Crash and Burn
…experiencing Jesus Head on!
Glad to be here…get out of the city where there is bad traffic! I love it out here!
I get sick of bad, big city drivers, especially Christian drivers…
If you are a bad Christian driver I have some friendly advice for you…
Don’t put Christian bumper stickers on your car! There’s nothing like being cut off or flipped off by somebody who has got an “I love Jesus” bumper sticker!
o “Buddha Rules”
o “How’s my driving call 1-800-I’m An Atheist”…then you could just ram people…I’m an atheist and I just don’t care!
I have got to admit that I’m a bad Christian driver. I have gotten into 9 accidents behind the wheel since I got my license. To be honest with you I don’t think it’s not my fault. It’s my mom’s. The first car wreck that I ever got in was with my mom and she set the pattern for the rest of my life.
Now you got to understand something about my mom. She was tough. She was like a combination of a soccer mom and the terminator. She was the mominator!
To her the car she drove was more like a tank that she was commandeering through the battlefield of rush hour traffic. And pity the fool who got in her way or cut her off. It was then that her road rage took steroids.
Needless to say I got a little nervous every time I road with mom somewhere. I never knew what was going to happen.
It all came to a head when I turned fifteen. Fifteen is a bad age. Why? Because you’re almost there, you are almost old enough to drive by yourself but your parents have to still pick you up from school in the dork-mobile.
And that night my mom was picking me up in the family dork mobile…a huge car that is considered cool by today’s standards but back then was embarrassing to be seen in…a 1969 Chevrolet Impala. It was a huge car. It was like a barge with wheels. You could drive it out on a lake on a hot Summer day and it would just keep going.
I’ll never forget it as we pulled up to a stoplight and right next to us were four of the cutest high school girls I had ever seen in this 1965 Ford Mustang. All of a sudden these girls burst out of the car and ran around there car a few times yelling and screaming and messing around. On the way around one of the girls hit our car and that made my mom mad. By this time they’re back in their car waiting for the light to turn green, laughing!
Mom was mad and told me to roll down the window. She was going to yell at these girls.
I told her that I wasn’t going to do that.
She told me to roll it down.
I said “no mom!”
She said, “Do it or die boy!!!” (I rolled down the window!)
I rolled down the window as one of the most humiliating experiences of my teenage years was about to unfold.
She yelled at these girls, “Hey you little brats do you think your hot stuff?”
“Yeah, you old lady!”
That made Mommy mad.
“You wanna race?”
“Yeah! Let’s race!!!!”
So my mom starts revving her engine and they start revving theirs and we are both waiting for the light to turn green.
Here am I in the middle. My crazed mom on one side and four of the cutest girls I had ever seen on the other. I’m sitting there thinking “I will never date again!”
Well the light finally turns green and mom steps on the gas, peels a bunch of rubber and leaves these girls in the dust. And I’m thinking, “Well, I’m humiliated forever but at least we won the race.”
Then all of a sudden mom puts on the brake and slows way down to let these girls catch up…and they do. Now were driving down the street side by side and I turn to look at these girls. Well, they give us the international symbol of love and peace.
Well, that make mommy mad…again.
So she takes the car and sideswipes these poor girls as we are driving down the street. These poor girls just pulled over and stopped right in the middle of the street.
Mom, laughing like a crazy lady while driving down the street says, “Did you see that?”
“Yes mom. I saw it. You sideswiped my face right into their car. That’s probably the closest I’ll ever get to kissing a girl!”
Fast forward five years.
Now I was driving the car…and I use the word “car” loosely. It was a tiny car called a Plymouth Champ. I don’t know why they called it a champ. There was nothing championship about it. It was small, slow and ugly…kind of like I was as a teenager. It was so small that it looked like a roller skate on steroids.
Now, I’m from Colorado and I happened to be driving the day after a snowstorm and the streets were covered with ice. Everything was going fine until my little Plymouth Champ and I encountered a lethal combination:
Steep Hill, Bald Tires, Black ice (describe situation)
I’ve noticed that there are 3 moments before every major accident I have been in while driving:
Moment of realization…
…The “Uh-Oh” moment… “Uh-Oh…I in trouble”
Moment of panic
…start slamming breaks (whether you are driving or not)
…started slamming breaks and turning into the curb to try to slow
down, I’m flashing my lights and honking my horn all at the same time
Moment of prayer
…Start confessing every sin, even sins I hadn’t committed yet.
…Start making up prayers, “Now I lay me down to sleep, don’t let me
wreck my brand new jeep!”
…But most never get past the prayer introduction, “Lord, Lord, Lord”
(He’s probably up in heaven saying, “Yes? Yes? Yes? Now if you
finished your prayer I wouldn’t let you wreck.”
“I am pumping my breaks and turning my car into the curb and I am barely slowing down I am headed straight for the back end of a Ford truck and there’s nothing I could do about it. So I start honking my horn in hopes that the truck would see me and pull forward at the last minute. And right before I am about to plow into his bumper sticker he sees me and pulls a few feet forward…and I safely slide to a stop. (Pause) Then BAMMM! From behind another car hits me! (Do the curly)
You may be thinking to yourself, “What in the world does a car crash have to do with Creationfest?” Everything! Because that’s exactly what we want you to do this week…to wreck…to have a head-on collision into Jesus Christ…to crash and burn!
Just like Isaiah did.
Yeah, that dusty, crusty old prophet from the Old Testament had a head on collision into Jesus and got set ablaze by his glory. And it’s from the pages of the book he wrote we are going to learn how to have our own lives set ablaze!
It was just one of those days for Isaiah. It started out normal enough. He was on his way to the temple to pray. Once there he got more than he bargained for…he saw the Lord. READ ISAIAH 6:1-4 and talk about Isaiah’s encounter with God:
• “Seraphs” means “blazing ones”
• Set on fire with the glory of God
• What’s the principle here? If we, like the angels, spend time in God’s Word then we will be set ablaze with the power and presence of Christ! So I’ve got to ask you the question…are you spending time in God’s Word on a consistent basis? Do you have a time that you are meeting with God in prayer everyday? If we want to get set ablaze it takes time in His presence, it takes time in His word and in prayer, it takes a moment by moment declaration of dependence upon His Spirit.
…what do you do when you get set ablaze…you stop, drop and roll!
Read Isaiah 6:5-8…Isaiah stopped, dropped and rolled after he crashed and burned. He stopped to take a long look at his life, dropped to his knees to feel God’s forgiveness and rolled up his sleeves to get to work! That’s my sermon outline this morning.
STOP and take a long look at your life!
• When Isaiah saw Jesus he said, “Woe to me! I am a man of sinful lips!”
o “Woe to me” was a self pronouncement of judgment (6x’s in chapter 5)
o In the brightness of God’s presence Isaiah recognized his most shameful sin!
“I am a man of sinful lips!” (we don’t know his exact sin)
• Our first reaction would be the same! We would immediately be aware of our most shameful sins. You may be covered in dirt, but if you are standing in a dark room nobody may know it. But if you suddenly walk into the light the more you see it and the brighter the light the more!
• What is that sin in your life or the shame from that sin in your past that you would be most embarrassed by if you were suddenly thrust into the presence of God?
• Carey Green Story
• What is your most embarrassing sin that, if Jesus suddenly showed up you would be the most embarrassed by?
o Maybe it’s a sin in your past that you are still carrying the shame of…
Some of you in this room are still living under the burden of a sin you committed twenty years ago.
o Maybe it’s a sin in your life that you need to turn from today…
Internet porn
A relationship with a member of the opposite sex or the same sex that has crossed the line into sexual sin.
A refusal to forgive that person who hurt you so deeply as a child
• Tear off a piece of paper and hold it in your fist until I tell you to stop. That piece of paper represents a sin in your life or past that you need to stop and take a long look at. In the next few minutes we are going to deal with that sin, that shame and that little piece of paper in your fist right now.
Drop to your knees and feel his forgiveness! V.6,7
“Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."
• That burning coal represented the importance of sacrifice for sin
o This coal was an immediate representation and a future representation for Isaiah. The immediate representation was that of a sacrificial lamb. You see if you sinned in the Old Testament you were required to make a sacrifice of a lamb, bull or goat at the temple for your sin. You were to place your hand on the head of the innocent lamb, symbolically transferring the guilt for your sin to the innocent animal. The priest would then take the carcass that you just sacrificed and sprinkle the blood of that animal in, on and around the altar. The temple was a place of blood.
Think about that for a moment, if there were just 750,000 families in Israel at the time and they each made only 6 sacrifices per year:
• 4.5 million sacrifices per year
• 12,000 per day
• 1,000 per hour
• 17 per minute
…but the fire on the altar kept on burning. That fire represented the flaming anger of God toward our sins. It kept burning until the ultimate sacrifice was made. When Jesus came to the earth John the Baptist exclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” You see what the blood of millions of animal sacrifices could not do, one drop of the blood of Christ did forever. When Jesus hung on the cross….
o You see the future representation of that burning coal represented the coming of the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, that of Jesus Christ himself!
• That burning coal represented the importance of feeling the forgiveness of God. When that blazing coal was placed against Isaiah’s lips he felt the sizzle of God’s forgiveness. We must do the same. Some of you here tonight are walking around with guilt and shame and pain for a sin you committed in the past or guilt for a sin that you are steeped in right now. You can’t fully be awakened to your mission until you feel the forgiveness of God.
o God wants you to feel his forgiveness tonight.
o Hold that piece of paper tightly in your fist and bow your heads as I tell you a story…Picture two other fists
If you’ve never put your faith in Christ you can be forgiven
If you have put your faith in Christ you are forgiven
o Tear up that piece of paper as you whisper the words “I am forgiven” and as you hear the words come out of your mouth I don’t want you to hear your voice I want you to hear the voice of Jesus. On the way out I want you to drop these shredded pieces of paper in one of the Creationfest trashcans and as you do I want you to hear the voice of Jesus again saying “You are forgiven!” I want you to have a sacred moment at that trashcan.
o Stop and take a long look at your life!
o Drop to your knees and feel his forgiveness!
Roll up your sleeves and get to work!
• Once Isaiah feels God’s forgiveness he then can hear the voice of God saying, “Whom shall I send and who will go for us?” Once we deal with sin and shame in our lives then we can hear the voice of God calling to us from the Scriptures saying to us, “Whom shall I send?”
• What is sharing the gospel all about? Sharing our relationship with Jesus and not a religion! VI GUY
• What is that mission? To reach everyone we possibly can with the gospel of Jesus Christ. If we had the cure to cancer we’d share the cure.
o One of the ways you can do that is by sponsoring a child through Compassion! Two summers ago I went to El Salvador with my wife….
o I believe that God is wants to raise up an army of teenagers who are passionate about the gospel to take this nation back for Christ. That’s why I work with Dare 2 Share Ministries. We are seeking to train and equip one million teenagers to know, live, share and own their faith in Jesus. We are seeking to unleash an army of teenagers to impact and transform their communities with the gospel of Jesus.
o If you are a teenager, parent or youth leader you should know that we have a website and FREE training tools to help teenagers know, live and share what they believe. That website is dare2share.org. You can actually learn how to share your faith right there online. You can also share with me the results of your own personal 48 hour challenge.
o The 48 Hour Challenge
Some of you don’t think you can do it. You think that you are too shy, too nerdy, too awkward, too whatever. That’s why I want to tell you about Kathy.
Kathy’s Story
I will never forget Kathy. Kathy was one of those Junior High girls in the youth group I was working with several years ago who was just plain shy. She was so shy that she wouldn’t give you eye contact. She was always looking down. Even after months of knowing her I would say “Hi Kathy” and she, with her head down, would quickly look up, give a slight smile. Always blushing. Always quiet. Always embarrassed.
She loved the Lord but was quiet about her faith. She was the last person you would expect to become a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the things that we would do as a youth group would go out to the malls on Friday night, engage other teens in conversation and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them. Week after week we went. Week after week we saw tons of teens come to Christ. Week after week I would ask her if she wanted to go? Week after week she would say no. She was too shy, too embarrassed, too quiet. Finally after months of trying to convince her to go witnessing with us I told Kathy, “You don’t have to witness. I just want you to go with us to the mall. You can go with me. I will do all the witnessing. You can just kind of stand behind me and pray.” She finally agreed.
I will never forget that Friday night at the mall. As I traveled throughout the shopping mall talking to students about Christ Kathy would stand about five feet back and pray. “I’d say, ‘Hi, I’m Greg and that girl right behind me her name is Kathy.” And then I’d go ahead and start sharing the gospel with the students. This went on for awhile until we approached three high school girls sitting on a bench in the mall. I said, “Hi, I’m Greg and that girl right behind me, her name is Kathy and I was wondering if I could ask you a question?” The girls said, “sure”. “Do you know for sure that you are going to heaven someday?” The girls said, “No.” I said, “If I could tell you in less than two minutes how you could know for sure that you are going to heaven that would be good news.” “Sure. Said one girl…but, he don’t want to hear it from you. We want to here it from Kathy.” A chill went down my spine…an electrical shock went down Kathy’s. These girls could tell that Kathy was the shy type and they wanted to see if she had the guts to share her faith. I turned and looked at her to see what she was going to do. Visibly shaken, she paused for a moment, looking intently to the ground. Slowly she looked up, giggled shyly at the three girls and began walking the five steps forward toward the girls. With each step her heart was pounding, her mind was racing, and her soul was praying. Those five steps must have seemed like an eternity. With the last step toward these girls I could see that God’s Spirit was infusing strength into her trembling body. This terrified junior high school girl opened her mouth and shared the story of Jesus with three high school students. By the end of her testimony each of these three girls had put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ…all because one girl was willing to take the risk.
At that moment she took that first step forward Kathy was pounding out a message “Here… am… I... Send…me.” If God can use a trembling 7th grader to rescue three souls from hell in a shopping mall, God can use you to rescue your friends from hell as well. The question is will you say, with Kathy, “Here am I. Send me.”
Can you bow your heads and close your eyes?
• Maybe you’re here today and you’ve never crashed and burned at all into Christ. It’s time…give gospel.
• Maybe you’re a believer and it’s time to get set ablaze again. Stop and take a long look at your life, drop to your knees to feel his forgiveness, and roll up your sleeves to get to work…Will you say, “Here am I send me?” Will you crash and burn into his presence and then take somebody else with you to encounter him. If you are willing to take the 48 Hour Challenge then raise your hand.
Let’s Pray
