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110 Hours of Worship

Ed Young

November 28, 1999

Several Sundays ago, my family and I piled into our truck after the last service.  My son was celebrating his eighth birthday at a local skating rink.  We were in a mad dash to get there on time, and we did something that we normally don’t do.  We stopped at Wendy’s for some fast food.  I drove to the front of the skating rink and dropped off Lisa and the kids.  They handled getting all the birthday paraphernalia into the establishment.  I parked the car, and it was my responsibility to take in the food.  While I was walking through the front door, a young man, who happened to be the owner of the establishment, stopped me and said, “Sir, you can’t bring any food or drink inside my skating rink.”  I said, “Thank you, I didn’t realize that.  I will eat my food in the car before I come in.”

So I walked out into the parking lot.  (It was a beautiful afternoon.)  I leaned against my truck and began to eat the Wendy’s Chargrilled Chicken Sandwich.  Suddenly, I saw something that stunned me.  I saw the young man, the owner, who had just informed me of the rules on the inside of his complex, walk outside to his car that was parked in a handicapped space.  Obviously, this young man was not physically challenged.  He got something from his car, walked over to his friend’s car, also parked in a handicapped space.  I watched him get in his friend’s car and drive off—apparently to the Dallas Cowboys game.

I saw later that the car just sat there for hours and hours.  I thought to myself, “That is just like us—just like you and just like me.”  We come to church and worship.  We obey God’s rules on the inside.  We sing.  We clap our hands at the appropriate time.  We try to listen and maybe jot down a couple of notes.  Then we walk from the inside of God’s place to the outside, and we end up breaking His laws in spectacular fashion.  Worship happens as much on the outside of the church as on the inside.

The title of today’s talk is “110 Hours of Worship.”  Maybe you are asking where in the world I came up with that number, 110 hours of worship.  Well, in a week there happens to be 168 hours.  Let’s say you get 8 hours of sleep a night.  That leaves you 112 waking hours to do life.  If you attend church, let’s take 2 hours off from the 112, and that leaves you 110 hours to reflect the majesty of your Maker.

We have learned throughout this series that worship is being intensely passionate about a person, place, or thing.  We know that everybody worships, every single one of us.  We are intensely passionate about a certain person, place, or thing.  We have also seen that God demands our worship.  He wants it.  We are made in His image to give Him worship and glory.

God knew that we would struggle with this worship thing.  He knew that we would have a tough time realizing and living out the implication that everything we do and say and touch should be an act of worship.  So here is what our great God did, and this is the focus of today’s talk.  Our great God has put within our paths and around our lives many different symbols and things that push us or nudge us toward God and toward worship.  Isn’t that a cool deal?

Let me explain a little bit.  Over the last ten days, I led a group of 114 people from The Fellowship Church to Israel.  We had a wonderful time of touring and walking where Jesus walked.  I got up early one morning.  (We were staying in a beautiful hotel situated on the Dead Sea, which happens to be the lowest point on earth.)  I needed a workout, and decided to climb a nearby mountain.  I put on my shorts and my hiking boots and hit the mountain.

The first portion was an easy climb—no problem, just a walk in the park.  Someone had painted little markers on the boulders along the way to indicate where to go.  It did get to be difficult, however.  I found myself on all fours.  There were rockslides.  I even wondered what I had done deciding to climb that mountain.  Wouldn’t that be classic?  “Young Pastor Dies Mountain Climbing Near the Dead Sea.”

I was all alone.  There was nothing there.  But I began to get the hang of it.  Sometimes I hit a plateau.  Sometimes I had to climb down in order to climb up.  After about 30 minutes, I stopped and turned around.  Wow.  What a perspective.  The hotel looked tiny with the Dead Sea behind it.  I had an intense time of worship on that mountain in the middle of the dessert.

I looked at my hands and said, “God, thank you for changing my life.”  As I looked at the Dead Sea, I thought to myself that I had been dead, yet He made me alive when I received Him.  That was my first act of worship.  Then I thought about the mountain being a mountain of worship representing my Christian life.  I said, “God, thank you for allowing me the opportunity to climb.  Thank you for the fact that even though I have fallen, even though I have plateaued now and then, even though I have struggled or gotten scared by doubt or questions, You have given me little markers along the way.  You have shown me that I am becoming a true worshipper.”

What was going on? What was happening?  This mountain in the desert became sort of a symbol in my life that pointed me to worship.  It was as if God was saying, “Ed, you have 110 hours every week.  Think about this mountain.  Think about your progress.  Reflect me and mirror me in all that you do and that you say.” And that is precisely the direction in which we are going over then next few minutes.  I want to help you through the Bible, God’s revealed word to us.  I want to assist you in becoming keenly aware of the things in your life, the significant symbols that God has placed in your path to point you to worship.

I’ll begin by asking you this question.  How many of you love to snow ski? Raise your hands.  I have skied one time in my life, fifteen years ago.  It was a lot of fun, and hopefully I will do it again one day.  When you are skiing, maybe cruising down a Black Diamond, you are watching and looking at and checking out snow.  So when you see the snow or maybe when you wipe out and eat snow, what does it cause you to do?  Maybe you are not a skier but into The Weather Channel.  You check it out and see snow.  Maybe you are praying for snow.  When you think about snow, it should cause you to worship.

Case in point—Isaiah 1:18, Living Bible—“Come, let’s talk it over, says the Lord.  No matter how deep the stain of your sins, I can take it out and make you as clean as freshly fallen snow.”  Have you ever had a stain on your clothing that seemed impossible to get out?  Well sometimes sin seems to be permanent, doesn’t it? We say that God can never forgive us for that one.  No way we are worthy; no way we can be restored because of that sin.  But God has promised us that He can make us as clean as freshly fallen snow.  Snow should point us to worship, to worship the fact that God is the God of forgiveness.

If you like birds, have I got a thought for you.  We see a lot of birds around Texas.  Oftentimes we see evidence of birds on our cars, don’t we?  We love our feathered friends.  Several days ago, I was fortunate enough to sit in the exact spot where Christ sat when He delivered the most important sermon in history, the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus used many illustrations as examples in His sermons, things that His culture could

connect with.  In this context, He used some birds.  Matthew 6:26, “Look at the birds of the air.  They do not sow or reap or store away in barns and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?”

Every time we see a bird, or evidence of a bird, it should cause us to worship God.  Why? Because God is our caretaker.  God is with us.  And if He takes care of these little birds, just think about how He is going to take care of your needs and mine, your desires and mine, your wants and mine.  God knows.  Another symbol from nature.  Snow—forgiveness.  Birds—God cares for us.

I like fruit.  In fact, I eat fruit nearly every day.  You know, I am pretty much a health nut.  I love to go to this place called Java Juice.  Five times a week, I go to Java Juice and order a Protein Berry Pizzazz.  When we think about fruit, we should think about worship.  God has placed fruit in our lives to help us nutritionally, but also, I believe, to point us to worship.  John 15:16, “You did not choose me, Jesus said, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.”

Jesus made the first choice, didn’t He?  The choice about living a sinless life and dying a sacrificial death and rising again.  We have the second choice.  We either receive that or we don’t.  And the moment we receive Christ, the moment we apply and appropriate the redemptive work of Jesus on Calvary, what happens? Jesus places the person of the Holy Spirit inside your life and mine.  And the Holy Spirit’s full time job is to help you and to help me become a producer of fruit.  I am talking about farmer’s-market-type spiritual fruit.

The Apostle Paul highlighted this concept in Galatians 5, “But the fruit of the spirit….”—we can’t manufacture it ourselves—“…is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.” Those happen to be the characteristics of Christ.  Now these characteristics are not optional.  We can’t say, “OK, I will produce love by the Spirit.  And I like this patience stuff and gentleness, but the others, self-control and kindness, oh no.”

It is a Spirit thing, and let me tell you something about the Spirit.  I am talking about the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead or the Trinity.  The Holy Spirit never calls attention to Himself.  He never asks us to worship the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit always points us to Christ.  He is our convictor, our counselor, our guide.  He is pointing us to Jesus because remember, friends, it is all about Jesus.  We were sought and bought by His blood, and if we receive that, it is our first act of worship.

Then we begin to climb the mountain of worship, and while we climb, we have got to be producing fruit.  Our Lord said that He would know His followers by the fruit they produce.

Some people who call themselves Christians produce plastic fruit, fake fruit.  You know those hypocrites; they will say one thing and do another.  You look at them and think they must be producing real fruit, but when you look at the fruit, you find out that it is plastic.  Others that go by the label of “believers” just produce a bunch of peels.  They have rotten apple cores and banana peels just hanging around.  They produce fruit, but they don’t share it.  They just consume it and they become spiritually obese.  They are like Fat Albert! Now if you are not laughing, ask your parents about Fat Albert, an incredible cartoon character by the genius of comedy, Bill Cosby.  Well, don’t be a Fat Albert person of faith.  The Spirit produces the fruit.  Share it.  People are hungry.  People need it.  Become a farmer’s market believer.

I have a confession to make.  I don’t like yard work.  I love ChemLawn.  Some of my friends just love yard work; they really get into it.  I guess it goes back to living in the country when I grew up.  My father had us mow our two acres with a push mower.  My brothers and I had to weed the flowerbed, which was about 200 yards long.  So I am not really into yard work.  I will admit it.  But a lot of people are.  When you are into yard work, you have got to be into grass.  Winter rye—let’s see, I don’t even know any other names of grass—artificial turf, whatever.  Grass should point us to worship.  The Bible speaks volumes regarding grass.

The Bible says that grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of God stands forever.  It also says in Psalm 103:15-17, “As for man, his days are like grass….” We are temporal.  “…he flourishes like a flower of the field….” We are temporal.  “…the wind blows over it and it is gone…” We are temporal.  “…and its place remembers it no more…” Temporal.  “…but from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear Him and His righteousness with their children’s children….”  Grass should motivate me to worship.  I have a limited time here on this planet, and I am going to spend eternity with God.  So I must take advantage of my opportunities to glorify God.

A lot of people get up very, very early.  Years ago I was not really a morning person, but now I am.  I get up every morning to study.  I spend the first part of the morning just getting into scripture and prayer and doing research.  Maybe you will be on a commute down 635 or 121 and see the beautiful, beautiful Texas sunrise.  There is nothing like a Texas sunrise, is there? That should cause you to worship.  Lamentations 3:22-

23. Have you ever heard of that book? I confess to you, I had to look that book up in my Table of Contents. Don’t be shy about using the table of contents in the Bible.  “Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed, for His compassions….” That means love in action.  “…never fail, they are new every morning.  Great is your faithfulness.” We should worship God because He is a fresh God, a new God.  He has a standing appointment He wants you and me to keep every single day.  But too often we call in sick, make up excuses, and we miss our moments with God.  There is no way we can live a fresh and vital life if we don’t spend time with Him.  It shouldn’t be a legalistic trip, it has got to be a relationship.  Fellowship with the Lord.

Let’s think about the clouds.  We think about the clouds a lot.  We watch Troy Duncan and he talks about this system or that system.  The clouds should cause us to worship God.  God has a home for you and for me in heaven.  In this area there are some pretty impressive homes.  How about Highland Park?!  Whoa, those are houses! No, those are shanties compared to the mansions that you and I have in heaven.  1 Thessalonians 4:17, “After that we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will be with the Lord forever.” This is referring to The Rapture.

The Rapture means that those of us who are in Christ, those of us who still are living on this planet will be raptured to heaven one day.  We will meet the Lord in the clouds, and people who are left behind will try to explain it.  In fact, there is an entire series in our bookstore written by Jerry Jenkins and Tim LeHaye called Left Behind.  If you want to read something exciting about what I just said, buy that series.  But somebody left behind will just try to explain it away, but we will be in heaven.  This is not referring to The Second Coming.  The Second Coming will happen after The Rapture and after the seven-year Tribulation which is hell on earth.

When we were in Israel, we stood on a mountain overlooking the Valley of Armageddon where a river of blood will flow 200 miles during the final great battle.  As I looked at that, I was saddened because many people will miss heaven.  But, also, I thanked God because I know that one day I will be spending eternity with Him.  So the clouds should motivate us to be ready.

A rock.  While we have a lot of rocks here in Texas, they are especially frequent over in Israel.  One day Jesus talked to Simon Peter, a guy we mention a lot.  Simon Peter was very human.  He would fall and often mess up.  Jesus was standing before a big mountain, a rocky mountain.  In the area, a lot of idol worship went on, specifically the worship of Pan.  Jesus was talking to Simon Peter at Caesarea Philippi.  He wanted Peter to indicate who he thought Jesus was.  Let’s pick up the conversation.  Here is what Jesus said in Matthew 16:17: “Blest are you Simon, son of Jonah….” Now isn’t that weird.  Son of Jonah.  You are remembering that Jonah was an Old Testament guy and Simon Peter was a New Testament guy.  How would Simon Peter be the son of Jonah?  He wasn’t, but here is the connection.  Jonah was the first running man.  He was the guy that God tapped on the shoulder.  God told him to preach repentance to the gentile city of Nineveh.  Finally, Jonah did it.

Well, Simon Peter, years after that situation, did something.  He became the guy who put down the race card.  Talk about racism.  Simon Peter and the other followers thought that Jesus and Christianity was a Jewish thing.  But Simon Peter was involved in recruiting the first gentile convert similar to what Jonah did hundreds of years before in the Old Testament.  That is why Jesus called Peter the son of Jonah.  “…for this was not revealed to you by man but by my Father in heaven.”

Now before I read this next part, let me tell you something about language.  We have a very lazy language, English.  It is casual.  The Konia Greek is laser beam language.  I am talking about specific.  And here is where, quite frankly, the Catholic Church has been tripped up for hundreds and hundreds of years.  Let me explain it.  It is over a simple linguistic error.  “And I tell that you are Peter…” The word “Peter” is pronounced Pet-ros.  Petros means “little stone.”  So translated into our language, He was telling Peter that he was a little stone…just a little stone.  Then He said, “…on this rock…” the word “rock” is Petra, meaning “huge, hunking stone” like the big rocky mountain behind Jesus as He was speaking.

In other words Jesus was saying, I am the rock.  You are a little stone.  Jesus said that He was Petra, the big stone.  “…and on this rock (Petra) I will build my church.”  He did not say on Simon Peter but on Jesus.  “On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.”  So says the well-known hymn.  When we see a rock, it should cause us to worship God because we are a part of the local rock, the body of Christ.  Scripture says that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church.  When you see the rocks, let them cause you to worship.

Again, I am just whetting your appetite, just giving you a tip of the iceberg.  Let me do one more.  I have seen four births.  My wife and I have four children.  I don’t want to see any more.  As a pastor, I have had the opportunity to talk to many couples who have had children.  They always say it was incredible, a miracle.  You can talk to physicians who deliver babies.  They say it is a miracle.  I have a physical birthday, so do you.  Mine is March 16, 1961.  That is my physical birthday.  Also, if I want to be a true worshipper, I have got to have a spiritual rebirth.  I have got to be born again into the family of God.

Well, here is how that scenario played out.  There was a guy in the Bible named Nicodemus.  Nicodemus kept all of the rituals and legalistic stuff of the Pharisaical law.  (These people were so freaky in their laws that the fringe on their garments could only be a certain length.  They were out there.) Nicodemus, the Bible says, came to Jesus at night.  He was the quintessential seeker, the investigator.  He wanted to come to Christ when no one else could see him.  And I bet you right now we have got some Nicodemus-type seekers probably hanging out in the back, just checking out this Christianity thing.  They know that their life isn’t really working, even though they may look cool with the Rolex watch and the nice car.  But their credit cards may be maxed out and their marriage may be in trouble.  They are seeking because they are not really happy.  Nicodemus asked Jesus what was the net effect of what He was saying.  Jesus said in John 3:3, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

Born again.  How are we born again? How are we spiritually reborn? We come to a point in our life where we believe to the best of our knowledge that Jesus did the redemptive work on the cross and rose again.  And once we receive that, we are adopted into the family of God.  God is our Father and we are adopted into His family.  And once we make this step, we appropriate the redemptive work of Christ into our lives, and that becomes our first act of worship.  So a lot of you who are Nicodemus types, checking things out, can’t really worship.  Yeah, you can worship in a Webster’s Dictionary way, but you can’t really worship.  And you will never be satisfied until you bow the knee to the one who is worthy of our worship, something we will talk about next weekend.

I love what the Bible says about the family of God.  It says we are adopted into the family of God.  If you are adopted, raise your hand.  Get them up there.  You want to say, God, thank you that I am adopted.  You want to know why? The Holy Spirit chose that word “adoption” to define what it means to become a Christian.  Back in Biblical times parents could disown a biological child, but they could not disown an adopted child.  If you are adopted, man, you are in good, good company.  And that is how you are born again.  Once you are adopted, you can’t get out.

Let me use me as an example.  My father is Homer Edwin Young.  Thank the Lord he did not name me Homer Edwin Young.  My name is Edwin Barry Young.  Anyway, I did a lot of stuff while growing up that broke my fellowship with Homer Edwin Young.  If you have been around here for awhile, you have heard me tell a lot of those stories.  But there is nothing I can do that would break my relationship with him.  Why? He is my daddy.  Once you are born again into the family of God, there is nothing you can do that can break your relationship with God.  You can mess up your fellowship with Him, that is where confession comes in, the freshly fallen snow type stuff.  But you cannot lose your connection with Him.  So maybe you need to become born again today.  In just a couple of moments I am going to share with you how to do that.

Well, I hope this message has made you keenly aware of your 110 hours of worship.  God has placed a lot of stuff in your path and mine to point us to worship.  What is the take home?  Let me share two quick bank shots with you.  Number one.  Make sure that you regularly take a nature walk of worship with God.  Make sure that you are keenly aware 110 hours a week that you are involved in worship.  A rainbow, for example, represents the fact that God is a covenant-keeping God.  A fish should remind us that Jesus called us to be fishers of men, to share Christ with others.  You can go on and on and on.

Have you ever watched The Crocodile Hunter? I love The Crocodile Hunter.  This guy really knows nature.  One day he was crawling in a hole looking for some snakes.  “What gorgeous snakes,” he said.  He put his face right up to the snake, and it bit him.  Blood was spewing everywhere.  Here is what he said.  “You can’t blame him for that!”  Boom.  Bit him again.  “You can’t blame him for that! Oh, he is just gorgeous.”  Wow.

I would like to hang out with that guy for a couple of days.  But The Crocodile Hunter stops short.  He loves nature, he has an appreciation of it.  But he stops short.  He doesn’t realize the fact that nature reflects God.  We should never worship nature.  We should never bow down to it.  That is pantheism.  That is saying that God is confined by nature.  No, nature points us to God.  Take a regular nature walk during your 110 hours of worship.

Number two, secure some symbols of significance that point you to express your love to God.  I brought some from my office which do that in my life.  These are replicas of the nails that were used to fasten Christ’s body to the cross.  They were given to me by one of our founding members years ago.  I have these on my desk and they always remind me that it is by grace I am saved, something I do not deserve.  They remind me that it was my sins that crucified my Lord.  On my best day, I don’t deserve what He did for me.  Nails.

Something else is this journal.  I have been journaling my prayers since I have been 18 years of age.  Every time I see these journals stacked up in my library, I think about the faithfulness of God.  God has spoken to me, He has answered my prayers.  I have walked with Him and expressed my questions to Him, my needs to Him.  He has taken care of me when I thought my faith was very, very weak.  This represents prayer.

This is a picture that Owen Goff blew up for me.  I have this in my office.  It is a picture, taken from the air, of the church during a weekend service.  Every time I walk by this picture, I think about the privilege God has given me just to be a part of something this great.  This church is a God thing.  But it also motivates me to know that I have got to walk the walk as well as talk the talk.  I have got a weekly appointment before 8,000 to 10,000 people when I have got to say a word on God’s behalf.  I deal with a lot of fear during the preparation of a message, good fear.  Fear is a great motivator.  I am talking about astonished reverence.  And this reminds me of what has happened at our church.

One more symbol, this Bible here.  I have had it for the ten years of our church.  I can look through it and see all the highlights and notes I have made.  It indicates to me that we are under the authority of God’s word, as is the church.  We have no man-made creed.  We are a Bible-believing, Bible-communicating, Bible-teaching church.  We do that from knee high to tree high.

I pray that you process the stuff that we talked about today and apply it to your life.  Symbols point us to whom? To God.  God is worthy of our worship.  And next weekend we are going to discover why God is worthy of our worship.  I will give you one hint.  It is all about God’s name.  Don’t miss it.

FAMILY OCTAGON

The Main Event

September 15, 2013

Ed Young

Any fighter knows that to fight and win, he or she must be trained to take on their opponent. They must have a strategy in place. And they’ve got to be prepared for the opening bell of the main event.

In this message, Pastor Ed Young opens the pages of Scripture to help us train for our opponent and discover God’s strategy for the fight of our lives. Then, when we step into the family octagon, we’re prepared for the main event!

Transcript

Good morning!  I want to welcome everyone to Fellowship Church.  All of our different environments, different places.  How are you guys doing?  Welcome, welcome, welcome.  Today we’re talking about the Family Octagon.   The family is the ultimate fight because we’re fighting for the ultimate.  So before we get into this let me have a word of prayer.

God, every single person here hearing my voice is a member of a family.  We have sons, daughters, grandparents, uncles, spouses, single parents, those who are going through divorce.  Speak to our hearts, God, at our deepest point of need.  No one is here by accident.  We’re here for a reason.  We ask all these things in Christ’s name.  Amen.

When you walked into all of our environments you received a pre-fight weigh-in.  Do you have a pre-fight weigh-in?  It doesn’t matter if you’re a student, it doesn’t matter if you’re a single, doesn’t matter if you’ve been married with 17 kids, take this pre-fight weigh-in test out.  Now last time we took the test and we talked about some of these questions.  Hopefully you can take the test very, very rapidly and when you do you can fill out your score.  For example if you scored perfectly, if you aced the test, you got a 24.  If you did pretty well, I mean OK, mediocre, you scored about a 16.  Now if you got an 8 or less (that’s impossible), between an 8-16 you need some improvement.  Again, it doesn’t matter what stage or age you are this test is for you.  If you’re a kid and you’re like, “I can’t take this test.”  Think about your parents, think about your family.  Maybe you’re a single parent and you’re not sure.  Think about what you want your family to look like.

Now last time after we took this test we said, hey, we’re gonna talk to some couples at Fellowship Church about the answers, about these questions, about some of their struggles.  So we filmed some of these couples talking about the answers and the questions of this pre-fight weigh-in test.  Because remember, we’re all in the Family Octagon.  Watch this.

<Video>

Ed:  First question, there are 8 questions because there are 8 sides to the octagon, the first question: Do you go on a date with your spouse at least twice a month?

1. Sometimes.
2. We have to actually schedule it in because Lee is so busy with basketball.
3. Between always and sometimes.
4. We’ve done at least once, one date this year, so we have one tomorrow.

Ed:  Do you eat dinner as a family three times per week?

1. I like to cook so that’s something that we do quite often.
2. We frequently end up at the dinner table together.
3. Whether they like the food or not.
4. And we may have to eat early on some nights but we make it work.

Ed:  Do your children sleep in their own beds every night?  Somebody help me!

1. Yes, sir!
2. Absolutely.
3. Every single night.
4. I don’t think they have ever slept in our bed.

Ed:  Our kids would have nightmares, they’d come in the room and I’d be like, “Lisa get up.”  So Lisa would get up and…

1. We had to really nip that in the bud because we would not get any rest or any peace.
2. Or other things.

Ed:  Do you have sexual intimacy with your spouse two times per day?

1. What?
2. Hot dang!

Ed:  Oh I’m sorry.  I meant a week.

1. That would be an “always.”

Ed:  I woke some guys up.  “Amen!  I love this church!”

1. Sometimes.
2. It gets hard scheduling it in. Yeah, we’re satisfied

Ed:  Number 5, do you and your spouse present a unified front (oh man) when children question your authority?

1. I always say, “What did dad say?”
2. “What did mom say?”
3. We have a line that just says, we’re a team.
4. If we don’t come together he just gets right in there.

Ed:  Number 6, do you have a set bedtime for your kids that is consistently enforced?

1. Sometimes.
2. Yes, he’s always… I won’t say always…
3. They don’t fight it, they understand it. That’s what it is.  That’s when they go to bed.
4. 8:30 but 90% of the time before 9:15.

Ed:  Seven – Do you regularly evaluate your calendar to prevent ECA-itis.

1. Oh yeah, that’s a 3. We have to make sure we have all those schedules with the basketball.

Ed:  Number 8, is weekly church attendance a priority for you and your family?

1. It is. I mean, with a 3-year-old we want to make sure that he’s being brought up the right way.
2. Agreed?
3. Absolutely, yeah.
4. Nothing comes before coming to The House.

Ed:  We’ve gotta fight to keep God first in our lives and in the family unit.

<end video>

Those are pretty revealing questions, aren’t they?  Again, it doesn’t matter what stage or age you find yourself in, this series is for you.  All of us are preparing (remember this?) for the next season of life.  So whoever you are, wherever you are, this can relate.  Hopefully by the end of this series we will be able to go, “Man, I’m gonna score a 3.  I know what it takes to score a 3, on every single question.”

The three big things we’ve been talking about in the Family Octagon, because again I will say the family is an ultimate fight because we’re fighting for the ultimate.  The thing we’ve been talking about the Octagon, because there are three rounds in most UFC fights, we’ve been talking about love, the whole concept of love and loving.  We’ve been talking about fighting.  That’s right.  Conflict, battling in relationship.  And we’ve been talking about winning.  Love, fight, win.  Love is the fuel for the fight to win every single time.  That’s right.  Our great God wants all of us to win relationally.  God does.  What did God do?  Love, fight, win.  God loved the world so much he commissioned Jesus Christ to live a perfect life, a totally righteous life.  He loved us.  Love must have an object, we’re the object of God’s love.

Jesus fought.  I think too often we of Jesus as a pale and frail guy, sort of an emaciated-looking, pasty white boy.  Just the opposite is true!  Jesus, think about a warrior.  Think about a conqueror. Think about a fighter.  He fought the good fight.  He performed perfectly, died sacrificially, rose again.  Jesus rose from the grave and when he rose from the grave what happened?  He won.  And we win.  So he wants us to win.  Love, fight, win.

Well how do we win?  That’s the question we’re going to address over the next several minutes.  How do we win?  What does it look like to be successful?  What do you mean, Ed, that family is to win?  What are you talking about?

Well the first thing is we have to realize the formula that God has for the family.  God has a formula, a fantastic formula, for all families here.  Remember, everybody is a member of a family.  When we’re born (I was born March 16, 1961.  I’m fitty-two years old), when I was born I was born into a family.  Parents – mom and dad.  Maybe you know your parents, maybe you’ve never even known your parents.  I don’t know.  So on one hand I was born into a family.  On the other hand I was born, the Bible tells me, estranged and separated from God.  When God sent Jesus to die on the cross for my sins and your sins and rise again, Jesus did the adoptive work.  He reconciled us to God, thereby giving us an opportunity to receive Christ and to be (are you ready for this phrase?) born again.

Now when I threw that phrase out some of you were like, “Oh, I heard that.  Yeah, the media talks about that.  Born again, born again, what is born again?  It’s kind of a weird evangelical catch-phrase.”  No, it’s deep.  Those people who just say born again don’t even know what they’re saying.  I’ve got a spiritual birthday.  I’m born again.  I’ve got a physical birthday, I’m born.  So I’m born once physically, then I have an opportunity to be born again through Christ.  I’m born into the family of God.  So I’m born again and I make that decision.

When I was born I didn’t make the decision to be born physically.  I mean, I didn’t tell my parents, “Hey, why don’t you conceive…”  No, I didn’t have a decision in the matter.  But when I’m born again I’ve got a choice in the matter.  I’ve got a decision.  So once we make that decision then we discover what it means to love, fight, and win.  We can understand the formula.

See my hair?  My hair looks red, doesn’t it?  You notice that?  It looks red.  Last night right before the service I thought, man, I’m gonna dye my hair.  So I put this formula in it and it turned it blonde.  I’m talking about professional wrestler Rick Flare blonde.  And I’m like, “Man, I can’t go out there like that!”  so I had some other color and I put this other color on.  I thought I’d get it real dark because my natural color is dark.  Turned it red.  Wow.  That’s funky.  I look like my mother – not that that’s bad – my mother’s hair is this color.  Well the formula didn’t work, right?  And hopefully between this service and the next I’ll get it right.  Because I’m going upstairs and I’m gonna color my hair again.  My hair might be falling out.  It’s all messed up.

See the formula I think, and I thought, would work didn’t work.  And that’s where our culture is where it comes to the family.  We’re like, “Oh, I know what works.  I know what works.”  And what do we say in the culture?  It sounds so sexy, so cool.  Oh-Family first!  Kids first!  I’ve been trying to find those Scriptures.  They’re not in the book.  They’re not in the Bible.  That’s not a part of God’s formula.  Family first or kids first.  Isn’t that odd?  Well in reality it’s not odd because God says very simply, if you want to know how to love your family the best, love me the most.   We love God with our priorities, with the totality of who we are, and then because of that love, because of that position, because of that priority we love our spouse.  Or maybe you’re a single parent, your kids or your future spouse.  The Bible says in Matthew 6:33, and I love this verse, it’s one of my favorite verses.  But most of us read this verse very, very softly and we put it on coffee mugs and t-shirts and we say, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you.”  Notice here the priority first, and notice the purity, righteousness, and also the provision.  All the things.  Isn’t that sweet and kind?  Amen.

That’s not the way the verse should be read!  This is a powerful, power-packed verse.  This is a verse that has testosterone dripping all over it.  It should be like I’m in the Octagon.  Seek first!  His kingdom in the ringdom!  Seek first his righteousness, and all these things will be added.”  That’s my best stab at being a UFC fighter.  Sorry.  I’m 52 years old.  Gimme a break.  And all these things will be added unto you.  We’re talking about priorities here.  In the Octagon, the family is the ultimate fight. We’re fighting for the ultimate.

How many people understand that the family is a fight?  It’s a fight at my house.  Yeah. I think all of us, when it comes to the family situation, especially parents, we’ve woken up one day and we’ve gone, “I just got pumped!  Because it’s hard.  It’s not easy.  It is well worth the fight. And here’s the cool thing about the ring.  God says do it my way.  Priorities are basically the decision before the decision.  Say that with me.  The decision before the decision.  I seek God first.  Not my kids, not my spouse, not my career, God first.  God first.  And the priorities have already been decided for us in the Octagon. God, spouse, children.  Say it with me.  God, spouse, children.  Once again.  God, spouse, children.  All you have to do is read the Scriptures.  Thumb through Ephesians 5, chapter 6, say it with me again.  God, spouse, children.  That’s a tall order, yet when God is at the top of the order my family is in order.

Conversely, when I’m seeking Lisa first or my children first, God comes in second, God is not a runner up God. He’s not.  We have this desire, this thirst for first, don’t we?  What do we talk about first?  Listen to sports radio.  Who’s first?  Who’s first?  ESPN, first, first, first.  Who’s first in the beauty pageant?  Who’s first in the home décor contest?  Who’s first?  Who’s first?  We have a desire, a thirst, for first.  I’ve never seen foam fingers that say, “We’re #4!”  I’ve never seen someone say, “Hey, let’s talk about the middle of the pack in the SEC.  It’s a very interesting race.”  We don’t care about that.  I want to talk about first.  We’re made for first.  I think we have a thirst for first.  We’re made in the image of God.  God – that’s right, our great God – wants us to do what?  To put him first.

You might be going, “Well, Ed, you don’t understand, my brother.  My family is in complete chaos.  You don’t get it.”  When God looks at chaos, you know what God sees?  Order waiting to happen.  He sees potential in your life and mine.  He sees order waiting to happen.  So seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things (notice the context here) the things it takes to live and survive will be added to you.  God’s way works.  We seek him first.  First.  First.  And he will take care of the rest.  Is that a great verse?  It’s not easy.  It’s a tough verse.  That’s the formula that God wants us to realize and understand.

The next thing I want to tell you is I want to tell you about a focus.  We’ve got a formula but also a focus.  When we understand the formula (God, spouse, and children) – and isn’t it interesting?  The first relationship always to slide is the marriage.  Isn’t that interesting?  It’s usually the marriage over your relationship with your kids, and my relationship with my kids.  I just have an easier time putting my marriage on the back burner as opposed to other relationships in my life.  Why is that true?  Because the enemy knows if we get our focus messed up or we get anything out of focus that he has us where he wants us.  One of the major ways he likes to do that is in the context of marriage.  Are you focused on keeping God #1?  Are you living out those commitments that reflect your priorities?  Because remember, when it comes to priorities it’s the decision before the decision.  When it comes to priorities we don’t have to debate or discuss priorities.  It’s like, “I wonder what my priorities should be?  What are my priorities, what? What?”  It’s not what, it’s who?  God, spouse, kids.  They’ve already been decided.  So God has given us this incredible knowledge and this will to just simply agree to what he’s already agreed on.  Isn’t that great?  I could live my life and go, wow, the decision has been made before the decision so the decision’s been made.  I can just chill, man.  I can just do what God wants me to do in the Octagon because the decision has been made before the decision. Priorities – advance decision-making.

The rub comes in with our commitments.  We are either people of commitments, we either kick out those commitments, or we’re people of the omit-ments.  And so often we omit things we should commit to. It’s like the Harvard study I talked about last time in the Harvard Business Review.  Harvard did a study and said when it comes to priorities, priorities aren’t the big argument, it’s the commitment.  And Harvard concluded that many people are committed but they’re committed to the wrong stuff and the commitments don’t line up with the priorities.

Well, I’ve been saying that, God’s been saying that for thousands of years!  Seek first the kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you.  We’ve got to focus on God.  But I’m telling you, parenting isn’t easy.  It isn’t easy.

Just this week my children – and they’re adult children – the twins who are 19, son who is 21, and our oldest daughter is 26.  Just this week one of the kids came up to me and tried to play Lisa against me.  Does that ever happen to you as a parent?  Yeah, yeah.  So Lisa sent this text out, and I got it, and it was a beautifully written text about a matter that one of our kids was dealing with.  And this adult child comes up to me because Lisa is out of town this weekend speaking, and this child goes, “Dad, can you believe what Mom said?  Did you get the text?  I mean I just don’t….”  Now I’ve not always done this right but one of the major things when you’re focusing on seeking God first is to present to your kids a unified front.  You might be in a blended family, a single parent family, that’s a tall order, isn’t it?  It’s a tall order even if you’re in like the nuclear family with 2.3 kids.  And I said, “Whoa!  Ho-ho-ho!!”  That loud.  And some people say, “You mean you raised your voice?”  Yes!  What does discipline look like in your family?  I’m telling you!  I said,

“I got your mom’s back!  She’s exactly right.  For example what if you were her and what if she was you?  What would you say?”  Just like that.

“Well, I never looked at it that way.”  Yeah, OK.  We’re together.  So she finally is getting it.  It’s taken us 19 years.  She’s finally … that’s what I’m talking about!  That doesn’t mean I yell all the time or you yell all the time but sometimes I do.

I think so often we’re like, “Oh, whatever you think.  Whatever you feel.  Let me hear your rationale.  Oh that’s a really good argument.”  No.  I’m the parent!  You’re the parent!  It’s great to be friends and all that but we’re parents first!  We focus on doing what?  Pleasing God.  God is the one who made up the essence of the family.  He loves us, he disciplines us.  He doesn’t punish us.  The punishment was taken on the cross 2,000 years ago.  God disciplines us out of love.  However, he allows us to suffer consequences, both good and bad.  And as parents we’ve got to do that.

Obviously it ain’t working in our culture very well.  I mean, just look around.  There are jacked up families.  Just look around and see what’s going on.  Look around and see what people are exposed to.  We’ve got to focus on the right stuff. I love what the apostle Paul penned.  He said in 2 Timothy 4:7, “I’ve fought the good fight.”  So don’t tell me, “This UFC/MMA stuff is too violent.  I’m not sure about it!”  One of the first things I learned in my four years in seminary and doing doctrinal work is simply this.  The two major illustrations that the Scripture writers used in talking about the Christian life, #1- that of an athlete.  #2 – that of a warrior, a fighter.  So this is Bible here, man!  Don’t be telling me, “Oh I can’t believe it’s just tough and rugged and you’re fighting it out.”  We are fighting it out.  We’re fighting against the enemy.  And in our families we need to understand we should be fighting for what God wants but too often we’re fighting just in the family.

Just the other day our kids were nyah-nyah-ing at each other.   “Nyah-nyah.  nyah-nyah- nyah-nyah- nyah-nyah…”  And Lisa goes, “Hey guys!  We’re on the same team!  We’re on the same team!  We’re family!”  I mean, when all Hell breaks loose we’re all each other’s got.  We’ve got God, obviously.  But after that we’ve got each other.  We need to understand that, parents.  We need to lead out in that, parents.  Because those values are more caught than taught.

What happens though?  Someone is born.  That’s right, we’re born into a family.  We’re born into the Octagon and a little baby is so cute and a little baby at a young age looks around the Octagon and goes, “You know what?  I can make my parents submit.  I can kick their butt.”  And a little baby – that’s right, that beautiful bundle of joy.  I love babies and I know everybody does – kicks mom and dad’s butt.  Because early the home is diaper-driven, and what starts out as a stage becomes the rage and it becomes just normal.  And we revolve everything around the child.  And one the child feels like, “Man, I’m the man!  I’m the woman!  I’m the champion!  I’m ranked #1!”  Once they have that #1 ranking it takes a fight, a fight to put order in the chaos.  But our culture tells us it’s the kids, it’s the kids, it’s the kids.  Our culture says it’s the family first, family first, family first.  It doesn’t work.  It doesn’t work.  God is the author of the family.  He says, “Do it my way.”  And if we put God first then we’ll love each other the best.  When we put God first I love Lisa the best and I love my children the best.  When I put God first, I love Lisa the best and my children the best.  It’s a fight!  My priorities have been settled.  Do I commit to those priorities, the who? Or not?  That’s the question.  My formula doesn’t work.   You think it does, look at my red head.

God wants us to focus like never before.  Notice something else.  He wants us to release our fortitude.  He wants us to release our guts.  He wants us to crash through quitting points, as I love to say.  And in the family and in marriage we all have quitting points.  Hello.  We all do.  It’s like, “Man, I’m done.  I’ve had enough.  I got pumped.  The shine is worn off, you know what I’m saying?”  What do we do?  Towering question. We seek God first.  Even though we don’t feel like putting our spouse behind God.  We might not feel it, we do it.  Because it’s easier to act your way into a feeling than to feel your way into an action.  “Oh I just don’t feel love any more.  I just don’t love… I just don’t feel it.”  Well I don’t either always.  Join the club!

You think Jesus always felt like doing what he did for us?  “Oh I just feel like being whipped and tortured and I feel like going to a Roman cross.”  You think he felt that?  What?  What?!  Oh man, but our culture says if you feel it, it must be real.  Man if I did what I felt like I’d be the craziest guy in the world.  No wonder we got chaos.  But when God sees chaos he goes, “Man, that’s order waiting to happen.  I want you to do stuff my way!  I designed you!  I designed you for all the stuff.”  But the fortitude…

One of my favorite scriptures is Psalm 37.  It says, “Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him and he will do this.  He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.”  Lisa and I have written many books about this.  We’ve written many books about parenting.  And I can tell you, there have been times in our marriage where Lisa and I didn’t feel it but we went on a date night.  But we didn’t feel it.  There were many times I didn’t feel like spending time or disciplining the kids.  Oh man!  I will just let Lisa do that.  You know what the word ‘dad’ means?  Divinely Appointed Decision-maker.   Do the research.

Do you realize little girls sort of grow up naturally feminine and they just kinda know what it means to be a girl?  Little boys, they don’t… unless they’ve got a father or male figure.  I just talked to a young lady, a single parent, and she’s doing something so, so wise.  She is bringing her son, her 10-year-old son, around people who are strong, male role models.  The father of the child is a dope addict, he’s involved in a lot of deep and dark stuff and she told me, “Ed, I cannot have my 10-year-old around that.”  So I am making this choice to do what?  Do expose him to great role models.”  And that’s the beauty, isn’t it, of the church?  That’s the beauty of it.  So many times, parents, you feel like man, I don’t want to discipline any more.  Go for it!

Yesterday morning I woke up, opened our garage, and our bullmastiff, he’s a ginormous dog, was in his crate and he left in his crate several weapons of mass destruction.  Turned over the water bowl, it was horrendous.

“Landra!”  One of my 19-year-old twins.  Boca’s kinda like her dog.  “Landra.”  She was upstairs.  “Landra, take care of Boca.”

“What do you mean, Dad?  What do you mean?”  and I was so proud of her.  She didn’t complain, didn’t whine, she just started working.  She pulled the crate out of the garage.  God bless our neighbors.  Hosed it off, captured big Boca, that’s his name.  It means mouth.  He’s a big, honkin’ bucket-head.  Hosed him off, gave him a bath.  He smelled so good!  But I was thinking to myself, this is really awesome!

Now parenting has not always been that easy.  But it took even for me some fortitude, some discipline, to just say, “Landra, do this.  I want you to take care of Boca.”  And of course, she did it.

But I want you to think, parents, about those activities, about those situations, about those conversations that you have with your kids when it comes to discipline, when it comes to… “I don’t even want to ask my son.  I don’t even want to challenge my daughter to do this.  They’re gonna balk at me.  We’re gonna argue.  It’s gonna be drama and trauma.  I will just do it myself.”  It is worth… parents, listen to me… the fight.  It’s worth the fight.

The best sermon that I will ever preach is not up here with red hair.  It’s not the best.  The best sermon I’ll ever preach is my relationship with Lisa and my relationship with my four children.  That’s it.  That’s the most important sermon I’ll ever preach and you’re the same exact way.  So if someone like me, if someone like Lisa, can do by God’s grace what we’ve done, you can do it as well.

So I like this, man.  You got the formula, yeah.  The focus, all right!  The fortitude, the guts!  But there’s one more before we close down.

When you’re fighting in the Octagon remember you’ve got fans watching you.  The only arena, the only venue that supports the family is this arena right here.  Government doesn’t do it, for the most part.  The media entertainment world doesn’t do it, for the most part.  Athletics, they don’t do it for the most part.  The church is the only arena where we have people cheering for us to love, fight, and win.  Love, fight, win.  Isn’t that cool?  That’s what I love about our church.  We’re people that encourage one another and support one another.  So as we’re fighting, as we’re doing the ground and pound thing in the Octagon, remember the crowd.

Hebrews 12:1 says that we’re surrounded by a great crowd of witnesses.  So as we’re fighting in the Octagon – check this out – we’re fighting.  We’ve gotta remember the fan.  We’ve gotta look and see the church.  At least once a week we’re worshipping and being encouraged by people cheering us on.  And then the Bible says in Hebrews 12 we can look and we can see the great heroes of the faith cheering us on.

We can see Noah saying, “It doesn’t matter how much your life is flooded God will save you.”

We can see Abraham saying, “By faith be patient, by faith.”

We can see Samuel saying, “Obedience is better than sacrifice.”

We can see Rahab, that former prostitute, stand up and she’ll go, “Hey, I don’t care what you’ve done, God will forgive you and change your life.”

I can see Joshua saying, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, choose to serve the Lord.”

I can see Samson saying, “Man, listen to your parents when it comes to who you date.  Listen to your parents!”

I can hear Daniel saying, “It doesn’t matter how many lions you’re facing in the den, God will deliver you!”

I can hear Elijah standing up saying, “Hey, face the evil people.  Face the culture wars.  Do it God’s way!”

And finally, I can see some nail-pierced hands lifted up.  The nail-pierced hands of our Savior, our forgiver, our lover, our fighter, our winner.  Have you taken the hand of Jesus?  Have you taken his nail-pierced hand?  Have you allowed him to adopt you into his family?  To love you?  To give you the fight and to win?

The family is the ultimate fight because we’re fighting for the ultimate.  Bottom line, we win.  We win.

[Ed leads in closing prayer.]

INTERVIEW WITH THE DEVIL

Hell Yes

September 1, 2013

Ed Young

The reality of hell is frightening. Its existence is evidence that there is evil in our world. It also serves as a reminder that there are serious consequences for our decisions. But hell can serve another key role in our lives as well.

In this message, Pastor Ed Young shows us that there are some powerful lessons we can from the most depressing and desolate place there is. And when we take these lessons from hell, we can actually discover the most out of life on earth!

Transcript

<video intro>

Welcome to Fellowship Church.  How are you doing?  Pardon me, I’m gonna have just a little bit of espresso.  You know I’ve had this espresso cup, I think I’ve had this thing for like 15 years.  I love it.  It has espresso on it too.  I did a series one time called Espresso Yourself.  You remember that?  Anybody remember that series?  A few.  Pardon me, I’m gonna take just a little sip of espresso because I’m tired.  Really tired.  You guys tired?  No, OK, well I am.  Mmmm!  It’s not expresso, it’s espresso.  Did you know that?  For years I said, “I want some expresso.”  No, espresso.  Say it with me, espresso.  Yeah.  Mmmm.  Speaking of coffee, the best coffee in the world is in Miami.  Let me tell you why.  You guys ever go to Four-bucks?  Starbucks.  I mean I love Starbucks but every time you’re there you’re gonna spend four or five bucks.  In Miami you go to walk up, it’s like 50 cents!  50 cent!  And the coffee is like a dessert.  It has this milk and the sugar and they use Bustelo or, what’s the other coffee they use there?  Café Bustelo.. something else.  But it’s good!  Oh, it’s whoo-yeah!   I don’t know why I started talking about coffee.

Let me welcome all of our campuses today.  We’re one church in many, many different locations.  There’s the red light on the camera.  What’s up?  All of our locations in Columbia, South Carolina, Midtown Miami, South Miami, Plano, Downtown Dallas, right here in gorgeous Grapevine, Keller/Southlake, Fort Worth, soon to be London, England, and next week, University Park, Dallas.  Yeah.  OK, now I feel good.  I can feel the espresso pulsating through my veins.  We’re ready.  You ready?  You ready to talk about something?

We’re gonna talk about something really unique today.  How many people in here like to watch reality television?  That’s the rave these days, reality television.  Anybody like Duck Dynasty?  Real Housewives?  Oh, you’re lying to me.  Honey BooBoo?  We love reality stuff.  The mantra of our day is ‘let’s keep it real.’  We like to keep it real.  I’ve had the opportunity to do some reading about reality television. In fact, we have several staff members how have been a part of some of the major reality shows and they’ve told me something, and I’ve learned that reality isn’t that real.  A lot of the stuff we see on television is contrived.  It’s smoke and mirrors.  It’s set up.  I know that’s a shocker but reality isn’t that real.  Could it be that we on one hand say we like reality but on the other we’re really hesitant to be truly real?

Whenever you think about someone who kept it real, and who keeps it real, I think one has to think about Jesus.  Because Jesus talked about life in a real and raw fashion.  One of the biggest perversions of modern Christianity is that the Lord can only be understood by his grace and mercy.  We like to put these cool little sweet scripture verses on coffee mugs or over our kitchen sink.  God is love.  This is a place of grace, and all the warm and fuzzy scripture verses.  But we don’t like to put verses, for example, like when Jesus said, “Many will say to me (when they die), ‘Lord, Lord, I did this and I did that in your name,’ and I will say, ‘Depart from me.  I never knew you.’”  I’ve never seen that verse on a coffee mug or over someone’s sink.  I mean, that’s a pretty hard saying of Jesus.  So on one hand, yeah, we want to talk about the reality of grace and mercy but we don’t want to talk about the fact that God a holy God, he’s a righteous God, and that he is a God who gives us a free will.  And because we have a free will there is a Heaven and because we have a free will there is a Hell.

We love to talk about Heaven.  Heaven is an amazing place. I think one of the reasons that we don’t know more about Heaven is the fact that if we knew more about it, we would be taking our lives to get there!  That’s how awesome it is!  So we don’t know everything about Heaven.  We know just enough.

Then when it talks about Hell, when the Bible talks about Hell, we know just enough to scare the Hell out of it.  Because Jesus talked a lot about Hell and we don’t really talk about Hell.  We’ve streamlined Heaven and air-conditioned Hell.  Hell is not really a popular subject.  Yeah, we like to say it in our vocabulary.  Hell, yes.  What in the Hell are you thinking?  Well, Hell, I don’t know.  Rarely does someone say, what in the Heaven are you doing?  Heaven.  We don’t say that.  Heaven, yes!  No, we don’t say that.  It’s all about Hell.

The Bible says something that is stunning, and when you think about it, it’s so right.  God has set eternity in our hearts.  All of us have a longing for the hereafter, have you ever thought about that?  For the ever after.  Read children’s books.  “… and they lived happily ever after.”  We’re made for a happily ever after.  Oh, I like a movie with a good ending, don’t you?  We’re made for that.

Why do we think about the other side?  Why are we so infatuated with living forever and ever and ever?  Because life, I believe, is like the first lap around the track.  It’s just the introduction of this book that lasts forever and ever and ever.  And forever is a long, long time.  So what we do on this side of the grave determines where we will spend eternity.   Jesus, I’ll say it again, talked a lot about Heaven but he even talked more about Hell.  Jesus talked about Hell more than he talked about prayer.  I’m talking about Jesus!

So I though today we would do something kind of paradoxical.  I thought we would spend some time, and I want to spend some time uploading some stuff from Hell, learning from Hell.  Maybe some lessons from Hell, like a giant app session from Hell.  What can we learn from Hell?

Now I know many of you are like, “Well, I don’t even believe in Hell.”  Well, it doesn’t matter if you believe in it or not.  Jesus talked about it a lot.  He said it’s a real place.  And we’re gonna talk about the reality of Hell.  Say it with me, the reality of Hell.  It’s not just smoke and mirrors, it’s not just a façade, it’s not just some word that sounds ferocious.  Jesus said, and the Bible said, it’s a place.  It is a place.  And it’s a place because we have a freedom of choice.  I’ll say it.  God does not hurl anybody to Hell.  Whenever you hear someone say, “Well, I don’t want to hear about a God who slam dunks people to Hell.”  When someone tells that they’re advertising their ignorance.

Hell, primarily, was not designed for humans.  If you go to Hell you will go as an intruder.  Hell was designed for the devil and the demons.  I’ll say it again.  Hell was not designed for human habitation.  Hell was designed for the devil and the demons.  However, when we choose to sin, we’re all natural born sinners.  We understand that there was a war that went on back in the Heavenlies.  Lucifer, who is now Satan, tried to usurp God, to kick God off the throne, and take the throne.  It didn’t work.  He was tossed out of Heaven, went to earth, a third of the angels went with him.  Some were thrown into Hell, the others now are the realm of the demonic.  The devil came in, tempted man, man dropped the ball.  Man sinned.  We, thus, have this sin nature from Adam and Eve.  Thus we’re separated and alienated from God because of our sin.  No one taught you or me how to sin, we just know how to do it.  Sin separates us from God.  So one bad move, one impure thought, one cross word, we’re separated from God.

God, though, did something.  God sent Jesus Christ to live a sinless life, die a sacrificial death, to rise again.  Thereby, giving us the opportunity to put Jesus on the throne of our lives.  I said this last week.  It’s like driving a car.  You know they have that seat memory, a lot of cars?  You push buttons <seat sound effects), and you get it just right just for you.  Well when you try to sit in a seat  that’s not been <sound effects> just right for you, I mean, it’s hard to even drive the car.  That’s what I’m like if I try to drive the car when Lisa has her seat memory just for her.  I can’t really drive it.  Because she drives with the steering wheel like up here.  Well, that’s precisely what happens when you try to run the show, when I try to run the show.  We’re not made to run the show.

The throne is not designed for you or for me, it’s designed for Jesus.  We have these throne issues and once we give Jesus the throne, the tissue of the issue is Lordship, and then we discover what life is all about.  That’s what happens.

The reason our planet is so screwed up, the reason everything is broken, government is broken, cars are broken, seats in cars are broken, families are broken, marriages are broke, everywhere you turn nothing works.  Nothing works!  Why is that?  Ultimately, sin.  We chose to rebel against God.  When I’m born, when you’re born, we’re born with a reservation in Hell.

But here’s the good news.  One we give the throne of our lives to Jesus the reservation in Hell is canceled and we have a reservation in Heaven forever and ever. That’d be a great place to clap.  That’s cool, that’s cool.  So I don’t deserve what God did for me through Jesus, but I’ve gotta look, I’ve gotta take a hard look at Hell.  But here’s what Jesus talked about. Jesus kinda lifted the veil over Hell and he said, OK, here is the 4-1-1 on Hell.

We need to understand in Luke 16, Jesus told the story about Hell.  A rich guy, this guy was banking, a high roller, then another guy who had leprosy.  His best friends were the dogs – it’s kinda gross, but this is keeping it real – who licked the sores on this guy’s body.  So the poor guy, Lazarus, went to Heaven and the rich guy, the high roller, went to Hell.  And Jesus talks about the conversation from Heaven and Hell, from Hell to Heaven, and talks about the reality of Hell.  BUT!  Before we talk about the reality of Hell, let me say this, we have to understand the context of this text.  Because a verse, a text, out of context can become a pretext.

Jesus had just told the story in Luke 15 of three things that were lost and once they were found it was like, whooo, man!  A par-tay  <bass rap sound effect> went on when those things that were lost were found. A  lost sheep <baaa!> a lost coin, and a lost son.  When they were found… party time.  Par-tay time.  Jesus also was on his way to the cross when he told this story about Heaven and Hell.  He was on his way to die on the cross for your sins and mine, to rise again, thereby giving us an opportunity to give the throne of our lives to Jesus.  So that’s the context.

See, here’s the danger about taking Scripture verses out of context.  I know the Bible pretty well.  I’ve done my master’s work, some doctrinal work, and I could give you some Scriptures right now to tell everybody in this room, “Guess what, it’s God’s will for you to become a squillionnaire.”  I said it, and you’d be like, “I didn’t know that!  You mean God wants me to be rich?”  “He sure does.  I’ll give you the Scripture verses.”

Here’s the problem: those verses would be out of context.  A text out of context is a pretext.  That’s not God’s will, for everybody to be rich.  No.  Obviously God blesses some people financially, we know that.  It’s not a sin to be rich but for everybody to be rich?  Are you kidding me?  But sometimes you look around and you’re like,

“Man, I like that!  That guy’s telling me/that girl’s telling me that I can be rich and, wow, I’m gonna go for that!”  It’s out of context.  I could also do this.  I could say, “It’s God’s purpose for everyone here to be healed.  If you’re not healed you are swimming against the current of what God wants you to do and where God wants you to be.  Everybody should be healed.  And I will give you these verses and everybody should be healed.  And if you’re not healed I’m telling you something is messed up in your life!  You need your miracle!”  It sounds good.  You’ll sell some books, pack out some stadiums, but it’s out of context.  It’s not God’s will for everyone to be healed.

Think about the Apostle Paul.  He had a thorn in the flesh.  Three times he prayed “God, heal me, heal me, heal me.”  Didn’t happen.  Everybody dies.  I just checked the states before I walked out.  One out of one dies.  If it was God’s will for everyone to be healed we would never die.  What?

Or I could do something else.  I can go, “OK, I will take some text out of context.  Everybody should sell everything they have and go to the mission field.  Jesus didn’t have much and he told the rich young ruler to sell everything and it’s God’s plan for you, my friend, to go to the mission field.  If you’re not you’re being disobedient to god.  There are books out there that are very popular, idealistic.  Problem:  Text out of context is a pretext.  When did Jesus ever ask someone to sell everything?  One time, the rich young ruler.  One time.  He met all these people and never asked them to do it.  Where in the Bible does it say that everybody should go into the mission field?  It doesn’t.  Our mission field is right where we live.

Now, he challenges some people to go to the mission field but I always want to say, why should I fly over one mission field to get to another one?

Anyway, let me get back to the story.  I don’t want to be too convicting here.  So, Jesus talked about Heaven and Hell, what’s why we’re here, right?  Heaven and Hell.  He told the story about a rich man and a poor man.  The rich man, he had everything going.  He was a high-roller.  He was like a righteous, cool guy.  Knew just enough religion to be dangerous, like a lot of people in our culture today who have just enough Christianity not to catch the real disease.  He kinda knew the verbiage, kinda knew the Scriptures a little bit but never really did anything about it.

Lazarus, on the other hand, had a relationship with God.  So, Jesus tells the story.  Lazarus dies first and quickly, in a nanosecond, he’s in Heaven right by Father Abraham.  (By the way, Abraham, if he lived today, would be a multibillionaire.  He is one of the fathers of the faith.)  He’s with Abraham and then obviously it didn’t get this high-roller’s attention that Lazarus died so the high-roller dies.  He goes to Hell.  So he’s in Hell, in torment.  And he discovers the reality of Hell.

Death is the great equalizer, isn’t it?  Everyone dies.  When we die we’re gonna spend eternity in one of two places.  But now let’s pick up this conversation between Heaven and Hell.  Luke 16:23.  Again, let’s talk about the reality of Hell.  Hell is a real place.  Well how do you know?  Let’s check it out.  Here’s what Jesus said.  “In Hell (that’s where the high-roller is) when he was in torment he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side.”  Once again, the context.  Jesus is going to his death.  He’s talking about death. He’s talking about eternity.  He saw, he SAW Lazarus, this man of faith who was poor on planet earth.  Now, of course, he’s in Heaven, he saw him from Hell.  A vision.  Isn’t it interesting?  We can get vision, we can learn vision from people in Hell.  That’s something I can upload, the reality of Hell.  The people in Hell here can see the people in Heaven.  Can you imagine your spouse being in Heaven and you’re in Hell.  Can you imagine seeing that?  Can you imagine seeing your kids in Heaven yet you in Hell are seeing them forever and ever and ever?  Can you imagine seeing people that you know in your life who are in Heaven, yet you have chosen Hell?  Because Hell is a choice.  God doesn’t force anyone there.  It’s God’s plan for all of us to go to Heaven but when he made you and me he made us with the freedom of choice.  Love, true love, is all about choice.  So he made a place, Hell, where he is not.  And Hell is a place, Jesus said, of weeping and gnashing of teeth.  It is a forever feeling of regret and remorse.  People in Hell have vision.  Do you have vision?  Do you have vision for eternity?  Because you’ve never locked eyes with someone who is not gonna live forever.  And this rich man saw his entire life before his eyes.  He saw every opportunity he had to make a faith decision, yet he tabled it.  He stiff-armed it.

We have thousands upon thousands of people who are at Fellowship Church right now at our many different campuses, and statistics would show (I don’t say this to scare you), statistics would show that some of you will spend eternity in Hell.  In Hell there’s no Alzheimer’s disease.  In Hell there’s no dementia.  In Hell you will remember every word that I have uttered today.  Because I’m gonna give you an opportunity to become a follower of Christ.  I’m gonna give you an opportunity in a little while to give the throne of your life to Jesus.  But I know some of you will not make the decision.  I know it.  I don’t like to say it but I know it.  And as you go to Hell you will go as an intruder, but you will remember the words of this sermon better than I can remember them.  You will remember every time someone tried to share the good news of Jesus with you.  You will remember every time someone maybe handed you a pamphlet or pointed you to maybe a Bible study or whatever.  You’ll remember when you said, “No, no.  I will keep God at a distance.”  And basically at the end of your life we get a greater measure of what we desired on planet earth.  If you kept God at a distance, you stiff-armed him, you did the Heisman with God on earth, you’ll get a greater measure of that in eternity.  It’s a place called Hell.

“Well, Ed, I don’t mind going to Hell because I can party with my friends in Hell!”  Hey, even if your friends are there you won’t know it!  It’s a place of isolation, loneliness, darkness.  Hell is a place you can do anything and everything you’ve always wanted to do… alone.  Alone.  Real people go to Hell.  It was one of Christ’s main subjects that he talked about, the reality of Hell.

So not only did this man see his life before his eyes, he also saw people.  People that he was close to, in Heaven.  Can you imagine that feeling?  Hell was a place of choice.  The reality of Hell.  That’s something we can upload.  That should motivate every believer here.  Hell is real.  I mean, this is real.

Another thing that we can upload, the agony of it.  The discomfort of it.  It’s funny, when you go to a doctor.  If a doctor says, “This will be a little bit uncomfortable.”  You know what that means?  AAAAHHHH!!!  You have to just grit your teeth for a little bit.  That means it’s gonna be so intense you might faint.  Well, the agony of hell…

“So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham (this is from Hell to Heaven now), have pity on me (it’s all about me).  Send Lazarus (old Lazarus, leprosy-ridden Lazarus) to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue.  Because I’m in agony (there’s the word again) in this fire.’”

I don’t know everything about this but obviously we will have these spiritual bodies that will have senses.  There you have a finger and a tongue and wow.  What can we learn from this?  There’s agony, there’s discomfort.  Hell is uncomfortable.   What can we learn from this?  As a believer we should be uncomfortable.  We should always live as a follower of Christ with a low level of discomfort.  We want to be comforted by Christ but uncomfortable for him.

We want Fellowship Church to be comfortably uncomfortable.  Comfortable for those who are seeking, who are kicking tires and testing the waters, uncomfortable for those of us who are followers of Christ.  Why should we be uncomfortable?  Be we realize hell is real and it’s agony.  It’s a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Gnashing of teeth.

It’s like, this is kind of a weak example, but you’re playing golf.  You’re on the 18th green and if you sink the putt, you win!  AAAahhh!!  I pushed it to the right!  That’s gnashing of teeth.  Mmmm!  Gnashing of teeth.

“Oh, I know, man.  I think I got all of those answers right on the exam.”  You get the exam back… what?!?  I missed four!??  Mmm-hhmmm… I knew…”  Gnashing of teeth.  Well that’s just a little gnashing of teeth.  It’s the forever feeling that you had an opportunity to know Christ, to give him the throne of your life, but you didn’t do it.

There’s weeping in Hell. When was the last time, I’m talking to followers of Christ, that you shed tears over your neighbor?  That you shed tears over family members?  That you shed tears over people here that show up each and every week who are facing Hell?  When was the last time?

Hell is a place that has tears.  Hell is a place of prayer.  This guy is praying.  Sometimes I think it’s so important for those of us who are followers of Christ to pray but pray in a unique way.  Pray for every person you see.  Now and then just take a day and pray for every person you see.  Every person you pass, every person you lock eyes with.  The person at the club, the person in the workout room, the person in the coffee shop, the person walking down the street of your neighborhood, the person in your apartment complex.  Just a couple of days ago I was doing this exercise and I was outside having lunch and I saw this couple just cruise past me and they were pushing the baby stroller.  And the baby just kinda looked up at me.  And I thought, I’m gonna pray for him!  “Lord, I pray when he’s old enough that he becomes a follower of you.”  What would happen as you’re walking into school tomorrow if you just prayed for everyone you saw?  The teacher, the principal, the coach, your friends, that bully.  What would happen?  What would happen, you’re driving down the freeway and you see people on billboards or people on … everybody you see, prayer.  Because the stakes are sky high.  We’re talking about eternity here.  Heaven or Hell.

At Fellowship Church we want to populate Heaven and depopulate Hell.  That’s what we’re about.  Jesus said when he began his ministry he talked about what?  Reaching people.   Right before he ascended after his death, burial, and resurrection, what did he say?  Reach people! Not to sin but to bring as many people as possible to a faith in Jesus Christ.  The agony of Hell.  It’s real, it’s horrendous.

Also, the concern of Hell.  The concern.  There’s a concern in Hell.  What does the rich guy go now?  He’s like, “All right, send Lazarus back, Abraham, from the dead.  Send him back from Heaven and let him warn my five brothers who are not really righteous.  They don’t really follow the Lord.  At least he can warn them.”  Oh now he’s becoming an evangelist.  A hell of an evangelist.  Theologically speaking, Biblically speaking.  And I hope this message scares the Hell out of some of you.  I really do.  It should.  It should.  And you should respond with a heavenly choice, and that’s a little while, though.

Luke 16:27-28, “I beg you father, send Lazarus to my father’s house where I have five brothers.  He can warn them so they will not come to this place of torment.”  What do you think people in Hell are thinking about you and me, and especially those here who are not followers of Christ?  What do you think the people in Hell are thinking about of those here who are still sitting on the throne of their lives, trying to drive this thing?  What do you think they’re thinking?  What do you think they’re praying?  What do you think their attitude is about eternity?

“Yeah, but I’ve got some doubt.”  They’re like, “You’re gonna let a little bit of doubt?…”

“Yeah, but I took this biology course and this professor seemed to be really smart.”  You think they’re worried about that?

“Well, I’m just not sure…”  What do you think they’re thinking?  What are they praying?  They’re praying for you.  Make this choice.  Like those of us who are believers are praying for you.  We’re in the same boat but many here have made the decision to give the throne of their lives to Jesus.  My reservations in that hellacious hotel were canceled years ago. I have reservations now in Heaven.  Many people here do.  How about you?

“I beg you.  Send Lazarus to my father’s house.  I have five brothers.”  Man, now, he’s really, really into reaching out.  You know, at Fellowship we’re into reaching out.  We really are.  I sometimes wonder.  You know, I’ve been doing this for a couple of decades.  It’s amazing.  It’s something you’re called to.  I call church work brutiful.  There is a beautiful side to it.  I have court-side seats and a backstage pass to life change like no one.  It’s awesome.  You have to be called to it, to do.  I’m just talking about me, what I do.  Also it is brutal.  Absolutely brutal.  The disappointment, the betrayal, the spiritual warfare, the attack, there’s nothing like it.  Talk to anybody who’s a pastor and if they open up they’ll tell you that.

So I think, man, why do I do what I do?  I could be doing something else.  I have to spend 20 hours a week just studying for these messages.  You know, it cost millions and millions and millions of dollars just for technology.  Millions!  I don’t even want to know how much it costs.  These cameras, the air conditioning, the parking.  Have you ever thought about that?  The security we have, police, our camp at Allaso, a thousand acres in East Texas.  Forty million dollars we spent.  That’s a lot of money.  Wow.  New campus in London?  You think that just happened?  We just bought a church in Keller/Southlake for about $5 million.  We didn’t have the money.  It’s not paid for yet.  How about this new campus we’re opening in University Park?  What do you think it costs to rent that theatre?  You think you just go, OK, here. Here you go.  Go ahead.  Buying a building in downtown Dallas, Plano, Fort Worth?  You think this just happens?  Man, why do I do this?  There’s a lot of stuff I can do.  Man, I’ve written 14 books.  I could travel around and just write books and probably get a good bit of money just for speaking.  I could do that.  Why am I doing this, man?

Is there a Hell?

Wait a minute.  Did you hear me?  Is there a Hell?  Why do we write children’s curriculum?  Why do we build web sites to market the curriculum around the world?  Is there a Hell? Is there a Hell?  Why do we have Allaso Ranch?  Why do we have a camp?  Why did we step out on faith and build something that’s not even paid for yet?  Is there a Hell?  Why do I do what I do?  Why do I preach sermons?  Why do I pray?  Why do I step back and go, “God, it’s too hard.  I’m not perfect.  Who am I to stand up and speak?”  Is there a Hell?  I said is there a Hell?  Is there a Hell?  Is there a Hell?  Is there a Hell?  Is there a Hell?  Is there a Hell?  Is there a Hell?  Is there a Hell?  Is there a Hell?  Is there a Hell?!?

If there is, let’s go for it.  Let’s leverage our time like we’ve never leveraged it before.  Let’s leverage our abilities.  You see, here’s what’s so jacked up about some of you.  You’ve got all these abilities.  You’re gonna waste your life and bust Hell wide open.  You know why?  You’re gonna just sit there on your blessed ass-surance and you’re gonna try to run your life and do your life your way.  You’re gonna try to use your gifts just for you, just like the rich man did, and you’re gonna bust Hell wide open.  AC/DC said it, brilliant song, a theological song, you’re on a Highway to Hell.  Real catchy song, isn’t it?  Highway to Hell.  That’s what Satan does.  It’s not rough, it’s not four-wheeling.  Highway to Hell?  Just put it on cruise control, man.  But many of you will never discover the gifts that you have naturally, in a supernatural way, because you’re never gonna put Jesus on the throne.

How about your resources?  You’ll never know why you have money, ever, until you put Jesus on the throne of your resources.  I don’t care how much money you have.  Whatever it is.  And here’s our problem.  We worry about, “Oh, how much do you make?  How much do you make?  How much are you worth?”  I get that.  That’s not the right question.  That’s not the right question. The question is, how much do you give?  But really you’re not giving, you’re just releasing it back to God.  You’ll never understand money, never.  It’s not gonna happen.  I don’t care who you’re talking to, accountants, money managers, blah-blah-blah.  You’ll never understand until Jesus sits on the throne, and then you’ll go, OK.  I mean, who gave you the ability to make money?  You think you’re that smart?  Ha!  And for that matter, God’s gonna do what he wants to do over the next 10-20 years at Fellowship Church, he’s gonna bless some of you with so much stuff and the reason is, it’s not for you.  It’s to build his church.  Unbelievable what can happen.  See?  It’s the concern of Hell. We can learn from Hell.  Hell, yes, we can!

But there’s another aspect that I want you to see, just very, very briefly.  Look at the growth of Hell.  Hell’s growing.  I have a friend of mine who regularly looks at the obituary column.  And he told me that and I’m like,

“Man, that’s weird.  What are you doing looking at that?  That’s morbid?”  He goes,

“I do it regularly as a discipline because I asked myself, A) as a Christian have I done all I can to keep that person out of Hell?  And secondly, I ask myself, has our church done all it can do to keep those people out of Hell?”  The growth of Hell.  Hell is growing.

Luke 13:24, “Make every effort (Jesus said this) to enter through the narrow gate because many (say it with me)… many….”  Scariest thing, man.

“Let’s talk about grace and mercy.  Let’s talk about forgiveness.  Well my God wouldn’t hurl people down.  Hey, hey, you know…”  We have this uncanny ability to modernize and politically correct God.  God is God.  And again, he’s a God of grace, don’t get me wrong.  He’s a God of mercy, something you don’t deserve.  But also he’s a God who gives us a choice.  And with the choice we choose either to love him or not.  And if we say no, to Hell we go.

Luke 13:25, “Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door you’ll stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us,’ but he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you came from.’”

Have you ever bought something and had buyer’s remorse?  I have.  Well in Hell, a lot of people will have invitation remorse.  You’ll see all of those opportunities you had to give the throne of your life to Christ but didn’t do it.

Hell is reality, seen too late.

Let me ask you a question.  Let me keep it real.  This is not reality television.  Are you going to Heaven or are you going to Hell?  It’s your choice.  Heaven or Hell is a place of choice.  But seriously, do you know that your reservations in Hell have been canceled, and because of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, and because you’ve given him the throne of your life, do you know you have reservations in Heaven?  Because what’s so funny about this story is a rich man wanted Lazarus to come back from the grave and warn his brothers.  Because this rich man thought, “Man, if a guy comes back from the grave and warns somebody, oh they’re definitely gonna get it right.”  Well here Jesus, a little bit later, he dies.  He rises again and people still reject him.  So this rich man had everything he needed to have to make the decision and he said no.  He had the law, he had the prophets, he had… he said no.  So is it gonna be yes or no for you?  I mean, I don’t like saying this.  I don’t like to get into this but I have to because it’s the total package of Scripture.  It’s the full counsel of God.

But let’s talk about reality.  Three things you can do to secure Heaven, to give the throne of your life to Jesus.  Three things, A-B-C.  Say it with me.  A-B-C.

A – Admit what God already knows, that you’re a sinner.  That you’ve messed up.  You’ve said things you regret.  You’ve thought things that you’re ashamed of, and you’ve sinned.  God’s perfect, you’re not.  You’ve fallen short, so have I.  A-admit it.

B-Believe.  “Yeah but I don’t… I’m not 100%…”  Well, you’re never gonna be 100%!  Because if you were 100% there’s no faith, that’s certainty.  And it’s all about faith.  We’re saved by grace through… faith.  Faith.  I mean, you’ve tried everything else.  You’re not gonna try this?  But see, right now the devil is coming in and he’s planting all these doubts and he’s like, “Oh you took that course or you saw that special on the Discovery Channel or you read one book or you heard this atheist lecture…”  Really?  I mean, you’re not gonna roll the dice with Jesus?  Obviously the other stuff ain’t working.  Look at our screwed up world.  I mean, that stuff ain’t working.  So you mean you’re not gonna try this?  Jesus said if you have the faith of a mustard seed, a tiny little seed, that’s all you need.  You had faith just to walk in and plant your blessed assurance in one of our seats here or in one of our many campuses.  How’d you know the seat was gonna hold you up?  By faith.  Driving home in traffic, cars flying by 50 mph, four or five feet away from you going the opposite direction… by faith.  You telling me, “I don’t have faith.”  What?  That’s a lot of faith there.  Believe.

I admit to you, God I’ve messed up.  I believe that you sent Jesus to die on the cross for my sins and rise again and C – I commit my life to you.  Jesus, you take the seat.  I understand it is made for you, not me.  Oh it’s cruising now, man.  Yeah, it’s gonna be tough.  We’re gonna have some difficult times but look who I’ve got driving it!  I’ve got the one who designed it, who made it, and man, we are going crazy!  A-B-C.  A-B-C.  Admit.  Believe.  Commit.

I want every person to bow their head with me.  Every person at all of our environments.  No one moving or stirring, this is a holy time, a special time.  This is a time when we’re talking about eternity.  And it’s really hard to even wrap our little pea brains around it but I’m telling you this.  I know this.  Forever is a long, long time, and forever starts right here, because I believe many of you, many of you, if you were to die today would face a Christ-less eternity.  You’ve been distancing yourself from God. And God will simply say at the end of your life, “You know what?  You kept your distance on planet earth, you’ll have distance for eternity.  See, because of our freedom of choice we have an option.  And I pray, I beg you, pray a prayer that I prayed years ago, a prayer that many of us prayed.  A-B-C prayer.  Just say it, just say it.  I’m gonna pray it and you say it after me.  Even if you’ve said it before, you say it.  Do you need to say it again?  Nope.  It just takes one time. But you’ll give people around you who have never said it, just some courage to articulate these words.  Just say this prayer with me.

[Ed leads in closing prayer.]

RIDING GIANTS

Stepping Into Liquid

June 23, 2013

Ed Young

There are times in life when we discover the essence of who we really are. There are moments when we gain a clear understanding of our purpose. It is these times we hope to capture, because this is when we realize the momentum we truly have.

In this series, Pastor Ed Young unleashes the truth about God’s plan for our lives that few dare to dream. And he shows us that the momentum in our lives is just the beginning of what is in store, because the journey ahead is greater than the path we have ridden to this point!

Transcript

<video intro>

What’s up, Fellowship Church?  How are you guys doing?  One church in many different locations.  You know I hope we never get weary of saying hi to all the different locations.  Right now live we’re seen at our different campuses in Miami, South Miami and Midtown Miami.  Congratulations on the NBA World Title.  You know, I wish the Heat had some talent.  They just don’t have any talent on the team.  Also, Columbia, South Carolina.  How are you guys in the dirty south?  If you’ve never been to South Carolina you’re missing a treat.  Beautiful, beautiful place, gorgeous country.  Also, our online campus, we’ve had people to view us in over 119 different countries.  Just with our online campus.  That blows me away.  Fort Worth, that’s a great town.  Our campus in Fort Worth, how are you guys?  Downtown Dallas?  Plano?  And soon to be London, England.  And then also just in a couple of months we’re opening up a brand new facility.  We acquired a gorgeous church in the Southlake/Keller area in Tarrant County.  So it’s gonna be amazing.  Then next weekend we start at the movies!  This is like, I’m telling you, this year our video team they have gone so crazy.  These films will be so ridiculous!  You’ll be like going, “That’s nuts!”  you’ll be like going, “What?  Shut up!  This is sick!”  I mean we have some animation stuff coming at you.  We have some unique teaching.  It’s gonna be great.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about just show up with an empty stomach, popcorn, soft drinks, all your favorite candy.  Priority seating, you heard about that for certain people.  I’m telling you, what an easy invite.  At the movies.  Gonna be groovy at the movies.

Then in August we have some cool things happening and in the fall, I will just tell you, we’re gonna build an octagon in all of our campuses.  Anybody here watch UFC? “Oh it’s so violent.  I can’t believe…”  Well, we’re gonna do a series called The Octagon, the Family Octagon.  And we’re bringing into Fellowship Church one of the best.  That’s all I’ll say.  I’ve gotten to know this guy.  One of the best UFC fighters on the planet.  He’s getting ready for a championship fight and he has been kind enough to say yes to come to Fellowship Church.  So that’s gonna be really, really cool as he prepares to infiltrate Las Vegas to the fight for the world title.

It was kinda cool how it happened.  I didn’t mean to say this but I will.  I was speaking somewhere and after I spoke at this church someone said, hey this guy would like to say hi to you.  He’s a UFC fighter.  And they told me his name and I was like, that guy is big time!  So I was hanging out backstage.  He walked up, we started talking.  He said,

“Hey, would you like to come see me spar?”  I said,

“Yeah!”  So I showed up to this gym.  I didn’t spar WITH him, but anyway that’s how the whole thing started.  So anyway, it’ll be fun.  That’s what’s in store for us.  Also, camp.  If you’ve not been to Allaso Ranch, I don’t know if we’re all jammed with kids and students but Allaso Ranch is the greatest retreat center/camp I’ve ever seen, in East Texas.  I just talked to a friend of mine yesterday.  He and his family are flying in for Allaso Ranch and we have people from all over coming so it’s really, really cool what’s going on at Fellowship Church.

Today, Riding Giants.  The anatomy of a giant wave.  You ever thought about giant waves?  I think about them.  My brother is a big time surfer.  You’ve probably heard of Laird Hamilton.  A lot of people compare me to Laird Hamilton, they say I look like him.  Laird Hamilton said (that is funny), Laird Hamilton said that riding giant waves takes more faith than skill.  Interesting.

A giant wave is formed when three things happen.  1- A weather event has to take place.  A low pressure system comes into close proximity to a high pressure system, creating energy.  The energy is transferred into: 2- Wind.  The wind causes swells to occur in the ocean.  It can be a long way off and the swells turn into: 3- A right location, a right beach.  And they crest and usually the location moves from the deep to the shallows very, very quickly.  Thus, you have a giant wave.

Weather, wind, and location.  Say it with me.  Weather, wind, and location.  Three elements for giant waves.  Pretty interesting stuff.  You don’t just walk up to a local lake or reservoir and see a giant wave.   You don’t just go to the seashore and go, “Oh, there’s a giant wave!”  You don’t look at a Colorado stream and go, “Oh, there’s a giant wave!”  You don’t look in your bathtub and go, “That’s a giant wave.”  No, giant waves are unique.  They’re one of a kind.  And people who surf giant waves are crazy good but also they got some serious faith.  I would argue, in God’s economy, that God works in the same way a giant wave works.

You’ve got a weather event.  A low pressure system comes in close proximity to a high pressure system.  A low pressure system, that’s you and me.  A high pressure system, that’s God.  Energy is created.

The winds hit.   Number 2, the winds hit.  We’ve got a weather event in our lives, then the winds hit.  The Holy Spirit of God.  The word spirit, pneuma, wind, breath.  Then, the wave crests and the wave hits a rock.  The rock being Jesus.  Jesus said, “On this rock I will build my church.”  That’s the rock.  That’s the reef, and it takes place in the right location riding waves.  The location is the local church.

You talk to anybody in real estate.  Three rules of real estate: location, location, location.  So that’s how God works in every life.  If you’re here and you’re far away from God.  If you’re here and you don’t even believe in God, if you’re here and you’ve got all these questions and you’re like, “I’m skeptical.  What is this, a rock concert?”  I’m telling you, you’re involved in a weather event whether you know it or not.  I’m telling you, whether you know it or not the Spirit of God is moving in your life, even if you’re far away from God.  He’s moving.  I’ve never seen the Spirit of God, I’ve never seen God.  I haven’t seen him, but I’ve seen the results of him.  I’ve never seen the wind.  Oh!  there’s the wind!  But, we see the results of the wind.  Oh there’s love!  <whoomp!> no, I’ve never seen love but I feel love.  The wind is working in your life.  The currents are pulling you strangely to where?  This location.  The wave is cresting.  The location, the rock, the church.  It’s no coincidence that you’re sitting here.  It’s no coincidence you’re in South Carolina, Miami, one of our Downtown campuses in Dallas or Fort Worth.  There’s no coincidence you’re watching online.  There’s no coincidence you’re among a lot of people at Allaso Ranch engaged in this service.  God is a God of intentionality.  God is a God that causes beautiful, strange, weird collisions to take place.  He uses situations and conversations to bring us to him.

This Wednesday Lisa and I were on the coast for a couple of days for vacation.  While we were there we discovered that some friends of ours, three pastors, were having sort of a board meeting at this little hotel.  Typical beach hotel, you know, right on the sand.  And they invited us to come over to weigh in on the board meeting to talk about church philosophy and things of that nature.  So we were like, yeah, that’s cool.  We show up at this hotel.  It was dark-thirty.  I mean, pitch black.  I walked into the lobby with Lisa and I’m like, I don’t know where these people are.  So I’m calling on my phone and I’m like, “Where are you?”  And they say, “Go to the beach!  Go to the beach, take a left and you’ll see us.”  And you know, whenever you go to the beach you see some people who are crazy.  You know what I’m saying to you?  The beach will draw some crazy people.  That’s why I like the beach.  I’m a little bit crazy.  There were some people swimming at night.  Now I don’t recommend swimming at night.  Why?  <Jaws soundtrack from Ed>   Don’t swim at night.  I’m even scared to swim in a pool at night, I’m so freaky.

So we walk down the beach, people swimming at night.  I’m going… I mean, Lisa took a picture.  People are cra-cra!  So we keep walking and our friends are over there and they’re by the pool.  But the pool is probably 60’ away from where they are.  And I kinda scan the horizon, see a couple of people swimming in the pool, see a couple ladies and a guy.  Whatever.  They were having a good time, liquid encouragement, kinda loud.  Are you feeling me?  So, I meet friends.  Lisa and I sit down.  And we’re dressed a little bit nicer than most of the people who were out on the beach in this area at night, as you can understand.

So we’re just talking about stuff, church and this and that, laughing, and you know.  Some of the talks are serious.  And all of a sudden I hear this lady from the pool.  She goes,

“Hey!”  and we all turn, Lisa turns.  She’s like, “What are y’all doing?”  These were five pastors.  “Are you having, like, a bachelor party?”  Lisa turns and she goes,

“No, we’re just talking.”

“OK!”  She swims away.  Swimming with this ginormous, big glass with who-knows-what is in there, but something that’ll make you crazy.  So we’re talking more and more and all of a sudden we’re in this little area with lounge chairs.  I look up and here comes this girl, right in the middle of our conversation.  Half of her body covered with tattoos, in a bikini.

Now let me stop at that.  That’s strange.  And Lisa’s looking at her like…  Carrying the big glass and she’s like,

“This is not a bachelor’s party?” she said.  And Lisa goes,

“No, we’re all married.  Happily married.”

“Really?”  So she sits down.  We didn’t invite her to sit down. We did not invite her in the conversation.  It’s like she appeared out of nowhere!  So I’m thinking, what are we doing?  We’re in a board meeting and a girl in a bikini with half her body covered in tattoos, half drunk, is in the middle of this meeting.  And we had people taking notes and everything.  I’m like, this is surreal.  This is crazy.  So we’re kinda just looking around like, whoa!  And then the girl leans over to Lisa, grabs her knee, she goes,

“What is your secret?  You’re married, and it looks like you’re happily married.  What is your secret?”  and Lisa goes,

“Ed and I (and I meet her, Lisa meets her – How’re you doing?), Ed and I have been married 31 years.”  She steps back and she goes,

“No effin’ way!”  Again, she has no idea what we do for a living.  “Thirty-one effin’ years?!?”  Lisa goes,

“Yes.”  And then our friends go around.  My friend who pastors a large church in the southeast has been married 15 years.  Another one is younger, been married 10 years.  Another one 20-something years.  And she’s like… and then again she looks at Lisa (and thank the Lord Lisa was there).  She says,

“What’s the secret?  I’ve blown through two marriages.  My first husband put a gun to my head…” she started getting teary.  “Second husband beat me.  I’m living with a guy right now, in fact he’s up in the hotel room waiting for me.” Then she pointed back at the pool, “These are just a couple of people I met down here.”  She said, “What’s the secret?”  And Lisa goes, so wisely,

“Do you really want to know?”  She goes,

“Yes, I want to know.”  Lisa said,

“Love.  Not the love probably that you’re thinking about.  Love is defined as commitment.  Ed and I love each other yet we’re totally committed to one another.  Some days we don’t like each other, but we love each other.  Because we’re committed.  Feelings are so freaky.  You feel good one day, you don’t feel good another day.  Feelings hurt one day, you know how that is.  So it’s deeper than just, ‘I got this quiver in my liver’ stuff.  It’s commitment.”

And this girl, you could tell she was sobering up quick.  She put her drink down and she said, “Wow.  That’s deep.”  And then another friend who was there, one of the pastors said this.  He said,

“Let me tell you something about their relationship.  Let me add one more thing about it to you.  They revolve their lives – and this might sound strange to you – around God and being involved in the church.”

The girl, who we later met, her name was Raynelle, the power of God fell on her when we just said ‘the Lord’ and ‘the church.’  I’m talking a mess.  Right in the middle of this board meeting with five pastors!  And she has no idea we’re pastors.  She’s losing it.  She said,

“I’m a failure.  God hates me.  He’s mad at me.  God’s mad at me, I know he is.  You don’t know what I’ve done.  You don’t know what I’m doing. I’m the worst, I’m the worst, I’m the worst, I’m the worst!”  and my friend said,

“Raynelle, God is not mad at you, he’s madly in love with you.” And it was just a supernatural, low pressure system meeting a high pressure system, energy of the power of God, the wind of the Spirit of God, working in her life.  And now we’re riding this wave and seeing her as she confronts the Lord himself.  This poor thing was just a mess.  And she kept saying, “I’m not worth it!  I’m not worthy!  I know there’s a God.  I’m not worthy, I’m not worthy, I’m not worthy!”  and finally we said,

“Raynelle!  You’re worth it!”  Got it?  Yeah, do that.  Do that.  You’re worth it!  We said,

“Every day, from this day forward, when you wake up and look at yourself in the mirror, you just say, ‘Worth it!’”  And then the reveal.  We said, “Raynelle, let me tell you how much you’re worth it.  Let me tell you how much you’re loved by God.  God (and I will quote) has set you up, girl!  He brought you from the pool to this meeting, with five pastors!  You’re worth it.  You’re worth it.  You’re worth it.  You’re worth it.  You’re worth it!”  Five waves.  I mean it was a God thing.  I cannot explain it.

So then she began to share about her relationship, living with this guy who is a complete card-carrying atheist.  Then we began to encourage her to get involved in a  church.  That’s one of the beautiful things about Fellowship Church.  We have an association of churches all around the world called C3 Global and we were able to point her to a church.  We were able to give her some coaching with her relationship with this atheist.  We talked to her about her relationships, just the repentance, the cleansing was stunning.  And then Lisa prayed a beautiful prayer with her as we joined hands.  Lisa prayed for her.  And Raynelle had a commitment time to the Lord Jesus Christ.

I mean, here we are, just living life at the coast!  Some typical beach hotel, nothing fancy.  And a low pressure system… let me tell you something.  Raynelle was about as low (she felt) as you can go.  Met the high pressure system.  She didn’t even realize that God, the gospel.  Because what did God do?  God started from the high and came low, and brings the low to the high.  He sent Jesus Christ to become a man to live a sinless life, to die a sacrificial death, to rise again, thereby bringing us from the bottom to the top.  And that’s what happens in a wave.

Another thing about a giant wave, water from the bottom goes to the top and water from the top goes to the bottom.  Then the Holy Spirit of God was compelling her, pushing her.  She kept telling us, “This is not a coincidence.  This didn’t just happen.  I can’t believe I’m even here!  I don’t know why I came over here to talk to you guys!”  She kept saying that!  She said it over and over and finally we go, “OK, I got ya, I got ya.”

And then, she made a decision with Lisa to surf the wave.  What if I told you, “Hey, I love surfing.  I’ve read all the books, I’ve looked up the history of all the terms, the etymology of the words, I know surfers.”

“Have you surfed yet?”

“No.  I just stay on the beach and throw a tennis ball in the surf with Rover, the dog.  I play Frisbee, work on my tan.”

Well hey, have you surfed?  No, no, I haven’t surfed.  You’d be like, that’s crazy, man.  That’s nuts.  If you are into surfing you’re gonna surf.  You’re gonna step into liquid.  Are you surfing?

Then Lisa, after Raynelle walked off, after she made her way to her hotel room with her boyfriend.  Before that Lisa got her information.  And I want to show you the text that went back and forth over the ensuing hours.  And I have Lisa’s permission to show this to you.

-Hi, Raynelle.  It’s Lisa Young.  We met last night by the pool, you know the five pastors?  Just wanted to touch base.  Enjoyed meeting you and really believe the best is yet to be for you.  It wasn’t a coincidence (there’s the word again) that we met.  I’m headed back to Dallas but have a few stops.  (To get super personal, Lisa met one of our twin daughters in Virginia because she’s going to school in Virginia next year.  So Lisa is checking everything out, the living conditions, where to stay, apartments, dorms, etc.  That’s what they’re doing right now.  They’ll be back tomorrow night.)  I want to send you a few books your way.  If you feel OK with giving me an address I will ship them as soon as possible.  It was great to meet you.

Here’s what Raynelle says:

-I’m pretty sure you guys changed my life, and seriously God is something else.  I will send you my addy in a little bit.  It was awesome meeting you guys and God is truly amazing.  He just trips me out time and time again.

– Got it.  Have a great day.  Just thought I’d add our family’s favorite Bible verse (and it’s something you’ve heard me quote many times, Proverbs 3:5-6), “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.  (The totality of who you are.  It takes more faith than skill, right?)   Don’t lean on your own understanding.  (I mean, I don’t know how to ride a wave, you don’t either.  God does, though.)  in all your ways trust him and he will direct your path.”

Amazing.  A weather event in Raynelle’s life, the wind of the Holy Spirit of God, and it broke at the right location.  In a little hotel on the beach.  I couldn’t help but think about this series when I was listening to Raynelle talk, I was listening to the sound of waves hitting those rocks.  And then I thought about the waves here that will be striking against the rock, the rock being Jesus. Matthew 16:18 Jesus said, “On this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.”

I believe today we have scores and scores of people here and you’re here not by accident, not by coincidence, not by luck.  It’s a God-ordained, beautiful collision.  Who would have thought?  I mean, we almost didn’t go to that meeting!  Who would have thought that would have happened that night on the coast in this area.  I mean, I would have …. God ordained it!

Like my friend said, “Raynelle, God set you up!”  and I’m here to tell you, God has set you up.  You’re worth it!  He’s not mad at you!  He’s madly in love with you.  Raynelle is only 31 years old.  Her life is ahead of her, and she made this decision.  And I pray for her.  We need to pray for her.

Maybe you’re a student, maybe you’re a single parent.  Maybe you’re 75 years old and God has brought you here.  A low pressure system has connected with a high pressure system.  You have the energy.  The Bible says in Acts 1:8, “You’ll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.”  Power, the word dynamus, dynamite we get from it.  The wind of the Spirit has hit your life.  You’re in the current, you’re in the swell.  Now the wave is cresting and it’s hitting the rock.  That’s your life.  That’s God’s agenda.

My mind is rushed to several examples in Scripture.  There was a wealthy, major African guy.  He was called the Ethiopian eunuch.  He was riding in his chariot one day.  Think about a Bentley chariot, a Maybach chariot.  He’s riding in this chariot and all of a sudden, Philip (one of the followers) of the Lord sees him.  And when Philip sees him, here’s what Philip does.  He goes,

“Do you realize what you’re reading?” and the guy goes,

“Man, I have no idea what I’m reading.”  And he shares with him, because this guy was seeking.  He was bring drawn by a weather condition and the wind, he was seeking the Lord, and the wave was cresting.  So he bowed the knee to Christ and Philip’s like, “STOP!”  <brakes squealing sound effect>  They jump down and he gets baptized.  He made waves!  And a lot of people think the Ethiopian eunuch, this African guy, was the catalyst to carrying the gospel to the continent of Africa.  One exchange, one interchange, one coincidence, and look what happened.  That could be your life!  I pray it’s Raynelle’s life.  Where are you?

You remember Simon Peter?  This guy was kinda pathetic before the resurrection of Jesus.  Here’s a follower of Christ.  “Jesus I’ll never dis you!  I’ll never slurp the Haterade!”  He’s arrested.  Jesus is in prison.  Simon Peter is outside warming himself by the fire and this little girl is like,

“Hey!  You’re the guy who’s been with Jesus!”  and he cusses a blue streak and he does the first three-peate.  He denies Jesus.  This is Simon Peter!  Three times!  And earlier he said, “Oh, I’m the man.  I’m the man of the hour, too sweet to be sour.  The tower of committed power.”  And Jesus was like, “Man, you’re gonna deny me,” and sure enough he did.  But after the resurrection Jesus reinstated Simon Peter and now we have Simon Peter and the book of Acts.

Acts chapter 2, remember it?  The early church?  The Holy Spirit, coexistent, coeternal, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is active in the Old Testament but Jesus, right before he ascended to the Father, he said to wait in J-town, Jerusalem, because I’m gonna send a comforter.  The Holy Spirit of God.  So they’re like waiting around, waiting around… BOOM!  The Holy Spirit fell and guess who stepped up and began to be this courageous, bold guy?  You guessed it, Simon Peter.  He preaches this ridiculous message, 3,000 people do what Raynelle did Wednesday night.  They bowed the knee and got right with God.  And then the people said,

“What do we do now?  What do we do now?  What do we do now?”  what did Simon Peter say?  After your faith decision, make waves, man!  Make waves, woman! Get baptized!  Step into liquid.  That’s what happened.

I think about a guy named Cornelius.  We’ll call him Cornbread.  Cornbread was a gentile, very powerful guy.  Again, Simon Peter, after this he’s praying.  He thinks Christianity is a Jewish thing.  God reveals to him, hey, it’s a people thing!  It doesn’t matter if half your body is covered in tattoos, it doesn’t matter if you’re walking around in a bikini half drunk.  It’s a people thing.  When it comes to the church, no perfect people allowed.  If you’re perfect don’t come back.  That means everybody should come back.

So God causes this beautiful collision, this cosmic coincidence to take place as Simon Peter shares Jesus with Cornbread.  Cornbread becomes a believer, the first gentile convert.  His whole household, what?  Steps into liquid.  They’re baptized.

The apostle Paul, he’s hanging out in a temple.  He meets this cat named Crispus.  Again, major spiritual leader.  Is not a believer but he’s seeking.  God reveals himself to you if you’re seeking, if you’re open.  Crispus?  He becomes a believer.  What happened?  His whole family, they were baptized.

Weather, wind, water.   Weather, wind, water.  You can be either aware of it or unaware of it but I’m telling you here, you’re here.  You’re right here for a reason.  It’s my prayer that you acquiesce.  It’s my prayer that you allow Jesus to power wash your soul.  It’s my prayer that you pray the same prayer Raynelle prayed Wednesday night.  It doesn’t matter who you are, where you’ve been, what you’ve done, even last night.  Jesus is not mad at you, he’s madly in love with you.  You’re worth it.  You’re worth it so much!  God wants you to ride those giants.

[Ed leads in closing prayer.]  34:09