Sermon Brief
Date Written: February 26, 2010
Date Preached: February 7, 2010
Where Preached: Oak Park (AM)
Sermon Details:
Sermon Series: Series on the Holy Spirit – The Great Adventure!!
Sermon Title: The Great Adventure! Part 1 of 6
Sermon Text: John 14:12 [ESV], various others
12 "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do…”
Introduction:
How ‘bout that video? There’s a great message in what Steven Curtis Chapman is singing about in that video. Have you ever thought about your walk with Christ as a Great Adventure? To many people who have professed Christ as Savior, we find ourselves NOT on adventure with God but ‘captured’ by cages of our own making.
The cages of fear, failure, responsibility, routine, assumptions and guilt hem in the believer to where he or she cannot live the life God has called them to live. Now in our passage of Scripture this morning, we find Jesus issuing a very STRONG statement about what is expected of believers that follow Him… Far too often we overlook this verse and don’t take it to heart.
After all, when we read this passage of Scripture, it boggles our mind because we think to ourselves, “How can I do greater things than Jesus?” Now I don’t know about you, but doing ‘greater’ things than Jesus sounds very dangerous and scary to me… how does it sound to YOU?
What we know of Jesus is that He cleared the temple; He held the religious leaders of His day accountable for their actions; He looked beyond boundaries and reached out to those who society rejected; Jesus was willing to touch and be touched by those with terrible diseases and Jesus reached out to all that society had deemed unworthy of God’s love.
Now when we read this, I want us to first understand what Jesus was NOT speaking about when He said that you would do greater things than He did. I believe that what He was speaking about here was not the miracles He had performed, but it was all about way Jesus had went about His ministry and service… I believe what Jesus was getting at here was the courage He had revealed in the face of adversity AND also in the way that He was able to influence those around Him.
Basically what Jesus is saying here is that we can have more than a “Jesus Like” influence on the world around us. I believe what He was saying here was that thru HIM we will be able to do great and mighty things for the kingdom!
Jesus being the omniscient being He is, knew of the technological advances to come and how we would be able to do FAR more in spreading the gospel than He ever could walking from place to place in Palestine.
But what we have to fully understand is that when Jesus ministered to this world… He did so with a courage and bravery that many believe only He could have… but here in this passage… in HIS own words, He is saying that we are called to live a life that is brave and just as courageous and great things are going to happen!
So preacher just what does that mean for us as believers? Let me ask you something this morning, “When you think about the Christian life, what is it you think about?”
Do you think about bravery and courage in the face of evil? Do you think about living out our walk in spite of any and all resistance to God? Do we think about ADVENTURE and DANGER in our service to God? I truly believe there are precious few believers today that live their lives in such a way. Let me tell you about one such believer…better yet, let me show you! [show Hamas video here]
SON OF HAMAS LEADER TURNS TO CHRIST – Fox News Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htwnXODfHuU&feature=related
In this video we learned about Mosab Hassan Yousef, who we now know as Joseph. This young man is serving Christ with great courage in the face of tremendous pressure and the threat of violence and even death! But he serves God, openly and does not apologize for his faith. Now that is what I would call a Great Adventure with Christ… how about you? Is your walk a Great Adventure?
OR are you like SO many professing Christians today that are worried more about following human authority and tradition than they are in serving the One they claim as Savior?
We have to ask ourselves the question,
“Do we believe that the Christian life is about serving a God whose boundaries are LIMITLESS?” OR
“Is our Christian life more about staying within certain pre-prescribed boundaries and limits set by human tradition and couched in spiritual speak?”
Are we focused on what we are called to DO… or are we more concerned with what others have said we are called NOT TO DO! Are we living a courageous and adventurous Christian life OR are we living in a safe zone where nothing rocks the boat!
With that thought in mind, when you think about serving God, do you think about the how God has placed the Holy Spirit and His influence over your life? The reason I ask that question is that MOST believers today struggle with both, the presence and the influence of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
These believers cannot seem to come to grips with God being in control thru the indwelling of His Holy Spirit. Most believers who struggle with presence and influence of the Holy Spirit in their lives are the ones who go on and on about how they just cannot seem to ‘know’ God’s will for their life.
And as humans… when we do NOT know… when things are not crystal clear to us, we become frustrated. Many believers today cannot see God’s will for their lives because God HAS NOT laid it out for them in a detailed agenda telling them just what to do and where to go… and we want a detailed road map without living as God has called us to live… BY FAITH!
In the area of faith, and knowing the will of God and submitting to the leadership of the Holy Spirit in their lives, I know that almost every believer can struggle within this area! However, as a pastor and Christian leader, I am concerned about this because far TOO many believers simply do not believe that God’s Will as being the Holy Spirit’s leading in their lives!
Most believers today want to figure it all out before they start living it… They want to treat it as something like a crossword puzzle or a math problem…as if it were something that they could figure out or solve!
There have been many attempts by humanity to intellectually determine just what God’s will is because they have the belief that ALL mystery can be removed from knowing and following God!
But what humanity must come to grips with as it pertains to God is that we are FINITE beings, as when we apply our FINITE intellectual knowledge on the INFINITE nature of the Creator of the Universe, what happens? 100% of the time, we realize who we are and we see our frailty and it hinders our walk and we become spiritually lethargic! When we try to do things without God, it causes us to freeze in our walk with Him and we are not moving forward.. but either standing still OR going backward.
I have heard many believers believe that there must be something spiritually wrong with them if they don’t know God’s will for their lives! However, I contend this… Knowing and understanding the will of God has NEVER been His plan for us… God WILL reveal what He chooses to reveal, but that is His decision and we are simply called to obey Him!
IF we believe that God is not always willing to allow us to FULLY know Him and His plan… we also must understand that…
Even though God may not choose for us to know everything…God still expects us to experience Him… on a DAILY basis, and even though we can and NEVER will fully know Him! But what I do FIRMLY believe is that when we begin to experience Him… it is then when God begins to open up His revelation to us!
But pastor… if I cannot fully and totally know God’s will… then how then can I know His desires? Well let’s take a good look at that particular subject… A few things from Scripture about God’s desire reveal a great deal about God!
In John 3:16 [ESV] we know that God desires to reconcile humanity to Himself…
16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life…”
In 2 Pet 3:9 [ESV] we know that God’s desire is that all would come to repentance…
9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
It is God’s desire that NO ONE should perish… that NO ONE should be separated from Him… it is His desire that ALL come to repentance and experience the forgiveness He has provided thru His Son Jesus Christ!
We can KNOW the desires of God without question, however, where many find it difficult is when we begin to seek out how God is going to accomplish those desire! And how God carries out His desires is something we will NEVER be capable of knowing and understanding in its fullness, but we are still called to be obedient!
God desires this because He is in control and His plans and the direction of the His Holy Spirit are not subject to our scrutiny or permission! Taking that a step further I will say that the Will of God and the person of the Holy Spirit are not subject even to our sense of logic, rationale or reasoning!
Now that may sound a bit awkward when I say it, but when it comes to the Holy Spirit…I believe that the Holy Spirit of God in our lives is neither logical, rational nor reasonable when it comes to our service to God. I say this because when it comes to us as FINITE creatures… we must recognize that God cannot and will NEVER fit into the box we try to put Him in…
Isaiah had the right idea when he wrote in Is 55:8-9 [ESV]
8 For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.
We are called by God out of darkness… into the light and life of His salvation for a purpose, that purpose is to seek and do the desire of God. That purpose is fleshed out in our obedience to the commandments of Scripture, those commandments reflect the desire of God and when done will accomplish the plan and will of God.
Now when I say we are to be obedient and obey His commands, I want you to know that what I mean goes so much further than merely fulfilling any ritualistic spiritual obligations that we may establish in our own traditions!
The Christian life that we have been called to is NOT supposed to be a life of routine, drudgery and ritual… that is NOT serving God! But we are called to the life of a Great Adventure… the life of Abundance that Jesus promised!
Mark Batterson, pastor of the National Community Church in Washington, DC wrote a book entitled “Wild Goose Chase” and in that book he asked a rather odd question… He asked, “Do you think angels ever yawn?”
At 1st I thought, what does that have to do with anything, but as I read his book and realized his thought process, I began to pray about this and I believe God gave me an ‘aha’ moment in my walk with Him! I believe the premise behind this question is one we must address.
But I want to apply this premise to us as believers… Can we ask the question of ourselves, “Do we get bored in serving God?”
How many of you here remember the show “Mutual of Omaha’s – Wild Kingdom”? I can remember that show and how exciting it was seeing ole’ Jim put in situation after situation where danger was the norm… It must have been the most exhilarating job to have!
Jim’s job was not one of routine… it was not one of drudgery, but one of excitement and wonder! Just think about all the great times he had working for that show! I can imagine there were not any ‘boring’ days on his job.
But let’s focus on the animals of that show… ALL of those animals were dealt with in their natural habitat… in the wild! They were WILD, really dangerous and totally unpredictable animals! I can remember Marlin Perkins saying on more than one occasion that Jim should be careful… ‘Watch out Jim!’
But when we take those animals OUT of the wild and put them in a zoo, and try to recreate their habitat… over time the animal is NOT going to act as it did in the wild. That is because before long these wild, unpredictable and dangerous animals become somewhat tame and domesticated… even to the point where they interact with their captors!
Mark Batterson puts forward the question in his book, “Has the church done to Christians what zoos have done to the wild animals?” In other words, has the institution of “church” taken away our edge as followers of Christ? Has it stymied our desire to serve God?
Now I confess that I love the church, but we have to be honest with ourselves as believers… if we look at society today, we can see that the church no longer has the influence it once did on society.
Looking at the church of the 1st century that took Christianity UNASHAMED into the world looking to change society… how brave they were… how unpredictable they were… how courageous they were… Peter standing before those he knew could have him killed and accusing them of killing Jesus and rejecting the Savior. Paul standing before kings and royalty sharing Christ and calling out evil!
The church made a huge and worldwide impact on their society in the 1st century, but what about today? Has the ‘institution’ of the church dulled our senses and tamed our spirits so much that we are like caged animals in a zoo… have we lost the edge that the 1st century believers seemed to have?
How often do we see people come to Christ and then we ‘take them away’ from where they have been and groom them to be ‘good church members’! I believe that we have tried to remove the unpredictable and dangerous elements of serving God… we seek to make things safe, predictable and tame for every believer!
We do this out of a desire for comfort… and to be honest with you I am one who finds it very easy to rest in the comfort and safety of the ‘church’, but is that what Jesus meant when He told His disciples that they were going to be able to do things greater than He did?
Do you really believe that the comfort and safety of the church IS God’s plan for our lives? Do you truly believe that God’s plan is a safe and comfortable plan where all the danger, unpredictability and sense of adventure is removed?
Do you truly believe that it is God’s desire that we be nestled safely in some church fellowship out of danger, out of the wild, and quite frankly out of touch with the world around us?
Granted, the wild and unpredictable habitat of those animals is dangerous and they live a day to day existence never knowing if this will be their last day or not… but in the zoo, that is removed! They are protected by the walls and fences from the predators that may seek to destroy them. Protection and safety do tend to lead to longevity of life, but the question is WHAT is the quality of that life?
Does the safety net of the church instill within us an eventual fear of taking hold of opportunities that God lays before us? Does it shield us from the dangers so much that when we are put into a spiritually dangerous situation that we would NOT know what to do?
You see these animals in the zoo… after a while, they become so adjusted to zoo life that if they were put back into the wild… they would soon perish because they have lost all sense of what it is to be in the wild!
Are we afraid of living ‘dangerously’ for Christ? Are we afraid of serving Him in ways outside of what we deem as ‘normal’? I can tell you that if you are happy with safe… you are missing out on what Scripture has laid forth for those who serve God! If you are happy with safe… God is NOT pleased with your service!
I want us to ALL understand that the Holy Spirit of Scripture is NOT the safe, predictable, linear and reasonable character we want Him to be. We desire safe, but He is dangerous! We seek predictable, but He is mysterious! We long for reasonable, but He is FAR beyond our reason!
As uncomfortable as this may sound to any believer…
Chasing the Holy Spirit is NOT about being reasonable…
Chasing the Holy Spirit is NOT about being predictable…
Chasing the Holy Spirit is NOT about being safe and secure…
Chasing the Holy Spirit is NEVER about removing the mystery…
Chasing the Holy Spirit is NOT about being reasonable…
12 "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do…”
Is there anything REASONABLE about what Jesus is saying in John 14:12? How reasonable is it to think that we… the sinners we are… as frail as we are… that we can do greater things than He did? It doesn’t seem too reasonable… but then again serving God is NOT about being reasonable… it is all about obedience and having faith that God is in control.
In 2 Cor 5:17 [ESV] Paul reveals what serving God is all about, “…for we walk by FAITH and not by sight…”
The question is… do we believe this? Faith is described in Heb 11:1 [NLT] as being, “…assurance about things we cannot see…”
It is my experience as a believer and as a pastor that FAR too many believers have that verse in 2nd Corinthians twisted around the wrong way… they say “I live by faith and not by sight” but they live out their lives by “living by SIGHT and not by faith”
The people of the state of Missouri proudly proclaim themselves and their state as the “Show Me” state. They live by the thought process of… ‘if its true then you are going to have to SHOW me!’
How many believers do you know today that refuse to surrender completely to God’s calling on their lives because it is just not ‘reasonable’ for them to do so… It’s not reasonable to quit a high paying job to take the associate pastorate of a small city church… is it!
Jim Caldwell, was the Vice President for Hewlet Packard, Human Resource division, making over $250K/year. He was a Christian and he had a great job, but Jim knew he was out of God’s will! Jim knew he was in the wrong place!
So many times we want to rationalize our situation and fit God into OUR plans. Jim could have said, God I am in a very influential position, I can be very valuable to the Kingdom. God with my salary I can tithe and give greatly to the church… but Jim knew that God did not need the power of Jim’s position… and God did not need the money that Jim could give to the church… what God wanted… was Jim’s heart…FULLY SURRENDERED to Him!
I tell you this story because Jim Caldwell was the associate pastor of a church where I attended in Westminster, CO. Jim left his job, and became the assoc pastor in charge of Evangelism, and God is still using him in a great way!
Jim learned to walk by faith and NOT by sight… Jim learned that serving God was NOT a reasonable thing… but a FAITH thing! To the world it did not seem reasonable for him to do what he did…
And I believe if we look around we will find a great many Christians today living like those people of Missouri… when it comes to serving God! They want God to SHOW them… they want it to be reasonable! But serving God is NOT about our reason, but it is all about His plan and purpose!
We have the tendency to only move ahead in our Christian walk when things are absolutely clear… and that is why I believe the church has made so little progress in the past 40-50 yrs…
Serving God is NOT about being reasonable, but I can also see here that…
Chasing the Holy Spirit is NOT about being predictable…
12 "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do…”
Now I don’t know about you, but I can tell you that the disciples who were with Jesus when He made this comment… I can guarantee you they could have NEVER predicted this…
I can guarantee you that on the day when Jesus called them to follow Him, they would have NEVER predicted how their lives would change and what God was going to be able to do THRU them!
The video you watched before the sermon describes what God desires for His children – A Great Adventure! Yes, there are day to day things we must always do and responsibilities of life to deal with, but Jesus did not save us to mediocrity or to a mundane existence in the Kingdom… Jesus said He was giving us life MORE ABUNDANT!
How many of us today want our lives… to be ordered and predictable? We have all heard the Scripture that God is a God of order and not chaos… but I challenge you to tell me that our God is not a God of ADVENTURE and UNPREDICTABILITY!
Just look at some of those OT stories of deliverance and victory… who would have ‘predicted’ that a motley crew of Israelites would be able to walk around a city… and walls would crumble! Who saw that coming? and the Bible is filled with many other unpredictable moments!
God is calling us to be obedient and be ready for ANYTHING! So many of us want to KNOW everything and know it all in advance, but that is NOT the way God works! It is my opinion that God does this for a reason… if we knew what was coming… we would panic… we would make things FAR more complicated and difficult than they have to be…
Have you ever thought about how we make things FAR more complicated than they have to be? As unpredictable as it is, the Christian walk is a simple life… and that is why many people stray… they believe it to be TOO simple and there must be MORE!
Chasing the Holy Spirit is NOT about being safe and secure…
12 "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do…”
Now let’s think about what was going on at the time when Jesus said this to His disciples. They were in the upper room… they were in Jerusalem and knew that Jesus was a wanted man!
They had seen how He had cleared the Temple and how angry the religious leaders were… Now Jesus is telling them that they are going to do MORE and GREATER things than He had done… this had to be somewhat intimidating to them! I can imagine it frightened them quite a bit…
You know we are all called to serve as the disciples were called, but we all desire safety and security in our walk with Christ. Now Scripture is plain when it shares with us a security that we have in our salvation… but that security does NOT mean our walk is going to be easy…or even SAFE!
Foxe’s Book of Martyrs is filled with and updated every year with the names of those believers who have left the safety and security of the local church to serve God where He has called them to serve!
One such couple was the McConnells who left Seminary in Ft Worth Texas in 2004 to minister to the people of Iraq. Now you have to realize that Iraq was in the middle of a war… and Iraq is a Muslim nation where Christianity is illegal, but they went in spite of all that…
There was danger, and on March 15th 2004, David McConnell and 3 other missionaries were killed in a car in Mosul, Iraq. David’s wife Carrie was in a coma, but recovered. She recalls their decision to follow God’s calling to Iraq and she has NO regrets…
This couple realized that their calling to serve God was a calling that extended beyond what most believer feel… they were convinced that it was beyond safe and secure and one of them paid for it with his life, but Carrie expresses no regrets and knows her husband would make the same choices again!
Serving God is NOT about a safe and secure existence but it is all about knowing that God has called us to something greater than we are and there are going to be times when danger is part of that calling… are you ready to answer that call?
Chasing the Holy Spirit is NEVER about removing the mystery…
12 "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do…”
Now here were 12 men and several others who had followed Jesus for 3 ½ yrs. And when we examine Scripture we can see that they were still clueless about what Jesus wanted of them!
Before they had arrived in Jerusalem they had been arguing about who was the most important! Just before Jesus makes this comment to them, Phillip had basically revealed that ALL the disciples were clueless in knowing what was going on…
Jesus had prepared them, but they had refused to see and it took one of the most horrific days that they would ever see to open their eyes to what God had in store for them!
Can you imagine what the disciples would have done if Jesus would have detailed God’s plans from day one… How many would have stayed? How many would have even come and followed Him?
I see many believers falter in their walk with God because everything is NOT laid out before them in striking detail ahead of time! But what these believers miss… is that God’s word is complete with ALL of what we need to know when it comes to serving God. We don’t have to know all the whats and wherefores… because God has given us a clear picture of what He desires from us…
If we go to Scripture we can find God’s desire for His children is laid out plainly before us… In Matt 22 when Jesus describes the 2 greatest commandments:
Love God and Love people…
And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
And also when Jesus ascended into heaven He gave us instructions/commands to follow as well… “Be my witnesses! Share what I have taught! Bring others to know me as Savior!”
However, as clear as God’s desires and commandments are, HOW the Holy Spirit uses us and works thru the plan of God… we are not called to understand it, we are only called to be obedient TO it!
The one thing Scripture is clear about in this area is that God is never going to go against what He has commanded us to do… God is never going to contradict His commandments… with His plan and purpose! His commandments and our obedience to those commandments are going to carry out His plans and purpose!
God’s plans will never overwhelm His simple instructions to us… to LOVE God and LOVE People, and for us to be Witnesses of and for Him in this world leading others to come to know Him! Even if we do DON’T understand the situations or circumstances through which the Holy Spirit chose to USE us… and work God’s plan!
Conclusion:
Do you feel like there is something missing in your life? In your walk with God? Christian, are you living your life for Jesus in that safe, secure, docile cage… where NOTHING can touch you? Or are you ready for some adventure? Are you yearning for something MUCH MORE!
I believe that simply NOT doing what we NOT supposed to do is highly UNFULFILLING as a believer. Checking all the spiritual boxes does NOT lead us to the abundant life that Jesus said He wanted us to live!
It actually leads to a sheltered, caged and domesticated spiritual life… one that does not experience the thrill of the chase or the adrenaline of the Christian adventure!
Just going thru the motions of doing what OTHERS believe you should do…or NOT doing what others believe you should NOT be doing, misses the point of what Jesus died to give us… it misses the entire point of living for God.
When Jesus told His disciples that He was leaving but He was sending the Comforter to replace Him… He did not mean that it was so that they would be comfortable in their service to Him!
The Comforter… the Holy Spirit was sent so that when we are facing danger, when we are up against it and fraught with uncertainty… that we still have comfort and peace in our hearts because He is with us…
The question is this for all you believers here this morning… are you COMFORTABLE in your walk with Christ, OR does Christ comfort and give you peace in your walk with Him! There is a difference!
For those of you who are here and don’t know Jesus as your Savior, you have not experienced the abundant life that He promised… you have not experienced the Great Adventure that IS the Christian life!
Are you seeking to fill that void in your heart… that emptiness that has haunted you for such a long time! Jesus can and will fill it… fill it with His forgiveness of sin, Fill it with the salvation only He can provide… fill it with an abundant and adventurous life! Are you ready to surrender to Him this morning?
I urge you to come forward and give your life to Him today… and begin to live the Greatest Adventure the human heart can EVER know… this is life like NO OTHER… This is the Great Adventure… won’t you come!
