LIFE GOALS VIDEO CLIP...
Jesus gives us an invitation to go diving! He invites us to plunge into the deep waters of his inexhaustible purpose! I warn you. Diving has its risks. It is not without dangerous possibilities. That’s why many people choose to play it safe. SAFE is familiar and controllable (or so we think). But there is a downside – a BIG downside. The alternative to inexhaustible purpose is to stay in the RUT of the familiar and common-place. I couldn’t say it better than the following quote, the version of which has many forms, but none better than this. “The only difference between a rut and a grave is one of dimension.”
The context of living in the RUT is about being where you don’t need to be; living where God doesn’t want you to live nor ever intended for you. It is a question of being content living the mediocre, average, ordinary, middle-of-the-road, and run-of-the-mill, second rate, pedestrian, common place life, instead of the outstanding, brilliant, exceptional, first-rate, admirable, superb and tremendous life that God designed for you!
Christian music artist, Natalie Grant, released a new song on her new CD. She got wind of what God had in mind for her. She went diving!
Changing Every Where I Am,
I’ve Been Stuck in The Rut
I’ve Been Caught Up, It Happens Fast
I’m Moving, to where I wanna begin,
I wanna find new life and see new eyes and breathe again
I’m ready to let go
looking forward to don’t know
As Jesus invites us to go diving, there are several things that must happen before we can reach the exhilaration of the dive. We must stop
1. WADING IN THE WATER
Some of the richest times of my childhood are memories of my parents’ interaction with us. Dad could kick a soccer ball in the air straight as an arrow and my youthful mind remembered it becoming so small that it disappeared from view; or the time he rode a bicycle and seem much too large for it! Then the trips to the Provincial Park to picnic and swim. Mom would pack the most amazing meals on those trips. In one of our swims, dad wanted me to go to the deep water. I was terrified and refused for several minutes until finally I agreed only because dad said he would carry me on his back. What he didn’t tell me was what he would do once he got me away from shore – he tossed me playfully off his back into deep water! I dog-paddled furiously and suddenly realized I COULD swim! I have been diving and dog-paddling ever since!
Here is Jesus’ invitation to go diving! Matthew 16:24-27…
Are you a water wader? Have you been splashing around a little with the idea of following Jesus but have never really taken it too seriously or is your heart on fire to follow? Let’s start splashing around and see where we end up!
Verse 24…
The language of self-denial is often misunderstood and treated too lightly. We use it mildly as in giving something up for a few weeks and investing what we gave up in a good cause or project. Jesus uses the concept as a warrior. One source says, that denying ourselves “means in every moment of life to say no to self and yes to God.” It is, he continues, “a life lived in the constant hourly awareness of the demands of God and the need of others.”
Dr. Warren Wiersbe, pastor, author and theologian: “To deny self does not mean to deny things. It means to give yourself wholly to Christ…it does not mean to carry burdens or have problems…[it] means to identify with Christ in his rejection, shame, suffering and death.” Or in other words, to follow Jesus is to realise that I can expect the same from life that he received. Society will reject me, shame me, and there is some degree of persecution as I fail to fit in with the world.
(Speaker’s Bible): “Are you loyal to the Leader in front?...It may be that we have followed Christ so far as it served our purposes or suited our convenience. Our service has rarely been consecrated to the pitch of sacrifice…we have followed Christ at far too great a distance.”
(Verse 24 again…)
Jesus used the language of the cross because it was a common image the local folk could understand. Crucifixion was a common-place form of capital punishment for non-Romans. Jesus used the most graphic image he could use to begin to explain how life-altering and critical their following him would be. It drove home to them the commitment Jesus was expecting that if they wanted to follow him they must be willing to even die if necessary. There could be no turning back.
If we lived in some of the United States, the parallel that Jesus might issue today would be, “if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, and [be willing to accept rejection, shame and even lethal injection] and follow me.”
Verse 25…
Matthew is writing in a social climate of persecution against the church. He is very aware that his next day could find him in the gladiator’s theatre. This was definitely a death sentence, as he would have to battle against a trained, lethal killing machine. If not the theatre he could be food for the lions. Read the verse against that knowledge…
Matthew’s situation is a far cry from the 21st century understanding of being a follower of Jesus though it had its challenges in Jesus’ day as well - verses 21-23 – Jesus rejected Peter for opposing his words that he would suffer and die. Peter wanted Jesus to take the easy way. Others have suggested that we need to see Peter as a type of modern representative of our society. We do not want suffering and pain or trouble so our answer to all these things is to reject it because we are not comfortable with it. When trouble comes many people blame God and walk away from him. They have a different idea, like Peter, about how things should be. They “Peter” out! If we want to stop wading on the shore and dive in with Christ, there is a certain territory that we have to be comfortable to accept that is not going to make us jump up and down.
Losing one’s life for Christ is the story of “Linda” (not her real name). Her impression on people was so profound that a child asked, “Is she an angel?” Some people knew her as “the worm lady” because she was seen many times picking worms off the sidewalk and putting them back in the soil, otherwise the sun would dry them out and kill them. Linda lived meagerly. Her furniture was a chair with a box for a table and a rickety bed. When encouraged to get some furniture she flatly refused because spending money on herself would take away her resources that she used for other people. Linda lived on the higher floor of an apartment building. She refused to have curtains in the window because it would obstruct the free cosmic show God gave her every night. Linda was a faithful community care ministry worker and reported double and triple digits monthly of people who decided to follow Jesus Christ at her invitation. Whether saving the life of a worm, buying food for passers-by, watching the stars, or leading people to Jesus, Linda was diving in every day, to God’s explosive power in her life. It cost her plenty of comforts she could have had and affected her life in any number of other ways that would have worked better for her. But living deep with God was too rewarding to trade it for a table on which she could eat a hot meal.
Verse 26…
Verse 26 calls us to “pledge our whole existence” to quote the Life Application Bible. People, who do not know Jesus personally, live for this life. They work hard to ‘gain the whole world’ in one way or another. What else is there to live for after all? What is really scary though, is to be a follower of Jesus living the same way. We behave as if this is all there is. For many, their life’s focus has led them to put God in the background. He still matters to some degree, but he is not the priority. With all the pressing priorities it is dreadful that it often never comes back around to God being the priority until finally he is completely out of the picture and we remove him from any meaningful place in our lives. For some, the decisions and priorities have a deeper impact with really tough consequences. God can be in the picture, but we have to face and live with the consequences of bad choices.
Here’s what regret for bad choices looks like…
REGRETS VIDEO HERE...
While none of us will face the death penalty like Lewis, Dr. Barclay captures the painful truth of regretful behaviour for all of us, in these words: “Once a man has lost his real life, because of his desire for security and for material things, there is no price that he can pay to get it back again. He has done something to himself which cannot ever be fully obliterated.” There is a piece of us that dies every time we choose to live independent of God. The good news is the gift of God called Salvation! And because of our tendency to misbehave and reject God, we claim his Salvation and must then live with an eye to heaven – read 27…
If I may quote Barclay just once more it is to say this. “Life is going somewhere – life is going to judgement (Barclay)
IF YOU WANT TO DIVE, PUT GOD FIRST – ALWAYS.
If you want to take Jesus’ invitation to go diving, you must face
2. TAKING THE FIRST STEP
Matthew 4 text
Verses 18-20
This was not the first occasion that Peter and Andrew had met Jesus. John the Baptist was preaching when Jesus came his way. He declared Jesus to be the Messiah of God. When John declared Jesus to be Messiah, Andrew and Peter, who were John’s disciples, left John, went with Jesus and spend the day with him. Our text in Matthew 4 is sometime later when Jesus challenged Peter and Andrew (brothers) to leave their productive trade to follow him and produce something more profound. They spent time with him, heard his witness but now it was time for decision. The first step for Andrew and Peter was hearing Jesus’ claims, which then led to another step – following; which led to another step – identifying with him; which led to another step and so on it goes.
Verses 21-22
Andrew and Peter – a picture of leave their trade and livelihood, to follow Jesus.
James and John (brothers) – a picture of leaving the trade but also their family.
As Jesus invites us to go diving we must consider it with a clear understanding that Jesus is calling us to change from where we are. We cannot dive into God’s inexhaustible purpose until we get to the place of releasing what is most important to us. It may be family, or it could be career. It could be releasing the fear of not being in control (we’re not really in control of anything anyway so why pretend we are?).
There are some here today whose heart is racing, you palms are sweaty and you feel a buzz going on! You are
3. STANDING ON THE EDGE
The hardest part of going for swim for me is the initial dive. You know that because your body temperature is higher than the water’s temperature, that first point of contact is cold and breath-taking! The worse thing you can do before diving in is dip your toe in the water! If it feels colder than you expected or hoped, it is even harder to make the dive.
Many of us are standing on the edge. We desperately want to dive in but there are chilly things that slow us down. I asked many of you through email to share your thoughts on being in a RUT with God. You sent back some amazing answers. Thank you for participating. There were issues like routine, circumstances and will power or lack of motivation. Some of you had no one to be accountable with so it doesn’t matter what you do because no one notices. There was lack of initiative though desire. The sin/guilt cycle keeps some of you away from diving in, since you feel you are not worthy.
All of these realities can be captured in a picture painted by Mark Buchanan who writes about a place called borderland in his book Your God is too Safe. Borderland is a 100 yard stretch of land that runs between the Ugandan and Kenyan borders, called Busia. Buchanan writes, “It’s borderland, no-man’s-land, claimed or defended by neither country. All laws are suspended here. Shoot a man, rob him, beat him: the guards on either side would watch, stolid, unmoving…
He continues, “It is strange and frightening to walk through here. There are no laws to restrain anyone from doing anything. Stranger still, the place is thronged with people – peddlers, hawkers, beggars. It’s a carnival of the wayward and waylaid. Why? Why would anyone choose to dwell here? Why would anyone choose to be stuck? Because actually, it’s safe. It’s familiar. It’s ground that can be staked out, marked off, well trod, packed down. It holds some things in and keeps some things out. It may take endurance to live there, but not much else: It’s the endurance of inertia (inactivity/disinterest). Life there requires no discipline but falls into neat routines. It’s domesticated lawlessness. It’s chaotic, but predictable. Borderland might be dangerous, but even more, it’s safe.” We have staked out our borderland parameters and allowed ourselves the luxury of justifying not diving in.
If you want change from your mediocre half-life and you want to be fully alive and charged to God’s design for you, there comes the time when you have to put away caution, fear, and self and decide you’re
4. DIVING IN!
LIVING DANGEROUSLY VIDEO
The diver’s said it was awesome. He felt the ride on the plane was worse than the jump. He said, “Once you start falling, you start doing it, it’s incredible!” He decided it’s great to live dangerously.
Futurist, Leonard Sweet wrote in Aqua Church, “It’s the start that stops most people.” (Leonard Sweet, Aqua Church).
Philip Yancey writes in Reaching for the Invisible God, “When an invisible Spirit and a human being connect, strange things may happen.” We value control and making sense of everything. Getting close to God threatens that.
Author and pastor, Chuck Swindoll, quotes from a business friend. Speaking of evangelicals (which we pride ourselves in TSA), and being intrigued with the Holy Spirit this friend writes, “They are attracted to the flame for some unexplainable reason; still, they are frightened by the Holy Spirit. Don’t we need to let the Holy Spirit out of the closet? Somebody with evangelical credibility needs to tell us that it’s okay to get closer to the flame.”
Chuck says, “Fear restrains us! Fear of being misunderstood by our brothers and sisters in the faith…fear of being mislabeled…fear of going off the emotional deep end and getting weird…fear of getting away from Scripture and slipping into error. We are afraid of wading too far out into the doctrinal waters, getting way over our heads, then not being able to swim back to shore.”
WRAP
When was the last time your religion crossed the river into RELATIONSHIP? Are you ready to stop wading and get beyond the first step? Will you spend the rest of your life standing on the edge? Or will you step forward and take the plunge. Will you Dive in and live dangerously for God?
INVITATION TIME
- Bowl of water with multi-colored marbles
- Marbles represent the color and excitement God has planned for you
- The water represents the barrier between you and what God wants for you
- Come forward; take a marble, an act of your surrender to God and decision to dive in!
- Play Steven Curtis Chapman’s “DIVE” while you have opportunity to do this.
- If you are coming to God for the first time ever, please speak with Glenys or myself after service.
