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A Brutiful Ride

January 23-24, 2010

Ed Young

The Bible says in the Philippians 1:27, “Whatever happens, conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” Whatever you do. Whatever you do. Whatever I do. We should conduct ourselves in a manner that’s worthy of the gospel of Jesus. In other words, manner matters. Honor and respect are huge.

Just several days ago, I was looking at my iPhone. Anybody have an iPhone here? Any iPhones in the house? Yeah, we got iPhones. And I was looking at my calendar, because I do a good bit of traveling, especially in the fall and winter and spring time. And I was just kind of looking at that and I thought to myself, “Wow!” You ever say ‘Wow’ to yourself? “Wow!” I looked at the calendar. I go, “This is my 20^th Anniversary of the first sermon I ever preached at Fellowship!”

Now, it’s not the church’s 20^th Anniversary, our 20^th Anniversary is going to be this September. And man, we’re going to have a par-tay! It’s going to be crazy-great! That’s in September.

But I was kind of reflecting and thinking about manners. And during this fast that I’ve been on, I’ve been praying about certain things and contemplating certain things, thinking about the future and asking God where he wants us to go. And as I looked at my calendar, it was like, boom! I thought, “Whoa. 20 years ago.”

Two decades ago Lisa and I drove up here with a suburban, one child, and a dream that God had given us. You see, I was in Houston working as an Associate Pastor and I felt this leading to step out and to go into the ministry. I wanted to pastor my own church. I knew God was nudging me that way.

Now, I advertised to all my friends, “There’s one place,” I said, “I will never-ever go–Dallas / Fort Worth. I said I’ll never do it. I’m not going to Dallas / Fort Worth.” I said, “I like Dallas / Fort Worth, but I’m not going there. Too many sheeple’s there, too many seminaries there, too many religious people there. I’m not going to Dallas / Fort Worth. I’ll go anywhere else.”

I wanted to go somewhere where there weren’t a lot of churches. You know maybe even in Canada or Northern California. At the time, Las Vegas, or somewhere else. I did not want to go to Dallas / Fort Worth.

But here’s the deal. You might want to jot this down. In God’s economy, things don’t always add up. They really don’t. From our perspective, things don’t always make sense. I wouldn’t ever, ever have thought about going to Dallas / Fort Worth, yet God led us up here.

And the first message I ever preached before the church – there were 30 families in the house – was a message called ‘Running the Race.’ I only knew about two sermons, and that was one of the two – ‘Running the Race.’

And it was sort of like an American Idol thing. After I preached, it was called a trial sermon. Isn’t that weird or what? After I preached, the church voted on me, if they liked the sermon or not. Yay, or nay.

After I preached, they said, “Ed, would you please leave the room?” And they voted on me. It was really wild. And thankfully, I had more yays than nays, and I became the pastor of Fellowship Church.

I remember, like it was yesterday, I was the only staff member in the house. Church paid me $35,000 a year. We lived in a rental property in Irving and we had one car and that was it.

So we began to do some things and I began to just basically take a page out of Christ’s play book and began to teach like he did. Because Jesus was the most creative teacher to ever walk on the soils of this planet. And if you look at his teaching, you see how he always changed. He changed. And whenever you see change, you see creativity. Sometimes he preached from a boat bow, other times he walked along the beach, he drew in the sand, he used visuals. He told stories where people could get it.

30% of his words were words of information and about 70% of the other words were words of application. So, I thought, “You know what? We’re going to be a church that’s going to communicate stuff that helps people in between services.” You know what I’m saying to you? So that’s what, so that’s what happened.

Fellowship Church began to grow and things began to take place. And we were in these rented facilities. At the time, our church was called Las Colinas Baptist Church. Did you know that? That used to be our name. Las Colinas Baptist Church. “Hi, I’m Ed Young, Pastor and the sole staff member of Las Colinas Baptist Church.”

We were under the arm of First Baptist Irving. In other words, that was like the mother church, we were like a child, a baby. And then, September, 1990, we became our own self-supporting autonomous church. Hence our anniversary coming up in September.

Well, God began to do some mighty things. And, as I tell people all the time, I’m the most surprised person who ever walks into the doors of Fellowship Church. I did not plan this. I did not think this up. I had no concept, none, that Fellowship Church would be the church it is today. No idea.

I was standing outside greeting some of the cars before this service, and I was just like, “Lord, I cannot believe this. I can’t believe I’m standing here in Dallas / Fort Worth. I can’t believe I’m standing here at one of our 6 campuses. I can’t believe the kaleidoscopic range of people that are filing through to experience you here – whoa!”

Well, we were Las Colinas Baptist. Preston Mitchell, Owen Goff. Some of you know them. If you don’t, you need to get to know them. Doris Scoggins, in the early days. And at the time, they were working, you know, in the secular world. They we’re on staff, because again, we couldn’t afford anybody but me.

So we had this meeting, because Preston was like, “You know what? We’ve got to drop ‘Baptist’ out of our name. I mean, denominations are man-made. I mean, it’s great, you know, to be Baptist or Methodist or Catholic or whatever, but there’s one problem with that – they’re not mentioned in the Bible. So let’s just be the church, and let’s drop ‘Baptist.’ Because denominational labels kind of pigeon hole you into a certain vibe.”

So, we began to talk to people about dropping ‘Baptist.’ And we had this meeting. I remember Preston was up front leading this meeting, and Preston goes, “Ok, we really feel led to drop ‘Baptist’ out of our name so we can reach more and more people. Because after all, we’re going to be just a church that follows the Scriptures.”

And some people said, “Well, no, no, no – we’re going to keep ‘Baptist’ in the name.”

And Preston goes, “No, no, no, wait a minute, wait a minute. Would you rather keep ‘Baptist’ in the name and reach a few people, or would you rather drop ‘Baptist’ and reach the masses?”

You know what these people said? “Keep Baptist in the name.” If I’m lying I’m dying. And eventually, they left and went to another church.

Well, God began to move and he began to groove and we began to get in his groove and move with things. And I discovered something in my life early on that I want you to discover. We must give our life to what Jesus gave his life for. Did you hear that? We must give our life to what Jesus gave his life for.

What did Jesus give his life for? You and me. Sinners. Those of us who are fallen and fallible. That’s what Jesus gave his life for. We’re to give our life to that entity. What’s that entity? The church.

The Bible says the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. We began Fellowship Church with one thought in mind. We’re all about changed lives. That’s what we’re about. We’re about the God of the universe changing people’s lives.

From the get-go, we said, “Hey, we’re going to be a place that is comfortably uncomfortable. We want everyone to be comforted by Christ, but those of us who are Christ followers, we want to be uncomfortable for him. So those things began to happen at Las Colinas Baptist, then we dropped that, Fellowship of Las Colinas, in the early days. And we were like a church on the move. And you know what? We kicked off this church in an area that was not the best area to start a church. Whenever you see churches exploding in growth, most of the time, they’re around areas that are exploding in growth. Do you follow what I’m saying to you? Most every church.

The unusual story about Fellowship, talking about things that don’t add up in God’s economy, starting a church in Irving, Texas? Flat line community, zero growth, in a little office complex in the middle of nowhere. Then you meet in a cool arts center, the fine arts facility. Then you move across the street to MacArthur High School. A high school that had seen its day decades earlier. Wow! Yet, God began to add, just like the early church, to the number of followers, each and every Sunday.

My father is also a pastor. Some of you know that. Some of you don’t know that. He pastors one of the most attended churches in America. So I grew up in the fish bowl. You know what I mean by that, don’t you? When you’re a pastor, people watch everything you do – what you say, what you don’t say, where you eat, what you don’t eat, where you go, what you drive, where you live, where you don’t live, where you travel, it’s just life in a fish bowl. “(Under water voice) Look, there’s the pastor. Wow, look at him. Really?” That’s just the way it is. And it’s really a cool thing, because it’s built-in accountability. You know, it really, really is. And part of being on stage 24/7, and we’re all on stage 24/7, I hope you know that, in one way or another, we’re never really off stage. You know what I’m saying to you? If you’re a follower of Christ, you’re never like, “Ok, I’m, you know, I’m really not a follower of Christ, I’m kind of off stage.” No, no – we’re on stage 24/7. And as a pastor, which I am, you got to be called to lead. I mean, you got to be called of God to lead. So, whenever you do anything in life, you’re going to have some difficult things. You’re going to have some people who don’t dig it. For example. As Fellowship Church began to grow in the early days, there was one family that pretty much bankrolled our little church. They made up about, I don’t know, 70% of the money that was given. They were involved in the children’s stuff, and the finances, and they were involved in different Bible classes, and as we began to change and do things, Owen and Doris and Preston and I, this family didn’t dig it. The church, because we only had one car, got together and bought me this little car. They leased it, and this family that had some money had given a beautiful piano to the church. Given a cool sound system to the little church, you know. And we started reaching people. They didn’t dig it. So they said, “Ed, hey, we’ll just take your car back.” I’m like, “What? Man, we’re just doing what God’s told us to do.” “No, no, we don’t like the way you and Preston and Owen and Doris are doing the deal.” I said, “Ok, here’s the keys. Take it.” “We just might take our piano back.” “I thought you gave it to the church.” “We might just rip the sound system out.”

They did. They did. You see, we’re talking about spiritual warfare here. We’re not talking about playing Tiddlywinks, or Trivial Pursuit or Clue or Battle. No, no, no. We’re not talking about X-box 360 here. We’re talking about the real deal. I was like, “Whoa, man, this is pretty crazy. This stuff is wild!” But I learned something. When someone comes after you, that’s really the devil, and he is tipping you off to what’s going to happen in the future. So whenever you feel attacked, because we’re going to feel attacked, as believers, as we walk with the Lord, we’re going to feel attacked. If you don’t feel under attack, man, you better (making sound of a heart beat) check your spiritual EKG.

When we’re under attack, the evil one himself is showing us what’s going to happen. The reason he’s after you, the reason he’s up in your grill or in your chili or in my grill or in my chili, is because he knows what’s going to happen. Why the attacks in the early days? Why the attacks today? Because he knows the future. That’s why, as I’ve been saying in this series, the devil is in the details. He doesn’t want us to concentrate on the details. But I’m here to tell you the divine is in the details as well.

This family, they get all upset, and this woman, they’re all volunteers, I mean we didn’t have a staff back then. I was it, you know. This woman resigns, by the grace of God, from working in the children’s ministry. Again, her family is the one who is bankrolling the whole thing. And the day that she resigned, it was on a Sunday morning, this woman hung black wreaths on the doors of the nursery. Just think about that for a second.

No wonder I did that series called Crazy Pill. Anyway. Even Ozzy Osborne talks about the crazy train.

Here’s something I’ve learned. If you’re walking with the Lord, throw yourself, if you’re in the church, throw yourself into the spin cycle of success.

What’s the spin cycle of success? Change. Change. That’s what walking with the Lord is all about. If it ain’t broke, break it. Change. We’ve got to be changing, emerging, evolving, maturing, growing, developing as we walk with the Lord. Change.

And we’ve introduced change at Fellowship Church for two decades. As I was looking at my iPhone and checking out the calendar and thinking about 20 years ago, I’m like, “Lord, I cannot believe the changes that you have inspired and wired into my life, and the lives of Fellowship Church.” Change. Change. That’s what it means to walk with the Lord. Change.

Whenever you change, though, what happens? It’s part of the spin cycle of success. Change – you’ve got conflict. Ah, conflict. Conflict. Most of us resist change because of the resistance. We resist change in our marriage, we resist change in our finances. We resist change in our friendships. We resist change in our habits. We resist change because of the resistance. But I’m here to tell you, if you will allow the Lord to negotiate though the conflict, here’s what will happen.

You’ll emerge with amazing, gargantuan, crazy growth. Change, conflict, growth. “(Singing) Cha-cha-change, cha-cha-change…” Right? You’ve got conflict, and you’ve got growth. “Wow, whoa! Look at the growth!”

Here is how to never have conflict. If you want to live a conflict free life, don’t do jack. Just stand there; just exist.

But whenever you step up and step out, what’s going to happen? You’re going to have conflict. Conflict is good. Conflict is your friend. Conflict is your homie, conflict is your pal. Conflict is good. Chaos is good. Part of the Christian life is conflict and chaos. The tension. That’s part of it, it’s a good thing–it’s a God thing.

Conflict. Are you having it in your marriage? Should be. You should be. Yeah. You should have conflict in your marriage. If you handle conflict properly, the change properly, you’re going to have growth.

Are you having conflict at your job? On the team? In the classroom? You should be. If you handle it properly, what’s going to happen? You gonna grow. You’re gonna grow.

Well, to be totally candid with you, there’s been about half a dozen times that I’ve wanted to quit Fellowship Church. In fact, the last time I said I was going to quit Fellowship was probably, I don’t know, 3 or 4 months ago. “I’m out of here. I’m going to quit.” I’m serious.

Now, it’s fine to say that you want to quit, if you know you’re not going to quit. You see, I know I’m not going to quit. But that’s fine to say, “I’m going to quit.” That’s cool. “I’m going to quit. But I know I’m not going to quit.”

Most people quit right before the breakthrough. So many pastors quit right before the break through. Did you realize that something like 40 to 50 thousand pastors quit the ministry a year? Think about that. Men and women who are called of God quitting the ministry.

You know why they quit? I’ll talk about this in a little while. Congregational abuse. First thing. Conflict. Nay-sayers, mockers, scoffers. Number 2: they’re not paid enough. Compensation. That’s another thing. And number 3: stress, anxiety and depression.

Lisa and I have an opportunity to travel domestically and internationally. And I can’t believe we get this chance. It’s only by the blessings of God. We get to talk to thousands and thousands and thousands of believers. And those things I just told you are the things they’re dying to get help on. Dying. So make sure you pray for the pastors and leaders here, for the men and women here. Make sure you pray during this fast for pastors all over the place. Because it’s a high calling, but also it’s the lowest calling you can possibly imagine.

Conflict happens though. Whenever you step out, no matter who you are, if you do something in the business world, if you’re the good athlete, or, or if you win the beauty contest or make cheerleading, or if you can draw pretty good or take good photographs, or if you’re like, “Wow, you’re pretty good on the dance class,” whatever you do, work in the educational world, the medical world, whatever you do, when you step up and step out, when you begin to make a difference, what’s going to happen? You will have the mockers and scoffers. People love to drink that hater-aide. They really do, and that’s ok. That’s ok.

I love to fish as you know. One time I saw a tiger shark, about a 8-footer, literally beach itself chasing after a fish that big. I’m like, “What in the heck is that shark doing?” Big ol’ monster shark chasing a bait fish that big. And he barely wiggled his way back into the water.

Don’t chase down people who are drinking hater-aide in your life. You’re a tiger shark. Turn to your neighbor and go (growl), just do that, it’ll free you up. Everybody together, one-two-three, I’ll do it with you, “(growl) You’re a tiger shark.” You’re a big fish. What are you doing chasing bait fish around? What are you doing?

“Oh, I’m going to chase that rumor down.” “Well, somebody texted something about me.” “And did you see that blog?” “And they think…” “They might…” “They said…” “They feel…”

Got to pray, that’s why we’re fasting, and stay above the fray.

Think about Nehemiah whenever you jump down off the wall, which Nehemiah did not do. Whenever you jump into the fray and mud-sling with your haters–you become prey. You jump into the fray? You become fray.

Criticism happens. And here’s something I’ve discovered, too, about being in the ministry. You know what the ministry is? Every job has its unique stresses and strains. You have stresses that I don’t have, I have stresses that you don’t have, and this is not some martyr talk. “Oooh, it’s so hard…” It’s the greatest life in the world–you’ve got to be called to it.

But, in the ministry, conflict happens, change happens, growth happens, if you’re walking with God. But watch this, now. When people criticize you, you’re friends don’t need an explanation. Did you hear that? When people criticize you, and they will, because you’re doing something. I know, all of you are. You’re friends don’t need an explanation. Your enemies won’t believe one anyway.

Now, the Bible says in Proverbs 27:6, this is cool, and we’ll talk about accountability a little bit, “Wounds from a friend can be trusted.” You’re going to receive criticism. You gotta receive people that you have this affinity with, that you’re accountable to. But just for someone to take a pot-shot or have some kind of accountability assassin in your life or my life, are you kidding me? Most of the time when people walk up to you or me and go, “Who are you accountable to?” what are they saying? “I want you to be accountable to me.” That’s not biblical accountability. Accountability. Criticism.

The ministry is brutifal. There is a brutal side to it, and there is a beautiful side to it. I’m talking about the beautiful side. Wow, courtside seats to life-change! Courtside seats to seeing what God is going? Courtside seats to watching Fellowship Church over the last 20 years grow from 30 families to, I’m thinking about 20,000 today. We have about, what, 45,000 to 50,000 who come to Fellowship Church every 6 weeks. We’ve got 6 campuses. I can’t even believe it.

Right now as I’m talking, this is being seen all over. It’s being seen in Miami, it’s being seen in Plano, it’s being seen in Dallas, it’s being seen in Fort Worth, it’s being seen at Allaso Ranch–and you’re watching it. Most of you are watching it on the screens. What’s so funny is sometimes people will say, “Yeah, I like the satellite campuses, but I like it live.”

And I’m like, “You ought to watch our security cameras. The only people that watch me, like directly, are about from this row up. The rest, they’re looking at the screens. Explain that one. Well anyway.

There’s a beautiful side to ministry. It’s the highest calling in the world. And when I told my father, I said, “Dad, I feel called into the ministry.”

You know what he said? “Son, if you can do anything else and be happy, go do it. Don’t go into the ministry.” And again, my father pastors one of the most attended churches in America. He told me, “Don’t do it! Don’t!” he said, “unless you know that God is calling you into it.”

Well, I went back and began to pray about it, think about it, and I’m like, “I know I’m being called into it. Dad, I know I’m being called into it.” “Ok,” he said.

And I’ve been courtside to life change. The opportunities, the blessings, to walk on the edge and the ledge of what God is doing. I think about Fellowship Church. I hope you know this. If you study church history, you know that this has only happened 3 or 4 times in the history of the church over the last several hundred years, what you’re about right here. Did you know that? Study it. Study history. This is not normal what God’s doing. I’m just happy to be a part of it, aren’t you? I mean, wow, it’s only by God’s grace. Unbelievable stuff.

So the church is a beautiful thing. The calling of God is beautiful. Every time I see this stage, I kind of have a love / hate relationship with the stage. I really do. I just do. It’s kind of like the rage of the stage. Having to give a message every week before a bunch of people–it messes me up. I try to spend an hour of preparation for every minute I speak. So if I’m speaking 27 minutes, maybe, I don’t know, 25 hours. 20 minutes, 20 hours. I have to do that just to study.

And one of the weird pressures about pasturing is you can’t put it off. It’s not like, “Well, you know what? Lisa and I had a fight Friday, and I just don’t feel it. You know, I just don’t feel like preaching. And you know, man, the weather is amazing. Plus, we got tickets to the Cowboys game. I’m just not going to preach this weekend, you know. I just don’t really feel… I got a (cough) little cough. Just…”

No! It’s like a tsunami every week. Think about it. It starts to form, to swell, like on Wednesday. “Whoa – do I have something? Have I heard from God?” It better be biblical. It better be engaging, better be funny, better be relevant.

We’ve got seminary professors who attend Fellowship Church who know the Hebrew and the Greek, and in the Latin. Oh, we also have people who’ve never seen a Bible. We have strippers that come to Fellowship Church, and we have professional athletes, and we have Real Estate tycoons, and we have people who are dirt poor. We have people who are in work, people who aren’t work. We have people who work for the government, people who don’t really even like the government. And we have black, white, green, orange, polk-a-dot, white collar, pink collar… “Wow, whoa! How can I give a word to all those people, this kaleidoscopic range of people at Fellowship Church? Wow, I’m stressed out! Oh, I got anxiety.”

And believe me, I’ve dealt with this, even medically. I’m telling you, man, this is the real deal. I get nervous every time I walk on stage. How do I do it? I don’t. I mean, I do the best I can, but God does it. I never feel totally prepared here. Never, ever, ever, ever. And the day I feel prepared, the day I feel like, “Oh, I’ve got it now, man. I can do it. Oh yeah, yeah.” I will quit. I will quit then. But I get freaked out every time I walk on stage.

So, it’s a beautiful thing to be lifted up. But I was thinking the other day, all of us live on stage. If you’re a parent, you’re on stage, man. You’re a student? You might not think it – you’re on stage. Someone’s watching you. You’re an athlete? Someone’s watching you. You’re a pastor? Someone’s watching you. They’re watching you and me. And in my life, again, it’s like life in an aquarium.

One time I was talking to a counselor about the stress and anxiety of preaching. I was going through some tough times. And there’s this counselor who is not even a believer, was looking at me and she was like, “Ok, let me get this right, Ed. You’re telling me, you and your wife can’t even go to a movie or a restaurant in Dallas / Fort Worth without someone looking at you or coming up to you?”

I said, “Correct.”

She goes, “I’d quit.” This is a psychologist!

I go, “Well, no, I’m not going to quit, I’m called to do it. But it is weird. It’s a weird thing. But it’s a good thing. It’s beautiful. But there’s a brutal side to it. That’s the side off the stage that no one sees and no one really thinks about.

Sometimes people ask me, “What do you do during the week?”

“Well, I already know what I’ll do for at least 20 hours next week.” So, Fellowship Church, man, unbelievable, what God’s doing.

Something else we’re doing right now that I want to share with you, and this is another ministry that I’m involved in, because when you say, “Ed Young, Pastor.” Don’t put a period, put a comma. I’m not just a pastor. Now, you understand that, don’t you? Hopefully by your name, it’s not like, Melissa – period. Pace – period. Tom – period. Shauna – period. It should be a comma. I do other things than pastor. If I’d a put a period after my name in Houston, it’d a just been “Ed Young, Associate Pastor, period.” I would have missed this! But now I’m Senior Pastor at Fellowship Church, have been a part of Fellowship for two decades, I’m not going to quit. I’ll say I’ll quit, but I’m not going to quit. I know I’m not going to quit. I’m not going to quit. Too Legit to Quit. I’m not going to quit.

We have this situation, this alliance we’re putting together right now, that I’m very excited about, it’s another ministry called C3 Global. We have a board of 8 pastors from around the country. I sort of head this organization up. And it’s a network of Pastors all over the world. And one of the things we’re doing, and we’re launching this officially in about 6 weeks. So you guys are the first to hear about it. We’re doing a huge humanitarian effort with this, we’re joining with other churches and ministries, and at this time we’re helping this horrific situation in Haiti and doing some really cool stuff. So we’re doing that. Also, we are consulting and coaching and we do white-board sessions all over the place to help in this realm. Also we plant churches around the world. Isn’t that awesome?

We do leadership conferences. I don’t know if you know this or not, but we have a conference called the creative church conference. We have thousands and thousands of people that converge on Fellowship Church from around the globe. This conference always takes place in February. It’s going to be in a couple of weeks. And it’s become so popular, we’re now going to San Diego to do one, and then we’re going to go to the East Cost in the fall.

And if you want to talk about diversity, people talking about diversity all the time, look at our schedule of speakers. It is so diverse. And isn’t it cool that Fellowship Church is so diverse. I mean, look around! It’s ok to clap. Up in the balcony, what’s up, man, you guys clap! That’s awesome. It’s diverse in the balcony. That’s really diverse man, I can tell. It’s diverse.

We all come from different walks of life, different backgrounds. And the Creative Church Conference, we got diversity, as far as those of us who will be speaking. We got people like Bishop TD Jakes. We got people like Sergio De La Mora. We got people like Miles McPherson. You’ve got people like Brian Houston, you’ve got people like Jentezen Franklin. These are all different types of people, different races, different types of churches. Some are rural, some are in large cities, some are monstrously big, some are small. So this thing is a movement we’re seeing that’s happening here, and it’s also going around the world.

And one of the things that I did not do personally, for the first 15 years of Fellowship Church, is the fact that I did not travel. I just didn’t travel. Had the opportunity, but I didn’t. I would go maybe once a year and speak somewhere, the first 15 years. And that was due to a number of things. Due to where we were at Fellowship Church, due to the age of our kids.

But now, again, by the blessings of God, I have an opportunity, and Lisa has an opportunity, to travel domestically and internationally, all over the place. Every time I travel and talk to leaders and speak at conferences, I take you with me. Lisa takes you with her. And I want to thank you for your boldness and your vision. Because of what God is doing, we simply are telling the story of Fellowship Church. So what’s happening right here is impacting people all over the world.

Just over the next couple of months, let’s see, I’m going to, just internationally, let me think, London, Ecuador, South Africa, back to London and Singapore. Isn’t that heavy? I mean, I can’t believe it. It’s just like, “Whoa, ok.” I feel like I’m just riding on the coattails of this deal, man. It’s unbelievable.

So, we’re doing Fellowship Church. We have C3 Global that you’ll be hearing more and more about–this network of pastors. Also, personally, I’m a partner in a publishing company that I’m really excited about. We resource leaders and pastors, again, all over the place. And one of the great things about being hooked in to this publishing company is the fact that all the people in this company give back in a huge way to this house right here. So that’s something that I’m really, really thrilled about.

On a personal note, I cannot stand here, I cannot lead this church, I cannot walk in a manner worthy of the gospel unless I’m, hopefully before God, walking in a manner worthy of the gospel. Man, as you know, I’m not perfect. My marriage isn’t perfect. Our kids aren’t perfect. But by God’s grace, Lisa and I have a wonderful marriage. We have a great family.

But what’s so funny is, you know, here we’re talking about respect. Next week I’m talking about respect in the family. Lisa was speaking this Friday night at a church on the East Coast, and right before I went to bed, man, all our 4 kids were arguing and fighting and I said, “Kids! Knock it off! Here I’m talking about respect and look at you guys disrespecting one another.” That’s just the real world. I’ll talk about respect next time.

But, here’s something that God has shown me as pastor. The more you give up, the more you go up. The more you go up, the more he gives. So, as I lead, I can’t take you, church, where I’m not going or where I’ve not been. Does that make sense? For example. I can’t say, “Oh yeah, ok, bring the tithe. Get involved in bone chilling giving.” I can’t say that unless I’m involved in it. And part of living is giving.

For 20 years, Lisa and I have been bringing the tithe. Everything we have is Gods. When we made $35,000 a year, we brought the tithe. Now we make a lot more than that, and we bring the tithe. In fact, we bring more than 10%. God, again, has poured out his unmerited favor upon our lives. We have an amazing house on about 6 acres. It’s unbelievable. I owe a lot of money on it, but it’s an incredible house. I’ve got some retirement. I’ve got a couple of other investments. But to be just absolutely vulnerable and candid, this is our number one investment right here. I’m talking financially, right here. The church. Number one. Number one. Number one.

So, we have given our lives to what Christ has given his life for. How can I talk about stewardship if I’m not living it, man? The blessings of God are amazing. I’m talking about a comma after pastor, I have an opportunity to write books with some national publishers. Several of the book deals I’ve received have been in the 6 figures. To me, that’s a lot of money, I don’t know about you, but to me it is. And on several of those books, God has just told me, not in an audible voice, but God’s told me, “Ed, give that to Fellowship Church. All of it.” And it’s enough to make my accountant have palpitations. But that’s ok. Again, in God’s economy, things just don’t always add up in a humanistic perspective. But again, how can I, how can I talk about the stuff unless I’m doing it? So, my deal is not to say, “Oh, wow, I want to one day give our kids, you know, a bunch of money when Lisa and I pass on.” I mean, if we can give them something, awesome. But you know what my main thing is? I want to give my kids the currency of courtesy, honor and respect before God and respect to this house. That’s what we want to do. So the greatest, the greatest message I’ll ever preach is not on this stage, it’s not. It’s with my marriage. And my marriage is simply a reflection of my relationship with Jesus. Marriage is not the easiest thing. It’s not.

I know we watch the romantic comedies and read the books and all that, and you have those feelings, and those things are real. However, marriage and life is living on those rugged plains of reality that are always described. And if you’re willing to work, if you’re willing to say, “You know what, I’m not going to quit. Yeah, I’ll think about quitting, but I’m not going to quit.” You pour your life and you pour into your mate the currency of courtesy and honor and respect that comes from God, the blessings that you will receive will be mind-blowing, earth-shattering, they’re going to be crazy great! And I’m a living, walking, talking testimony of that fact.

The ministry is brutifal. There’s a brutal side to it. I have a love / hate relationship with this stage. I mean, I can’t get away from it. I mean, I know next weekend, I’ve got to come up with something about the family. Respect. Ok. I got to write a term paper about respect, that not only do I have to write it, I’ve got to memorize it, and I’ve got to present it in a way that’s biblical and engaging and funny and deep and life-changing. Whoa! Makes me kind of freaky! It’s brutal. Brutal.

Then I’ve got the beautiful side of it. Well, I can see life-change and see how this marriage, man, they were about to call it quits, and now they’re together and they’re walking together in concert. And I see this kid, this kid was on drugs. This kid was messing around with this and that, and now, they’re a leader in our youth ministry. This person was addicted to porn and now they’re free, they’ve gone through one of our 12-step programs. And this person was addicted to alcohol or drugs and whoa!

But then the brutal side is, you pour your life into people, you trust people, and they turn you and burn you and stab you in the back. I’m just being real, man.

You want to talk about betrayal, you talk to a pastor. The level of betrayal and the hurt that pastors carry is like nothing I’ve ever seen. And I have the opportunity to talk to so many of them, and hug so many of them, and help so many of them, and encourage so many of them.

Vulnerability, it’s part of the details of my life. Responsibility, it’s part of the details of my life. Accountability, it’s part of the details of my life. I’m accountable. Someone said the other day that works with a lot of churches, they were like, “Man, I think Fellowship Church has as much accountability built in as anywhere.”

I go, “Well, man, thanks.”

I was just thinking about accountability, because we talk a lot about accountability these days. Accountability emerges from affinity, as I said earlier. I’m accountable to God. In other words, I’m the only one that God will hold accountable, as far as the spiritual maturity of this church. I’m it. He’s not going to hold you accountable, or you, or another staff member, it’s going to be me. So, I’m accountable to God. Number 2, I’m accountable to Lisa, whoa. I’m also accountable to our four kids. I’m accountable to our board at Fellowship Church and I’m accountable to an audit that we do once a year. I’m accountable to an independent compensation survey that they do for me every year. Whoa. So that’s a lot of accountability.

So, accountability is a good thing! Do you have that in your life? Is it flowing in your life? Because it’ll take you to a whole nutha level.

And you need to be accountable to people who challenge you, who love you, who will speak the truth in love. Like last night, some of them told me, “Well, Ed, man, your message was just too long. You rambled a little bit.” I have people that critiqued the messages. And I said, “Yeah, you’re right.”

I mean, this one has been a long one too. 46 minutes. I can tell Lisa wants me to end it because she’s closed her Bible. Whenever Lisa closes her Bible, I haven’t even looked at her. I know it’s time to end. I do. I hadn’t even looked at her. Over the last 15 minutes, I just like been like this. But when she closes that Bible, and I’ve seen her do it all over the world now as we’ve traveled, oh – shut it down, shut ‘er down.

One more thing, and I can’t, you know, look at Lisa, but, if you don’t, I’ve learned this, and this is from Jesus of course, and apply this to where you are, if you don’t draw away, you will be drawn away. “(singing) Everybody needs a little time away…” who sings that? Who? Chicago! Not Barry Manilow. Someone said, “Barry Manilow?” No. That’s a good song, man. Old school. I’ve been going old school lately – Barry Manilow and just a few of his songs I like. I’m not like this, don’t be saying I like Barry. I mean there’s a couple of songs, that’s it, ok. Trying to get in touch with my feminine side. But… I like Chicago, man, they’re good. But a lot of women love Barry Manilow, don’t they? I don’t know why. You know, or Celine. Oh, Celine. I like Celine. Some of her songs, a few of them. I’ve seen her perform in Las Vegas. She’s great. I mean, Celine Dion. I like her. I like the Eagles. Old school. I do. Chicago. I mean, again, I’m just talking about a few of the songs. Anyway, let me stop.

I was saying that we need to draw away. Are you drawing away? Look at Jesus. Whenever Jesus would do an IMA, an Intensive Ministry Activity, read them in the gospels, you know what he would do? He would disengage. He would draw away. He would take a walk. He would go fishing. He would prepare breakfast. He would just go away and pray.

He didn’t chase down the mockers and scoffers. He didn’t chase down and try to change thoughts of every religious leader. He would just, he would just, he would just draw away. That’s why God’s rhythm is for us to work and have that day off. Are you drawing away? Because if I don’t draw away, I’ll be drawn away. And I’m here for the long haul. I’m not going to quit. There’s so many pastors that end up sleeping in the wrong bed. So many pastors end up in this or that and you’re like, “What happened? How can that man or woman have done such a thing?” Well, I’ll tell you why – emotionally, they were drained. Spiritually they were doing fine, physically they were doing fine. Emotionally, they were drained.

I mean, I feel like I go through a mini-depression every weekend after I do all of these services. I mean, I don’t mean I’m like in a fetal position saying, “Mommy, mommy.” I’m just saying I feel totally drained and emotionally wasted. And the cumulative effect of that, if you’re not careful, whatever you do for a living, if you’re a homemaker, a CEO, a pastor, a teacher, whatever it is, if you’re not careful, you’ll be drawn away into things that can forfeit the faith journey and the type of faith journey that God has in your life. So that’s why I try to draw away regularly. And, one of the greatest things about Fellowship Church, let me tell you this, this is not a one-man show, I hope you know that. Our staff is absolutely unbelievable. I have never seen a staff like we have any place I’ve ever traveled. Our staff will do anything, everything, or nothing. But think about the speakers. I mean, just the speakers. When I’m not here, you’ve got Pace, phenomenal speaker. Tianne Moon Melton, I called her by the wrong name. Did I get it backwards? I did. It’s part of my A.D.D. Tianne Melton Moon. I do, I have, I’m going to do a series on A.D.D. I really am, what the Bible says about A.D.D. There’s a lot of A.D.D. people in the Bible. Anybody here is A.D.D? Am I the only one? Thank you, God bless you. Hands are going up everywhere. In the balcony, yes.

Look at people like Chris King and Preston Mitchell. We have a phenomenal stable of speakers. And the greatest compliment is when I’m out of town or I’m not speaking, people go, “Man, that was like unbelievable. Man. We had this and that happen.” That’s some of the greatest compliments you can give Fellowship Church. I mean, it’s a team approach here. And the people on stage who lead worship, I mean, every week I’m like, “What?” So I try to draw away regularly just to recalibrate and become a normal person when I’m not always, you know, up here. But I do preach about, at least 40, 40 weekends a year.

So anyway, I could go on and on, good night, I could tell you so many stories. And one day, you know, maybe I’ll do a whole series on the different stories, some of the crazy stories, the great stories, that I’ve, experienced in this brutifal life. But it is brutifal.

But we need to ask ourselves, once again, are we living the Philippians 1:27 life? How are we conducting ourselves? Take stock, take inventory. Are we conducting ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus? Are you? Are you living that way? Because we either deflect, or reflect the character of God in everything we do. How about you?

It’s a great thing to think about and pray about over the next several weeks. Let’s bow together.

[Ed ends in closing prayer.]

COOL-AID

Truth and Love

June 3, 2012

Ed Young

Gay marriage is one of the most hotly discussed topics in the world today. We’ve heard everyone share their opinion on it, from Hollywood to Washington.

In this message, Ed Young opens up the pages of Scripture and points to something much more powerful and concrete than opinion – God’s truth. God is the one who sets the standard for our world. And when we understand His standard, we understand how to approach every topic in life with truth and love.

Transcript

I would like to welcome everyone to all of our services.  We have, right now, by the miracle of technology, we’re seen as I look into this camera in a lot of different places.  How are you guys doing?  Have a wonderful weekend this weekend.

Today I’m kicking off a very, very controversial series, a series that I’m very, very excited about.  At Fellowship Church we’re not shy to talk about these things and these issues that everyone deals with, and the Scriptures definitely, definitely address these issues.  I’m calling this series “Cool-Aid.”  That’s right, Cool-Aid.  How many of you like Kool-Aid?  You remember drinking Kool-Aid back in the day.  Or maybe you still like Kool-Aid, the more sugar, the better, right?  Yes!  Everybody likes Kool-Aid.  Kool-Aid is a universal drink.  Kool-Aid became famous back in the day, but the phrase “Drink the Kool-Aid” gained popularity due to cult leader Jim Jones.  This wild man had his followers drink Kool-Aid that was laced with poison. The result was that many people were devastated.  Many people lost their lives.

Isn’t it true that our culture is giving us some Cool-Aid?  Isn’t it true that many of us are drinking the Cool-Aid laced with poison?  We’re just drinking it, not thinking about it.  As we look at the horizon of our land, as we look at where we’re going, we see destruction and devastation.  That’s why we’re talking about the institution of marriage today.  We’re talking about gay marriage, a very, very controversial subject.  If you just bring up homosexuality or the gay lifestyle at a party or in a conversation at work, people get nervous.  People sort of do the push-back.  It’s not something that a lot of people want to talk about.

I think in a crowd this size, in this venue and our many other venues, whether you be online, in Miami, Fort Worth, Dallas, Plano, or right here in gorgeous Grapevine, I think a lot of us are in different groups and we have different mindsets when it comes to this particular subject.  I believe a lot of us here are sort of ambivalent.  We’re like, “You know, it is what it is.  What people want to do, that’s cool.  In the privacy of their home they’re not affecting me, they’re not hurting me, so I think just let people do what they want to do.”  A lot of people I talk with are ambivalent.

Others of you here are silent.  What I mean by that is there’s a silent struggle going on.  You feel an attraction, a leaning toward the same sex.  You don’t really know what to do about it.  Maybe you haven’t acted on it, maybe you have acted on it.  It’s your secret.  I want to tell you something.  It took a lot of guts to come this weekend.  It took a lot of guts to show up to Fellowship Church because you knew what was gonna be on the plate.  And we welcome EVERYBODY at Fellowship Church.  No matter where you are, no matter what you look like, no matter who you are.  A lot of people deal with different behaviors in a silent way.  And I understand that with this topic, especially, a lot of men and women, a lot of young people deal with it.

Others here are defiant, though.  Let me talk to those who are defiant.  We have some who are just poised to pounce on any word I say, to take out of context, maybe an illustration I use or some statistical data.  I understand that and there is some pain in a lot of people’s lives.  And some people will leave this place and with social media they’ll do blogs and they’ll Tweet this or text that, totally out of context, totally out of the vibe of what I’m getting at and what God is getting at.  So what I would tell you is just relax.  Listen to this message.  Let’s all see what God says about it.

You’ve gotta understand.  All of us are irrationally loved by the God of the Universe.  Every single person.  We’re loved by God.  Jesus told the truth.  The truth, though, he spoke in love.  That’s why the Scriptures say to speak the truth, communicate the truth, in love.  We love people because God loves people, and we love people enough to tell the truth about them to others.  Just like God loves me, God loves you enough to tell the truth about us in love.  So we’re gonna talk about truth, but also we’re gonna talk about love.  We’re gonna talk about love and we’re also gonna talk about truth.

Love has to have a truth source.  Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Right?  So there’s truth and we take truth and communicate it in, I believe love, supernatural love, grace-filled love.  Because all of us here are sinners, all of us here have committed moral treason, all of us here are people who need a Savior.  Many of us have stepped over the line, some of us have not.  But I understand that some here are gonna be defiant.  There’s gonna be some anger.  That’s cool.

Others here in this group would be reliant.  You’re like, “Ed, you know, I rely on what God says about it.”  Maybe you’ve not studied it very much, maybe you’ve not examined it very much, but you’re saying, “I just rely on it.  The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it.”  Well, that’s good to say that.  However, we’ve got to think.  Jesus did not want us to check our intellect or our brains at the door.  We’ve got to think and know why we believe certain things about life.  Not only this particular topic, but a myriad of other issues and topics out there.  We cannot have our heads buried in the sands of denial.  We have to understand what’s going on.  We’ve got to use our brains and think.  But the huge thing is speaking the truth in love.

Now at Fellowship Church we base everything we do on two things.  I want to say this right up front in my preliminary comments.  Number 1, we believe, the leaders here believe, everything is under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  Jesus is Lord.  Now, having said that we don’t always understand everything that goes on in life.  There’s trust involved.  There’s trust even if you don’t live for Christ.  We, however, believe that Jesus is Lord.

Also, we believe, and this has been in effect for the 21-year history of Fellowship Church, we believe the Bible is our authority.  The Bible is our standard.  The Bible is our true north.  So when we have a question we don’t say, “Hey, what does that say?  Or what does this group of people say?”  No, no.  We say, “What does the Scripture say?”  So, having said that we understand the Lordship of Christ.  We understand that the Bible is our authority.  So we are under the authority of God’s word.  No one here is under it perfectly.  I’m sure not, nor are you.  But that is how we base our church.

Jesus said, in Matthew 19:4-5, these words about marriage.  Check it out.  “Haven’t you read that at the beginning the Creator made them, male and female.”  Uniquely male, uniquely female.  “And said, ‘For this reason, this cause, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.’”  I have talked about this Scripture a lot here at Fellowship Church.  Lisa and I have written a book called “The Sexperiment” about this particular text.  Many of you have heard it and you’re like, yeah.  OK.  I’ve heard that.  Think about it.  God made us uniquely male and uniquely female.  In other words there is a male quality and aspects of God.  There are also feminine qualities and aspects of God.  When two become one, the math of marriage, you have something beautiful taking place. You have a picture of God’s relationship with his people. So you’ve got the masculine joining together with the feminine.  That’s a picture of God’s connectivity with his people.  Jesus is called the bridegroom.  The church is called the bride.  It pictures God’s relationship, God’s activity with his people.  It’s the only relationship on planet earth that mirrors the majesty of God’s relationship with human beings.  Marriage.  One man, one woman, in marriage.  Jesus said it.  It’s talked about page after page, time after time, in Scripture.

Notice also the power of marriage.  The power of it.  God gave us, for example, sex primarily for pleasure.  Secondarily for procreation.  Man and woman, the Bible says, were naked and they were not ashamed.  It’s like when we were explaining the birds and the bees to one of our daughters.  I will not mention which particular daughter.  But after a while we talked to her about the birds and the bees and explained how men and women are made and marriage and everything.  And then she went away and came back and she asked Lisa this question.  She goes,

“How about people who are gay?”  This is a young girl when she asked this question.  And then she said (not Lisa, one or our little daughters), “Mommy, the parts don’t fit!”  And I didn’t say that to make you laugh but that’s so true.  The parts don’t fit.  The parts fit in marriage.  So marriage is a picture.  There’s power in it.

Also, there’s a purpose behind marriage.  Marriage is the foundation of our culture.  It’s the building block of who we are.  Obviously children need masculine influence and feminine influence.  A child needs both. So when we have marriage we have the building block, the family, the power that God has granted us.  And it’s something that we should use to launch our kids out of the family with great trajectory as they understand what it means to be a male, what it means to be a female, as they understand the beauty of marriage, that the parts fit.  That God ordained it.

Seven times in Scripture, four times in the Old Testament, three times in the New Testament, the Bible says to flee, turn from, homosexuality.   Every time it’s mentioned it says we’re not to do it.

Now, I like to fish, as you know.  Back in school, back at Florida State, Lisa and I would sometimes drive from Tallahassee, Florida to see her family in Columbia, South Carolina.  It was about a 400- to 500-mile drive. I always carry a couple of rod and reels with me when I’m driving.  And many times I would just stop the car and fish in these random ponds throughout the dirty south.  Now sometimes, I hate to admit this, I would scale fences, multiple fences, to fish in a lake that I thought had a lot of big, old, dumb bass in it.  But here’s the deal.  When you see a fence, what do you say?  What’s the fence for?  I mean, why is there a fence?  I mean obviously there’s a fence for a reason.  I heard someone say a long time ago, this old man said,

“When God puts a fence somewhere we’ve got to ask ourselves why.”  Why the fence?  I will tell you why.  God knows what’s best for us.   We’ve got to understand it.  God knows what’s best for us. Emotionally, physically, psychologically, even sexually.  God knows it, and it’s a trust issue.   Either God is God or we’re God.  That’s the issue we’re dealing with.

Some people choose, as we know, the gay lifestyle.  Some people feel those leanings, this proclivity toward the gay lifestyle.  Like any other behavior, like any other choice, like any other situation, we either align with God’s word or we malign God’s word.  The Bible is a book of the alignment.  But I’ve gotta address some issues.  Why, why?  What are people saying?  Why are some people gay?  Why are some people homosexual?  Why do some people find themselves attracted to members of the same sex?  Well, as I’ve done research for years on this topic, because I’ve spoken extensively about it, about sexuality, about marriage, and even about gay marriage and the homosexual lifestyle, many gay men and women point to an environmental influence.  They say it’s the environment.  Interview them, talk to them, read the data.

“Back in my family my father was this,” or “My mother was that.  My mother was absent,” or “My father was absent.” Or whatever.  Many times people emerge from families like this and they have heterosexual desires.  Other times they emerge from families like this and they say, “You know, I have this strange attraction to the same sex.”  Others, as you do research, would point to an experiential situation.  They would point to an older friend, a trusted relative, who stepped in and had a sexual encounter, a same-sex encounter with them at a very impressionable age.  Again, some people can absorb this and move right along and have heterosexual desires, others that I’ve talked to, that I’ve read about, would say, “You know, that was the thing, this experiential influencer, that led me into the gay lifestyle.”  Still others would say, “Oh, it’s chemical.  I have this proclivity.”  And a lot of people several years ago began to say there was a gay gene.  “There is a gay gene, I’m telling you, there’s a gay gene.”  A gay gene has never been found.  But let’s say there is gonna be a gay gene.  Let’s say there was one discovered five years from now.  Oh, that’s the gay gene.  It still doesn’t take away choice.

Dr. Jeffrey Satinover of MIT in Harvard says this.

“What the majority of respected scientists now believe is that homosexuality is attributable to a combination of psychological, social, and biological factors.”  Basically what he’s saying is what the scriptures have been saying for thousands of years.  We have this bent toward badness, this sin nature.  No one taught me how to say, “Mine.”  No one taught me how to take things that were not mine.  No one taught me how to think impure thoughts, I just know how to do it.  And the Bible says this behavior called sin disqualifies me from a relationship with Christ.   We will talk about that more in a second.

Satinover also uses the illustration of a basketball gene.  I thought this was sort of interesting.  He said, “What if there was a basketball gene?  You had height, you had a good vertical jump, you had quickness, and you couldn’t help yourself.  You just played basketball.  I mean, there was no real choice in the matter.  You just played the game.  And now you’re in the NBA going coast to coast. There is no basketball gene just like there’s no gay gene.”  I definitely believe, though, that we have tendencies and a proclivity to certain things from our parents and from our family of origin.  Nod you’re head.  We’re like yeah!  We all do!

You ever find yourself, “Man, my father does the same thing!”

“Ah!  I’m just like my mother!  I said I wouldn’t be but I’m just like her!”   We have a choice, though.

What if I said, “Dad is just unforgiving.  He’s just an unforgiving guy. I grew up in that, I have this proclivity toward unforgiveness.  You know a high school basketball coach back in high school really messed me around my senior year.  I tried to forgive him but it didn’t work.  I took the forgiveness back and now I just can’t help myself.  I’m just an unforgiving person.”  It doesn’t make sense.  And what do we hear people say about this issue?

“I am what I am so I gotta do what I do.  I am what I am.  I’m gay, I can’t help it.  So I gotta do what I do.”  Well, psychologically it doesn’t make sense.  We’re a combination of nature and nurture with the freedom of choice.  Philosophically it doesn’t make sense.  OK, desire.  Desire is king.  Desire is the deal.  Well, what if I have the desire to hijack 777’s and fly them into skyscrapers into New York City?  “Oh no, no.  Don’t hate on me.  That’s just who I am. I can’t help myself.  It’s just the desire!”  So we’re putting desire so often in all of our lives over and above what God says.

“Well, I feel a certain way.  I’m wired a certain way. I’m attracted a certain way.”  OK, we’re all sinners.  We’re all attracted.  We have a leaning or proclivity toward maybe greed, maybe lust, maybe anger, maybe slothfulness.  I don’t know.  Just pick a sin.  We’re all sinners.  We all have this proclivity.  But to say, “Hey, I don’t have a choice in the matter.  I’ve gotta do what I’ve gotta do.”  I’m maligning, if I believe the Lordship of Christ, if I believe the Bible is the authority, if I believe God has my best in mind, I’m abusing God’s directive.  I’m tearing down God’s fence.  I’ve got a Cool-Aid moustache.

“Well, it’s just from within.”  I’ve heard this before.  “It’s just from within.  I can’t help myself.  I’ve got to do it!  It’s just from within!”  That’s right.

Mark 7:21-23, “For from within (I’m just reading the Bible) out of men’s hearts come evil thoughts, sexual immorality (we get the word pornea from that, that’s any sex outside the marriage bed, homosexuality, adultery, premarital sex, so forth and so on), theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, ludeness (what a laundry list), envy, slander, arrogance, and folly.  All these things come from inside and make a man unclean.”

I’ll admit it right here.  I have the potential of all of these sins in my heart for them to run rampant.  I do.  Name the sin.  So do you… so do you.  It’s a choice that we make.  We either trust God with the totality of who we are, or not.  God is God.  I’m not God.

“God I trust you.  God, I see that I’ve fallen short.  I see, God, that I’m doing life my way instead of your way.  Even though I’ve got to sacrifice emotions and feelings and what the culture is telling me.  Even what our president is telling us.”

The gay community is a powerful, powerful community.  Lisa and I have many friends who are involved in the gay lifestyle.  They know where we stand and our theology is simply this.  We want to build bridges and draw lines in the sand.  And they know that.  I know at Fellowship Church we have numbers of people who are involved in the gay community who attend each and every week.  We, listen to me very, very carefully, we accept everybody. I’ll say it again.  We accept everybody.  We accept everybody.  We’re all sinners.  We accept people who have evil thoughts, those who are sexually immoral, those who steal, who lie, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, ludeness, so forth and so on.  We accept everybody. We don’t, however, approve of their behavior.  But, the culture, who is slurping Cool-Aid tells me, “Oh, acceptance means approval.”  No.  No, no, no, no, no.  No.  No.  What are you drinking?  No!  Acceptance.  We, however, love you enough to speak the truth and we love you enough to tell you in love the best for your life, the best way to live life.  Whether it me in marriage, whether it be in dating, whether it be in handling your finances, whether it be a temptation at work, or whatever.  That is who we are because that, quite frankly, is who Jesus is.  Acceptance and approval.  We accept people but we don’t applaud our sinful behavior.

For example, we hate homosexuality.  We love homosexuals.  We hate adultery.  We love adulterers.  We hate lying.  But we love some liars.  What would happen if we began to live this out?

How would you respond, let me ask you just a quick question, if some neighbors moved in who were gay?  Next to you in your apartment complex, next to you in your neighborhood.  Would you invite them over for coffee?  I hope so.  Would you invite them to Fellowship Church?  I hope so.  Would you build bridges and draw lines?  That’s what we’re called to do.

So again, we’re talking about the Lordship of Christ.  We are talking about the authority of Scripture.  We do, however, have to mention the gay agenda, because it’s real.  The gay agenda says that marriage and the gay lifestyle, for example, is conventional and normal.  The gay agenda says that what they do is similar and conventional.

Well, a recent Bell and Weinberg study reports that 43% of gay men have had 500 or more sexual partners.  In the same study 75% of gay men have had over 100 or more partners, and 28% have had over 1,000 or more partners.  I’ve done some research and some study, talked to physicians and read the reports.  What the gay community practices is not similar and conventional to what heterosexuals practice in the bonds of marriage.  Also, the gay agenda says, “We really desire to marry and raise families.”  As I said earlier, a child needs a male and a female in the home. It’s the genius of God.  You’ve got the male qualities and the feminine qualities of God being joined together.  And there are so, so few children who even live in gay marriage homes or homes where you have same-sex people involved, that it’s not even hardly worth mentioning.

Also, too, the gay community wants a full minority status.   A full minority status.  I don’t want to deny anybody, nor do we at Fellowship Church, anyone’s rights, but how can you use sexual behavior and use that as a marker for minority status?  Why don’t you have minority status for adulterers?  Why don’t you have minority status for child molesters?  Where does the argument stop?  Where does it stop?

Gallup asked Americans, “How many of you believe, how many people, do you believe are gay in our country?”  Gallup reported that people responded by saying 25-26% of people in America are gay.  But the most recent data that I can find from the gay and lesbian community reports that only 3.8% of the population is gay.  Isn’t that interesting that we think so many more are gay than actually are?  I can tell you why.  We’re talking about the gay agenda here.

Only 1% of U.S. households in our country are same-sex unions.  Only 1%.  And only 8% of those have kids in them.  So again, we need to understand these things, process these things, and we need to speak the truth in love.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11, “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God?”  This is another tough laundry list of some sins here.  “Do not be deceived.  Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexual offenders, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.  And that is what some of you were.”  Is that awesome?  The apostle Paul is talking to some of some Corinthian Christians and they were all these things!  They were slanderers.  They were swindlers. They were homosexuals.  They were!  Isn’t that great?  Were.  I mean, I love that word.  Were!  I’m a were! How about you?  Are you a were?  Isn’t that great?  Isn’t that awesome?  Were.  Were.

“But, you were washed (yeah, we reject the Cool-Aid and drink the living water, right?), you were sanctified by the blood of Jesus, being washed by the water of the word.  You were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God.”  Justified, just like I ain’t ever sinned.  Jesus is righteous.  He is holy.  And because I have received that, when God sees me, he sees the righteousness of Christ.  It doesn’t matter what your ‘were’ was.  Man, that’s awesome!

I remember a friend that I knew several years ago. His name was Victor.  Very, very active in the gay community.  Wealthy, young, handsome, articulate.  One day he came to church and he got ambushed, power-washed by the grace of God.  People couldn’t believe it!  I mean, this guy, we’re talking, led out in the homosexual community.  A champion of these things I just talked about.  As I watched him grow in his relationship with Christ, and he would be the first one to tell you,

“Ed, yeah, I still felt those leanings.  I still felt the attraction.”  But attraction is different from action. He turned from that.  I watched him. He turned to the Lord, God power-washed his soul.  I watched him get involved in church and then, over a period of time, I watched him reach out and bring dozens of his friends from the gay community.  And I watched them bow the knee to Christ.  It was absolutely awesome!

One day, though, I was standing in this area of this particular church and Victor walked up to me.  He said,

“Ed, I want to tell you something.  I just found out that I have AIDS and I’m dying.”  And many of us watched Victor suffer and die and move from this life to eternity.  See, we have a choice.  Victor, if he could stand right here on this stage would say, “We have a choice.  We all have a proclivity.  We all have a leaning.  It’s a choice that we make.”

And what’s so sickening and what’s so sad is to hear our Commander in Chief, Barack Obama, who has a ginormous Cool-Aid moustache, who is not involved in leadership but leaderslip, floating on the seas of relativism.  Making a statement like this.  When we think about our faith, the thing at root that we think about is not only Christ sacrificing himself on our behalf, but it’s also the Golden Rule.  Treat others the way you want to be treated.  How whack is that?  Here’s an educated man, strongest leader as far as position, in the free world.  Golden Rule?  The sacrifice of Christ?

President Obama, no disrespect, but Jesus sacrificed his life for your sins and mine.  He sacrificed his life for (let’s go back here) evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, homosexuality, malice, slander, arrogance…”  What?  We’re to treat others like we want to be treated?

Well, if I’m dying (and I’m dying because I have a disease called sin), if I’m dying I’m gonna say,

“Hey, tell me!  Show me that I’m dying.  I want to go a doctor and get some medicine!”  Well, we have people who are dying without Christ, dying in sin.  Christ sacrificed himself for our sin and rose again.  And God loves us enough to speak the truth to us in love.  So I want to speak the truth to everyone in love.  That’s the way I want to be treated.  I know you want to be treated that way.  Speak the truth in love!

I’m telling you, there’s another scripture that our president should read.  Isaiah 5:20, “Woe to those who call evil good and good, evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”  It’s time that we stand up, church.  It’s time that we talk openly, firmly, and lovely about our culture.  It’s time that we build bridges and draw lines of love and authority in the sand, and say, “This is what God says.”  This is what he says!

So just to close it down, I could easily diesel on and talk more and more about this subject.  But next week we’re talking about vulgarity, another light subject.  Vulgarity, no big deal.  And then we talk about bullying the next week.  What a great, great subject for Father’s Day, bullying.  Isn’t it?  You’ve going to find it very interesting the twist on some of these topics, it’s gonna be fun.

Anyway, here’s what the gay community can expect from us, OK?  First of all, obviously, we’re gonna speak the truth in love.   And we love the sinners (we’re all sinners) enough to speak the truth.  Because truth is about love and love is about truth, and Jesus is truth and God is love.  So that’s settled.  We will give everybody, from this day forward, respect.  Respect.  That does not mean approval, yeah!  Respect and acceptance. 1 Peter 2:17, “Show proper respect to everyone.”  Everyone!  The adulterer, everyone.  The pornographer, everyone.  The slanderer, everyone.  The one who thinks evil thoughts, everyone.  The murderer, everyone.  The homosexual, everyone.  Everyone!  We’re all sinners.

Secondly, we will be a place of understand.  Now to put it in the right context, Matthew 19:19, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  All this junk and funk comes from within our hearts.  Our hearts!  If they have not been power-washed by the Lord Jesus, man, they’re evil.  We have a bent toward badness.  So we can all identify because we’re all sinners.  I can identify, so can you.  So we should have that kind of grace and that kind of mercy.

One final word to those here who are in the gay lifestyle, or those who are struggling with it, or having thoughts about the same-sex situation.  I want to encourage you to do what my friend Victor did several years ago.  I want you to confess.  The word ‘confess’ means to tell the truth about your condition.  And say, “God, power-wash my soul.  I want to do life your way.  I give everything, even these leanings, these burnings, these yearnings, I submit my desires to you, God.”  God can change your life.   You’re just one prayer away from it.

After you confess, because this is a complex issue, I would submit to you to walk into a counselor’s office.  You can do it in the privacy of your home, your apartment, just log onto www.FellowshipChurch.com and type in “counsel.”  We have a list of men and women who would love to sit down and talk to you about your situation.  Because I truly believe revealing your feeling is the beginning of healing.  And so often we think, “OK, if I share this people will think I’m really crazy.”  No, no, no.  When we reveal it we have great empathy and sympathy and understand and a greater respect.  So I challenge you to do that.

So after you confess, no doubt, seek counsel.  And then I cannot emphasize the third thing enough.  Become a part of the church.  That’s what Victor did.  I’m telling you, that is what Victor did.  And his life was never the same.  He didn’t begin to date women.  He just said, “You know, I understand who I was.  I understand the ‘were’ part.  I know what God wants me to do.  And I just am following him.”  And man, what an impact that he made.

So I’m so excited to see and to know so many people who have come from the gay lifestyle, so many here who are struggling with it, so many here who are dealing with it, and a church that is so, so accepting of people from all walks of life.  I thank you, church, for praying.  I thank you for listening.  I thank you for engaging.  Let’s no longer gulp down the Cool-Aid of our culture.  Let’s drink the Living Water and be washed by it as we discover what God has for us.

[Ed leads in closing prayer.]

What Would Jesus Say To…

Kim Kardashian

January 13, 2013

Ed Young

Known for her fashion, her family and most of all for ‘being famous,’ Kim Kardashian is one of today’s most sought after celebrities. She’s adored by millions of fans around the world, and is instantly recognized on camera and on the street. So what would Jesus say to this modern day cultural icon?

In this message, Ed Young unpacks the reality of Kim Kardashian’s popularity. And as we discover the specific things Jesus might say to her, we hear some things that also apply to us. It just may not be what we’re expecting.

Transcript

<video intro… fading music of David Bowie’s “Fame”>

That song brings back memories.  Fame, by David Bowie.  You ever heard that song before?  I remember back in junior high school, Dent Junior High School in Columbia, South Carolina.  We had our own radio station and every day at lunch, the lunch period would start out with David Bowie singing, “Fame!”  I love it.  Say it with me…1-2-3-Fame!  Brilliant song.

We’re talking about fame today.  We’re talking about Kim Kardashian.  Curvaceous Kim Kardashian, marketing guru Kim Kardashian.  What would Jesus say to Kim Kardashian?  What a great question.  I’m in a series called “What Would Jesus Say?”  We’ve been talking about various icons, various celebrities.  The ‘Ah-ha! moment’ in this series is a lot of people think, “Oh, you’re just gonna slam celebrities.  We’re just gonna learn more and more about these people who are so popular.”  Yeah, we’re gonna learn about them.  The series, though, is about you and me because I would argue when we look at their lives, when we examine their lives, when we talk about, “Oh, I would never do that… I would never spend my money that way. I would never connect with that person.  I would never, ever act that way if I had that kind of fame…”  Really, they are representation of your life and mine.  In reality we see ourselves in them.  They’re just acting out on a world stage what the world is doing.  So the ‘ah-ha! moment’ is that this series is about your life and mine.  We see ourselves in all of these icons, whether it be Lance Armstrong in truth-telling, whether it be Kim Kardashian in her activities.  We see ourselves.

Kim Kardashian, though, is an interesting personality.  She has 17 million followers on Twitter.  One of the most Google’d people in the world.  She grew up in Beverly Hills, silver spoon in her mouth, her father the famed attorney.  He was on O.J. Simpson’s legal defense team.  He pretty much said, “Kim, when you reach 18 years of age, no longer can you live off the family dime.”  You might be going, well how did Kim Kardashian become so popular?  That’s a good question.  We live in a culture today where a lot of people are famous for being famous.  They’re popular for being popular.  Some psychologists call it the Zsa-Zsa Gabor factor.  Some of you remember Zsa-Zsa Gabor.  Back in the day she married someone who was very famous.  She parlayed that into a mediocre film career, but she was popular just for being Zsa-Zsa.

And a lot of people say, “Oh Kim, you’re just popular for being popular.  You’re famous for being famous.”  And here’s what Kim said about this phenomenon:  “You know, when people say they’re just famous for being famous, what does that really mean?”  I agree with Kim.  Maybe Kim is famous for being famous.  She’s parlayed her popularity.  A savvy businesswoman, a brilliant marketer.  She became famous, though (and this shocked me), when she dated Nick Lachey.  You remember Nick Lachey?  The ex-husband of Jessica Simpson?  The paparazzi was following Nick and they were like, “Man, who is this curvaceous girl with Nick?”  Kim Kardashian.  From there the sex tape hit the market.  From there, Playboy.  From there, the hit show, “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” and then the stores and just the huge fees to appear at certain clubs and venues and then it began to roll.  Now we have this celebrity known as Kim Kardashian.  If you’ve never heard of Kim Kardashian, you’ve probably lived over the last several years in a cave in Nepal.  That’s how popular Kim Kardashian really is.

So she was born in Beverly Hills.  She was connected to someone famous.  And as you study fame, and this kind of took me back on my heels, a lot of people who are famous are simply famous, they got their start, because they had some connection with someone famous. I found that interesting.

Now obviously some people are famous because of acting or because of business or because of athletics, but even those people, a lot of them got their start because someone famous saw them and now we have the game of fame.  Kim Kardashian obviously is a very famous, famous young lady.

What would Jesus say to her, though?  Ed, what would he say to her.  How can you know what Jesus would say to Kim Kardashian?  Simple.  Read about Jesus.  Read about the intersections in his lives as he talked to people, as he intersected his life with them, as he presented to them choices, as he told them statements.  One of the things I believe Jesus would say to Kim Kardashian is, “Make me famous.  Make me famous, Kim.  Make me famous.  If you’re really gonna be well-known you’ve gotta make me known.”  That’s what Jesus would say.

If we’re well-known, and obviously Jesus knows us, he knows our strengths, our weaknesses, our fallen-ness, our problems, our sins.  He knows us.  So if we allow him to know us well then we can make him known, then we can make him well-known.  If you think about the theology of fame, I think it’s a God-given gift that we have to want to be famous.

We grow up, we want to be recognized.  And pretty much when we’re little our parents look at us and go, “Man, you’re awesome!  You matter!  You’re one of a kind!”  Not perfectly but they try their best.  Then as we get older and older we individuate and we go, “I want to become known.  I want people to know me.”  Then we want to become famous.  It seems like in today’s world everybody wants to be famous.

There was a recent study in a psychological journal that said kids from ages 9, 10, and 11, kids are infatuated with popularity.  And this study went on to say that the #1 value that kids 9, 10, and 11 years of age hold to is that of being famous.  Isn’t that crazy?!  Kids!  #1 thing, being famous.  Ten years ago, 15 years ago, the value of being famous was 15th.  Today it’s #1.

“I want to be famous.  When I’m famous I’ll have no worries.  When I’m famous, everything will be great.  When I’m famous I can walk down the primrose path of life.”  Jesus would say, “Kim, make me famous.”

So wanting to be known and wanting to communicate and for others to recognize us is not sinful in and of itself.  It’s a God-given gift.  We’re wired, though, to make HIM (I’m talking about the Lord) well known.  So when we allow him to know us well, then we can make him well-known.

Habakkuk 3:2, “Lord, I have heard of your fame.  I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord.  Repeat them in our day.  In our time make them known.”

Think about the enemy.  Think about the devil, himself.  Here’s Wikipedia.  He was the worship leader in Heaven.  Before the earth was created he was right there beside God, giving him glory, giving him fame, and what did the devil say?  “You know what?  I don’t like this.  I’m gonna try to usurp him.” And from there he was kicked out of Heaven.  He took a third of the angels with him.  What was the situation?  It was about fame.  It was about popularity.  He didn’t like the fact that God was getting it and he wasn’t.

So in our fallen-ness we have a freakiness about fame.  We want to have a certain amount of followers.  We want to be known and it starts very, very young.  We want to be with the popular crowd, the people who are cool, who are hip, and we work and we strive and once we get there, what happens?  Things change.  It’s a sliding scale.  Once we drink the drink… <glug, glug> of popularity and fame it doesn’t satisfy.  It doesn’t quench our thirst and we want more and more and more and we never, ever arrive with this thing called fame and popularity.

Students, listen to me very, very carefully.  It’s not worth it.  You’re trying to impress someone right now, maybe you’re trying to be with the in-crowd, trying to fit in with this group or that group.  It’s a formula for frustration!

When I went back to our reunion, my 30-year reunion!  I remember walking around the party looking at people going, “I worried about impressing her?  I was worried about what he thought of me?”  These overweight, balding men and women?  I couldn’t believe it!  Make me famous, Jesus would say.

Also, “I value, Kim, I value your vulnerability.”  Another thing he would say.  “I value it.”  Kim Kardashian, you can say a lot about her but she is vulnerable.  A reality show.  I mean she puts it all out there, doesn’t she?   Interviews and blogs and Instagrams and Tweets and she is like, wow, just follow me.  And we love it in our voyeuristic culture.  She said it again about fame.  “It all started when I went out on a date with Nick Lachey.”  Of course the paparazzi took pictures because people were curious about who he was with.

Here’s some Fellowship trivia.  Has Jessica Simpson ever attended Fellowship Church?  Answer: Yes.  There are a lot of celebrities who have cycled through Fellowship Church over the years and during this series I’ll try to throw out a couple of names.  It might surprise you. It’s kinda surprising.

It was kinda funny.  I remember her and some of the guys watched the video camera.  She was with someone I will not name and she sat right over there and she had her head on his shoulder during the entire service.  Anyway.  That’s Jessica Simpson.

I value (it’s OK to laugh).  I value your vulnerability.  We’ve got to be vulnerable before God.  God values that.  People say, “This is great that you’re vulnerable.”  But, “Make sure you’re vulnerable with me,” that’s what God would say.   It’s great that you’re vulnerable with this company or on this movie set or at this reality show.  Or maybe what you Tweet or what you Instagram but are you vulnerable with me?

I’ve gotta ask you that question, like I ask myself that question.  Am I vulnerable with God?  Are you vulnerable with God?  What is being vulnerable?  It’s like telling the truth before God about your condition.  God’s not shocked, he’s not surprised.  He knows what’s going on in every person’s life.  And that’s a good thing.  And I pray that Kim channels that into her relationship with God.

Another thing that Jesus would say to her.  “Your past doesn’t determine your future.  Your past doesn’t’ determine your future.”  Here’s what she said after the sex tape with rapper Ray J and also the Playboy expose.  “It definitely puts you in a category that I wish upon no one.  Your reputation is all that you have and if people prejudge you over something that you did, then that kind of sticks with you a long, long time.”

We can all connect with Kim.  We all have reputations.  We all have things we’re ashamed of.  We all have skeletons in our closet, don’t we?  Yeah, I do.  So do you.  And one of the biggest lies that the enemy levels in your life and mine is the lie about our reputation.  The lie about our past.

Remember, he’s all about fame.  He wasn’t getting the props.  He didn’t like God getting the props.  He tried to usurp God, “I’m God!”  he got kicked out of Heaven, a third of the angels left with him. Now what is he?  He’s all about the father of lies.  Because that’s who he is, that’s his nickname, that’s his native language. And he tells you and me, “God will never use you.  You’re a no-count.  God’s not gonna forgive you for that.  Are you kidding me?  What you did, what you thought, what you said, the way you acted.  Who are you?  Who are you that God can use you?!”

Well, don’t get in an argument with the enemy.  All we have to do is point to the cross.  All we have to do is point to the empty tomb.  Because no matter what you’ve done or what I’ve done in the past, God is a God of the future.  If we call out to him he will forgive us, he will cleanse us, he will power-wash our soul, he will change our lives.  So don’t get in a conversation with the enemy.  Don’t believe his lies.  In other words, concentrate on the truth because the enemy’s gonna tell you, “Oh, you can seek fame.  You can seek popularity.  Turn your back on God.  Do what I did.”  Look where it got him.  And it’ll get you and me in the same exact area.

Well, one day Jesus was going to Galilee and the Bible says that he had to go through Samaria.  John 4:4, he had to go through Samaria.  What does that mean?  Samaria was a place that the Jews didn’t travel.  The Jews were racists.  The Samaritans were half-breeds, part Assyrian, part Jew, and they didn’t dig ‘em.

In fact, in John 8, one day someone tried to really tag Jesus with a hurtful name, some blogger.  They called him a Samaritan.  A Samaritan.  We’re gonna see here that Jesus is no respecter of persons.  Jesus crossed through social barriers, racial barriers, he totally blew the doors off the whole Jewish racism thing.  And the Bible says Jesus had to go, he HAD to go, through Samaria.  It’s not the easiest way.  And as we follow Christ it so often is not the easiest way.

He was tired and weary, the Bible says.  And I love John.  John always talks about the humanity of Jesus.  Jesus, fully God, also fully man.  He took on the limitations of the flesh.  And notice here in the Bible it says in John 4, “Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime.”  He was by himself.  You might be going, where was his posse?  What were his boys doing?   They were in town at Whataburger buying some food.  They hadn’t eaten for a long, long time.  They were ordering this and that and Jesus is sitting there by the well, expecting no one.  Because who comes up to a well to draw water at noon?  Triple-degree heat.  I mean the ladies come out in the morning and evening to draw water but no one during the middle of the day.

Christ is sitting there, tired.  Suddenly he sees the woman drawing water.  Why would a women show up at noontime to draw water?  Because this woman, we’re gonna find out, was famous for her immorality.  She was famous for her sexual sin.  She was famous because she moved from bed to bed to bed.  She didn’t want to be noticed.  She didn’t want the other women to talk about her.  She didn’t want to be persecuted.  She didn’t want to be messed around.  She had a bad reputation.

Jesus, obviously a Jew by the way he’s dressed.  Jesus, a rabbi, asked her a question.  Now we think, oh what’s the big deal about that?  She’s come to the fountain to get a drink of water and Jesus asked her a question.  And all he said was, “Can I have some water?”  Well, back in this day for a Jew to even talk to a woman, to ask a Samaritan woman a question?  That was totally, totally from left field.  So let’s read, she says in John 4:9, “Why are you asking me for a drink?” and Jesus replied, “if you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to you would ask me and I would give you living water.”

So here she is talking about physical water and Jesus is talking about living water.  Why did Jesus go through Samaria?  He had to.  He had to.  He knew of this divine appointment, this intersection, this intersection.  And I think it’s interesting that the cross is in the shape of an intersection.  He knew he would have an opportunity to share the living water with this woman who was totally in the deep weeds.  She had her free will.  He was not gonna override her free will, yet he presented her with the opportunity for living water.  Because basically he was saying, “Hey, the water you’ve been drinking from, moving from buzz to buzz, from sexual hit to sexual hit, from conquest to conquest, from relationship to relationship, it’s not satisfying your thirst.”  But she doesn’t get what he’s talking about.

So then Jesus goes on, he  begins to explain himself.  Look at verses 13-14.  “Anyone who drinks this water, this physical water, will soon become thirsty again.”  And we know that.  “But those who drink the water I give them will never be thirsty again.  It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them giving them eternal life.”  And then he begins to explain to her as you read in the Scriptures about salvation would come from the Jews and so forth and so on, and as he begins to talk to her I think the lights sort of start coming on.  Initially she’s thinking about physical water.  Jesus is talking about spiritual water.  And now she goes, “Whoa.  He’s not talking about sparkling water, he’s not talking about bottled water, he’s not talking about tap water or well water, he’s talking about living water!”  Then Jesus compassionately allows the conviction to occur in her life.  Let me say that again.  Jesus compassionately allows the conviction to occur in her life.  Because there is no conversion without conviction.

Kim Kardashian will not be converted until Kim Kardashian is convicted.  You’re not gonna become converted if you do not know Christ until you’re convicted of your sin.  When I was converted I was convicted of my sin.

We don’t like to talk about it.  It’s not a popular subject.  If you don’t believe me, listen to her response.  Jesus said, “Hey, go and get your husband.”  And then this woman utters the shortest phrase in the entire dialogue.  “I have no husband.”  I have no husband.  Oh really?  All right.  Jesus said, “You’re right.  You don’t have a husband (verse 17, now look at verse 18).  You’ve had 5 husbands and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now.  You certainly spoke the truth.”  I love her vulnerability, don’t you?  Here this lady is famous for immorality.  Christ is famous for his morality.  Now you have her vulnerability.  I mean this is awesome!  “You’re right.  Wow.”

Some people say, “Well I can become a believer. I can get converted whenever I want to.”  It sounds great.  But it’s not in the Bible.  There has to be an intersection, there has to be an exchange.  Your path might cross someone who knows Christ.  And if your path crosses someone who knows Christ, the cross will cross your path.  You either respond to it or not.  The wonderful thing about this lady is she is vulnerable.  She’s popular for her promiscuity. But now we see she is honest about herself and who she has been with.  Her conscience has been quickened and she’s gonna respond.

When your path crosses someone who shares with you Jesus and the cross crosses your path, you have a choice to make.  You either come clean… you say, “I have a reputation, a past,” or you don’t.  You either take a step to follow Christ or you distance yourself from him.  It’s a choice that we make.  And in this dialog the woman tries to get Jesus off subject when he begins to talk to her about her sin.  When he begins to talk to her about her behavior, when he begins to talk to her about her rogue ways.

She’s like, “You know, uh… should the Samaritans worship here or the Jews worship over there?” and she wanted to get into this deep theological discussion.  Jesus listened, nodded his head, agreed, then he brought her back to the issue.  This issue was this person’s life.  The issue was, was she willing to surrender herself to the person of Christ?

Those of us who are believers, those of us who are Christ-followers, we have divine appointments all the time. We’re living life, we’re doing life.  And so often we have to go to places and we’re in places that are tough.  I want to tell you based on scripture that you go there, that I go there, for a reason, and that is to share the good news of Jesus.  Because our paths, if you’re a Christ-follower, don’t just cross.  It’s a divine appointment.  And the cross – because you carry it and I do, too – crosses people’s paths.  The question is what do we say?  What do we do?  What kind of dialogue do we get involved in?

Earlier, Jesus met a very affluent religious leader, Nicodemus.  And he started talking to Nicodemus about being born, born again.  Nicodemus was like, “You can’t get born again!”  Jesus was like, “No, I’m talking about spiritual rebirth.”

Now he’s using water with this woman at the well, this Samaritan.

“Hey, you can have living water!”

“What?  Yeah, give me a drink of living water.  It’ll make life easier.  I won’t have to come to this well every day at noontime.”

“No!  I’m talking about spiritual water.”

Jesus, always using illustrations, things that people could connect with.  What are you using?  What am I using as our paths cross with others?

You might be someone like the woman at the well.  You might be someone seeking.  You might be someone like Kim Kardashian.  And hopefully Kim will watch this online, but again, I ask you, maybe you’re like the woman at the well.  Maybe you’re like Kim Kardashian.  Maybe you have a past.  Maybe you have a reputation.  Maybe you’ve done things you’re like, “Man, I don’t know.  You mean Jesus wants to meet me?”

If you understand the fact that you’re made to make Jesus know, if you understand the fact that he wants you to be vulnerable before him, if you understand the fact that your past doesn’t determine your future, there’s no telling what will happen with you.

This lady came to know Christ.  How do we know that?  She left her water jar at the well.  She told Jesus, “You must be the Messiah.”  She tried to get him off-subject, he brought her back to this connectivity.  She left her bucket at the well, ran to the village.  Now she had a wellspring inside of her life.  She shared her life change with the village.  And the village people are looking at her (not the band) the village people are looking at her and they’re going,

“Girl!  Here you were famous for your immorality, something has happened in your life!”   And she said,

“Come and see!  This guy told me everything about my life.”

Now the disciples make their way back with big bags of Whataburger, those big grease spots at the bottom of the bag.  They’re finally there.

“Jesus, we got you what you ordered.  Did you want fries?  Yeah, I bought you, here’s some fries.”  And Jesus is like,

“Guys!  You’re talking about spiritual food and I’m talking about spiritual food.  You’re talking about nourishment, I’m talking about real nourishment.  We’ve been talking about water here, I’m talking about living water.  Look!  Look!”  and the people were flooding towards Jesus.

“The fields are white unto harvest.”  And the Bible says because of this woman’s testimony, telling others what had happened to her, that scores and scores of people became followers of Christ.  Jesus stayed there for two days and it was just crazy, crazy concert of conviction and conversion.

What would Jesus say to Kim Kardashian?  Well, what would he say to you?  What would he say to you?  Make me famous.  You’ll never be known until you’ve made him well-known.  Have you allowed him to come inside your heart of hearts?  Have you given him the totality of who you are?  Have you gotten vulnerable before God?

“You’re God.  I’m not.”  Have you moved on?  Even though your past is checkered, even though your reputation isn’t the best, make this day a game-changer, a pivot point in your life when you go God’s way.  And I’m telling you something.  You’ll be well-known by the Savior of the world as you make him well-known.  Because that’s what fame is all about.

[Ed leads in closing prayer.]

KNOW FEAR

Fear of the Future

Ed Young

January 9, 2000

Well, we have made it into a new millennium without too many bumps and bruises, haven’t we?  I think it is safe to say that Y2K can be labeled the year of fear because never have so many made so much about the calendar rolling over.  All of this hype and hoopla caused a lot of us to freak out.  Some thought terrorists would strike, the stock market would crash, and the power would go out.  That made a bunch of us go out and buy bottled water and batteries and generators.  It caused some to dig shelters and even take money out of banks.  Everyone was hunkered down and the genre of the day was, are you Y2K OK?  Are you Y2K compliant?  The whole process revolved around fear, which is pretty apropos considering this series is entitled “Know Fear – Facing Life’s Phobias.”

Speaking of fear, several days ago, I ran across something on the Internet called Dracon’s Phobia List.  If any of these phobias resonate with you, just respond by lifting your hand.  If you have acrophobia, you have the fear of heights.  Arachnophobia, the fear of spiders.  Areophobia, the fear of flying.  I hope none of our pilots raised their hands.  Claustrophobia, the fear of confined spaces.  Dentophobia, the fear of dentists.  Glossophobia, the fear of speaking in public.  Hamartophobia, the fear of sinning.  Someone on the front row raised his or her hand.  Liaphobia is….I made that one up.  Pentheraphobia is the fear of your mother-in-law.  Ecclisophobia is the fear of church, especially when the Cowboys kicked off at 11:35. Ternophobia is the fear of being tickled by feathers.

Suriphobia is the fear of mice.  I have a close friend of mine who is 6’3” and weighs 235, and he is deathly afraid of these furry creatures.  Venustraphobia is the fear of beautiful women.  I love this one; it is for those here who love fashion—xanthophobia, the fear of the color yellow.  Some of the guys have this one—anuptaphobia, the fear of staying single.  Or should I say some of the girls?  I don’t know.  Blennophobia, the fear of slime.  Well, I have got that one.  I am not really keen on slime.  Gamophobia, the fear of marriage.  Luposlipaphobia—you won’t believe this one.  Luposlipaphobia is the fear of being pursued by timber wolves around a kitchen table while wearing socks on a freshly waxed floor.  Friends, I did not make these up.  They are for your viewing pleasure on the world wide web.  But I have got to save my favorite for last.  Homilophobia, the fear of sermons.  Hopefully you don’t have that because we are going to talk over the next several weeks about the many sides of fear.

Fear is a fascinating subject because there is a negative side to fear.  Fear can paralyze and tyrannize our lives.  It can keep us from being all that God wants us to be.  But also there is a positive side to fear.  Fear can also stimulate and motivate us to greatness.  This series will surprise and shock many people here because a lot of you don’t feel like you deal with fear.  You say to yourself, “Well, I’m autonomous.  I am self-sufficient.  I’m a self-made person.  I don’t deal with fear.”  Your fears will surface like submarines, so don’t be shocked and surprised.  If you say you don’t have fear, chances are you are walking with a deep level of fear that you are not understanding and processing and dealing with.

I have sort of framed the fears into six specific categories.  Today we are talking about the fear of the future.  The reason I chose the future in this first installment is because all the other fears, the fear of commitment, the fear of failure, the fear of loneliness, the fear of God, and the fear of death all have a futuristic aspect to them.  The many sides, the faces, of fear.

The Bible, God’s word, is not silent on the subject of fear.  2 Timothy 1:7, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear….”  See the word “fear?”  It comes from the Greek term “phobas,” which means “cowardice, timidity.”  It means “running scared,” and this is the only place in the New Testament where phobas is used.  “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but (say it with me) of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”  God knew that we would deal with and process a lot of fear.  That’s why the phrase “fear not” is mentioned over 189 times in the Bible.  The spirit of God does not produce negative fear.  The spirit of God produces love and power and a sound mind.  In your translation it might say self-discipline.  So today I want to make some general comments about the future.

Before I do, I want to make a very sobering statement.  Many of you who are hearing my voice right now have every reason to fear the future.  I will say it one more time.  Pockets of people represented in this place, at this 11:15 am service, have every good reason to fear tomorrow, to fear next year, to fear the future.  Why?  You know if you continue with your low-grade level of commitment in your marriage that it is just a matter of time before the attorneys are called in to pick up the pieces.  Then you are involved in another marriage and another and another, still going over the same issues, still facing the same fears and the same problems.  Some of you know if you continue with your level of commitment in your friendships or maybe a business partnership, that the future doesn’t look so bright for you.

Some of you have every good reason to fear failure because you are still remaining in your cocoon of comfort, not taking risks, not stepping out, not facing your fears, just playing it safe.  And you know if you continue to do so in the new millennium that your life will be riddled with regret.  Maybe some of you are fearful of being alone.  As you look on the Doppler radar screen of your relational world, it doesn’t look that good.  You want to have the wedding ring and the white picket fence with the beautiful little house and the 2.3 children, but it is not looking that way.  And you are getting older and you are thinking about living alone and you are fearful about being all by yourself in the world in which we live.  You fear being alone.  Or maybe you fear being alone relationally.  Maybe you don’t have anyone who really understands you or who knows you or whom you think loves you.

Maybe you fear God.  Maybe you know that your lifestyle is not really square with scripture.  Maybe you know that your vocabulary, your thought life, the places you frequent don’t really reflect a personal relationship with the Lord.  And you sort of know down deep that one day the accounts will be settled and your balance sheet is not going to look that good.

That causes a lot of people to fear the appointment that none of us can put off—death.  The stats on death are still hovering around 100%, friends.  We are all going to die and the Bible says when we breathe our last breath on this planet and breathe a new breath in eternity, we will be launched into one of two places, either into heaven with the Lord or into a Christless eternity, separate from God.  But what we do on this side, on this planet, has a lot to do with where we will spend eternity.  And it has to do with a decision that we all face right here, either accepting and receiving what God did for us through Christ or not.  So fear is real.  Fear is out there and a lot of people have every good reason to fear the future.

Well, having said that, let me give you several suggestions as we think about the future, as we think about facing fear.  The first suggestion is that I want you to go retro.  When fear seems to overshadow you, overtake you, go retro.  It seems like everything these days is going retro.  Shoes are going retro.  Clothes are going retro.  Food is going retro.  Cars are going retro.  We borrow stuff from the past and bring it up in the present.  Going retro can be bad.  If we remember the bad stuff from the past, the evil stuff from the past, the mistakes from the past, it can freeze us up in the present.  It can really mess us up.

My favorite television show is The Crocodile Hunter.  Several nights ago I was channel surfing, looking at The Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, and I couldn’t find Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter.  But I did come across this strange television show.

(Video: “The Dog Hunter,” on the side screens shows Ed Young at his home with his animals, two bull mastiffs, one dachshund, and one cat.  He demonstrates what happens when he feeds the two bull mastiffs, Brute and Apollo.)

I am not sure what channel that show actually comes on, but you might want to do some channel surfing and find out.  The Dog Hunter.  Anyway, I feed Brute and Apollo every day.  Brute is the younger dog; he weighs 150 pounds, solid muscle.  He begins to eat his food.  I feed Apollo around the corner.  Apollo is the smaller of the two; he weighs about 145, is the dominant dog, the older dog.  Apollo will gobble down his food and run and knock Brute away and eat Brute’s food.  Brute is big enough to stand his ground.  He is strong enough.  Yet it is the memory of when he was the pup, it is the fear of being dominated by Apollo long ago that keeps him from being nourished in the present.

Going retro can be bad.  Brute does it, so do you.  Sometimes I do.  We look back, we go retro on the past and say to ourselves, “Oh, I remember that comment that someone made about my personality, about my look.  I remember what I did in that relationship.  I remember how I messed up, how I committed a moral turnover.  Surely, God can’t feed me in the present.  Surely, God can’t use me.  The fear of the future.  Going retro can be bad.

Going retro also can be good.  It could be strong.  When we go retro and look back on the past and remember the good things, remember what God has done, remember how He has helped us, assisted us, picked us up when we are feeling low.  That’s a good thing.  And that can cause us to stand and get nourished in the present.

Remember the children of Israel?  Miraculously God delivered them from hundreds of years of slavery.  He committed act after act after act.  And the Hebrews found themselves pressed up against a wall of water by the pursuing army.  Now one would think that the Israelites would go retro in a positive sense and remember all those supernatural acts that God had done for them.  But don’t hold your breath.  The Israelites went retro in a negative light and they began to whine.

Fear, negative fear, leads to whining.  “Oh, Moses, why did you bring us here?  We were better off in slavery, Moses, better off the way we used to be.  We should have never followed you, the visionary person.”  They began to moan and enter that whole zone.  Well, Moses stepped in and said these words in Exodus 14:13, “Do not be afraid.  Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.  The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.  The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

When you feel fear overshadowing you, incarcerating you, freezing you up, stand still.  The Bible says be still and know God.  We can hear from God.  One of the ways we hear from God is through God’s word.  And God will remind us, too, of those experiences in the past where He cared for us and that will give us the drive and the octane to get nourished in the present.

Do you feel like you are being pursued by your Egyptian army?  Do you feel like your back is against a body of water?  Are you whining?  Are you moaning?  Are you saying, “Oh, no, I fear the future.  Oh, no, I remember the past.  Oh, no, I remember when I messed up.”  Go retro in a positive sense.  Be still and listen to the voice of God.  It will help you face the fear of the future.  Go retro, first suggestion.

Second suggestion.  Don’t deify fear.  Don’t deify fear.  Oftentimes we make more out of fear than it really is.  When I think about the deification of fear I think about Nehemiah.  Nehemiah, this Jewish man, was born into Persian captivity and he was elevated to the second most important position in the kingdom, that of a wine taster.  Wine tasters back then wielded a lot of power.  They were some serious people walking around.  The wine tasters would taste the king’s wine and eat his food before the king ate and drank.  And if the king watched the wine taster keel over, he wouldn’t eat and he wouldn’t drink.

Also the wine taster was the king’s confidant.  One day Nehemiah was praying.  Nehemiah was a man of prayer.  If you want to read a great book on prayer, read Nehemiah.  Nehemiah prayed long prayers.  He prayed mid-length prayers.  He prayed those microwave prayers, you know: time cook, 20, start; beep, beep….  He prayed.  He began to pray and God began to press upon his spirit to go and ask permission from King Artaxerxes, the king he worked for, to leave his position, to travel 800 miles, and rebuild the city walls around Jerusalem, Nehemiah’s home.  That was a scary thing back then.  If you made a request of the king and he didn’t like it, heads would roll, literally.

I love what Nehemiah said in Nehemiah 2:2: “…I was very much afraid.”  Don’t you love that vulnerability, that authenticity?  He admitted it.  He admitted his fear.  God oftentimes will use fear in your life and mine to drive us to Him.  Admit it.  He admitted it and then after that he committed it to God in prayer.  He talked to God about it.  “God give me the strength.  God empower me.”  Finally Nehemiah faced his fear, because he admitted it and committed it to God in prayer and he walked into the king’s palatial office.  He broke through fear and fear began to fade and he made the request of King Artaxerxes.  And let me tell you what God did.  God granted Nehemiah, through Artaxerxes, the privilege to go back and rebuild the city walls around Jerusalem, and King Artaxerxes picked up the tab.  He sprung for the whole deal.  Is that amazing or what?  Don’t deify fear.  Nehemiah didn’t bow down to it.  He admitted it and committed it.

Talk to God about it.  Say, “God I am fearful.  God, use me.  I want to take a step, God.”  Who is your King Artaxerxes?  Who do you need to ask for the order?  Do you need to close some deal in your life?

When I think about fear, I think about my childhood.  My younger brother and I had our bedrooms upstairs.  I have always been bigger than my brother.  At that stage of my life I was a head taller and weighed 30 pounds more.  But I would never go upstairs at night unless Ben went up there first.  I never would because I was fearful.  I was scared of the little man.  I thought a little man lived upstairs in the attic.  I thought he lived in the bathroom.  I thought he was under the bed.

One night my parents said, “OK, boy, it is time to go to bed.”  I stood there.  Mom and Dad said, “Ed, go upstairs.  Go to bed.”  “Mom and Dad, I am waiting for Ben.”  “Why?”  “I am scared of the little man.”  “The little what?”  “The little man.”  Then I explained to them my fears.  They took a flashlight, took me upstairs, and turned on all the lights.  We went in the attic and looked around all the boxes, looked under the bed, in the bathroom.  “Ed, there is not a little man up here.”  And the lights and my parents doing this really allowed the fear of the little man to fade.

Psalm 27:1, “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?”  Who is your little man?  “The Lord is the stronghold of my life…”  Who is your little man?  “…of whom shall I be afraid?”  When you admit your fear, commit your fear to God and face your fear, your fear will fade just like the little man.  Go retro.  Don’t deify fear; don’t make it more than it is.

Here is another suggestion.  Now before I give this to you I want to ask you a question.  How many of you have been assaulted by the flu in the last couple of months?  That flu is some bad stuff.  Several weeks ago I was up here speaking and I felt the flu coming on, that feeling, you know.  I said to myself, “Well I hope I make it.”  But I was sick for two days.  Our family got sick and all that.  The front page of USA Today, “Flu’s Blues: ‘I thought it was just a cold, a patient said.’  So goes the lament of the army of the ailing.”

And here is what Dr. Mark Smith, head of the Washington DC’s Hospital’s emergency department, where patient after patient was being wheeled in, said, and I quote, “People are sicker this year than last.  We have seen more patients and the patients are sicker than in previous years.  My impression is that this is a more severe strain.”  I don’t know a lot about medicine, but I do know this: one of the ways to stay away from sickness is to wash your hands regularly.  It is amazing how many germs are spread just by shaking hands.

But there is an even more severe strain of sickness in the house right now at Fellowship Church.  It deals with fear—scenario sickness.  The third suggestion, stay away from scenario sickness.  It is highly contagious.  It will mess you up.  It will keep you from being all that God wants you to be.  And I will tell you how you stay away it.  You have got to wash.

Psalm 51:2, “Wash away all my iniquity”—make that your prayer—“and cleanse me from my sin.”  See the word “iniquity.”  It is another word for sin, falling short.  Scenario sickness is a sin before God.  Scenario sickness is running all the scenarios over and over on the compact disc of your mind.  “What might happen?  What could happen?  What if?  Oh, no, tomorrow, the future….”  People who have this sickness all hang together.  They are like the Israelites and they enter the moan zone and they whine and they are fearful and they are paralyzed and they are tyrannized.  Their commitment doesn’t matter much.  They are all lonely.  They are afraid of stepping out.  They are afraid of even God and death.  They are just stricken with fear.

We need to mimic Miriam, the oldest sister of Moses.  She helped her Mom rig up this cool, floating bassinet.  Why?  Because Pharaoh was killing all of the Hebrew babies due to the fact that he was afraid that when they grew up and matured they would take over the whole land.  So Miriam and her mom placed Moses in this floating bassinet and kind of pushed him along the muddy waters of the Nile.  The Bible says that Miriam stood in the distance and watched.  The timing was perfect because she knew Pharaoh’s daughter was coming to bathe around this time.  She saw Pharaoh’s daughter pick baby Moses out of the Nile.  Then she walked right up to her.  “Oh, have I got a deal for you.  You need a nurse for the baby.  You need some help.”  And Pharaoh’s daughter, who had a lot of money, paid Miriam and Moses’ mom to take care of Moses.  Thus the family was reunited.

Miriam did not have scenario sickness.  What if Miriam had played all the scenarios over and over and over on the compact disc of her consciousness?  “Oh, what if…”  “What if I say that to Pharaoh’s daughter…”  “What if she….”  “Oh, no, I am so fearful.”  She just boldly went in there and did it.  That is one of the ways that we face the fear of the future.

Jesus nutshelled it, He summarized it in one sentence.  Matthew 6:34, “Therefore…”—and every time you hear the word “therefore,” and especially when Jesus said it, always ask yourself what it is there for.  It means He is going to say something strong—“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow.”  I will say it once again, friends.  The concept of worry and being anxious is a sin before God.  And this word here literally means to be pulled in different directions.  That is worry.  Do you feel like you are being pulled in different directions?  “…Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.”

We are incredible spin-doctors over worry.  We don’t call it worry anymore.  We say, “I am burdened.”  For tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day, our Lord said, has enough trouble of its own.  Many of us are so worried about tomorrow that it messes us up for today.  And because we are messed up today, we are no good for tomorrow.  Do a quick relational inventory.  Are you rubbing shoulders with people who have that scenario sickness?  Are you?  If you are, do some washing.  Kind of break away and say, “God, I want to meet a Moses in the year 2000.  I want to meet a Nehemiah.  I want to meet a Miriam.  I want some people to surround me, to befriend me, to help me so I can face these fears, specifically the fear of the future.

Go retro in a positive sense.  Don’t deify fear.  Don’t catch the scenario sickness.  Three general suggestions about today’s subject matter.  But I am going to tell you something.  One of the reasons, in fact, I would say the biggest reason, that most of us fear the future is summarized in one word—commitment.  We fear the future because we fear commitment.  Don’t fear; don’t ever fear the future.