Casey
Introduction--Casey’s Story (Saturday, September 28):
?“Hello. My name is Casey. Let me start by letting you know a little about myself as far as religious belief. Growing up I was raised to believe that God and Jesus were our saviors. I went to a Baptist church and was even baptized. As I got older, I started to question more and after moving away from my childhood church I was unable to gain answers. While I never fully stopped believing, I wasn't quite sure about the whole God topic. Recently, I have taken it upon myself to read the Bible and hopefully regain that connection with the Lord. I am 22 almost 23 years old, and like most need guidance and would really love to have that bond I had as a little girl. I was hoping you all could help me in my journey to get back in touch with my religion and my faith in the Lord. I work legitimately 7days a week with no time to attend formal church settings due to random crazy hours, but I don't feel like that should matter as long as I'm making an effort to keep in touch with God on a daily basis where ever I may be. Please, if you all can help me I would be forever grateful. It's been so long that I'm not even sure how to pray anymore. I know that sounds silly, but it's true. If you could e-mail me back at your earliest convenience with some kind of answer that would be great. Any guidance you can offer is appreciated. Thank you so much, Casey”
I. Assumptions I made based on her comments
A. Grew up in a Christian home, but the common questions of faith were not answered to the satisfaction of her young adult mind
B. She is seeking truth on her terms
C. She is expecting an emotional connection
D. Church participation is really not a priority for her–that is, she’s looking for personal revival without support of a church body
II. The Bad News
A. We Can’t Come to Christ on Our Terms
1. "You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, 'He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us'?" (James 4:3-5)
2. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 10:34-39)
3. Without a commitment to Christ, whatever we do–religion–is really idolatry
4. James is saying that any pursuit of Christ that isn’t pure (it’s really Jesus you want, not a feeling) is idolatry
5. Jesus’ words in Matthew 10 are hard to swallow, but to follow Him is meant to demonstrate (more for us than for God, since He already knows our hearts even when we don’t) just how authentic is our desire to know Him
B. We Can’t Come to Christ Without Sacrifice
1. “…as [Jesus] was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
? And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’”
? And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.”
? And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” (Mark 10:17-22)
2. An authentic relationship with Jesus is first of all characterized by sacrifice and total commitment
3. At some point in all our lives, we are faced with this: “Am I ready to walk away from everything to know this Jesus?
4. If, even in His love for this man, Jesus was willing to lay it all out (the true cost of a commitment to Him), we are giving a false hope to tell otherwise
III. The Transition
A. The Plan of God is Imminent
1. "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:11-13, emphasis mine)
2. Jeremiah’s prophecy to Israel in exile is a useful analogy for folks like Casey, who feel like “Christians in exile”–they have a traditional faith, but are bothered that at times it seems not to be real or legitimate
3. “Is there a God? If so, why don’t I get more of a sense of His presence?”
4. In spite of this question, God has, in reality, always had a plan for us, individually (we can apply this passage to our personal experience as well as to that of the nation of Israel)
5. God’s plan is available, all we have to do is pursue it
B. The Plan of God is Demanding
1. We must be prepared to leave everything behind (see Matthew 10)
2. The demand of complete surrender is not so much because God resents all our stuff (He’s God, He owns everything, He doesn’t need anything from us
a. “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine.” (Psalm 50:12)
3. What God requires is our willingness to prize Him above everything else–everything
a. Family, friends, stuff, 7-day-a-week jobs
b. We aren’t necessarily called to drop it all, but we must purpose in our hearts to be willing to do so; then Jeremiah says we WILL find Him
IV. The Good News
A. The Most Potent Promise We Have
1. "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." (John 14:27)
2. Nothing about the benefits of a genuine relationship with God will (or should) make sense in an earthly context
3. People who “get it” understand a larger perspective: our existence is not about this short fleshly existence, but that we have been created for bigger, greater things
a. More than legacy, historical significance, expectations of others or ourselves
4. To know Christ means to see that our place in eternity, when in unity with Christ, is not insignificant–we are made for better things than what goes on here on earth
C. Luminous Beings Are We
1. Yoda’s quote from The Empire Strikes Back
2. We are born with a “dirt suit” (the flesh), which only knows how to make stupid, selfish choices
a. That’s why the Bible says we can’t do anything right or good: it just isn’t in us, no matter how much we may want it
1) “…as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:10-12)
2) “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…“ (Romans 3:23)
3) “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” (Isaiah 64:6)
b. Sin is more than in our nature, it is our nature–it’s all we can do in the flesh
c. Sin isn’t necessarily “bad things” (though all bad things are sin), it’s anything we think of as “good” apart from or in place of God
d. From God’s perspective, self-motivated “good deeds” are just as bogus as a philanthropist who gives just to?get attention, admiration of others, or a tax write-off (and in the flesh, there really is no other motivation)
e. Our “good deeds” are inadequate from cleansing us from the worst sin: the one that tells God, “I can clean up myself, thank You very much, I don’t need Your help”
f. The “help” God offers was nothing less than the blood of His only begotten Son on a cross–you and I have no righteousness that compares with that
g. Christ’s blood alone is what “rescued us from the dominion of darkness, and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sin” (Col. 1:13, 14)
3. We put on the “new suit” (we “put on” Jesus Himself)
a. We are presented to God for all time as His adopted children
b. He did all the work, we don’t do any favors for Him
c. All He asks in return is to be able to clothe us with His Son, and replace our old nature with a new one, a new motivation for everything we do
1) “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10)
V. The Meaning of the News
A. The Deposit of the Holy Spirit
1. "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you." (John 14:15-17)
2. Don’t ever let anyone say “it’s hard to be a Christian,” or “that way is too legalistic,” or “that’s just so unreasonable”–what’s unreasonable is God giving His own Son on a cross for people who would hate Him for it
3. The exchanged life–the “dirt suit” for the “new suit”–Jesus made (for Him) painfully simple
4. We will always contend with the desires of the “dirt suit,” but with Jesus’ nature in us, we can experience true joy and victory in living life–and the peace that comes with it when we obey Him (keep His commandments)
5. Yes, we will “blow it”–the “dirt suit” (“old man” in the Bible) will get its way occasionally, but the new nature God deposits in us is His very own Spirit, who will spur us to repentance
a. Not just, “I’m sorry,” but “I’m sorry, I was wrong, I’m not doing that again, I don’t even WANT to do that again”
b. In our “dirt suit” we may say all that, but we can’t really do any of it; that’s what the nature of Christ (His Holy Spirit) is for
B. The Value of the Deposit of the Holy Spirit
1. God has given the best thing He has to offer in order to have a relationship with us––it is precisely what God created us for
2. What is it that you and I might possess so tightly that we wouldn’t be willing to give it up for a God like that?
3. This is in response to the notion that we ought to be able to come to God however we want
4. Maybe God doesn’t care one way or another about our hang-ups–he can certainly meet us wherever we are–but if we aren’t willing to walk away from everything if He asks us to, we aren’t ready to encounter Him
5. God isn’t looking primarily to complicate our lives, He’s looking for us to be willing to deny ourselves–it always starts there, for all of us
6. It’s not about what we say we want, its what we’re willing to abandon in exchange for Jesus
7. If it seems unfair to trade our things, families, or lifestyles for Jesus, then He isn’t worth enough for us
8. But if we are willing to abandon it all, He gives us eternal (forever and ever with no expiration date and no chance of wearing out) peace, joy, and perspective beyond description
VI. Conclusion
A. Let’s Make a Deal
1. We can keep our stuff, friends, family… or we can have what’s behind Door Number 2
2. Words fail to describe what comes with a genuine relationship with the living Christ (yes, He is alive, and yes, He does interact with His own, however “hokey” that may sound)
3. Jesus words are best: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me." (Revelation 3:20)
4. He Is always prepared to initiate a relationship He will never walk out on (Hebrews 13:5–”I will never leave you or forsake you”)
5. He brings permanent change in the heart and in how we see and live life that is NOT restrictive and enables us to live holy lives
B. God Dares You
1. "Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need." (Malachi 3:10, emphasis mine)
a. By “bring the full tithe,” for the purposes of this discussion, I mean “bring God what He has demanded of you”—your life
2. Try Him––*just you try Him*, and take Him at His Word––and see if He doesn’t show you blessings you won’t be able to measure
C. Final Words
1. Seek God–not someone else’s idea of God, not even mine, but God as He really is in His Word (that’s what the Bible is for)
2. Worship Him
3. Fellowship with other believers, who will strengthen your faith (like any muscle, faith needs exercise and nutrition)
4. God isn’t ever hiding from us; we only have trouble “finding” Him because we refuse to go where we already know He is
