Friday, July 7, 2017

Who is God?

This article was written for the Oakland Independent July 5, 2017 addition.

Last week I wrote that we should be fine with expressing our unique ideas and listening to the ideas of other people. This week and next I wanted to share some of the ideas that make traditional Christianity unique compared to other worldviews. What I mean by traditional or "orthodox" Christians are those who hold to foundational beliefs that have historically set us apart from other religions and other sects who claim to be Christian. The core Christians beliefs would be held by Protestants like Evangelical Free, Baptists, Covenant, Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and most Pentecostal churches like the Assembly of God. Furthermore, older churches like the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox churches, and Episcopalians / Anglicans would also official hold these ideas. For all our divisions, Christian churches still hold many core beliefs in common.

The first area of agreement is in answer to the question, "Who is God?"

We believe in one God who is creator of all other things (Genesis 1, Deuteronomy 6:4, Isaiah 45:5,6). Now to many of us in the Midwest, who only know a one God religion, this might seem obvious, but our society is becoming more pluralistic. We live next to and around many people who perhaps believe in multiple gods or lesser gods associated with the natural world. Furthermore, many people are secular and do not believe in anything outside of the physical world, whether it be one God or other spiritual forces.

Christianity is even distinct from the other two "one God" religions, Judaism and Islam, because we believe in one God, who eternally exists in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons. This concept called "the Trinity" is unique to Christianity and is very often misunderstood by those inside and outside the church. One common misunderstanding claims that we believe in three gods, when in fact we believe that members of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit, are eternally unified because they share the very nature or being of God. We claim then that God is one in essence and purpose, but still exists as three persons.  

Another misconception of the Trinity, denies that God is really three persons. Some people claim that the Father, the Son and the Spirit are simply different manifestations of the same person, like the same water existing as ice, liquid or steam. Others deny the divine nature of Jesus and / or the Holy Spirit. For us, if someone denies the Trinity in one of these ways, they do not believe in the same God and that separates you from true Christianity.

The plainest teaching of the Bible makes the truth of the Trinity clear, and the early church leaders wrestled against many of the same misunderstandings we still see today. They declared non-Trinitarian ideas about God to be wrong, and therefore those who believed them were not true Christians. In fact, these truths about God's nature are really just a restatement of the early Christian creeds, which were written to respond to some of the early misconceptions of God (called heresies).

To restate, Christians believe in one Trinitarian God who is apart from and created everything else, and those who believe something else about God are not real Christians because they believe in a different God. Next week, I will present the idea that Christians believe there is only one way to God, namely through the person and work of Jesus. If you disagree with me, I invite you to write a letter to the editor to start, not an argument, but a conversation. As a Christian, I would love to hear what you believe about reality and have a continued discussion about these important ideas.




Thursday, July 6, 2017

Mike Sechler Sermon Archive 2017

Here are the links to the my sermon audios for the last year. Some of them you can play on the website while some of them will have to download to hear.

I am preaching through Luke this year, so most of my sermons are directly from that series. I may have few holiday sermons interspersed. Also sometimes the recordings don't work and so I may miss a Sunday or two. Finally, several other leaders also preach for me and if you are interested in hearing their sermons, go to this link for all the sermons from Oakland EFC.

1/8/17 “Who Should You Love?” (Luke 10:25-37)

1/15/17 "One Thing is Necessary” (Luke 10:38-42)

1/22/17 “Teach Us to Pray” (Luke 11:1-13)

1/29/17 “The Strongest Man” (Luke 11:14-26)

2/5/17 “Signs of a Dark Heart” (Luke 11:27-54)


2/12/17 Live Fearlessly! (Luke 12:1-12)

2/19/17 Biblical Investment Strategies (Luke 12:13-34)

3/5/17 Follow Jesus Now (Luke 12:49-59)

3/12/17 Turn Around and Be Fruity (Luke 13:1-9)




4/9/17 Focus on the Finish (Luke 9:51 and 19:28-40) Audio starts at about 17 Minutes.

4/16/17 Do You Recognize Jesus? (Easter Sunday, various passages)





6/11/17 Should You Follow the King or the Law? Luke 16:14-17




Wednesday, July 5, 2017

You are Wrong!

This was originally written for the Oakland Independent on June 28, 2017.

I think you're wrong. I don't know what everyone who reads this article believes but I am sure that on some issues we disagree and I think you're wrong. If I did not think I was right, I would stop believing it.

Furthermore, we cannot both be right when we believe things that contradict one another. We all know this in the physical world. If you step in front of a moving bus, one of you is going to win, you or the bus! Likewise, in areas of politics and religion, everyone cannot be right because we are often believe contradictory things. For instance, believing that the government should fund a single payer healthcare system cannot be reconciled with the idea that everyone should pay for their own healthcare individually. Likewise, you cannot logically believe both that Jesus was just a good human teacher and also believe that he is the Son of God and one of the three persons in the Trinity.

In polite society we sometimes simply refuse to talk about these issues or gloss over real differences to keep the peace. Often I think we do this because we are not sure about what we believe and why we believe it, so talking about it makes us uncomfortable.

I want to challenge you to be willing think and talk about what you believe about what might be called spiritual questions, such as: Does God exist? Did Jesus rise from the dead? Is any religion true and if so why? The Apostle Peter tells Christians that we need to be prepared to give an answer for the hope that we have within us (1 Peter 3:15), so we should be thinking about these questions anyway.

When we begin to study and talk about these ideas, we should be prepared to be challenged by those who disagree. If what you believe is true then it should hold up to the challenges, but you will have to study more to discover why it is true. You may find that in some things you were wrong, while in other areas your beliefs are strengthened.

I am currently in long conversations with two religious people who are not traditional Christians and one secular person. I have not lost my faith in Jesus, but I have been challenged to study and understand it more. I am more convinced of the truth of Christianity, but I have learned that I was often wrong about what they believed. In the process my life has been enriched getting to know them, and I have had the opportunity to share what I believe is true.

Christians can tolerate people who believe different things, because no matter what they believe God created them in His image, so they are valuable. We can love them even we think their ideas are wrong. In fact, as Christians we are commanded to go into the world to share about Jesus. In practice this will mean both showing people that we love in concrete physical ways, and showing them we love them by telling them about Jesus, even if they do not believe us.

As ambassadors for Jesus we can be both humble and knowledgeable, loving and clear. In this way, we can seek to tell people what we think is the truth while still respecting them enough to listen to them tell us we are wrong.

Of course, maybe you think I am wrong about my approach. You should write a letter to the editor and tell me why so I can hear about it!