One Nation Under ____?

Message Transcription

It's good to be with your church. I hope preaching is kind of like riding a bike. It's been a little while, so I'm going to I'm going to take another run at it this morning. If you have your Bible invites you to turn over to first Corinthians chapter nine, we're getting ready to enter into another season of Crazy. In our world and our culture in our country. We've been there for a little while, but the midterm elections are coming up in a couple of weeks, and we are thinking about this. Gary and I had been talking about this before, about just how insane things have been recently. And so we wanted to be intentional about thinking about the kind of people that we're hoping to become and the kind of lives we want to live as we enter into another crazy season of life. For some of us, it may not be that it's election time. Maybe for some of us it's the holidays and knowing we're about to enter some craziness with extended family and friends. Maybe for others of us, it's a it's a work challenge. As the year end closes, we have some obstacles, some things ahead of us that we're preparing for. Wherever you may find yourself. I hope that as we get a chance to think some today, you'll you'll hear a word for you. Andy Stanley's have written a recent book called Not In It to Win It. And it's kind of his reflections on the last couple of years and the craziness of how politics has invaded so many areas of our life.

And sadly, all too often in the church and how it's divided us. And and he's kind of a couple of thoughts in there that I thought were pretty handy. Some thoughts I want to share with you. But it got me thinking about some other things. One of the challenges that he offered to his church, and it's one that I want to offer to us when the pandemic began, he said, Our lives are a part of a story. Right now. We're living into a story. What kind of story are you writing When 20, 22 or 21 or 2020 is is a is a story from the past. And someone asks you about your part in that story. What would you like to say? How would you like to describe your part of that story? Is it going to be one of fear? Of panic. Or will it be one of faith? Of courage. We write our stories one decision at a time. And he says, I think that's really true. And so he says, We want to be intentional about the kind of decisions that we make, the kind of story we're writing. And so my hope and and prayer over the next couple of weeks is we think about this as is what kind of story are we writing? You know, it's been interesting. The last 18 months have been a little bit of transition in our church staff as I've been conducting interviews for different open positions on staff.

And these candidates will invariably ask me, What's Broadway like? How's it going? They know the history of what's been happening in the last couple of years, and it's been a joy for me to be able to say, We're hanging in there. When you come to our church on a Sunday morning, the people who are there have chosen to be here. As Wendy reminded us this morning in her welcome. We're here because we want to be here because many of you don't live like right across the street or just down the road. You live far away and you drive by a lot of great churches to come to this church because here you found family and a place to belong and a place to engage. We've been having some really fascinating conversations and I love getting to say we're we're in a good place, though. It's been a hard few years, hadn't it? Church. I mean, the last five years have been a lot of challenges. We've been asking some hard questions, right? We've been wrestling with what does it mean to be gifted by Christ and by His Holy Spirit and use those gifts and service to the kingdom. And so we've been challenging ourselves to say, how are we inviting men and women to use their gifts and service to the Lord? And some of those conversations have been threatening. We've been thinking some about how to be really good neighbors in our community. To say when we look at the neighbors around us, are we inviting them to? Do they have space in our fellowship? Do we create opportunities for people who don't look like us, who maybe don't live like us or vote like us or act like us? Do we create space for them at our table? Those those conversations have been threatening.

It's been it's been tough. Then a couple of years ago, this little, little blip on the radar called COVID 19 happened. You may remember it. If not, ask a neighbor. We made these challenging decisions about Do we meet? Do we gather in person? We agonized over these decisions and these choices we made. And every one of them was coming from this place of we want to love our neighbors. Well. We want to do what Jesus said matters most love God and love our neighbors. And so every decision we made was was in the spirit of loving our neighbors well. And those were challenging conversations. We agonized over those decisions. And some people got mad. They left and we made some mistakes and some of those decisions. I'm sure we did. I know we did. But they were coming from a place of love and wanting to do our best to stand for to speak for those who couldn't stand or who couldn't speak for themselves. We wanted to be a witness in our community of the love and the power of God. But there's a lot of uncertainty. And when uncertainty comes, you have to drill down deep on your values and what really matters.

What's really important. Because as Andy said, uncertainty doesn't alter your value system. It exposes it. You notice that when pressure and stress come, it doesn't change it. It exposes what's really going on inside that our reaction to the uncertainty gives us a way. That sometimes our actions don't tell the whole story, but our reactions often do. And sadly, the last few years, the reactions of many people, especially in the church to political or social or economic or even health crises, has exposed this ugly underbelly that's been happening in the church, and we've been able to cover over it for far too long. But beneath all the Jesus language, there was this hidden agenda. This agenda that got exposed. You see, it turns out that Christians value the same thing that others other groups value in our world, and that's winning. We value winning and we fear losing, losing our voice, losing our influence, losing our rights. You see, that's what happens when the church abandoned its mission and gets sucked into the kingdom of this world. Now, a few of you may be saying, well, Carl, you just had McKenzie read like four verses that said, to win, to win, to win, to win. What do you mean? We're not about winning. We're not in it to win. It. Didn't Paul just contradict you? Well, hang on. Hang with me here for a minute. That's certainly we're here about winning, but it's a different kind of winning.

We're here to win souls and hearts, not culture wars. Not elections. Now, that's not to say politics isn't important and voting isn't important. And I encourage every one of us to be a part of that, to engage in our community. But too many times the church has chosen a political or a social or cultural issue to demarcate itself, to separate itself as a part from others in the world around us, only to find ourselves right smack in the middle of everybody else. If real Christians vote this way. Real Christians feel this way about this group of people. They react to these kinds of issues. See, Christians have been fighting one another over these issues with language and rhetoric. That's, to put it mildly, un-Christian. We spoke about this last week when I got a chance to have a conversation with Leonard right here on the stage that in John 17, Jesus says, the way that people will know that he was really sent by God into the world is by our unity. By our unity, us being held together by something greater than than any political or social or economic issue. See, we are not in it to win it. You see, by every human measure, Jesus lost. To the very end, he lost his life. He lost on purpose and with a purpose. You see, we are his body. And like him, we've been invited to lose in the same ways. Because when we allow our faith to be subjugated to a political party or social movement, we lose our voice, we lose our distinction, we lose our ability to be the conscience of our nation that we love so dearly.

See, Jesus didn't come to win the way that we defined it. He came to lose his life for us and he invites us to follow him. So today and next week, as we anticipate some of the craziness that we're going to encounter as the as the pressure builds and as as the culture and this language, this rhetoric builds up, I want us to think and dwell some on these verses that we spoke about a little bit last week, and we'll speak again this time. John's 17. Jesus prays. He prays for his current disciples and his future disciples. Here in verse 14, he utters these words I have given them your word, His current disciples and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world. But that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. They are not of it. They're not of the world. Just like me. And I'm praying not that you would take them out of the world. God. But that you would protect them from the evil one, right, as we send them out into it. What does this mean? What does it look like to be in? Not of. What does it mean to to be someone who is in the world but but not of the world? That's a serious question, I think, one that that deserves some thought.

And over the next couple of weeks, I invite you to join me in wrestling with what does this practically look like for us? So I think this is one of the questions that Paul understood deeply. I think it's part of why he wrote this letter to the church in Corinth, who is wrestling with a lot of the same challenges and things that we wrestle with today. What does it mean to be in a world that that I don't find my home in in a world that lives and thinks and acts and believes very differently than me? What does it mean to be in that kind of world, but not to get sucked into it, not to be of it, to make a difference, to be salt and light. Paul understood this challenge. That this this being in the world and not of the world engages us in a different kind of winning. Listen again to how his strategy plays out. He says, Though I am free and belong to no one. I have made myself a slave to everyone. To win as many as possible. Paul made himself a slave. It's a word. It's an image that's kind of jarring as we've been wrestling these last many years and decades with our own issues and history of slavery. Paul says, I made myself a slave in his world.

Everyone was just one divorce or one death or one illness or one disaster away from being a part of slavery. It was an economic based slave system. If you're married and your husband dies and you don't have any children to take care of you, you have to give yourself into slavery just to survive. Or maybe you own a small business that's on the coast and a hurricane blows in or storm blows in and destroys all of your ships. Well, now you're one step away from slavery. Or maybe an illness sweeps through your village. Maybe there's some other disaster that comes upon most of the world, except for just a very few. We're always one tragedy away from entering into slavery, and none of these scenarios were by their choice. But here, Paul says, I made myself a slave. I chose this position. I chose this way of living, though I'm free and belong to no win. I made myself a slave to everyone, even to members of your rival party. Come on, Paul. Like Democrats. Come on, man. Even to Republicans. Even the people who don't live the way that I do. That I disagree with. Even the people who don't like me and I know they don't like me and they know they don't like me. Paul says to everyone. He chose him to place himself under to serve because he had an agenda. And he tells us to win as many as possible. Right. Cue the a cappella song, Gary Morris. Right. No, no. Literally. Cue the song.

You. The state recognized that.

1989 Lubbock, Texas ladies and gentlemen, to win as many as possible, that red sweater gives them away every time. You still wear that thing? Yeah, It's a good looking sweater. Gary Moore is my friends. A cappella to win as many as possible. There's an agenda. Paul says, I have an agenda to win as many as possible. His goal was to win people away from this deeply ingrained idea that it's just about you. You take care of you and your family. That's all that matters. It's just about survival. Paul says there's so much more. So he's going to submit and he's going to serve as a way of influencing people. Really, that's the best strategy you have. Just so he can be clear, he starts to give examples. Yes, that's my strategy to the Jews. I became like a Jew to win the Jews to those under the law. I became like one under the law, though I myself am not under the law so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law, I became like one not having the law, though I am not free from God's law, but I'm under Christ's law. So as to win, so as to win those not having the law to the weak. I became weak to win the weak. Paul says to the Jews, I became like a Jew. To those without a law, I became like those without a law. To those with the law became like those with a law to the weak. I became weak.

And you can hear those questions fine, can't you, really, Paul? So you're not going to make any stand, huh? I mean, if that's not the definition of of compromise, bro, what is to these people? You're like them. You show up over here at school. I'm like the folks in school at work. I'm like the people at work. That's called compromise, isn't it, Paul? We just trying to have it both ways. You're not taking any kind of a stand. You're just fitting in with the culture. You're allowing culture to define your reality, your direction and your purpose. Paul. Are you just trying to to keep as many people as you can? How many pastors, how many elders, how many preachers heard the same accusations thrown at them these last few years? You're not taking a stand. You're just bound to the pressure. You don't have faith. You don't have. You're not taking a stand. A lot of folks face those challenges, including your leadership team here at Broadway. You see those of us who refused to politicize our church? He refused to pick a side that was interpreted as refusing to take a stand. But we did take a stand. We took the stand to not politicize the body of Christ. We stood for our neighbors for those close to and far from God, from those who had resources and those who didn't. We chose to stand in the messy middle. With Jesus. Rather than to capitulate to some divisive or broad brush or political talking points from either side of the aisle.

You see our hope and our desire. It was then it still is, is that we might in some way embrace this same incredible, awkward, heartbreaking soul mending, life giving challenge that Paul was given to the Corinthians. I've become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel that I may share in its blessing. See, That's it. Church. That's our mission right there. That's our mission here in Lubbock and Texas and the US and the world. We are striving to become all things. And that striving has been looking like trying to create relationships with people that we wouldn't just naturally have a relationship with. And I try to build and navigate relationships with people who we have virtually nothing in common with. Who don't look like us or think like us or act like us. Or believe like us. But we do that so that by all means possible, whatever it takes. Including being misunderstood or mistreated or. Or having our motives maligned. So that. So that by all possible means we might save some. Have you ever thought about how amazing it is that anything Paul wrote is still around today? It was written 2000 years ago and this narrow little sliver in the Middle East. And it's based upon the teachings of a rabbi who never left 100 mile radius of his hometown. And yet today. It survives. The message survived because Jesus and his followers refused to bend the knee to the prevailing worldview.

They were convinced that Yahweh had done something new in the world for the world. In spite of the world. They recognized that they were in this world, but not of it. That they were a part of another kingdom that was breaking through little more every day. And so you see, Paul never felt compelled to just win something because Jesus had already won. The victory had been purchased, had been had been won on the cross, rather, which means the kingdom has won. And the world's invited to be a part of that. And church. He's asked us to be his bearers of the good news. I do all this for the sake of the gospel? Paul says. So that I might share in its blessings. So let's join him. Church. Let's join him. Being in the world, but not of it. Of extending invitations and opportunities. You see, when the church becomes preoccupied with saving, America, loses its mission. When church becomes preoccupied with defending its rights rather than advocating for the rights of others, we lose our way. Let's resist the temptation to use our faith. To use Jesus as a means to an end. To leverage our faith for a political or social or economic power in the world. Instead, we're not in it to win it. We're in it, but not of it. You see, we're one nation under God. Church. Lets live like it. Father, We do pray that you would help us to live into the great mission you have given us.

That you have created each and every one of us. Unique. That's significant. You've placed us in this day and in this time to be a light and a witness to the world. You got the next couple of weeks, the the pressure is going to build, the rhetoric is going to grow and the temptation to want to give in to a lesser dream, a lesser mission is going to be enormous. So, God, would you steady us now? Would you help us to lean on and with one another? May we trust deeply in you that your kingdom is breaking through and that our willingness to stand in the middle with Jesus and the messy middle. For something that's more deep and more profound and more life changing than an economic policy or a social policy. Those things may be important, but they're not ultimate. And so, God, these next couple of weeks, would you help us to live as one nation under you? Who follows you. Who obeys you. Who loves and serves those like Paul. Father, may we make ourselves slaves this week to the people around us. To the Jews. Maybe be like the Jews. To those under the law. May we be like those under the law? And not not watering down your gospel or your truth. Instead living it. Being a witness to it. Many people see the story that we're writing. May they may they see it lived out in our lives, that we are people of grace and love and mercy and truth.

Yeah, whatever that means for us over the next two weeks. I pray to God that you would give us the courage to live it out, to live into it. To remind us in those moments. When a sharp word or rebuke just. Hmm. Stinks. Forgot it in those moments when we were tempted to devolve into fighting and arguing. Oh, God. Your spirit. Just remind us again in the world, not of it in not of. In not of. Further help us to see the way forward. And a journey together. Lord, it's going to be tough and we're going to mess it up. And so God made we have lots of grace, maybe show lots of grace to one another. As together. God, you put us in this place and you've called us to engage our world, engage the political realm, engage our city politics. Engage God. You want us to use our brains to find the best solutions to really important problems. But God, may we never put that over being yours. Living your way. Doing it in the way of Jesus. So, Father, thank you for my friends here today, those online. Thank you for this church and for the witness and light. They have been to me. The way they have shown me this pathway. God, you give me the courage to continue to walk it. And, Lord, would you bless us as we pursue you in the name of the one we serve who gave his life for us as we pursue it? In Jesus name, Amen.