5. Vision Week 1
February 7, 2010
Something is Happening
Have you ever been looking for something but just couldn’t find it? I remember hearing this story about a couple who had been fighting over the purchase of a new car for weeks. The husband wanted a new truck. The wife wanted a fast sports car. Back and forth they argued over and over again but neither one of them would budge. Finally the wife frustrated by her husband’s refusal to compromise pulled out one of her best weapons and she said: "Look, I want something that goes from 0 to 140 in four seconds or less, and that’s all there is to it! My birthday is coming up and you’d better surprise me, or it’s gonna get mighty lonely for you around here, if you get my drift!" Well that ended the conversation. A few weeks later her birthday arrived. The wife woke up fully expecting her husband to have given in to her demand. So she got up and rushed out to the garage, but there was no new car. She opened the garage door and the driveway was empty. Now she was steamed. She had made her position very clear and her husband hadn’t done what he was supposed to. She looked and looked but could not find her husband anywhere. Frustrated and upset, she went into the bathroom to get dressed, and there, sitting on the floor and wrapped in a big red ribbon, was her birthday present. Clearly this was not a new car but perhaps he had been more creative in the delivery. On the outside of the box was written a note from her husband. It said “you asked me for something that goes from 0 to 140 in 4 seconds or less so here it is, happy birthday. She opened the box and found a brand new scale. Two lessons we should learn from this: 1. If you are looking for something it is a good idea to be specific as to what and 2. If you want to pick a fight this is a good way to do it. Guys, please do not do this to your wives.
Like this woman we are all looking for something. In fact that is the reason we are here today. Some of you may not know what that something is and some of you think you know what that something is but you might be wrong. We are here because we are searching for something. We realize that there has to be more to life than just this. We all want something in our lives. We want something to give us meaning, to give us hope, to give us purpose. Perhaps most importantly we are looking for something to change. During the last presidential election all politics aside President Obama’s campaign was brilliant. He campaigned on a world: change. Change we can believe in see we all have things in our lives that we would like to change. So on different levels we all want change. But the change a President can offer is not the something we are looking for. Something is happening that can change things but a political campaign doesn’t have it.
Something is happening that will change how we relate with God. Sometimes our relationship with God is like a one night stand. We show up on Sunday morning get that connection and then leave. When that is the major extent of our connection to God we have lost something. I have been a Christian for my entire life. I grew up in a Christian home and was raised by Christian parents. I was in a leader in the youth group in High School and went to a Christian college. For over three years I have been here pasturing a church trying to do something for God. When I first started here I felt that God had something big planned for this church but I didn’t know what it was. What I knew was that something was holding us back. There was something that was preventing us from growing to do what God had planned. So over the years we tried all these different ideas, and strategies and plans. Over the years we tried one program after another but every time I was discouraged because something was still missing.
Not that long ago I starting thinking and really just evaluated my life and a realized that something was missing there too. I had developed some bad habits. My entire day would revolve around reading and studying the word of God and as I result the Bible became my job. I thought that was ok. What is wrong with being a professional Christian? What I have come to realize is that I was doing things all wrong. So for the last few months we have been talking about something in our leadership meetings and trying to figure out how to get something in our lives. You see I lived my life going through the motions. I pray when you are supposed to pray, I read the Bible and study it all the time, I quote it, use it, preach it but still I felt like something was missing. In doing all the things I was supposed to do I felt drained. I knew something was missing but I didn’t know what it was. In making myself a professional Christian I had become an amateur child of God. I know that some of you know exactly what I mean because you are feeling it to. Sometimes we spend all our time and energy going through the religious motions and we forget who we really are. It is easy to pretend to be a Christian, it’s too easy to fake it. But God knows the truth we sometimes hide from ourselves.
We go to church which is something but its not the something that changes everything. I have a problem with church because it seems like the church assumes that when they tell you to be like Christ that you will know how to do that. But sometimes we don’t. I think that many of us we want to follow Jesus, we want to be like Him but the problem is that we really have no idea how to do that. When churches come along and give us answers there answers seem to be missing something. They give us these rules and regulations. These are the things you must do to be a Christians, these are the things you don’t do, this is what you say, this is what you don’t say, this is where you go, this is where you don’t go. Problem is I don’t seem Jesus playing by any of those rules. You know what most of those rules remind me of: the Pharisees. Do all these things so that you will look good so the church will look good. Sometimes we make it so complicated when really it is very simple.
So this morning if you are tired of hearing the same old answers. If you are tired of the rules and unrealistic expectation, if you are tired of sitting on your hands, of seeing Jesus misrepresented by narrow minded intolerant Christians who say one thing and do another then we have something for you. We have something so radical and so dynamic that it can change your life forever. We have something so big that we cannot do it on our own. We have something so significant that I really believe that if we do it we make an impact on this world for the kingdom of God. We have something that really is a change you can believe in. But to do so we have to let go of what Christianity and the church have become. I have gone to church my whole life. I don’t know if I ever understood what it meant to follow Jesus until recently.
My closest friend in High School was not a Christian. She was close. She was looking for something more, she wanted to believe in God but she had not seen Him in the church. I had tried on occasion to talk with her about Jesus but it really didn’t get very far. One day I had a breakthrough and she agreed to come to a youth group event with me. She arrived and I was so excited. I introduced her around and tried to get some of the other youth kids to befriend her. The problem was a group of girls glared at her the whole time because she was wearing an outfit they considered inappropriate. She felt very uncomfortable because of how they talked to her and treated her and she never came back. So I gave up. For three years we were friends and I didn’t say what I should have said. She is not a Christian, she does not know Jesus and a part of that is because I failed to say what I needed to say. I used to think that was ok. I used to think that when someone rejected Jesus they fully understood who He was and chose to ignore Him. Over the years that thinking has changed. I believe that a majority of people who are not Christians are not Christians because they have never experienced or recognized the love of Jesus in their lives. It’s not because they haven’t heard about Him but because they have not seen Him in the lives of His followers. It is not our job to just tell the world about Jesus, it is our job to show the world Jesus in how we live. When someone rejects Jesus because they have never seen Him then that is our responsibility.
Well for the last few months been talking about how something is happening and when it happens it can change everything. Something is happening. I know some of you are very anxious and some of you are very excited to find out what that something is. I am too. I have wanted to preach this sermon since before I left for Uganda last November. Never in my life have I waited so long to preach a sermon I wanted to preach so badly. I am excited too because I know how powerful something is. This something took away our boredom. This something gave us meaning and changed the way we do and think about ministry. I know the effect that something can have on our lives and I am very excited to tell you what that something is. After 5 weeks of preparation we have finally paved the road to something. So we are going to reveal what that something is and for the entire month of February we are going to unpack it. This something can revolutionize the way we do church. This something can change everything.
You want to know what this something is? Something is happening and something is Jesus. That might seem anticlimactic. Some of you might be thinking: are you kidding me? I wanted four months for that? We have been building up for so long to this big something is happening and you are telling me that something is just Jesus? That is disappointing. But if you think Jesus is a disappointment then you have never really met Him. Jesus gives hope, purpose, meaning, joy, and life. Jesus changes everything. What has been missing for so long was Jesus.
In our religious practices and routines we got so good at going through the motions that we didn’t even noticed that Jesus left the room because Jesus isn’t the type to sit still He does something and He invites us to follow Him.
In efforts to be like Jesus we need to know what Jesus was like. This requires us to change two things. The first is our hearts. Unlike the Pharisees who took the law of God and used it to look good on the outside, passionately following Jesus is not just about the appearance but the reality. As we grow in our relationship with God and take steps to follow Jesus in our lives then He begins to work on our hearts. So in a sense the first step of this vision is inward. It involves allowing God to shape and mold our hearts to become more like Christ so that we can be filled with His love and passion for this world. Without this inward change even when our best actions are nothing more than a cheap façade. In order to become followers of Jesus we must let go of our hearts and have a heart like Jesus. This is however only the beginning.
In order to follow Jesus we must follow the example that He set for us. Jesus did not live His life off by Himself. He did not spend most of His time alone. In fact the only times when Jesus was really alone was when He went away to reconnect with God. The rest of the time Jesus lived with a radical investment to a radical community. Jesus touched people’s lives. He looked at people who no one else would see and Jesus saw their needs. He touched people no one else would touch and He healed them and most importantly Jesus loved people who no one else would love. As a result He changed them. When you encounter a love like Jesus’ it changes you. What really catches my attention however is how Jesus lives. Jesus was constantly inviting people to become a part of His family. Jesus invites poor people, sick people, He invites sinners, tax collectors, and even Samaritans into His kingdom. This is what gets me about the church. The church has become a religion organization and religion is radically exclusive. Religion says if you want life you have to do things exactly how we tell you to. Our way is the only way and every other way is wrong. You know that there are Christian churches that believe if you are not apart of the Christian church you will burn in hell? It doesn’t matter if you believe in Jesus and serve Him as your Lord and Savior that is not enough you have to be a part of the Christian church because we are the way to salvation. In fact there are churches in almost every denomination that believe that because religion is exclusive but when I see Jesus He is radically inclusive. Jesus invites people no one else would even want to establish a Kingdom where all are welcome no matter what age, gender, denomination, or country they are from. The only requirement for being a part of this kingdom is that you love Jesus enough to follow Him.
If you look at 1 John 4:7 we see what following Jesus looks like so let me get out my Bible. I remember one Sunday I was at home and the preacher was preaching and I saw my mother playing around on her i-touch. I about smacked her over the head and told her to pay attention. Then I noticed she was reading the Bible on it. From here on out that is what I am going to do. Because a part of letting go of religion is letting go of the how and focusing on the what. This is the Bible, it is the word of God. The book is not what is holy it is what the book says that makes it holy. So I have those words in a different form here so let me read it for you:
1Jn 4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 1Jn 4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1Jn 4:9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 1Jn 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1Jn 4:11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 1Jn 4:12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 1Jn 4:13 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 1Jn 4:14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 1Jn 4:15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 1Jn 4:16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
Religion is exclusive by making itself complicated when following Jesus is really very simply. Following Jesus means you love like Jesus for when you love like Jesus you live like Jesus. When we live like Jesus we start to look like Jesus and the world can see Jesus in us. Following Jesus is radically simple and so that is our vision to simply follow Him by loving like He loves and by living like Him. So this week we are going to start over. We are going to lay aside all the complicated things of religion and get back to the simplicity of following Jesus. We are going to start fresh and let Jesus make everything new. This morning I want to give us all a clean slate and an opportunity to become the person we really want to be by letting go of the person that we are and the person that we were. On your chairs you should see a form asking for some information. I want you to fill that form out completely but only if this is something you want to be a part of. Our vision is to become passionate followers of Jesus by loving, living, and looking like Jesus. When you came in you were given a little grey mirror with that phrase written on it. I want you to keep that with you and from time to time I want you to open it and ask yourself, does the person in this mirror look like Jesus in how they are living? If that is something you want to be a part of in want you to fill out that paper on your seat. That paper is your commitment to being a part of this vision and this church. If you need time to think about it take it with you and bring it back next week. If you fill out that form you will be considered a member of Cornerstone and a part of this vision if you don’t then you wont. If you already are a member here then this form is like a renewal of vows but these forms are going to be how we determine who is a part of this vision and this church so if this something you are on board with fill it out and put it in the offering plate when the get past later.
So this morning we become a new church, a church that is not program driven but people driven. We become a church that is not focused on the routine but that desperately seeks to follow Jesus in our lives. You might think this is too simple to change the world. I believe it can change the world because it is simple. What if we woke up every morning and asked ourselves “how can I be Jesus in someone’s life today?” What if we found practical ways every day to show people the love of Jesus? We could change the world.
We can change the neighborhood, the city, and the entire world if we will love like Jesus we can change the world like Jesus did. This will not happen overnight but if we invest ourselves in it and continue to pursue this love based lifestyle if we are willing to make some sacrifices to become passionate followers of Jesus than we can change the world. Love did it before love will do it again. All we need to do is be Jesus in the lives of the people you know by loving them unconditionally.
Some of you are ready. You are willing. You just don’t know how. Well for the rest of this month we will have decision counselors specifically set up to help you with just that. In the front and back corners there will be people standing with clip boards and books to help you so if you want to be a part of this something but you don’t know how use this something to go talk with them that is what this time is for, so use it.
