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ARCADIA CHRISTIAN CHURCH

"A W.E.L.L. balanced church because of W.E.L.L. balanced people"

January 8, 2012

Who/What Will You Bring?

JR Moffatt

(Prior to the message today, a financial statement was given by two of our elders; there was also a video depicting life in Haiti, showing the tents, shoddy housing, and faces of the children/parents of those who have continued to suffer after the earthquake tragedy. There is a planned trip to Jacmel where our missionary, Miss Tina lives and to the Damou Christian Mission where she leads, where two building projects will take place. Please be in prayer for Bryan Grinstead and the others (a total of 8 from ACC and 2 from Lebanon Christian Church) who will be traveling and doing God’s work there leaving on January 12. Donations will be gratefully accepted to help with the expenses of the trip. They are selling small surveyor’s sticks at $5 each to help each of us have a small ownership in their very important efforts there.)

(JR entered the stage.) We want to make a difference in someone else’s life. Your donation will change someone’s life there, and this $5 stick allows even our children to get involved. By doing it in small increments we can encourage them to be a part of this event. The financial portion is tied to the spiritual part. Healthy churches are “giving” churches; healthy Christians are giving people, not just money but giving of ourselves and our time. It has been unbelievable to me with an economy that is struggling y’all have been unbelievable. (JR was referring to the financial donations that have been made in 2011 helping to pay for our current facility which we moved into in 2008 and also for all the ministries that ACC supports.) We have been good stewards and good servants. It almost makes one scratch his/her head. All it is to me is “tremors.” We are feeling tremors because God is doing something here and He has been for a long time. I shared with you last week that we had nearly 30,000 (29,700 to be exact) people come through our doors in 2011. God is sending hurting people to us and there was something that took place after 2nd service last Sunday that just made me shake my head. I stood in the lobby and cried afterwards. I can’t share that story yet, but I see God moving in people. I asked the question once before “if ACC would pack up and move away, would our community notice?’ Would anyone notice that we are gone? It is becoming more and more evident to me that they would. Notice, it wouldn’t just be the absence of cars in the parking lot but because of the love of Jesus that has infiltrated the community. Our God has made this possible with your financial and spiritual giving and that has just blown my mind. Let’s have a word of prayer.

Opening Prayer: Father, thank you for what you have done through this family of believers; God, you are so good. I pray for the Highway 67 service this morning where there are families meeting and praying seeking you together. I pray it will be a life-changing thing for many people. I pray for this upcoming mission trip. My dad, who lives in Columbus, just came back from there. Tina has spirited up a new world to us and we have been able to adopt a different community. The awesome thing about it is we actually have people going and participating in their lives and seeing the difference you are making through them. I pray we will continue to expand our borders. I thank you for your grace and mercy and also for the love of Jesus who saves us. In His Name, I pray, Amen.

In the Scriptures we find this common thread and you can use a lot of different definitions and track them but I was thinking about the following: I thought Adam and Eve brought sin into the world and it wasn’t too long after that a dove brought an olive branch to Noah to show him that things were changing. Rebekah was brought to Isaac so she could be married; Jacob lost his vision at the end of his life so he brought his sons close to him in order to give them his blessing. We find that Moses brought Israel out of Egypt; Elijah brought trouble to Ahab—technically, Ahab brought it upon himself making Elijah the instrument. We find the Ark being brought to Jerusalem and we find God bringing trouble to Israel. We find Abigail brought food and provisions to David; we find offerings brought to the Temple; we find a raven who brings Elijah a meal; and Joseph bringing Mary to Bethlehem. We find wise men who brought gifts to Jesus and angels who brought good tidings. There were children brought to Jesus; a woman who was troubled and living in a way she shouldn’t be brought to Jesus, and we find Jesus bringing a mirror to all of mankind because as He walked through life He had people that saw Jesus looking at themselves to see themselves for who they really were. We find Jesus brought to Pilate and the cross brought to Jesus. We find Jesus bringing the cross up the hill and find Jesus having been brought to judgment. We find Jesus being brought to death and soon after that we find women bringing spices and then for the disciples Mary Magdalene brought the good news of the Resurrection. You can track all through the Scriptures the idea of things that were “brought”—messengers brought messages—things were constantly being brought.

Today I want to read from Luke 4 and Luke 5. First I will read Luke 4:38 – 44 and later 5:15-16. (JR then read the first passage followed by the reading of the second passage.) Last week I talked about the fact that hurting people are going to continue to walk through these doors and I don’t want us to miss our participation in this. It is not that we are here and that we need to be prepared as hurting people come, but as we read the Scriptures we find people bringing hurting people to Jesus. Do you understand the difference? There is a big difference in us having safety and solitude here and us coming here to take refuge and then just being ready for people to wander in. There is a big difference in that and us diligently going out and finding hurting people. That sounds like something that we have to actively go do but I don’t know that it really is that because most of us already have those hurting people around us. God in His infinite wisdom has placed each one of us in different places and there are those we do need to go seek but most of the time we just need to open our eyes and listen to what is going on around us. Now there are some who live in remote places and they like their privacy and enjoy the isolation and have become hermits, but the reality is when we see those Scriptures and how things were brought to Jesus, there is an emphasis that people brought people to Jesus. Look at the disciples: when Andrew became a follower of Jesus, he went and got his brother, Simon Peter, and brought him to Him; I’m glad he did because Simon Peter is one of the gigantic figures of our faith. He stepped to the front of the pack and was the leader of leaders. What if Andrew had been shy or backward in talking to his brother? I personally know what it is to be shy when you talk to people and the reactions you get from talking to people about Christ. There is a collision sometimes and it is hard. It is interesting to me that in both of the passages I read that Jesus was constantly getting away from people to pray—ever wonder what He was praying about. I do. It bothers me because God didn’t give us that information of the content of His prayers, so we don’t know what He was praying about. I have a feeling that you can go to John 17 and in the Upper Room read a whole chapter prayer—a prayer from Jesus. You can get an idea of what He prayed about. He prayed for Himself, His disciples and for all others that would follow—that would be for you and me. I find it interesting that He doesn’t spend a lot of time praying for those that were hurting but He prayed for those who were going to those who would be hurting. He prayed for you because He knew there was going to be a collision; He knew there was going to be a war against our souls and He knew through daily circumstances of life that we were going to be knocked down and He knew that we were going to be knocked flat and maybe knocked out and He prayed about that. And though you get knocked down that you would trust Him to pull you back up and that you would get up and continue to move forward. There are going to be hurting people that come here and it is our responsibility to bring them. That happened last week—people brought someone who was hurting and this individual was blown away at what I talked about in last week’s message. After 2nd service, the exact words said to me were, “I’m the girl in the story you read.”

I was so encouraged that we have people here who care enough about others that they would step out of their comfort zone and they reached out. I understand that not everyone will be receptive to you and your objective is not to bring people to church—your objective (and it is a command of God) is to bring people to Jesus. I believe bringing them to church is a part of that but that in and of itself is not the goal. The goal is to bring them to Jesus. Now a lot of that will probably take place outside of here. A lot of that will take place when you say “Hey, let’s go to lunch so I can hear your heart,” or when you send a text that says, “I know you are going through a rough time and I just want you to know that I care.” We went from 902 in attendance on Christmas Eve to 406 in two weeks with the sleepy heads of New Year’s Day—that was a dramatic shift. With 900 I can’t make contact with that many people—I’m glad I can’t because that would be usurping what God has asked you to do—I would be taking your job. God has put relationships in your lives so that you can reach out—so that you can be Jesus with skin on to reach out to those around you.

I would pose this question for you to think about: Who is it and what is it that you’ve brought in the last month, 6 months, or a year and then who is it and what is it that God needs you to bring? A lot of those things in the Bible that I mentioned were in the “past” tense = “brought.” Now our focus should be on the present “bring.” The focus has been too much on what we have done in the past and not what could be done in the future. I believe in you more than some of you believe in yourselves. Some of you I don’t even know and I still believe in you more than you do in yourselves. It is not because I know you that I believe in you, but I know Jesus and I know what He can do—I’ve seen it and it is unbelievable and very cool. So I guess what I’m asking you to do is to trust Him; trust Him when you’re rejected; trust Him when you hit the wall and trust Him when you’re frustrated and want to strangle the person you are trying to reach out to and rejoice when you see movement. Remember this: that it is a journey. Don’t steal the journey from them; what I mean is sometimes we try to take them from their current circumstances and time warp them 10 years into the future or just by making some proclamation of faith. I’m not saying that’s not important because it is, but Jesus didn’t walk into crowds getting people to “repeat after me; I accept Jesus into my heart” or some slogan statement. What He did was He created people around Him who loved Him that walked into the lives of those people and then they walked with those people and that’s the journey. The disciples’ journey for them was a 3-year journey; they spent every day with Him walking with and learning from Him and digesting what He said and looked at who He was, because as you digest who He is, you digest what it was that He said.

Who is it or what is it that you will bring? Adam brought sin; a dove brought an olive branch. The people we have to bring have fears, failures, and issues; Scripture says to ‘cast all our cares upon Jesus’ because He brought Shalom; He brought peace--the peace that passes all understanding. Even when we are still hurting, He brings hope because He brought salvation and through salvation He brings healing. He brought forgiveness and He brings meaning. His death brought victory. Remember the words from the story that I read last week: “They see the scars but not what caused them; they know my name but not my story; they know what I’ve done but they don’t know what I’ve been through.” My hope is that those statements never ring true for us as a church; that we don’t just see people’s scars but that we know who they are and we know what caused those scars and we know their names and their stories and even though what they’ve done is not right, my prayer is that we’ll understand what they’ve been through because what they’ve been through has led to what they’ve done.

Closing Prayer: Father, I pray for this church; I pray for this congregation that we will have a heart for people like Jesus did. I pray that we will understand that there is a world all around us where people are hurting that if we would reach out to all of them our world will change, maybe not change overnight but over time. Yes we are looking at Scripture and realizing that instead of hurting people hurting people, we need to be hurting people who are helping people. When we take upon ourselves the attitude of a servant—the attitude of Jesus--what we might find is healing in ourselves and the reason we will find healing in ourselves is because in those moments we become servants, we become more like Jesus. God, thank you for who you are and the opportunity you give us. I pray that you will open the floodgates of this community and that people would come and they would come because they have been invited, but that they would not just come to church but it would be a part of the journey and that they would come to you. You have given what we need through your Holy Spirit and now it is a matter of us being willing to go. I pray Jesus will be with us and comfort and encourage us—in His Name, I pray. Amen.

January 15, 2012

What Keeps us from Bringing People to Jesus?

JR Moffatt

That’s a great way to start the day, isn’t it? (JR was referring to the baptism which preceded today’s message.) We will have another baptism at the end of 1st service today so it will be a good way to end as well.

The last couple of weeks we have been talking about the fact that people are hurting. We live in a world where people are tattered and battered, beat-up, exhausted, spent, and any other words you want to use. We have a responsibility scripturally to bring people to Jesus. We can invite them to church, but bringing them to church is not our ultimate goal; the goal is to bring them to Jesus. We find that in the New Testament, people were bringing hurting people to Jesus from all over the place, so today I ask you this question: What is it that keeps us from bringing people to Jesus? Let’s pray: (opening prayer)

Father, I thank you so much for Brent and Joel and the Minett Family and for allowing us to share in Joel’s baptism. I pray a special blessing on them and also on the Highway 67 service this morning where they are in their 2nd of a 4-Sunday study having about 100 last week and I pray for all those in there today. I pray that as our church family comes together and as we grow together that we will be in pursuit of you and your goals for our lives and for this church. God, I pray that you will bless our time this morning and I pray your spirit will speak to our hearts. These things we pray in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Yesterday morning my basketball team (JR is the HHHS Freshman basketball coach) went down and had a 10 a.m. pow-wow with the Hamilton Southeastern team—it was more like we were on the receiving end of the “pow” part, but on the way home we stopped at the Taco Bell on Highway 69 and Promise Road. Before getting off the bus I told the guys to “act like you have some sense.” One responded, “Coach, I have money.” I continued, “We have the words Hamilton Heights on the side of the bus and you’re wearing HH gear; therefore, you are representatives of that name, of me, of Coach Ballenger, our basketball team, our community and yourselves. Act like you have the sense of a good representative—no food fights, no being rude, no throwing food on the floor, no shouting and yelling--stand in line patiently, wait your turn to order—just be a good representative.” I always tell them they need to represent themselves well no matter where they go.

Mark Sanford was the governor of South Carolina; within the last couple of years he had some turmoil during his term having had a relationship with a woman from South America who wasn’t his wife. I paid more attention to this story because my mom lives in SC. Those people from that state that he represented were appalled because he represented them and that’s not who they wanted to be. Representation is important and now he is the “former” SC governor. There is an old story about Alexander the Great. He was walking along his troop’s lines one night and he saw a guy on guard duty in the middle of the night that was asleep lying down against a tree--that’s not a good thing for one’s commander to see. Alexander the Great kicked the soldier which awoke him and the man stood to attention immediately. He asked, “Soldier, what’s your name?” He replied, “Sir, my name is Alexander” to which Alexander the Great responded, "Soldier, you either change your behavior or change your name because I don’t want to be associated with you.” Representation! Association! They are important. When I was in college, I played basketball. One night during the introductions of the starting line-up, I was introduced as a “forward.” Since I played guard, I had a questioning look on my face, so on the way back to the bench before the opening tip, the coach told me, “I had you introduced as a forward because your defense is so bad that I don’t want you associated with the word “guard.” Representation! Association! It is important how we represent and what we represent. One of my favorite stories comes from Dave Stone—we both went to CCU. He is now a preacher at Southeast Christian Church. After college he went to Louisville and was in the youth ministry at Shively Christian Church; he told this story at CCU. The youth all met at his apartment and he split them up into three or four groups and then sent them out to help serve somewhere of their choice for 2-3 hours. It was up to them how to serve the community then they were to report back and tell what they did. One group upon returning was asked, “What did your group do?” “Well, when we left here we went to Shively Baptist Church.” (Now this was a rivalry church in their neighborhood.) “We went over there and their preacher happened to be outside so we asked him if there was anybody in the church that needed help with anything. He said that there was this lady that had called in to say she had yard work and other stuff to do and he hadn’t found anyone else to do it, so we went over to her house. We cleared her gutters, mowed and raked the yard, and other stuff.” They were relaying all of this to Dave and continued, “After we were done, she said to us, ‘You youth from Shively Baptist Church are wonderful.’” Dave said, “You straightened her out, didn’t you, that you were from Shively Christian Church?” The kids said, “We didn’t say anything, because we didn’t think it mattered.” Dave said it was like hitting a wall because they were right; it didn’t matter really because they were there to represent Jesus, not a particular church. Ultimately it mattered that they represented Jesus Christ.

John 3:22-30 = There is a story here that relates to this and as we get into this, how many of us long to hear those words of Matthew 25 that at the end of your earthly life when we arrive in Heaven, you will hear “Well done, my good and faithful servant?” We haven’t heard it enough as we live in a world that beats us down. We are told how bad we are and how much we should do that we don’t do, but we know how bad we are and how many shortcomings we have—yet to have the voice of God say that to us would be so awesome. That’s a great phrase and when thinking about that phrase, think about this: Jesus said about John the Baptist “. . . among men there is no one greater who has ever lived than John the Baptist.” That could go to your head pretty quick, couldn’t it? Wouldn’t it be awesome if we heard Him say, ‘among women there is no one greater who ever lived than you?’ John the Baptist, at least through the eyes of Jesus, was the greatest who ever lived. To that point—think about it—think about the company he’s in--there was Moses, Abraham, all the prophets and you look back at David and all the great stories of the great leaders, but Jesus said about John the Baptist ‘No one greater has ever lived.’ (JR then read the John passage.) Focus on the words of Verse 30 = He (Jesus) must become greater; I must become less. That’s one of the keys to John the Baptist’s life. He had great fame; he was very popular at this time and one of the reasons Jesus said what He did was because John was able to handle his fame; he was able to be a good and true representative—he was a true ambassador. When people were coming to John and elevating him to a status that he wasn’t comfortable with, he said, ‘I am only here because of Jesus; I am only here because of what He has done and I am only here because of how good He is and with the view of the future of what’s coming to happen on the cross, John said, “He must become greater and I must become less.”

I am asking the question again: What is it that is keeping us from bringing people to Jesus? As we read stories in the Bible, we will see people bringing their friends to Jesus. We see them going so crazy as to cutting a hole in the ceiling to lower their friend down to Jesus because it is so crowded around Him. People were crazy about the way they brought people to Jesus in those Bible stories. What is it that keeps us from bringing people to Jesus? I’ve asked that question now four times but I’ve given you the answer four times as well. It is US. What is it that keeps US from bringing people to Jesus? It is US. What I mean is this and I really believe this. I told you last week that I believe in you more than you believe in yourselves and some of you I don’t know, but I know Jesus and I’ve seen the great things He has done and I know He can do great things through you--I trust that. I know that God has planted you in the place where He wants you and He has surrounded you with people He wants to be around you and people will watch you, so if you are here today and claim to be a Christian, then you are a representative of Him! It is us; we are the biggest barrier. What’s the biggest excuse for people not coming to church? It is “Churches are full of hypocrites.” The barrier is hypocrisy. It comes out in different ways. One way is people are never going to take God seriously because they watch us—have you ever thought about that? They make their judgments on what they are going to believe about God based on what they see you do as a “Christian.” When we do certain things, they perceive that’s what God is like and as we live out lives of hypocrisy, they don’t want anything to do with a God like that, but that’s not a correct assessment of what God is really like because the barrier is not God; it’s me. It is us. My point is you need to take very seriously your calling and you need to take seriously what you call yourself. If you call yourself a Jesus-follower or a Christian, it is important that we learn to live like Jesus. Some of us get hung up living like Jesus and we think that means to live with rules—to live dignified lives. Some aspects of that are true but how many people actually are drawn to Jesus because we live out rules? I’m not drawn to people because they live out rules; to live like Jesus means to live out love. It means for Him to plant His spirit in us and that we take on His persona. I’m not talking about the humanistic act of becoming God; I’m talking about the Biblical position that God takes His Spirit and empowers us to live like Jesus in the world. That doesn’t mean we need to use rules to impact others’ lives. I’ve never heard people say they want to be baptized because ‘I work with a person and he doesn’t cuss.’ That may play a small part in it but it is not rules and regulations that change people’s lives; it is because of the extension of Jesus’ love, grace, and mercy. How many people in the Bible do we find their lives were transformed because they watched Jesus adhere to the Old Testament law? Or was it because He took time with them along the road and touched them and showed them mercy? Was it because He never ate the things He shouldn’t have eaten according to the Levitical priesthood manual that people’s lives were changed and impacted, though that has something to do with it, or was it because they saw His act of love and saw Him give His own blood for you and for me and for all of mankind? The reason we become the problem or the barrier is we get out of whack with what John the Baptist said about becoming less. When our lives becomes out of balance, we become greater and He becomes less. When Mark Sanford, the ex-governor of South Carolina made the decision to leave his family for someone else, was that “his” priority or “Jesus” priority? Is he saying that Jesus is becoming more and I am becoming less? No, he is saying ‘I am going to become bigger and Jesus will become less.’ Ultimately the question today is ‘How does God want you to become less so He can be greater in your school, in your workplace, in your home and in your neighborhood?’

I’ve stayed away from this subject for a while but not anymore; I’m talking about the subject of T-bow Mania. I really haven’t mentioned it only but a couple of times; I don’t know him and I don’t know how to filter it. On a much smaller scale I do know what it’s like to walk around here in the community as a community leader and be scrutinized. I’ve waited intentionally to gather my opinion of Tim Tebow because I wanted to see his life play out while he was in a Florida college and now after two years in the NFL. Rick Reilly is a national sportswriter, voted 11 times as Sportswriter of the Year and he is one not to pass out compliments especially on the Christian level. I’m not saying he’s anti-Christian but he doesn’t work for Focus on the Family so he’s not writing from a Christian standpoint; he’s just a writer and journalist. I want to read you his recent article.

I’ve come to believe in Tim Tebow, but not for what he does on a football field, which is still three parts Dr. Jekyll and two parts Mr. Hyde. No, I’ve come to believe in Tim Tebow for what he does off a football field, which is represent the best parts of us, the parts I want to be and so rarely am. Who among us is this selfless? Every week, Tebow picks out someone who is suffering, or who is dying, or who is injured. He flies these people and their families to the Broncos game, rents them a car, puts them up in a nice hotel, buys them dinner (usually at a Dave & Buster’s), gets them and their families pregame passes, visits with them just before kickoff, gets them 30-yard line tickets down low, visits with them after the game (sometimes for an hour), has them walk him to his car, and sends them off with a basket of gifts. Home or road, win or lose, hero or goat! Remember last week, when the world was pulling its hair out in the hour after Tebow had stunned the Pittsburgh Steelers with an 80-yard OT touchdown pass to Demaryius Thomas in the playoffs? And Twitter was exploding with 9.420 tweets about Tebow per second? When an ESPN poll was naming him the most popular athlete in America? Tebow was spending that hour talking to 16-year old Bailey Knaub about her 73 surgeries so far and what TV shows she likes. “Here he’d just played the game of his life,” recalls Bailey’s mother, Kathy, of Loveland, CO “and the first thing he does after his press conference is come find Bailey and ask, “Did you get anything to eat?” He acted like what he’d done wasn’t anything, like it was all about Bailey.” More than that, Tebow kept corralling people into the room for Bailey to meet, “Hey, Demaryius, come in here a minute. Hey, Mr. Elway, Hey, Coach Fox.” Even though sometimes-fatal Wegener’s granulomatosis has left Bailey with only one lung, the attention took her breath away. “It was the best day of my life,” she e-mailed. “It was a bright star among very gloomy and difficult days. Tim Tebow gave me the greatest gift I could ever imagine. He gave me the strength for the future. I know now that I can face any obstacle placed in front of me. Tim taught me to never give up because at the end of the day, today might seem bleak but it can’t rain forever and tomorrow is a new day, with new promises.” I read that e-mail to Tebow, and he was honestly floored. “Why me? Why should I inspire her?” he said. “I just don’t feel, I don’t know, adequate. Really, hearing her story inspires me.” It’s not just NFL defenses that get Tebowed. It’s high school girls who don’t know whether they’ll ever go to a prom. It’s adults who can hardly stand. It’s kids who will die soon. For the game at Buffalo, it was Charlottesville, VA blue-chip high school QB Jacob Rainey, who lost his leg after a freak tackle in a scrimmage. Tebow threw three interceptions in that Buffalo game and the Broncos were crushed 40-14. “He walked in and took a big sigh and said, ‘Well, that didn’t go as planned,’” Rainey remembers. “Where I’m from, people wonder how sincere and genuine he is. But I think he’s the most genuine person I’ve ever met.” There’s not an ounce of artifice or phoniness or Hollywood in this kid Tebow, and I’ve look everywhere for it. Take 9-year old Zac Taylor, a child who lives in constant pain. Immediately after Tebow shocked the Chicago Bears with a 13-10 comeback win, Tebow spent an hour with Zac and his family. At one point, Zac, who has 10 doctors, asked Tebow whether he has a secret prayer for hospital visits. Tebow whispered it in his ear. And because Tebow still needed to be checked out by the Broncos’ team doctor, he took Zac in with him, but only after they had whispered it together. And it’s not always kids. Tom Driscoll, a 55-year old who is dying of brain cancer at a hospice in Denver, was Tebow’s guest for the Cincinnati game. “The doctors took some of my brain,” Driscoll says, “so my short-term memory is kind of shot. But that day I’ll never forget. Tim is such a good man.” This whole thing makes no football sense, of course. Most NFL players hardly talk to teammates before a game, much less visit with the sick and dying. I asked him, ‘Isn’t that a huge distraction?’ “Just the opposite,” Tebow says, “It’s by far the best thing I do to get myself ready. Here you are about to play a game that the world says is the most important thing in the world. Win and they praise you. Lose and they crush you. And here I have a chance to talk to the coolest, most courageous people. It puts it all into perspective. The game doesn’t really matter. I mean, I’ll give 100 percent of my heart to win it, but in the end, the thing I most want to do is not win championships or make a lot of money—it’s to invest in people’s lives—it’s to make a difference.”

So that’s it. I’ve given up giving up on him. I’m a 100 percent believer. Not in his arm—not in his skills. I believe in his heart, his there-will-definitely-be-a-pony-under-the-tree optimism, the way his love pours into people, right up to their eyeballs, until they believe they can master the hopeless comeback, too. Remember the QB who lost his leg, Jacob Rainey? He got his prosthetic leg a few weeks ago, and he wants to play high school football next season. Yes, tackle football. He’d be the first to do that on an above-the-knee amputation. Hmmm. Wonder where he got that crazy idea? “Tim told me to keep fighting, no matter what,” Rainey says, “I am!”

(JR resumes his message.) What is it that keeps us from bringing people to Jesus? Most often it is us. Your platform may not be the platform of an NFL quarterback but God has given you the platform that He wants you to have. There’s one thing I disagree with in the article. Right at the very beginning Reilly said, ‘I’ve come to believe in what Tim Tebow does OFF the football field which is represent the best parts of us.’ I disagree with that statement. What Tim Tebow has done has represented God—not the best parts of us. Rick Reilly doesn’t get it yet at least in those words. This is about a relationship with the Savior and I pray for Tim Tebow because it’s tough to be in that spotlight because when he messes up, he’ll get slaughtered. I pray for him and for his protection, but I believe that Tim Tebow is making the statement that God will become greater and I will become less. If we all did that in our community, our communities would be transformed and our world would be a different place. God would truly move in the lives of people as we bring people to Jesus.

Last night as I tucked Shanna into bed as I do every night, I asked her, “Will I still be doing this when you’re in high school?” She said, “Well, of course.” Right! I hope! Maybe until she gets to the “I hate you” stage. I normally pray Aaron’s prayer over her and she always prays after I am done, but last night she didn’t pray like she normally does. She just sweetly said, “Dear God, I hope the world finds peace.” That was it. I walked out stunned because that’s what we all need—the Shalom of God—we all need that peace and we need Yeshua, who is the best representative of God. He came to give us peace.

Closing Prayer: Father, may you become greater and we become less. LORD, if we need to shrink ourselves today as there may be someone in here today that needs to surrender, to shrink themselves, for the first time and become less in their hearts. Pride is a daily constant struggle. I pray that we may have the heart of John the Baptist and make you greater through our actions, realizing that we represent you and people will see you through our actions whether they realize it or not. If anyone needs to surrender their lives in baptism, to new birth, to new life, I pray that today might be the day of their surrender. God, thank you and bless the remainder of our time here together. In Jesus’ Name, I pray. Amen!

January 22, 2012

What Will Jesus Look Like When He Shows Up?

JR Moffatt

I want to ask a question today. Have you ever been blind to the obvious? There is a situation happening and you just don’t get it and then suddenly the light bulb comes on? Has that ever happened to you? In those kinds of situations, you can be looking for your keys or your glasses—they can be right in front of you or on top of your head—we all have those moments—right? A couple of years ago I had eaten at Skyline Chili in Noblesville, before it moved out, and my family had taken off and I had gone across the street to get gas. While I was pumping the gas, I was looking for my cell phone. I couldn’t figure out where I put it—I was talking to Matt Wallace and I told him that I guess I was going to have to go back over to Skyline and search there but before I did, I realized it was in my hand—I was talking on it. There are moments that we are blind to the obvious. I’ve told this story before that years and years ago was I drove to Westfield to WalMart, I think, but when I got down there I thought to myself, ‘Why am I here?’ I went into WalMart and walked around hoping the reason would come to me, but I exited without recalling what my destination was or why. Then I thought, ‘Well, maybe I was going to Menard’s’ so I went there and walked around and eventually came home because to this day I don’t know why I drove to that area. There are moments in our lives when we are blinded to the obvious. Now let me ask another question: Are you ever skeptical? Are you ever a skeptic? I’m not talking about faith but it could be. Sometimes you feel like others are blind to the obvious because as you are having a conversation and you’re saying to the other person, ‘I know you are looking for it, but you’re saying the phone is in your hand—you’re talking on it’ and they are saying ‘I’m not really sure.’ I’m talking about that skeptical spirit within people. Is that ever you? Do you ever have that skeptical spirit that keeps you from believing? You know you have said or have heard it said, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Hearing about something is not the same as seeing it. I want you to know that those things--the blindness to the obvious and the mindset of skeptics both impacted the life of Jesus. We have spent the last three weeks with that first January Sunday discussing that hurting people are going to come here this year. January 8 we talked about our need to bring them—as we see in the Scriptures we read that hurting people were continually coming and being brought to Jesus. Last week I asked ‘What keeps them from coming?’—the answer being “me” or “us” because of our bad examples or our hypocrisy, and sometimes by our lack of focus. There may be many reasons why we keep people from coming to Jesus.

Today I want to ask a different question. Today I want to ask the question: When Jesus shows up, what does He look like? The Scriptures don’t say much about what Jesus looked like, at least the way we think about that. If we meet someone on line and begin e-mailing back and forth—I’m not talking about a dating relationship; it’s just someone we are having correspondence with, and we have never seen this person, one would ask the question, ‘What do you look like? I’m going to pick you up at the airport’ so you need to know what he/she looks like. The question is a physical one. When we ask that question we tend to think “physically.” The Scriptures don’t give hardly any insight as to what Jesus looked like physically. There is a passage in Isaiah 53:2 which says: (JR read that verse.) That’s all it says—we know that He had two hands and two feet—other than that we don’t know much. (JR repeated the last half of that verse.) Now, here is the question: What did He look like? We know a lot about what He looked like—just not the physical part of it. This passage is saying just by the sheer physicality of it—by His outward appearance people weren’t falling down just to be around Him. It doesn’t mean He was unattractive. I take it to mean He was a normal looking guy with nothing special in his appearance. So again I ask the question, When Jesus shows up, what does He look like?

Let’s look at Matthew 13:53-58 and John 7:3-5 today. These are two different passages which show that the blindness of the obvious and skepticism played a role in His life. (JR read the Matthew passage.) Where is His hometown? He was born in Bethlehem but He was from Nazareth. It was up in the north and just west of the Sea of Galilee. I want you to think about the big picture. This event really kicks off the controversy of Jesus’ ministry; there had been some before but it was just starting to build steam now. What we have to understand is the nation of Israel was not just a nation; it was a family. The nation of Israel was the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob plus his 12 sons—this is a family! It was a nation who had a great expectation for a Messiah. It was a nation who eagerly anticipated someone coming to relieve their pain, their struggle --to relieve their bondage. They were captive by Rome—Rome had taken them years before and now they were in submission to Rome. They had read the Old Testament prophets that God was going to send someone who would relieve the pressure. So at the time of Jesus there was great anticipation and great expectation. A lot of the miracles were spelled out in the Old Testament and announced that He would come to do these things. There should have been an awareness as He revealed Himself but sometimes people are looking for their telephone with it right in their hands as they talk and also their glasses when they are on their heads. They were blind to the issues and sometimes people are just skeptical. They knew He was to come but they just didn’t want to believe it. Where did He get His wisdom and His miracle powers? It should be obvious among people of faith when God is working, but it wasn’t to them. They asked ‘Is this the carpenter’s son?’ When we read that we don’t read that the way it was really stated; they knew exactly who He was because they started naming His family members. Nazareth was a small village where everyone knew everyone else. The ‘carpenter’s son’ is a play on words from the Book of Luke and the genealogy of Jesus where it says. ‘These were the descendants of Joseph the father of Jesus as they supposed.’ What they were really doing here in the Greek when you read it; what they were really saying is, ‘Isn’t this Joseph’s son whether it was really Joseph’s or not? We know that story about His mom.’ Understand where I’m going with this? It is really a derogatory dig to say. ‘Isn’t this the child that we questioned whether or not He was legitimate anyway? Now in light of that I don’t want to accept His teaching or His miracles. He is an illegitimate child and not really one of us.’ Never mind the fact that the Old Testament teaches that He would come into the world that way—they were and we are often blind to the obvious.

We can read the Scriptures and it’s easy to be critical of them, but aren’t we the same way? God tells us all through the Scriptures the things He is going to do and we don’t believe it. We walk through the world with that same mentality that they did; we think ‘God didn’t do that; He doesn’t care about that and He doesn’t take the time for that.’ I’m not picking on them as much as I’m picking on me. Listen to the last words of the Matthew 13 passage; they are very compelling. “And He did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.” You know what is sad? They knew Him and they watched Him; they heard all the stories from surrounding areas about the things He did, but because of their skepticism, God said, ‘I’m not dealing with you because of your blindness to the obvious.’ Jesus said, ‘I’m not doing it here; I’m moving on.’

John 7:3-5 (JR read the passage.) I’m going to tell you why I believe they said that. Jesus is being told to go and leave Galilee. I think they were embarrassed. They had heard word that He is claiming to be the Messiah; the One who will free Israel from the Roman’s grip. They were insinuating, ‘I watched Mom change your diapers; I don’t think you have that ability. Look around, Jesus; don’t you see what family we are from? We are from an ordinary family from Nazareth. No one believes an ordinary guy can do these things and even if you do, no one does these things in secret. Go on down to Judea and get out of our hair.’ They said these things because they didn’t believe Him. Not only was His hometown skeptical, His own family didn’t believe Him. But the cool thing is when we get to Acts 1 and Galatians 1, His hometown and His family did come to believe in Him but initially they were blind; they were blind to the obvious—they were skeptical. So I’m back to the question of when He shows up, what does He look like? Because when the Messiah showed up in the 1st century there, they didn’t get it. It’s important that we understand what it is He looks like but not in a physical sense. I want to make two points here: #1 Jesus didn’t need them to believe in Him in order to be who He was. He didn’t need those people to believe in Him. However, the fact that they didn’t believe didn’t change the fact of who He is. If I don’t believe Jesus is who He said He is, it doesn’t change anything about who He is. It’s like gravity—I can deny it all I want, but it doesn’t change the fact that it exists. Gravity doesn’t need me to believe in it for it to exist. I can deny it all I want but if I fall off the stage into Janice and Andy’s lap, you will laugh and I will get up and say gravity doesn’t exist because I am blind to the obvious. It doesn’t need me to believe in it. A non-belief doesn’t take anything away from the truth. He is the way, the truth, and the life whether I believe or not. Point #2 Is our view of Him even correct? Who were the Jewish people looking for?—they were looking for a Messiah but certainly not for a carpenter’s son. They were looking for a Messiah, a great warrior but they certainly weren’t looking for someone who showed great meekness which is “power under control.” They were looking for a Messiah, a great king figure, but not someone who displayed the humility that Jesus displayed. Therefore, when He showed up they didn’t recognize Him. When He came to Jerusalem at the last Passover, there are glimpses into their hearts of what they wanted when they lay out palm branches on the road. There are glimpses that they get who He really is but other times they just didn’t. There are times in our lives when we see who He is but we reject what He wants us to be—we don’t want to be that. I want to captain my own ship. I want to float my boat close to the shore and if it gets hung up on a rock, that’s my business but sometimes when we do that, the boat strikes the rock and people die. When we make our own decisions and run our own lives, sometimes people suffer. Is our view of Him even correct and when He shows up in our everyday lives, do we see Him? Do we recognize Him? Do we know Him? Can we tell that He is at work or do we let it blow by?

If there is any one thing you should pray for, it is discernment—daily in your life--that you will see the handprint and activity of God in your life and around you every day and that you will be able to discern whether it is Him or something else. Discernment is so critical. We can have a distorted view of Jesus because in our culture today we think that Jesus is here to meet all our needs. You will hear that preached a lot but He defines a need differently from the way I do so my interpretation of it can be vastly different. He’s going to meet all my needs so I can get away on a nice vacation—not sure that’s the way He sees it. Jesus is not here to meet all of our needs or our wants; He is here for a relationship with us. We have sadly mistaken who He is if we think through a relationship with Him that He will take care of us and life will be carefree and easy with no pain. That’s a fictitious Jesus that He takes away all our problems! The true Jesus sees us through our problems. A fictitious God takes away all of our burdens; the true God lets those burdens be a part of our lives because those burdens at times are a part of our sanctification—a refining process—the very thing we need to draw us to Him.

I don’t know but I would venture to say that more people grow closer in their struggles and not in their ease. So why do we pray for ease? That doesn’t make any sense. We pray for ease because we want to run our own world. We want to direct the ship; we will struggle with it. He’s here to have a relationship with us and we are here to “bring glory” to Him—to exalt and lift up His Name. Our purpose is to bring others to Him. Our role in a relationship with Him is to deflect glory and honor to Him. What is it that keeps us from coming to Jesus when we do see Him? When we do see Him and all of a sudden we realize His presence and we see that in those moments of our lives that God is so real that we could reach out and touch Him! I remember being at a CIY event in Adrian, MI in the 80’s or 90’s. I was in this auditorium with about 1,000 youth and we all were singing. They were so into the moment that many were on their knees sobbing broken in the presence of God. We were all getting ready to hear the message and during that singing time I felt His presence so strongly that I thought I was going to see Jesus walk out on that stage to address the crowd and when He didn’t, I felt disappointed. I can’t explain that but it was the weirdest feeling. There are those moments we experience that we just know God is present.

If any of you were at the high school the day that Evan Hale and his uncle spoke to us after he had lost both his parents in a car accident in which his sister was severely injured, you must have heard the story he told. He had gone into the bathroom of his sister’s hospital room and he fell to his knees on the floor and just sobbed and told God he couldn’t do it anymore. He was telling me this at McDonald’s prior to that when we were discussing what he might talk about and he said to me, “JR, I can’t explain it but God physically picked me up off that bathroom floor and said, ‘go.’” There are those moments when He shows up and you can’t manufacture it; He is just there and you are aware of it and you have discerned it. Now in those moments, what is it that keeps us from responding?—one word = PRIDE. I mentioned during the baptism that my heart is for young men to come to Jesus. Men struggle with this more than women. Women are a lot quicker to drop their pride and recognize their need for help and men tend to say ‘I’ll do it myself.’ It was a problem for the Jews of Jesus’ time and it was a problem for Jesus’ family—their pride would not allow them for whatever reasons to accept Him and who He really was. I researched the vast differences between “proud” and “broken” people and came up with about 50 but I will only discuss 6 of them.

a proud person is critical and has a fault-finding spirit in others

a broken person is compassionate and can forgive much because they know how much they have been forgiven.

a proud person looks at others’ faults through a microscope; sees their own with a telescope

a broken person isn’t as critical of others because they recognize their own faults first

a proud person is independent and has a self-sufficient spirit; they have an “I can do it myself” attitude

a broken person has a dependent spirit as they recognize need for others and recognize their need for God

a proud person is confident in how much they know

a broken person is humbled by how much they have to learn

a proud person hides and covers up sin at all costs because they don’t want anyone to see their weakness

a broken person thinks once broken—then open to exposure of their life because they have nothing to lose at that point

a proud person is blind to their true heart condition; they see the problems with everybody else

a broken person walks in the light of Jesus so they know ‘what a wretched man am I.’

What does He look like when He shows up? We can’t always answer that because He tends to look differently in different circumstances. It is not a physical look; it is in your spirit and that’s why you should pray hard for discernment. The sad thing is for most American Christians, He is often right there in our midst and we’re clueless.

I was in Kansas City, KN in 2004 at a conference; I got done early so decided I’d like to go to a Kansas City Royals game. Their stadium sets right on Interstate 74 right next to the KC Chiefs Arrowhead Stadium and they are both away from everything, not downtown, like Conseco or Lucas Oil Stadium, and there is a huge parking lot which accommodates thousands. I get there early and when I arrived I was talking to Matt Wallace on my cell phone as I entered the arena. I watched the game and when it was done, I got up to leave and as I walked out I noticed that it was now dark—it had been light when I went in but not now, and I suddenly realized I didn’t know where I had parked. I had been on the phone with Matt walking in so I had exited my car and just didn’t think about where I was parked. I knew the general direction but I had no clue where my car was amongst the 35,000 other cars that were driven and parked there. So I go walking (it wasn’t well lit) with no success in finding it and I found a bench so I sat down on it. My phone rings and it is Matt asking, “What are you doing?” to which I replied, “I’m not telling you.” He says, “Why?” I finally admitted to him that I was sitting on a bench waiting for the parking lot to clear. He said, “What?” to which I explained it would take me a long time to find it by walking so I’m going to sit and wait until others leave,” and then I added, “Whatever you do, don’t tell your wife.”

That’s so much the way we are spiritually; we walk around clueless! It was there all the time; my car never moved. At one point a security guy stopped and asked if I needed anything and I told him, “I’m good.” I was too prideful and too embarrassed to tell him I had forgotten where I parked.

Blind! Skeptical! We can choose to be that way but it will not change who He is! He’s still Jesus; He’s still the Almighty whether I get it or not. It doesn’t change who He is but it may very well change what He does. Remember the last verse of that Matthew 13 passage? He chose to do no miracles there because of their lack of faith. You can choose. You can choose to keep Him at arm’s length and be skeptical but understand along with that the choice you may be making. Don’t be skeptical of Him and then ask Him to intervene in your life. I’m not saying He won’t ever. I’m saying in this situation right here, He said, ‘If you don’t trust me, I’m moving on.’ May the words of the book be written that He did great works at Arcadia Christian Church because they trusted Him.

Closing Prayer: Father, my prayer is that we would recognize your presence; you are always showing up in our midst and are active and we just don’t see it. God, may we be able to discern when you are working and as we see it, our faith and trust will deepen. God, I thank you for David and Trisha today and their willingness to come and say they are dependent on you and they have recognized the whisper in their hearts. I pray for others that we will hear that same whisper that we may pay attention to it when we hear it. God, I pray that we would hear your voice and would recognize it—that we would get into our Bibles and read and study about you. Since you have revealed yourself to us who you are, if we don’t recognize you then we are blind, skeptical or ignorant. I hope that is never the case. I thank you for this body of believers and for those who come and those who sacrifice to serve. I thank you for Highway 67 and that great crowd in there and for the representative from Rainbow Christian Camp who spoke; I pray his teaching to them is powerful. I pray your spirit moves those families. God, may we listen to ourselves less and to you more. LORD, as the world sees us, may you be magnified. May you be glorified and may people be drawn to you. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

January 29, 2012

Why Do People Miss Jesus?

JR Moffatt

(Prior to the message today, the volunteer administrator of Angels’ Attic, an ACC ministry, gave a presentation to inform people about what is involved in this ministry and how they can help to keep making it a success.)

It’s amazing to me how God has changed people’s lives through Angels’ Attic. There are so many things that Angels’ Attic does but I like most the summer HHELP program for those kids who need food for when they are away from school; we all appreciate the assistance that this ministry does for these kids and for the community.

Turn to Daniel 5. I mentioned to you last week the fact that discernment is important and that it’s critical for us to be praying for that every day—that we are able to discern God and His activities where He is working in our daily lives. I am going to start with Daniel 5. The book of Daniel starting in Chapter 1 contains the story of when Israel is taken captive. In this first chapter, Daniel and his friends are taken into captivity under the Babylonian control of King Nebuchadnezzar. When we get to Chapter 5 the Babylonians are still in control of Israel but now it is King Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson, King Belshazzar, who is in charge. (JR read Daniel 5:1-9). I want to start here today because there is one thing in common with every civilization that has fallen and that thing is they were not able to read the writing on the wall. They didn’t have discernment and they didn’t know what needed to be done. Hence it is important now for America to read the writing on the wall as we have walked further and further away from God and it isn’t about being a Republican or a Democrat because all parties have walked this great distance away from God. We have to understand that as a nation there is writing on the wall just like there was here in the Babylonian kingdom and the writing was there because of their arrogance. They had taken the precious articles of God’s temple and used them to worship “self.” God was angry! God was upset! There wasn’t anyone within Belshazzar’s kingdom that could read the writing on the wall, not even the King himself. In Verse 25, the King has now brought in Daniel the servant of God, the Hebrew slave, and he has been promised great rewards if he can do it. (JR read Daniel 5:25-31.) If you look back at that history of the Medes taking over control, it was an amazing story. The Medes had blocked the river that flowed through the city and then they came in under the city walls where the river had been stopped and they killed that leader. He was clueless as to the meaning of the writing on the wall; he was clueless as to what was going on and what God was doing in the world around him. Discernment in the world for us is huge—to be able to see and know what God is doing in people’s lives is very important. Winston Churchill’s cousin said these words about Adolph Hitler: “He is a kind man with a receding chin and an impressive face.” Discernment! He was a kind man that killed 6 million Jews. Discernment! Sometimes we’re clueless! Last week we talked about being “blind to the obvious.” We talked about looking for the keys when they are on the table, looking for our glasses when they are on top of our heads, and looking for the phone and we are talking on it. Sometimes we’re clueless! The question is: What is God doing in the world and what is God doing in people’s lives?

Here in January we have been focusing on bringing people to Jesus. It is not about bringing them from one place to another; it is about showing them how to discern what Jesus is doing in their lives. When you look at people, what is the first thing you notice about them? Is it their physical features? Is it their social/economic status or their educational standing or do you see beyond that to their spiritual standing? This morning I was back in the lobby talking to a 9-year old boy and I asked him, “How was your week?” He replied, “It was bad.” I asked, “Really?” “Well, not all week; just Friday—I got into trouble then by saying something I shouldn’t have said.” I then said, “Well did you learn anything?” He answered, “Yes, not to say that again.” People are blind and we need to help them see. What is God trying to do in his life at this moment to help him find Jesus? It is a matter of helping people discern what God is doing in their lives. Sometimes we are blind ourselves and we need people to help us. Harriet Tubman, leader of the Underground Railroad, once said, “I have freed 1,000 slaves, but I would have freed 1,000 more if they’d known they were slaves.” That would be the goal of ours to help people know and understand that they are slaves. The problem is so many of us are stuck and so many are stuck in Mary Magdaleneville. We find that in John 20; there was a common theme in the Scriptures that people were sometimes blind to God. The people who were closest to Him sometimes for whatever reason couldn’t see Him. In John 20 we find the account of the empty tomb. We read that John and Peter ran to the tomb and left after not finding Jesus’ body; Mary stayed. (JR read John 20:11-13.) This is Mary Magdaleneville; she is stuck here. How many times throughout the Old Testament had it been indicated and prophesied what was going to happen? Jesus Himself had told them on many occasions that He was going to die and rise again. The Old Testament story of Jonah is a picture; the story of Abraham and Isaac is a picture--we have all these pictures prophetically and Jesus even told them but even though Mary Magdalene is in the inner circle and even though she has been told by Jesus, she’s blind to it. I don’t know if I would have been any different; that’s why this is just an observation and not a criticism. She’s in the middle of the story but she’s stuck in Mary Magdaleneville. Though she’s looking for her glasses and they are on her head, she has no idea--but it gets worse! (He continued reading John 20:14-15.) As the story unfolds, He is revealing Himself and she figures out who He is, but how many times are we stuck in Mary Magdaleneville ourselves? We don’t even realize we are stuck because of our lack of discernment and lack of knowing and understanding what God is doing. There are so many times that He is doing stuff all around us in our lives and in other people’s lives and we are blind to it all and have absolutely no idea. That’s our role as believers and people who walk with Jesus; our role is to take a “hidden” (for lack of a better word) Savior and reveal Him to lost people. The great artist Michelangelo said about his statue of David, “I released David from the marble block that I found him in.” He had a vision and an understanding of what was inside that marble block and he released him. We have to understand that the people we are around every day are stuck in marble and they need to be released. Our goal is to unstick people without passing judgment. Too often the church has taken on the role of being the judge. We put ourselves in a courtroom scene rather than a hospital room, where we cast judgments on people rather than understand that the view of Scripture in our role needs to be a hospital room rather than in a courtroom. Our position should not be as a judges, but rather doctors; not as accusers but we should be nurses who will help people who are hurting. Does that mean we shouldn’t point out areas where people are struggling? No! One of the barriers that people have that keep them from God is Christians continually put them under condemnation rather than give them hope. There is a big difference in the way we approach people. We need to be the people of hope and help people see the potential that God wants to do in their lives. The question we need to ask is why do people miss Jesus? What is it that goes on in life that puts us in Mary Magdaleneville? How can we be so involved but yet so detached from what God is doing? A lot of us throughout our lives have gone to church and been very religious but the activity of God wasn’t very evident. We are just going through the motions. I’m not saying the activity of God wasn’t there, but it wasn’t evident to us, because we weren’t discerning. There are probably a lot of reasons and through the next few weeks I’ll have more, but today I’ll give two reasons why people miss Jesus.

We are scared of a resurrected Jesus. For us it is a lot safer and easier to keep Jesus confined to the pages of Scripture. In a sense we took Him from the tomb in Jerusalem to the tomb of the text and we have locked Him away. It’s a lot safer for us to keep Him in there because if we let Him out of there and it is a real Savior who is alive, He will lead us to places that probably we don’t want to go. He was constantly leading people in the Scriptures where they didn’t like to go. When He gets loose, we lose control because God doesn’t necessarily lead us in to places of safety; He leads us into places of faith and it is crazy because we sing songs like “He Lives” which contain these words:

Chorus:

He lives; He lives; Christ Jesus lives today.

He walks with me and talks with me,

Along life’s narrow way,

He lives; He lives; salvation to impart

You ask me how I know He lives; He lives within my heart.

We sing the words, but the reality of our lives often doesn’t match that. He lives within the pages of this text-–not within our lives. We sing:

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,

Because He lives, all fear is gone,

Because I know He holds the future,

And life is worth the living, just because He lives.

We don’t live like that. We often live lives that are just “safe.” We often are keepers of the past rather than authors of the future. Do you think God gives us all those great Bible stories just so we can memorialize them? Do you think they are there so we can retell them from generation to generation? Yes, partly but do you think they were given to us just because we can talk about them to others and retell them or are we supposed to be the people He can continue to write those stories through? There is a difference. We can retell them but not author the future. Even though He wrote them, He can authorize us to write a new story into a new day. If all we’re doing is looking back, we are not serving a risen Savior; we are serving a Savior that’s captured on the pages of the Bible. He is encaged and the question I would ask the church today is how long will we keep Him there in bondage where we look at this risen Savior as one in the past and not in the present? Maybe He wants to do something in your life—maybe even this afternoon. We have come to Jesus to help others out of those blocks of marble so they might come to life and freedom. Sometimes we are so stuck in the past. Someone who is really struggling doesn’t care about somebody who lived 3,000 years ago, but it is not that it’s not important or relevant, what they want to hear is what He can do for them today, tomorrow, and in the future and that there is hope. We need to be people of vision. We need to be people who can help relieve people and help them see what it is that God wants to do in their lives. We are scared of a resurrected Jesus because He is unsafe for us--because He makes us feel uncomfortable.

He shows up where we don’t expect. In the Bible stories, people had a hard time recognizing Him. Moses nearly missed Him when He spoke to him out of a burning bush. Moses didn’t miss Him that day; He had a conversation with Him. How many people throughout history have had that opportunity to have a bush-burning experience but they didn’t show up, or didn’t recognize God so it didn’t get recorded? He shows up on a stormy night when we’re in a boat and we see a ghost out on the water and we just about miss God because it’s a place where we don’t expect to see Him. Think through that thought. Spend some time this week thinking about the times when God shows up through a donkey or when He shows up in the oddest places. Ask yourself ‘Is He still doing that today?’ Is He risen or is He someplace where they have put Him that we don’t know about? Sometimes we fail to see He is as alive now as He was then. He wants to be just as much a part of your life today as yesterday. He shows up in places we don’t expect because we expect Him too often to be neat and clean. The problem is He shows up more in broken people than in whole people. If you don’t believe me, go read the stories of Jesus in the Bible. ‘I came not to save the healthy; I came for the sick.’ We want God to be nice and neat, clean and packaged where we don’t have to get dirty and uncomfortable, but that’s really not the God of the Scriptures. We find Him in the broken people way more often than in the whole; in the poor more often than the rich; in the sick more than in the healthy. We know that He is everywhere; understand that. I’m not saying He is not with rich people but He reveals Himself through certain situations more so than others. During the time of Jesus, if you wanted to see Him and you only spent time around the rich and wealthy waiting to see Him, you would have waited awhile because in order to find Him, you would have needed to go to the fringes of society because that’s where He spent His time. He shows up in places we don’t expect and leads us to places where we don’t want to go because it is a struggle there—because those places are places we are uncomfortable.

Matthew 25:37-39 (JR read the end of this parable.) LORD, when did we see you hungry and gave you something to eat; when did we see you thirsty and give you drink; when did we see you a stranger and invite you in; when did we see you naked and needing clothes; when did we see you in prison and go to visit you? And He will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” That is Angels’ Attic’s ministry. That’s what their focus is. They asked the question ‘When did we do these things?’ Jesus said ‘It’s when you walk into the fringes of society where people sometimes don’t want to travel—it is at that point that you did those things to me.’

The role of the church in bringing people to Jesus is to help people see what God has already done in their lives and what He is doing in their lives now. A goal that God would have for you if you’re to help people see and discern what God is already doing in people’s lives—His objective for you isn’t to point out their mistakes but it’s to help people see what He is already doing in their lives. It was in that moment that Mary Magdalene was stuck in Mary Magdaleneville but there was a moment when He spoke her name that she realized who He was and she realized He had been there with her all along. You might have a lot of questions with that story like where did Peter and John run off to? They are pillars of our church and are the forefathers of our faith in a sense—the book of Ephesians says that the Scriptures were written on the foundations of the apostles. These great spiritual leaders ran off and left Mary standing there not realizing God was in their midst. Again I don’t say that as a criticism but just as an observation; there was an opportunity at hand as Mary looked, struggled, and couldn’t figure out where Jesus’ body was, for someone to step in before Jesus revealed Himself to her to look at what God was doing all the time. And Mary, the guy that you think is a gardener? Take a closer look at Him.

Karl Barth was a great theologian from Basel, Switzerland. Karl was riding on the trolley one day there and this man gets on and is obviously a tourist. He sits down next to Karl Barth and they begin having a conversation. Karl asked the tourist “Where have you been and what have you done so far?” The tourist described the places he had visited and what he had seen. Karl Barth then said to him, “Is there anything else you really want to see before you go?” “Yes,” the guy replied, “I would love to meet the famous Swiss theologian, Karl Barth. Do you know him?” Barth answered, “Yes, as a matter of fact I do. I give him a shave every morning.” The tourist was ecstatic and when he got back to his hotel that evening, he was talking to others at dinner and commented, “Guess what, I met Karl Barth’s barber today.” Sometimes we are blind to the obvious—look around you and take a closer look.

There is a reason why I speak often that we are on a journey here at ACC, and none of us has arrived. We are walking here every day through this journey called “life.” Sometimes as we walk through, we are looking for God but not realizing He is so close to us that we are casting the same shadow because He is right here; He is here to help us with our struggles. Take a closer look around you because my guess is that through those struggles, you’ll find Him.

Closing Prayer: Father, thank you for loving us and thank you for forgiving us. There are too many times that we have been content with just being keepers of the past rather than moving forward and forging the future. Forgive us for those times we’ve proclaimed with our mouths that we serve a risen Savior but act like He is still in the tomb—that He’s a God of yesterday. I pray that the church will begin to stand up and believe that Jesus is alive and active in our lives every day because it’s not until the church begins to believe that the lost will be able to find Him. Help us discern your movement and your spirit that permeates this room. It’s easier to see the criticisms in people’s lives and not see what you are doing in their lives. I pray that you will help us to see you with those eyes. Help us to examine ourselves and make decisions about who we are and who we want to be. I pray LORD that you will give us discernment in that and that we will see things clearly. I pray that if there are those in here that haven’t accepted Jesus as their LORD and Savior for whatever reason, that you will help us to not be like Belshazzar—that the writings on the wall are obvious but we don’t get it and are eventually destroyed. I pray we will see and sense your presence. It is in Jesus’ Name, I pray, Amen.