Description
SWAGGER JACKER
The Dash
May 1, 2011
Ed Young
God wants us to walk with confidence through life. And it’s through the power of the resurrection that we can experience the real sway swagger can have. But it’s one thing to understand that; it’s another to live it out.
In this message, Ed Young looks at the time we spend on earth, the days between our birth and our death. And as he unpacks a powerful passage of Scripture, we learn exactly what it takes to get the most out of our ‘dash’.
Transcript
Let’s remaining standing just for a second and welcome all of our different environments. We’re right here, of course, in beautiful Grapevine, Texas, right north of DFW Airport. Also, what’s up Downtown Dallas? Give a big shout, Downtown Dallas. And Downtown Dallas is exploding with growth. They had a great crowd last weekend. Also, Plano had over like 3,000 people last Sunday. Fort Worth, our downtown campus in Fort Worth, also was right under 3,000 people! Is that unreal? And then, of course, Miami. Just to give you some numbers we had right at 1,200 in Miami! I think our totals last week were somewhere between 32,000 to 35,000. That’s a pretty good group of people. Anyway, please be seated.
It’s amazing how fast life can change. In an instant, snap your fingers with me, life can change. Someone’s driving, a drunk driver hits them. In an instant, do it with me, life has changed. The doctor walks in and says, “You’ve got cancer.” In an instant, life changes. You walk the aisle, look at this person and say, “I do.” You’re done. In an instant, life changes. Life changes.
Do you realize that an instant your eternity can be secure, just like that! Think about the South. They have been ravaged by these tornados. People just doing life. All of a sudden, like that, things change. Linda Ellis wrote a poem entitled “The Dash.” I want to read you just a section of this poem:
“For it matters not, how much we own, the cars, the house, the cash,
What matters is how we live and love and how we spend our Dash.”
If they were working on your tombstone or, in this case, mine, it would look something like this. I’m a ’61 model, March 16, 1961. Save your money for my birthday. My name, Edwin Barry Young. So there’s my birth date, when I entered the world. I was born into the Young family. Then you have a dash. This dash represents life on planet Earth. A question mark. The dash really keeps going and going and going into eternity. We have this fascination with forever. Even children’s books end by saying, “And they lived happily ever after.”
The Bible talks about forever a lot. It says, in no uncertain terms, all of us face a forever, either with God or without him. Either in Heaven or (I know it’s not popular these days… at least Time Magazine tells us this), or in Hell. Jesus talked a lot about Hell. Think about the dash in your life. What are you doing with your dash?
I’ve had the opportunity to write a dozen or so books, and as I’m thumbing through the books it has something like that in the first few pages. Author: Edwin Barry Young, March 16, 1961-? Look up somebody on Wikipedia and it has the same thing, if they’re alive. If they’ve died it has an end date, when they graduated from this life into the next.
Well, Jesus came along and Jesus said that if we know him, we’ll spend eternity in a place called Heaven. We’ll leave the land of the dying and move to the land of the living. But the he said, those who reject me, those who turn their back on me, those who do the Heisman, they will leave the land of the dying and move to the land of the dead. That’s what Jesus said. But what I want you to concentrate on today is the dash. What are you doing with the dash? What are you doing with this one and only life? Because the dash is just this blip on the radar screen compared to the dash throughout eternity that we all face. What are you doing with the dash?
All of us were born separate from God. We were born alienated from him. We have sinetic nature that we got from Adam. We’re not automatically born into the family of God. We’re born physically, and Jesus said in John, chapter 3, we have to get reborn. Born again. That phrase is an epic phrase because Jesus and the writers of Scripture throughout the New Testament say something so radical will happen in a person’s life that the only way to describe it is to be reborn. To be born again. And we have the opportunity, don’t we, by choice to be born into the family of God. We either choose to do so or not.
As I think about my dash, when I was young I met Christ. Something shifted inside of my life that has never shifted back. A pivot point took place during my dash, as a young guy. I made that decision. And I’ve got to ask you, have you made that decision in your life? What are you doing with the dash? Because your dash will never be developed, you’ll never discover the destiny of your dash here and also eternally until you make that commitment.
I’ve been talking about swagger over the last several weeks. Swagger… what is swagger? Swagger is simply a cool word for confidence. We’ve been saying around here that true confidence comes from God, it’s Godfidence. It’s not saying, “I’m the man,” it’s saying, “God, I’m your man.” It’s not saying, “I’m the woman,” it’s saying, “God, I’m your woman.”
Simon Peter as a man who was so human he was pretty much off the grid. All over the pages of scripture you see his good points and his bad points. Simon Peter sold his fishing business and he followed Jesus. He got into the fishing-for-men business. He didn’t really get everything, he got most of it. One day he said, “Jesus, I will never deny you, I will never dis you. I will never turn my back on you.” And Jesus said, “Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you will. In the next couple of hours.” And sure enough, over a fire after they had arrested Jesus, Simon Peter denied Jesus. He did the first three-peat. Cursed his name!
Let me press the pause button for a second. Jesus was not a victim. I think sometimes people try to portray Jesus as this victim. No, Jesus was a volunteer. The Bible says in Luke 9:31 that Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem. That means he walked into the teeth of his torturer. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus walked toward the teeth, again, of the arresting officers. He voluntarily allowed them to pound his body into a cross. He did it. Read the gospels. He said, “Hey, if I want to I can snap my fingers and legions of angels will come and rescue me.” He didn’t, because he had your sin and mine on his mind. He was buried for three days, then he burst forth with resurrection power.
Simon Peter met him after the resurrection, something shifted inside his life and it never shifted back. It was a pivot point. Over a fire that Jesus built, three times Jesus said, “Hey, Simon Peter, do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?” What was he saying? “Hey, Simon Peter, talk is cheap. Do you really love me? With the totality of who you are?” He rebooted Simon Peter, reinstated Simon Peter, recalibrated Simon Peter, redeemed Simon Peter, and from that day forward, this guy no longer cowered in fear. He was no longer pounded by pride. He had the resurrection power. He had the resurrection power and through the horsepower of the resurrection power he was able to be one of the greatest men who ever walked on planet Earth. He did a lot with his dash, man.
What are you doing with your dash? Why are you here? To recreate, procreate, do deals, and die? That’s it? What are you doing with your dash?
My mother-in-law is in town. She is 84. We were sitting on our porch a couple of days ago and one of the twins came by, she was going somewhere, and Elva (is that a great name or what?) looked at me and she said,
“Ed, can you believe the twins are driving? Time flies!” I said,
“Elva, I can’t believe it! It seems like just yesterday that we came up here, one car, one kid, no church building, with 30 families and helped start Fellowship Church. Now today, wow! Five locations and a camp and our television program that reaches around the world. I had no clue all this would transpire. It happened like … do it with me… <snap> That! Life flies, man! What are you doing with this one and only life?
Think about the resurrection of Jesus. If you’re intellectually and emotionally honest, if you really study it with an open mind, I’m telling you the evidence is stacked on the side of Jesus. That he came back from the grave, he died, rose again, and he offers that to us. We, too, can do the same because of the power of the resurrection.
Well, there’s a text in Scripture that really encapsulated what Christianity is all about. It really encapsulates what Godfidence is all about. It really encapsulates what swagger is all about. It was written by our boy, Simon Peter. A guy, again, who was all over the page, off the grid, here, there, yonder. He zigzagged through life until he met the resurrected Lord. He wrote the book of 1 Peter as a work of confidence for you and me as we really do life. So it really sums up life. It sums up what Christianity is all about. If you want to know the bottom line, it’s basically Swagonomics 101.
If you have your Bibles turn to the book of 1 Peter 1:3-7. Simon Peter wrote it to do what? To give confidence and swagger. To who? Christians who were being persecuted. The church was blowing up. People were after believers. They were dispersed. And he writes this letter and check out what he talks about. He’s talking about Godfidence. Are you ready for this? 1 Peter 1:3-7, I’m gonna pick up just several words and talk about them.
He says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade, kept in Heaven for you.”
A couple of words you’ve gotta get. Mercy. Say mercy with me. Mercy. Peter said through his great mercy. What’s mercy all about? Look up mercy. The synonyms are soft, compassionate, empathetic. That’s true. Don’t, though, decaffeinate mercy. Don’t neuter mercy. Don’t spay mercy. You know what mercy means?
Whenever you see a term or hear a term, it’s the law of the first mention in Scripture. Always go back to when the word was first mentioned in Scripture. When was mercy first mentioned in Scripture? Answer: The book of Genesis, chapter 16. Lot was rescued because of God’s great mercy, the Bible says, from Sodom and Gomorrah.
What is mercy? It is being compassionate. What is mercy, it is being empathetic. Mercy, though, is being rescued from ruin. Rescued from the judgment of God. I know judgment of God isn’t popular to talk about these days. People are scared of it. God is a God of grace, a God of love, a God of mercy. He’s also a God of condemnation and a God of judgment. God does not hurl anybody to Hell; we make that choice. We make that decision. Through the great mercy of God he has rescued us from ruin. What’s ruin? Hell. What’s ruin? A Christ-less eternity. By doing what? By giving us – see the next word? – a new birth, a rebirth.
John, chapter 3, Jesus told Nicodemus he must be born again. I’ll say it again. Something so radical takes place in someone’s life they are literally reborn. Anybody watch the wedding? Prince William and Kate? Come on ladies. I didn’t watch it but, oh yeah. I heard about some wedding parties all over town, watching the royal wedding. My daughters threw a party, had all these women just going crazy. It was an estrogen-fest, watching the wedding!
I was in California several years ago speaking and I saw Prince William in a hotel. It was weird, man, because I saw these guys in a lobby. They were all young and in good shape, dressed just casual, and they were just kind of standing in a circle. And I looked and I see this big old red-headed guy and I’m thinking, “Man, I’ve seen that guy before. I think that’s Prince William!” and I’m like, that’s all his security, just a bunch of young guys? Shirttails out, kind of like this. All tatted up.
So I go over to the front desk and say,
“Excuse me, is it possible that Prince William (I know this is crazy) is staying in this hotel in L.A.?” And the girl goes,
“Well, I can’t say yes or no but there’s a good chance he’s here.” Sure enough! That dude is lucky! He’s the lucky conception guy! He was just conceived from royalty, right. Born into royalty, he’s got squillions of dollars. What do these cats do, anyway? It’s a whole ‘nether subject. No disrespect but they’re royalty.
When we’re born again, when we’re reborn the Bible says we’re born into a living hope. So you might have been born into a living Hell naturally, you’re gonna be born into a living hope. You’re gonna be born into the family of God. Yeah, he’s got a good inheritance but his inheritance pales in comparison to the inheritance that you have and I have. And again, Simon Peter is saying this should give you swagger. This should give you confidence. It all is brought about through the resurrection. The resurrection gives you the horsepower, the power of God, to live the life, to develop your dash. Because if you try to develop the dash yourself, your dash will never, ever compare to the dash that Jesus has for you. It doesn’t, it doesn’t.
So, mercy, there’s the great mercy. We’re rescued from ruin, right? We’re reborn, if we make that decision, born into living hope. That’s swagger, that’s confidence. We have an inheritance, that’s another word. that lasts forever.
Well, I could stop and go, “All right, that’s it, man. Isn’t this a cool message? We become believers, we have this pivot point in our life, everything is cool. Everything is hunky-dory, no more problems, we walk down the primrose path, we gotta think positively, everything is A-OK. But that’s not the real world!
Simon Peter talks about the raw and the real. He goes, “You’re gonna face some junk and funk! People are gonna screw you over. They’re gonna betray you, they’re gonna mess you around. Bad things happen to good people!” They do. People get hit by drunk drivers. People die. Great Christians get cancer. It happens! We live in a fallen and fallible place. What do we do? Do we cower in fear? Do we try to stick our chest out and say, “I’m the man!” or “I’m the woman!” Simon Peter says we need to realize who we are, whose we are, and what we got! Because our dash only lasts for a little while.
Let’s keep going. Verses 5, 6, and 7. Verse 4 talks about the inheritance that will never fade. It’s kept for you and me. Verse 5: “Who through faith are shielded by God’s power (talk about protection!) until the coming day of salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” I don’t have time to get into the theology of salvation but we are saved, right? We’re rescued. We have been saved, we’re being saved, and we will be saved. I just wanted to toss that in, a little theology for you.
“In this you greatly rejoice,”… wow! We rejoice! “… Though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief and all kinds of trials. All kinds of trials. Multicolored trials. Polka-dotted trials. Trials that are busy. Someone walks in with an outfit and you’re like, whoa! Turn it off! We’ll be hit with those types of trials and grief. Multicolor, multifaceted, polka-dot, plaid, whatever you want to think about. Crazy stuff!
But here’s the good news. We have multicolored grief, but 1 Peter 4 uses the word grace and the picture behind the word grace is also multicolored. So, there is a grace for every grief. I will say it again. There is a grace for every grief. It’d be a good place to clap. For some of you moms it’s spiritual Garanimals. You know what Garanimals are, don’t you? You got like a pair of shorts, a giraffe. You match the giraffe shorts with the giraffe shirts. A pair of shirts have a dog, they match the shirt with the dog, right?
We face grief, we face suffering, we face doubt, we face temptation, we face trials. Whoa! What do we do? What do I do? Aaahhhh!!! Realize the inheritance. Realize you’re in the family of God. Realize you’re a part of a living hope. Realize you’re in the dash-development business by God himself.
So, the grief is a giraffe? You go, oh man, I’ve got a shirt to match over here in the grace department. Oh, you’re gonna give me a doggie shirt? I’ve got a pair of matching doggie pants. See? See? There is a grace for every grief. And that should give us Godfidence. Godfidence.
What are you facing? What are you dealing with? It’s just a little while. The dash is just a flash, just a flash. Look at verse 7, “These have come so that your faith, of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire.” There’s the word fire again… Peter’s gotta bring that up again, right? Fire, he denied Jesus. Fire, Jesus reinstated him. “May be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Christ is revealed.” A faith can only be trusted when a faith can be tested.
Simon Peter went on record, “I’m the man. I’m not gonna dis you. I’m not gonna back down!” He fumbled the ball. Then Jesus, by the fire, reinstated him.
“OK, talk is cheap. I mean, talk is dirt cheap. Are you really with me?” and that’s when something shifted inside of his life and never, EVER shifted back.
God allows trials and grief in your life and mine. He doesn’t cause them but he allows them. When gold is in its liquid state, the heat is cranked up, the impurities rise to the surface. They are scraped off and thrown away. When you face a trial and I face a trial. When you face temptation and I face temptation, when you face grief and I face grief, when you face doubt, when I’m dogged by doubt, as God turns the heat up the impurities rise to the surface. He skims them off, throws them away. Then when he sees his reflection he knows we are ready to go to the next one.
It’s about character. It’s about endurance. It’s about vision. It’s about commitment. It’s about what are you doing with your dash? Have you made this decision to ask Christ to come into your life? Have you made this decision to do this? Because the Holy Spirit of God is the one that brings forth our new birth. It’s the Holy Spirit. It’s a Spirit thing.
So right now you might feel something in your soul like tugging you to make this decision. You’re looking at this dash. You’re thinking about your tombstone, you’re thinking about maybe you’re a 1990 model, maybe you’re a 1985 model and you see the dash and the question mark, and you feel and you know the Holy Spirit is saying, “All right, you have an opportunity in an instant – do it with me, 1-2-3..<snap!> – you can make this decision to secure your eternity.
Now remember, when you make this decision it’s a game changer. It puts you in the game but there’s a whole game to be played afterwards! It’s not like, “OK, I’ve made the decision. Wow. I’m a child of God. That’s it. Game over. I’ve got a first-class ticket to the heavenlies.”
Well yeah, you do! But now, though, we’re here to develop the dash! But have you made that decision? Have you made that commitment? Let’s see, it is 12:21, 1:21 in Miami. What have you done with your dash? Have you made this decision? Have you made this decision to follow Christ?
It’s soon to be, OK, right now it’s 12:22. What have you done? Have you received this gift? What have you done? What are you doing with your dash? I can’t make this decision for you. I can lead you in it, but you’ve got to make it. It’s a decision of hope, a decision of Godfidence.
“Well, Ed, I’ve got doubt.” I heard about two pilots that went to an airport, and they both had doubts about their abilities to fly this particular plane. One guy looks around and goes, “I will fly it.” He walked across the tarmac with his doubts, jumped in, and flew this new plane, this experimental aircraft. He landed it beautifully. All his friends are like, “Man! All right! Incredible!” The other guy, he had doubts and he never flew the plane. He was grounded.
I want to challenge you to board the plane with your doubts. Having doubt means you’ve got faith. No doubt, no faith. No faith, there’s certainty. Nothing is certain. You don’t think that God can deal with your doubt and my doubt? What??? Are you gonna stand there and let your dash develop your own way? Recreate, procreate, do deals, and die? Or are you gonna board the plane with doubts? I’m telling you, the plane will take off and fly beautifully but the choice is up to you. What are you doing with your dash?
[Ed leads in closing prayer.]