Defining moments: Week 2- Distortions

Week 2- Distortions

Last week we were introduced to the idea of defining moments. If you remember, we said a defining moment happens when a truth, either a new truth, or a forgotten or pushed aside truth, comes front and center in your life, and changes things. It changes the way you think or feel about something. Maybe it changes the way you act, or your outlook on life. Everyone has had defining moments. Here are some ideas if you are struggling with this.
- Divorce. Anyone who is a child of divorce, or anyone who has ever been through a divorce can easily say that it is life changing. A very prominent person in your life is no longer there in the same way. The truth that you and your spouse, or that your parents, either could not live together, or that they placed a higher importance on something other than their marriage comes front and center, and the life you know is about to change. It will be a defining moment for the rest of your life.
- Have you ever lost a close friend, or a loved one? Anyone who has lost someone they cared about, someone who was a big part of their daily lives, is going to feel great sorrow when they are gone. It changes the way we operate on a daily basis. This is a defining moment, because the life you knew before has changed, and it is never going to be like it used to be.
Think of a time where something happened in your life that changed your thinking or your approach to life.
What was it?

Today, we are going to talk about distortions.
A distortion is something that makes the truth unclear. It is something that comes along and blurs the picture, or makes it fuzzy, so that you can't see it clearly. People do things all the time because their view of life, or of God is distorted. Distortions can severely mess up your life.
- Look at Money driven people. Our world is full of them. All around you you can see people who base their entire life, and their entire self worth on making money. It is the single thing that drives them. Making money is the only way they know how to measure success. Maybe you are one of them. Is money really what you want to base your entire life on?
- Our world is also full of pleasure seeking people. People just out for themselves, just trying to get to their next fix. For some people that pleasure is a gambling addiction. For some it is drugs or alcohol. For some people it is a sexual pleasure. For some it is belittling others to make themselves feel superior. For all of them, however, it is putting a higher importance on self gratification than anything else in life. It is the "I want it all, and I want it now!" mentality. Not a healthy way to live life.
- How about the arena of terrorism? Distortions drive terrorists. If you press them to find out the truth behind why they did the things they did, in every case they say "Because I believe that God- blah blah blah" It all comes back to what they believe about God. "I believe that God hates these things, so God sanctions this, and God wants me to go kill all of the infidels that are breaking his laws." It is all about God.

Right now there is a woman in Africa awaiting trial, and she could be put to death. Do you know why? Because she had a baby out of wedlock. The sentence for this in her tribe is death. Why? We think: "How can they be so harsh?" Well, they would say that she has broken God's law, and God demands that she dies. And I know you are sitting there thinking, "That's not my God!" But hey, maybe it is. There is only one God. The problem is that so many people have a distorted image of that one God, and that distorted image is what dictates their actions. Their messed up picture of God determines what they do. They are doing things based on a blurry picture, a distorted truth. When you can't see the picture clearly, you almost always come to the wrong conclusion, and we as people do this every day. now I know you guys are not out blowing up buildings, but sometimes we are guilty of following distortions, as well. But everywhere there is a distortion about God, there is some kind of consequence. So every once in a while, in God's grace and in God's mercy, He brings truth front and center. And just like we talked about last week, if you will stand in the light of those truths for a while, and not retreat back into the darkness where is is comfortable, your eyes will adjust, and there is potential for God to change your life.

Remember Jesus walked into this kind of a world. A world where there was massive confusion about God. And Jesus shows up, and says: "I have come to explain God." Jesus spent His entire life performing miraculous signs, and helping people, and answering their questions before they asked, and telling them things about themselves that only they themselves knew. But He didn't do it to glorify himself. No, Jesus said "I have come from the Father, to explain the Father to you, because He doesn't want to remain a mystery." God wants the confusion to go away. He wants you to know Him for who He is, and not who you have imagined He is, not who you have made Him up to be, not who you have been told He is. Over and over Jesus encountered people, and taught truth about God, and lives were changed for ever.

Today we are going to talk about a man that was confronted with an uncomfortable truth. He gets blinded by a truth that made him want to scramble back into the darkness of what he had always known and believed. This truth did not sit well with him at all, and it may not sit well with some of you either. Are you ready for the truth that was so hard to grasp, so hard to handle, so hard to accept? Here it is:
"Good people don't go to heaven.
Good people don't have the promise of eternal life.
Good people will never necessarily enter the Father's Kingdom."

What? How does that make sense? Let's look at a story about Nicodemus.

John 3: 1-17
1Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. Let me stop here for just a second. Nicodemus was a member of the Jewish Ruling Council. This is a group of Jews that represented the people of Israel to Rome, and also, Rome to the people of Israel. they were the Liaison between the two. Rome ruled over Israel, and they had set up a governor who ruled and taxed the people. Rome used the Jewish leaders to communicate to the common people in Palestine. So Nicodemus has a really important job. his Job is to keep the people happy with Rome, and to keep Rome happy with the people. As long as he and his buddies did a good job, Rome paid them very well. as long as the people were calm, and everyone was paying their taxes, everyone was happy. The Roman Governors paid the Jewish leaders well to keep the peace and make their job easy. So here is Nicodemus, rich, important, knows the scriptures, trusted by the people as a Jewish Leader. This is the guy that is coming to see Jesus. The last thing he wants is a new religious leader causing an uprising and getting Rome's attention. Let's read on.

2He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him."

3In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.[a]"

4"How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"

5Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit[b] gives birth to spirit. 7You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You[c] must be born again.' 8The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

9"How can this be?" Nicodemus asked.

10"You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things? 11I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.[d] 14Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.[e]
16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[f] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

First off, notice that Nicodemus called Jesus "Rabbi." Rabbi in it simplest terms means a respected Jewish teacher. Calling Jesus Rabbi shows what Nicodemus thought about Him. Unlike most of the other Jewish leaders, Nicodemus respected Jesus as a teacher, and even said "we know you have come from God as a teacher." Don't overlook that. It means a lot that Nicodemus has been watching Jesus, and respects Him. But, even though he doesn't hate Jesus, he is still like the average person today. Ask most people today who Jesus is, and you will get an answer like this: "I think he was sent by God, and was a pretty good guy, and taught some good things...." Nicodemus, just like most people today, does not say that Jesus is God, or the Messiah, or the Savior, or anything like that. He didn't believe that.

Nicodemus was coming to Jesus to get some questions answered. He sees Jesus as a teacher sent by God who can give them some insight into God's plan. The Jewish leaders want to know when God is sending the Messiah to get rid of the Romans and return Israel to their rightful place as the dominant power in the world. So Nicodemus shows up, and he is trying to get insight into God's plan. Now here's the thing with Jesus. Jesus always knew what everyone was going to ask even before they asked it. That's disturbing! Over and over, the Bible says "Jesus knew the hearts of men, or Jesus started telling a parable or a story, or Jesus would start teaching about their problem before they even asked a question." That's Disturbing to anyone! And even though they didn't agree with what Jesus had to say, they're thinking "How did He know? That's unbelievable!" Look back at the story, did Nicodemus ask a question before Jesus started talking? No, he was busy buttering up Jesus (or at least he thought he was) telling Him He was great, and from God... So Jesus just interrupts and says "Let me just cut to the heart of why you are here." He says "I tell you the truth." Put on your sunglasses Nicodemus. It's about to get bright. "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

Nicodemus responds, and I think he laughed. I don't think he was at all serious. He's thinking, there He goes. I've heard He does this. He's talking about what I came to talk about before I even talked about it. He says, "How can a man be born when he is old? Surely he can not re-enter in to his mother's womb and be born a second time, HAHAHA!. WAIT! Can He?!! I mean, that's not what you are saying is it?"

Jesus says again, "No one enters the Kingdom of God unless he is born of water and of spirit. If you are born of flesh, you are flesh. If you are born of spirit, you are spirit." This was offensive to Nicodemus. He was Jewish, and like the other Jewish people, he believed that if you were related to Abraham, you were in. And Jesus says, "that's not enough. you have to be born a 2nd time; be born from above. Unless you are, even you Nicodemus, a leader of God's people, will never see God's kingdom." Wow! Imagine getting blinded with that truth. But instead of retreating back into the darkness, Nicodemus pauses, and he realizes that there is a chance that he could have actually been wrong. What is his response? He asks (and I think he was a little panicked) "How can this be?" He's thinking: I'm not arguing, I just can't make it work in my head.

You see, Nicodemus believed like our world believes. He thought there was this cosmic scale that measures all of the good things we do against all of the bad thing we do, and as long as the good outweighs the bad, and you have more boxes in the green than you do in the red, that you are fine. You pass. You get in. Our entire world lives this way. The problem with this line of thinking is that people are trying to earn their way into heaven, but it doesn't work that way. God doesn't look at a scale when we die. Our good and bad deeds are not the basis of how we get into heaven. Nicodemus always thought "well there is a good God and a good heaven, and good people get in, and if I am a descendant of Abraham, then that like triples the weight of the good side!"

But eventually Nicodemus began to understand. He realized That Jesus wasn't trying to give him advice on what Nicodemus thought he already understood. No, Jesus was teaching him something entirely new and different. It's not "how to be good enough," it is "how to receive brand new life with meaning and purpose." That new life comes through Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. Only by believing in Him can we find that new eternal life. The days of the scale are over. in fact, the scale never really worked to begin with. Honestly, if you think about the scale system long enough you will shoot so many holes in it. You'll walk away saying "I don't know if I believe in Jesus, but that scale thing doesn't even make any sense!" You will soon realize that if the scale thing is true, then somebody made it up. where are they? If it's true, where is the God who set it up? And where is the list of things that we should do to get to heaven? And if this is the system, you'll realize that the person who made it up wasn't even nice enough to give you the list of do's and don'ts.

They never explained:
- What good outweighs what bad.
- How much you have to do
- When the time runs out
- Is there a curve you are graded on?
- Is Mother Theresa good? No? Than I am in serious trouble!

Where is the standard? You can't use the Bible or the ten commandments, because this system isn't even based on that! We have to get back to the simple message of Jesus. "Not that good people go to heaven," but simply, " forgiven people go to heaven." And forgiveness is only found through the person of Jesus Christ.

Defining moments: Week 1- Opening Your Eyes

Defining moments


Over the next few weeks (maybe months depending on how inspired I get) I am going to be developing a lesson series called defining moments for my youth kids. Hopefully I will have the time to get them typed and uploaded each week. That is the plan anyway. My intent is to change the format so that they are more in a sermon style, than a lesson style, so if it feels like I am jumping quickly sometimes, be patient.

Week 1: Opening your eyes


If asked, We could all come up with something that we know to be 100% true. Probably several things if we sat and thought about it for a while. Examples would be things like Gravity (if I let go of this pen in my hand it will fall), or that if I smack someone for no reason, they will undoubtedly be upset with me. I am sure you could come up with a list of things that are 100% true, but I bet after you were finished, there would be nothing on your list that upset you. Why? Because we like to ignore the truths that upset us, make our lives difficult, or generally conflict with our way of life. For example, The fact that God despises the sin that you committed last night, probably did not make your list.

In this new series called defining moments we are going to be looking at some of these difficult truths to find out what we can learn from them. First let's tackle this: What is a defining moment? A defining moment is a moment in our lives when we come face to face with a truth that we, either never knew, or a truth that we have kind of purposely forgotten.
And suddenly when we are faced with this truth, our lives are transformed forever.
-Our view of relationships
-Our view of our friends
- Our view of God
- Our view of Life
- Our view of "Whatever" is changed forever

Sometimes it is a truth we have never heard before, and it instantly hits home with us. Sometimes it is a truth we were raised with, or have known for a while, And it had become an "inconvenient truth." An inconvenient truth is something that interferes with our lifestyle, or our goals and dreams. It is something that is true about our life, but we don't want to admit it. We know it is true, we just don't want to bring it front and center, because it gets in the way of the direction we selfishly want to go.

I want to tell you a story about a man named Charles. Charles is a farmer outside of Atlanta, GA. He was out on his tractor pulling a bush hog. If you don't know, a bush hog is basically an industrial sized lawn mower. It is an extension on the back of a tractor with huge blades meant to clear out a property so seeds can be replanted. Well Charles is Bush hogging his property, and he hit a bees nest. so he jumped off his tractor in a panic and left it in gear. He walked along beside it for a while until all of the bees left, and went to jump back on. He grabbed the steering wheel and went to put his foot on the step, but he missed the step and slid underneath the tractor. The last thing he said he remembered were the huge tires rolling over his legs, and they were followed by the sled with all of the blades on it. Charles knew men who had dies bush hogging properties, because, as we can plainly see, it can be very dangerous. He passed out because of the pain and the weight.
He awoke just a few seconds later, and was looking up at the sky. He said he couldn't feel his legs, and as he looked to his left he saw the bush hog disappear into a ditch and stall out. Then, almost afraid to look, he sat up, and his legs were untouched. He whispered a prayer of thanksgiving and stood up. Then he fell to his knees again, and had a worship service in the middle of his field. He stood up, took a few steps, and fell to his knees again. he got to the gravel driveway in front of his home, and he dropped to his knees and had another worship service, and thanked his Heavenly Father for a new gift of life, and a new opportunity. He went inside, and called all four of his kids and told them how much he love them. And if you were to talk to Charlie today, he would look you in the eye and tell you "I have no problems." It was a defining moment for him. The truth that life can be short, and we are not invincible was brought front and center in his life. And from this moment on, his life would never be the same.

The problem for most of us, is that there are some truths that we just really don't want to know. Mostly, because they bother us. Honestly, those of you who are in a relationship; you don't really want to know every little flaw about that person do you? "No! Don't Tell Me! LaLaLaLaLa! Leave me with the illusion that they are perfect." You have decided that this relationship is God's will for your life, and that is all that matters. The rest: "I don't want to know! I don't want to listen!" Because hearing that may mes sup my dream and my plan. so we push the truth to the side. But wouldn't it be a good idea to have all of the facts before you decide to spend the rest of your life with this person?

Or how about this parents? Do you really want to know all the little things your child is doing? No. Because that might mess up the good clean image you have of them. you might have to find out that they are not actually perfect. The truth may be hard to handle, but are you really better off not knowing it? Absolutely not. You may feel better about it, but in all truth all you are really doing is hurting your child, because you are ignoring the problems in tehir life.

We are afraid to mess up the illusion that things are wonderful. Somewhere deep down we think that maybe if we ignore the truth long enough, it won't be the truth anymore. Maybe if I focus on my reality, it will actually become reality. But you know as well as I do, that that kind of approach to dating, that kind of approach to family, that kind of approach to school, that kind of approach to work, that kind of approach to any area of your life never leads anywhere good.

there are couples that get married, and a week later, or a month, or a year later, they realize that things aren't what they thought they were. The truth is, they saw the warning signs long before the wedding, but they ignored them, because they didn't line up with "their reality." That is, the false reality they were trying so hard to create for themselves.

Here the main theme for the next few weeks. It is never productive to ignore the truth.

- Ignoring the truth about your grades leads to disaster

- Ignoring the truth about your friends leads to disaster

- Ignoring the truth about who you are dating leads to disaster

- Ignoring the truth about your finances leads to disaster

- Ignoring the truth about your kids and loved ones leads to disaster

In the same way, turning a blind eye to what is true about your Heavenly Father, never leads to a safe and good place.

One thing we have in common, you and me, even though I'm the youth pastor and I'm like a professional Christian. I still mess up; and a lot more than I want to admit. If you knew how much, you'd probably question why they let me teach kids. another thing we have in common is that, like you, I have this picture of what I want God to be. And when I run into verses that dispute that and paint a different picture of God, it bothers me. You are the same way, too. even though you may not realize it yet. I've noticed this; when people come up to me and say "I just don't believe that what you said is true about God..." when you look closely, their conclusions don't come from researching the Bible. The problem is that it makes them uncomfortable. It is more along the lines of: "I refuse to believe it is true, because it wrecks my perfect world, and how I justify the things I do."

Here is my "God according to Phill" list

1. God won't let anything bad happen to me or my family, becaus physical protection is God's #1 concern.

2. God will never let anything bad happen to me, because I work at a church, and I serve Him.

3. Here's one, He is intensely interested in the outcome of high school soccer matches. I mean I know we have a war going on in Iraq right now, but you send someone else to deal with that, becausemy players are on the field. And they've worked incredibly hard, and really need this win today to build on their season. Oh! And I need you to ignore all of the prayers from parents of the other team.

4. How about this one: my sins aren't much of a concern to God, because He has bigger concerns in the world. That is; my sins, my habbits, my issues, God says "That's OK phill, there's bigger fish to fry." And I say "Yeah I'm with you on that God." I mean I'm a little inconsistent, but my sins don't really hurt anybody else, so god Just says "Let's move on." He's not too worried about my sins. I mean, you don't think he's too worried about yours either, do you? That's why you keep doing them, right?

5. My last one has to do with Hell.

Hell- well nobody really goes there anymore. at least not forever. In the end there is a giant loophole that god has created. And in the end everybody is fine except for a short list of people. You know, the couple of categories of people that I personally believe deserve to spend eternity in a lake of fire. and God Looks at my list and says "I'm with you on that."

That is what I want God to be like. And when I hear verses that contracdict that, and all of the sudden there is new truth that messes up my world, I say "No! I Don't Want To Believe That!" I'm not arguing that it isn't true. I am not trying to be rational. I am just saying that I don't like it, so I am going to try and ignore it, and maybe it will go away.

This is exactly the world that Jesus Walked into. Jesus did ministry in a world that was full of distortions. The Jewish people were stuck in their old ways, ideas and traditions. He walked into a world where:

- If you were rich, you were blessed by God and could do no wrong.

- If you were poor, clearly you were cursed by God.

- If you were sick, it is because your parents sinned and God was punishing your family.

- The Jewish leaders believed that God was a racist and was going to exclusively bless one nation, and could care less about everyone else.

- At this time God was a puzzle to figure out. You dared not call Him Father. God was so far removed that they were afraid to even mention His name.

So Jesus showed and started to teach. And People were amazed. "I've never heard that before." And they found themselves wanting to embrace iteven though it was intensely uncomfortable.

Lets look at the book of John 8: 31-41 Here Jesus is teaching in the temple.

³¹To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ³²Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

³³They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants^b]">[b] and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"

³⁴Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. ³⁵Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. ³⁶So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. ³⁷I know you are Abraham's descendants. Yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word. ³⁸I am telling you what I have seen in the Father's presence, and you do what you have heard from your father.^c]">[c]"

³⁹"Abraham is our father," they answered.

"If you were Abraham's children," said Jesus, "then you would^d]">[d] do the things Abraham did. ⁴⁰As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. ⁴¹You are doing the things your own father does."
"We are not illegitimate children," they protested. "The only Father we have is God himself."

If you hold to My teachings, the truth will set you free. This is what Jesus tells them, and us. He doesn't simply say follow, Jesus says Hold. I think He used this word to show that it would not be an easy thing to do. The word hold symbolizes a tight grip, or a tough situation. Let's look at it this way- When you have been in a dark room for a long time, and you step out into the light, what happens? The light is almost blinding. Your eyes have adjusted to the darkness, and as soon as that light shines in, it is painful. If I were to ask you which is easier to see in, the light or the darkness... you would instantly say the light. But before you walked out, your eyes had adjusted, and you saw pretty well in the dark. and after you had been there for a while, it was probably pretty comfortable in the dark. and walking out would hurt my eyes, and it is painful, so I think I am just going to stay here in the dark where it is comfortable. The truth that Jesus reveals is often like a blinding light that hits us while we are in the darkness, and if we will just stay in the light, and hold to the truth, eventually our eyes will adjust and we will be able to see better.

Look at the encounter Jesus had with the jewish people in the temple. Jesus Told them that if they held to His teaching, the truth would set them free. What was their response? They Scoffed, and said "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?" Did anyone besides me laugh a little when they read that? We've never been slaves to anyone? They are slaves to Rome at this exact moment! Not to mention the years they spent under Babylonian control! And surely they haven't forgotten abuot a little place called Egypt that Moses came and led them out of by parting th Red Sea. But their serious response was "We have never been slaves to anyone." Wow! Way to go on that one guys. Very convincing. You can't fault them too much, though. They are just blindly following their culture, just like we do. Their culture told them that, because they were Jewish, they were God's Chosen People. Meaning That They are free because of their Lineage, because "Abraham was their father." Another Distortion of the truth about God. What Jesus is telling them is that they are, in fact, just like everyone else, and that all people are going to be judged equally. What is their response? "Ooh! Oww! That is Bright! I can't handle the bright light, so I am just going to walk back into the darkness where I am more comfortable. Let me just stay here in what I believe. My reality is more comfortable than the actual truth, so I am just going to stick with it. I wonder how judgment went for those guys?

To see the truth, and embrace it, we have to step out into the light, even though it hurts for a minute. In the long run it makes it easier to see, and the ability to see clearly makes life go so much smoother. If you hold to the Teachings of Jesus, you eyes will adjust, and you will see things more clearly than you ever have before.

Over the next few weeks, we are going to look at Jesus' encounters with several different people. We'll see how it was a defining moment that changed their life if they were willing to step out of the darkness, and stepped into the light. We will see what we can learn from their experiences.

The Barbarian Way

It's been over a year since I have sat down to do this. I really hadn't realized how lazy I've gotten. Since I preached this Sunday at church I figured I'd share with those of you were not there. So enjoy!

I've really begun to notice lately that Christianity is becoming far too domesticated and civilized. Most of our churches are more focused on comfort and satisfaction than they are focused on reaching people for Christ and creating true disciples out of them. In fact it seems that Jesus is being lost in a religion bearing his name. We've lost sight of what the call of Jesus Christ looks like. We have this picture in society today that Once we become a Believer in Christ, all of our troubles and worries are supposed to disappear. Life suddenly becomes easy and carefree. All of our debts have been paid, so why do we have to do anything at all ever again? I'm justified, right? My salvation has been bought, now I want to live the life of luxury. This is the idea of Christianity that is prevalent in most American Churches today.

When Jesus walked among us on Earth, who did He choose to represent Him? Fishermen, a tax collector, women. None of these were the top class of the Jewish society at the time. In fact, most were outcasts, and would have been incredibly unpopular in high class society. Why did He call them? Probably for a lot of reasons, but the most practical is probably that they did not have a high place in society to lose by eing controversial.

Let's go a step farther, and look at who God chose to use to prepare the way for Jesus. John The Baptist. When the grown Up John is introduced in Matthew Ch. 3, what do we learn about him? He lived in the wilderness, ate locusts and wild honey, and wore clothes made of camel hair. In case you are not a historical expert, his diet and clothing choice was not popular, not even in Jesus' day. But this was the guy chosen to proclaim Jesus to the world. He was the one baptising people in the wilderness, and he always told thme that he was baptizing with water, but someone else was coming who would baptize them with the spirit of God. John, this strange outcast in society, this weird man who ate bugs and honey, this long haired man who came out of the woods; he was the one God chose to Baptize His son Jesus. And when he did, he got to see one of the most glorious things imaginable. John saw the heaven's open, and he saw the spirit of God descend on Jesus and heard a voive saying "this is My son, with Him I am well pleased." An unforgetable experience... or was it.

A Short time later John the Baptist sent his disciples to Jesus with a question. What was that question? Ask him This: "Jesus, are you 'the one'? Or should we be waiting for someone else?" John had baptized Jesus and watched the spirit of God come down on Him. How could he question Him later? Because John was stuck in prison, and he heard about Jesus doing all these miraculous things, healing people, encouraging people, but doing nothing for him. Jesus was not getting him out of prison; a place John had been thrown into for doing What God had commanded him to do. What was Jesus' reply to john? "After all these good things have been done in front of you, you will be blessed if you do not fall away." Normally this response would have us scratching our heads right? I mean seeing miracles and good works done is not normally the type of thing that would make you fall away, if anything they would strengthen your faith and bring you closer to God. But John saw all these things happening, and Nothing was being done for him. So he began to question his faith, just like we do when things aren't going the way we think they should be going. Jesus' response to him mean this: "John, I'm not coming through for you this time. I am not going to get you out of prison. I am not sparing your life. Yes I have done these things for other people, but the plan I have chosen for you is different, and you will be blessed if that doesn't cause you to fall away.

Jesus knew all about John's situation, and the fate John would face. But Jesus knew that he came to save us, not from suffering and pain, but from a life of meaninglessness. John was exactly where he needed to be, fulfilling God's purpose for his life. Why on Earth would Jesus want to rescue him from that?

This is radically different from the more civilized picture of Chriatianity we get in most church circles. The tamed down version we get is this: "Jesus died and rose from the dead so that you could live a life of endless comfort, endless security, endless indulgence, and endless safety." Or maybe we like the even simpler version: "If you will simply confess that you are a sinner, and believe in Jesus, you will go to heaven when you die." Either case is ridiculous if you think about it. One waits for a life that starts after you die, and completely ignores the life you are living now (making it meaningless). The other one makes a complete mockery out of the life you are living by telling you that you'll no longer have trouble of any kind. Come on. do we really believe either one of these?

The call of Jesus is much more barbaric than this. Jesus always said "come, follow Me." He never lied about the danger or the cost that could follow. He told them up front, "I am sending you out as sheep among wolves" (Matthew 10:16)

The danger of civilized faith is that we get comfortable, and we become blind to the spiritual nature of life around us. when did we ever see Jesus call people to a pristine life in a golden Religion? When did Jesus ever say believe in me, and then act prim and proper and better than everyone else? Never. It was a barbaric call to a barbarian way. "Come, leave your boats, leave your life, leave your families, leave your jobs, follow Me."

I want to look at John 21: 14-23. I think this passage clearly shows how the call of Jesus can be for each of us. I am going to paraphrase, you can look it up on your own if you want to. This is the third time Jesus reappears to his disciples after He was resurrected. And this meeting is mostly about Peter. Peter's life is the perfect example of the Barbarian call. Even though Peter said he would lay down his life for Jesus, and then he kinda sorta, REALLY dropped the ball when Jesus was being put on trial, Jesus was going to ask a Lot from Peter. Jesus told Peter that he was the rock on which Jesus would build His church. NO PRESSURE! Right? Jesus asked Peter the same question 3 times. "Peter, do you love me?" Each time, Peter Adamantly said "Yes!" The third time he said "Lord, You know all things. You know that I love You!"
So Jesus took the conversation deeper. Here He warned Peter, "I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself, and went where you wanted; but I tell you when you are old, they will stretch out your arms, and dress you, and someone else will lead you where you do not want to go." Jesus said this to him to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Jesus had only one invitation for Peter; only one path for Him to Chose. There was only one way for Peter to truly follow Jesus, and that was for Peter to step out of his comfort zone and lead...and eventually die. Jesus Never watered down the cost of following Him in hopes that He might fool Peter into choosing to follow Him. If Peter chose to follow Jesus, it would mean that one day he would be dragged off and killed. It Would cost him his life. And just like Peter, each of us is called to a walk with Jesus that is filled with uncertainty, mystery, and risk.

So how did Peter respond? He turned to John, the disciple closest to Jesus, and made him the focus. Peter says, "Lord, What about him?" I know what Peter is doing here. He is doing the same thing that we would do, reacting the same way we would. He's thinking "If I have to die, I want to make sure everyone else has to die, too; especially those close to You. No special treatment! That's NOT FAIR! After all, if this is a barbarian call, shouldn't it turn out the same way for all of us? Won't we all have to suffer hardship and die a brutal death? But it just doesn't work that way. Some will. Some won't.
Here is how Jesus answered him, "If I want John to remain alive until I come back, what is that to you? You must follow Me." I am sure that this angered Peter at first, and if we put ourselves in his place, it probably would have angered us, as well. But Peter is not as wise as Jesus, and neither are we. There is a reason Jesus chose this path for Peter and not for John, and it has little, if anything, to do with his love or personal feelings for either of them. It simply comes down to this. There is a plan that needs to be accomplished, and the person who will be set on course for that plan will be the person who has the best gifts to accomplish it and bring God the most glory. In this case it was Peter, not John. John's gifts were suited for a different plan.
Is it fair? Probably not. At least not by our standards. but you will never be happy or content if you turn down the path god has chosen for You.

The problem with civilized Christianity is that it claims to offer this group plan that has already been negotiated with God. An of course, the plan is always the premium package of - get rich, get comfortable, get secure, get safe, get healthy, get married, get 2 and a half kids, get a house, get all you could ever want when you get God. Everybody get's the John package; nobody get's the Peter package. But a life of ease and comfort was never promised, we just set out to make it that way.

All Jesus ever said was "follow Me." the good news, though, is that when you follow Jesus, it doesn't matter how dangerous or turbulent it gets. Jesus is there with you. After all, you have been following Him, right? Our problem is that we try to do everything ourselves, and we tend to shut Jesus out and not rely on His power. But Christianity wasn't designed for us to do it on our own.

There are a few lies That we have come to believe as truth in Christianity, and I want to talk about a couple of them today. The first lie is that we can do it on our own. Most of us are on this lie right now. You are ready to go! "I'm gonna do it! I'm going! I'm doing this! I'm doing that! I can do it!"

No you Can't! It's a lie! The truth is, you and I can't live the Christian life. I'll prove it to you.

- Do you have incredible success an consistency in your time alone with God?

- Are you having incredible success in your devotion to prayer?

- Do you find that you are incredibly consistent in loving the hard to loving the hard to love people in your world?

- Are you doing well at not being yourself and full of God all the time?

- Are you consistantly sharing Christ with the lost and dying world around you?

- Are you having incredible success and consistency in fighting off temptation of any kind?

Do you feel like crap yet? I do. Ask around, we are all a bunch of miserable failures at the Christian life! We can't even do the basic things, much less go and die for the cause of Christ around the world.

Well I've got news for you. If you've ever thought the Christian life was difficult... you thought "this isn't as easy as I thought it was gonna be, I mean I came to some church thing, and everybody was singing this song, and I felt cool, and I met Jesus, and they gave me a Bible, and I thought WOW! This Is GREAT! Then I got home and after about a day, I realized This Thing is REALLY HARD!"

Well I have news for you. The Christian life isn't hard. The Christian life isn't even difficult. The Christian life is impossible. There's only one Guy who has ever been able to pull it off. and He was so good at it, they named it after Him." There has only been one person that ever successfully pulled off the Christian life. It's not you, and it certainly isn't me. But Jesus, Thank God, lived the Christian life. And He's still living it now.

And the Joy is, God isn't saying "you an do it!" God is saying to you: "I'm not asking you to do it. If you think you are going to do it on your own, Look Out! You are about to fall!"

"I'm not asking you to do it! I know you can't do it! I know how hard it is! I know it's impossible! I know you, and this isn't gonna work for You!"

But it has worked once. And the good thing about the fact the Christ did live the Christian life, is that He is still with us. Meaning, He is still living the Christian life. Jesus Is still living the Christian life. God is saying to you today I am not asking you to go and live the Christian life, I'm saying you can't live the christian life. But I know who can, and I have an idea:

I'm going to put the One who can live the Christian life inside of the one who can't live the Christian life, so that together the One who can live the Christian life can live the Christian life through the one who can't live the Christian life.

That is the mystery of the gospel.

Paul wrote these word to the church in Colossae (Colossians 1:26)

"The mystery of the gospel was kept hidden, but is now being made known to the saints." Meaning- David, Daniel, Moses, Jonah, Abraham, they didn't know this, but you are going to get to know it.

Verse 27, "This is the mystery, which is Christ in you, the Hope of Glory."

You see God knew we couldn't do this on our own, and He didn't just give us an example to follow. He gave us His son Jesus, to come and live life through us. And God's saying "I'm not talking about believing in someone so you can go somewhere when you die. I'm talking about receiving something that becomes , in you, a power source for when you live."

We have this famous question in Christianity: If you were to die tonight, do you know for sure that you would go to heaven? Most of you have probably heard this question at some point in your life. Now don't gte me wrong, I am not knocking the question, it is a fair question, and you should have an answer for that question in your own heart. But what about this question: If you don't die tonight, (which I think we will all agree is more likely) do you have the hope and confidence in a power source that will allow you to live triumphantly tomorrow? Because most of us, Lord willing, are not going to die tonight. that is why God gave us Jesus to be our power source. God gives us, not the belief in someone named Jesus, He gives us Jesus to come and live in us, and be God in us, and be His Righteousness in and through us.

Galatians 2:20- I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me.

Let's go back to Colossians. I want to make sure that you didn't miss something. They Mystery of the Gospel is "Christ IN you. the hope of glory." Notice the word in. You should praise God that it does not say and. You see we've had this belief system for so long that Christianity is Christ and me, Christ and you. Like it's me and Jesus, and we are gonna storm the gates of Hell! We're a team! A dynamic Duo just like Batman and Robin! We're gonna knock em' out!

And Jesus is looking at you like uhhhhh.... I guess I can work with you. But it's not Me and you. That's not the hope of glory.

Christ and you is not the hope of glory.

Christ and me is not the hope of glory.

Christ and anybody is not the hope of glory.

Christ is the hope of glory!

Christ in you! Not Christ and you! Not your effort plus His effort equals victory. But Rather, He is victory in you.

Some of you have believed the lie that you can't stop sinning. Most of this all has to do with the fact that we don't know who we are. Many of you have believed the lie that you are just a "sinner saved by grace."

Stay with me before you check out and call me a heretic. This is the biggest identity crisis we have as believers. We think- Of course we are just sinners. Just a beggar trying to help another beggar find bread. I'm JUST a sinner. Emphasis on the "Just" word. Like, "That's what I am. I'm Just a sinner!... Oh, saved by grace." We tag that on as the afterthought. But our identity point is "SINNER."

So that when we sin, we have a fallback strategy... "Well what did you expect? I'm a sinner!"

I mean why not just wake up in the morning and haul off and do a big one and get it out of the way?

If your mentality is that you are a sinner, then you are going to find it completely ordinary for you to sin.

But it's a lie, you are not just a sinner. you are: a sinner, worse, a rebel, worse, an enemy of God, an alienated person from God, Hostile towards God, a Reviler of God, whom God found in your sinfulness and redeemed, restored, forgave, cleansed, and made holy in Jesus Christ. You are now one of the Colossians people, these Philippians people, these Ephesians people that paul wrote to. You are now a saint!

What's entertaining to me is that Paul's letters all start out the same way: "To the Saints...." Then he goes on to talk about their horrible sinful lives. Stop Sinning! Stop Being Idolaters! Stops being sexually immoral! Stop hating each other! Stop the gossip! Stop the slander! Stop Backstabbing!

But he opens each letter with "Dear saints, dear Holy ones" Why doesn't paul just start with "You big fat Bunch of Wretched Sinners!... saved by grace." Why not? Because that's not who they are, and it is not who we are either.

I want to talk about what most of us have made the most comforting verse in the Bible. And it is because our eyes are on each other and not on God. If I were to ask you what verse comforts you the most, I'd get things like John 3:16, or Philippians 4:13, or Jeremiah 29:11, or John 16:33, And a few more that I got from people Sunday morning. But this verse comforts us more, and we don't even realize it.

Romans 3:23. I bet you know it. I bet most of you could quote it. "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," You get all kinds of Amen's in a church with this verse. And then everybody goes out and sins, and feels good about it. Why? Because that is what we think we are.

if there is a period at the end of that verse, you either put it there yourself, or someone has played a really mean trick on you. This is one of the coolest commas in the bible, because it completely changes our identity. I'll bet there are not 5 people who read this who can confidently keep talking without going to look up the verse. And I'll tell you why. It's because we have been sold half of the gospel, and we thought that was enough.

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."

God has freely Justified us by forgiving our sin. All of our sins. Christ isn't on the installment plan. It's not "I died for all the sins you have commited up until now, and after that you ask Me, and I'll forgive again, you ask Me, and I'll forgive again, you ask Me, and I'll forgive again, and so on and so forth" No! Christ died one time for all sin. And whe I come to Him for forgiveness, He doesn't just dole it out on a daily basis. No, He gives it out in one overflowing tide that washes me and cleanses me from all of my sin past, present, and future. He covers me, and calls me forgiven. Jesus has come to live inside of us, and be God in us. through Christ we have become the righteousness of God. Isn't it time we started acting like it?

I want to challenge you to pay special attention to your life this week. First, remember who you are: you are a Saint who makes a mistake and sins, not a sinner who can sometimes do good things.

Second pay attention to your convictions this week. don't just dismiss them like you normally do. Stop a minute and think about it when you are faced with the decision of being a person of integrity, or just taking the more appealing, simple, and easy way out. Live up to your convictions this week, and see how different your life feels.