The Jesus Way
Slowing Down, part 1
Wildwind Community Church
David Flowers
October 11, 2008
Years ago my wife Christy, and Greg McLaughlin, took a van full of teenagers to Arizona to work on an Indian reservation for a week. After a couple dozen hours of driving, they passed through The Painted Desert,
with some very sleepy teenagers. Christy tried to get the kids’ attention. “Hey, you guys – we’re in The Painted Desert. Wake up – you have to see this.” Some of the kids didn’t move. Others stirred slightly, opened their eyes just a little bit, said, “Yeah,” and dozed back off again. They just wanted to sleep. Christy and Greg figured maybe it was something only adults can appreciate. Those kids missed so much that day. All this beauty all around, and they missed it.
I want to tell you a true story about a family hiking up a mountain – mom, dad, and two precocious boys. Mom and Dad walked slowly, taking in the sights and sounds and smells. They didn’t care when or if they reached the top – the joy was in the journey. They savored time with one another and the beauty that was all around. Do you think the boys had the same perspective? Of course not. To them it was a competition – a race to the top. “Hurry up you guys,” they kept yelling back down the trail to pokey dad and mom. For the life of them they couldn’t figure out what was taking so long. Sometimes they didn’t seem to be moving much at all but just standing around looking. I mean, looking at what? For them that was boring – the objective was getting to the top 1) so they could say they made it to the top; and 2) so they could eat lunch and then race back down to the bottom. Those boys missed so much that day. All that beauty everywhere. Opportunities to love and be loved by their parents and to love each other – but they missed it.
When it comes to the way we interact with God, I think most of us are like those teenagers in the van, sleeping through the trip and just wanting to arrive at our destination. Or we’re like Jessica, taking more joy in abstractly pondering our progress than simply enjoying the journey. Or maybe we’re like those two little boys, thinking it’s just about getting to the top so we can eat lunch. I’m concerned that on our spiritual journeys, we are taken in by our culture that tells us it’s about results – about getting things done – about getting where we’re going – instead of about enjoying the journey. That’s why I think we have such a problem in the church with people who say they want to BE holy, BE godly, BE spiritual, BE great husbands and fathers and wives and mothers, BE generous givers and prudent spenders, BE all these things – but who struggle to actually BECOME what they say they want to be. We are a society focused on BEING but not on BECOMING. There’s a good chance some of you are already sitting there right now thinking to yourselves, “Where are you going with this?” because you have been brought up in a society that focuses on results. I’m at the beginning of the sermon, but you already want to know how it ends. Some people probably feel like church would be better if instead of handing out summaries of the sermon after church we’d just have greeters pass them out when you walk in the door, do a little worship, and have everybody go home. “Just give me the Cliff Notes, Dave, and let me outta here.” We are be-ers, but most of us aren’t become-ers.
The problem is that this isn’t how life actually works. Life itself is not about being but about becoming. You were born a certain way but you’re not that way anymore. The difference between how you were then and how you are now did not happen because somebody told you how to be and you just decided to be it. It happened because you have very gradually become.
Think of the Christian life. When we refer to someone converting to Christianity, we often say, “Joe Blow became a Christian yesterday.” Maybe so, but he’ll need to keep on becoming a Christian every day for the rest of his life.
Philippians 2:12-13 (NIV)
12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence--continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,
13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
This God thing is not something we instantly ARE when we say a prayer – it’s a journey we BEGIN, so that we can BECOME godly over time. Christianity is much less about being than it is about becoming.
Why are pastors taught to give tight 3 point, 20 minute sermons? Because we are told you can’t pay attention any longer than 20 minutes. Seriously. We are told that we have to alliterate our messages so you can remember them. We are told that we have to do separate sermons for believers and seekers so we can be crystal clear and you can get your arms completely around what we’re talking about. We are told to get to the point in the first few seconds so you know exactly where we are going right from the start. Those are the rules. Give tight, 3 points sermons. Preach no longer than 20 minutes. Alliteration is always allowed. Identify whether a message is for someone who’s already a Christian or for someone who is asking questions about God. Get right to the point. Those are the rules.
All of which I have steadfastly and enthusiastically ignored since Wildwind began, and which I plan to ignore forever. Why? Because it may take longer than 20 minutes to say something worthwhile. Because you will listen longer than 20 minutes if you believe it can make a difference in your life. Because you’ll remember a point that matters to you whether it’s alliterated or not, even if it’s point #4. Because God is in this somehow and somewhere and the Holy Spirit is working and I believe there are things I think are meant for lifelong Christians that God knows a seeker really needs to hear. Because if I preach in a way that you can totally get your arms around, and just wrap up and take home with you, I must not be preaching about God. Finally, I steadfastly ignore the rules because I don’t buy the premise of them, which is that in order to help you grow spiritually, I must craft my sermons so that they resemble TV commercials and sitcoms as closely as possible, with snappy characters and stories and perfectly-placed humor and memorable quips. Will sermons contain those things? I hope so. Do I worry about it? Nope. Because you spend your life out there – in a world where TV and media defines who you are – that creates impatience and a need for speed and instant results – and that molds you to expect this in every area of your life from sculpting abs and buns of steel to building your life upon the rock of God’s Word. And the problem is that getting instant results might work at the office. It might work on Wall St. (that is, until it calamitously stops working). It might work at McDonald’s and on iTunes and on our cell phones. But it doesn’t work in any areas that matter most. Instant results don’t come in marriages. They don’t come in friendships. They don’t come in parenting. They don’t come in building character. And they don’t come in the spiritual life. Instant results don’t happen in any area of life that matters. In the areas that matter, it’s gonna take some time.
John 14:6 (NIV)
6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
See, it turns out that Jesus is not only the truth – not only the guy with the teachings we must know in order to get to God. Jesus also is the way. The way is not simply a set of rules we follow and once we learn them we can brag that we’ve found the way. The way is not a destination. The way is the life of Jesus. Jesus’ life – the way Jesus lived – is the way. And what happens when people who are used to instant results embrace the way of Jesus, only to find that it takes time and can’t be done overnight because the way is not a place or a principle or a set of beliefs, but the life of a person that has to be embraced and studied and learned and understood and lived?
What happens is the only thing that can possibly happen in this scenario. Burnout, discouragement, and frustration. See it’s not enough that we realize Jesus is the way. We must pay attention to all of the various ways in which Jesus is the way!
Does it sound now like I’m playing word games? Because I’m not. If we say, “Jesus is the way to heaven – confess your belief in him and he will forgive your sins and set you right with God,” we are capturing one small way in which Jesus is the way. Because it’s true that Jesus will forgive our sins. But that’s only the beginning – Jesus will also transform us from the inside out if we are following him in the way. If we say, “Read your Bible and learn about Jesus,” we are capturing one small way in which Jesus is the way. Because it’s true that we need to learn about Jesus. But more than learning about him, we need to become like him. Because the way is not learning about him, the way is him – becoming like him.
So is Jesus the way in a concise, 3 point sermon, no longer than 20 minutes in length, making sure to always be funny and throw in great stories and appeal to our need for entertainment so we can all get out of here and go back to our lives in the way of the world where we spend most of our time kind of way? Of course not. It turns out that Jesus is the way in an “I think I’m getting it now a little better than I did yesterday but I’m not always so sure but I’ll keep learning and growing and being patient with myself because after all Jesus is patient with me and if I’m hard on myself and critical of myself in my walk in the way, than I’m pursuing ‘the way’ in a way in which God would not have me do it” kind of way. And if we do this we will find that we can pursue Jesus the Way in ways that will keep the Way hidden from us forever. Because if Jesus is the Way, then we must pursue the Way in the right way. How many of us get frustrated with ourselves over our failures? How many of us beat ourselves up and condemn ourselves because we feel incapable of doing the spiritual things we set out to do? Because we don’t pray enough, or memorize enough scripture, or come to church often enough, or read the Bible enough?
Hear this now. The Jesus way is a way of gracious kindness. The Jesus way is a way that will give rest to your soul. If in your pursuit of God your soul is not finding peace and rest, then you are not pursuing Jesus the Way in the way of Jesus. You are pursuing your own vision for spiritual maturity. Jesus said,
Matthew 11:28-30 (NLT)
28 …“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
Is this rest Jesus promised only for us as we get to the end of the journey? Know what I mean? Are you resting right now in Jesus? Are you learning from Jesus in a way that lifts your spirit, that is gentle and encouraging? Are you experiencing for yourself the infinite love Jesus has for you? Because if you are not, my question is, did Jesus intend us only to experience this rest at the end of the journey? Was Jesus saying, “Come to me and live your life with me, which will suck during your lifetime, but after you die you’ll find rest?”
Of course not. Jesus said, “Let me teach you.” Teach us what? Jesus wants to teach us how to live. In other words, Jesus is not only the way to heaven, he is the way to life – right now. He says, “My yoke is easy to bear and the burden I give you is light.” I’ve explained before that a yoke is a piece of equipment that was used to attach one farm animal to other one so that the younger animal who was wild and untrained would have to follow in lockstep with the older one that was trained and disciplined and knew how to work, until eventually the younger one was working just like the older one. Jesus says “get in the harness with me – tie your life to mine – walk in lockstep with me. For my yoke is easy to bear and my burden is light.”
Folks, this can only mean that we should experience rest not only in the sweet by and by after we die and go to heaven, but we should experience rest every day of our lives as we are in the harness with Jesus, learning from him how to live his way. His way is easier. His burden is lighter. You will find rest as you learn how to walk with him and work with him in the harness, side by side with him, learning the Jesus way.
So what are we to conclude if we are NOT experiencing peace and rest? There’s only one thing we can conclude. We are pursuing the Way in a way that is not the way. Is Jesus harsh? Is he a slave driver or a taskmaster? Does he stand over you with a whip, or do you realize when you look closely at the master with the whip, that it is your face and not the face of Jesus? The way of guilt is not the Jesus way. The way of fear is not the Jesus way. The way of endless self-doubt, self-blame, self-castigation, self-pity, self-condemnation – it is not the Jesus way and it should be easy enough to see that when you see how many of those items begin with the world “self.”
And it’s a sign of our spiritually sick condition that as painful as this constant self-condemnation is, we feel more and more spiritual the more we heap it on ourselves because we think, “I may be screwing up in the spiritual life and not making the progress I ought to make, but at least I feel like crap about it.” And so feeling like crap, feeling terrible, feeling guilty, becomes an actual replacement for feeling peace, for experiencing the peace and joy and the light burden of the Jesus way. In explaining how humanity went wrong and got twisted up in sin, here’s what the Apostle Paul writes:
Romans 1:25 (MSG)
25 …they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them…
See, when we make gods of our own, we always make them in our own image. So when we think we are serving Jesus, and following Jesus, but experience constant condemnation and fear and guilt – is that coming from Jesus? Of course not – it is coming from a god we are making. Because we try to follow the Way in a way which will not lead to the Way. We often try to live for Jesus using the tools of this world. We impose on ourselves the need for instant results, instant success, instant growth in the way of Jesus and when they do not come we cast blame on ourselves and get angry with ourselves and grow disappointed and frustrated. It is this exact thing which Jesus promises we can escape as we follow him.
Now please do not sit there feeling terrible because you are sure I’m talking about you. This is exactly what I’m referring to. As soon as we learn that we have something to learn, or that there is something we have been doing that is not leading us on the way, we feel terrible and sink into discouragement. But the Jesus way is gentle and humble. The Jesus way is patient. The Jesus way is about becoming more than about being.
We’re starting a new series today called Slowing Down. I told you we’re going to start learning how to structure our lives to follow Jesus, so I’m going to talk to you for the next few weeks about the very first thing we must do once we have determined to follow the Jesus way, which is slow down – step out of our own way so we can get onto His. We can follow Jesus in a hurried, frantic, rushed, and schizophrenic way, but the problem is that that is not the way of Jesus and if we follow the Way in that way, we’ll never find the Way. Make sense? Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And so we follow the Way, which leads to the truth, which leads to life.
If you have not yet determined to follow the Jesus way, I hope you will make the decision today to become a disciple of Jesus. It begins with understanding that your way is not sufficient and is a dead-end, and that sin is the problem because it keeps you serving yourself and alienated from God. As you realize this, you confess it to Christ in prayer and state your desire that Jesus forgive your sins and look upon you kindly, which he deeply desires to do if you are willing to let him. And then you turn and leave your way behind and get on the Jesus way, where he will teach you a new way of living, which will gradually change the way you think, feel, and act and will have incredible effects in every area of your life. I invite you today to become a disciple of Jesus and walk with us in the way, as we learn together to leave our old ways behind.
This is what we’re dealing with right now. Leaving our old ways behind. Today’s message was called The Jesus Way and calls us to follow the Way in a way that can lead us to the Way. To follow Jesus we must abandon guilt, self-recrimination, and our tendencies to discouragement and just walk with him in the Way. That means slowing down. I’m going to spend several weeks talking to you about that. No three point formulas – no quick fixes – just a little time and attention given to how our need for speed is making it impossible to follow Jesus in his way.
I have something specific you might do this week. Next time you feel guilt or discouragement or excessive hurry, or panic, or any of that negative emotion that dogs you, simply say, “Does God’s voice sound like this?” You’ll quickly realize it does not. Then ask yourself, “What is the way of the easy yoke? What does Jesus, who loves and accepts me completely, want me to know at this moment?” In other words, ask, “Where is God in all this?” Here’s a hint. God is the one who always loves you, always has patience with you, who never guilt trips or hurries or manipulates you or uses fear to motivate you. God is the one who is steady and calm in the middle of your freakouts and panics. God is the one who always says this to you –
Isaiah 54:10 (NIV)
10 Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the LORD, who has compassion on you.
This is God’s eternal, unchanging stance toward you, regardless of your failures and shortcomings and mistakes in the way. I encourage you to allow yourself to hear this voice this week. You won’t get there overnight. But God wants you to enjoy the trip – to look out and see him in action in the world around you – and to know that he is here, and that he is enough. Because if we follow the Way that is Jesus in the ways we learn from this world, we will miss the Way entirely, like those teens missed the Painted Desert and those little boys missed the journey up the mountain.
You’re receiving a response card right now that will give you an opportunity to give us some feedback. Perhaps you haven’t been following Jesus at all and you’d like to begin your journey along the way. We’d love to help you. Perhaps you would like us to call or email you and help you readjust your life a little bit and learn to listen to different voices than the guilt and fear that have captured your attention in the past, because that’s not God talking to you right there. There are other options there too – please let us know how we can serve you. Greeters will collect your cards on your way out tonight.
