A People Led by the Spirit

A people led by the Spirit

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
Ga 5:16-26

13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Ro 8:13-14

I want to tell you about what Impact is going to look like in the fall. Changes are coming for us, and they are good changes. But before I tell you about changes that will take place, I want to tell you what I would love to see Impact be in the Fall. What is it that we as leaders are pushing Impact to become? What direction do we want it to go? I want to talk about this because I want you to hear it, and then think “yes, that is what I want too, that is the direction I want to go”, or, I want you to say “no, that is not for me. I don’t want that.” I want you to understand what you really think. I want you to see the truth of where you are with God in your walk with Him. But really I want to find those in here who are going to say “yes, I will do that with you. That is what I want.” And many of you may not. Some of you may act like you will say “yes, I will!” but your heart is far from it, and you have never joined in in what we are doing. So what are we doing?

I would summarize the direction of Impact for this next year as this- A people who gather together in the Holy Spirit.
Before I explain what that means, let me show you what I want to see happen here.
Right now this instant, I wonder if there is anything I could name that would drive all of you to be excited about it. Any one thing. Just consider this- is there one thing that all of us would be excited about together? What has the power to unite us?
What if I said let’s all have pizza?
Let’s all go to the movies?
Let’s all go on a trip to Florida?
Let’s start an orphanage?
What would unite us? And if we found something that did unite us, would we find that it is something Christian?


Having the Spirit of God
What in the world does that mean? To “Gather in the Holy Spirit”?
Let me first explain something I think is very important for us to understand. All Christians have the Holy Spirit. He indwells them.

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
Jn 14:15-17

And as He indwells them, some things happen in them. Listen, one of the best ways for us to understand, or examine, if we are in the faith is to understand this concept.
Let me say something that is going to sound weird- Every human being on earth is led by a spirit. Every one of us in this room is led by a Spirit. Does that sound crazy?
Well, read Ephesians 2 with me, and tell me if I am crazy or not.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.Eph 2:1-10

It seems to sound like we all once were following a spirit. We were led by the spirit of the prince of the power of the air, and because of that we followed the course of this world. We carried out the desires of the flesh and the mind, we were under wrath.
But, if God has made us new, then we are no longer dead in sin. We are born again- and we now qualify as those who Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to in John 14. So we are all led by a Spirit.
Friends, what spirit are you led by today? What spirit led you to this place? What spirit led you to do what you did this week? What spirit controls you each day and help you decide what it is you do?


How can we tell what spirit we have leading us?
Turn with me to Romans 8.

14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Ro 8:14

Here we have in this verse a sure statement of how God’s children are. Those who are led by His Spirit. They are His children. So, we can say without a doubt that anyone who is led by the Spirit of God is a child of God, a believer. This is good- because it is not like other things that we often use to tell if we are in the faith. You see, there are things that believers AND unbelievers can claim. We can not say “those who are baptized as children of God”, because unbelievers do this. We can not say “those who believe in Jesus are children of God”, because many unbelievers, and even the demons, they believe in Jesus. We can not say those who God to church, or tell others about Jesus, or try and be good, or who don’t smoke, or who have certain feelings about Jesus, none of this can be used as evidence that we are believers, because even unbelievers do these things. So here we have a statement that cuts all of that out- here we have something that only is for believers. Being led by the Spirit of God. Never, ever will an unbeliever be led by the Spirit of God, because ALL who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

But what does that mean?
You see, it does us no good to hear this and then have no idea what it means to be led by the Spirit of God. And we have to be careful, because it is a bit tricky. There are those in the OT, for instance, who are “led” in a sense by God’s Spirit to do this or that, and they are not God’s children. (i.e. Balaam) So, what does this mean?
Well, do you see the word at the beginning of verse 14- “for”? That means that this thought is joined (“for” is a conjunction) to the thought before it in verse 13. So let’s look at verse 13.

13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Ro 8:13

That last part of the verse is the thought we are looking for- if by the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the body. That seems to be what is meant by being “led” by the Spirit of God in verse 14. At least we must say that, from the context, it is one big part of what it means.
So then, we can ask this- “Are we putting to death the deeds of the body”? In other words, are we making war on sin in our lives?

But again, it gets tricky- because there are unbelievers that seem to work to destroy sin in their lives. There are unbelievers who try and kill sin, aren’t there?
No.
Unbelievers never ever do this. But you might say “that’s not true! I know an unbeliever who tries to not lie, or smoke, or etc.” what do we make of this?
Listen. Unbelievers who try and do good are sinning even in the good they try and do. This is because of the motive behind why they do what they do. They are not trying to stop lying in order to glorify God, or because of any love for Christ. They do it because they don’t want to get caught. It’s selfish. They do it because they want to feel good about themselves. They do it because they want to produce their own righteousness so they can boast before God. These are all sin. This is not putting to death the deeds of the body, it is just exchanging one deed of the body for another.
Christians put to death the deeds of the body because they see Christ as more valuable than those deeds, and they want Him, not those deeds. Christians put to death the deeds of the body in order to be more like Christ, so that the world would see more of Him in us. These are things that unbelievers never do.

So now ask yourself- do you ever put to death the deeds of the body? Do you ever try and fight sin because of a love for Christ, and a desire to make Him known? In other words- does the Spirit lead you to turn from sin because its just ugly to you? Do you really feel that pull of the Spirit away from it? Or is it that your life really is not filled with turning from sin? And its not just turning from sin, but its also doing what is right!
The two lists- one that we will see less and less of- and the one we will see more and more of- are found in the text we read earlier-

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Do you see what the fruit is? No no, I mean, do you see what it comes from? It is fruit of the Spirit! Not fruit of the human! It comes from the Spirit’s work in us. Do you see this in you? Do you see a growth in love? Do you love those around you in this room? Do you love to be with them, or do you resist it? I fear there are those who do not like it. They don’t want to be like the others, the don’t want to be like “him” or “her”, and so they despise the very children of God, and in pride will not join together with other believers, even if that means casting aside God’s purpose for them. is that you? Do you actually have hate toward believers?
What about joy? Or peace? Do you bring peace with you were you go? Or do you simply criticize and bring up what is wrong? Kindness? Do you see what I am getting at here? I am not saying that you have to live a perfect life to prove you are a Christian. Not at all. I am saying this;
1- if you are led by the Spirit of God you will be being led to put to death the deeds of the flesh
2- if you are led by the Spirit of God, you will see more and more of His fruit in your life as you grow.

Do you see either of these things? How is your life different from an unbeliever? Because you talk about Jesus? Because you know certain facts? Because you read certain books? Because your music is different? Or are you led by the Spirit?


Where do the spirits lead?

The spirit of the world leads to death. Do you understand that? The spirit of the world is leading those we love, those around us, toward eternal death.

The Spirit of God leads to life- and more. He leads us to groan inwardly for that day when Christ returns. He leads us to want to fight. He gives us a common theme- a common thing that will excite us.
For instance- the mercy of God. Look at the display of God’s mercy in John 8 with the woman caught in the act of adultery. Does anyone here see such beauty in that mercy that they think “I want the world to know about that”? that is the Spirit working in you to want to make that known. And it is that that we must focus on and let unite us.


What results this should have at Impact
Now, my point in all of that is to explain that not all have the Spirit. Some are led by the spirit of the world, and so they do what the world does. I want impact, the leaders here are leading impact, to be a place where we do what those who are led by the Spirit do. This is the direction we are going to for the next year. Living together being led by the Spirit. Because when those who have the Spirit of God in them gather together, that Spirit leads them together as well!
Who leads you when you gather? What Spirit? When you gather are you led by the Spirit of God or the Spirit of the world? What does your time together look like? The world? Or something else?
Now, I know what often is thought when I say that- isn’t it ok to sometimes gather like the world? Ok, listen. I don’t even want to debate that- I don’t think it is good to gather in the spirit of the world, ever- why? Do you know who the Spirit of the world is? The Bible tells us- the prince of the power of this age. The enemy. But let’s just say its ok to sometimes gather in a worldly way. It’s ok to sometimes act like they act, and joke like they joke, and laugh at what they laugh at, and do the same things they do. Lets say its ok- now, let me ask you, if you do gather in that way and feel like it’s ok- do you ever- EVER- gather in any OTHER Spirit? And, can THIS be the place that happens? Or do you find that all you ever want to do is gather in a worldly spirit, and do the things of the world?

I want this to be a place where those who are led by the Spirit of God can be led by the Spirit of God together. No matter what differences we may have, no matter how different we are personally. No matter what differences there are in what we like to do, or what we like to eat, or what we like to listen to, or what we like to do in our spare time- if we are led by the same spirit, we will find a unity when we gather together.

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Php 2:1-2

You see- participation in the Spirit, this is the reason for one mind, same love, being in “Full accord.” That means being in harmony. If I played three notes in a piano and they did not go together, there would not be “accord.” But if I play the three that compliment, that go together, though they are different, they agree- they are “in accord”- or in a chord! This agreement is what all Christians do have when they gather.


14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
2 Co 13:14

This is what Paul wished for the believers. This fellowship of the Holy Spirit. This is what I want for us- the same Spirit leading us all. Fighting together for the same cause. Dancing for joy together because of the same truth. Loving the same God together, shining the same light together.

Now, I know for a fact that there are believers in this room. And so I say to you believers- you have the same Spirit- stop resisting that Spirit, and join together in that same Spirit, and fight together!
What would that mean?

-It would mean spending time together.
-It would mean talking together about what He is saying to you.
-It would mean serving together to show Him to the world.
-It would mean enjoying one another so much more than you do.

How would Impact serve you in these ways?
1- It would continue to serve you with pictures of Christ’s beauty, that we could all grow more and more in love with Him.
2- it would provide for you other like-minded believers to fight along side you and encourage and equip you.
3- it would provide a place to fight, and to reach out to others.

Are we too familiar with Jesus?

Impact message summer 08 Mark 5:21-6:6
Are we too familiar with Jesus?

21 And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. 22 Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet 23 and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” 24 And he went with him.
And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. 25 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, 26 and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. 28 For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” 29 And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30 And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” 31 And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’ ” 32 And he looked around to see who had done it. 33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. 34 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
35 While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler’s house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” 36 But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” 37 And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. 38 They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39 And when he had entered, he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” 40 And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. 41 Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” 42 And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. 43 And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

Jesus Rejected at Nazareth
6 He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. 2 And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? 3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. 4 And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” 5 And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And he marveled because of their unbelief.
And he went about among the villages teaching.
Mk 5:21-6:6


Maybe you know Jesus too well? Maybe you are too familiar with Him? So much so that he is not honored in your life?
Could that really be your problem? Too much knowledge of Jesus? What do I mean by that?
Two groups
Let’s take a look at two groups of people in the verses we read today, and let’s ask what one of these two groups we are most like. This is really what I want for you today- to see what group here you are most like, and in seeing that, to learn what you must change.

Group one
The first group is found in the end of chapter 5 of Mark. First we have Jairus, a man whose daughter is sick, and he comes and falls down before Jesus. He is a well respected man, a leader, one of the religious elite among the Jews. And he falls at Jesus’ feet.
Second we have a sick woman. She is of little value in her culture. She is perhaps not well known. If she once was rich, she isn’t anymore, because she has spent all her money on a fix to her problem. It has not come. And now she is desperate, she has heard of this Jesus, this healer- and only if she can touch him- no- just touch his garments, just a corner of his cloak. That’s all.

Do you have anything in common with these two people. Let’s not even look at the fact that both of them got what they wanted from Christ. Let’s just look at a few things about them that I think really make them stand out.

1- both of them realized that they had a desperate need.
Their need was so obvious. It hurt them, it was life changing. To be sick, so sick that you didn’t know if you would live. To have a loved one, a dear loved one sick, and perhaps going to die, perhaps soon. This is a need like no other. Neither of these two could ignore the need they had, and it hurt.
Are you like that at all? Do you have a need? Any need at all? A need that is so big that you are desperate for it to be fixed? I think that sometimes some of us have understanding that we are needy, but I wonder if we have all come to see our biggest needs. What is your biggest need? Friends? Momentary comfort? Popularity? The approval of people? Removal of sin? Love for God? Mercy? Healing in your heart? What is it? Do you see a need in your life, a great need?


2- both of them realized that Jesus could meet that need, and knew the cost of seeking Him out.
They realized the need, and that Christ was the only solution to that need. And they realized the cost of seeking out Jesus to have that need met.
For the woman, we don’t know all that that meant. It might seem at first that it was very easy for her to come to Jesus. What else did she have to lose? Yet, it was costly. Can you imagine telling your family you are done with doctors, you are going to go to this faith healer to be made well? What kind of a reaction would that bring? Especially one like Jesus, so controversial in his time.
But with the synagogue leader we find a clear display of the cost. This man is well known and well respected. A leader in the synagogue- he has a religion, he has a God, he has a faith. He has priests. He has connections. What is it going to look like if he goes and falls at the feet of the teacher who is fighting against the very system he represents? What humility would this take? He is ending many friendships, destroying much of his influence. He will lose a ton of approval by this act. There is cost here.
What has it cost you to be His follower? Have you had a need that you have seen, a great need, and you have gone to Christ to have it met, and it has cost you? Are you like these people?

And both of them realize that Jesus is the only hope they have. There is nothing else to go to. This man knows this, and he has no time to waste. The woman knows this so well. She has spent all she has to find a cure for her problems. Are you like that? Have you looked everywhere else to find a cure for your needs? Have you looked everywhere else to be satisfied, to have love and life? And have you found all other places leave you empty?

This is where we find this first group- knowing their need, and seeing Christ as the only way to fix what is wrong, and they go to him, no matter what the cost, they go.
Is that like you?
Or are you like group two?

Group two
Our second group is in chapter 6, the first few verses.
Jesus goes home and speaks in the synagogue in his hometown. And the people in his town, they are the second group. And they have a really interesting reaction to Jesus. They do not seem to see any need for Jesus at all. In fact, we find out two things about this group of people. When Jesus stands up and speaks to them, and they see the wisdom he has, and when they hear of the great miracles he has performed, they do two things.
First, they are offended by him. And second, according to Jesus, they dishonor Him.

Why? Why are they offended, and why do they dishonor him? And before I tell you why, let me tell you that I believe that we often have way too much in common with this group, and I wonder if our lives dishonor him, and I wonder if we are offended by him. Let me explain.

The reason they are offended by him is that they knew him too well. Or so they thought. Think about it. Imagine you are one of these people, and Jesus comes to your village. You know him. Maybe you grew up with him. Maybe you were friends with his mom and dad. He made the table in your home, or maybe he once repaired the plow you use with your oxen. You played with him in the streets as a kid. Or you were one of his family. You ate breakfast with him. You heard him cry as a baby. In other words, you are very familiar with Jesus. You think you know him so very well. Maybe you think you know him better than most people. You know Jesus- and everything on the surface looks good- you look like people from Jesus’ home town. His close friends, His family. Everything looks great!
And he comes back home, you haven’t seen him for a year or two, and now he claims to be some great leader. There are rumors that he is doing all kinds of miracles. And he comes to your town, has the nerve to speak and teach in the synagogue as if he is someone, and he does so with great authority. He shares all these wise words, and challenging things. He comes to your town as if he had some great importance.
This offends you. How dare he think he is all that important? Who does he really think he is? This is just Jesus- the one you know so well. He does not deserve such special treatment. And what claims he makes! He is really suggesting that he- HE- is the Messiah? The Savior that is coming into the world? Right- the guy who fixed my plow is the savior of the world. Get real. And now he expects me to honor him? Yeah, right.
That is what they are thinking guys. They know him so well, that they cant honor him. They are locked into their own little view of who he is, and they cant see the real Jesus. And the Jesus that they know, that they think they know, he does not deserve such honor as this. He does not deserve to make such demands of us. There is no way we are going to think that we need him, that is for sure. What could we need from him? This Jesus claims to be our savior?! Come on! No way!


Just like us?
And that is us. Too often, that is us. We all think we know him, and maybe we did not grow up in Jesus’ home, but maybe as we grew up Jesus was in our homes. He was talked about, we went to church, we heard all about him. Even if he wasn’t talked about in our homes, we live in a world where he is talked about, and we all formed opinions about this Jesus. We know him, we are familiar with him. He is the one we pray to before we eat. He is the one we sing to on Sunday morning. He is the one we talked about with those friends of ours who did not go to church. We know Jesus. He is the one we think about at Christmas when we give each other gifts. He is the reason we have VBS, and why we read our bibles. We know him very well.

But what I am suggesting is perhaps we are a bit like this second group, in that we grew up with him for sure, and we think we know him very well, but really we are missing a huge part of who he is. We feel no need, and there has been little or no cost in going to him. If in fact we have ever gone to him for anything at all.


How can we know?
Is there some way for us to tell if we are like this second group? Yes. Not only can we look to see if we have ever really gone to Jesus with a desperate need that only he can fill, but we can ask if we are offended by Him.
What I mean is, when Christ comes and suggests to you that your life honor Him, are you offended by his request? When he suggests you need him to be a savior for you, do you believe it? This is helpful, because when Jesus is demanding a level of honor that we do not want to give, either Jesus is assuming too much, that he really deserves something that we know he doesn’t, or the truth is he is much different than we think, and if we saw what he really was, we would not hesitate to give him that honor.
So how do you respond to his request to be honored in your life?

A request to be honored
Here is where we get so much wrong. We do not understand the requests he is making. Let me share them with you. This is one of the things impact is here to do- to come to those who maybe are like those who are in his hometown, and reveal who he really is saying he is, and what he really is suggesting that you do for him. How you should honor Him. Because when we look at the honor he requests and see how our heart reacts, it tells us so much about where we are in relation to him. It tells us if we are in that second group.

What is the honor that he requests from you? Are you willing to give it? Are you giving it currently? Let’s look at it- but ask yourself- as you hear his requests, and what He demands, are you offended? Ask yourself if you are surprised to hear these things. Maybe you have a Jesus you are very familiar with, who makes few demands on your life, but who really is not the real Jesus at all.
So let’s look at what Jesus himself said- and I want you to see it is Him saying it, not me. I don’t want you to be able to make any excuses as to what this all means, because you live in a world where there are so many excuses as to why this all does not have to be. And when you hear these you might hear them differently than what they really mean. You might have a very tame, easy way to understand what I am about to read. Or you may have no idea how badly you don’t honor him in these ways, because you refuse to examine your life, and your heart, and see what is important to you. But listen to what Jesus says-


37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.Mt 10:37-39


25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Lk 14:25-26

33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.Lk 14:33

Jesus demands that the love that we have for Him be greater than the love we have for all other things. Maybe “demands” is not the right word- Jesus explains that if we really know Him, then the love that we have for Him WILL be greater than all other loves. And will lead us to be able to say “I will renounce all things.”
Have you done that? Have you renounced all things? Just like the blank check that John talked about this morning- are you able right now to go to God and open your hands up, and say ‘take anything, I am completely yours”?
Listen, does it seem crazy to you that Jesus might ask you to not laugh at sin? Watch certain movies? Stop caring what certain people think of you? Stop trying to meet what the world says is beauty? Dress in a way that you look different than the world? Spend your summer at a camp, in 90 degree weather, for little pay, to tell kids about Christ? Call everyone who is of impact age and remind them to come out because you want them to know the truth, and you want to show them you love them? Spend time with believers talking about God and praying, and not just acting like the rest of the world does when they are together? Do you look for excuses to not do those things, because they seem really hard? They seem too much? The Jesus you know doesn’t demand them, right? And you are offended by the suggestion that you should give them up? Or more than that- what if I said to you, guys, let’s start a revolution. Lets all, those who are here right now, commit to living life differently. Let’s not just meet for impact- let’s meet to discuss and plan how to impact this church, this community, this world for Christ, and let’s start by helping one another grow closer to God. Is that crazy? Would it be worth it to you?

If we look at our hearts and see this lack of an honoring of Him, if we think that we would be offended by such requirements, if we think maybe we don’t love him most, maybe we really just don’t know him. We have not seen a need for him, a need that only he can meet, and we haven’t, at great cost, gone to him to have that need met.

We are too familiar with Jesus. How could Jesus expect such a dramatic change in us? Isn't this the guy we know so well? Why should he require such things? It’s just Jesus. Right? He doesn’t want all that. We know plenty of people who follow him who love a lot of things more than him, right? They aren’t so serious about Jesus. So why should we be?
Friends, you may have not met him.

Knowing the wrong Jesus
We think so wrongly about Jesus. We think we know him, but we don’t. We miss out on so much that he is because we stop looking to know him- we think we already do. Maybe we don’t. I have tried to explain this to you in the past months. Maybe we don’t know him. To know him means radical, life changing decisions. It means living life as a revolutionary, seeking change in the world. Are you doing that? Where is the change you are seeking? What change are you seeking? Oh, if we would only see the real Jesus.
Like the second group, we think “can the guy who repaired my plow really be the savior of the world?” Can He really demand such honor as that?
So let’s try and think rightly about Jesus. let's think differently- not, "can the Jesus who made my plow really be the savior of the world?", but, "can the maker of the sun really care to know my name?"
not "can the Jesus who's name I have sung since I was five, and has really never changed me, really expect me to live for him like that?", but instead, "can the God of lightning and thunder, who I have doubted and dishonored from birth, really be willing to die for me? really be willing to have a personal, close, relationship with me?"

The real Jesus
Let’s look at the real Jesus. I know many times you have looked at Jesus, many times you have heard of Him, and sung of Him, and thought about Him. Please, stop and consider. Who is this real Jesus? Don’t just think you know Him.
To look at the real Jesus, to see the real Jesus, you first have to see your real need.

Need for a savior
What is your real, deepest need, the one that is greater than all others? From an eternal perspective, your greatest need is far more than you might think. People often see their needs as very small and temporary. You ask them what they need prayer for, and it’s for a test coming up, or a small problem they have with a friend, all fine things to pray for- but do we see our greatest need. Sometimes we are like people in a great ship that is slowly sinking. It is in frigid water, and it is going down, and when it sinks we will be dead. Like the Titanic- imagine those on board the titanic, as it sunk, imagine one of them coming to you and asking you for help with picking out an outfit for the party that night. Or asking for advice as to how to handle some other small problem. Wouldn’t you want to point out to them that the boat is sinking, and those things really didn’t matter if they ended up in the cold water?
Do you really understand your need, the need that every one of us in this room was born with? You were born with a tremendous debt, and that debt has accumulated since your birth. You owe someone something. You owe a debt that is too great for words. It is as if I came to you and told you that you owe me a hundred billion dollars. I need it by tomorrow, or you are going to jail. It is just a hopeless situation. You see, you owe God, you have offended Him with sin, and you owe Him. The penalty is so great, the debt is so big, he, in His wisdom, has decided that it should take not 100 years of punishment to make up for it, not 1000 years. Not one hundred thousand years, and not one million years. Not one billion years, not even one hundred million billion billion years could make up for it. He sees your debt- think about this- the debt that you carry with you right now- He sees that debt as infinite. You may not understand it perfectly, but you have offended God with your hatred of Him and rebellion in such a way that He has judged you, and His judgment is just. His conclusion is that your penalty should be an infinite punishment. You shall, without end, be jailed for your offense. You will spend forever paying, because you cant, even with forever, pay it off. It is like going to a toddler, or a small child, and asking them for billions of dollars. Imagine a child’s parents are killed in some tragic accident, and the ruler of that country was owed money by the parents, and now comes to the little child and demands the payment. The child cant make it. They don’t even have one, dollar, they have nothing of what is needed to pay the debt. Nothing. That is you. The currency, the type of payment that is needed, you do not own it. It is foreign to you.
Do you know what it takes to pay it? Blood. Blood pays for sin. And you think that’s fine, you have blood. Don’t you? Oh, you do. But not the right kind. Your blood is tainted. You are sinful. It takes pure blood, untainted blood. You will spend forever paying with your blood, because it is not enough. It is not the right kind. It will never work. Pure, perfect, unspotted blood is what is needed to pay our debt. And maybe you try and make something unspotted in your life. Maybe you try really hard to make one good deed, one good thing that God will look at and say “ah, yes, NOW you are welcome into my home. Now you will be forgiven.” No, it cant be. You can not make even one drop of blood that will qualify. It is hopeless. There is such freedom in hearing this- listen, you can not make one drop of what you need, stop trying. Instead, realize this-

18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 1 Pe 1:18-19

What a debt you have! One you can never pay. You need help, you need a savior. And one comes for you, and He spills His perfect, spotless, precious blood for you, on your behalf! This is your need! And this is the savior! Have you ever gone to Him as that savior, and asked that that blood would count for you?


The lover of your soul
And then when we understand our need, then we can see who He is. Because he is the Savior we need. And he is so much more. He is not just the savior of our souls- He is the lover of our souls. He did not come and spill his blood for you because he hates you. He loves. And we need to think on and understand that love if we are to know the real Jesus.
We need to understand the care He has for us.
The thing is, you know you want love. You know that you long for a real, true love. And that longing is really a longing for Him. When you think of falling asleep, and being wrapped up with, and close, to one who loves you so much, and who you love so much, it is no person you long for. It is no human approval you wish for. At the heart of what you long for is this God, this Jesus- His comforting love is what you really want to hold you, and be near you. Your heart aches to be near Him. It was made for it. So understand, all you who know the ache in your heart- you who think you know Jesus, and He is this cold, separate God that you heard about, this God who is so far away, so not close- listen to me- He came so far from His home, and walked your world, to show you He is closer than you think. He is here. He is with you, in this very room, He is everywhere, all the time. He is not just someone to be honored in that we fall before Him, and worship Him, but that in we love Him, in a personal, genuine, deep way- because that is real worship. He is the lover of your soul. I don’t mean that its about you and he is falling all over himself to be with you, I mean that He really does genuinely love, and His love is perfect, and it is beautiful.
Just imagine, His love for you is free. It is a love that is full of grace. There is nothing in us for which we should be loved. There is nothing that you have that makes him love you, His love is of his own free will, he willingly, on his own, apart from you, casts his great love on you. And it is unchanging. Eternal, free, and unchanging. This is His love for you. But don’t just believe it is true, believe it is true for you. Believe this is His heart toward you, and accept it. Really think that in your head- that you accept that great love, and you open your heart to this love, and you embrace it, and then, then you will see this real Jesus, your savior, your king, the lover of your soul. Greater than anything you can imagine is His power, beyond anything you can think is His Holiness and Majesty- the starry hosts bow to Him, the waters obey Him, the demons fear him, the grave could not hold Him, all the universe is sustained by the power of His very words, and yet His love longs to hold you tonight in your bed while you sleep.
Reflect on that a moment with this song-

By your side
Why are you striving these days
Why are you trying to earn grace
Why are you crying, Let me lift up your face
Just don't turn away

Why are you looking for love
Why are you still searching as if I'm not enough
To where will you go child, Tell me where will you run
To where will you run

And I'll be by your side wherever you fall
In the dead of night whenever you call
And please don't fight these hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

Look at these hands and my side
They swallowed the grave on that night
When I drank the world's sin
So I could carry you in
And give you life
I want to give you life

And I'll be by your side wherever you fall
In the dead of night whenever you call
And please don't fight these hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

Cause I, I love you
I want you to know
That I, I love you
I'll never let you go

And I'll be by your side wherever you fall
In the dead of night whenever you call
And please don't fight these hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you


Respond
So, are you offended when he comes to you and says “love me most. That is what should happen when you really know me, really see me. love me most. More than anything else. Hate those things that offend me. Hate those things that are the opposite of what I am and make light of what I say. Love me so much that I am all that really matters. Because I AM all that really matters.”

Do you know the real Jesus? Are you too familiar with him, and have your own little safe Jesus that you can do what you want with? Or do you see your need, and see this savior, and understand the Lover of your soul?

What should you do? Accept this love, and ask Him to be your savior. Fall in love with Him.

Experiencing God through obedience- Last week's sermon.

Experiencing God through obedience


10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

Jn 15:10-11



What is the first thing that comes to your mind when I say “obedience”?
Legalism? A way to make God happy with you? Rules? Do you groan inwardly when you hear it? Does it remind you that you are not good at it? Is it a word that inspires- ready?- happiness or joy in you? Or is it a word that inspires fear, depression, and sorrow?
Jesus seems to think that somehow this word has something to do with Joy. In the text we just read, Jesus has just laid out to the disciples some tough stuff, about being pruned, loving others, bearing fruit, and caps it off with obedience- complete obedience- and then says that these things are to result in joy, it’s all been said for their joy.
Do you see it as joy? Why does Jesus? Can we see obedience the way Jesus did? What would that look like? How would that change our lives as believers?

My goal is to help you see obedience the way Jesus saw obedience. I want to show you first that Christ’s obedience to the Father is a model for our obedience to Christ- not just in what He did, but in why He did it. It might be that we do not see obedience as joy because we are not obeying for the same reasons that Christ obeyed. And then I want to show you some ways that Jesus thought about obedience, what some of the “whys” are for Him, so that we can follow his example. I want to show you three specific ways that Jesus thought about obedience that help reveal the “whys”. One relating to love, one relating to light, and one relating to life. In these we will try and see how the Son experienced the Father through obedience, and how we can experience God through our obedience as well.

Jesus is a model for us

We all know that Jesus is a model for us, in what he did, and how he lived. But I think that Jesus is a model for us not just in what he did. We can just look at Jesus life and say “oh, he acts this way” or “he does these things”, and repeat them, and that is good to do- but maybe there is more to his example. The gospel of John seems to imply that there is a bit more than that. It is easy to make the case from the gospel of John that it is not just what Jesus does that serves as an example for us, but how he relates to the Father that serves as an example for us. What I mean is this- the incarnate Son- Jesus in the flesh- related to the Father in a special way, a way that is a model of our relationship to the Son. It is not just in our doing that we should follow his example, but in our motives. We should not just do what Jesus did, but do what he did for the same reasons he did it!
The gospel of John does lay out for us that we should mimic not just what Jesus did, but His entire relationship with the Father. We do not have time to study these passages in depth. Let me just name a few for you to show you what I mean.
- In 17:21 we are told that the Father and Son share in a Unity, and in 17:21 and 23 we are told that the Son and believers will share in unity.
- In 17:8 we are told that the Father gave words to the Son, and the Son, we are told again in 17:8, gave words to the disciples.
- In 17:18, we are told that the Father has sent the Son into the world, and in that same verse we are told that the Son is now sending the disciples into the world, in the very same way.
- In 17:22 we are told that the Father is to give the Son glory, and in that same verse we are told that the Son is to give glory to believers.
- In 5:20 we are told that the Father hides nothing from the Son, but reveals his works to him. In 15:15, guess what we are told? That the Son hides nothing from the disciples, but reveals his works to them.

Are you starting to get what I mean here about some parallels between the Father’s relationship to the son, and the Son’s relationship to believers? Look even at the verse we started off with today-

15:10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

So what is my point? My point is this- if the relationship that the Son has to the Father is a model for our relationship to the Son, then maybe we can look at how He obeyed the Father and learn about how we are to relate to Him in our obedience, and in doing so maybe we can find a way to see obedience as Jesus did- as Joy. And that is the goal of this message, to help us see obedience as Jesus saw obedience. I want us to understand what Jesus means when he talks about keeping His commandments in the same way that He has kept the Father’s commandments. Not in the degree of perfection to which we keep them, but in the motives behind why we keep them, and the relationship we have in which we keep them.
So let’s take time now and look at three ways that Jesus thought of obedience, and then look at some applications as to how we then can tie that to our obedience, and how that relates to experiencing God through our obedience, as the Son experienced God through His obedience.


Obedience and Love

The first one we will look at is Love.
Jesus makes a strong connection between his obedience to the Father and His love for the father in John 14:31.

31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.Jn 14:31

He wants the world to know that He loves the Father, he wants that to be seen in his obedience. Jesus obeyed the Father because he loves the Father. Now, Jesus’ obedience was often painful, costly, not easy. But nonetheless it was the result of love. Just because love is at the heart of it does not make it easy. But the fact that it was painful and costly shows the love even more, doesn’t it?
So first we see that: Obedience is Joy when we are motivated from love to obey.

And, as we have seen, there is a pattern, because Jesus also then tells us that our obedience to Him is to be based in love.

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Jn 14:15

We are all familiar with this verse and this concept. But it should lead us to some very practical questions-

- Is your obedience to God grounded in a love for God, and do you try and ground it more and more?
- When you are faced with those moments when you need to submit like Jason talked about last week, do you look to love for God to lead you on?

We see from this that if we have an obedience problem ultimately what we have is a love problem. This is crucial to understand, especially in the midst of the cultural Christianity that pervades the day. Many are looking for solutions- how can we get Christians to obey? How can we get them to show mercy to the world? How can we get ourselves to get up and get out there and reach lost people? How can we end the constant compromise we see around us, as statistics pour out of research institutes telling us that the lives of evangelical Christians are no different than the lives of the unsaved? And many mistakes are being made to fix this. The fix for this disobedience is a renewed love for God, because an obedience problem is a love problem, and the church in America suffers from a deep, deep lack of love for her Savior. This, I believe, is because we have lost the gospel. We do not know the gospel, and without the gospel we do not come to love God.
I don’t want to preach a sermon within a sermon here, but let’s stop and realize how we get love for God. Because if we want obedience with Joy we are going to need love for the Savior. We love Him because He first loved us, we are told, and we see his love for us at the Cross. So, without an understanding of the cross, we lack a love for Jesus, and therefore lack any real motive for obedience. We are left only with things like fear or duty to motivate us.
Listen, brothers and sisters, in the scriptures we see examples of costly obedience and worship that come about as a result of an encounter with Jesus’ mercy. Consider Paul, the great cost of leaving all in his life behind and preaching Christ- why did he do it? Because of his understanding of the gospel, and the mercy he finds there-

8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— Php 3:8-9

Do you see the gospel tied to his willingness to obey at great cost?
We can think of Mary in john 12 pouring a years wages of perfume out on Jesus, and why? The mercy of having her brother Lazarus raised from the dead in John 11.
We see the demon possessed man in Mark 5 set free from his possession, and the result? Jesus tells him to go and proclaim the mercies of God, and he does it all over the Greek speaking world, the first missionary in scripture!
The examples are easy to find, encountering the mercy of God, seeing that He first loves us, even when we hated him, this leads to love for God.
And so, brothers and sisters, I need to ask if your story could be found to be the same. Do you have a love for God that springs from an understanding of the mercy he has shown you? And has that resulted in an obedient life in which you do hard things for God?



But why does love for God make obedience joyful?
Is it just that we want to please him because of all he did for us? Yes, that is a part of it for sure. But it’s not just that.
We can understand why love makes obeying joyful if we understand better what God’s laws are.
I was always confused by David in the Psalms saying how he loved the law of God.

20 My soul is consumed with longing
for your rules at all times.
Ps 119:20

Why is this so? Does this sound like us? Do we love God’s rules for our life? We tend to see God’s rules as arbitrary, things he has just made up to test us perhaps. Things we have to do because God says so. But what we fail to see is that God’s rules are reflections of His character. We are told not to lie because He is truth. We are told not to cheat each other because he is Just. We are told not to kill because he is not death, he is life. His character dictates his laws, and to understand this makes his laws beautiful, if we think He is beautiful. If we love Him, if you claim to love Him this morning, you will love His laws and want to do them, because they are merely a reflection of Him. They are who He is. So the one who truly loves God truly does love His laws. And in this way we are set free by the gospel, because as we come to see the mercy given to us, our heart is changed, and now we love God, and that love for God changes us into those who love His laws as well, as we see them reflect his character. I will tell you this- the area in which you sin and struggle most will be the area in which you see the laws of God as a reflection of God’s character weakest. When we are told to obey God, we are told to be like God, to act like Him, or act in such a way that reveals His character.

Maybe an analogy will help. Let’s pretend you go to an art museum, and while you are there you see this painting that has this color in it, this blue color, that is the most beautiful thing you have ever seen in your life. You fall in love with it, you cant take your eyes off of it. There is our “love” component. Now, you go home, and what do you do? Do you paint everything the very opposite color, some red, or orange? No, not if you really love this color. You paint your room, perhaps your whole house in it! You love it! You want to make everything look like that color, because you love that color. This is obedience- when we obey we are making ourselves look like Jesus. And we want to do that because we love Him, and all that He is. It would be silly to say we love Jesus, the one who is truth, and then build our life on lies, wouldn’t it? It would be inconsistent to say we love Jesus, full of grace, and then show no mercy to those who we need to forgive, wouldn’t it? If we love him, we will obey Him, because we will want to make everything look like Him!
And that brings me to my second point.

Obedience and Light

Christ certainly obeyed the Father because he loved the Father, and we are to obey Him because we love him. But there is more to it. Christ saw obedience tied to love for sure, but he also saw it tied to light. What do I mean by “light”? I mean what you would mean when you talk about Christians being “lights” in the world. The idea of letting something be known to the world. Jesus obeyed in order to be to be a light for the Father, and that brought Him Joy!
Let me explain this. In John chapter 5 we encounter a fascinating discussion between Jesus and the Jews, in which Jesus tells the Jews basically that he does nothing of his own initiative.

19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. Jn 5:19

30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. Jn 5:30

Not his own will- all that he does he does because he sees the Father doing it. He does this so perfectly that when Phillip says to Jesus in John 14 “Show us the Father” Jesus says,

9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
Jn 14:9-11

Jesus obeys the Father in order to show the Father to the world- to see Jesus is to see the Father, because he does what the Father does. Do you see where I am going with this? Later on in john 14 we find another one of our parallels- Jesus takes this relationship that he has in mimicking the Father to show him to the world and he gives it to you-

21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
Jn 14:21-24

At first it seems like Jesus ignores Judas’ question. Judas asks “Lord, why are you going to manifest, or show, yourself to us and not the world?” And Jesus says “people who obey me, to them I will manifest myself.” Why?
Why did the Father show the Son all that he did? So that he could do it. Right? And why will the son show us all that He is? So we can do the same. Jesus Himself tells us that we are being sent into the world in the same way that He was sent into the world. Not that we are going to be saviors of the world, but in that we are going to put the Son on display in the same way that he put the Father on display. There are other similarities, but this is key. Look at how he speaks in chapter 15-

15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. Jn 15:15

This sounds very much like chapter 5- “the Father reveals to me, and then I come and reveal to you. I saw so I could do, so that I could obey- you see, and you see so that you can obey. I manifest myself to you, now you go obey! You will experience me as you obey, as I come alongside you and reveal more and more of myself to you so that you can obey and show me off more and more!”
Do you understand how this changes how we see obedience? This is life changing if we get it. Listen, do you want to understand more and more and experience more and more of God? Then obey Him! Do not go and say to God “Lord, please, reveal more and more of your will for me and my life, please”, if you have a book full of revelation that you ignore! If you are not obeying what you already know, then get to work obeying it and showing Him to the world!

Think of it this way- go back to the paint analogy. You see this color blue, and you love it, and you paint everything with it. Now, you have this bucket of paint, let’s call the color “God”. And you have this paint brush, let’s call the paint brush “your will”, or “your actions.” Dip the brush into the bucket, and paint! You see? Not just your house- all the world!
Listen, it is great to want to just sit and stare and the blue painting. That’s good. That’s great if you want to just stare and stare at God. But, if you really love that color, and you live in a world that is red, don’t you want to make more things blue? Believers, what I am saying is this- your job is to go and paint the world by your obedience the color of God!
Are you doing it? Let me ask you- this week- what color did you paint the world? What bucket are you dipping your brush- your actions- in? Oh, that Christians would wake up and open their eyes and see that they have been using the same bucket of paint as the world. How we need to repent.
And believers, those of you in here who love God, who love to stare at the color of God, who are mesmerized by the mercy of your Savior in the gospel- do you understand how exciting obedience is when you see that what you are to do is to paint everything that color?

It should break our hearts that we live in a world that hates the color of God. They hate it. They want to erase His color from everywhere they can. In a world where every headline every day should be “God again brings the sun up upon rebels who hate him”, in a world where he constantly flows out His mercies to those who could not care less- those who say they love God should be, above all others, out there with brush in hand, painting and painting and painting. This is rebellion- obedience is rebellion against the world and it’s ways. It is being light in the midst of a people who hate light and want darkness. But how exciting that we would be given such an honor- to go and paint the world the color of God. For Joy to paint this community the color of God. Who wants in on that? Who wants to be a part of that? And listen- not the color of social justice, or the color of mercy, or the color of good deeds- the color of God! Bringing Christ’s mercy to the world in the Name of Christ for the sake of the lost, that individuals would be saved from the wrath of God, just as you were. Do you not want at least that much for them?
Do we love Him? Let’s paint everything the color of God! How? By obeying all of His commands all the time, and in living different lives before the world in the Name of Jesus!
You see, this is why it doesn’t make sense when we find Christians who say sin doesn’t matter. When they act lightly about sin, when they watch movies packed with it and laugh, when they shrug it off as if it does not matter. How can those who really love God do such things?

If we love God, we will want to be a light for Him, and obedience will be sweet and full of joy- why? Because we want the world to see Him!
I feel so bad for those who labor to try and show Christ and try and do so with no love for God, not wanting to be a light for him, just out of duty. Think of it this way- imagine a record company hires you to go out and market a music group. Your job is to go out and show the world how great this music group is. And it’s a punk rock group, and you hate punk rock. And you have to go to all this clubs, and all these underground music venues, and listen to all this music you hate, and try and talk to people about this group whose music is terrible, and you need to dress in a way that fits in, and you need to get a Mohawk and purple hair and some piercings, and you get the picture. You hate the music, you hate the band, you don’t want to show them off to the world! But what if it was your favorite band? Who had a message you really believed in, who were just amazing musicians. Do you see the difference? How many are you are like the first group, and not the second? How many are you find joy in obeying, in order to show Christ to the world?
You may be dying to experience God, dying for Him to reveal more and more of Himself to you, but you hate obedience, and don’t want to be a light for him, and you wonder why the revelation doesn’t come. Love Him, and then obey Him, and you will encounter Him more and more. What will that look like? Maybe He will call you to do something hard, and you wont know how to go about it. But you will step out in faith, and he will make the way as you go. Maybe he is saying to you “speak to your neighbor about me.” and you think “theres no way, when would I get the chance?” But do this- pray, and tell God you are willing, and you will speak, and ask for the way. And see if he does not reveal to you where he is at work! I remember one person telling me about how they were feeling a desire to give money to a certain missionary, and they just didn’t have it. So they prayed, and the next day cleaning out an envelope they found the exact amount they needed. Now, in that incident they had an encounter with God, and were given a powerful reminder of God’s mercy and provision- they were reminded, they learned, they experienced God at work!
Obedience and Life

And yet there is still one more aspect of obedience that makes it exciting and joyful!
Jesus obeys because he loves, and he obeys to be light, but he also obeys because for him it was life. It was sustenance. What I mean by “life” is that it was the most real, exciting, fulfilling thing.
Look with me at John 4-
Jesus has just spent a hot afternoon talking to a sinful woman, revealing, for the first time, that he is the Messiah. He shows mercy. He shows love. He does the work of the Father. And then look at what he says-

31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Jn 4:31-34

Do any of us see obedience as food? Look, we take great joy in food, don’t we? We look forward to it, it gives us energy, it often is what comforts us. Can we say any of this about obedience? Jesus said obedience is His food.
Let me see if I can explain what this is like. Because I really do think that we can experience the same thing- we can see obeying as really living, as fulfilling, as joyful. And every one of you who has ever obeyed, especially in something tough, you will know this to be true.
We as humans seek “life”- things that are really exciting, and fulfilling. You often hear people who do crazy things, like jump from planes or climb mountains or take great risks, you hear them say “now this is living!” And what do they mean? They mean it stirs them, it is energizing. I am not going to say to you that obedience is the same thing, don’t worry! All of that might just be chemicals in our brain. What I am getting at is this- we seek something more, we seek something greater, we seek to live on an edge, for a cause. To be part of a revolution. We seek life. And obeying Christ brings this- when we obey, when we truly obey, especially when there is great cost, we are really living. There is excitement, there is danger, there is discomfort, there is purpose, there is a greater cause- it just makes us feel alive- it helps us to kind of understand what Jesus means when he says it is his “food.”
I wonder if we have ever felt that as a body. I wonder if we have stepped into that Crisis of belief that Blackaby speaks about, and trusted God, and really lived? Maybe when those who first started Joy did what they did they felt it. Maybe when you went out of your comfort zone and talked to someone you didn’t know you felt it. Maybe every day as you fight and defeat sin you feel it- it is that feeling of “yes, this is right. This is God’s will.”
Maybe a good way to describe it, sadly, a way we can relate to more, is to say it is the opposite of how we feel when we sin. We feel like we have embraced death. We feel empty. Alone. Cold. Fruitless. This life I am speaking about is the opposite feeling. Sound good?
Obey.

The Time of Joy
Understand- this all does not mean that obedience is easy. Because it is joyful does not mean that it is easy. And often we will have to obey not because of any results or good things we will see right then. Sometimes there will be no feelings of life, yet it is life nonetheless. Sometimes we wont see how we are painting anything the color of God by not cheating on our taxes, or giving our tithe, or helping our neighbor fix their car, or sharing the gospel with a family member who doesn’t care. But we are. We still are. And we can in those moments obey and set our eyes on what we WILL have one day. Because brothers and sisters, a big part of the joy that comes from obedience is not found in this world. The time for joy might not always be here, it may be future. But we can hope in that, and do as Christ did-

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.Heb 12:1-2

So, let’s go and obey, with our eyes set to the future. Let’s go and look at His rules as reflections of Him, and lets go and paint the world the color of God, in absolute rebellion against the attempts of the enemy to remove that color from the world, and let’s go and do it in love- deep, passionate, desperate love, as we look to our Savior who loved us when we did not love Him, and who without fault obeyed the Father, and with joy laid down his life for us all.

Bearing Your Ring July 6 '08

Bearing your ring
Impact summer ’08 - Mark 5:1-20

They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. 2 And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. 3 He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, 4 for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones. 6 And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. 7 And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” 8 For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” 9 And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” 10 And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11 Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside,12 and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” 13 So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out, and entered the pigs, and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and were drowned in the sea.
14 The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. 15 And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. 16 And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. 17 And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region. 18 As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. 19 And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” 20 And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.
Mk 5:1-20

Where is your ring?

(clip from Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, 2:44:45.
FRODO- “I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had ever happened.”
GANDALF- “So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given you.”)


Frodo’s task- take the ring of power deep into enemy territory, to do what was seemingly impossible, extremely dangerous, with little chance of success. And he accepted it, and did it. He did not stop and say “Wait- I am too young! I am too little! I cant do this! I should go and marry, and have a family, and be happy, or at least spend some time enjoying life before I perform this task!”
Now, not only would have that made a bad movie, we understand that he should not go off and enjoy his life before he performs the task with the ring, because the task of the ring, that was his life. That was what his life was for, it was what he was born for. Isn't it?

You may have never thought about what your ring is. Have you? By “Ring” I mean your big purpose in life, your task- the reason God has you here. You may have given little thought to what it is that you are going to say will define your life. Or, if you have, you might have thought of it like this- “After I get older, and go to college, and become an adult, and at least get out of high school, then I will find my ring, and carry it.”

What I want to tell you in this message is that that is a lie. That today is the day to find and carry your ring. I want to explain to you that first you have been sold a lie, a lie that says you have no ring right now, that right now is a time to waste. Second, I want to explain to you what your ring is, and then third, I want to show you how you find the will and passion to carry it now.


The lie- waste your teen years.
We have often talked about what others think of us, and I have often caused you to think about that by asking you this- “if I asked those closest to you, those you spend your days with, what you are all about, what would they say about you?”
And one reaction that I have gotten a lot from you guys is this- “They would say I don’t do bad things, that I try and be a good person.” That is frustrating to you, too, because you do not want to be known for just trying to be good. For those I have not asked before- is that what would be said of you?
I think I know why this has happened. I think that you have spent too much time trying to live what America says is a teen life, but just tried to make it Christianized. In other words, you have just tried to not break the “Christian” rules, all the while being the typical teen. What I am saying is, you have been known for what you do not do, not for what you do, because you haven’t done much. You have avoided doing a lot, but you haven’t done much, because doing things is hard, and because you are teenagers, and teenagers don’t do things. At least not important ones, right?

What does the world say a person who is in high school should do with their life? And do you think that what they say has any effect on you?
What are their expectations?
I will tell you this before I even begin- I think that you can do a lot more than the world thinks you can do. I think that people your age have the ability to change the world. But what are you being taught, and what does the world expect? What do you expect of yourself?

Did you know that the whole idea of the “teen years” as being something different than being an actual real adult is a new thing? The word “teenager” wasn’t even a word until 1941. Not that long ago people your age were beginning to live their adult lives. But all that changed about 100 or so years ago. Forced education- the removal of teens from the workplace, and forcing them to attend public schools changed all of this. Now, from the ages of 14-18, you became consumers. You were “fed”. And of course some of this was good. But some of it was not. Because what developed is a group of people in our culture that not much is expected of. You are expected to go to school, and stay our of trouble. That’s it.
If you google “Teenager”, the first links you get are very telling. Almost all the links (once you get rid of the ads for people selling things) are about problems that parents face with teens. Teens and obedience, teens and drugs, teens and pregnancy, teens and parenting, etc. It is as if you are a big problem. How can we deal with you? Let’s just keep you out of trouble until you are big boys and girls, and we will be ok. That is what is thought.
Then, add to that that there are people who realize something about you- you have something they want. Money. And no bills to spend it on. And influence in your home as to what happens- where you go on vacation, where you eat dinner, what you buy and watch and listen to.
Do you know how much money you guys spent this past year? How about 189 billion dollars? Isn't that insane? Enough to feed the starving in the world ten times over, enough to rebuild destroyed countries, enough to end a lot of misery. And guess what you spent it on?
More than half of it- that’s almost 100 billion dollars, guys- was spent on clothes, movies, and food. Now, there are people, business people, people who want a part of that 189 billion, who very, very thoughtfully are trying to get a piece of that money, and so they want you to stay a consumer from 12-19, or longer if they can get their way.
And they are getting their way, because most Americans continue today to live like a teenager until they are 25, or older, living at home, no established career, no clear direction.
So what is expected of you? Spend, consume, enjoy, do it over.
You are expected and have been brainwashed to think that these are the years for you to relax, enjoy, have some fun- you are only a teenager once! Live it up! Take the easy way out!
Did you ever have a book to read for school, and decided to just watch the movie? It’s that kind of thing. To just do what is easy, to have more time to just relax.
Take a listen to this song by switchfoot. They see this tendency in teens to just “live it up”, to do the easy thing. To just “watch the movie” instead of reading the book. To not want to change the world, or do anything drastic or hard. Is this really what your teen years are for?

Song- “chem6a”by Switchfoot
Nothing but a chemical in my head
It's nothing but laziness
Cause I don't wanna read the book
I'll watch the movie
Cause it's not me
I'm just like everybody else my age

I think I'd rather play around
And I think I'd rather watch TV
Cause I don't wanna face my fears
I'll watch the movie
Cause it's not me
I'm just like everybody else
I'm just like everybody else

Because I don't wanna be here
I don't wanna see this now
It's all wrong but it's alright
And I don't wanna be here
And I don't wanna study now
It's all wrong but it's alright

I don't know what love is
I don't know who I am
And if I ever want to find out
I'll watch the movie
Cause it's not me
I'm just like everybody else my age

I don't wanna change the world
And I don't wanna be someone
I don't wanna write the book
I'll make the movie
Cause it's not me
I'm just like everybody else
I'm just like everybody else

I don't wanna be here
I don't wanna see this now
It's all wrong but it's alright
And I don't wanna be here
And I don't wanna study now
It's all wrong but it's alright

Of course it is all wrong- of course it is wrong to waste our days just being entertained, to spend all our money on us, to waste so much, it is wrong. But it’s ok, it’s alright- that is all that is expected of you. It’s like a major accomplishment if you make your bed. It’s an earth moving moment if you are nice to a sibling. It’s wonderful beyond belief if you don’t smoke pot. Really- is this all? Is that all you think of yourselves? I bet that something inside all you guys knows that that is not all you are here for- that even now, even in your teen years, you should be living for more.
Jonathan Edwards started college at 13.
George Washington lived along on the dangerous frontier making maps of the area for the government at 17.
David Farragut, the first admiral of the navy, was 12 when he was given command of his first ship.
The disciples were most likely all very young, except for Peter. Many were probably in their teens. As well as Timothy.
They all had their ring, and they all had the passion and drive to carry it. Do you?


The Ring and the Passion
Let me show you someone else who had his ring and the passion to carry it, and through his story explain to you what your ring is, and how you can find the same passion. The passion to not be a typical American teen.

But first I think I need to point something out that is important. I am NOT trying to suggest that all I want to see in us is all of us going out and doing hard things, helping those in need, doing what is not easy or comfortable. That alone is not what I want to see, because I think it would be wrong. What I mean is, there are a lot of organizations in the world that do hard things, for wrong reasons. Unicef, the Red Cross, there are tons of them. They spend lots of money and time helping people, doing nice things, helpful things. But that is not what I am looking to create. I want to see revolution- but not that kind of revolution.
Listen- do you want your ring? Do you want to start a revolution and do it right? You must understand this- You have to have the right passion if you are going to find the right ring.

Finding the right passion

You have to have the right passion to have the right “ring”, to have the right direction for the passions and purposes of your life.
Let’s be very clear on something. I am not talking about something that is an addition to Christianity- as if we are all going to be Christians and have a million different things that are most important to us. For the Christian, there is only one most important thing. It may be expressed in many ways- some will express it in an orphanage, as we have been talking about, others in writing songs, others in studying doctrine, others in evangelism. We will all find a way that most suits us, but it will all be done for the one passion- the one ring. For the Christian this passion is showing the worth of Christ to the world, and explaining to them the good news.
2 cor 5:17-21
What I want us to avoid is first, that any of us would find a passion to do something and think we are being great Christians, when the reason we are doing what we are doing has nothing to do with God. And second, and really at the heart of what I want you to see right now, is that if we do not have these things as central in who we are, in the way we look at the world, and if these passions do not really seep into every aspect of our life, we are not followers of Jesus Christ. What I mean is, if we claim to be believers, but we look just like the world in what we are living for, the way we talk, and live, and the sense of humor we have, and the types of movies we watch, and the definitions of beauty or success we use, something is not right. Now, don’t get angry and think “well other believers live like this!”, or something else silly like that. If you want to think that you can live the same way as the world, with the same things defining you, and still be a believer, find that truth in God’s word, and convince yourself from this bible, not from other’s mouths.
The truth is, believers have a completely new mindset, a completely new definition. If we talk about revolution, and about starting a drastic change together, make sure you understand. You may hear me talk about that and think “oh, he means to be like so and so, or to not do this or that…” no, that isn’t really what I mean- here is what I mean- I mean to live in such a way that you are with all you do putting Christ on display, so that you can share the good news with other people. That’s all I mean. And if that sounds weird or strange or boring or empty or even horrible to you, there is a very good chance you are not regenerate, and do not know Him. That is a hard thing to hear, I know, but I say it in love- you need to see this, you need to understand that Christianity brings about radical changes in our lives, specifically what we are living to accomplish. What ring we carry. What mission we set out on.
Would you like to see the verse this idea shines in? Think about what Paul means here-

24 But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. Ac 20:24

He will testify, that is it. That is his ministry, and he will see it done. Otherwise, he says what he does and is is of no value at all. Do you live anything like that? That is a radical, revolutionary way to see the world, and anyone who would live that way would produce revolution all around them.

Let’s look at this more closely.
Turn back with me to Mark 5. At first this story doesn’t seem like anything we can relate to at all. A man who is possessed being set free by Christ. What in the world does this have to do with us not being typical, but instead finding our purpose and going and living for something more than what we live for now? It has everything to do with it!
In order to have the right passion to find what it is God wants you to spend yourself on, you have to have what this man had- an encounter with God. You have to have an experience of Him, as we have been talking about on Sunday mornings. There must be an encounter that changes you. And from this encounter comes your ring, and the passion, the right passion, to bear it. And the ring we talk about is not like Frodo’s, it is not a horror or and evil, and it is not such a burden. It is often painful and requires sacrifice, but it will be a joy to carry it- in fact to not carry it would be for us unthinkable. If we have the passion.

So let’s look at this guy’s encounter with God, and what happens-

I cant think of someone in a worse condition than this guy, or a more hopeless condition. He picture that mark paints for us is one of horror, and of despair. Think about it- this is a real guy, someone’s brother, someone’s son, someone’s friend. We don’t know what happened, but here he is, possessed, so much so that there is no hope that anyone can offer him. He lives in a graveyard. He cuts himself with stones, and cries out. Can you imagine living near this place? Hearing this guy cry out at night, the voice of a thousand demons coming from his throat, cutting himself, in agony, in despair. No chains can hold him, how frightening. He can not be subdued.
And he runs and falls before Jesus, knowing that Christ has the power to cast him out, and the demons implore Jesus to not cast them away, to not torture them, but to let them go into the pigs. This Jesus permits, and he frees this man from this possession.
Now, we don’t know what the immediate reaction of the possessed man was, but he was set free. And we know that not long after being set free, when Jesus went to leave, this man had a great reaction. He, according to Mark, begs Jesus for something. For what?
To be with Him. Here is first hint of a passion that is stirred in this man- he begs to be with Jesus. Have you ever had anything like that in your heart? A desperate beg, “let me just be with you.”
And Jesus tells him it is not time for that, it is time for something else- it is time for his ring.

19 And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” Mk 5:19

Go tell the world about the mercy that has been shown to you.
This is so helpful to us, because it helps us see a few things-
1- An encounter with God gives us the right passion to bear the ring
2- the ring that we bear will have something to do with sharing with the world the mercy that God has shown us.
3- Christ wants us to do this, though we want to simply right now be with Him, we need to go and start a revolution until He returns. He will complete that revolution when He comes back.

But all of it is grounded in this passion- the right passion points us toward the right ring- a ring, a purpose and a revolution that at the heart of it wants to show the world the mercy and goodness of Jesus Christ.

This man found the right passion in His encounter with the mercy of God. Have you? If you have encountered the mercy of God, you have the passion, and now you need to take up the ring, and go!

Encountering the mercy
Have you encountered the mercy of God? Has it given you a passion to go and bear this message to the world- “God is a God of mercy.” And has it driven you to find a way to bring that message- whether it is preaching, or ministering to the outcasts, or helping expose the lies of the world? What are you doing? Not what are you avoiding, but what are you doing? Do you find a desire to be with Christ because of your encounter with Him? Is that what you want? There is a test for the passion- have you ever just wanted to be with Him?

I think it would be helpful for you to go though what that man in this story went through.
But you aren’t possessed, you cant experience the freedom and mercy this man experienced, can you? Maybe if you had been trapped by evil, living among the dead, hurting yourself over and over, breaking every chain that tried to hold you, and maybe if in that situation you came to Christ, and He cast the demons out with such power, and looked lovingly at you, and sat with you and loved you- even took away the great penalty for your evil- granted you to become one of His beloved Children…
I have news for you- you are all very much like this man!
You also are-
trapped by evil- aren’t you? Of course, we all are. We are all born dead, in our sins, trapped. Listen- each of you- each one, you were born into this world with all the evil that was in that man living in you. You should not fear him, you should not fear the demons in the night, you should fear the evil in your heart. All the evil of hitler, of the terrorists, all the evil of all time, you are no different than it- think about that, stop and reflect on that- you were born just as evil, just as far from God, just as wicked. You are born totally, completely in sin, nothing good in you. And in that evil you are trapped. Have you ever tried to stop doing what is wrong? No matter what chains you try and bind yourself with, your evil breaks loose, and you know it.
hurting yourself over and over- he cuts himself with rocks, and you go back over and over to the sin and evil that will only lead you to death. And like him, you can not stop on your own, you have no power to end it. Oh, for a mercy that would save us from our foolishness!

You are like this man, you are trapped by evil when you are born, and unless you feel the weight of that, and understand you are hopelessly lost without Christ, condemned to die and have your part with the demons forever, unless you see that, and then understand that while you hated Him he came and rescued you, like this man, you were evil, dead, controlled by the enemy- and he cast the enemy away! There is mercy for fools like us! At this very moment, perhaps, he is preparing to do that in you- to cast the enemy away, and give you life! To change you from death to life, from doomed and cursed to a Child of God!

So you have to understand how much you were like this man. And you also have to understand something else- that the only way that mercy can be found for you, the only way that Christ can offer sinful, evil people to be God’s children is because Jesus had His own ring to bear- the Cross- and he bore it for you. He completed His task, He destroyed the power of evil, He purchased your freedom and mercy, and it is only because of what He did that you can be right in God’s eyes.

To those of you today who want His mercy, understand how great it is- there is nothing that can separate you from His love, He will purchase you and cleanse you, removing your sins from you as far as the east is from the west, and he will look upon you as His very child, though you are not yet perfect, He will clean you over and over, he will rescue you. His love will never leave you. Listen to this song and reflect on that-


Times by 10th avenue North

I know I need You
I need to love You
I love to see You, but it's been so long
I long to feel You
I feel this need for You
And I need to hear You, is that so wrong?

Now You pull me near You
When we're close, I fear You
Still I'm afraid to tell You, all that I've done
Are You done forgiving?
Or can You look past my pretending?
Lord, I'm so tired of defending what I've become
What have I become?

I hear You say,
"My love is over, It's underneath
It's inside. It's in between.
The times you doubt Me, when you can't feel.
The times that you question, 'Is this for real? '
The times you're broken.
The times that you mend.
The times that you hate Me, and the times that you bend.
Well, My love is over, it's underneath.
It's inside, it's in between.
These times you're healing, and when your heart breaks.
The times that you feel like you're falling from grace.
The times you're hurting.
The times that you heal.
The times you go hungry, and are tempted to steal.
In times of confusion, in chaos and pain.
I'm there in your sorrow, under the weight of your shame.
I'm there through your heartache.
I'm there in the storm.
My love, I will keep you, by My power alone.
I don't care where you fall, where you have been.
I'll never forsake you, My love never ends.
It never ends."

Do you understand this mercy that is given you? Have you encountered it? Is this your experience? If so, you will know it, because you will think, like this man “I want to be with you, Jesus!” And then, when he turns to you and gives you your ring, and says “Go make known to the world the mercy that has been shown to you” it will be your joy!


Revolution
I want to see revolution. I want to see you guys stand up for the truth, to find your ring, and to carry it without shame, with great passion, and all of it to show the world the mercy He has shown you. I hate to see, and it breaks my heart to see, you guys spend so much of your time in these years not living for anything worth something. Just being consumers, just being passive, just waiting to “grow up” and be real people in the real world. THIS stuff is more real than any job, any home, and marriage- this is most real- this is of the greatest importance, more than anything else.
I don’t want to see you try and do this without the right passion, it will just be frustrating for you. But if you find the passion, if He changes your heart and you become a believer, you will have this passion, and it will be time to carry your ring. And in that you will find the REAL fellowship you long for- fellowship of the ring, fellowship of the same passion to show him mercy to the world. There is one scene in the first movie, the Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, (1:28:58.), where Frodo stands up at the council and says “I will take it” of the ring. They are debating what should be done, who should take the ring, who should bear this work and see it done- and little Frodo stands and says “me, I will do it.”
Who here is ready to stand up and tell the world of the mercy of Jesus Christ, the lion and the lamb, the King and the servant, the God who dies for our sins, and lives again forever? What will you do?

Song- Leeland, May our Praise
May our praise be all that You can hear
From our lives to Your ears, Father

Wondrous King, You are clothed in mystery
Your hands set people free, Father
All pain is over as Your love draws us closer
Your grace goes on forever
So we sing, So we sing

Every heart should feel
The depth of Your mercy
How beautiful is Your healing, Father
And teach us, Lord, to attract You even more
We just want to be where You are
Be where you are
This is our love song to You
Father, our love song to You

We never deserved this never-ending peace
You’re a God who protects the weak
So we sing, So we sing