Morning Has Broken

Message Transcription

I was raised in church. I won a Bible in vacation Bible school because I knew all the facts. And if you remember during vacation Bible School, it was actually a five day event. They sugared us up, got us all excited about Jesus, and started singing that tip toe, tip toe in God's house to kind of jerk our emotions. You all remember those days. And so we had this platform that we had a buzzer that someone had made, and the Bible questions would come through. And and I won the buzzer contest and I won a Bible. It was read, I still remember. And you gave it back to the church saying, Boss, my name in gold. I knew everything there was to know, not only about Bible trivia at my age, I thought, but I also understood all the five things I needed to do to be right with God. Can we all say them together? We're going to. What's number one here? Thank you, Judge. That's just like here. Okay. I knew those. How many? All knew those. Those are great things. But a little bit of get a little bit of getting in town. And I started having questions because I understood if if I followed those five things, my sin, which I believed in God, I believe I had sin. I needed to have those removed. If I didn't have that removed, if I were to die. And we used to be crazy about baptism, right? If you knew those five things, it doesn't matter which time of the day you get out of bed, you go to the church because you could die in your sleep.

And if you died in your sleep and you were not baptized, you will go to hell. I mean, I thought that. How many with me? Yeah. We're laughing, but a weird post-traumatic stress syndrome laugh. I knew something happened in the waters. My mom and dad taught me the story, but somewhere in there there was a disconnect. So I started asking these questions after fifth grade, by the way, I was a late bloomer. And some of you who are raised in either a Southern Baptist, primitive Baptist churches or Christ Christian Church, something weird happened between fifth grade and sixth grade. Do you remember the women would exodus and all of a sudden the men had to teach class. That was one thing. And things started to amp up. If you wanted to wait on the Lord's table, you better produce a baptismal certificate. And I wasn't baptized. And I was the spawn of Henry and Lana Frey's. And I would have all kinds of pressure, not necessarily from them, but around the dinner table. And my sister who is interpreting for Jim Breuer at South Plains, so please don't go over there and say, why did you do that? But we're all in town now. We're around the dinner table. And my father asked me to pray when I was in the sixth grade, and my sister said, And I'll remember this.

I don't want David praying anymore. Because God doesn't hear his prayers. That was our theology at the time. Right. Because I was at the age of accountability. Here believe, repent, confess. She baptized. I knew all those things and I had not obeyed the gospel. So I felt this pressure. So my question was pretty deep stuff. If God loved us so much and knew that some people were going to go to hell, why in the world did he even create us? I didn't ask to be born. So why do I have to do this? Does anybody ever ask that question? And I felt like I was on this great checkerboard. With Satan on one side. God on the other. And they were playing king me for the most humanity when time had ended. So I came to Lubbock Christian the first time I came to Broadway. And we would have banquets downstairs. And my friend Jeff Walling was preaching and I had this weird experience the night before. I love tornadoes. I think they're kind of cool as long as they don't cause destruction. And we had tornado clouds and, you know, we had this weird alert. And I still to this day, some of you may be in our counselors. I don't even know where they were. We weren't really in secure positions. The girls are in Katy Rogers and they have pillows over their head holding hands, singing Jesus is Lord and we're singing literally a counselor, probably.

Vance Reeves, if you remember, this guy is running up the aisle. The hall is singing, We're off to see the wizard. I mean, there they go. I don't even know where my counselors were. I know later that they had lawn chairs on top of Johnson Hall. Just kind of watching. So we're playing Monopoly because that's what you do in the apocalypse comes and our windows are open and we have lift weights for our our money so and blow away and we're just having fun. I had my Def Leppard playing on my big tape player. You know, I got six pack of Dr. Pepper. I have my blow pops. I mean, what else do you need for the end of the world? I walked down the hall. I walked into a room and they were also playing Monopoly. And I came back in a door opens. And this guy, Darren, who I grew up with, said David, he was freaking out. He said, Don't die. Closest evangelistic statement he ever made to me. So the next night, Jeff Wallach's preaching at Greenlawn of all places. 14 years old. And the reality of heaven and hell and hearing belief, confess, repent, be baptized. All those come to just like boom, fall on me. And I began to just cry. Crocodile tears of anger going, I didn't ask to be born.

Why do I got to make this decision? If there was a loving God, why in the world was hell created and what is all this about? So instead of going forward, I walked to the back. And there was my youth minister, Philip Nicholls, who was raised in this church with Cliff Crumpler. And I just with tears. I'm like, Philip, I need some answers. And for the first time he combined everything together. And I told him about hell and he goes, Dave, you don't understand. The Bible says that hell was not created for humanity. It was created for the devil and his angels. And he goes, It's actually pretty hard to go to hell because of what Jesus has done. Mind blown. So then I said, okay, why do I have to make this decision? And he said this and this is the core of how I read the Bible to this day at 53 years of age. Choice. Is inherent in relationship. God's not going to make us do anything. You're not a checker on a checkerboard. Hells, not for you and Dave. It's very hard to go there. God so loved the world. He's. He's created us because he wants to have relationship. With David. And things begin to make sense. And I gave my life to Jesus right there. Last week. I got back from the Holy Lands and then I went to a camp that's very special to me. Cisco Christian Camp.

Back when I was a kid going to camp at Cisco. It is so hot there. But you had to wear pants because if you saw ankles again, it would probably lead to hand-clapping or dancing. So we had to wear pants. And they invited me back to speak for the first time. Since I was 14 years old. And it was a very interesting moment for me. Because there was a guy who said I'd been walking with the Lord for a total of like two months and said, Who wants to give a devotional talk? Okay, phrase, you're going to do it. And I'm like, Whoa. And I still have it. It's in my car. It's on his Snoopy little spiral notebook and it's word for word. And I wrote, you know, every word down that I was going to say and that I'd even put the word pause so I wouldn't speak so fast. And and I would give the invitation at the end. And I remember pausing and I had pause, pause. And I said, if you were to die today. But you go to heaven. Or hell. And I was just giddy because I could say hell in church and it was all in context. I'm like, This is crazy. We used to sing a song at that camp. Called. See if you remember this. If I don't get to heaven, she might recognize it yet. If I don't get to heaven. If I don't get to heaven.

Dear Lord, you got to stop, right? It'll be nobody's. Nobody's. What does it say? No, no, no. Nobody's fault but mine. Then you're like, If I don't wear a robe, if I don't wear a crown. And there's truth in that song. But I remember going home and just I was instrumental back when I was a kid. I guess I found, like, little notes on the piano, and I would just weep. Because they're still burdened with my sin. I tried to understand it and I did the things, but I'm like, I knew in my life there was some stuff still wrong. Is anybody with me? Look to the person next to you and just say, I'm with him. Go ahead. And it's sad. At that same camp when I was 15. They let me preach the final night and it's an open pit there. It looks just like it. I should have brought pictures. It's awesome. Same stage, same everything. But a storm came up and it was a metal building, and it was just like and. And I got to do Thursday night sermon. Everybody was sunburned, nobody got sleep, they were emotionally weak. And I went after it. I told a story about a puppy. Let me just say that. And everybody, this guy goes crazy on a puppy. You may remember the illustration. It's very emotionally disturbing. I won't tell it. And everybody's crying. And then I would just come down and I looked at him.

I said, Here's the problem. You're crying about that puppy, but your sins called Jesus to be done. Oh, I went after it. And thunder and lightning. People are crying. I read the day Christ died, you know, and all the crucifixion stuff. Who was to give you life to Jesus? I was the greatest evangelist of all time. Basically emotionally disturbed them into responding. Because if you were to die today, would you go to heaven or hell? There's truth in all of those statements. But even in my first presentations, I was trying to convince people and manipulate people. Does it feel familiar? So. I can't mention the name because many of us worked with him and we knew him at Lubbock Christian. But there's a gentleman who had kind of a rough background that spent a lot of time with us on chorus tours. He he was towards the end of his life and his grandkids are in my youth group at Greenlawn and we made an agreement that wherever I was, if he felt like he was in the last moments of his life and he needed me, he could call. And I was up in New Mexico at a camp and I got a call and the only landline there for cell phones. And I left the camp to a few people and I went home early and I went right over here to the Covenant Hospital. And I walked in and I looked at him.

I called him by name. I said, How are you doing? He goes, Well, I know it's towards the end. And he just started crying. I mean, this was a guy who was a mentor of mine. He's just crying. He goes, Dave, I look back on my life and there's so much brokenness. And I just wondered if, you know, if I had the chance to do everything over again, I'm afraid I would make the same decisions. And here comes the question that all of us have in the back of our mind. Have I done enough good things? To be with the Lord when I die. So I looked at him and I said, no, I wish I could have seen his face. I mean, when we get to heaven, he's going to say, that was the dumbest answer I ever heard. But I mean, it's true. I said no. That's the whole point of this. You haven't. You haven't done enough good things. And I stand in front of you to say and you can get it from that great book of Philippians, as we just we just heard that any greatness in my life. Any moral greatness doesn't own, doesn't earn me anything closer to God. It is all a response to what God has done through me and the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It's not of me. Because on those nights when you're sitting there thinking, how much time do I left and what's going on? And this person has died and this has happened in the world is so dark.

What is all this about? So we're eventually going to get to Romans eight. But where's Haley? Oh, I know your family. Come on up. You're not a lawyer, are you? Great. I have a judge. Okay, cover me. All right. We're going to ask some questions and then you look pretty strong. Put your hands out like this. I'm going to talk about some Bible and they're going to look at you because you should be sweating here pretty soon. Put your hands together. Okay. Would you raise your hands if you ever told a lie? Send me your art. Raising your hands. That's a lie right there. Thank you. I'm going to keep my race. How do you have ever looked at your mother in light? Okay. That's real bad. All right, just hold this right here. Arms. You're going to do great. Okay. How many of you ever looked at your dad and lied? It's bad. How many of you ever made your dad cry? Oh, that's. That's real bad. That's enough. How many of you have ever said a word that's less than pleasant on the loop when somebody cut you off? All right. Wondering we get more spin right there. You're doing great. Do you sweat real easy? Well, we'll see. All right. So how many of you have ever said something in words to someone that you love that you wish you could just take back? How have you ever done something that you look in your past? Like my friend, and it haunts you, and you want that moment back.

All right. Now before we get to Romans eight. I want to take you to a few places and I'm going to cheat a little bit. I want you to go to Romans five. And I'll wait for you to actually turn or turn on your apps because you need to look at these verses. Sometimes we walk through them, but but I want you to read them and I want you to circle them. You can actually write in your Bibles, take a pew Bible if they have one, and steal it and write in it, that's fine. But I want you to hear a few verses from Paul's heart that talks about how God responds. To what we carry. Romans five. Let's start in verse six. You see? At just the right time when we were still righteous. What is that word? Church. What does that word? Church. What is that word? Church. Powerless. Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person, someone might dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this while we were still attending church. Excuse me. I have a different translation. Why? We were still third generation Broadway members. Oh, wait.

Excuse me. While we were still vacation Bible school trivia winners? Nope. While we were still. What's that word? What is that word? Christ died for us. Since we now have been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through? Who? Him. For a while. We were gods. What? What is that word? We were God's enemies. We were reconciled to him through the death of his son. How much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life? Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, for whom we now have received. What does that word? Reconciliation. God made reconciliation possible before we ever did anything. I don't even understand that kind of love. Do you understand that kind of love? She's steely. Did you see this right here? You're strong. Are you in athletics? Wow. Should be okay. Let's go to Galatians. Chapter two. And this is for all of us who think that our righteousness actually adds up to something. This word rocked my world when I heard, believe, confess, repent, to be baptized and I'm trying to remain faithful. And I kept jumping off the wagon. I would look at my faithfulness and I would wait for a hammer to drop so that this side of faithfulness would beat my unfaithfulness. And I had to get that scale somehow tipped on righteous side. So Paul writes this. Verse 19 for through the law.

I died to the law so that I may live for God. I've been crucified with Christ. I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And it's an amazing word in the language. He's saying the power of the crucifixion. The best way I could put it is the blood of Calvary still flows today. It is not a limited amount that that one event that happened hundreds of years ago has the same power today in 2022 as it did the same moment I became aware of my sin. Amen. Amen. Thank you. We're going to have church today. So 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. And here it is, church. I do not set aside that grace of God. Four. Righteousness could be gained through the law, through my keeping and trying to get that scale right. Christ died. For what? Nothing. See, I was also raised to believe that the cross was an emergency problem because Jesus came to give his life and we killed him. It's like, Oh my word, we killed God. Wow, what are we going to do, make him happy? Do you understand? Luke's Gospel and Luke 951 It is so key, he said. Jesus resolutely set his face towards Jerusalem. He was crucified before the foundations of the world, according to John's revelation. It was always his plan. It's what happened when he looked at Abraham in Genesis 15 and he made the promise to the animal halves, and Abraham never made a promise.

Why? Hebrews tells us we can't keep our word. So God made a way. And we sing this where there is no way. So I can do the best I can. And it's still not enough. Are you with me? Church. That's fine. When you think of legal stuff, right? You are justified. You may leave my courtroom. But what about the shame? Guilt is one thing, but shame is personal, isn't it? Because some of you are sitting here thinking, well, that's great, but right now you're hurting. It's going to get better. I promise. It's real soon. So. Great job. So. Shame is personal. Shame makes you think inside. Yes, I have guilt, but I'm a bad person. There's something broken in me. And it really is the land in which Paul is speaking in Romans eight, because the accuser comes and says this Grace is great. But it doesn't reach you. Because of whatever. Fill in the blank that nobody knows about except you. So. Luke seven one of my favorite accounts. And I'm just going to say that for time. Go back at Luke seven and there's this sinful woman. Who comes into the house of a Pharisee. That in and of itself is the most embarrassing thing that you've ever seen, whatever sense she had upon herself. She's going to walk into an area where instantly she knows she's going to be judged, but in her mind, she has nothing left.

So she begins to wash Jesus's feet. And this is where we have the story wrong. Every portrait of this moment shows Jesus looking, and the woman is right here in front of him, washing his feet. That's not what the Bible says. That woman is behind Jesus. Not even looking at him in the eyes. Definitely a sign of her own shame in her own burden. But there's something about this teacher. So he comes. She comes and washes her feet. His feet. And the leaders of the law are like, What's going on here? And he's getting judged, of course. And he tells the story and he says this guy was owned this much and this who's who's the one who is more grateful, the one who owns more. And here's what happens in that text. I think it's so incredible and how awesome the Bible is because the Bible says Jesus turned. And face the woman. Bad move for a righteous man in their day. Turned and faced the woman and then looked at the accuser, this Pharisee, and said, Simon. Did you see her? Did you? Did you catch it? It's a beautiful picture. So if you're setting with shame and you're setting with guilt, we're about to get to Romans. But can I just ask you a question right now? What would you like right now more than anything else? Can you say it louder? We're alive.

Put these down.

Why are you holding him? But that's true. But what can I do for you? Take them. Thank you. Can you give her a round of applause, please? Go ahead. Go ahead. You can be seated. Still amazes me, even though the Bible says it all over the place that we are saved and we're free. Just like the people of Israel. We want to go back to our comfortable prison. So let's go back to Egypt. You know, we are we are comfortable in the prison we're in. Right. And there's no lock on the door and we can have all of the benefits. But we're human. And because of that humanity, we get to one of my favorite verses and I'm kind of surprised nobody else took it. And I'm glad Romans eight it's one of my favorite parts. And leading up to it, Paul, and what we would call kind of his gospel, he starts talking in Chapter seven, and I believe personally he's talking about a time where he tried to adjust the scales. I got to get this right. I got to get this right. And at the very end, he goes, in my mind, I'm saying, I don't want to do it, but I keep doing the same thing over and over again. And that famous part that he said, I am just worthless. Who's going to save me from this body of sin and death? And there's Romans eight, therefore big there for big word.

There is a change. There is no condemnation. For those who are in Christ. Jesus. And then he begins to have this discussion with believers. Stop thinking in the flesh. Start thinking in the spiritual, which is a constant goal and growth. I get that. But he's battling it. He's saying if you continue to think in spirit, you're going to understand you don't have to live in that prison. But if you live by flesh, eventually the shame and the guilt, it is just going to scream and you're not going to be able to hear. He even goes to death. He goes, Some of y'all are struggling. Life is hard. But God hasn't forgotten you. And He says that beautiful thing in our suffering, he goes, Even creation and the death and the rebirth speaks to something new. And he goes, When you don't have the words to say, when you can't say, God, I can't deal with this guilt. I don't even know the shame that I have. When you have those moments, the Holy Spirit himself that lives inside of you, God will give you what He needs. And for some of you, maybe today He's giving you what you need. Screaming in these words. So again, if you're like me. And I think I'm talking to people like me.

I struggle. When Satan comes to me in those moments. And begins to judge me for the things that I know I'm in the middle of. Anybody with me? But here's what Paul says. What are we going to say in response to all of this? The righteousness of God that comes through Jesus, the Holy Spirit's power. If God's for us, who can be against us? And you're like, I know. I hear it every night when I go to bed. There's my failures in the screen of all of my stuff. And he says. He did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also along with him, graciously give us all things. You can hear the echoes almost of what he's been saying. Christ did not die for nothing. He died for something. And the tomb is empty. And so there's power. There is now a new life in Christ. Romans six Earlier, he says, You've been buried. You've been raised to a new life. This is different. Who will bring a charge against those whom God has chosen then. Because God's justified you. This is about God. It's not about your own righteousness. Who's the one that condemns then? I think I read that. That's a question mark. Who then is the one who condemns? Is it the one that's already that hell's been prepared for? Are you going to listen to Satan in the midst of this? He's the one who's condemned.

And he goes, No one Christ Jesus who died more than that was raised alive. Is it the right hand of God is interceding for us? Who shall separate you from that love shall trouble hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness. Danger, sword. No. For your sake, we face death. All day long. We're considered as sheep to be slaughtered. There's nothing strange in the whole the world that's happening around us. It is a hard place. And it doesn't mean that God's not with us. It just means that's life. People get cancer. People have wrecks, people die. That happens sometimes. It's for our faith. Sometimes it's just because this is a fallen world. Because God's love hasn't left you. We're conquerors. I'm convinced in either death nor life angels, demons, present, future, any powers, height, depth, anything else in all creation. We'll be able to separate us from the love of God. In Christ, Jesus, our Lord. And the church said, Amen. Let me land the plane. By doing this, I was told I could play a song. I don't know what Carl is thinking, but I have a favorite and I'll introduce it here in just a moment. We have a YouTube video. I think a lot of us have been raised to know that God loves us.

But I need you to hear this this morning. God also likes you. He wants to have a relationship with you. You're like, Dave, I'm awkward. I don't know if I have friends. Well. God is a friend. He made you a certain way to have a relationship with you. You're like, Well, you understand, I'm going through this. God loves you. God loves you. And the guilt he took care of. And the shame, I believe that he's trying to like that woman. He's looking at you and he wants you to turn. He want you to make that move. But that's a daily, daily choice. And I love hearing these words from the Apostle Paul, because I believe Paul dealt with this his entire life. Paul wasn't the vacation Bible school character we see over here, Paul. Killed people, or at least had them killed. For following this. Jesus. It's very obvious through his letters he dealt with that a long time. He said, I'm the chief of centers. I don't even I'm not even I just I want to press forward. And I got this thorn in my flesh. Who knows what that was, whether it's physical, whether it's emotional. But he had to deal with this his entire life. So you hear the self-talk. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. There is no condemnation for those who in Christ Jesus.

There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. All He could do was claim the love of God. It probably every morning start over, just like the Somerset. It's new every morning. So here's how I would like to land this plane. As soon as this song's over will be done. And I guess we have some songs after that. But I would love for you. To be able to say in your mind every single day there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Nothing can separate me from that love and began to feel all the negative voices begin to flood them with the truth of God's love for you. I don't believe it doesn't matter. Flooded. So coming back from the Holy Lands, I woke up early one morning. And I wanted to watch the sun rise over Galilee. So my friend Jim and I, we sit outside when it's still dark, had a cup of coffee because that's God's being and it's wonderful. And the sun began to rise and a song came to my mind that we're about to listen to. And funny enough, it's the same song that Dr. Long used to sing to his kids all the time. And it's by a person who's on the no fly list. Cat Stevens. But like Bob Dylan and some other people back in the late sixties or early seventies, it's actually.

Mourning has broken is from an ancient hymn that was a worship song. And I want you to think as you begin to say, God loves me and there's no condemnation and there's nothing is separate. There's some words in this song, and we actually listen to it as a group as we kept on our tour. There's a few words. Because you're probably familiar with the chorus. Mourning is broken like the first morning. But in the middle he begins to talk about Jesus. And you hear the words, mine is the sunlight. Mine is the morning. Born of the light. Eden saw play. Praises. Elation, praise every morning. God's. Recreation. Of the new day. Just beautiful words. Again from an ancient hymn. That was made popular and became a number one song in 1971. And it has some of the greatest, deepest lyrics. Of a god that every morning. Great is I faithfulness? Your Grace is new every morning. And I would I would just encourage you to put this song. You're going to have it on loop in your brain now. But listen to that middle that this is from a god. A Jesus that Eden first saw play with Adam and Eve. And the first Adam brought death. And the second Adam brought. Life. Say it with me. The first Adam brought. The second Adam brought life. Let's listen to this.