Dave McCue's Podcast

Gospel According to Dave: The first 8 pt. 1

July 04, 2015 Dave McCue Season 1 Episode 1
Dave McCue's Podcast
Gospel According to Dave: The first 8 pt. 1
Show Notes Transcript
First Sunday at Colville. The gospel according to Dave is an effort to put the work God is working out into a short presentation. Do you have the gospel worked into your own words? Until you do, its not likely that you will be able to share it conversationally. It is shared here since the church's service was shared with other churches during Rendezvous.

So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives. Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, “I am holy; you be holy. [1 Peter 1:13-16]

Speaker 1:

Okay, so the first one was, I love me some Bible. The second one was, I really think the body of Christ should be wrestling with what scripture means together, not just one person wrestling in this room over here by themselves for the body. A second thing that I think that you ought to know about me is I believe we have this God who is actively seeking, wooing, calling, whatever language you want to use. I like wooing the wooing every individual specifically and lovingly into a relationship.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 1:

That means that it's not a one size fits all God and we'll get to that. That's another sermon some of time. Then also this God who is lovingly wooing everybody into a relationship will not force anybody to do anything they don't want to do. Unfortunately, that means that he won't force anybody to go to heaven if they don't want to. Okay, and the fifth thing, this is a touch point for me and it's about about age and youth and all these things. The youth are not our future. Okay. Any more than our seniors are not our past. There are now. Okay. We only have our now. Do you understand what I mean by that? We think of the kids running around and said, well, that's the future of the church. There's the church now and so are our seniors who maybe can't do what they used to do. So that's that. Those are the five things that you ought to know about me before I start a sermon here. Okay, there you go. How about it now are we ready? Okay. Should I tell my my joke? My daughter hates this joke. Pastor comes into the room, takes his watch off, puts in his pocket. What's that mean? Nothing. He went to go pay any attention to it. Anyway. Yeah, I gave you the right amount of pause there. Okay, so this is essentially today, just so you know what I'm doing. This is the gospel according to Dave, and we all ought to have some way that we can talk about the gospel because if it's not in our own words, we won't be able to speak them in our own words when the time comes. But this is what the Bible is on about. And so in order to do that, I'm going to do a little background check with you here. There's something that everybody in the ancient world knew about building a temple. And this is when you read genesis one and two. God takes the six days and rests on the seventh day. But everybody in the ancient world knew that when you dedicate a temple, you take the first five days and you do and you consecrate over and over and on the sixth day you put the image of the God in the temple and then that, and then on the seventh day that God is it rest. So when you hear that, that book of Moses that that Genesis story days one, two, three, four, five, six and God breathes life into the, into his image and places it in the temple, you want to know that God is telling a story that everybody's heard with exactly the wrong ending because everybody in the ancient world knew this one thing that humans were put on earth to serve that image as slaves, as throwaways, as tools to be used. But God changed the end of the story to do this. He put humans as his image without a mediator between him and them of huge value, right? Not Tools. We don't get to throw people away. We don't get to use them up. We don't get a deal done with them when we're over and say, well they did that good thing for us over there, but we don't need them anymore. So God was telling a story that they all knew. But change the ending. Jesus does this throughout the gospels. Okay, here's an example. Are you ready? Is Real thought of itself as a, as a people, as children placed in a wall vineyard that was protected him then and protected by God. So when Jesus tells a story about renters in our Walt vineyard that keep beating up and killing the servants of the owner, they knew exactly that he was calling them renters and not children. Did you understand what I'm saying? That if you're the children of God, you don't have to pay tribute cause you're the owners. But if you're the renters, you do pay rent, don't you? And then you, oh, and it's due to the Lord our God. Another famous one that he told the wrong story was, was the Good Samaritan. The Good Samaritan in the same sentence was an oxymoron to them. It just couldn't happen. But when somebody was injured, it should have been the priests and the teachers of the law and the people that knew what holiness was that reached down and saved this man. It instead, it was the person that when they saw them coming on the street, they would cross to the other side. Do you know people like that that cross to the other side when they see people? Well, the Jews believed that if the shadow of a Samaritan hit you, you were kind of unclean. And so they were trying to make sure that even their shadows didn't touch them. So when Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan, he's telling a story about somebody getting help on the road with the wrong ending. It wasn't the people of God that did it. It was the despise person that helps. So here we go back in there. That's the first thing. When you hear the creation story, remember that God placed humans and the temple and then he rested without mediation between them. Humans is valuable. His image on earth, hey, the second one problem. The problem is is that we vacated that role. We decided that we thought we could be god better than God, and so we tried to make God and make ourselves God and then the window. It was obvious we couldn't be God. We started forming images to worship as God because we didn't like the true one. Does that make sense? Do you know that uh, ancient Babylonians used to have strollers for their gods and they'd take them out on the parapets of the walls and walk them around in the streets. If you think that that we live in a nation of Godless, the truth is is that we've got God's all over the place. They're just not the one true God. The Bible translates the word gods or idols as not gods, and it says this one thing in psalm one 15 I'm going to read it because it's worth it. Our God is in heaven doing whatever he needs to do. Their gods are metal and wood made in a basement shop, carved mounds that can't talk. Painted eyes that can't see 10 years, that can't hear molded noses. The can't smell hands. The can't grasp feet that can't walk or run throats that never utter a sound. Those who make them have become just like them because they're, they become like the gods they trust. So this is my second point of my sermon here today. The first one was what? That God made humans valuable and that was different from everywhere else of what the ancient world believed. The second point is, is who and what we worship is radically important because we become like what? We worship. Now, don't you? Just those young athletes in the room, don't you? Don't you just wish if you worshiped, worshiped to Ken Griffey Jr you could be like him, but that's not exactly what it is, which is what it is, is you're worshiping somebody, not a God. And so you'll become not like God. And if you think I'm making this up, if we worship God, the whole Bible goes like this. Do you understand that Jesus and the John and first John Three says, when we see him when he comes again, we will see him as he is and we will become like, yeah, so I'm not just making this up now I've quoted revelation and I've coated genesis and it didn't take four and a half hours, right? Praise the Lord. So what is Jesus doing with this is if it's important to know that humans are valuable, that they're the image bearers of God in the world. And we as humans become like what we worship. What is Jesus doing? What's The Gospel? If you ever seen him say those who have ears, let them hear. It only happens 18 times in the New Testament, seven in revelation, okay? But he was ears. Let them hear. See ears that are not made of stone or for hearing, but statues with the ears. They don't hear anything.

Speaker 2:

Yeah,

Speaker 1:

sound just bounces off them, us eyes to see or ears to hear. And then Jesus spends his whole time doing what? Healing ears and eyes throughout the people. What's he say to John The baptist? When John the Baptist says, are you the one or should we expect somebody else? He says the lame. Walk the blind. See the deaf hear the captives are set free. What's he doing? He's restoring the image of his God image of God on us as being restored by Jesus throughout the Gospel. Now some of you would say that's a physical restoration. Do we need more than a physical restoration to we need a spiritual restoration? And that happens as described in Isaiah 53 are you very, very familiar with. By his stripes, we are healed. He took our transgressions upon us, our sicknesses, all those things upon us. And he did that at the cross. So this is what the gospel is according to Dave God, who's wooing you into this relationship is also restoring the full image of God on his people as they learn to worship him in spirit and in truth. And he's doing the work. Now, just in case you might be saying, well that's us, but what about others? Yes, he's wooing everybody. Sometimes they're not listening.

Speaker 2:

He's

Speaker 1:

willing me. Sometimes I'm not listening. Sometimes he asks other people to join the conversation. Have you ever been asked to join the conversation, to speak grace into somebody else's life? That's the Gospel at work

Speaker 2:

in you

Speaker 1:

and just in case you thought perhaps we'll, I'm not very much I shouldn't have. He should. God shouldn't have gone to all this trouble for me. I want to read one little verse here. This is after Isaiah 53 first and after the famous parts, right? By his stripes we're healed. This is the end of it. This is Jesus looking on after the time of the sacrifice, when he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, right? That would be the cross. He will be satisfied when he looks at you and sees what was accomplished by his anguish, the spiritual and physical healing, the restoration of the image of God as it's coming to be that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to bring it to completion and you he will be satisfied. He's not going. Boy, I wish that cross did a little bit more. I sure wish that was a little more effective if they should do. No, he looks at you and he goes, see it worked and it's working and it will continue to work until he comes. And we see him in the air as he is and we become like him as he is. That's the gospel. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous for he will bear all their sentence. I love the language of all their sentence. Are you ready? Well, you know he kinda, he took away all most of my sins, but not that one over there that I keep heading. He knows it. You took it too. So what were the three points of my sermon this morning? Are you ready? The Gospel, right? God changes the story all the time on humanity, doesn't he? We come up with an idea and he goes, well, that's kind of right, but not you. You, you think you're in the temple. Yes, but you're not the slaves and the temple. Your the image of the God. The second one is who and what we worship and how we worship is really important because we become like what we worship. And just in case you thought you had to do it on your own, he bore all our sins and provided the healing and did all the work and he's satisfied this God who loves you, reaches out and grabs you. So what should we do? We should learn more about this God to enter into this relationship, to be wooed

Speaker 3:

deeper, ever deeper

Speaker 1:

or a CS Lewis would say further up and further in.

Speaker 3:

Will you pray with me?

Speaker 1:

Lord Jesus. Today, I ask that you would continue to move deeply in the lives of everyone here, that you would call us to be in that relationship, that we would know we're in relationship, and that you would set us free to be your representatives. Everywhere we go, may we speak words of grace. May We tell the story truthfully

Speaker 3:

in your name? Amen.