09.07.2014 Dealing with the Stuff in Our Lives, pt. 1 - What it Means to Follow Jesus

09.07.2014 from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

We are starting a new series this morning – I asked our small group leaders and ministry leaders what needs we have in the church – and it is really on dealing with the stuff in our lives.

Questions – Would you like to be questions – Rhetorical:

Would you like to be:

Free from fear, anxiety, guilt, lust, selfishness?

Filled with peace and joy?

Able to really love your neighbor as yourself?

Would you like to live?

Without the need for approval and applause?

With strength and hope?

Would you like to be?

The kind of person who knows how to experience grief deeply?

The kind of person who knows how deeply flawed you are?

The kind of person who speaks well of the person who cheats you? – the contractor who did everything wrong – would you like to be able to speak kindly of them?

The kind of person who can share with those who take advantage of you?

The kind of person who treats nicely those who speak behind your back?

That set might be a little harder. But that set is not possible without the second set.

These lists come from the greatest sermon ever spoken and it wasn’t mine. These are the things in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus tells us what it means to be one of His followers – to be involved in what He does. All of these things – you will become someday. Not completely until you are with the Lord. Even the ones you think could never be true.

The point – trying to become like Jesus – on the inside and outside.

The things in the Sermon on the Mount – are the characteristics of Jesus. These are what it means to be a disciple – a student- an apprentice.

One who has firmly decided to learn from Him how to lead his or her life, whatever that may be, as Jesus himself would do it. And as best they know how, they are making plans, taking the necessary steps progressively arranging and rearranging their affairs to do this

The only way to do this is to become a disciple of Jesus. There has to be a time in our lives where we made a decision to do this – without it – you will only make surface changes. That is the only way to really change.

In this series, we will look at baggage, our past, wounds, afflictions, addictions – things I’ve gathered over 30 years of ministry – Men’s Fraternity/Tammy Smith/stuff from my Doctoral Program at Ashland – so I will gather all of that and will dump it on you over the next few weeks!

In order to begin this process – going back to Rick Warren – quoting Romans 12:2 – Do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed in the inner being.

Unless we change our thinking, we can’t change our being.

When we bring people to believe differently, they become different people. One of our greatest weaknesses in our preaching is trying to get people to do things they are supposed to do without changing what they really believe.

So what we are trying to do is to develop a theology of transformation. Do you believe you can be transformed? If you don’t believe you can become a patient person, do you think you can become a patient person?

There is a difference between change and transformation.

Change focuses on behavior and activities and develops strategies and plans to change behavior. This is really important to do! If you want to stop drinking, or smoking, there are programs you can join. Physical health? There are plans for that.

Transformation is different – from a spiritual perspective, it works on the heart – our inner life. It changes who we are as people – not just behaviors and activities. That is what it means to become like Christ – to be transformed into the type of person He is. A good tree produces good fruit – a bad tree produces bad fruit. We need to change the tree! Make the tree good! Transformation is about changing what type of tree we are. Whether we like it or not, when we start this journey, we are thorn bushes – and we need to become an apple tree! Not just put apples on a thorn bush. You can change the exterior and never change the inside, unless you have gotten to the point where you are this kind of follower of Jesus. Though it seems you might never make it – there is good news –

2 Cor. 5:17 – if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold new things have come.

When you put your faith in Christ, you are remade, reborn, regenerated. Your heart was changed. The old you passed away.

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live. Do you believe that? The problem is, we want to still live – our ego, our self, our selfishness – still wants to have a way to sit on the throne of our lives – but Christ lives in you. We can become like Christ, because Christ lives in us. We can be transformed because Christ is in you.

The life I now live in the body I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

This process appears to be long and difficult – it comes with many failures along the way – but we must begin to engage in that process.

2 Peter 1: - we will look more at this passage over the next few weeks.

His diving power has given us everything needed for life and godliness – do you believe that? You have been given everything you need to be like Jesus! It is all there! And you say – I wish it were! There is a gap in our position and our experience – how we live that out.

Disciple – recognized as one who has firmly decided to learn from Him how to lead life.

When we come to Christ, things change – but after that, there is a decision that must be made – you come to Christ, you are given eternal life – but then we must live our lives as if He were living it through us – and a decision must be made if we are to really experience transformation. Otherwise, we’ll just have surface changes.

When I came to faith in Christ, I immediately stopped swearing. Immediately. And immediately I stopped taking mind-altering substances! Immediately. But God wants us to go deeper, to the root of the issues.

Making this decision to follow Christ can be a scary thing. There was an intimidation – or rather – this feeling that if I don’t do this that God wouldn’t love me. Let me give you Jesus’ perspective. Matthew 11:28 – Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

When we come to Christ, those burdens of guilt, shame, and judgment are removed.

Then He says – take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

The yoke – you might see in Amish country – putting the horses together so they go in the same direction.

What the Jewish people did – they took it as a rabbi’s teaching and his way of life – and they would take THAT yoke upon themselves. Jesus is saying – live the way I live, believe what I teach – and make it part of your life – go in the same direction I am going in.

John Ortberg – The yoke enables us to do things that would be impossible without it.

If you are not yoked to Jesus, you will not experience those things at the beginning of the message.

This decision must be made.

Jesus is comparing His yoke to the Pharisees’ – they loaded heavy burdens on people – loading them up with guilt and shame.

Here is what is interesting – they were all supposed to keep the Sabbath and the dietary laws, and Jesus is saying – you should do those things – but the Pharisees were using those things to determine a person’s maturity and spirituality.

We have similar things – quiet times, journaling, tithing – attending services – all good things we are supposed to do – but when we use them to measure a person’s maturity and spirituality, they have gone wrong – because those things are in the heart.

Back to the yoke… For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Is that your experience of the Christian life?

Jesus is saying – when we take His yoke, we are able to experience His grace and power to do what we cannot do – things that we have tried to do on our own and failed. We become the people we are trying to become.

IF we are overburdened and overwhelmed by our Christian walk, we have to ask – whose yoke are you carrying? It is not His.

Before we get this confused – He doesn’t say my comfortable, prosperous, pleasant yoke.

Luke 9:23 – whoever wants to be my discipline must take up his cross daily and follow me! This is the same call! A call to become disciples. Both go together. This is the easy yoke of Jesus. This is hard for us to understand – but we are called to it daily.

How can we make this decision – what is the basis for it?

If you are thinking – I sure like the first list, but not the second!

Let me give you a different perspective:

Matt. 13:44-46

You cannot make the decision to be a disciple – to be like Him in all we do and think – unless – the only way we can do that – is to come to understand that being His disciple is infinitely more valuable than anything else we could live for!

These two gave all they had to have it. Why? Because their net worth was down here – and they realized that the treasure and the pearl were worth hundreds of times of their net worth – and that by giving up their tiny net worth was worth so much more.

When you add it all up – when you count the cost – it is much more valuable – you get a whole lot more when you follow Jesus – than when you follow something else.

“To follow Jesus, one would feel great admiration and love – to follow Jesus, we must believe He is the most magnificent person who ever lived. When what He is doing is what you are doing is the greatest opportunity one will ever have – They would find Him so admirable in every respect – wise, powerful and good – that they would constantly seek to be in His presence and helped by Him in every aspect of life. “