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.