At Home

Message Transcription

Well, we are in a series called Everyday Disciples where we're looking at what does it mean to take our faith out of the church and and on the streets? What does it mean to live every day with this challenge and this incredible call to be God's man, God's woman in the situations and the circumstances that we face? So we started by looking at that incredible call on the side of a mountain that Jesus gives in Matthew 28, calling his disciples to make other disciples one of the marks of a disciple as you make other disciples. And so we're a church committed to trying to do our best to help others come to know and love and follow Jesus. The next week, Brian opened us up to the words, to the challenge, to the two things that Jesus said mattered most loving God and loving our neighbors. And what does it look like for us to take that seriously? And not just in the lives that we live, maybe at school or in the workplace, but when we go online, our digital life, what does it look like to be an everyday disciple who who takes that seriously? Now. Last week, Spencer came and shared with us a message about hospitality, what it means to be an everyday disciple for those who are far from home, who have traveled far away, who are trying to find a life for themselves. And so we are thinking specifically about our college students and our our college ministry.

We're so excited about that ministry and all the amazing things that God's doing down at Atlas. But thinking more specifically as well about our own lives, how are we welcoming the neighbors, those who are on a journey? And I love how Spencer tied us back into that charge in Leviticus that said, remember, you were once exiles. You were once on the outside looking at, you know, what it's like. Remember what God has done for you. That's a message we're going to continue to hear the next couple of weeks as we finish up this series. We're in Colossians chapter three. If you haven't made your way there, I invite you to turn over there. But before I get too far, I want to ask you a question similar to what Todd asked us. What did you want to be when you grew up? Some of you are still growing up. So I'll ask Terry Sparks. Excuse me. What do you want to be when you grow up? Now I want it to be an NBA basketball All-Star. And as you can tell, that dream. Died a long time ago, but as a kid, it was alive and well. The world was my oyster. It was all out before me. My dad, growing up in San Antonio, my dad had season tickets. My parents did, and he would take me to these games. And I got to I got to see all of my favorite players.

I got to see Dr. J. And Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Moses Malone, all of my favorites, all the folks that I would see every now and again on TV, because back in those days, you didn't see every game. You only got to see who they chose to put on the screen. And I was inspired. I wanted to be a basketball star. It not only inspired me in in my life outside, but it also inspired the video games that I played. Yes, there were video games and this is what it looked like. This was my basketball game as a child. Right now, I cut the audio from this because it had some guys talking about it blocked my ball. But there's this noise that if you know. You know of the basketball. Well well. This is my game, right? And I imagined I put myself on that court with those two players. And it was me and my favorite player, David Robinson, going against the arch enemy of the San Antonio Spurs in a different seasons with different players. It was different times. But. But this was my dream. I remember I would I would play in my room. I would re-imagine the scenes of the games that I had watched, and I would play them myself. In fact, I remember I was about a 12 year old, 13 year old kid. The Boston Celtics, led by Larry Bird, played the Atlanta Hawks led by Dominique Wilkins.

Now, I didn't really care for either one of these teams, but it was on TV and I love basketball. So I watched it. It turned out to be one of the most amazing conference finals of all time. And so I would go on to my my little Atari 2600 game and I would recreate these two battles, these two champions battling back and forth. Why? Because I was inspired. I was inspired to to change not only the way that as Todd reminds us, the way that I dressed, the way that that I talked, the way that I walked, the ways that I played, the shoes that I wore because I was inspired. What did you want to be when you were growing up as a kid? What inspired you? What still inspires you? See, I think that's at the heart of what Paul is writing to the church in classes, reminding them of what inspires them to be who they are. And again, if you don't have a Bible with you today or you don't have your digital Bible with you, come get a Bible from us. We'd love to give you a Bible. I want this series in the next several series that we do this fall to be the kind where you can grab that Bible and you can mark in it, you can mark questions, you can circle an interesting words or maybe put some notes in the boundary of it. But if you don't have your Bible with you, invite you to grab your Bible this week and take a look at what we find in Colossians three.

Kind of set the scene for you as we find ourselves here with with Paul and the church and classy. And by the way, a great time to get a Bible would be to come to our Bible classes on Wednesday night. We're launching a new series. I'm excited about it. I hope that you'll come and join us. We have classes for parents, for students of all ages, for kiddos. We have a singing class. We have all kinds of opportunities for you to get to know, to dive deeper into Scripture, because we believe in the truth that we find in God's word, and we want you to get in it and wrestle with it. But more than that, we want it to get into you. And so if you haven't made a commitment, you haven't haven't ever come and checked out one of our Wednesday Bible studies, we invite you to come join us this week. We're launching a couple of new series that I'm excited about here. In class, we find Paul riding to the church and he's in prison in Rome around 60, 61. And what he's doing is he's received this report about a heresy that this young church has about Jesus. My my friend and mentor and teacher, Professor Randy Harris, says if you go to church and you're not dealing with the heresy, you're probably not doing it right.

There's something about wrestling with who Jesus is that sometimes we struggle with what does it really mean to believe? Who is this Jesus? Who is full of God and fully human? So you can imagine a young church who didn't grow up learning about Jesus. They've learned it for the first time. And so they're wrestling with all of these different ideas in the culture. And what Paul finds out is, is they're struggling. They've been taught some wonky things. So he he writes this letter to the church in colossi to address some of those challenges. And that's where we kind of find ourselves here. In Chapter three, Paul sends this letter and probably the letter to Philemon, the letter to the Ephesus Church with tickets and Amos, who were coworkers of Paul at the time. But tickets could have taken this letter and he could have sat down with the church. And as they read it together, he could have explained, here's kind of what Paul's talking about. Here's here's what he was thinking. Here's the conversation that we had is he penned these words. This is what Paul says. Therefore, as God's chosen people wholly and dearly love to clothe yourselves with compassion and kindness and humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And overall these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Since as members of one body. You recall the piece? And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms and hymns and songs from the Spirit singing to God with gratitude in your hearts and whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Giving thanks to God, the Father through Him. This powerful challenge and reminder to the church that whatever you do, whatever you say may be something you can do or say in the name of Jesus. May that be what helps guide and lead us. But He reminds them first of a couple of things. He reminds them, You've been chosen. That you've been made holy. That you are dearly loved. Paul focuses them once again on these three realities because he knew if they would allow those truths to get into their hearts, it would change the way that they saw themselves and the way they saw everyone else around them, how they would interact with the world around them, knowing that we are chosen and we've been made holy and we're dearly loved. That how they go out into the community, it's going to look differently. In fact, he says, get rid of malice and anger and hatred and lust and deceit, and instead may your community be marked by and listen to these words compassion.

Kindness. Humility. Gentleness and patience. I mean, who wouldn't want to live in a community like that? Who wouldn't want to find themselves in relationship with people like that? Who met insults and bitterness, not with more, but actually with love and with forgiveness. With hope. With joy. Now remember, we're reading from our West Texas translation. If you don't have one of those Bibles, you need to get one from us. It's the kind that has instead of you, you all. This is another one of those West Texas phrases here. This this whole passage that Paul is riding them to. It's not the individual, you. It is, y'all. Remember, you all need to take these things off and put these things back on. See this challenge of living in everyday disciple. It's not about being an individual one out by themselves, but being a part of a group of everyday disciples. We're on this journey together. That's interesting. If you've ever tried to take Paul seriously at this, to really try to live with compassion or with kindness or humility or gentleness. That's incredibly difficult, isn't it? I mean, I invite you to take this challenge. I say, as soon as you walk out the door, preferably before that, but as soon as you walk out the door, the church, the next 24 hours. I just want you to live with kindness no matter what happens. Every challenge you face, I want you to meet it with kindness.

I want you to drive in Lubbock, Texas. With kindness or maybe gentleness. Maybe that's the one you want to focus on. Be a gentle driver. I mean, it can be challenging, can it? It is for me. That's why it's so ironic to me when people sometimes accuse Christians of being wimpy. I think. Have you ever tried to live with kindness? All the time. Have you ever tried to be gentle and meet those comments or those phrases or that treatment towards you? With with kindness, with compassion, with humility. It's incredibly difficult. It's one of those things that I think is best labeled simple but not easy. It makes sense up here. But, man, when we try to live it out, oh, it's so much more difficult. Paul says over all these things put on love, which serves them, rather which connects them and knits them together. It holds them all together. To the Corinthians, Paul would say, If you try to live this way without love, it's like standing next to someone who's just banging a gong. Bong, Bong said. Just you're just going to annoy everybody around you. Because they're going to see right through it. They're going to ask, what's your angle? Why are you treating me this way? What's in it for you? And Paul says, that's not how we are to live. Instead, we're to to allow love to be the thing that draws us all together.

It's the perfect bond. It never fails. Paul says there's a part that Jesus plays. He's going to do some transforming work in you, but there's also a part for us to play. That's some of the behaviors that we have and we've been exhibiting, he says. You're going to have to work on those. You're going to have to get rid of those. You're going to have to take those off like an old pair of clothing, and you're going to have to put on some new stuff, which means it's going to require a little bit of effort. You're going to have to practice, you're going to have to try, but it's worth it. He says the power to do this kind of life isn't going to come from your own ability. Rather, it's going to be God's spirit that's at work in a life in you. That's our hope. He says, Let God's peace rule in you. And I love this this angle. He he uses this word that's also we use it in English language with umpire. Let peace rule in you the way that an umpire rules in a baseball game. And he's the one who determines safe or out. Paul says when when you meet a behavior, when you meet an action or an attitude coming at you from another person, he says, let the peace of Christ rule. Let that be the determiner of how you're going to meet that moment, how you're going to respond to that person who just cut you off or who has 12 things and the ten item only line at the grocery store.

He says, Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Let it rule. And be thankful three different times here and two verses he says. Be thankful. Have gratitude in your hearts. Be thankful. Remember God chose you. You're not on the outside looking in anymore. The God chose you. And not only did he choose you. By the work of Jesus on the cross, he has forgiven all of the things that you've ever done. All the hurts and the habits and the hang ups that you've wrestled with your whole life, he says. Christ can can do an amazing work. And you. And not only that, he loves you. He loves you right here, right now, in this moment, not some future version of yourself that you hope you can get cleaned up one day. The you that lives right here and right now. Let that sink in. Dwell on that, he says. Church and let the thankfulness bubble up into a new life. At the Word of Christ dwell. And you richly. See, there's always more to explore. There are more depths to plumb to discover about the gospel in the life that we have. And so that's why we need each other. That's why this call is not just to one person. It's to every person. Let God's word dwell in you, church.

Come together and study it. Wrestle with it, ask hard questions, don't settle for easy answers. He says, use your gifts. Search and try. In just a minute, after the service is over, we're going to have our military fair where you get a chance to take your gifts and partner up with some of the work that's going on in our community and say, God, how much you want to take? Take my gifts and use them for your glory. We can't wait to to share with you just some of the amazing things that God's doing in and through us. Paul says whatever you do, church. Whatever you do. Whether it's something you say or something you do. May it be all in the name of Christ as you go throughout your week, this week church I invite you just to consider this a little test for your life. When it comes to a response that's required of you, just invite you to ask. Can I do this? Calling on Jesus name and on the Holy Spirit to help. Lord, give me strength to knock this dude out. Unless you're Jalen Hudsons or one of the tech football players, you can't really pray that prayer. Whenever a word is required from you. A conversation that's getting tense. Just ask yourself. Can I say this? And in the same name, same response named Jesus. Could we could we say it remembering Jesus as listening? See, Paul's invitation here is not to guilt us to think.

Oh, well, if I didn't have to feel bad, this is what I would tell Sparks, you know? No, no, no. You're starting at the wrong place. They start from the wrong moment. Whatever we do. Whether in word or deed. Can we do it? In the name of Jesus giving thanks. Thinking about the message this week you may have seen Frederick Buechner died. For those who travel in seminary circles and maybe others know something a bit about this incredible man, he died at 96. One of the areas of study that he gave his life to was helping people encounter. What does it mean to be an everyday disciple? My words, not his. But one of his passions was helping people unlock what it really means to be a follower of Jesus. And he wrote quite a bit on on what it means to work. And we're thinking this week about what does it mean to be a daily disciple at work or at school, wherever we find ourselves vocationally at the time. What does that look like? What does that mean? Big news story. I hadn't learned much about it until this week, listening and reading to reading the tributes, but he grew up in New York City. He was actually the son of a prominent, wealthy family, and they didn't have much use or desire for church or religion. So it's kind of an odd thing that that Frederick Buechner would be what some have said, the two most impactful theologians, Presbyterian theologians in the last century, both of which happened to be named Fred Fred Buechner and Fred Rogers.

And both had pretty interesting ministries. The Beaner said he was. He grew up in a family that didn't really value church or religion, but he had this gnawing inside of me. He just couldn't get away. So. So one day he goes to church. Where this guy, George Butterick, is preaching. He's preaching about how Satan tempted Jesus with power and significance this crown. If only he would bow down. And how Jesus turned him away. And then Butterick said. But he's crowned in the heart of every disciple who believes. Of every disciple through confession and tears and with great laughter. And Beaton, reflecting on his life, said it was that phrase. That idea that in the midst of a broken world of sin and confession and tears, that God might be doing something to bring about joy and hope. In and through this person, Jesus. It was kind of his Damascus moment, if you will. It changed his life. He eventually became a pastor, though he never pastored in a church anywhere. But he pastored many pastors. And he wrote about vocation, what it means to be a disciple every day in the places that God is calling you to. This is what He said. Vocation. It comes from the Latin Bukhari to call. And it means the work a man is called to, by God.

There are different kinds of voices calling you to all different kinds of work. And the problem is to find out which of which is the voice of God rather than of society, say, or the superego or self interest. By and large, a good rule for finding out this is. Excuse me, is this the kind of work God usually calls you to? Is the kind of work A that you need most to do and B, that the world most needs to have done. If you really get a kick out of your work, you're presumably met requirement A but if your work is writing TV, deodorant commercials, the chances are you've missed Requirement B. On the other hand, if your work is being a doctor in a leper colony, you've probably met Requirement B, but if most of the time you're bored and depressed by it, the chances are you have not only bypassed A but probably aren't helping your patients much either. Neither the hair shirt nor the soft berth will do. The place God calls you, too, is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet. Bittner inspires us to imagine that God has created us and created us with desires to do what it is that God made us to do. In fact, Psalmist wrote in Psalm 145, you open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. You're saying fish were made to fish were made to swim.

The birds were made to fly. They desire to do it. He says the same is true of humanity. God created us with desires, and those desires are an indicator of God's calling on your life. Now, they're not the only indicator, because if we only respond to the desires that we have in our life, it's actually those desires that become the king or are put on the throne. Says they're only an indicator. Think back to when I went to college. I started out wanting to be a child psychologist. That's what I thought I would spend my life doing. As I got through undergrad studies, I realized, no, I want to do more work with marriages and families and become a therapist. I think that's what I'm going to do with my whole life. And so I went to grad school and that's what I studied first. And about three or four months in, I realized I don't want to do this work. It just it didn't resonate with me like I knew I could do it. I had the skill set, I had the temperament. I had all these different things that I knew I could provide the service. And I certainly knew in the world we needed more Christian therapists who had a sense of who God is and what marriage is about and what families are like and how God's created us. But it didn't. It didn't inspire much.

I came home exhausted and worn out and not in a good way. You know, most of my sessions, I would end with wanting to say, Tell me about your small group. Tell me about the church you go to and the ways that you're engaged there. And so I could feel God kind of changing and turning and taking that desire, that hope, that that passion and putting it into ministry. And when I got to to marry these two things, this idea that there is a world out there who is far from God, who doesn't know the truth, and not just the capital t truth, but like this reality that there is a God who is for you, who loves you, who would love to choose you and redeem you and love you right where you are, but love you into the best version of yourself. When I get an opportunity to marry those two things, my desire and this great need, it unlocks something in me that I'll be forever grateful for. So got creates us with desires and he calls us into community to help us discern are these desires more than just something? I like my favorite basketball team. But is it something that actually finds a deep hurt in the world and actually breathe some life into it? And the amazing thing, if you look back at the creation story, God is so creative. He creates all kinds of animals and plants and opportunities. Then not everybody has to be a minister in order to fulfill the desire that God gave them in the role that they are to play in the church.

The see, it's in the church that we find most, maybe in the best ways, the opportunity to discern God. Where is my passion and where is the world's need and God? How can I put those together to make a difference where I don't just have a job, I'm just punching the clock 40 hours. I have a vocation. I have I have a purpose and a meaning in my life. C community helps us discern that. So I think Paul says. Church, this is a message for all of you, not just one of you. As we dropped Gabe off at school this last Sunday, I was not prepared for the emotions that I would feel. All right. And all of you have dropped the kid off. You understand that? And so Sunday morning, we're we're upstairs getting ready. And I walk by the bathroom, and he's standing there and I lose it. I am sobbing like a baby, and my son is looking at me going, Dad, you got to get it together, bro. You got to figure something out because we're not going on campus like that. You're not coming into my dorm room. Snotty nose and red eyes. He just looked at me like, What is wrong with you? Now, my son. I'm doing this here, so I don't do it there.

Okay. Is not prepared. And Katie and I were just kind of consoling each other on that drive home. Right, reminding each other this is what it was all about. At this moment. Is dropping him at a place where he gets an opportunity to learn about his passion and his desire, and he gets to grow and learn and discover new things while at the same time. Going, God, where is the place in the world that you. You could use a guy like that. Who has these kind of skills. Who loves baseball like a madman. God, how can you. How can you help encounter a deep need in the world and make it something that matters? You see, that's something unique to the gospel that Jesus says may make God's kingdom come in that moment. And in each one of those moments that God has that for each and every one of us. You see, Gabe doesn't desire to go into ministry. He doesn't want to do what I do. And I am totally okay with that. Because I'm convinced God has a place for him. I'll have to worry about that. Okay. Then I coaching each other on the way home. It's what we've been praying for. And it hurts. But, man, this is what we've been praying for. We're so excited. That's why we love our college ministry and our young student ministry, because we know and we're preparing for this moment. And so church, we've got to rally around him and we've got to become a community that's committed to living with compassion and kindness, not just because God told us to do.

And we're going to go to hell if we don't know, because it's the way the kingdom. And our kids will look at us and go, I don't believe it. Because seeing it and experiencing it and hearing about it, they're very different. So Paul said church, this is this is more than just being nice to each other. It's more than just tolerating each other. It's learning to see the incredible gift that God has given to all of us, that we get the chance to be a part of something that really matters. You see in Everyday Disciples, that's that's the kind of mindset we have. So when we go out in the world before we act or we say something, we stop and ask God, can I do this in your name? Can I say this in your name? Yeah. Can I pursue this area, this opportunity? And will you open up a door to show me how it could meet the need of incredible, incredible hurt in the world? Sea. God longs to use each and every one of us. May God bless us as we pursue that kind of life. God. Thank you so much for the ways that you have gifted our community. And in a moment, as we as we close in song and we leave from this place, got to pray that you would inspire us to find our passion.

That vocation, that thing you've created us uniquely for. And Lord, help us to find that place in the world where you want to to to inject us to partner with us that we might make a kingdom difference. The Lord, thank you so much that we don't all have the same gift and we don't have all the same desire. Because got some of us are really good with numbers and others of us are really good with building stuff and others of us are really good with engineering things and others are good at working with people and guide. We need every one of us. You need every single one. So. God, would you use us? Would you help draw us closer together? Would you remind us that you chose us? That you've redeemed us and that you love us? And God me together as your church. May we make a kingdom difference this week in Lubbock, Texas. And people encounter you, Lord Jesus. When they encounter us. Well, thank you for you for the ways that you have encountered and impacted our lives. Maybe we remember it this week. As we lock eyes with those, especially here in Lubbock, it seems to be growing more and more. Who don't know you? They don't know about the Kingdom life of God. Would you help us to be just amazing? Ambassadors. Ambassadors this week? Father, thank you. Thank you for Jesus and whose name and life we share. Amen.