ARCADIA CHRISTIAN CHURCH
"A W.E.L.L. balanced church because of W.E.L.L. balanced people"
February 21, 2010
Fearless – Week Two
The Fear of Not Mattering
Speaker: JR Moffatt
Psalm 139:13-14. (JR began by reading this passage.) “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” This is Week 2 of the Fearless series and we are talking about the fear of not mattering. I believe it is a search for significance, for meaning, for purpose and mattering that everyone struggles with. It exists across the board—don’t know about other countries but in America (and probably others as well) it is everywhere. Everyone has a struggle for significance—even for those who have “arrived.” Jim Carrey, the well-known actor/comedian said, “I guess even funny people can be really sad!” Here’s a guy that has battled loneliness and depression who said that. He has everything a man would want: notoriety, the love of a woman and child, the respect of his peers, and financial success but he said, “I guess even funny people can be really sad!” Another famous comedian, Eddie Murphy, said, “I don’t think there is anyone who doesn’t feel like there isn’t something missing in their life.” In the 16 years I spent in the youth ministry, especially with middle school and high school kids, I saw that theirs was a search for acceptance and a search for having a purpose in life. That’s why there is so much compromise for kids of that age with their peers because they don’t know who they are yet. We get frustrated because we can’t live up to the world’s standards. What does the world say about me being a success and for me having a life that matters? We get frustrated because we can’t ever achieve the financial status we want because we’re not smart enough and/or powerful enough to matter. Even when we do reach those pinnacles we say, “I guess even funny people can be sad.” It is funny to know we fight for that situation but those who are in those situations say those things. Even Madonna says she’s still searching, but apparently in the wrong places. Charles Schultz—have you heard of him? Yes, he’s the creator of Peanuts and Charlie Brown. The sad thing is the Charlie Brown cartoon series was based on the way Schultz saw his own childhood. “You’re stupid and we want to laugh at you, Charlie Brown.” A lot of people are like that today. That man made his fortune through the sadness of a childhood. We have a wrong view of self-worth and to be significant. We have a wrong view of our purpose and what it means to matter. We have a wrong view of what others think, even people in our own families.
Daniel 4:27-37. Mattering through the wrong lens—we find the story of a man named Nebuchadnezzar who was the King of Babylon. He was a man of gold and was the most powerful king on earth. He was the most perfect king in the sense of having absolute power until the return of Jesus. The kingdom was divided and he had reached the pinnacle of power and no one could stand and make accusations towards him. In this passage, Daniel had already interpreted the dream the King had and it was a warning because “you search for mattering, for significance and meaning and purpose, and they are being viewed through the wrong lens.” (JR read the passage.) In these verses, the King is now living what Daniel had interpreted and it wasn’t good. God said that these are the things that are going to happen and Daniel said to the king that “here’s your warning and—you need to re-think your view.” (paraphrased) And indeed, it all happened to Nebuchadnezzar just as Daniel interpreted. (JR then started reading Verses 29-30.) Listen to the “I’s” and the “my’s.” (JR read Verses 31 – 33.) Now here was a guy who viewed success as power. The palace was Babylon. He was untouchable and he knew he was untouchable but he was wrong. In his mind he had grown to that point and his view of mattering was skewed. Instead of viewing what God could do through his life, he looked at himself as “god.” You go read the accounts in Isaiah and Ezekiel about Satan. ‘You ascended upon the hill and you say “I, I”’ - Nebuchadnezzar had fallen under that same thing. He thought he mattered a lot because of what he had done, but he hadn’t done any of it—only what God had allowed him to accomplish. He had been living in a field for 7 years eating grass with the wild animals and his hair had grown like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird. And then there is Verse 34, a great verse. He had roamed around for 7 years and now “my sanity was restored” and I have been blessed by God. (JR read it.) That is a funny verse because he finally figured it out. When he took his eyes off his own mirror, he realized he wasn’t in control. (JR read the rest of the passage.) Here’s a man on earth who had a lot of authority but ended up eating grass like a cow. The world will tell us that his achievement mattered and when you achieve those kinds of things, you will matter. But we have a fear of living a life that doesn’t matter and we come to that place in the road where we don’t listen to that voice that tells us we don’t matter. If we listen to the wrong voice, we will end up in the field eating grass as our snack. Many of us have wanted that field and tasted that high and it wasn’t as good as we thought it would be. It wasn’t the measure of what we really thought it would be and we have come full circle like Nebuchadnezzar that “I’m not God.” I think it is an amazing thing that Nebuchadnezzar was an author of the Bible—he wrote the end of that chapter. It is from his voice and his mouth, where he says (paraphrased), ‘I wasn’t all that.’ I want to take the pressure off of you—take the weight off your back, because you think you don’t matter in certain things.
Take this saying to heart: When lived outside God’s purposes, life is worthless even when the liver is popular, rich, famous, and powerful. When life is lived outside of God’s purposes, it is useless!
Exodus 9:13-18. Here the Hebrew people are being held captive and used for slave work and Moses is the deliverer of his people. We find the 10 plagues here. (JR read Verses 13-15.) Another time Moses is being sent to a guy who was like Nebuchadnezzar—the people worshipped the Pharaoh and he thought he mattered more than he really did. Listen to Verse 16. (JR read it.) God said to this Pharaoh ‘I have raised you up for this purpose—no matter how big and bad you think you are (bad meaning cool), I have raised you up for this purpose that I will show my glory through you.’ (paraphrased) Pharaoh mattered but not in a good way. The reason his life mattered was because God was going to make an example of him. ‘If you want to be as stubborn as a mule, I will show you authority.’ (paraphrased) ‘I raised you up for this hour.’ I think that is something that needs to penetrate the heart and minds of all of us that God has raised us up. In Acts it says that God planned the neighborhoods we would live in and the time we would live there. ‘You’re purposed for this time.’ When I tell my wife I think it would have been cool to live in that frontier time, she says, “That wasn’t my time.” God has purposed you here at this time. Now the question is whether He will be glorified through you or in spite of you. He will be glorified nonetheless. He will serve His purpose through your life just as it was through the Pharaoh who was stubborn. (JR re-read Verse 16 and continued with Verses 17-18.) One of the things we learn from that is the sovereignty of God. Pharaoh didn’t know God was hardening his heart. You say, ‘You mean God turned Pharaoh against God?’ YES! I believe Pharaoh had already laid down his path, but whatever direction we take in life, God will allow us to continue it. God doesn’t want anymore hearts to harden. But if you are more important (in your own mind) than He is, then it is already hardened. You know, the thoughts one has are “my money, my time, my stuff, my direction;” if that is what you are thinking, then you are ‘god’ to yourself. God will oblige that but it didn’t turn out so well for Pharaoh. All of Egypt could hear him weeping when he found his child dead. What deaths have we suffered in our lives because of our stubbornness? Many of us have experienced things like that; there have been deaths that have occurred because of our stubbornness. Births have not taken place because we were concerned about ourselves.
Proverbs 16:4. (He quoted that verse.) You will have a life of significance one way or the other. Just think how significant Pharaoh’s life was—maybe not good but definitely significant. We can learn a ton of great lessons from that story. We can learn from Moses too. After studying that book, in the future perhaps my children can see more of Moses in me than Pharaoh and that my life matters because God glorified Himself through me because of my willingness to be obedient. No matter how tough life gets, your life matters. You have been fearfully and wonderfully made; God knitted you together in the womb and He made you just the way He wanted you.
Romans 8:28. (JR quoted it.) God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. Of all the difficulties we face in life, God can make good things come out of them because of His great love for us.
Ephesians 2:10. This is a good verse to memorize. (JR quoted it.) “We are God’s handiwork created in Jesus to do good works that God prepared in advance for us to do.” We are the beings that God crafted because He created us in Jesus to do good works. He knew we were going to live in this day, time, and year. In Acts 13:36 we find a story about David—not very flattering. When David fulfilled his purposes for Him, he died and was buried with his fathers and his body decayed. That doesn’t sound very grandiose for King David, but it was awesome. Can you say that about what God has done for and through you? The sad thing I see is Christians all over the place trying to do the work of 1950, 1960, or even 2000 but that time has passed. If you’re still living even in 2009, you need to get caught up. When God asked David to fulfill his purpose, that was then. This is now and there are things to do today.
We think this is church right now—what we’re doing—but this is just a meeting. The church thinks that this is church, and for decades the church has deceived itself with that intent. We deceive ourselves in thinking what we’re doing is church. For decades, we didn’t hire ministers; we hired chaplains to do the work of the church; that is wrong and sinful and the church needs to repent. Really, the church is composed of all ministers and they should hire someone to come in and inspire you to do your job. God didn’t create you to hire someone to do your job!
This is not church; this is a part of it because the body needs to come together to point up and say ‘it is not us; it is about Him.’ But we also need to say that the church should go out and do the things He wants us to do. Your life doesn’t matter when you come in here and sit; that doesn’t give you meaning. You matter when you fulfill God’s purpose in your own life. When you go back and sit in the nursery with a baby of a single mom in order to allow her to come into the worship center to gain a connection with God without having to pick up a pacifier 27 times; when you do things for Angels’ Attic, like working there or picking up the bread once a month; when you work in Mrs. Lee’s pre-school area with the 2/3’s and the 4/5’s or the kids’ ministry of junior church, you are investing in something that really matters. When you are serving in the coffee bar or greeting at any of the doors, cleaning snow off the sidewalks, or participating in any youth event, that is when your life matters. Some people may say, “I don’t have the ability to serve in the nursery.” You got two arms, don’t you? Well, you only need just one, really. We make ourselves feel significant in here but we are filtering things through the wrong lens. If you want a life that matters, start with the small things. Simply do something to serve someone else rather than yourself. Then you’ll matter!
Jesus, the King of all Kings, knelt down and washed the feet of His disciples and said it was not about Him, but it was. He didn’t lie; you have to understand the complexity of it all. ‘It is not about you washing my feet; it is about me teaching you to be like me.’ You want a life that matters; wash their feet and serve.
God raised up the Pharaoh to serve His purposes; the Pharaoh obliged. God raised up Jesus to serve all the way to the cross and Jesus obliged. He said, ‘I will.’ You know why? Because in 2010, Jesus knew that John & Sue Hiles, Phil & Cheri Allred, Dave & Jill Lucas, and Paul & Sharon Baird will be here and those people, as well as all of you that He also knew would attend today, mean something to Him and He said, “I will die for all of you.’
Do you even think about that –that He died because you would be sitting right here and right now and you matter to Him! Don’t just read the Book; live the Book!
Closing Prayer:
February 28, 2010
Fearless – Week Three
Fear of our Past Sins
Speaker: JR Moffatt
(Prior to today’s message, IGNITE, our student drama team, performed an awesome non-verbal skit. The scenario was a young girl who had accepted Jesus and had a relationship with Him, but Satan entered her life in the form of all kinds of temptations even to the point of suicide. God stood to the side until she realized that was not the life she wanted so when she tried to run to Him, He saved her and sent the evil ones on their way but as they exited the stage, they chose another girl from the audience to try to destroy and she went with them willingly.)
Our students have spent tons of time working on that so I asked them to perform it today. When I saw what they were doing, it depicted what we battle and struggle with every day in a titanic way. In John 10 it says that the enemy’s, (Satan’s) desire for us is to steal, to kill and to destroy our lives. Pleasant, huh? He sounds like a good friend—no??? That titanic struggle—this struggle that we all have in some shape or form of our history of the expectations of God. The Scriptures give us so many expectations on a practical level: 1) alcohol isn’t to be used to excess; 2) sex should be within the confines of a marriage; 3) our bodies should be offered as a temple for the dwelling of the Holy Spirit; 4) Scripture is very clear about our language; and 5) stealing, lying, gossip, and cheating—the enemy would have us destroyed. Just like the drama, evil will not stop at anything—he will throw one thing after another after another after another until he finds the one that gets you. And our only hope is in Jesus. The expectations are so high that our fear of disappointing God and our fear of failure are right there. You know the guilt that comes along with every failure and guilt being a good thing that the enemy will take it and twist it into martyrdom. Instead of drawing us back to God, Satan uses it to tell us we are a disappointment to the Master. ‘If He only really knew you’ (Satan says). Satan inserts those things in our minds. ‘If He only knew what you think, God wouldn’t want you’ so we dread the conversation on a human, carnal level with the Master. You know that conversation where Jesus comes and sits and we come and sit and if we have to have this conversation, we would really have it like this (Here JR placed two chairs back to back instead of face to face on the stage.) because of our fear and failure over disappointing Him and our enemy really tells us who we are, so often we don’t want to face Him. We think ‘I don’t want to look into His eyes; He will tell me all those things I don’t want to hear.’ He will say, ‘Remember that time when . . . .’ So Satan continues to tell us we are unlovable and that we are failures who are disappointments to God and when the Scriptures tell us we are “princes” and “princesses” we really don’t like it because the enemy’s voice is so loud. But the conversation is going to come. We’ve looked at the Word and see how holy, righteous, and perfect He is, but then we realize He knows our sins. How would it feel if I told you today that we’ve done a background check on you and we’ve dug up all the history of your sins and are going to broadcast on each of these three TV screens up here on stage and show everyone watching? Jim Smelser just said in his communion meditation remarks that he has a past that he is not proud of. Every one of us can say that! When we have that conversation with God there is no hiding it. We have become masters of hypocrisy—hypocrisy is masquerading and pretending to be something that we are not. I want to create an environment here at ACC where people can be authentic. If you think that you have to live up to that lofty pedestal that churches tell people they have to belong, then they are lying to you. I don’t want that kind of perfect environment. I want you to be in a place where God will forgive you and show you grace. How would you feel if you were going to have that conversation with God today? What if He were waiting on you and sitting on your couch when you get home today? You didn’t recognize Him but thought He looked like the pictures you have seen and then you see the scarring and you realize the God of the universe is sitting right in your living room. And He says, “Pull up a chair.” How would you feel about that conversation? You might think, ‘Is He going to point out the way I talked to my wife yesterday or the way I cheated through my taxes or cheated my way through school last week’—We don’t like to think about that conversation.
Mark 14:27-31. We have Jesus in the Upper Room where they took the Passover Seder supper. Jesus has a conversation with His disciples and specifically with Peter. This is what He said to them: (JR read the passage.) In Verse 29 Peter even said he wouldn’t desert or disown Jesus.
You know we have the opportunity to know the events of the Bible. So I think most of us think if we would be in that same situation and one of the pillars, like Peter, our faith would survive it. But Jesus prayed and prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane and when He went back, He found His disciples asleep—I think that would have been their first clue that Jesus had spoken the truth when He said, “You will all fall away.” When He asked them to pray with Him, they slept. Then the soldiers came, weapons in their hands, and Peter stood up ready to fight. “Even if I have to die, I will not disown you” Peter had said. A guy loses his ear and things are about to break loose but Jesus calms them. Jesus restores his ear and He willingly goes on those first steps to the cross. Yes, He had taken other first steps but these were being led by someone else. Talk about confusion! Peter was ready to fight and die for Him, but He said, ‘Put your knife away.’ Peter was really confused! What’s a man supposed to do if he can’t fight? So Peter follows from a distance and he watches as they take Jesus into a home. Peter watches from a courtyard while gathered around a fire where he can hear. Later in Mark 14:66-72 (JR read it.) Someone called him a Galilean possibly because of his accent and accused him of being with Jesus before He was arrested but Peter denied Him three times. When Peter realized that Jesus’ prediction had come true, he broke down and wept. Why did Peter weep?--because he had disowned Jesus. How disappointing is that!!!! Jesus had told Peter what would happen and even though he didn’t think he would ever deny Him, it still happened. How’s a man supposed to sleep when he knows he has broken the heart of the God of all creation? Do you think Peter is looking forward to that conversation? I’ve often pictured Peter sitting in that little courtyard shedding tears as they brought Jesus up out of the dungeon and to the Temple Mount. Peter, through his tears, sees Jesus disappear amongst the scurrying of the people. Maybe he thought, ‘Jesus is off to His execution where He is going to hang on a cross because of my denial.’ Not just that but because of all the things I’ve done to make Him disappointed. Oh, the guilt and the hurt!!!! Who in here hasn’t felt that to some level? How can I have that sit-down conversation with God because if He really is this all-knowing God of the universe and knows what I’ve done—He would never love me. So we avoid the chair. He sits and waits in His chair but our chair remains empty because we fear what He might say. Peter was all about jumping out of that boat and swinging that knife but I’ll bet he didn’t want to sit in that chair. When we have disappointed somebody, how many of us enjoy that? How many of us want to go face to face with that person we hurt? Here Jesus is waiting in that chair and we find ourselves driving around avoiding Him.
John 21: 1-17. Here we have gone past the time when Jesus had been betrayed, had gone to the cross, and been crucified. He has now been resurrected and has appeared to His disciples and now this is the 3rd time He has appeared, but there is something absent in the conversation they had with Him. He shows up more than once and there is something absent. Have you ever felt that kind of awkwardness? I wonder how Peter felt because he is the one who denied Him after saying that he wouldn’t. Peter had wept. Jesus had appeared so quickly before and all of a sudden He was standing in the same room with them. We’re a few days into this now. He told them to go up into Galilee and they had gone back to fishing. (JR read the passage.) John saw Him on the shore and said to Peter “It is Jesus.” Peter jumped into the water and was actually swimming faster than the boat was going. (JR stopped with Verse 14.) There is a principle here, and it is this: Peter, though it may have been awkward in those first moments, there was something about Jesus that drew Peter to Him. Even when there is awkwardness—when we think we have hurt someone, we do want to make it better. Peter couldn’t wait until that slow-moving boat got to shore so he jumped into the water. Did they talk or just look at Him? We don’t know because it doesn’t say. I think there wasn’t any conversation because of the rest of the way the Scripture flows. Jesus had said they would all deny Him. So they were all in the same boat—no pun intended—but Peter probably felt the worst because he had openly said he wouldn’t deny Jesus and he did. A big problem followed because they all were a big failure. Now we are in this moment on the beach where Jesus has cooked breakfast—I guess He wasn’t a vegetarian because He had prepared fish for all of them. (JR finished reading Verses 15-17.) We could go into why Jesus asked Peter three times but this is the principle: I don’t care how much you’ve messed up; He’s not done with you. He doesn’t care how many times you have spent the money, or gone after the beauty, the number of broken relationship you’ve had, or the alcohol you have ingested—there comes the time when you have to sit in the chair.
Could I have a volunteer to come up here and sit in this chair opposite me? (A volunteer named Bob walked up on stage and sat down in the chair facing JR.) As Jesus sits in this chair, I know what He would say to you. He would look you in the eyes and he would say, “Bob, I love you and I forgive you and I want you to be with me forever.” I’m not saying there couldn’t be more conversation; I am telling you all those fears are there and we think ‘He is going to really give it to me,’ and perhaps even list our transgressions, but that is NOT Him—look at His life. Show me one time when He sat Peter down and said, ‘I saw you and what you did.’ No, instead He said, ‘I have purpose for your life.’ God is not willing that anyone would perish. Even Nebuchadnezzar looked up and praised Him.
1 John 1:9 (JR quoted it.) “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
The question we have to ask ourselves this morning is ‘Do I accept that forgiveness?’ To accept that forgiveness, you have to get into the chair. You can’t expect to have everything taken care of if you don’t get into the chair.
He loves you—do you accept His forgiveness?
March 7, 2010
Fearless – Week Four
Fear of Life’s Last Moments
Speaker: JR Moffatt
Before I get started, let’s have a word of prayer for Highway 67 which is taking place during this time in the Children’s Worship Center. This is the service that is offered to parents and their K-5 children so they can worship together as families. I stepped foot in there before I came here and there is definitely an energy in that room. The Children’s Ministers (Alissa and Matt Wallace) are working to create an environment for those parents and their kids. So let’s have a word of prayer:
Abba Father, we want to teach your adult children to train up their children in the way they should go. I thank you for the people who have committed their time to that and I thank you for some of the praise band members that can go down this month and spend time with their children. Thank you for everything you do for us and I thank you for this body of believers and I pray you will speak to them with your voice and your spirit. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.It was this summer in August; we had just returned from my mom’s house and from Washington D.C. where we had spent an extensive period of time on our vacation. We needed to get back by a certain time because Zac had been invited to go to FL with a friend and his family. But the whole week before that, he had been getting severe migraines to the point of getting physically sick. Then on the drive home, he was feeling bad and that morning he was to leave, he was too sick and couldn’t go. I went to his friend’s house and they were willing to take him but he was so sick, we didn’t want him to get down there and be a burden on this family and then they wouldn’t be able to enjoy their time in FL for having to stay with him and keep him inside. I came back and told Zac that I had told them to go without him. Zac was really down when he realized he wouldn’t be going. Later that morning, he woke up (about 10 a.m.) and felt really good so I got this idea in my head and did some research as to how much a 1-way plane ticket would cost. It would be less than $100 so I approached his mother and told her we could drive him to the airport and the plane would get him to Orlando where the friend’s family could pick him up. She just looked at me. I didn’t feel good about it but I went ahead and got the ticket and he went to the airport and we checked him in—it was a direct flight, which meant he wouldn’t have the stress of having to change planes and less stress on us knowing he wouldn’t have to go through all that to find the other plane to board. I kept telling him they would give Mike a pass to come to his plane and Zac wouldn’t have to do anything. However, even though there were many positives that it would be a smooth transition, I kept thinking about all the negatives that could happen. I had a sinking feeling when he walked to the plane. I remember losing sight of him in the midst of all the other boarders and walking out of that airport without him. I wanted to walk back in there to get him—that unsettled feeling was still in my thoughts. So I sent a text to a friend that would have good thoughts and possibly encourage me—it was Alissa. I sent her a message because I knew she was a positive person who has a lot of faith and compassion. I said in the message, “I just put my son on a plane alone to FL.” Her quick response was, “What the heck?” I had sent her the message because she is the one who cries on the first day of her boys’ school each year when they walk out the door; you would have thought she would have been more compassionate. But there is a time we have to let go with their first steps, with their first bike ride, and with a lot of other firsts.
Friday was my daughter, Shanna’s, 8th birthday. She got to go to the boys’ sectional and watch two basketball games. (laughter) She said, “Boy, Dad, this is the greatest birthday ever.” I told her since she had sat thru 2 games on her birthday, she could choose the place where we would stop and eat on the way home. Now, think about it; between Fortville and Cicero, there aren’t a lot of choices—the only one that sounded good that we knew of in that area was the Waffle House over on 69. But we could always wait until we got into Noblesville where there are many other choices. Zac was in the back seat and he was speaking up and encouraging her to do just that; he said, “No Waffle House; let’s go to Steak n’ Shake in Noblesville.” I said to Zac after he had been pestering her, “Zac, it’s her birthday; let her choose.” Shanna said, “Yeah, two basketball games, so I choose. It’s all about me so shut up.” Zac then shared, “Well, my birthday is Tuesday so that day will be all about me.” I interjected, “But I think Jesus is coming back on Monday, so I’ll wave at you.” Zac responded with words that are still in my head, “We are all going to the same place so we’ll just celebrate there.” After he said that, I said, “Are you sure?” He confirmed, “Sure, I’m sure.” Those words have not left my mind. We have such a fear of death and of life’s final moments. To be honest, I had that fear of all those things that could go wrong when he walked to that plane. But the conversation in the car driving back on Friday night showed the faith of that soon to be 14-year old and it was amazing. We have such a fight to live that sometimes we forget the purpose of life. It becomes such a flesh thing—a skin and bones thing.
I was confronted with this in 2003. Many of you know some of what I went through physically. I had been feeling bad for a few years before that but in the spring of ’03 I got worse. I had mono in the 80’s and thought it was the aftermath of that in some way. I had gone in for a heart and stress test and tried to figure out what was wrong. Those last few weeks of school, in May, I was barely able to drag myself out of bed. I remember something that happened, well two things that happened, both in the middle of the night. I haven’t shared them but only with a couple of people, and honestly, I’m not sure I have even told my wife. There was a moment where I got up in the middle of one night and walked into our kitchen to the bar and sat down at the stool. I was sitting there—it was about 3 or 3:30 a.m.—and I remember my struggle as I leaned my head over and laid my head down and I clearly remember thinking, ‘I’m going to die right here and right now.’ I thought I was so physically sick and spent that I couldn’t get up and do anything about it. All I could think about was that I hoped Leigh Ann comes out and finds me and not Zac. I laid my head on the counter and thought ‘It’s over.’ I don’t know how long I lay there but I remember what was going through my mind—it was the fight that somehow you just have to survive the physical part of it. I finally was able to get back up and I went back to bed. But I remember so clearly that feeling of ‘It is over.’ I thank God for sparing me. Shortly thereafter, I went in for some blood tests. They told me when they got the results that they didn’t know why I was still alive. They started tossing the idea of leukemia around and other things. My first words to Leigh Ann were “I told you I didn’t feel good.” She didn’t think that was very funny. But it wasn’t leukemia and the diagnosis turned out to not be a big deal in the scope of things. I ended up having a couple of surgeries and after I had my 1st surgery I got up again in the middle of the night feeling awful. I had been reading part of the Talmud, a collection of rabbinic writings on Jewish law and tradition, and I had been hearing people constantly tell me ‘You look terrible.’ We were going through the finalization of Shanna’s adoption at the time and I had been told that my skin looked green and yellow. In the Talmud it said “When the body dies, the skin turns green.” I thought ‘That’s me. I’ve been in the process of dying this whole time.’ Whether it was that moment sitting in the kitchen bar counter or whenever, there are things I wrestled with. Shanna had just turned one and there might be problems with her feet. Alissa was her physical therapist and when I was watching her practice taking her up and down the steps, I thought to myself, ‘They will have to show her a video of me because she won’t remember me.’ Here’s a kid who’s going to struggle with the idea of being adopted and now she’s going to struggle with the one who wanted her and think maybe he didn’t. She would have questions. The fear of life’s final moments is very real and it is not just fear that hits us but it is fear of maybe someone else’s dying and how all that goes. It is such a heavy struggle but very real, and it is because that in our fight to hold on to the physical, we sometimes forget the faith. Paul said in 1 Corinthians (paraphrased) ‘We only see a glimpse. We get caught up in the physical and forget the faith.’
Philippians 1:21-26. Here in this passage the Apostle Paul says this: (JR read the 1st few verses.) For the believer, to be absent from the body is to be present with Jesus. I want to challenge you today about flesh life. We think that in terms of ‘if I would have died at the kitchen counter that morning, we tend to think our life is over.’ We get caught up in the flesh part of it and I’m not sure God sees it the same way or He sees life the same way we do. We tend to think of beginning and end in the flesh but Paul said, ‘I desire to be with Jesus.’ So our absence from the body is our presence with Him. Life changes in a sense but it is more a “transition.” It is like a baby’s life changing from going from the womb to the world.’ In one of those “3 Men and a Kid” movies, the kid comes out saying how “cold it is—I want back in.” It comes from the warmth of the mother’s tummy into the cold, real world. The transition from death to spiritual life is much the same way. Just because our body stops, it doesn’t mean our life stops. It is just a transition—it is to the safety of the Savior. BUT, this is about people who are in a relationship with Jesus. (JR read on.) He is saying ‘I would rather move on.’ He didn’t have fear so he would have rather gone to be with Jesus, because ‘to die is gain.’ Paul continued, ‘But for your sake, I will stay behind in a troubled world.’ When I was sitting at my kitchen counter, I wasn’t thinking about staying for the good of other people. I wanted to hang on to that physical world. Why is it that we fear so much the end? If it is someone we love, we are going to be without them. The end of the flesh is a beautiful thing, and in many ways, it is harder on the people left behind. We struggle here because we don’t want to let go and we stand at the bedside and hold their hand and we tell them we love them. Some of us are fortunate to have had those moments. But with some, the end has been unexpected and quick; we wrestle with those final moments because we wonder what was going on because no one was there with them. I’m not sure God sees it the same way we do. I really don’t think He does.
John 11 – John answered the question. Look at Verses 25-26. This was during the passage where Jesus has gone to comfort the sisters of Lazarus who had died. Jesus then responds to Martha and He answers her question. (JR read the two verses.) You see, I believe this question will impact how we handle life’s final moments, that is if we truly understand that death for the believer is just a transition. Now I’m not saying there isn’t fear in those final moments. In Max Lucado’s stuff, it is all written to the believer but if you are outside a relationship with Jesus, you had better fear those final moments. When you come to those moments and you’re outside that relationship, we will hand their hand to someone else on the other side. It is a question of to whom. If you’re outside of a relationship with your Savior, it won’t be His scarred hands. We’re unsure of some of the people that have gone on before us—that can be a heavy burden for us. My grandfather ended his physical life with a gun when I was 8 years old. I know in my mind where he was spiritually. I have an uncle who died in ’03 of malnutrition. He had lived in Chicago and at one time was a stockbroker but he became estranged from his family. My aunt, the Orange County, IN Auditor, told us he had made money in the 6-digit category, but he died of malnutrition. I participated in his funeral but told my cousin, ‘I feel terrible and I’ll do a little bit but you do it.’ And he did. And he did an awesome job. There was one thing that ministered to me as a minister. It was awesome. My uncle was pretty edgy and pretty boisterous about his lack of faith in the time that we knew him. I remember walking around the streets of Chicago with this then-millionaire and he was wearing a shirt with a racial slur which stated, “Kill them all and let God sort them out.” I knew as a teen-ager that there was something wrong with that statement. You all need to understand and be careful what you wear and what’s printed on it because it sends a strong message to young minds. As I matured, I often wondered about my uncle and then he became estranged from us and we didn’t talk to him. We did see him once, however; he was an extra in a movie and we were able to see him playing a part inside a jail cell—it lasted all of 2 seconds. My cousin said in the funeral message that my uncle had been pretty rough around the edges and he had a calloused heart. He continued with “This is all I can say that I’m not the judge and my hope and prayer is that somehow he had a moment with God that we don’t know about. All I can tell you is there is hope that there was an encounter somewhere.” Y’all, if you’re outside of Jesus, there will be fear in those final moments because if you depart from Him, you will remain apart from Him. If you are in a relationship with Jesus, you’ll be able to sit in that back seat and listen to the smart remarks from your dad that Jesus is coming on Monday so we’ll wave at you, and respond that it doesn’t matter because we’re all going to the same place so we’ll celebrate together.
Y’all have a chance to make a difference. If you have struggled with that situation as to where someone you love is because of their spiritual walk, don’t put your kids and loved ones in that same position. Don’t let them have to guess. I know this is heavy stuff—no one likes to talk about death. We want to talk about life. The bottom line for the believer is it is just a transition. Jesus doesn’t view it the same way we do--He said we would never die.
In 1991, we had some foreign exchange students, one of them being from Germany—two from Brazil. I spent many hours talking to them about their faith, because I knew they might not receive that news when they went back home. So for the last 18 years I’ve had a shirt hanging in my office (here JR brought it out and showed it to us) that they gave me when they left; each of them painted their national flags on it and their names and ’92 since that was the year they left. And in orange they added these words: Christians never die; catch you in the sky. That shirt has never been worn. I put plastic over it and it has been hanging in my office at the former building and now here, for 18 years. It is a constant reminder that God doesn’t view things the way I do—that life in Jesus is not death but just a transition. In a sense it is a birth—to pass through another womb.
John 17:3 says “Now this is eternal life; that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” Eternal life doesn’t begin when you physically die; eternal life begins when you come to know Jesus. We don’t die; we just transition. Some of us look forward to that transition. Those final moments can weigh on us. When Leigh Ann’s mom was dealing with cancer and Leigh Ann was struggling here, I told her to ‘take Shanna and go to OK to be with your mom. You don’t see your parents often; you need to go. Zac and I will be fine. You will never regret staying there.’ She was there for a long time in those last moments of her mother’s life. It is a heavy thing. Some of you have been through those very things. Don’t wait; don’t wait for those moments that the doctor says you just have six months to live. How about start that now? Our goal in life should be when we make that transition in life that we don’t notice a difference. Wouldn’t that be cool?—the only things we would see differently would be the faces we are around each day.
You have a chance to make that decision to surrender your life right now. How can we have confidence? I’m not sure. I experienced those moments with Jerry Grimes and with Gene Hubbard and his wife Gail—when we were in those rooms with them, we saw them fighting that battle. And there have been others that I have experienced those moments when God grants a peace that I don’t understand completely. When I had my head on the kitchen counter, all I could think about was my kids and family. How is it in the midst of Stephen’s struggle with his final moments (Acts 6 & 7) they looked upon his face and saw the face of an angel. I don’t understand it; I can only tell you that God intervenes and He will do the same thing for you. So when you come to the end of your time and your family takes your hand and hands you off, my prayer is that it will be a nail-scarred hand that takes hold of yours and in a blink of an eye you will see Jesus.
Closing Prayer: Dear God, death is rooted in sin; we struggle with it so because it is a reminder that we are separated from you. But it is through your son, Jesus, that there is restoration and hope. Hebrews 2: 15-16 tell us Jesus died in order to relieve us from the slavery that we have been bound with because of our fear of death. My prayer is that we live life with confidence and face death with that same confidence. And I pray that our answer to the question Jesus asked Martha is that we can all look in the mirror and say ‘yes.’ In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
