, this year is just too far gone. We’ve lost 345 days of this year already, however can I declare to you that there are still 20 days remaining. How many days does Jesus need to turn things around? Ask Lazarus how long it takes Jesus to breath life back into something. Ask Jairus’ how much time Jesus needed to turn his daughter’s life around? Ask the widow of Nain, just how long it takes for Jesus to radically impact a person’s life.

 

I will agree that we started off 2020 strong and then when Covid hit, we lost momentum, but here is what I feel God wants me to tell you this today: You don’t need momentum, when Jesus can do miracles. We don’t need to recapture our momentum, we need to recapture our compassion for others:

 

When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.”-Luke 7:13

 

As the body of Christ we’ve been weeping our year away, carrying 2020 around in a coffin, waiting to bury it so we can move on with our lives. 

 

Like everyone else, I’ve suffered loss this year. I’ve battled Covid, I’ve had numerous vacations and trips canceled, and I’ve grieved the loss of a loved one who have passed away. So it’s not that I can’t identify with the loss everyone is experiencing. 

 

However, as the Body of Christ, we can’t allow our weeping to drown out our compassion. People all around us are experiencing loss and if the Body of Christ isn’t going to step up and respond, who is? 

 

I understand the dangers of Covid-19. Hundreds of thousands of people have died, but let me ask you this, how many of them died without knowing Jesus. Who’s job is it to proclaim Christ during a pandemic? Are we to put our mandate to make disciples on hold until the conditions are better? How many of those who died missed heaven because they did not hear or witness a single demonstration of Christ’s compassion, simply because we refused to adapt and find ways of sharing Christ.

            

What do we say to the thousands upon thousands of additional people that will likely die, between now and 2021? “Sorry, we are postponing our mission of winning souls until the beginning of next year.” 

 

No! Do what it takes to mitigate your risk (put on a mask, sanitize your hands, and socially distance), but don’t bury this year thinking next year is going to be better; because I bet someone was thinking that same thing in 2019. 

 

It’s not time for the church to give up, it’s time for us to give back!

 

“Then he walked over to the coffin and touched it, and the bearers stopped. “Young man,” he said, “I tell you, get up.” Then the dead boy sat up and began to talk! And Jesus gave him back to his mother.”-Luke 7:14-15

 

Jesus gave the widow of Nain more than a son back. He restored her hope. His compassion led to her miracle. Listen, there are things that you and I can’t give back to people. Losses that we are just not able to recapture, but we can give them the hope we have in Jesus Christ. 

 

However, we can’t do it isolated from humanity. We have to find ways of engaging the lost and the hurting. We have to stop the funeral! Stop trying to bury 2020. I believe Jesus wants to resurrect it. I believe He wants to breath life into it. We have a choice. We can squander the next 20 days or we can demonstrate compassion to a world that needs it more than ever. 

 

Pastor Scott Burr

Dayspring Community Church 

Stop the funeral (Pt. 1)

Part 1

 

“11 Soon afterward Jesus went with his disciples to the village of Nain, and a large crowd followed him. 12 A funeral procession was coming out as he approached the village gate. The young man who had died was a widow’s only son, and a large crowd from the village was with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, his heart overflowed with compassion. “Don’t cry!” he said. 14 Then he walked over to the coffin and touched it, and the bearers stopped. “Young man,” he said, “I tell you, get up.” 15 Then the dead boy sat up and began to talk! And Jesus gave him back to his mother. 16 Great fear swept the crowd, and they praised God, saying, “A mighty prophet has risen among us,” and “God has visited his people today.” 17 And the news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding countryside.”-Luke 7:11-17

 

After miraculously healing a Roman Officer’s servant, Jesus traveled to a village called Nain. As he is approaching the town the first thing he encounters is funeral procession carrying a widow’s only son. Interestingly enough, the word Nain: means pleasantness. A name which seems completely contrary to what Jesus was walking into. He was walking into grief, mourning, despair and death. There was nothing pleasant about that at all. 

 

As I thought about this passage, the Lord rehearsed in my mind the hopes, plans, and dreams that we had for 2020. We looked at 2020 with great anticipation and expectation. However, like Nain, our encounter with 2020 hasn’t been as pleasant as we had thought it would be. We were introduced to Covid-19, an economic recession, a government shut-down, social unrest, followed by deep political division. How many would agree that this wasn’t at all what we thought 2020 would be like?

 

Along with everything else, the events of 2020 have created a mental health crisis in our country and around the world. Like the widow of Nain we are grieving a loss. Not just the tragic loss of loved ones, but job losses, health setbacks, vacations canceled, savings accounts depleted, weddings postponed, and graduations and proms rescinded. Couple that with the regular tragedies that we’ve been accustomed to all our lives: like drug overdoses, heart disease, wildfires, hurricanes, cancer, and automobile accidents and you can see why it has caused so many to want to escape 2020. 

 

 It has caused many of us to declare things like this: “I am so done with 2020!”, “I will be so glad when 2020 is over.”, “Can we just fast forward to Christmas! In many of our hearts and minds we do not see anything redeeming ahead for this year and have already moved it over into the loss column.

Just like the widow of Nain, she counted her son as dead and was moving towards burying him along with her hope, provision, and future. In like manner, many of you have declared this year officially dead and are moving towards burying it, but I want to declare to you today “It ain’t over yet!!” 

 

Scott Burr

Dayspring Community Church 

The calm inside the storm (Pt.3)

(Part 3 of 3) 

“Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?””-Mark 4:39-40

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Jesus isn’t going to deliver you out of every storm. He isn’t going to step in and rebuke the wind and waves each time you face difficult conditions. Instead, he showed us that we don’t have to let the storm on the outside create a storm on the inside of us.

What if that is the real miracle of the passage. It wouldn’t be the first time that Jesus used a powerful external miracle to convey a deeper spiritual one. Take some time to read the story of the paralytic brought in on a mat by his friends in Luke 5:17-26. Jesus used his healing to confirm His ability to forgive sins. 

When Jesus got up and rebuked the wind and the waves, he turned to His disciples and asked them “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” I don’t think he was questioning why they didn’t just believe for him to stand up and rebuke the wind. Let’s be honest, we serve a shallow God if we believe that He is only interested in improving our external conditions. No, I think he was questioning why they allowed the storm around them to become the storm inside of them, instead of allowing the calm in Him to become the calm in them. 

They missed it because they were amazed that the wind and waves obeyed him but not amazed that Jesus was able to remain calm when it seemed the whole world was crashing around them. The problem that most of us face is that we are more moved by our conditions than we want to admit. 

The disciples had Jesus with them in the boat, but their response for awhile was to act like he wasn’t even there, which led them into believing that He wasn’t even concerned about them. They misread Him (not the situation). Truth is, He was there with them the whole time. He promised to never leave us nor forsake us. He is our ever-present help in times of trouble. He’s in the boat. 

Hebrews 12:2 instructs us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, not our conditions. The atmosphere inside of you is created by what you fix your eyes on. Peter walked on water when he had his eyes fixed on Jesus, but sank at the sight of the wind and waves. 

We’ve misread miracles because we have believed that the way to be more like Jesus is to rebuke the wind and waves around us. Sometimes that is the answer. However, if the wind doesn’t die down. Sometimes being like Jesus is resting in who He is and trusting that if He isn’t panicked neither will I be. 

Scott Burr

Dayspring Community Church

The calm inside the storm (Pt. 2)

Part 2

 Mark 4:38:“The disciples woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?’”

There were two types of calm displayed in this passage.  Jesus calmed the wind and waves, but additionally Jesus himself was demonstrating a whole new level of calm when he fell asleep in the midst of the storm. The disciples, however, interpreted these two calming moments very differently. When he rebuked the wind and waves. They were terrified, perplexed and amazed that even the wind and waves obeyed Him. However, they interpreted his sleeping in the stern much differently. They mistook his calm for a lack of concern. 

Why do we associate being calm with a lack of concern? Jesus was the only one in the boat not panicking. He wasn’t bailing water and he wasn’t wringing his hands and fretting. He wasn’t reacting the way they were reacting, so they misread him. They confused his calm with a lack of concern. 

Have you ever felt that. Felt as though Jesus didn’t respond to your situation with the urgency you expected. Ever wonder why it’s so pressing to you, yet seems so unimportant to Jesus. Ever think, if there was ever a time for a miracle it’s now:

“When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”-Mark 4:39-40

When we talk about the miracles Jesus performed, this miracle certainly ranks in the top ten. He commanded the winds and waves to stop and they did. His power over natural elements was just one way that Jesus confirmed that He was who he claimed to be. 

However, is it possible that we’ve misread the real miracle in this story. Is it possible that like the disciples we are waiting on him to change the conditions swirling around us. We are waiting on Jesus to stand up and rebuke the wind and waves in our lives. 

Jesus was experiencing the same external influences as the disciples, but he wasn’t experiencing them on the inside. The physical storm surrounding the disciples created a storm inside of them. So that the storm on the inside was a reflection of the storm on the outside. What if we misread the miracle and the miracle wasn’t Jesus showing us that he had the power to command the wind and waves to stop, but rather it was showing us how to remain calm when the the storm around us seems overwhelming. What if the miracle was showing us how to keep the storm surrounding us from becoming the storm within us. 

Scott Burr

Dayspring Community Church 

The calm inside the storm (Pt.1)

(Part 1)

“35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, ‘Let us go over to the other side.’ 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?’ 39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. 40 He said to his disciples, ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’41 They were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!’-Mark 4:35-41

All of us are familiar with storms. Live long enough and you may experience the fiercest of what mother nature has to offer. From the 140 tornadoes that touched down Easter weekend spanning the south to the devastating Hurricane Laura that blasted Texas and Louisiana; we are all susceptible to experiencing storms of various sizes and intensities. 

A storm is defined as a violent disturbance in the atmosphere usually accompanied by strong winds. Mark 4:37 provides us a description of the storm that the disciples found themselves in:

“A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped.”

There are three significant variables that characterized this storm: 

First, a furious squall came up- meaning it came up quickly and unexpectedly. 

Secondly, waves broke over the boat- meaning it breached what made them feel safe.  

Finally, it nearly swamped them- meaning it was so overwhelming that they couldn’t seem to bail themselves out of it, no matter how hard they tried.  

However, not all the storms that we face are on the outside. Some are on the inside. Many people battle depression, anxiety, the inability to forgive, low self-worth, and fear on a daily basis. Those internal storms carry the very same variables as an external storm: they often come on us quickly and unexpectedly, they breach what makes us feel safe, and overwhelms us so that we can’t seem to bail ourselves out. Our internal atmosphere gets disrupted. 

Just as there is an external atmosphere that can become disrupted, there is an internal one that can be disrupted as well. It is in the midst of this disruption that we are challenged to look for the calm inside the storm. 

Pastor Scott Burr

Dayspring Community Church 

 

 

 

 

The Narrow Door (Pt. 3)

Part 3 of 3

Salvation isn’t just about choosing the right door but staying on the right road. The highway to hell is broad, but he road to life is narrow. Receiving Jesus as our Lord and Savior gets us on the right path, but the journey doesn’t end there. Even the question we asked at the beginning of this series is flawed: “Is there more than one way to get to heaven?” The goal of salvation isn’t to make heaven, but to be reconciled with the Father. It isn’t about escaping the wickedness of this fallen world or reuniting with our loved ones.

“But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.-Isaiah 59:2. 

Our sins had separated us from God. Our relationship with him was broken. Christ coming and dying on the cross was to reconcile us to God, not just secure us a reservation in heaven: 

 “18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.”-2 Corinthians 5:18 (NKJV) 

We’ve made salvation about reaching a desired destination, rather than the work of reconciliation. Although, I believe that heaven and hell are real places, we’ve somehow disassociated Heaven with being reconciled to God and Hell as being eternally separated from Him because of sin. That is why so many no longer see the need for repentance. They no longer see the need to live righteous and holy lives. It’s because they no longer see reconciling with God as necessary to make heaven: 

“12 Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear.”-Philippians 2:12. 

The Apostle Paul understood it. He declared that we need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. He understood that the result of our salvation is more than securing a spot in heaven, but it’s demonstrated by our obedience to God. Living in obedience to God is not easy, that is why Jesus said that the road is difficult. We can’t claim a place in heaven while living in disobedience to Christ and His word here on earth. We must live out our reconciliation daily by living according to God’s Word.  Salvation is a daily decision to follow Christ. 

The question is not…Are you confident that if Christ came today that you’d make heaven?  No, the real question is…Are you confident that you are reconciled to God? Have you received Christ as your Lord and Savior. He is the Door! He is the only access to the Father. Some of you keep hanging around the door, but have never made that step of faith. I want to caution you that if you are banking on Jesus recognizing you and letting you in, you are going to miss your salvation. Remember Luke 13:25-28:

25 When the master of the house has locked the door, it will be too late. You will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Lord, open the door for us!’ But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ 26 Then you will say, ‘But we ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 And he will reply, ‘I tell you, I don’t know you or where you come from. Get away from me, all you who do evil.’ 28 “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for you will see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God, but you will be thrown out.-Luke 13:25-28

Some of you think Jesus is going to just let you in because you hung around church some, or you flirted with reading your Bible a little, or you posted a few memes about faith on your Facebook page. The scriptures say that they ate and drank with him. They confused their proximity to Jesus for intimacy with Jesus. In essence they were crying out, Jesus, don’t you recognize us? However, it isn’t about him recognizing you, it’s about Him knowing you. That only happens when we step though the door and commit to living a life of faith and obedience. 

Scott Burr

Dayspring Community Church