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    Sep 20, 2015

    Sunday's Message: John Wesley and 3 Simple Rules

    Sunday's Message: John Wesley and 3 Simple Rules

    Passage: Colossians 3:12-17

    Speaker: Sue Wright, Lay Leader

    Series: John Wesley and...

    Category: Discipleship

    John Wesley’s 3 Simple Rules are: 1. Do No Harm 2. Do Good 3. Stay in Love with God

    Good Morning! Today is Laity Sunday! That means that Vivian gets to sit and worry about what I might have to say up here today!! If you want to see a practical application of prayer in action, keep an eye on her this morning while I’m up here speaking.

    Today we are continuing our sermon series about John Wesley. Last week we talked about how John had been a priest for many years in the Church of England, and it wasn’t until his “heart was strangely warmed” that he truly understood that the Grace God gives us cannot be earned. It is God’s gift to each and every one of us.

    The message this morning is going to focus on John Wesley’s 3 Simple Rules. John Wesley realized that the lives of people of faith can be pretty messy. He believed that living a holy and good life required help from a caring community, commitment to the practice of spiritual discipline, and ongoing instruction. Now today, just like it was in the 1700s, our world is a confusing place and change is taking place at a faster pace than ever which means that we need some simple rules that can cut through the complexities of life and keep us walking in the footsteps of Jesus. Knowing that John really liked to have rules and structure, he came up with a list of General Rules that were a practical application of what it meant to follow Christ. All of those rules were distilled down into something called the “3 Simple Rules.” I think the United Methodist Book of Discipline has something like 800 pages of rules and regulations for the Methodist Church. “3 Simple Rules” sounds like something that is much more palatable to applying in our everyday lives and they are just as relevant today as they were almost 300 years ago.

    John Wesley’s 3 Simple Rules are:
    1. Do No Harm
    2. Do Good
    3. Stay in Love with God

    Let’s start with “Do no harm”. Let’s see… We have the 10 Commandments. There’s a lot of “Thou shalt nots” listed there. We don’t do a lot of those things because we know those things are wrong and hurt people. We don’t murder, steal, lie, cheat or commit adultery, right? Those things are all bad. All of these things were known in Moses’s time when folks were pretty limited in their ability to reach large groups of people. Think of the ease with which modern people can travel all over the world to interact with others. Think of how easy it is to reach out via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. Most people can have a global reach with whatever they want to do or say... That can be either really good or really bad… What additional Commandments would we have today with all of these tools for interacting with each other? I bet the list would get quite a bit longer.

    I’m pretty sure John Wesley didn’t want us to keep on making up more and more detailed lists about what not to do. Just reading them all would take so long you wouldn’t be able to actually go do anything… He was trying to give us a way to focus our thoughts, words, and actions, and think about how they affect others. We need to stop every once in a while and ask ourselves, did any of my words or actions this week cause someone harm? During this coming week, when passions and emotions are running high because of all the obstacles that come my way, can I make sure that my attitudes and words and actions don’t cause anyone harm? By intentionally deciding to not harm others every day, maybe I might just be able to hold my tongue when someone does or says something hurtful to me. Remember what Romans 12:17 says “Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought of what is noble in the sight of all.” If all of us can keep that thought in our minds at all times, we might be better at tempering our desire to “get even” or strike back. This a lot harder to do than it ought to be.

    John Wesley realized that avoiding doing harm wasn’t good enough so he included “Do Good” in the rules.

    Here are John Wesley’s exact words:

    “It is therefore expected of all who continue in Methodist societies and classes that they should continue to evidence their desire for salvation….by doing good; by being in every kind merciful after their power; as they have opportunity, doing good of every possible sort, as far as possible, to all….”

    This is very similar to John Wesley’s most famous quote:

    “Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can.”

    Here are some examples of doing good:

    Do good to all – “to their bodies, of the ability which God giveth, by giving food to the hungry, clothes to the naked, by visiting and helping them that are sick or in prison.”

    First, do good by caring for people’s physical, and bodily needs. It is in our Methodist DNA that religion is as much about the physical as it is the spiritual.

    We have many ministries where we care for people’s physical needs through our church. We provide food to the needy through our Food Pantry and Our Daily Bread. We provide meals and fellowship through the Coffee House, Mission of Mercy Lunch, and Community Kitchen events to all who come. We send VIM groups all over the country where we help build and repair churches and homes. His Hands and Feet ministry caters to the needs of the unhoused in our community. The list goes on, in very real ways that we help others. There are many volunteers in our church family that make these ways of doing good a priority in their life.

    Wesley also stated that we should do good by caring for people’s souls. He thought we should take time to really speak with, and listen to, other people…

    I don’t know about you, but when I am caught up in my daily routine and I’m trying to get through all the items on my “to do” list, the last thing on my mind is to stop and have a deep conversation with someone. I feel a lot like Martha in the story of Martha and Mary. I’m rushing around to make sure everything gets done instead of taking the time to listen to Jesus like Mary did. Maybe we don’t have the daily opportunity to sit and listen to Jesus speak, but we have many others that we may see that we could also spend more time really talking to.

    How many times have you run into someone and you run through the script: “How are you?” “Fine. How are you?” “Fine”…. Next!! We rush through our greeting because we’re trying to get to the “next thing.” What if that brief interaction is the only chance that someone has to speak to a person today and you handled it with a quick brush off like that? I think both Jesus and Wesley would want us to take time whenever we can, and make time when we can’t, to really stop and speak with the people we run into. It may not get our “to do” list done, but it could have a profound impact on the person you spend the time with. Offer an encouraging word or simply provide a willing ear. Each one of us is capable of doing that.

    Finally, Wesley wants us to stay in love with God. Wait a minute…. Stay in Love with God??? What exactly does that mean? First off, you have to consider that “love” is more than an emotion or feeling; it’s also an action. To understand how to stay in love with God, consider how children spell “love”… Does anyone know?? They spell it T.I.M.E! Time!! I think this is what Wesley is trying to say when he tells us to stay in love with God. Do this by spending TIME with God.

    We can do that by doing the simple acts that allow us to spend time with God. I think this would include things like prayer, reading and reflecting on God’s word, praise and worship…

    Think about prayer, prayer is just conversation with God. It is talking to God and then being quiet so we can listen to God. We all know that any good relationship, whether it is a marriage, or the relationship with our children or friends needs conversation. We need to be able to talk with one another and share our hopes, dreams and needs with others and when we do this, our relationships grow. No healthy relationship can survive without conversation, no marriage can survive without good communication, no family can remain strong without sharing and listening to one another and every friendship needs times where we can speak and where we sit together in silence, and the same is true in our relationship with God.

    There is no way we can stay in love with God without good communication with God. We need times to share our hopes and dreams, fears and doubts with God. If we are willing to listen, God will do the same with us. God has hopes and dreams for us, God has fears and concerns for us and God wants to share those with us if we would stop and listen.

    I’m always amazed at people that hear God speak to them. I keep waiting for the booming voice to come out of the sky and say something profound to me. Hasn’t happened yet… Well, maybe it has but the radio or TV was on too loud and I didn’t hear it. Maybe I need to stop… and listen… Then I might hear what God has to say to me. I’m guessing many of you too would benefit from doing the same. Each of us can take the time to pray, read, and reflect. We can make spending time with God our top priority (and you can DVR Dancing with the Stars).
    So, to wrap things up here, remember Wesley’s 3 Simple Rules that each of us can apply to our every day lives:

    1. Do no harm – decide NOT to harm others, and guard our thoughts, words and actions.
    2. Do Good – All the good we can in all the ways we can; we’re only limited by our creativity.
    3. Stay in Love with God – do this by spending TIME with God each and every day.

    I pray that each of you will keep these rules in mind this week and see what kind of a difference it will make in your week if you can keep Wesley’s rules in mind. I hope that you will see how they can free you to become a better disciple of Christ. Amen!