Sermon Brief
Date Written: February 10, 2010
Date Preached: February 14, 2010
Where Preached: Oak Park (AM)
Sermon Details:
Sermon Series: Series on the Holy Spirit - The Great Adventure
Sermon Title: Are You A Reasonable Believer! - Part 2 of 6
Sermon Text: John 14:12, Neh 2:1-5
Introduction:
Do you remember what I spoke to you about last week? I talked about how we are called by God to be on adventure with Him. I told you that our walk in Christ… that our seeking God’s will and search for the Holy Spirit in our lives is not a search that is reasonable, predictable, safe or secure OR it is not about removing the mystery of God from our walk with Him.
We learned that God has called us to do great things and this morning I want to go back and revisit that verse we looked at last week… John 14:12
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…”
One more time, I want us to recognize just what Jesus is saying here in this passage. I don’t know about you but when I read this passage of Scripture, it blows me away!
Jesus was so awesome in His walk and witness, so how can He say that we will do even greater things than He has done? How can I, as a fragile and sinful human, do greater things than He did? How can YOU with all your faults and failures, do greater things than Jesus? These are very tough questions…
But when we look at that statement, it makes us evaluate our walk with Christ. If Jesus has said I can do even greater things than He did, then I have to evaluate my walk with Him, I have to ask myself the question, “Is there anything in my walk with Christ that is preventing me from being what God wants me to be?
Well, pastor, I go to church, I pay my tithes, I give love offerings to those in need and to mission efforts, I come to Sunday School and I do a lot of things around church. I am being responsible in my walk with Christ! So with that being said, it leads me, as your pastor, to ask what seems to be a very STRANGE and out of place question, “Are you being too ‘reasonable’ in your walk with Christ?”
Now wait just a minute preacher, what do you mean “too reasonable” in your walk with Christ? How can you be TOO reasonable? Well, let me put it to you from another perspective, it may be easier for you to understand if we think of it in terms of being too RESPONSIBLE for Christ.
When you hear the word ‘responsible’ what do you think about? When I hear the word responsible, I think about doing what is expected of me. Like doing my job, like providing for my family, like paying my bills and meeting my obligations to others!
When I think about responsible from the standpoint of a husband and a father I know that I am responsible for more than just myself! This is because I know that my life as a husband and as a father affects the lives of my wife and my children, but not just them but my extended family as well.
However, when most of us think about being a responsible believer, we rarely think about how our lives affect those around us! For the most part, when we think about being a responsible Christian we think about what WE are doing and how OUR life affects OUR walk with Christ. It seems as if the entire focus of our Christian existence is lived within a vacuum and that there is no interaction with those around us…
Now as your pastor I can tell you that when we think about living a responsible Christian life, more than anything you are responsible to be obedient to God and to DO what He has called you to do… that obedience will integrate with what God is having other believers do as well, as you fit together in the plan of God.
We have all heard the term, ‘you need to be responsible’ OR ‘make responsible choices’. And I want you to know that there is NOTHING wrong with being responsible.
But in quoting Mark Batterson author of Wild Goose Chase, “…if God has laid a passion on your heart, that God-given passion becomes YOUR responsibility!”
And I can tell you that when God places a passion in your heart, you have to come to a decision. You must decide if you are you going to follow God’s calling and live out that passion and serve God! OR are you going to ignore the God called passion in your life to continue living your own way and walking your own path?
Preacher, you just don’t understand, I can’t go chasing after God’s passions, after all, I have a job! I can’t go running off to who knows where to do who knows what chasing God’s desire on my life. I have a responsibility to my family and they are depending on me to provide for them and I must be ‘responsible’ in my actions!
Again, there is nothing wrong with personal and family responsibility, we are called to be good stewards, but on the other hand I want to put it to you this way, when God lays a passion on our hearts, it becomes our spiritual responsibility to live out that passion!
The thing about God placing a passion on our hearts is that it doesn’t matter what it is… it could be preaching on the street, it could be feeding the hungry, it could be housing the homeless, it could be visiting prisoners in prison… the WHAT does NOT matter! The important part is that when God lays it on our hearts, it is important THAT we are obedient. Our obedience to God should always be our first and foremost responsibility - above all other things!
So the question still stands, and we ALL need to ask ourselves that very difficult and tough question, “what is my God-called and God instilled passion? We should face what God is calling each of us to do…
OR are we going to continue to live our lives as responsibly IRRESPONSIBLE believers and do what WE believe to be the right thing. Are we going to ignore the God driven and God given passion in our hearts and stay where we are; are we going to NOT risk adventure so that we can stay safe and secure?
OR are we going to surrender to the God called and God inspired passion laid upon our hearts and become what I would call ‘Irresponsibly Responsible’ for the sake of Christ. Are you ready to begin to chase that passion and purpose that God has laid within your heart?
Which believer am I going to be? Am I going to be the “Responsibly Irresponsible” believer who simply does what is expected of him by his family and society OR am I going to become the “Irresponsibly Responsible” believer that is focused on living out the passion that God has laid upon his heart?
Which are you today? Today I want us to look at what God requires of those who claim salvation and profess Jesus as their Savior and Lord! Today, we are going to look at what we can begin to do in our lives to serve God, no matter how the world or others may view our actions… Are you ready?
Responsibly Irresponsible:
Pastor, you can’t expect me to drop everything and go off doing what God has called me to do… after all, I have a family, a job, a career, a place in the community, a position within our church!
Pastor do you understand that I have a mortgage, multiple car notes and many other financial obligations… I can’t just drop all this and go off on some crazy adventure for God!
Now if you remember, last week I spoke about how serving God and seeking the Holy Spirit is a Great Adventure for the believer! I told you that Jesus promised that He would give not just NEW life, but new and ABUNDANT life!
When we are saved, we are assured of an eternal home with Christ in heaven, but Christ has also called us to live out an abundant life for Him here in this world! But what I have found as a pastor is that for MOST believers… when they look at their Christian walk… they do NOT see it as some sort of adventure, but more of a routine they must endure.
This is because MOST believers today see their walk in Christ as just ONE part of their life. They compartmentalize their lives where God and church are here in this part of my life, then there is job and career over here, and then there is family and relationships over here, and then there is financial obligations and such over in another area!
The sad part is that most believers do not see their lives in Christ as being their ENTIRE life… but merely as a part of what they desire. If you think, well pastor what is wrong with that, what is wrong with having your life on a grid and knowing where all the parts are… isn’t God a God of order?
Well let me ask you a question? We know that God sent Jesus to die on the Cross for our sin and to save us from eternal damnation. Knowing this, how can we think that God’s intention was for us to just ADD Him to the many parts of our lives!
God’s intention and desire is not to become PART of our lives, but it is His desire and intention to become ALL of our life! It is His desire that He become the entirety of who we are… It is God’s desire to become our reason for being!
But many believers either do not understand this OR they choose NOT to accept this reality and armed with that attitude they find themselves living out their lives putting everything under a certain category or slot in their lives and living their lives in a manner I would call Responsibly Irresponsible in their service to Christ.
This means that we allow the trappings and obligations of this world to overwhelm our responsibilities and expectations of us as believers! We allow our jobs, our families, our career, our bills, our sense of safety and comfort to sway our service to God and we base all of these decisions under the guise of us just being responsible…
Nehemiah 2:1-5 [ESV]
1 In the month of Nisan, in the 20th yr of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. 2 And the king said to me, "Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart." Then I was very much afraid. 3 I said to the king, "Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?"
A little history here, in 586 Jerusalem was ravaged and destroyed by the Babylonians. For yrs God had warned Israel thru the prophets that if they refused to repent and serve Him that He would discipline them and God uses a pagan king named Nebuchadnezzar to carry out this punishment.
The books of Ezra and Nehemiah are linked in that they record 2 returns to the city of Jerusalem. Ezra and many men return and some of those return to Babylon and give a report to Nehemiah and the report of the situation in Jerusalem disturbs and troubled Nehemiah a great deal and because of this he is sad, and is afraid to go before the king so sad.
Why would he be afraid? In the Near East, the Kings had those who waited on them hand and foot. Most were slaves, but these slaves actually lived pretty good lives. However, there was one rule that they had to live by and that was NEVER to make the King unhappy…when the king became unhappy… heads would roll.
So to have a long, sad face in front of the King was NOT a good career move for anyone who worked in the palace! This could lead to prison or worse. Nehemiah knew the rules, and knew the danger, but his heart was saddened, and he knew he had to relate that sadness to the King!
Nehemiah had prayed about this situation, and God had placed a passion in Nehemiah’s heart to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, starting with the walls around the city! He knew this is what God wanted him to do, but Nehemiah had a job!
Now as much as Nehemiah believed that God had placed this passion on his heart, I want us to look at Nehemiah for a moment. The Bible does not tell us of any construction experience OR engineering knowledge that Nehemiah may have had… so why would Nehemiah feel called by God to go and rebuild the city? We find that Nehemiah did not question God, but accepted God’s passion into his heart! However, Nehemiah had a job! He had responsibilities!
Nehemiah’s job was an IMPORTANT job, the cup-bearer to the king was an officer of the royal court. His duty was to serve the drinks at the royal table, and based on a constant fear of plots against the King, the cup bearer must be regarded as truly trustworthy person for them to hold this position.
He guarded against poison in the king’s cup, and there were times when he was required to swallow some of the King’s wine before serving it to protect his king. Very often Nehemiah’s close and confidential relations with the king gave him a position of great influence within the royal court.
Nehemiah knew that the King depended on him, so how could he ask the King to leave and go do this passion that God had called him to? The very idea of this went against his responsibilities as cupbearer for the King, but we find that Nehemiah understood God had laid this passion in his heart, and he HAD to ask to go…
4 Then the king said to me, "What are you requesting?" So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5 And I said to the king, "If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ graves, that I may rebuild it."
I want us to notice that when the King asked Nehemiah what he could do to help him… Nehemiah was ready to let the King know right then. This is because Nehemiah had said a little prayer and understood what God wanted him to do.
When we read the story of Nehemiah, we find out that the King released Nehemiah to go and rebuild Jerusalem! What I want us to see is that NOT only did the King give him permission to go, BUT the King also provided Nehemiah with a letter of passage for protection for his trip, he provided workers and guards to protect them on the trip, and the King also gave Nehemiah all the materials to complete his job, not only for the wall, BUT also to build him a house while he was there…
Now when we look at this situation, it is easy for see that Nehemiah trusted God and did what God called him to do. But when we put ourselves in Nehemiah’s shoes, we can see that the ‘responsible’ thing for him to do was probably to just pray for his people and maybe ‘send some money’!
However, God put a passion into his heart that went beyond his ‘responsibility’ and drove Him to serve God far beyond what others believed was his responsibility. I am sure that there were many who believed that Nehemiah was actually doing the ‘irresponsible’ thing, that he was shirking his responsibility to the king.
So my question for you today is what about you? Are you facing a Nehemiah moment in your life? Has God placed a passion in your heart and you are at a crossroads… it is something you may believe you CANNOT do because it just would NOT be responsible on your part… after all you have a family to provide for… and mouths to feed… and a house to pay for… and and and and…
I can remember my Nehemiah moment…just like it was yesterday! It was 1985 and I was faced with a Nehemiah moment in my life. I was recently saved and God laid a passion on my heart. I did not understand it completely and I was afraid. God called me into ministry, but I resisted His calling on my life… after all I had a family to take care of… I had responsibilities to attend to!
I had a Nehemiah moment and I chose NOT to do what Nehemiah did… I chose to remain in the military. I chose to stay ‘safe’ in my life and do the ‘responsible’ thing, after all I had RESPONSIBILITIES!
Ultimately I got out of the military and joined a company that took us to Denver, CO where I was working in a job, making MORE money than I had EVER made, with the potential to make even MORE. However in the back of my mind that passion that God has planted was still there. I was still convicted to surrender to God, but I still refused and continued to do what I thought was the ‘responsible’ thing!
Now I want you to know that I believe that there are times when many believers put their earthly responsibilities FAR above their allegiance and service to God! They try to justify their decision by saying, “I have to be responsible, I just can’t go off ‘willy-nilly’.”
But let me tell you about this ‘passion from God’ that I am speaking about. When God plants a passion in our lives, and we make the choice NOT to follow that passion, we know in our hearts we are NOT doing what God wants us to do… but we convince ourselves it is ok because we are being responsible…as the world sees ‘responsible’.
My contention this morning is that when believers do this we are being what I would call “Responsibly Irresponsible” in our service to God and for His kingdom! I also believe we will be held accountable by God for NOT surrendering to His calling on our lives!
What many of us fail to see is that God has called us NOT to a safe and comfortable lifestyle, but to an adventure that requires us to place complete trust in Him, even when the world around us… even when believers around us think we are being irresponsible!
As Christians we are NOT called to be responsible people who live their life and try to fit God into the equation! But we are called to be believers who first are responsible to the passion their Savior has placed in their heart and to the commandments of Christ! To sum it up, I believe that we are called to be…
Irresponsibly Responsible:
Pastor! Are you telling me that God calls us to be irresponsible? I don’t believe God would do that! Now, before you get bent out of shape by that, let me say this…
By 1995 God had been convicting me of the passion He had placed in my heart. For almost 10 yrs and I had been putting Him off and ignoring His call mainly because I felt that I needed to be a responsible husband and father… I needed to put a roof over my families head, and food in their mouth…
With that in mind, I did what I thought the ‘responsible’ thing was! In my mind I had not ignored God completely. I had served in the church, I had done ministry with the youth…I had done many things, but this was NOT the passion God had implanted in my heart! In my heart I knew that God wanted MORE! However, I thought God was asking TOO much and I wasn’t willing to change!
Until one day when my pastor called me into his office and was critical of my service with the youth of the church. This angered me so I told him he just didn’t want me to work with the youth!
My pastor, Ed Gatlin, who was a very patient, godly and loving man.. He looked me directly in the eye and challenged me to study God’s Word! To immerse myself in Bible study and then for me to actually listen to God speak to my heart! I was floored by this; it was like he knew exactly what I had been dealing with for the past 10 years.
I continued to ignore this passion in my heart until God placed an opportunity in front of me. I had a choice to make,
1) Continue to be ‘responsible’ in my job and career in providing for my family, OR
2) I could surrender to the passion that God had placed in my heart!
It was Jan of 1995 when I finally surrendered to God’s calling. God gave me the opportunity and opened the door… and in an act of faith, I stepped thru the door!
Nehemiah was also faced with a door of opportunity… Nehemiah had to make a choice… He had to make the choice to step thru the open door God had provided
OR refuse to step through the door because he had too many obligations and responsibilities…
In reading Scripture we can see that Nehemiah WAS ready to step thru that door… Nehemiah WAS ready to serve God. I am sure that many around him believed that he was being IRRESPONSIBLE in his duties to the King… that he was being irresponsible about his life… but I want us to look what he says to the King in v.5:
5 And I said to the king, "If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ graves, that I may rebuild it."
Nehemiah had the passion planted in his heart and it was his desire to serve God! So he asked the king for a leave of absence so that he could go and do what God had calling him to do.
I am sure there were many of Nehemiah’s peers who believed this to be a mistake on his part. However, we see that when God plants a passion in our hearts, and when we decide to serve Him and be obedient, God is going to make a way!
So this pagan King who had conquered the Jews and tried to destroy their culture and their spirit… this king who had ridiculed them for their faith in a God who did not save them when he invaded… this pagan King said, YES, you can go!
When Nehemiah submitted to God’s calling in his heart, he did not know that God would touch this king’s heart and soften it like He did. However, he did it anyway, even when it seemed irresponsible of him to do it! And God made a way!
I can tell you that I have been personally been where Nehemiah was… I have held a great job with many responsibilities, but when God presented me with His passion… when God instilled in my heart HIS passion for the kingdom… there was a decision to be made. I ran for 10 yrs but when I was ready to step thru that door, God made a way!
I stepped thru that door by quitting my $42K/yr job (more than I had EVER made in my life) and moving back to MS to move with Michelle’s sister and her family.
That August I was enrolled in Seminary and I have not looked back! I surrendered to the passion God had planted in my heart by stepping out on faith! In the back of my mind, I thought we would starve… but we didn’t… I thought we would have an impossibly hard life… but we didn’t. God saw our obedience and He made a way!
I did not know where my kids would go to school… but God provided a great Christian school for them! I thought I would NEVER be able to coach or teach… but God provided that opportunity for me as well.
I found out that when I submitted to the passion God had planted in my heart that He would make a way. Many thought I was being IRRESPONSIBLE, but in the economy of God there could not have been a more responsible decision on my part!
By my willingness to be Irresponsibly Responsible, I am now serving God on HIS terms! I am now fulfilling the passion He planted in my heart and God is blessing my obedience! When we look at our story here in Nehemiah, we can see that he too was Irresponsibly Responsible and that he too served God on God’s terms, and God blessed his obedience as well.
Conclusion:
Now I want you ALL here to understand that I know just how ‘against the grain’ this sounds. But I also want to point out to you that God’s Word is filled with stories just like Nehemiah!
Abraham heard God’s call and left his homeland… Abraham did not even KNOW who God was; this was FAR from being a rational and responsible decision on his part… but then again following God… chasing the adventure of the Holy Spirit… that is NEVER going to be viewed as a rational or responsible choice by the world!
Peter, Andrew, James and John, were fisherman, Matthew was a tax man, and they left their jobs on the spot to follow a man who had NOTHING of worldly value to offer them… how responsible do you think their families thought they were?
Paul had it all… he was on the fast track to becoming the High Priest of Israel, a position of power and prestige, a choice that would be considered to be ‘highly responsible’… but Paul chose to listen to a voice he heard on a lonely road to Damascus.
I can tell you that when you finally decide to totally surrender to God’s calling on your life, the world around you will think you have lost your mind! They are going to think you’ve gone off the deep end.
I can remember when I came to Seminary how radical of a move it was for me, and how my Dad didn’t just THINK I had lost my mind… HE told me I had lost my mind! In fact, he called me a religious fanatic and a nut job! He just could NOT understand who I could leave a job like that for NOTHING… he thought I was crazy and he thought I was highly irresponsible!
Well, I knew that God was in control and I know that I am where God wants me to be! I also know that before my dad died, God softened his heart, he accepted Christ and I had to wonderful privilege of baptizing my dad.
When we look at Scripture we see that Abraham turned out pretty good, as God used him to seed a nation. We find that the disciples were THE major players in spreading the Good news of the Gospel around the world… a much greater impact on the world than bringing fish to market… wouldn’t you say! We can also see that the Apostle Paul wrote over ½ of the NT and his body of work has FAR outweighed anything he could have ever accomplished as High Priest of Israel.
Nehemiah served the King responsibly, but we see that he chose to serve God by making what many would think to be an irresponsible decision… it took great courage on his part to serve the passion God had laid on his heart, but when he submitted to God… the walls of Jerusalem were built and the city was restored!
Today, there are those of you here who have been struggling with this very question… You know God is calling you to serve Him! You know that God has planted within you a passion that demands your submission and obedience to God. You KNOW this, but you’ve ALWAYS come to the same conclusion… You believe that you have to do the responsible thing… You tell yourself, “I can’t do this for God, what would people say? How would my family survive?”
As I close this morning I want to give you an example of what I mean! When we look to Scripture we can find many example of those who had to step out on faith, but the one that comes to mind for me is found in the book of Joshua.
Do you remember the story about how God damned up the Jordan river so that the nation of Israel could cross on dry ground? Let’s read:
Joshua 3:13 [NLT] The priests will carry the Ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth. As soon as their feet touch the water, the flow of water will be cut off upstream, and the river will stand up like a wall.”
I want you to notice the sequence of events here in Scripture. God did not say go to the river and when it is dry and the water is cut off, THEN you step out… God told the priests that when they got to the edge of the water that they were to take that step of faith and when their feet touched the water… THEN God would cut off the flow of the river!
This means that the priests had a decision to make. They had to come to the conclusion that being obedient to God was beneficial OR that they knew best and would stay safely away from the edge of the water. After all this was the Ark of the Covenant they were carrying… what if they slipped, what if it fell into the river… it would be lost and God did not want that… the responsible thing would be to stay AWAY from the river’s edge, but God called them to something very radical!
Now I don’t know about you but that 1st step into the water by these priests took a great STEP of faith in their hearts! They had to step out into the river and only when their feet touched the river did God make a way! God had made a promise to deliver them, but it took a step of faith on their part!
I can’t tell you what God wants of you… but I can tell you that if you are not willing to take that step of faith… if you are NOT willing to chase the adventure that the Holy Spirit has for you… your life will never be the abundant and rich life that Jesus promised!
Can you imagine what would have happened if the people of Israel had refused to take that step of faith… They had refused some 40 yrs prior and had been sent by God to wonder in the wilderness…until all that doubted Him had died.
Do you want to be sent into the spiritual wilderness by God because you are not willing to take the step of faith needed for God to use you?
So many people miss out on the blessing and wonder of serving God because they are unwilling to take that simple step of faith. You are NEVER going to experience the total joy and peace God has promised until you learn total surrender to Christ!
What about when you stand before God on that final day? Will you stand before Him knowing that you never totally surrendered to Him? that you never FULLY pursued the Holy Spirit? that you were never fully obedient?
Or will you be able to stand before Him knowing that you were willing to surrender to Him! Will you be able to stand before Him knowing that you were willing to forsake the world around you and be Irresponsibly Responsible for Him?!
Are you chasing the Holy Spirit today? Are you living the Great Adventure of God’s plan for your life? Or are you muddlin’ through life, trying to make sense of it all and seemingly in a constant state of frustration and emptiness!
As Bro Steven comes to lead us in our Hymn of commitment this morning… I challenge all the believers here today to take stock of your walk with Christ. Are you chasing the Holy Spirit and willing to live the adventure? Or are you settling for what you think OTHERS believe is best…are you looking to the ‘responsible’ thing and using that as your reason to NOT go where God is calling you?
Today, here is my challenge… come to this altar… confess your sin to the Lord, He will forgive you! Then I want you to ask God to open your eyes to the Great and wonderful adventure of service that He desires for your life… Ask God to open up those doors, and pray that He will embolden you with the courage to step thru those doors!
If you are here today and you don’t know Jesus on a personal and intimate level. I want you to know that God is calling you… the Holy Spirit is moving right this moment in your heart… tugging at your very soul… God desires that you know Him, God desires that you experience Him daily and personally… God wants you to be forgiven, redeemed and have eternal life with Him in heaven!
No one wants to go to hell… we all want to go to heaven! However, we cannot simply say that we are going to heaven because we are good or because we have done this to have done that… There is NOTHING you can do that will grant you entrance to heaven!
God knows this and because we have sin in our lives, because sin has separated us from Him, God sent Jesus to be the bridge that crosses the great divide. Jesus on the Cross of Calvary spanned the gulf of sin that separates us from God.
It opened the door of heaven and provided a way to be reconciled to God. If you will accept Jesus as your Savior… if you will confess your sin to Him… Scripture tells us that He will forgive you and He will cleanse your heart and soul.
Too many people think that they have to clean up before they can come to God… but that is the enemy of God talking… We can never clean up enough to deserve to stand in God’s presence, but thru the sacrifice of Jesus we are cleansed by His blood!
If you want to know God on a personal level, you can only do that through Jesus Christ! Jesus told us… “I am the way, the truth and the life, NO MAN comes to the Father except thru Me!”
Paul tells us that salvation is a gift of grace from God and that it is NOT based on the good things we do… but that good things are the result of our salvation not the cause of it… As we sing our song of commitment today I ask you to come and allow God to cleanse you and make you part of His family… won’t you come?
