So much confusion reigns in our lives around what it is that we as Christians are supposed to do with the coming Kingdom of God. Listen in as we wrestle with 3 of the main problems that cause us to stumble around in the dark.
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]
So much confusion reigns in our lives around what it is that we as Christians are supposed to do with the coming Kingdom of God. Listen in as we wrestle with 3 of the main problems that cause us to stumble around in the dark.
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]
Good morning church. I was just wondering if you've ever been confused about what you're supposed to do in this life for Jesus. Have you ever been confused by that? Are you confused right now? You know, I don't know if there's ever been anybody that wasn't a little bit confused about that. And the source of that confusion seems to always be around who we are in Jesus. And what is our role? I mean, really? Is, is Jesus making this happen in us or are we making it happen for him? No, I've often said it seems to be a little bit more like a, uh, a mutual program in which he's doing the work and we accept and allow the work to be done. But here's a text that sort of throws some wrenches into that, into the monkey works for us. And I just want you to be able to just take this in this moment of confusion in this difficult time, a little bit, and just listen in John 12 verse 20 to 26, some Greeks who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration, paid a visit to Philip who was from Bethsaida in Galilee. They said, sir, we want to meet Jesus. Phillip told Andrew and, and they together went to Jesus. Jesus replied. When he saw that now the time has come for the son of man to Andrew's glory. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies. It remains alone, but its that will produce many new kernels, a plentiful harvest of new lives. Those who love their life and this world will lose it. And those who care, nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity. Anyone who wants to serve me must follow me because my servants must be where I am and the father will honor anyone who does that, who serves me. Philip went to Andrew and Andrew went to Jesus and Jesus gave a strange reply kind of the same as how it normally is. Just want to enter that moment and be aware that that often Jesus's replied doesn't always seem to follow, right? It's no smooze segway between what we're asking for and what we're not. So here's the things that I'm starting to think about when I read this text one, Philip and Andrew have a methodology on how they think, and they have a model from their world about how somebody comes to the Lord. And that model is, is that there's somebody interposed in between them and God in such a way that, that the introduction has to be made. The modern example of that in some ways is our Pope or not our Pope, but a Pope and our bishops and things like that, that they see their job or, or the, or the church societal model says that, you know, when things come down on high, they come down on high to the, to the people up on top and the roles and authorities. And then those things come down the line like this. And when somebody comes to us, we need to run it up the flagpole in the same way. And they did this. I don't, we're going to have to get used to a couple of things because of Jesus's comment here where he talks about, I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies. It remains alone, but its death will produce many new criminals. Now he's talking about his own death here about producing much new life in the life of many people, not just the Jews, but also the Gentiles or the Greeks that are coming to see, but they're coming to see Jesus. People are coming to see Jesus. They don't mean necessarily somebody interposed between them, except in this case, they needed kind of an introduction now and they may kind of reproduction of it. That model's a priesthood of sorts. Anyway, here's a couple of notions that I think we need to get used to, um, in our lives. The first one is this we're going to have to give up on a notion that we actually know what's happening in the kingdom of God. Now we have some general ideas, but I mean the day to day nuts and bolts operations of the kingdom of God are pretty much impervious to us going, well, this means this. Now I've got to, I've got a gal on Facebook that, that she's putting out a note from her denominational prophet every week or something like that. And, and I'm telling ya, you know, get ready. The clouds are lifting of your understanding today, daily prophetic, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's essentially the same as trusting a fortune cookie or a horoscope for what's going on in your life. I think we have to get used to the moment of not actually being in on it. Jesus has an understanding of what's going on and it's deeper and fuller than we're used to. So we're going to have to get up. We're going to have to get, give up on the notion that we actually know the day to day nuts and bolts operations of how the kingdom of God is being formed. Now, if we have to gather up on the notion of actually knowing what's going on, I think we're actually going to have to give up on a secondary thing, which most of us don't like giving up on in this case, right? Philip thought that the way to go to get to Jesus was to take him to Andrew because Andrew was higher up in the chain of the disciples, often thought about Peter's brother, Andrew. Anyway, Jen are, or one of Andrew is listed as one of the first four. And Phillip is one of the last four, generally in a hierarchies of, of the, of what the Bible calls the disciples. And so it was right to go up the chain of running up the chain and get permission to do that. Instead of just taking him to taking the Greek straight to Jesus, he wouldn't ask for kind of permission or a methodology, or maybe he didn't have access or something like that. But if we don't have the day to day operations, a nuts and bolts system, understanding we're also going to have to give up on our idea that our opinion changes how the kingdom of God is done. That being said, we spent a lot of time running things up the flagpole or requiring that they be run up the flag pole before they happen. Here's the example the Greek say to Philip Philip goes to Andrew, Andrew goes to Jesus. Jesus says something. We're going to have to give up that the way we think or the way our opinion says the world operates is the way that the world operates is we're going to have to give that up because if we don't actually know how the kingdom of God operates, our opinion on how it operates probably is just as invalid as what we think is going on. Number three, we're going to have to give up the priority of places, intermediary between Jesus and the new harvest. I know that's a really a difficult thought and we need to think this through, but we need to think this through an often as gatekeepers at the church, we think that people have to come to us and then they have to sort of become part of the church and then do all this things. But the truth is that people can walk right into the service and have direct access to Jesus. They can have direct access to Jesus without the service without us. However, the way God forms a people is through interactions of a community. And so the church, it becomes more of a, a vehicle after the fact that a vehicle during the fact and the more we required that it has to be this way. And it has to be done all that because we don't actually understand how it happens. We don't understand how a heart is changed, how individual hearts has changed. I think you'll, if you think a long time about you might be able to look back and see 16 ways that your heart was changed. But I think it's ridiculous to think that while that heart change is going on, you know, why and exactly how that's happening. And if you don't know how and why it's happening, then your opinion on how it should happen. Probably doesn't matter as much as we think. And we're going to have to give up the need to require ourselves as intermediary. Here's the Pope and the Bishop and all these things in our life. We require an intermediary. Sometimes we require that it's us, that st. Armenia. And sometimes we require an intermediary for us. None of that is how it happens. That's all after the fact, that's all about the formation of community and we'll get into that. So we got to give up our role. So here's the spot where Jesus says that unless a seed dies and is planted, it doesn't give life to anybody else. It's just remains alone. And that's really about him. But anyone who wants to serve me must follow me. And my servants must be where I'm at.
Speaker 2:[inaudible]
Speaker 1:Jesus gave up his life. So he gave some stuff up to follow the Lord. We have to give some stuff up to follow the Lord. And one of those things is that we are the standard. We're not. So how do we get it wrong? We get it wrong. A when we interpose ourselves, between or between God and somebody else, or we require somebody to be interposed between us. I said this a couple of weeks ago, and I need to say it again. Many of you look at pastors as though they're under shepherds and have the special intermediary position between themselves and God for you. That's not what that role is about. I'm a sheep too, just like you. I need a savior, just like you do. I have a role in the development of his people, but I'm not the savior. I'm not the manufacturer of life preservers for the kingdom of God. I'm not the distributor. I'm much more of one. Let's make sure that it's being worn right person. But even then I don't have the authority. I can only give the instructions that I'm given and my opinion on those instructions doesn't necessarily work so well. How many of you understood how to put on a life preserver? The very first time you saw one, it doesn't make perfect sense. Does it until you realized that its sole purpose is keeping your mouth above the water, doesn't really care about where your feet are. Anyway, we did it wrong. When we, we interposed ourselves or require interposition for ourselves. Number two, we get it wrong. When we only ask ourselves how it should be done, We don't stop to listen to God's opinion. We spend a lot of time listening to our own opinion. And we don't pause. Don't wonder whether our opinion is wrong. So we get it wrong a lot because our lives need to be changed. As much as those that we're talking about. Number three, we get it wrong. When we think we understand the whole picture. And so those are the things we need to die to. What we need to live to is basically the flip, the whole script around that. If, instead of us understanding it all, we need to do one of these three things all the time. And the first one is this. You always Lord of the universe and we're not, I can't say that enough. The first thing is is that we, when we think we understand how it's happening and we give our opinions about how it should happen, we're taking God's role of Lordship into ourselves and saying, but I know I understand how it should happen. It's my way or the highway. So those are the first two things here's Yahweh's Lord. And he is forming a people for himself. He's not actually asking our opinion about how that should be done. He's telling us and transforming us so that our opinions become his opinion, but we have to give up our opinions first. And I've met a lot of long time believers that have never quite gotten to that spot. Where, where they're giving up their opinion on how salvation happens or grows or maintains within. Yeah, there's the third one is this. This is why the biggest confusion goes on. It's your way. That is building a hope and a future for his people. It's God does building a hope and a future for his people. Now he's building it inside us. And Peter will tell you later, always be ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within you. You're not building that hope. He's building the hope. And you're just after the fact analyzing, letting the hope be billed and then being ready to give an answer,
Speaker 2:Yes,
Speaker 1:Dies and goes into the grain or remains alone. But if it goes into the ground, it produces a lifetime of change. We have to be where God, where Jesus is hat in this. And the only way to get there is to die to some of these things of our way to do it. The first one that we know what's going on, the second one, that our opinion changes should change how it's doing. And the third one we need to interpose ourselves between Jesus and somebody else, or that we need somebody to do that for us. He's directly inside us now forming a people for himself out of us and other people. And all the work that we're doing in the formation of the kingdom of God is after the fact, along with him. So not only does he bring the people in the that, we don't get to choose who he brings. We don't get to choose that we were part of that. And then we allow that work to be done. If you ever allowed somebody to come in that you didn't think should be here. I suggest dying yourself a little bit On that note. Let's pray,
Speaker 2:Oh Lord, Oh God,
Speaker 1:Please allow us. Please help us. Please leverage us into positions where we recognize that you are Lord of the universe. And then if you're Lord of the universe, then it's your opinion of how it happens and how they enter into your kingdom happens that you, you would allow us the ability to get rid of all of our little opinions and listen to you that we might welcome those who come and that we would allow you to build it us a hope for the future. That requires us to die to some of these other things in our lives. So strengthen us for this journey. Lord GERD up our loins in the old language, bring us to you that we might be your people as you brought us to be in your precious name. Lord. Amen. Just a few announcements so that you might know what's going on in the church. We are, uh, in our service and phase three a little bit. So it's okay right now that if you bring your, your launchers for you to sit near your cars or we're within some social distancing regulations with some other people and the speakers still work so out in the parking lot, you can hear what's going on. Um, next week, not this week, but next week we will be moving to in the morning instead of 10. So that it's a little cooler in the parking lot because we don't have much shade. So Hey, you can bring your chairs and B services changing to nine because we're outside. And because of that, we don't have a bunch of shade. And so, um, we'll be moving the service up an hour. I will study. Um, if you were part of Glen Dean's Tuesday morning Bible study, um, contact her to see what's going on with that. And if you're a part of the Wednesday morning, Wednesday evening Bible study, you can contact me and we'll tell you how that's happening. So as you leave this place of, of, and time of the Lord and instruction, may you be able to be where he's at? Go and peace. Amen.