god_greenhouse

Our family moved into our current home about 4 years ago. The first time we looked in the backyard we saw this (pic 1), which I thought, "Cool--it's got an eye-sore! We can talk them down on the price!"

So about three years ago we start the seemingly unending SAGA of bringing this 50 yr old greenhouse back to life. I eventually started calling it the "elephant." Because, "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!"

remove old glass, chisel out ancient glazing, remove rotted lumber, break out brick planters.

Sandra chopped down and dig out an actual tree growing out of the floor!!! Removed a pick-up truck load of dirt from the floor.

Reproduce the skylight frame from a solid cedar post. Enough of old one left to use as a template.

The road to Hades is paved w/Plexiglas. Spent an 8 hour day in the 90° heat cutting 46 panes & still didn't get it all done! No two panes are exactly alikeevery pane was custom measured and cut & most would only go in one way. "Pain" ;-)

Double sided tape. Big sheets of 3/8" plexi are wobblytad tricky to hand especially the 8' pieces! (roofwork from wall out)

There's well over a case of 100% silicone caulk that's sealing every single pane & every single nook & cranny.

after you've heard me drone on about the 2 year grueling timeline, you have a sense of the labor-intensive process of it. It kind makes you tired just thinking about it. Makes you thank God that you are not ME!

What if in the blink of an eye, the rust was gone, the metal transformed, the masonry re-done, re-glassed, everything?! "Poof!" Fixed.

So what if the old beat-down greenhouse represented us, before Christ came into our life?

What if the fallen brick foundation was everything I'd built my life on before Christ saved me?

What if the weeds growing up through the dirt floor were all the bad decisions I'd made without Christ in my life?

What if that old beat-down greenhouse represented our life before Christ saved us?

If you're a Christian, how do you see yourself today? Are you on the extreme--are you the shiny, everything's been overhauled, A-1 condition, brand new greenhouse?

Or do you see yourself as being somewhere in between the "before" & "after" picture?

Do you see yourself as having knocked off a lot of rust, but not all of it? When you look in the mirror in the morning do you see things that are still parts of the "before" pictures?

I'll just go out on a limb and be all "prophetic" and say that a lot of Christ followers would say they see themselves somewhere between the before & after pictures.

To answer that question, I'm going to barrage you with Scripture here for a moment, so if you brought your Bible it may be a skosh hard to keep up.

One of the things we see in the Bible is repetition; when a key point is found several times God wants it to have weight; emphasis.

All these passages are to believers. As you listen to these notice if the writer is talking about the future or something that's already been done. Do these talk about heaven or do these speak to our condition right now?

"And I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony heart of sin and give you a new, obedient heart." Ezekiel 36:26 nlt

"For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives." Roman 6:4 nlt

"Christ has brought us into this place of highest privilege where we now stand" Romans 5:2 nlt

"So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. For the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you through Christ Jesus from the power of sin that leads to death." Romans 8:1-2 nlt

"The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you..." Rom 8:11 nlt

"For you have been born again. Your new life did not come from your earthly parents because the life they gave you will end in death. But this new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God." 1 Peter 1:23

"What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun! All this newness of life is from God, who brought us back to himself through what Christ did" 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 nlt

"What counts is whether we really have been changed into new and different people." Galatians 6:15 nlt

I think the biggest leap of faith for you and me is to believe that when God saved us, He instantaneously made us into a new creation. That He made us into the shiny new greenhouse.

I think it can be somewhat easy to believe that Christ died for us, and that he forgives our sins. But when I look the same physically and even think the same way--sit's very hard to believe that God made me inside--in the invisible parts of me--a new creation.

I think we get to a point where we believe we're saved. But it's harder getting to the place where we believe that we are indeed remade, reborn shiny and new.

When you hear a preacher talk about getting in the game for God, do you think that you're not worthy to play anything but the smallest part?

We all do this. To varying degrees we are all guilty of seeing ourselves as the "nearly new creation." Guilty of seeing ourselves as accepted and forgiven, but not embracing the truth that we have been miraculously overhauled. Guilty of not drawing our identity from what God says is true of us.

Let me clarify something here: God makes us shiny new creations, but there is still room for maturity---still much room for us to grow.

In the greenhouse metaphor the shiny new greenhouse is done. But if you look at it, there's still plenty of untapped potential. There are no plants in there. There's shelves yet to be put up, a hose to figure out. No growth is happening inside of there yet. It's shiny and new but it's not yet unleashing life. It's new but still lots to do.

Being used to its potential will be a process, but today it's still a shiny new greenhouse.

Us reaching our potential in Christ will also be a process (we call it "maturing") but today we no less of a shiny new creation.

And this is how we must see ourselves. We are not full of rust and weeds, but we are new, ready to grow, full of potential and ready to be usedready for the Master Gardener to unleash life through us. Ready for Him to bring us to maturity.

We are not our past. We are not our sin. We are not our bad decisions. We are not our parents. We are not somewhere between the rusted old greenhouse & the shiny new one.

Let me add something here. Have you ever said, "I feel like God's not very close."?

Romans 8:11 that I read earlier said, "The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you."

There's no clause on that phrase like, "However the Holy Spirit does on occasion go out for pizza and leave you at home." Feelings are real, but feelings very often are not TRUE. Truth is Romans 8:11. Every Christ follower has a personality disorder: there's you in there and there's the Spirit in there.

Friends, as Christ followers we must reject the old way of seeing ourselves and embrace the reality that something miraculous, really did happen when we accepted Christand today regardless of how we feel the Holy Spirit has taken up residency IN YOU!! ///

In other words, God's plan for Christ followers is not one of polite mediocrity. Jesus is a revolutionary who gave His earthly life to start a revolution. This is a revolution where God unleashes new creations all over the planet to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ.

This is a revolution where we are not just polite Sunday attenders, but we are people God uses to bring HOPE to people who don't have any.

We are the new creation God wants to use to help people find freedom from the junk in this world that's killing them.

We are the new creation God is calling to be humble servants in a world that's all about "me."///

Let me give you a caution here: One of the big traps of not seeing ourselves as new creations is that we unintentionally become self-centered.

(setup "Me Church" video lighthearted extreme example of self-centeredness in the church)

When we fail to see ourselves as new creations, we unintentionally get focused on ourselves. If I feel like there are these parts of me that are still full of rust, if I feel like there are parts of me that God did not redeem, I get on a mission to fix parts of me that God has already overhauled.

And that can play out in the church in unhealthy ways unless we are very careful and very aware of what drives us.

The church is this place where lost people can come to find new life. And come to learn how to follow Christ. And once you start following Christ, He leads you right back out the door you came in.

Because He's not about making happy campers who camp out in safe churches. He's equipping a bunch of faith-filled, Holy Spirit indwelled revolutionaries to go out and live radically and love radically in the world.

We need to listen to our conversations and inner dialogue in the church. If we're not jazzed about something, if we're squawking about this or that in the church---if we're talking negatively about the churchthe Bride of Christ---Ask this question: Is this conversation "me-driven?" Or is it a holy discontent? In other words, if you could meet God in the flesh in the café after the service, would He say,

"Really? This is what has you in knots----the style of the worship? WowI love every style of worship"

"Not enough deeper teaching? Really? How deep does it have to be for you to love radically? Serve passionately. Read my word. Spend time with me. Give Me back a tenth from all that I've given to you. "

Or would He say, "Me too...that pains me too...now let's do something about it. I have been waiting for you to notice this and be irritated by this and step up because I have been dying to unleash you in this situation that needs hope that only I can provide...this is going to be awesome...be My hands & be My feet...and watch, watch what happens---watch what I do through you!!"

And let me be clear: there is an evil one and he works against God and His plans.

And one of the great deceptions the evil one uses is to get us focused on ourselves. And what a sneaky freaky plan---think about it--tempting us to be preoccupied with trying to fix the things in us that God already made new---which gets us focused on ourselves, which gets us focused on sidebar "Christian peaves" that don't advance the Kingdom.

"A self-focused soul is a contradiction in terms. Un-selfing is a godly turn of heart, a soul-way of being in the world." -Leonard Sweet "Soul Salsa"

When God made us new creations He freed us from being preoccupied with ourselves so that we could be focused on others. He's not making happy-on-Sunday-morning Christians, He's making revolutionaries who believe in the miraculous truth of their own transformation.

And just because we sin on occasion, we are not sinners. We WERE sinners. Now we are saints who on occasion sin. Sin is what we sometimes DO it is not who we ARE. We are new creations.

Most of us have trouble exchanging a worldly view of ourselves for one of a new shiny creation. So how do we do that? "Help me believe that. Help me internalize that."

The best thing we can do to cement this reality into our mind and soul is to Read His Word!!!!! Open the Bible every day!

Commercials tell us that if we want to be somebody we'll own a certain kind of car.

Commercials reinforce everything that's not working in our lives & tie it to our self-esteem--- so that their products can provide the solution.

America is a wonderful place; but it's very hard to have an identity that's not defined by our achievements, our financial status or the crowd we run with.

If my friends meet my picture of "people I'm proud to hang out with," I'm secure in who I am. And all of those things try to define me.

But life is fragile and I feel fragile when my identity is drawn from such unstable things as my job, finances and friends.

There is nothing fragile about the Bible. It is full of hope. Full of truth. Full of the unfolding never-ending story of a mighty & loving God who's madly in love with you.

We cannot read the Bible without seeing us as God sees us. And, it's a conduit for the Holy Spirit--it's a pipeline for the mysterious free flow of God to intersect our earthly lives.

The Bible helps us combat the worldly influences that try to define us. And we so need the Bible because the world is not something for us to avoid. It is the place where the revolution takes place.

And the world is nothing compared to the holiness of God that comes out of the pages of the Bible, into our soul and then out through our actions.

Culture isn't something for us to avoid--it's something for us to bring the Word of God into, by reading His Word and then living His word and then naturally spilling God stuff everywhere we go!

When we see a little kid in our home, waddling toward our light-colored carpet with a full glass of red cool aid, we freak the heck out! We know that cool aid is deadly and it stains and it's murder to get out.

In a really bizarre spiritual sense, I like to think that a Christ follower with a "read" Bible (r-e-a-d) is more dangerous than a thousand toddlers with red cool aid.

When you and I read the Word on a regular basis with a spirit of willingness to follow God in it, we are going to waddle around our world spilling the stuff of God everywhere, causing God-stains that nothing can remove.

And this amazing Bible can be read (r-e-a-d) and it's also full of red (r-e-d)--that is to say it's full of the amazing power of the red blood of Jesus Christ.

That's the mystery of the Bible--it's what makes it different from any other book on the planet. Jesus' red blood was spilled to pay everyone's debt. That's powerful blood. And that same power spills out into our heart, mind & soul when we read His Word.

That power transforms how we think, how we see the world, how we see others, how we see God and how we see ourselves.

The Bible is full of living power that was paid for with Christ's blood. It needs to be read because it is full of red. I dare you to read it.

See if you don't see yourself in a new way. Open the Bible and allow God to reflect your true identity---your true Christ-like image. Amen?

- Greenhouse provides an opportunity for life to flourish in a place where they otherwise couldn't.

- Christ followers provide an opportunity for God's Kingdom to flourish in places where it otherwise didn't.

- Christ followers won't stay up without Knowledge of the Word of God, w/o other brothers & sisters in Christ, and w/o time with God. We have to keep up our foundation because we're revolutionaries called to a revolution.

- If we keep working on the greenhouse outfitting it with this & that and are always getting it "ready"---if Sandra never puts any seeds and plants in there. There will never be any growth, no life. It'll just sit there.

- If we don't see ourselves as "ready" or "worthy" or as a "new creation" we'll never experience the life God is desperately calling us to.

If we focus all our energies on getting ourselves ready for the revolution, but the whole time stay safe in a church service, in essence, we too will just sit there.

- The focus of a Christ follower is Jesus Christ. It's hearing Him say, "Follow me. Be my hands, my feet, my disciple." Our focus is, "Not my will but THY will be done." (Matt 26:42) ///

So after all this greenhouse hoo-haw, what am I asking you to do when you leave here?

II'm calling you to get up every morning, look yourself in the mirror and define yourself NOT by what you did yesterday, or by the things you have NOT done in your life.

I'm asking you to EVERY DAY look yourself in the mirror and realize you are not your past, you are not your addiction, you are not your failed relationship, you are not your parent.

I'm asking you to look in the mirror every day and realize that feelings of inadequacy or not measuring up are not the true reflections of you. (pause)

I am asking you to get up every morning and realize that you are a new creation. You are a redeemed son or daughter of your Father in heaven.

Realize that you are worthyyou are so worthy and so valuable that Jesus Christ hung a cross to pay your way into God's Holy family.

I am asking you to look yourself in the mirror every morning and realize that God wants YOU to play a major role in His plan of redeeming this world to Himself.

If this is hard for you to grasp. If you have trouble seeing yourself the way that your Holy Father does; then take this simple prayer (handout) and tape it to your mirror:

If you struggle with being a new creation, I challenge you to do this for the next 30 days. Get back with me and let me know what happened.

God has made you a new creation---you are now a fellow revolutionary and you are part of a revolution that started when a Man hung on a cross and then rose again in three days.