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The Middle Finger

Gestures – Week 3

The Middle Finger

August 26, 2018

Pastor Ed Young

In today’s world, vulgarity is everywhere. The pervasiveness of profanity is profound. But do we consider the choice of our words? Do we realize what we are really saying?

In this message, Ed Young reminds us of the power of our words. He shows us how God’s plan for language and behavior is far from what we see in the media or hear on the street. And we learn what it takes to use our words to build life into others, rather than using them to destroy or demean.

Transcript

ILLUS: The twins were seven years old, and they were in Lisa’s SUV. She was following a truck, pulling a trailer. The truck slammed on its brakes, Lisa slammed on her brakes and tapped the horn. Landra, one of the twins, said, “Mom, don’t do that, don’t honk the horn, because the guy in the truck might do that finger thing!” That’s about all she knew, regarding the middle finger.

In anatomy, it’s called digitus medius. Some call it the finger in isolation. Others say you’re flipping the bird, or my friends from Australia say you’re flicking someone off.

The middle finger. The ubiquitous middle finger. It’s a cultural icon, is it not? I think if the truth were known, we probably flip people off millions of times a day.

How do you feel when someone flips you off? I feel violated, I feel vile. I feel vulgar, I feel anger. I want to chase the person down, and give him or her a piece of my mind.

It’s so interesting that this profane and obscene gesture is so hip, it’s so cool; yet our culture, we are pretty much into profanity. Profanity, though, has become so commonplace, it’s lost its profaneness, you know what I’m saying? It’s like man, that’s just the way people talk. That’s just the gestures we make.

The middle finger. If you think about the middle finger, in essence, there’s almost a spiritual artery that runs from the middle finger all the way down to the middle of our lives, to the middle of our heart and our soul. This gesture, again, shows the depravity of man, almost more than any other gesture I can think about. Profanity.

I’ve been in a series on gestures. You might be saying “Well, man, this is my first time to attend Fellowship Church and you’re talking about the middle finger?” Yeah, sort of, I am, but I’m talking about something much deeper than just the middle finger. I’m talking about what the middle finger represents in our land. What is it about? What does it mean? What is the essence of the middle finger? The definition is “intercourse yourself”. That’s the definition of it.

The word profanity is a word that means irreverent, or irreligious. It’s emptying something, it’s decaffeinating something, it’s being vile, vulgar. I guess we can be profane in, obviously gestures, and with what we say. We can be profane in how we dress, and we can be profane in the places we go. But today I want to limit my comments basically to language, just to gestures. I’ve been talking about gestures and I’ve been saying around here that 93% of communication is non-verbal, so gestures mean a lot. Our words mean a lot, too.

T.S. I’m always hesitant to place people in categories, but today I thought I would start this talk off asking you to place yourself in a category of profanity. A category of your coarseness, or being vulgar. Now I’m not, hear me, mister pastor speaking down to people. We’re all fellow strugglers in this. We all have a propensity toward profanity. Yet, God has a lot to say about it. But I thought before we got into the depth of the middle finger, we would just sort of categorize ourself.

Now, when I mention these categories, don’t raise your hand. “Oh, that’s me!” No, I don’t think you’ll want to raise your hand. Or don’t elbow your husband, ladies. Or don’t look at someone who you know, who might be in this category. But I do think it’s interesting, because I have been around a lot of profane people in my life, if you think about it, as a pastor. Profanity is my business. Sin is my business. Okay. Well, let’s talk about some categories. Are you ready?

The first category is the person who is self-unaware. Just clueless. And if I’m talking to you, you’re like, “Man, I’m not self-unaware.” Well, you’re self-unaware, because you’re unaware that you’re self-unaware. So if you’re like “Oh, he must be talking about someone else,” no, I’m talking to you, because you’re self-unaware.

The clueless swearer, you know? Because a lot of us are on a perpetual swear-a-thon. The clueless swearer is someone who just says all these words, all of these profane things, all of this coarse gesturing, without even understanding or realizing what they’re saying.

So I thought I would break down some popular cuss words. What are people really saying? You’re driving, someone cuts you off. “God, damn that person to an eternal punishment and separation from you.”

I’ve got a test tomorrow. “That’s oral sex.”

“What in the intercourse are you thinking, man?”

“That’ll intercourse you up!” Isn’t that funny?

“I’m just urinated off.”

Hey, hopefully we’ve clued some people in who are clueless. What are you saying? What are you doing? What kind of gestures are we making?

The Bible says in Ephesians 5:4, “Let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor, this is convicting, crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.”

Are you clueless? It’s my prayer that those of us who are clueless, we’re all clueless in a certain way. We need to be clued in.

Let’s talk about another fun category, the wheels-off category. That’s the person who pretty much has the wheels on. You’re cruising through life and everything is fine. But something will happen, an altercation at work, a situation at school, your kid does this or that, and all of a sudden “beep, beep, beep!” The wheels are off. You just cuss a blue streak. You’re just in that swear-a-thon mentality, and you’re like, “Where did that come from? Why did I say that? I mean, how could I even think those things, or call that person those things? I said that to my spouse? My best friend? My father? What’s wrong with me?”

Profanity. It hurts the heart of God. Profanity, when I’m profane, in essence, I’m flipping God off. I’m saying “God, I’m going to say, I’m going to do what I want to do. I’m going to make the gestures that I want to make, and I don’t give a flying flip about what you say. I don’t really think that, they just come out. I mean, it just happens.”

That’s our sin nature. And it’s something that anthropologists and biologists and the behavioral sciences can’t explain. Our moral conscience. Study any culture, anywhere, and there’s always a list of these profanities. Maybe that’s your life.

ILLUS: My son, E.J., is in love with a beautiful girl, and her family’s Filipino. They’ve been involved in our church for a long time, incredible people, and this girl’s an amazing young lady. Well, E.J., this is kind of funny to me. Well it’s not funny, it’s good. Because of his love for Jessica, has been trying to learn Tagalog, which is speaking Filipino. So he’s learned some words and phrases, some sentences in Tagalog. And we’re like “Wow, E.J., that’s impressive.”

And I thought, “Why in the world would E.J. want to do that? Love!” That’s what love will cause you to do.

So those of us who say “Okay, Jesus is my savior, the Lord of my life;” those of us who are in that camp, we should be like “Lord, I want to learn your language, because of our love!” We don’t want to trash the name of Jesus. We don’t want to empty the name of God.

Yet what do people say? “God damn.” God doesn’t damn anyone. Where in the Bible does God damn someone? He doesn’t. We damn ourselves. If you go to hell, you will make that choice. It’s God’s will for everyone to go to heaven.

Or we say “Damn.” Now, when you say “damn,” you’re making light of eternal punishment. You’re taking the place of God saying, “I’m going to damn that damner. I’m going to damn that person. I’m going to damn that object to hell.”

One of the 10 Commandments says, “Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain.” It means to strip it, to use it and flip it for humorous or blaming manner. What do we say? “Oh, my God.” Really? “Jesus Christ.” What? What?

I told you a couple of weeks ago the story about saving that drowning victim. This guy was drowning in the Atlantic Ocean, to give you the CliffNotes. We saw him and he was drowning right by a Marina, going underwater for the last time. He was a massive guy, and my friend and I drug him into our 16-foot boat, saved his life. He was drowning. I doubt that person would take my name in vain. I doubt that person would trash me. I doubt that person would go online and make up stuff. (see I almost said crap, to make up stuff, you can laugh with me, about me. Isn’t that interesting?) And yet, what do we do? What do we do? We trash the name of God.

A devout Jew back in the Old Testament wouldn’t even pronounce the name of God, that’s how holy the name of God was. One guy who pronounced the name of God, one day out of the year, the holiest day out of the year, in the holiest place. That was it, back in the Old Testament. And now what do we do? God this, God that. So maybe you’re a wheels off person.

ILLUS: Oh yeah, I did play basketball at Florida State University. I always say that, because I don’t know, I say it because God did a lot of things in my life when I was playing basketball at Florida State. I spent the majority of my career riding the bench. My lifetime average is 0.6 points per game. I did start a couple of games, and I’m an FSU Letterman. That’s cool, I have a jacket and all that. I’m part of the Letterman’s Club, but it’s about my career. I just wasn’t good enough. These guys were too good.

I did sign, though, three autographs in my career. Three. And I felt so good after signing an autograph. Walked out of the dressing room, and I would wet my hair in the sink. I didn’t need to take a shower, but it looked like sweat and stuff. And this never happened in Tallahassee, where Florida State is. It happened when we were playing the University of Louisville, or Minnesota, or Marquette. And I walked outside of the dressing, little kids are around, and three times I signed my autograph. I think these kids mistook me for another player, because I looked like one of the star players, and they didn’t know, they were just kids. But I did sign the autograph, but that’s three more than you’ve signed. I would sign “Ed Young,” then put my number, number 12. I used to say Lisa, “Number 12 in your program, number one in your heart.” And I’d write this verse, a Bible verse, by my autograph, three times I did it. Romans 12:1-2.

Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world. Literally “don’t let the world squeeze you into its mold.” Don’t let the world squeeze you into profanity, into a swear-a-thon, into coarse talk, or nastiness, or vileness. Don’t let that happen, even though it’s in the lyrics in those songs, even though it’s pretty much in every movie, even though it’s a language we hear in school, even though we’re just bombarded by profanity, don’t let that happen. Parents, set the standard, set the course, set the goal. Don’t just say, “Hey, don’t say the S word. Hey, don’t say the F word.” Explain why, the why.

We’re made for something better. We’re made for something bigger. God wants our words to set the course of our lives. And so often, our coarse gesturing and coarse talking leads us down a bad course. When we curse, literally, we’re bringing a curse on our lives. I don’t want my life to be cursed.

“Curse, what do you mean curse?”

Well, you know, the Bible says, and I’m not talking about finances right now, but the Bible says in the book of Malachi, if we don’t bring the tithe to the church, then our entire financial portfolio is under a curse. Now, don’t get mad at me. That’s what God said. So if you’re big enough and bad enough and cool enough and smart enough to roll the dice, and handle your money, your way, without bringing a tithe, and you’ll choose cursing over blessing, go for it. But for me and my house, we’re going to choose blessing.

And speaking of that, a lot of you are flipping God off every time the offering plate’s passed. A lot of you are flipping God off because you’re not inviting someone going to hell to church. So don’t sit there and say, “I’m not in that category. I’m not in this category. I’m not wheels off, I’m not clueless.”

Wait, wait, wait, we all struggle with profanity. We all struggle with taking God’s name in vain. We all say, myself included, “Oh, I’m going to do this.” But you do the opposite. I’ve taken God’s name in vain. That’s profane, that’s profanity. So it’s not just the words, it’s not just you flip somebody off. No, no, no it’s much bigger, much broader, much more far-reaching than that.

Are you clueless? I don’t know. Get clued in. Are you wheels off? Put the wheels back on. Have that love language. How ’bout the arrogant person? Some people are arrogant swearers. You know people like that? They just rip it, man. They’re just boom, dropping those F-bombs.

ILLUS: Let me tell you what I did recently. And I’m even shy to tell you this story, but I’m going to tell it. I will. I was with a friend of mine. Got to be careful how I say this. Every time I say something, people think, “Are you talking about me?” That’s how narcissistic we all are. No, I’m not talking about you, because this person I’m talking about doesn’t live close to where our campuses are.

Anyway, I was with a guy, and this guy drops a lot of F-bombs. I can tell though, when he’s around me, he edits his language. And we’d gone to a party the night before, and it was almost a record F-bomb fest. It’s just like, every other word. I’m talking about amazing. It was used in every part of speech, just the F-bomb.

So I thought, you know what? I’m going to do something to my friend to show him how bad his language is. I just started F-bombing him right back. I was throwing the F word around. He turned pale. He had never heard you use profanity in my life. He said, “Man, we’ve been friends for these years. It doesn’t seem right, it doesn’t sound right.”

I said “Hey, what do you think it sounds like to me? But forget me. What do you think it sounds like to God?” I don’t know if it’s right to do that. I’ve never told that story. I can’t believe I said that. But in the moment, it was so, I don’t know.

Anyway. The F word means simply, intercourse. Yeah, man, isn’t it funny? We say intercourse all the time. Intercourse, intercourse, intercourse, intercourse. Fornication, fornication, adultery, adultery. I’m urinated off. You’re full of excrement. Someone makes a bad call in a football game, “ow manure, cow manure, cow manure.” It’s pretty funny, isn’t it? It is funny, this is a funny message. So some people here, they shake, again gesture, their puny little face in the face of God.

Then there’s another one, I just mentioned this, another category, the editor. So we got four categories working, the clueless, the wheels off, the arrogant, and the editor. The editor is someone who edits their language.

Because I’m a pastor, I’ve seen so many people try to edit their language. Some people don’t edit their language. I mean, I’ve heard this numerous times. I’ll go out into a lobby between services. “Hey, I want to tell you something man, that was a hell of a service.”

I go, “Hey man, I appreciate that, but we’re trying to keep people like you out of hell.”

I’ve heard that many times. And I’m happy people like that are coming to the church, and they feel free to say that. I mean, I don’t like them using that, but they said that. But people edit themselves.

Just like, “Ed, what in the… what are you doing? That was a…” You kind of hesitate, like that right there. I just laugh.

Or I’ll meet someone, like I did yesterday, I was running around our neighborhood. Met this couple, and they started talking. This guy was dropping this, dropping that, and then, “By the way, tell me what you do for a living.” Oh, I love this part. I took my sunglasses off. “I’m a pastor.” You could see the rewind. “Oh, I didn’t mean that. Let me apologize, excuse my French. I just said stuff, and I can’t…”

Hey. This is what I tell people. Don’t apologize to me, apologize to thee. Don’t apologize to me. I’ve heard it all. Sin is my business. Profanity is what we do around here.

ILLUS: First time I ever saw someone try to edit a cussing fit was my dentist. I was in the fifth grade. This guy’s name was Dr. Rupert Kooney. He was a weird little guy. He loved the outdoors, but he had a voice like this, and when he would talk to you, he was working on your teeth. And he would say, “Well, your right… cuspid needs some work. It is about time to… rinse your mouth out?”

Like that, it’s almost like he would pause, and you’re like, “Did he hear what I’m saying?”

He had all these trophies just littered in his office, beautiful trophies of these deer heads, fish and everything. I always enjoyed asking questions and I said, “Dr. Kooney, all your travels around the world, have you ever been hooked before? Have you ever had a fishing hook buried in your skin?”

“I’m glad you asked me. I was fishing with a friend of mine, Dr. Alfred… Tinko, and he had a big old treble hook with an earthworm on it, and he ran back… and that damn, dang, dang, dang, D-A-N-G, dang, dang hook caught me behind the dang ear.”

He turned as red as a beet. I felt so sorry for him. Around the pastor’s kid, he’s trying to be all holy and righteous, and he’s just like boom. That’s funny.

Maybe you’re the editor, maybe you’re like the chameleon. Maybe with one group, you talk this way, with another group, you’re talking another way. “Oh excuse me, do you speak swearese? So do I. Yeah, it just comes out. I don’t know what I’m saying.”

But that same person, when he’s around, she’s around another group, won’t say that. See, it’s difficult.

But again, this message is not just a message about don’t cuss, watch your tongue, let’s start a swearing club, a jar, and when you curse, you drop a quarter in the jar. No, it’s more than that. It’s a heart issue. Did you hear what I said earlier? It’s from the heart. The heart is the seat of ourself. It’s where our emotions and intellect, it’s where everything falls. It’s the foundation of who we are. So this is a heart issue.

Matthew 15:18, Jesus said, but the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them.

In Luke 6:45, a good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his what? Heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

ILLUS: 20 months ago, I had open heart surgery. I’ll even show you my scar. I have no secrets. That was major surgery. Dr. Gerald Lawrie, one of the best valve surgeons in the world, repaired my valve.

You see, I was born with a mitral valve prolapse. A lot of people have mitral valve prolapses. It’s common, and most of them don’t have to have surgery, but I did. I’d run marathons, played college basketball, an incredible career, All-American. Did all that stuff, I felt great, but my voice was a little bit hoarse. I was like “Lisa, man, my voice is scratchy. It doesn’t feel right.”

I was just a little bit, when I would run, a little bit out of breath, but man, it was a hundred degrees. And I’m like, that’s just part of it. So I go to the doctor, “oh you might have a little bit of adult asthma, a little bit.”

Got that checked out, they weren’t really sure. But I was like, “man.” So I regularly go to the cardiologist, because I have mitral valve prolapse, and my cardiologist has always told me, “We’ll just check it out every other year to make sure everything’s okay. I mean, you’re going to be fine, because you’re in great shape, healthy as a horse, but we need to check it.”

They did this test on me, and I had a weird feeling about that test. Even though I felt great. Got the phone call three days later, I’m like “uh-oh.”

“Uh, Ed, your heart is not doing well. I mean, your valve is failing. You have a backwash of blood.”

[There is a video playing of Ed’s heart scan] See the red? That’s me, that’s my heart. My heart was filling up with blood, it was enlarged. My lungs were filling up with blood. I was dying. I had seven months left.

And to get really technical, the mitral valve is kind of like a parachute. It has these cords in the heart, and one of the cords just popped. Don’t know why, just popped. So, because of the blood, I had cardiac asthma. That’s why my voice was hoarse. Go back and look at the tapes. 20 months ago, yeah, you’ll see. It’s like “man, Ed, your voice.”

So Dr. Lawrie, and he specializes in mitral valves, done thousands of them, he split me from stem to stern, sawed open the chest, stopped my heart, and performed the surgery, he repaired it. A little valve.

Then he told me he tested it before they closed me up to restart my heart, then he said this. This really messed me up. He said, “Before we start the heart, we have to touch the heart, I do,” he said. “And I massage the heart to get the air out, because if I don’t get the air out, you’ll stroke out.”

So he touched, this incredible surgeon, my heart. Then they sewed me up. He has this guy with him named Boris. Boris is like a ridiculous seamstress, that’s why my scar looks so good. I mean, it looks pretty good, doesn’t it? He told me, he said, “Ed, your chest is so muscular, we had a hard time penetrating the muscle.” He said, “But once we finally got in there, we were able to do the surgery.”

So anyway, he sewed me up, and Dr. Lawrie said, when my chest was open, he saw, once he fixed it, my heart begin to shrink back to its normal size. Is that sick? It’s unbelievable. And he saw changes in it already.

So I went to the cardiologist a couple days ago for a checkup. He’s like, “man, Ed, you’re doing great. I mean, you’ve got energy, no symptoms. Man, your surgeon’s a rock star. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

And I do, I feel better now than I did prior to surgery. And check out my voice. I mean, the people that run the sound here tonight, they’re like “Ed, your voice has gotten stronger. It’s got more power in it.”

I described to you symptoms of a heart condition. What I’m talking about, profanity is a symptom of a heart condition. What I’m talking about, by the words, by the gestures, by the attitudes, by the lifestyle. I’m talking about symptoms of a deeper issue. Jesus is the great physician. He wants to operate. The scripture is the sacred scalpel. The scripture can slice and cut to the core. Life is so short. We have an opportunity to leverage our words, our attitudes, our actions, even our gestures, to show the love of God.

The Psalmist says in Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, oh God, and know my heart.” What if we could do a spiritual sonogram on everyone right now? “Test me, Lord, test me, and know my anxious thoughts. See if there any offensive way in me, and lead me to the way everlasting.”

I pray that we make the decision today to speak, to gesture, to live the way our great God wants us to. The great physician wants to touch your heart, and he will if you’ll let him.

[Ed leads in closing prayer.]

Fool: Part 2 – From the Workplace to a Worship Space: Transcript & Outline

Fool

Week 2

“From the Workplace to a Worship Space”

April 15, 2018

Ed Young

Where do you to work? Better yet, how do you view your work? Whether it is in a boardroom, classroom, locker room, or family room, work is a crucial part of all of our lives. But work is about more than contributing to the bottom line; it can actually help us discover our God-given purpose. In this message, Pastor Ed Young dives in to some proverbial wisdom from God to help us reach our full potential and turn our workplace into a worship space!

Transcript

INTRO: You know, we spend half our waking hours involved in this. A lot of us go to school for it. We have discussions about it. I think it’d be safe to say that here, and in all of our different environments, some people love what I’m talking about. Others loathe it. What am I talking about? Well, work.

That’s a four-letter word. For some of us. Others it’s like, “Yeah, work!”

I’m talking about human labor. Now some of you are right now going, “Oh man. Why did I come to church today? Ed’s talking about work. You’ve got to be kidding me. Work is a curse. To the salt mines we go. I pretty much endure a five-day work week so I can enjoy the weekend.

Well, you know, we are in a series in the Book of Proverbs. The Book of Proverbs is an Old Testament book. And it was written by a guy named Solomon. Solomon was interesting because God asked him one question. “Solomon. Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you.”

Solomon said, “I’ll take wisdom.”

Now, that was a brilliant answer. Because he had wisdom, he was the wealthiest man to ever walk on planet Earth. Also, he had a lot of popularity. I mean you want to talk about followers, you want to talk about clicks and likes. He had it. Possessions like no one. Yet, he wrote this book inspired by the Holy Spirit of God called the Book of Proverbs.

Now, the word proverbs means to govern, to rule, to reign. Wisdom should be a rule, a reign. Because wisdom is from God. Wisdom is something we receive. It’s a gift. Knowledge is great. Knowledge, though, is just something we learn, something we accumulate, and I’m not anti-knowledge, nor should you be. But wisdom, man. That’s where it’s at. Wisdom is from God. Isn’t that cool?

Wisdom. We need wisdom. And wisdom, if you think about the word, is seeing life and doing life from God’s perspective. It’s having God’s thoughts, his hands, his feet. It’s doing life God’s way.

The Book of Proverbs talks about anger, sexual temptation, marriage, friendships, work, laziness. I mean, it’s not really that relevant!

We’re going to spend some time as we talk about the books of proverbs. So, today we’re talking about work.

Now, when I say work, what goes through your mind? I don’t care if you’re a homemaker, which is probably the most difficult job out there. I don’t care if you’re a homemaker, a pastor, a poet, a Rockstar. I don’t care if you work in the realm of technology, real estate. It doesn’t matter if you’re a surgeon, a nurse, a teacher. Whatever you do, you are involved, I am involved in human labor.

Here’s one thing I want you to understand about human labor. The first thing I want you to understand. Number one, work is a gift from God. I know that shocks you, like “Come on, now.”

Yep, it is, seriously. Work is a gift, a present from God. Think about back in the Garden of Eden. Before sin saturated the soils of the Garden of Eden. Before man screwed up. Before we dropped the ball. Before we committed cosmic treason, you have God giving Adam and Eve the gift of work. You know what God said? “Take care of my garden.” (And that should but put to rest the age old argument, regarding what is the oldest profession known to man. Landscaping! That’s it.)

They were to work. So work was given to man and woman before the fall of man. Fall, meaning falling into sin. A lot of us have a whack view of work because we’re fallen. We don’t understand how deep work is and how it is a gift from God. But it is. God worked. We’re made in God’s image. God worked.

You’re like, “Get out of town, Ed. Are you serious?”

Yeah, he did. Genesis 1:1, “God created.” That’s work.

Genesis 1:2, “…the spirit of God was hovering…”

Genesis chapter one verse three, “God separated…”

Genesis 1:8, “God called…”

Genesis 1:16, “God made…”

Genesis 1:31, “God saw all that he had made and it was very good.”

Say that with me again. Very good. Read here, accomplishment. Have you ever just wrapped your brain around that? Accomplishment. Why do you like to accomplish things? I do. I mean, it’s that moment when I speak.

People ask me this sometimes, “How much time do you spend in preparation for speaking?” Or, “Where do you get the ideas for these messages?”

People ask me that question squillions of squillions of times. Here it is. It’s basically work. Every minute on stage, I put about an hour of preparation in. And the most difficult thing I do as pastor/CEO of Fellowship Church is this. I mean public speaking, man. It’ll freak you out. It freaks me out. No wonder I had heart valve surgery. It blew a valve. Boom! You know people fear public speaking more than fear death? So people would rather be in the box as opposed to giving the eulogy. Think about that, I’m serious. I’m not kidding you.

So I’m not a guy who’s like, “Oh I want to speak, give me a microphone! Let me entertain you.”

No no no. I’m called to preach, to speak. It’s what I do. It’s the most difficult thing that I do. The most challenging thing that I do. And on Monday mornings, I try to initiate and put the first burst of offensive energy into that which is the most difficult thing for me to do here at fellowship. Hiring staff and dealing with budgets and building, I mean those are challenging, but nothing like this. Day in, day out. Now I’m not whining. I’m not playing the martyr card. I’ve got to come up with a term paper. It’s about, you know, the length of a term paper. It’s going to be research. It’s going to be biblical, number one.

Number two, it’s got to be relevant.

Number three, we have people here who have their seminary degrees, they’ve got to understand it. Also people here, you might be at the first part of your spiritual run, you’re brand new, you don’t know anything about the Bible. It’s got to be irrelevant to you.

Maybe you’re a single parent and you’re just, you know, freaking out because of stress. It’s got to speak to you. Maybe you just lost a loved one. Maybe the grave is still fresh, it’s got to speak to you. Maybe you just scored like, maybe you made a million dollars this week. “Wow, I closed the deal of my life.” It’s got to speak to you. It’s got to be humorous, it’s got to be relevant, it’s got to be funny, got to be biblical.

That will mess you up. No wonder I’m crazy. No, no no. It’s a God thing. But that’s something that I do. And I get to do this. I don’t have to do this. I get to do it.

You get to work. You don’t have to work. You get to work. “Oh, I’ve got to work.” Well that sense of accomplishment is something that money can’t buy, dignity. After I walk off the stage, like “Wow, thank you Jesus.”

And almost every time when I’m driving home in my car, I go “Thank you, Lord, for getting me through another week.” A sense of accomplishment. I mean I put at least 20 hour into today’s talk.

How do you feel when you put your toddler down for the night? A sense of accomplishment. How do you feel when you perform the last surgery? Accomplishment. How do you feel when you’ve taken care of that person at work who’s an absolute fool? A sense of accomplishment. And also relief. How do you feel after you finally finish the lesson plan? How do you feel after you’ve worked and worked and worked and for a whole month, you’ve had a date night every week? A sense of accomplishment. How do you feel when you walk off the field or the court when you’ve just given it your all? A sense of accomplishment. How do you feel when you’ve created something, or maybe you bought a business, and wow, this is my first check. A sense of accomplishment.

It’s God given. It’s God given. God’s a working God and we’re made in his image, and that sense of accomplishment is good. If we don’t work, we’re not going to have dignity. We’re not going to have the self-respect like God wants us to have. It’s a God thing.

Don’t you love the genius of God? He created human labor, a place for us, a venue for us to showcase our talents and abilities and aptitudes? Thank God for it.

Notice also that only is work a gift from God, we have to get to know our CEO. Who’s your CEO? You’re just thinking about some guy in Manhattan somewhere or some lady that you see now and then. No no. Who’s you’re CEO? You’re thinking about, “Well okay, are you talking about my boss? My manager? Are you talking about my teacher or my coach?”

No, no. Who’s your CEO? Well, Colossians 3:23 tells us, it says, “Whatever…” Now this word whatever is a very interesting word. It means whatever. “Whatever you do,” I don’t care if you’re building fences, it doesn’t matter if you’re sweeping floors. Doesn’t matter, students, if you’re taking out the trash. Doesn’t matter if you’re cleaning up your room. Whatever you do, it doesn’t matter if you’re doing squillion dollar real estate deals. It doesn’t matter if you’re making clothes. Whatever you do, do it. That’s right. Do work, man. Do work. “Whatever you do, do it for Jesus. Not for men.”

Here’s an exercise. Do a mental Photoshop right now. Take the person you report to. And husbands, that would be our wives. That was good. I’m joking. Women make the world go round. They’re amazing. But whoever you report to, just for a second, mentally Photoshop the face of Jesus. And let the face of Jesus replace their face. That is who you’re working for.

Your mom and dad tell you, “Hey, here are your chores.”

“Man, I can’t believe dad, mom, man, my friends don’t have to do.”

Put the face of Jesus, mentally, in place of their face. That manager. “Oh, she’s unfair.” Well, life is not fair. Where’s fairness in the Bible? It’s not going to be fair. Put the face of Jesus on that person’s shoulders. Ultimately, you’re not working for her, or him. It’s for Jesus.

And that helps me. Because I have a tendency, this is just me, to be lazy in certain areas. And left to our own devices as human beings, we’re going to always, move toward comfort. I mean, the way of man is not north. It’s south. I just want to relax.

“You know one day I’m going to make enough money to retire. Oh yeah. Aspen, maybe Telluride. Maybe somewhere in the Bahamas. And I’m just going to do absolutely nothing. That’s my goal. To make enough money to just put it on auto pilot. Cruise control.”

Retirement is not in the Bible, did you know that? It’s not there. I mean, I’ve tried to find it. I’m not saying that there aren’t seasons in life. I’m not saying that there are certain seasons where you really have to bust it, and you can, you know, disengage a little bit. I’m not saying that. I’m saying, though, we’re wired for work. We’re wired for it.

ILLUS: I was talking to my financial advisor recently. I could sell a couple of things and retire right now. I’m 57, I have enough money. So I enjoyed it. I’m tired of preaching. I’ll see y’all later. Are you kidding me?! I mean I could. But I’m not going to do that. God has given me an opportunity for human labor. He’s calling me to be pastor of Fellowship Church. So when you see Ed Young, pastor, don’t put a period, put a comma. I’ve invested in real estate, and other investments, and we’ve given generously to Fellowship Church. I’ve written fourteen books and speak all over the place. I mean, do the math. I’m not in this thing for money or like, “Whoa, one day I can retire.” No, sorry. You’ll be stuck with me for a long time.

So if that’s your vibe, okay, great. Okay, let’s say you retired from one job. That’s fine. But do something else. You’ve got to have dignity.

ILLUS: I was having a conversation this Tuesday with a friend of mine. And this guy’s made a ton of money. I know he has. He has a lot of money. And I asked him, I said, “Why do you still work?”

He said, “I’ve got to work.”

I said, “Well what’s a work day for someone like you?” This guy’s a multimillionaire. Multi multi.

He told me, “I get up, early, at the office.”

I’m like, “What do you do at the office?”

He started telling me. I’m like, “Dang. That’s impressive!”

He understands dignity. Then he started talking about younger people that he knows and some of his kids. And he’s like, “I want them to have dignity. I want them, I want young people to have a sense of accomplishment.”

And I said, “Do you mind if I talk about that in church?” Silence. I go, “I’m not going to use your name, but do you mind if I say that?” He goes “Yeah, yeah, say it.”

Isn’t that interesting? So work is a gift from God. It’s a gift from God. Number two, Jesus is our CEO. We’re working for him. Whatever you’re doing, you’re working for him. Work is a gift from God.

But as I told you earlier, and here’s where we’re going to camp out for just a second. I have a tendency toward laziness. And so do you.

Now in a church like this, we have a high octane church. I mean, we have type A personalities. We have very successful people and that great. I love that. And we all have kind of weird view of work because of our falleness. But I’m saying to you is in its purest form, work is a gift from God.

Are there boring times? Yes. Are there times that I want to go, “Man, I just don’t want to show up.” But I’ve got to show up. For what I do, I can’t table it. I can’t file a continuance. I can’t say, “You know what, I don’t feel like speaking before thousands and thousands.” I’ve got to do it.

And there are things in your life, as a homemaker, that you can’t put off. You have stresses I don’t have. I have stresses you don’t have. I don’t care who you are. We’ve got to grind it out.

Some of the time, in fact, I would say this. People ask me, okay, fellowship church. You’ve been at it for 28 years, it’s one of the biggest churches in America, blah blah blah blah. What are some of the secrets? Well, one of my main secrets is this. I just basically show up. If you show up, if you show up, that’s big. Just show up. And then God will take care of the rest.

Cause you’re going to go “Whoa, man, this is a gift. I’m working for Jesus.” But do you have an education? I got to ask you that. Do you really have an education? And I’m not talking about college or Ph.D or your doctorate or your GED. No, no, do you have, I mean do you have a diploma from the University of Ant.

No I didn’t misspeak. You should have a diploma, so should I, from the University of Ant. Because the Bible says, this is Solomon, and when Solomon’s speaking, God is speaking. King Solomon’s talking to his kids and the King of Kings is talking to his kids. Check out Proverbs 6:6-11. And I got to show you my Bible. I drew an ant. See that, right there? You like that? Can you see it? Get it closer. Closer, there. See, okay, focus. There we go! Right there. See? Ah! It bit me.

Okay. See, I’m ADD and if I get off track, I’ll go oh, I’m talking about the ant. See I’ve already started chasing stuff.

But you know, we have this mentality, don’t we? In our world today? Kind of this millennial thing, this vibe, we think, “Oh yeah. I’ll do just enough to get by. It’s kind of the millennial vibe, the socialistic thing.”

Let me tell you something. Socialism is not in scripture. Socialism is horrendous. I just got back from Cuba about a year and a half ago and people talk about how sexy Cuba is, how cool it is. It’s awful. The people are depressed, despondent, they have zero dignity. And I would love for a lot of the college professors to go down there and just see what I saw when I traveled throughout Cuba and spoke. We got to take responsibility.

And sadly, in our welfare system, most people who are on welfare should not be on welfare. The Bible says that if you can work, then work. But if you can work and you don’t work, the Bible says you shouldn’t even eat. I’m all for taking care of the poor. Our church does an amazing job taking care of the poor. And we should do that. If someone cannot help themselves, and someone cannot work, we need to take care of them. But too many women have married the government and it’s more beneficial for them to be on welfare and marry the government and crank out a couple of kids as opposed to being married to someone else. Because that someone else is lazy.

Are you taking responsibility for your life? Go to the ant. You taking responsibility for your stuff? Go to the ant. Proverbs 6:6-11, I love this. Notice first of all the observation. Observe the creation. Observe the ant. And we have so many fire ants around. Man, those things are ubiquitous. Are they not?

“Go to the ant, you sluggard.”

Oh, talk about up in my grill. Sluggard, what is that? Someone’s who’s lazy. Have you ever seen a slug before? Check one out. Look at this picture of a slug. They’re ugly, man. And they don’t even have a shell. And I research them, and they have this mucus trail behind them, as they slither along. Slimy, you know?

If I’m not careful, I can slide and even surf on the slime into the seductive pull of the sluggard. The sluggard and so can you. If I’m on my own, I’ll just kind of slide on the slime of the sluggard. Lazy, doing just enough to get by. “I’ll do that tomorrow. You know, it’s not big deal. Whatever, doesn’t matter how I look. Doesn’t matter how my car is. You know I’m just going to do what I’m going to do. And you know, the boss isn’t looking and.”

Well, Solomon says go to the ant. Ant University, observation. Go to the ant, you sluggard. “Consider its ways, and be wise.” That’s an education. It’s a good observation. An education.

And now the initiation. The ant takes initiative. Are you taking initiative in your marriage? Hey husbands, are you taking initiative with your kids? Moms, are you taking initiative? Hey, CEO, are you taking initiative? Hey manager, are you taking initiative? Teacher, doctor, lawyer, taking initiative? Or do you sit back and go, “I’m just going to slide on the slime of a sluggard.”

Observation, education, initiation. And this is so good, I got to put off a lot of this stuff until next week. Next week I really, there’s some really cool stuff about, oh yeah, I just want him to say it, but, I’m excited. I have to spend another 20 hours on it though. I just know generally what I’m going to talk about, but I got to spend 20 hours before I can really tell you about it, anyway.

“It has no commander, no overseer, or ruler.” Don’t you like that? Self starters. You know Fellowship Church, we hire self-starters. If you’re like, if you have to just sit around and we have to motivate you, have you ever seen…

How many coaches do we have here? If you’re a coach, lift your hand. I love coaches. Don’t be shy, all right, okay. Coaches can motivate. Here’s the coaches clap. Let’s go! Come on ladies! Come on guys! Coaches clap. I mean, I’m a hard clapper. I can clap, man. That’s how coaches work.

So these ants are like, “Hey, chill on the coaches clap. I’ll just take initiative myself.”

Do you take initiative in integrity? At the office? Are you the first to speak the truth? You the first with the innovative idea? I mean, if they could say, okay, who are the top five percent of producers? Would you be in that list? I mean would you be in that conversation? You should be. So should I. Work! Because when we realize we’re working for God, our work space can become a worship place.

I don’t care if you are, as we say in Texas, in the oil bidness. I like that, bidness. You ever seen that? I like a lot of oil guys, when they talk. They don’t open their mouths fully. “Yeah, I’m in the oil bidness, you know.” Guys don’t really open up their mouth a lot, “Yeah, I’m in the oil bidness out dere in west Texas.” I don’t know, I just have picked that up. “Yeah I’m worth about 13 billion, but it’s pretty good.” Anyway, yeah so. Why did I say that? I don’t know what I say some of the things I say. But, I think you feel me.

You have to take initiative. I want the new idea. I want to try it. I want to face the impossible odds. “Oh, we can’t hire that person. The people are not out there.” I’m going to make it happen. I’m going to make the call. As a believer, I need to be that way.

I’m going to change something in our church that’s never been done before. Like these stickers. You ever notice the stickers on the floor? It’s genius. We’re the first ones ever to do that. Stickers. Cheap, they’re just stickers. But they reinforce, phew, man what are we talking about, fool? We’re all foolish in some way, shape, or fashion. Do you think these colors came out of nowhere? With our design team? Do you think this just happened? Name another place that has branding like this. You can’t think of one. Initiative.

Are you initiating stuff in your life? Or just sitting back, waiting, “h I’m just going to wait for the coaches clap.” Let’s go! No. Initiate. Observation, education, invitation. Yeah, took his ant out, man, I’m telling you. Ant Academy, University of Ant.

“It stores its provisions (somebody help this ant) in summer and gathers its food at harvest. Oh that’s great. Be prepared. Ants are prepared.

While other people are going, “Well, I’m going to take a couple of months off. I’m going to take a sabbatical, man.” That’s what the sluggard’s saying. “I’m just going to slide over here and do what I do. I just going to, just take a little break.” The ant’s like, “What are you smoking, Jack? I’m working. Because when I work now, in about four or five months, I’m going to be blessed, and I’m going to receive all of this windfall.”

Are you grinding it out? I mean, are you working hard or hardly working? A lot of people work hard. They’re just majoring on the superfluous and missing the significant.

What does it mean for you to put the ball through the net in your job? As a mom, as a wife, as a husband, as a father. What does it mean for you to put the ball through the net in the oil bidness? What does it mean for you to put the ball through the net as you are cleaning teeth? Or performing surgeries? What does it mean for you to put the ball through the net as you’re working on, maybe a television, a cell phone. Whatever. I mean, what does it mean when you’re designing something? For you to put the ball through the net. What does it mean? If you’re a musician, what does it mean for you to put the ball through the net? Concentrate on that. Initiate there, that’s one.

ILLUS: As I said earlier on Monday, tomorrow morning, I’ll be up early. And I’ve got a holy hangover every single weekend. I’m emotionally fried. I’m not whining, it’s just part of what I do. I’ll put offensive energy into next weekend’s message. Now, I’ve got to travel to New York and speak three straight times on Thursday, but guess what? That’s not the most important thing I do, is it? I mean, that’s great. Most important thing I do is what? Fellowship church. Weekend, here.

Are you thinking about your job that way? You should be. It’s awesome. We get to work! And when we mean business with God, he does business in our business. Observation, education, invitation, preparation.

ILLUS: There’s a guy, I don’t want to embarrass anyone on our staff right now at Fellowship. This guy is a working machine. Now everybody in Fellowship has a great work ethic. We are for intensity, not intellect. We are the heart, not for head knowledge. However, this guy is a smart worker and I mean he is an initiative taker. If we just mention an idea in a staff meeting, he’s already on it, I mean, when we just mention it. Amazing!

And here’s what I’ve seen. His kids are unbelievable workers. He takes his kids with him when he can, and they’re working machines! Isn’t that great? I hope I hire all of them one day. And there’s one right here on the front row, I’m not going to point her out, but she knows who she is.

Work. Ant Academy! Work! The University of Ant. I don’t want to slide on the slime of a sluggard. But it’s sexy just to relax. Just to really work on not working. Just to chill, to do enough to get by. “My parents will take care of me. Oh, the government. They’re there to take care of me, right? Isn’t that right?”

Travel to Havana with me the next time I go. I’d like to take every professor fuzzy face at Harvard and Yale and all the other schools down there to Cuba, and they would go, “Oh my gosh! I’m changing everything I’m saying!” That’s just my personal opinion.

Observation, education, don’t you love this alliteration? Initiation, preparation, and procrastination. Last thing I’m going to talk about. Last thing. Procrastination. That’s what a sluggard does. He or she, they procrastinate.

And man, Solomon, and this is so brilliant. He goes, two questions. How long will you lie there, you sluggard? Isn’t that amazing? Doing the same things the same way, expecting unique results. Sorry, you’re going to fail.

Number two. When will you get up from your sleep? I love this. A little sleep, see just a little bit. A little slumber, just a little bit. A little folding of the hands to rest. And poverty, oh my gosh. Will come on you like a thief. Scarcity, like an armed man.

If you’ve ever been mugged or robbed, I mean you don’t plan it, do you? You don’t say, “Oh, watch this. I’m getting ready to be assaulted.” No. Happens out of nowhere. He’s like, all right. That was a good meal, like that, you’re walking. Boom! You know. Here’s my wallet, here you want it, you want it, you know. Out of nowhere.

Here’s the application. In poverty, I’m talking to the sluggard. That slow moving, snail like creature leaves a trail of mucus. And poverty, financial poverty. Relational poverty. Spiritual poverty. Emotional poverty will come on you like a thief.

T.S. I thought about, how can we close today’s session down? Because we’re done. I’m five minutes and 46 seconds over time, that’s okay. We’re going to do an exercise right now. And this is going to be an exercise in images on our screens. Now here’s all you have to do. I want you, right now, to yourself, just ask the Holy Spirit of God to prompt, to affirm, maybe to get up in your face a little bit. Because I don’t think we have generalized sluggardness here, generally speaking.

We don’t have a bunch of sluggards here, no. Heck no. I can tell by looking at you guys. I’m talking about some of us, I’m talking to myself. Because I’ve already done this exercise. We have selective sluggardness, are you feeling me? Kind of latent areas of laziness. So the Holy Spirit’s going to point those out and I just want to whet your appetite now, and we’ll continue with this next time.

Let’s look at the first image. Family. You know, half of our church at fellowship, half of our church will be single parent families. About half. Isn’t that amazing? And then so many many come from divorce situations. Okay? And many have the nuclear family set up. Here’s what I’m going to ask you. What’s the Holy Spirit of God saying to you? I’m talking to wives right now about the priority of your marriage. How are you doing? Husbands. What’s the holy spirit of God telling you about the priority of your marriage? It’s the only relationship, the only one, that’s analogous to God’s relationship with his people. Isn’t that interesting? It’s not parenting. It’s not your cousin or your uncle.

I’m reading a tragic book right now about Tiger Woods. He has one of the saddest families. His mom and dad, so sad. I’ve ever studied in my life. What a tragedy. Over and over and over, they said, as a kid, “It’s all about Tiger.” Over and over and over. “It’s all about Tiger.” Over and over and over, Tiger Tiger Tiger. Their lives are in shambles. Look at Tiger Woods. He needs our prayers.

This can happen whether you have hundreds of millions like Tiger, or whether you have nothing. What’s God saying to you? Marriage is the most important thing. So goes your marriage, so goes everything else. How about your kids? Some of you are like, “Well, man, I’m making a lot of money out there in the market place and I’m like a scratch golfer.” How about your kids? Are you impressing upon them the importance of work and dignity? Are you disciplining them with love? Yeah, with authority?

Next line. Work. I like that kind of, just kind of universal, you know? How’s your work? I’ll say it again. Honesty, integrity, innovation, creativity. Concentrating on the significant, focus, trying new things. Maybe stepping out and starting a new company. I don’t know. How are you in that? I’m talking to students and kids. How are you in that?

Next slide. How about health? Wow. Man, that’s good picting. You know the Bible talks about that? The Bible says that our bodies are a temple, a dwelling place of the holy spirit of God? It says don’t trash the temple. Are you eating a healthy amount of food? I mean I understand. At least they’re not trying to live by 90 10 principle. 90% of the time, you eat pretty healthy. The other 10%, yeah we’ll cheat on the diet. See, some people worship food. You have anorexia, bulimia, and even guys, man worship their hulking six pack. Maybe an eight pack, I’m ripped. And they’re as whacked about that as the super model is about her food. So guys, we’re in the same, do do do, big man. What do you think, man? Isn’t that funny? So I’m talking about a balance here. How about working out? Cardio, some strength training. This is the only body we have, don’t trash the temple.

Next slide. And this is convicting, isn’t it? Cash money. Money. Money matters to God. It does. Money matters to the poor. And I’m thankful. What we’re doing right now for the poor at Fellowship Church. We’re doing stuff for the poor that we couldn’t do if we had 100 people. Or 5,000 people. We have many more people, many more than that. We do huge things for the poor. Our money matters to continue to perpetuate and to push down field the church. And Lisa and I have been a part of that, many of you have been a part of that. Are you lazy with your stewardship? Maybe you’re over spending. “You see, man my credit cards, I’m drowning in debt.” Sloth wise.

Another one. Jesus. Think about the work. God the father is a worker. God the son did the work on the cross, for your sins and mine. The Holy Spirit of God is working in all of our lives. Jesus didn’t sit back on his celestial futon and say, “You know what, haha. Mankind’s in a mess. I’ll just leave you in that chaos.”

What if he had done that? He’s had every right to do it, because we sin. But he took the initiative, did he not? Died on the cross for our sins, rose again, diligence. Intentionality he offers up to you and me. A personal relationship with him. Have you made that? Have you taken that step?

You might be on the back row of the balcony, I can barely see you. You can be in one of our family rooms at our Miami campus. You could be on front row at our north point campus. You might be right there in the grammar school in Celina/Prosper. You could be in downtown Dallas. Maybe you’re in one of those cool theater seats in Keller. Or Southlake. Maybe you’re at our Fort Worth campus across from Montgomery plaza. Maybe you’re at Allaso Ranch overlooking the lake right now through the windows as you’re listening and watching. Maybe you’re online somewhere here, maybe you’re in Europe, I don’t know where you are. Where are you?

Have you made that decision to receive Christ? You can make it right now. And your work will never be the same. Listen to me. There’s a work that only he could do. And there’s a work that only you can do. Have you received the work of our wonderful savior? Let’s pray.

[Ed ends in closing prayer.]

Listen and Live

Rewind – Part 2

“Listen and Live”

July 22, 2018

Pastor Ed Young

Think of someone you know so well that when you hear their voice, you immediately know who they are. In part two of Pastor Ed Young’s series “Rewind,” we will discover the importance of not only learning to recognize the voice of God, but the power and potential that comes with living out what He says.

Transcript

Welcome to Rewind, part two. We’re going back into my life. This one was done, I think, 32 years ago in 1986. 1986 was the year I graduated from seminary. LeeBeth was born, our oldest, in 1986. I was one of the pastors on staff at a church called Second Baptist Houston. It’s still there today. Dad is 82 years old and still going strong. Even though I did this message in 1986, it relates to you and me today.

– I feel the need, the need for speed.

– Let’s pick it up, rewind, here we go. I did a message, and it happened to be a Sunday where we were honoring our young people in the church. It was Youth Sunday, that’s what we called it. This is at Second Baptist Houston, and this is before we built the gigantic complex that Second Baptist has today. This is in a sanctuary. It seated several thousand people. And you’re going to hear some songs, see some songs, see some crazy outfits. Obviously very, very 1980s. ♪ Oh mighty God ♪ ♪ His voice of cheer ♪ ♪ And just the time I need him ♪ ♪ He’s always near ♪ ♪ He lives, he lives ♪ ♪ Christ Jesus lives today ♪

I am no stranger to yard work. As a young boy, I remember vividly playing basketball, baseball in our yard with some of our friends. Dad bought that suit for me, it was all polyester, before I got married several years before this. So that was I think my only dark suit that I had. And you’re sort of supposed to wear dark suits in this context.
We’d be having a great time, maybe a Sunday afternoon, Saturday afternoon, and dad walking outside and saying these words: “Guys, Ed, Ben, our friends, it’s time for a party.” And we would always say, “Alright, it’s time for a party! We’re going to have ice cream, cake. Who all’s coming over?” Dad would say no, Ed, not that kind of party. We’re going to have a weed pulling party.”

– What you talkin’ bout Willis?

– And a weed pulling party was always bad news because it meant that myself and all of our friends had to go outside, and we lived way out in the country, and our front yard was an entire flowerbed. It only had like five flowers and trillions of weeds. And we would go out there and pick weeds for hours and hours and hours, and I’ll never forget as a young boy looking down at those flowers among weeds and even then, realizing what a contrast flowers and weeds are. You see a beautiful flower there among these brown, green, ugly weeds.

– [Man] Beautiful backswing. That’s, oh, he got all of that one!

– Now tonight, we’re going to look at a person, a man by the name of Samuel, who is definitely a flower among weeds. And the reason Samuel was able to be a flower among weeds was because he listened and obeyed the voice of God.

– I sound like Joel Osteen. It says, it says. Do I sound like Joel or am I just joking?

– “This is my Bible. I am what it says I am. I have what it says I have. Amen.”

– Before we look at this section of scripture in the 3rd chapter of 1 Samuel, let’s bow for prayer together. Lord Jesus, I thank you for this opportunity to worship you, and I ask that you would speak through me and give me the words to say so that no one may leave this place unless they know you in a personal way, for we ask these things in your Son’s precious and holy name Jesus Christ, Amen. Turn to First Samuel, the third chapter. We’re going to look at a section of scripture that is very, very descriptive as far as the call of God, and that’s verses one through 11. 1 Samuel 3:1, “Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord before Eli, and word from the Lord was rare in those days. Visions were infrequent.” Now the first part of the first sentence there, “Now the boy Samuel,” that shows Samuel’s youth. We feel that Samuel is around 10 to 12 years of age, and you know the story. His mother, Hannah, had dedicated him to the Lord before he was born, and she gave him to Eli who was the priest of the tabernacle at Shiloh.
Now you think well, what an ideal place for a person to grow up, in a church. That’s where Samuel grew up, with Eli. It says here in the second part, “Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord before Eli.” Now Eli was a man of God. He was a good man, but he was a terrible, terrible parent. He had two sons, Hophni and Phineas that were priests with him, and these sons were the worst preacher’s kids you’ve ever seen in your life. Hophni and Phineas, they first of all, abused the sacrifices of God, and secondly, they had sexual relationships with the women who worked there in the temple. So, Samuel, as he was growing up, had these influences around him, and it’s amazing that he emerged as the great man of God that he was. Now the reason Eli was a terrible parent was because he put his work before his family.

– You spend time with your family?

– Sure, I do.

– Good, because a man that doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man.

– As I said, he was a good man, a man of God, but he put his work before his family. I know some people very well in another state, and this husband and wife are the finest Christian people you would ever want to meet. They love people. They would give you things. Man, those choir people are really engaged, aren’t they? They’re happy. They’re happy to listen, wow. They’d have Bible studies in their home. They share their faith, but they have four children who do not know the Lord, and they’re away from God. The reason is they spent so much time doing things for other people and so much time at the church every time the doors were open that they’ve neglected one of the most important things in their life, and that is their family. You know, I think it’s important to talk about the family. I think that as a pastor, you know, the greatest sermon you’ll ever preach is your relationship with your spouse and your family, so goes your family, so goes the rest of your life.

– So, if I don’t have my family act together, I’m in serious trouble. So, Samuel grew up in a very godless society. The people around him, I’m sure, tried to pull him down, but Samuel was able to emerge a strong man. That second part in the first verse says, “…and word from the Lord was rare in those days. Visions were infrequent…” That means people were not really listening to the voice of the Lord. God was trying to speak, but the men and women were not receptive. Verse 2 tells us, “…and it happened at that time as Eli was lying down in his place. Now his eyesight had begun to grow dim, and he could not see well), and the lamp of God,’ verse 3, “had not gone out yet, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was.” Now Samuel, as I said, was living in the temple, and I’m sure you’ve seen ministers, priests, rabbis, some live in their parsonage, they live there in the church, and that’s where Samuel and Eli were. And in verse 3 it says, “and the lamp of God had not yet gone out.” Now that was a seven-branch lamp that sat right before the veil of the temple. Now Samuel was asleep there, and that lamp was dimly lit. It was lit at sundown and stayed lit until sun up. So, Samuel was asleep there right by the ark, and all of a sudden something woke him up. In verse 4, he tells us that, “The Lord called Samuel and he said here am I.” Now automatically, when Samuel heard ‘Samuel,’ his name, he thought of his old friend, this man who had taught him so much, Eli. He thought Eli was calling for him.

-You know the guy right to my right behind my elbow, the guy in the choir, back row? That’s John Milliero. He’s still is active at Second Baptist Houston to this day. What a great, great story of commitment. I used to lift weights with him, and he was a big, you know, weightlifter, and he used to wear this shirt, this black shirt that had 38 on the back, and I nicknamed him the 38 special.

-So, in verse 5, it says, “Then he ran to Eli and said here am I for you called me, but he said I did not call, lie down again. So he went and lay down.” Verse 6, “And the Lord called yet again, ‘Samuel’. So Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, “Here am I for you called me, but he answered I did not call my son. Lie down again.” Verse seven, the same thing. “Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor had the word of the Lord yet been revealed to him. Now that word “now Samuel did not yet know the Lord.” Samuel knew the Lord, he knew about the Lord, but he did not know God in a personal way.
I talk to people all the time that say oh, Ed, yes. I’m a Christian. I believe in God. I do good things. I act in appropriate ways, but these people, many times, do not personally have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Being a Christian is asking Jesus into your life, and it’s a relationship. A relationship with the Father, and this is the mark of Samuel’s first point of relationship with God. This is when he first met God in a personal way in his life.
So, verse 8 says, “So the Lord called Samuel again for the third time, and he arose and went to Eli and said here am I for you called me. Then Eli discerned that the Lord was calling the boy,” and verse nine says “… and Eli said to Samuel go lie down, and it shall be if he calls you that you shall say speak Lord, for thy servant is listening.” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.” Now can’t you imagine Samuel asleep? I doubt he was asleep. His eyes were probably wide-open waiting, straining his ears to hear the word of the Lord. He knew God was talking to him in an audible voice. What an awesome thing, Samuel getting ready to hear instructions from God.

-I had a mullet going, a little bit of mullet. Look at the mullet. Hello! Man, that’s a pretty good mullet isn’t it? That’s how we roll.

-Verse 10, I love this verse. This is a beautiful verse of scripture. It says, “Then the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, ‘Samuel, Samuel,’ and Samuel said, ‘Speak Lord, for thy servant is listening.’” Now I’ve just read you a very descriptive passage in the Old Testament of a calling of God on a man’s life, and I want us to look back at this section of scripture and pick out some important aspects that relate to our lives in a miraculous and supernatural way. First of all, if we look at this section of scripture, we see that God called Samuel repeatedly. He called him over and over and over and over again. He called him four times, and God calls us, God calls me, he calls you repeatedly.
Every single day of our life, God has something to say to me. He has something to say to you, but many times, I go around, and you go around with wax in our ears. I have horrendous earwax problems.

– Oh, my.

– Yeah, this could be really gross. That’s the earwax.
– You’re clean.

– Amen. We’re dull to the voice of the Lord, but Samuel was ready. He was listening. He heard the voice of the Lord, and he obeyed it. What if you had an important phone call every single day of your life? I guarantee you, if I had an important call, I would sit by the phone just like Batman and Robin used to sit by the Bat Phone. Oh, I used to love Batman and Robin by the Bat Phone, yeah.

– Yes, Commissioner.

– I would sit right there by the phone, waiting for that important call. When I would pick it up and say yes, and I would strain my ears to hear for it. Well, God has a much more important call on our life than a phone call, and we get involved in so many other things and think about so many other things that we fail to be sensitive and listen to his voice. Whenever I say God has spoken to me, I don’t mean that I hear his audible voice. He speaks to my spirit. He speaks to me through his word. He speaks to me in prayer. It’s an impression, but it always has to be confirmed and in sync with God’s word. God can use people. He uses situations. He uses all sorts of things, even discipline, the good times and the bad times, to speak into our lives. But God never ever, ever speaks contrary to Scripture. He’s never going to speak the opposite of what he said in his word, so when people say oh, God spoke to me. No, no, no, not an audible voice. Through his word, through spending time with prayer, through life events and through people.
So, we see that God calls Samuel repeatedly, and also as we read this, we know that God calls Samuel by name. He used his name, Samuel. Isn’t that great, that God cares about us personally? He cares what my name is, what your name is. Have you ever seen the genealogies in the Bible? Sam, the brother of Joe, or brother of him, brother of that, the cousin of him, the grandfather of that? I always wondered as a small child why in the world is all that stuff in the Bible, the genealogies, what does that say to me? Well, one great thing is it shows us that God is a personal God. He cares about us. He knows the number of hairs on our head. He knows what we’re doing, and he wants us to follow him and listen to his voice. So, God calls us repeatedly.
God calls us by name, and we can learn a lot from Samuel, and we should work on having the same attitude that Samuel had, and those words are this in verse 10: “Speak Lord, for thy servant is listening.” That should be our words when God is calling. Speak Lord, for thy servant is listening. In verse 10, it says, “Then the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, ‘Samuel, Samuel,’ and Samuel said, ‘Speak, Lord, for thy servant is listening.’” Now those words are words of attention. Those words are words of listening, and when God calls, the kind of attitude that we should have is one of attention. We should be ready. Our ears should be perked up.

– I have 116lb Rottweiler. That’s a large dog, and his name is Bear. He looks like a bear. He’s a gargantuan sized animal. That dog was so scary. We had like a six-foot fence in our backyard and would like watch people. If they would run down the street, because we lived on the corner, he would jump, and you could see his head just right over the top of that six-foot fence. Woo, Rottweiler. And he stands by our fence. We have a little fence, and there’s little cracks in the fence, and he watches for people to walk down our street. He watches for little dogs and our cat to come across, and his ears will kind of be down, but when he sees a person or sees an animal, his ears will perk up and he’ll look.

– Lassie, Lassie.

– And he’ll be very quiet and just wait for them, and when I think about waiting, when I think about the word “attention,” that’s what I think about. Well, when we pray to God, our ears ought to be strained, we ought to be listening, we ought to be hanging on everything to hear the voice of the Lord. But like I said earlier, some of us are dull. Our hearing is kind of impaired. You know, the people who live on the banks of Niagara Falls, if you come up to them and ask them, “Hey, sir, can you hear the falls? Can you hear the rush of that huge water coming down?” They’ll say no. The reason is because they’ve become accustomed, they’ve become dull to that huge noise. We come to church, read the Bible, we’ve heard the story of Samuel before. We’ve heard John 3:16. We’ve heard that beautiful music before, and we’ve become dull in our hearing. Satan loves to make our hearing dull. I remember as a boy living in the mountains of North Carolina. I lived in a place called Canton, North Carolina that had a huge paper mill, and this place stunk worse than any city or any town you’ve ever smelled.

– Incredible, now you’ve discovered.

– And when I was a small child, when I would go out and play in the yard, when I would come back, I would literally have a black film on my skin from the pollution in the air. When my friends would come to visit me, they would say, “Ed, how can you stand it here? This place stinks so badly, I can’t take it any longer!” But see, I was accustomed to it. My nostrils had become dull. It’s the same way with our ears. God tries to speak to us. He’s searching for us. He’s knocking on the door, but we’re saying no, uh-uh. We might hear his voice, but it floats on out. Some say, “Well, hey, I can’t know that the voice of the Lord is talking to me until it’s a huge, miraculous thing.” I have to hear somebody say something like this, “Ed Young, take that path,” and people will say, “Well, if I can hear that, I know that’ll be the voice of God.” I talk to people like that all the time that tell me, hey I want to hear God’s voice. Well, definitely, God does speak to some people like that. He really does. But I want us to turn over to the book of 1 Kings, the 19th chapter, and look at the 11th verse, and I want to read these verses for you. 1 Kings 19:11, “Now the angel of the Lord told Elijah. He said, ‘Go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord, and behold, the Lord was passing by, and a great and strong wind was rendering the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.’”
Now can you imagine that? A huge wind’s coming by. Boulders and stuff are knocking around Elijah, but the Lord wasn’t in the strong wind. The second part of the verse says an earthquake comes by. It’s shaking all the land around it, but the Lord was not there. Look down at verse 12. It says, “…after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire, a sound of a gentle blowing…” The King James version tells us, “… a still, small voice.”

– Yeah, there was a band that was very popular back in the day. I used to love them, Earth, Wind, and Fire. ♪ Ah, say that you remember ♪

– And this is an Earth, Wind, and Fire verse because the earthquake, no, the great wind, then the fire, earth, wind, and fire, then the still small voice of God. Isn’t that exciting? That God uses the same method he used to speak to Elijah and Samuel that he uses with us? A still small voice.

-Psalm 37 tells us to wait patiently upon the Lord, to be still. God speaks to us in a still, small voice. So, we’re to be attentive when God speaks to us, and we know that God calls us repeatedly, and we know that God calls us by name, but also, if we’ll turn back to 1 Samuel, we’ll find out that not only was Samuel attentive to God’s voice, but he was obedient. He did exactly what God told him to do.

-What I’m talking about here is what I’ve dealt with for three decades. If you had to ask me what would be one of the most frustrating things of being a pastor, I would have to tell you what I’m talking about now. It’s talking to people. It is giving biblical advice and people listening and doing the exact opposite. There’s no doubt about it. It can make you crazy, so that’s a major, major frustration that I’ve dealt with. Thankfully though, a lot of people listen and obey like Samuel, they say speak, your servant’s listening. Others say speak, but I’m not listening, and that’s, that can cause a lot of consternation. And this is where we mess up in so many circumstances.

– Verse 18 says, “So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him.” Now you remember earlier, we talked about Hophni and Phineas. They were terrible people, and God told Samuel to warn Eli that destruction was going to come to his house because his sons, his family, was making a mockery of God, and Samuel told Eli every single thing the Lord told him to tell him, every single thing, and we need to have that attitude. When God tells us something, we don’t just hear it. We need to do it.

– [Man] Just do it.

– We need to obey, and again, some take this to an extreme. I’ve seen some monks and I’ve heard of people who withdraw from society. They live way over here on a cave, and they sit there by themselves, and they, oh yes, they listen to the voice of God. They hear God’s voice, but they’re so withdrawn from the world that they can’t obey. They’re so far away, they’re just removed. Jesus Christ tells us that we are to be in the world, but not of the world. We’re to be in a position where we can use what God’s telling us. We’re to apply it. A person can know a lot about a sport. A person can know a lot about history. A person can know a lot about a lot of things, but until they apply it where they are living, it’s no good. It is no good.

-That is so, so true. So many people, so many people who go by the label of “Christians” think it is a knowledge game. It’s not a knowledge game. Yeah, you have to have some knowledge. It’s about application. That’s why 70% of Christ’s words were words of application. Just because you know the Bible, just because you know theology, just because you take notes and all that, I mean, are you living it out?

-So it’s my prayer that you’ll listen, that you’ll say, God, speak to me, your servant’s listening, and you’ll walk it out through everything you do, say, touch, and feel. God wants us to obey his voice, and that’s a beautiful thing that I’ve seen today, in this Youth Sunday. We have seen young people who have heard the voice of God, and not only have they heard it, but they are putting it into practice in every facet of their lives.

-You know, I’m talking, again, about the students that I had the opportunity to speak to. So many of those students obeyed the voice of God, and they’re world changers today. They are, and what’s so exciting was the fact that they obeyed God’s voice then, so if you’re a young person, listen to me, man. Listen to the voice of God. You can become a world changer if you will take advantage of those opportunities of what God’s saying to you. And that’s preaching a sermon to me, and I know it is to a lot of people here.

– Jay Adams, a minister in the Second Baptist Convention, tells a story of his son, Teddy, and Teddy, this man’s son would go with him to study on Saturday nights as he would prepare for his sermon, and as this man would study, this minister would study, his son would play. He would color little coloring books, take his dad’s pencils and draw around and do different things as little kids will do, and he would become bored after a while, and it would be night, and the church be very dark, and he would ask his dad. He would say, “Dad, can I go out down the hall and get a drink of water?” And his dad would say, “Sure, son. That’s not very far, just walk down the hall. Sure, you can go down there and get a drink of water.” And he said, “Well, Dad, will you go with me? I’m kind of scared. It’s dark out here in this church, and I’m kind of fearful.” And his dad said, “No, I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I need to study here. I’ll just whistle, and as long as you can hear my whistle, you’ll know that I’m close by.” So little Teddy thought a second. He said, “That sounds like a great idea!” So, he would venture down the hall and look around and get some water. He’d hear his dad’s voice. His dad would maybe whistle Amazing Grace, and his son would play and run around, and when he’d get out of range of the whistle, he knew he might be in trouble, so he’d move back into the range where he could hear his father’s whistle.
Teddy grew up, was drafted, went to the Korean War. The first night he was there, bombs hit his bunker. Many of his friends were killed, but miraculously, he was spared, unharmed. He wrote his father a letter. He said, “Dear Dad, last night was the worst night of my life. Last night, I sure needed to hear your whistle. As we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, what a comfort it is to hear the voice of our Father.” Do you know the voice of God? Are you obeying the voice of God in your life? If you are, you know what walking with him really means.

– It’s time that we walk with God, and you know, we’ve tried to make it so available and so easy for you, and one of the miracles of technology is the fact that you hold in your hand an opportunity to get our Fellowship Church app. Also, attending church. You know, you’re not going to hear the voice of God. You’re not going to hear the whistle showing up once every other week, once a month, or once every six weeks. If you look at the stats on church attendance in America, it’s dismal. No wonder people are not living for the Lord. You’re not staying in range of God’s whistle. Listen to the voice of God. Obey the voice of God. Stay in range of his whistle. With the right relationships. Involving yourself in church. Reading scripture. Listening to those situations, knowing that every opportunity is an opportunity where God wants to speak to you and with you. When you do that, you could become a world changer. You can become a Samuel.

-Dear Heavenly Father, you are speaking to some men and women here tonight, and I ask that they will open their hearts and hear your voice, and not only hear it, but may they obey it. Father, some of us here have become dull in our hearing. We have just gone through the motions, played the game, and we haven’t been the kind of people that you would have us to be. Lord Jesus, I pray that there’s someone here who does not know you, who is not truly obeying your voice, that they would take the step and start living for you. For we ask these things in your Son’s precious and holy name, amen.

Last Words: Part 2 – Today: Transcript & Outline

Last Words

“Today”

March 4, 2018

Pastor Ed Young

The first phrase uttered by Jesus on the cross was a prayer to a holy God. “Father, forgive them.” The second, though, was a promise to a repentant sinner. “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” In this simple yet powerful promise, we find hope beyond helplessness and a future beyond futility. As Ed Young continues this study of Jesus’ last words, we realize that no matter how far away we may feel from God, we are all just one small step away from experiencing forever with Him … today.

Transcript

The cross. The cross. It’s the foundation of Christianity, we see crosses everywhere. Have you ever just stopped and thought, Today I’m going to make a note of how many crosses I see”? We have crosses all over our building. Some people have crosses tattooed on their bodies. We have crosses on books, and crosses are everywhere, I mean, wherever you look it seems like, “Oh, there’s a cross.”

We decorate with crosses, and of course the cross is where Jesus did His redemptive work for our salvation. The cross, the cross, the cross. Then, during this time of year we talk about the crucifixion especially, we lean in and talk about the details, the nails, and just the sacrifice, and what Jesus was going through.

I’m in a series called The Last Words. It’s very interesting when you talk to people, especially those who know their time is running out; it’s very interesting when you think about their last words, is it not? Those words are powerful. So often they summarize their lives, so often they pretty much are a capsule of a person’s existence. Other times, when people are taken out suddenly, their last words don’t really mean that much.

But Jesus, I mean, you’re talking about His last words, they were something else. And in fact, they were so powerful, so amazing we’re spending several weeks talking about them.

But I want you to think about the cross. Let’s think about the cross for a second, think about what Jesus said on the cross. Last time, here’s what He said. The first words from the cross, and this is heavy, man. Jesus said, while He was dying, while they were hammering His hands and nails, He said, “Father, forgive them, for they have no idea what they’re doing.”

Can you imagine that? These Roman soldiers, the death squad, they were doing just what they do. They were doing and being involved in the unforgivable. Yet, Jesus forgave them. Now that is, that’s mind-blowing. “Forgive them,” Jesus said. Who is “them”? Well, Pilate, them; the disciples who bolted, them; the crowd, them; you and me. Because in reality, our sins nailed Jesus to the cross. So we learned last time that we need to forgive the unforgivable, because Jesus has forgiven you and me, and forgiveness is more so often for ourselves than it is for those who have hurt us.

Well, today. I want you to go back to the cross, we’re talking about the crucifixion. You know, we always talk about Jesus, we always talk about Him on the cross and we think, “Okay, there’s one cross, Jesus. There’s one crucifixion.” But what about the other guys? I mean, I don’t know if you’ve thought about this very much, but there wasn’t just one cross; there were three. Jesus was not the only one being crucified that day, there were two others.

What about these cats? What about these guys? They don’t get very much love, do they? No one really talks about the criminals, the gangbangers. And when I say criminal, I’m not talking about somebody that just is involved in cyber crime, or someone who just robs a convenience store. No, no, no. These guys were hardened, tough criminals. They were people who would kill, just to take something from someone. And obviously they knew each other. And as you read the tenor and the tone of the synoptic gospels, you see these guys, you know, kind of were partners in crime. They deserved the death penalty.

So the death squad was probably like, “All right, these guys, man, we need to take them out. But Jesus, this preacher? I’m not so sure.”

But the soldiers went along with the crowd and they did the same thing to our Lord. But think about the criminals for a second. Think about those other crucifixions. The Bible says one was on the right, one was on the left.

I’ve got to ask you that question. I mean, are you on the right side of Jesus or the wrong side of Jesus? Because we’re going to find out, one criminal ended up on the right side of Jesus and the other criminal ended up on the wrong side of Jesus. So in essence, whether you find yourself here or in the balcony; whether you find yourself in Miami or North Port; whether you find yourself in prosperous Celina, downtown Dallas, Keller, Southlake, Fort Worth; whether you’re watching this online, you’re either on the right side of Jesus or the wrong side of Jesus. Everyone who leaves this place will either be on the right side or the wrong side.

You know, I’m a why guy. I’m going, “Why would Jesus be in the middle of two criminals?” I mean, really, we’re talking about God’s Son. And obviously evil hands were working on Golgotha, Skull Hill, where Jesus was crucified outside the Damascus Gates. Yet, you have got to love this, while evil hands were working the hands of God were controlling the whole situation. Isn’t that unbelievable? So often in your life and mine we think, “Oh, it’s horrible, I mean, evil hands are working, bad things are happening, this is terrible, I’m lonely, I’m empty, I’ve lost someone, or my dreams have been dashed.”

God is in control, He is working! His hands are moving in the situation. And I’ve seen it time and time again for those of us who are on the right side of Jesus. Even though we think, “Oh no, it’s terrible. Oh no, I mean, the curtains are falling. Oh no, the credits are rolling,” God shows up in a huge way. So we’re going to see the providence of God.

Do you know what the providence of God is? The providence of God is where God supernaturally synchronizes people and events to have this beautiful collision. So that’s what we’re going to find out in the crucifixion and the crucifixions. God, in His providence, supernaturally synchronized these common criminals being crucified on either side of Jesus.

But if it was up to me; I mean if I was in charge, I would’ve said “All right, you gangbangers, I’m going to crucify you guys together. But the preacher from north, Jesus, this itinerant guy, you going to be by yourself.”

Jesus, though, again, don’t miss this, was the man in the middle. The man in the middle, the connector, the man in the middle. Because God saw our sin, He saw the cosmic chasm, He knew that He had to send Jesus, fully God and fully man. Jesus literally is the tissue that took care of the sin issue. He’s the man in the middle, the go-between, the Redeemer, the Savior, our mediator. I’m talking about Jesus.

Well, why was Jesus in the middle? I’m a why guy. 750 years earlier, are you ready for this? Isaiah came along, before Jesus, now, before this even happened, and listen to what the prophet Isaiah said. Isaiah 53:12, “and He was numbered with the transgressors.”

They called Jesus a sinner, although He was not. He was taking the sin, but He was not a sinner. He was numbered with them, though. “And He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”

We’re going to find out, the second statement from Jesus was an opportunity for a criminal who was on the wrong side to get on the right side. Man. So I want you to look, if you will, right quick at this supernatural situation.

I don’t know if you it or not, but a supernatural situation caused you to even attend Fellowship Church today.

You’re like, “What?”

Yeah, in God’s providence. Nothing happens by accident, it’s by and through a divine appointment that you’re hearing this. Well, let’s read Luke 23:32 and following. Two other men (the gangbangers), both criminals, were also led out with Him to be executed. When they came to the place called The Skull…” That’s, again, Golgotha.

You’ve got to go to Israel, let me do a quick commercial, with Lisa and I this Thanksgiving. All right? You can talk about trips, “I’m going to Hawaii, I’m going to Aspen,” whatever, great. “I’m going on a cruise.” That’s awesome. No trip is like a trip to the Holy Land. We’re going to be outside the Damascus Gate where this crucifixion went down. And the reason they crucified people outside the Damascus Gate was, all the people cruising in and out of J-town, Jerusalem, would go like, “Whoa, man, wow. They’re serious. Man, the Roman death squad will take you out if you mess around.” It’s almost like the drug cartel. Travel to Mexico, they hang bodies from overpasses and bridges and everywhere. Why do they do that? Well, “Hey, we’re the cartel, don’t mess with us, this is what’s going to happen if you mess with us.”

That’s what was happening here. So you had all these people, all these hangers-on, all these haters just spewing this venom at Jesus. So, two guys were crucified with Him, and let me direct your attention to the last part of Luke 23:33 again. They crucified Him there along with the criminals,” I’ll say it again, “one on His right, the other on His left.”

Are you on the right side of Jesus or the wrong side? That’s a question that only you can answer. Here’s what Jesus said. He said, Father forgive them for they do not know what they’re doing. I say that again, because I want you to think about these common criminals. In one of the gospels it says these common criminals, both of them were hurling hate at Jesus. Yet, Jesus prayed while this was happening. So they were privy to that prayer, to that conversation. They were like, “Hmm, that’s interesting. Wow.”

So they have a bunch of stuff in common, right? They’re both dying, I mean both these criminals had lived a horrible life and they listened in on Christ saying, what? Forgive them? For they don’t know what they’re doing?

And then as you keep reading you’ll notice Jesus did not respond to the haters. Let me say that again. He did not respond to the haters. Hey student, hey guy or girl addicted to social media, don’t respond to the haters. Jesus didn’t. I mean, we’ve gotten hate at Fellowship Church for 28 years. We’ve never responded. Why? Your friends don’t need an explanation and your enemies won’t believe it even if you give them one. I want to sit by the river long enough to watch my critics float by. There’s one, oh yeah, there’s another one. It’s all right, it’s what Jesus did. Strong, silent, but everybody was violent, (this’ll rhyme). Jesus was silent. He chose His words so, so carefully.

So these guys heard this. Also, these guys saw the sign on the cross. They were hanging on the cross and this sign said, “This is the king of the Jews.” Whoa. So they’re probably goin’, “Man, this guy was something else!”

But if you jump back up in the text, specifically Luke 23:35, it says, “The people stood watching, the rulers even sneered at Him and said, ‘He saved others, let Him save Himself. If He is God’s Messiah, the chosen one…’”

I mean they were going on and on and on. So, a supernatural situation, a supernatural situation. Don’t just think about the cross, think about the crosses. Don’t just think about the crucifixion, think about the crucifixions. Don’t just think about Jesus, think about the two common criminals who were in dialogue with each other and then Jesus weighed in later. Unbelievable. Criminals? Surrounding Jesus?

We’ll look at the critical conversation. We see the supernatural situation, look at the critical conversation. Luke 23:39 and following. “One of the criminals, wow, who hung there hurled insults at Him, and there’s the word again. Save Yourself, I mean, aren’t You the Messiah? Save Yourself and us.”

All he was worried about was saving his skin. But the other guy was worried about saving his soul. But the other criminal got in his face. So one criminal was hurling this insults at Jesus. “Hey Jesus, if You’re the Messiah, I mean, I want to go home, man, I want earthly freedom.”

Jesus is like, “Man, you don’t get it, My brother. I’m talking about eternal freedom.”

But he didn’t get it. Some people just don’t get it, even though they have this close access to Jesus, some people just what? Don’t get it. It’s amazing, it’s frustrating, and we’re going to find out why one was on the right side of Jesus and why the other ended up on the wrong side of Jesus.

So you need to know why one guy was wrong and you need to know why the other guy was right. So, they both started with hate, but you’re going to see this other guy start to turn, the Holy Spirit of God begins to work on him, and he’s like “Whoa, man, things are starting to come together for me.”

So his friend goes, “Oh man, what’s the deal? Say, man, if You’re the Messiah jump down off the cross, save Yourself, and by the way, save us too.”

Well, here’s what his friend said, the guy who ended up on the right side. Luke 23:40, but the other criminal rebuked him. Don’t you,” say it with me, “fear God?”

Fear, fear God, the fear of God. I call it FOG, fear of God. I’ll come back to the FOG in a second.

“Don’t you fear God, since you’re under the same sentence? We’re punished justly, for we’re getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

I mean look, already he’s having faith in the person of Jesus, and then he’s going to have faith in the pardon of Jesus, and then faith in the paradise of Jesus.

The fear of God. We don’t like to talk about the fear of God, I mean it’s like you won’t find that on a coffee mug or T-shirt. The fear of God. Let’s talk about grace, let’s talk about how God’s the God of love. He is the God of love, He is the God of grace, but let’s talk about the fear of God. You cannot become a follower of Christ unless first of all you fear God.

“Ed, did you make that up?”

No, I’m just reading the Bible. I’ll say it again. A person cannot become a believer until they have the fear of God.

A.W. Tozier said, we can’t even get in on the grace of God until first of all we have this holy fear of God. See, we live in a FOG. But before I define what the FOG is, let me throw out Matthew 10:28, here’s what Jesus said, He said, “Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, rather be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

So be afraid of that one who can destroy both the soul and both the body. Worry about that. So really, when someone talks about death, when I say death, or you think about death, really we’re talking about the judgment of God. Because the scripture says in a nanosecond once we die, once we breathe our last breath here, boom, we’re facing the judgment of God. Now, even Christians, if you’re a believer, if you’re on the right side of Jesus, you’re going to heaven. Heaven is locked, it’s a one-time situation. “Jesus, I give my life to you, take control of my life.” Once you say that, you’re going to heaven.

However, as a believer, we’re going to face judgment. “What?” Again, people don’t preach on this very much or talk about it, because it’s very unpopular. Yet it’s throughout scripture. What, what’s the Bible driving at? I’ll be judged based on what I did with the gifts and abilities that God bestowed upon my life. I will be judged, me. Am I going to heaven? No doubt. Will I have a mansion in heaven? Jesus has prepared a place for me, yes. I mean, we’ll see colors like we’ve never experienced, we’ll have adventure like we can’t even wrap our little pea brains around. We’ll have relationships and connectivity like we’re going, “What, I had no idea!”

That’s heaven. However, I will be judged on words that I said. Maybe words that I kept to myself, I could’ve said. Or, the stuff God’s blessed me with, what did I do with that stuff? Did I say “Mine, mine, it’s mine, mine, mine?” Or did I share? How did I help others?

Again, it’s not talked about very much, you’re not going to see that on a coffee mug. Okay. The other judgment, specifically the white throne judgment, will only be for unbelievers. Jesus wants every single person to go to heaven, let me say it again. The Bible says this, let me go on record, because I’m simply repeating the record. Jesus wants everyone to go to heaven, it’s His will. So for you to spend eternity away from Him you have to go against the will of God, totally against it. I mean, that’s heavy.

Well, this criminal went against Jesus. He’s right there at Him, I’m like dude, come on, my man, just follow Jesus. I mean you want him to, but, he didn’t have the fear of God. I mean, his friend called him out, his friend got up in his grill, he said, “Don’t you fear God, since you’re under the same sentence? This guy’s done nothing wrong.”

Wow. “Be afraid of the one,” Jesus said, “that holds the key to both heaven and hell, both body and soul.”

What is living in a FOG, the fear of God, because I should live in a FOG, so should you. What is that? The fear of God: a continual, 24/7 awareness that I’m in the presence of a holy, just, and almighty God, and everything, everything I think, say, and do is open before Him and is being judged by Him.

ILLUS: I got married June 26th, 1982. I said, “I do.” I’m married, I’m a married man, look at this. People ask me about this ring all the time, it’s a rubber wedding ring, I have like four of them. I love it. I think the company, you can get it online, is it Qalo? It’s not Quaalude, Qalo? Something like that. Look it up. I love it, I love it. Well, I’m married, because I made that decision in a church before the Lord, friends and family, I’m married. Now, I’ve been married now for a long, long time.

I would be a card-carrying moron if I just had said, “You know, decades ago, ‘Hey, I’m married,’ but I’m going to do what I’m going to do, you know? But I’m married. I’m going to cheat, I’m going to do this, I’m going to mess around over here, but see, wait a minute, time out, I’m married.”

I’m afraid a lot of people treat Jesus that way. “Oh yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ve just prayed this little prayer and I’ve asked Jesus to come into my life, and it’s all by grace,” but, you’re living like hell, man.

Now, we’re saved by grace through faith. And this is going to be the most radical faith in the Bible, I would argue, that I’m going to unpack in just a second. But you see, Jesus said, “If you love Me, you’re going to keep My commandments.” I mean, He knows we’re not perfect, but part of that is living in the FOG, the fear of God, and the fear of God ushers in the grace of God, and on the cross you have the justice of God intersecting with the mercy of God, and then enveloping into the grace of God.

So, a supernatural situation. I’ve only got four minutes and 38 seconds left, and I can do it. Also, we have a critical conversation. I mean, these guys are talking as they’re taking their last breath back and forth, one is getting on the right side of Jesus, the other, not so much.

Have you ever wondered, and I just wonder about this, have you ever wondered why our world is going so crazy? Have you ever wondered that, I mean really? It’s really a lack of a fear of God, just to talk about that again. I don’t want to hammer this too much, but you got students shooting up schools you have terrorists blowing up innocent people, you have moms and dads burning up their families, you have a crime rate that’s going up. I don’t care how politicians play with it. What’s up with that?

Well, I’m glad I asked that question because Romans 3 says, their feet are swift to shed blood, ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know, there is no fear of God in their eyes.

This other criminal just didn’t fear God. He was like, “Yep, okay, I’m dying, candles burn, that’s it.” No, no, no. Judgment, my brother. So this critical conversation. God’s brought you to Fellowship for a supernatural situation, that’s today’s talk. And we’ve had a critical conversation together.

But notice too, and here’s what I want you to take home, the spectacular salvation. So we read Luke 23, “Then he said,” the guy that got on the right side of Jesus, hey, “remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”

That’s all he said. The Holy Spirit of God was working. Obviously, Jesus discerned the situation, this criminal heard the prayer, saw the sign, here’s Jesus, king of the Jews. Yet this guy saw Jesus at His worst, man, a bloody mess. They were both dying, and he saw Jesus, the king of the Jews? The king? The Lord? His crown was a bunch of thorns six inches long, each thorn. His scepter was a bloody spike. His court was an angry mob. Yet he had this radical, didn’t he, crazy faith. He said “Jesus, remember me when You go into paradise.” And I love it, he didn’t join a church, he didn’t get baptized or pasteurized or homogenized, he didn’t get confirmed, he didn’t, no, no, no. “Remember me, remember me when You go into paradise.”

So, the first person Jesus ever brought into heaven was a gangbanger, a criminal. I can identify with that, isn’t that great? The guy was saved, and this is, though, and this is interesting, the only, only time we have in scripture where someone made a last second conversion. Now, I know this guy’s had many followers. But don’t go, “Okay, man I’m just going to live like hell and when I’m in the hospital on the happy medication I’m going to call for Ed and Ed just, okay, I’ll pray the prayer now, boom, I’m in it.”

I mean, that, theoretically that could work but I wouldn’t roll the dice, so, you can accept Jesus as your Savior today, because if you don’t do it today He might be your judge tomorrow.

So this criminal met Jesus that day. What did Jesus say? You thought I’d never get to His words. Here’s what He said, second phrase. “Truly I tell you,” and the word truly means amen. I tell you, let’s say it together, “today you will be with me in paradise.”

No purgatory, no waiting room, no holding cell, boom. Boom. What can we learn about this in 13 seconds? I’ll tell you. Okay, no, I’ll tell you real quick. Number one, salvation is simple. It’s simple. Becoming a believer is simple. I didn’t say shallow. But like the late, great Adrian Rogers said, salvation is simply glorious and gloriously simple. It’s simple.

Also, it’s never too late to make a decision for Jesus. Also, no matter what you’re involved in, no matter how far away from God you think you are, look, look at what I just unpacked for you. With some handles.

But, are you on the right side or the wrong side of Jesus? I don’t know, I mean, when you leave this place in all of our different environments, I think we have, I don’t know, 10 locations here and we’re in several prisons and all these other places. You’re going to leave here, leave this facility, one of two positions, either on the right side of Jesus or the wrong side. Why not get on the right side? Because you can get on the right side taking your cues from the guy that got on the right side. And if you’re on the wrong side, don’t follow in the footsteps of this guy that did it wrong. You have access, my brother, you have access, my sister, to Jesus, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

So, it’s a supernatural situation today, and we’ve had a critical conversation, and it’s my prayer that we have, that you have a spectacular salvation. Let’s pray together.

[Ed leads in closing prayer.]

What in the Heaven is Going On?: Part 2 – Transcript

What the Heaven Is Going On?

Part 2

By Ed Young

June 12, 2016

Transcript

ILLUS: The first time I ever snorkeled I was in Hawaii. I remember looking at the beautiful sand and the different flowers, the mountains cascading into the turquoise sea, and I said to myself, Wow. It doesn’t get any better than this. Even, I don’t know, when the winds would blow a certain direction you could sort of smell a floral scent. I thought, whoa! Hawaii. I mean, that’s like paradise. I told Lisa,

“Honey, this has got to be a little bit like Heaven.” I put on some fins and a mask and for the first time in my life I snorkeled. I literally went from one world into another. I remember the first reef that I swam up to. I saw these fish. They had colors and designs and they were swimming like fish I’d never seen before. And through the muffled sounds of my snorkel I was like… <garbled> And then I saw another fish that was even prettier than the previous one. Then I saw another, then I saw a bigger one. Then I saw different types of reefs and different types of coral, and the underwater world was absolutely stunning. I was in one world, yet I didn’t realize there was a whole new world right there.

I believe in this two-part series on Heaven we’ve sort of gone from one world into another. It’s like we’re discovering new things. I truly believe when we get to Heaven, Heaven will be like that. It will be this paradise. It will be a place where we’re with Jesus, yet it will be a place of new discovery. Around every corner, from this reef to the next, a new sight, a new sound, a new smell. So join me as we delve deep into the reality and the depths of Heaven.

I think it’s interesting, it’s sort of paradoxical. On one hand our culture talks a lot about Heaven. Songs are about Heaven. The most requested rock song of all time by Led Zeppelin, “Stairway to Heaven.” I don’t know if you knew that or not but it is. There’s “Tears in Heaven” by Clapton, and there are different country/western songs about Heaven. We like to watch movies about Heaven. Heaven Can Wait, or Ninety Minutes in Heaven. We write books and they’re New York Times Bestsellers. After death experiences and it just goes on and on and on. We are hung up on Heaven. Yet I think if we really thought about it, if we really said what we know about Heaven, most of it is folklore. Most of it is word on the street instead of the real deal. I’m here to tell you that word on the street regarding Heaven is wrong.

I remember when I was a kid, and I grew up in a pastor’s home, I sort of had a faith crisis. Because I remember thinking, “OK, I’ve become a Christian and now I get to go to Heaven. Harps and halos and halleluiahs, jumping from cloud to cloud, I’m in this eternal worship service. Sitting on pews and man, my butt is about worn out. I’m tired of singing halleluiah. That’s Heaven?” I remember saying to myself, “I’m not sure I really… you know, I might get bored there. I’m ADD. Heaven, and eternal worship service? I’m going to church?”

That’s not what Heaven is about. Obviously there’s going to be worship in Heaven, but there’s so much more to it than that! It’s discovery. It’s peace. It’s joy. It’s purpose. It’s powerful.

Why are we so fixated on Heaven? Why the bestselling books? Why the movies? Why the songs? Why do we feel like there’s always something more? I mean, am I the only one? You live life and at a surprisingly young age you think there’s got to be something more. There’s got to be something more. There’s got to be something more. And we’re always thinking about happily ever after. We’re always thinking about the next level. Well, the writer of Ecclesiastes, Solomon, wrote some interesting words in Ecclesiastes 3:11. He said God has set eternity in the human heart.

No matter what culture, no matter what tribe, no matter what socioeconomic group, people have eternity in their hearts. Yet there’s a tissue-like veil that separates this life from the next. We’re eternal creatures. We will live forever, the Bible says, in one of two places.

So the Bible gives us some hard data on Heaven. Now it doesn’t tell us everything we want to know but it does tell us what we need to know. I believe we can use our intellect, playing off the hard data, and to use our God-given imagination to see what this paradise is going to be like. Because I want to give you the 4-1-1 on Heaven, because so many of us don’t know about it.

T.S. Last week I opened up talking about it. Today I’m just going to give you just a quick overview of Heaven, then I’m going to go through the most frequently asked questions about Heaven.

First of all, I want you to notice something. #1 – Heaven is a real place. Heaven is real. It’s a real place. Like this lectern is real, like these notes are real, like this blazer is real, like those seats are real, like this building is real. Heaven is a real place. It’s a real place. The Bible says Jesus called Heaven a place. He said this in Scripture, “I’m going there to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” Jesus also said, “In my Father’s house are many rooms.” In some translations it says, “In my Father’s house are many mansions.”

Here’s some Biblical trivia. Heaven, for example in the King James Version, is used nearly 600 times. Heaven is a real place. It’s real. It’s a tangible town. The Bible calls Heaven a city. Now when you say a city, what’s a city? A city is a bunch of people, squillions and squillions of people will be in Heaven.

Hell is the opposite of Heaven. In Hell we’ll be completely alone. In Heaven we’ll be in complete community and harmony with others. So Heaven is a real, real place. Philippians 3:20-21, “But our citizenship is in Heaven and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everyone under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”

On a couple of occasions in Scripture the Bible says that those of us who are followers of Christ are strangers, we’re aliens. Yeah, we’re living on planet Earth but our citizenship is in Heaven. It’s like you visit a foreign country. You’ve got a passport. The passport tells you your citizenship. It shows people officially I am a citizen of, in my case, the United States of America. And there is no place like home. There’s no place like the USA. So Heaven is a real place.

Notice something else, #2 – Heaven is a personal space. What did Jesus say? “I go to prepare a place for… you!” For you! I go to prepare a place for you.

A child was dying of cancer and right before bed he looked into his father’s eyes. He said, “Dad, what happens when you die?” The father prayed a quick microwave prayer, “Lord give me the words to say.” And he said, “Son, you know you’ll be watching television in the family room. You’ll get tired, you’ll fall asleep. I’ll pick you up in my arms and move you from the family room to your bedroom. You wake up in the morning and you’re in your bedroom. I’ve moved you, your father, from one room to another. That’s Heaven. That’s Heaven.” Our Father moves us from one room to another.

“Well, I guess I’ll just be in some mansion on the hillside binge-watching Netflix and eating m&ms for eternity, polishing my halo, singing hallelu…” No. Yeah, we’re going to have a mansion, the Bible says. What that looks like, who knows? We, though, will be with people. We’ll be with Jesus. Sociologically where Jesus is, where God is, that’s Heaven.

I’ve had the opportunity to travel a lot and when I come back from trips, when I walk into our house, I don’t walk up and see the lamp in my office and kiss the lamp. I don’t see the rug and go, oh, I’m going to kiss the rug and hug the rug. No, I don’t. I find Lisa, I kiss her. Because where Lisa is, that’s where home is. Where Jesus is, that’s where Heaven is. Heaven is a real place. Heaven is a personal space, a space just for you and just for me as we glorify Jesus.

#3 – Heaven is a prepared base, a prepared base. It’s going to be our base of operations forever and ever. As God is preparing a place for us, we should be about preparing our lives and also preparing others as we get to know them and share with them the good news of living together with God in Heaven. Love, though, is a choice. We’re not made as robots. Love is a decision. Those of us who are citizens of Heaven, we’re like real estate brokers. We have an opportunity, right, to put one party together with the ultimate party. When this person becomes a believer the Scripture says there’s a party in Heaven. Joy unspeakable is in Heaven when one person bows the knee and comes to know Christ. Heaven is locked. We’re eternal creatures. We’re eternal beings. In Heaven with this new base, we’re going to have new bodies. The Bible says. I don’t know what these bodies will look like but I guarantee you there will be no cellulite, muffin tops, spare tires, or manssiere’s in Heaven.

1 Corinthians 13:12, “I shall fully know even as I am fully known.”

We will recognize our loved ones in Heaven. It will be a faith-filled, fun, joyful on a holy ‘notha level partay in paradise when we’re reunited with our loved ones and our friends. We will recognize them. And more about that in a second. Well, how do you know you’ll be able to recognize your loved ones? Well just do some Bible thinking for me. When Jesus rose from the grave the disciples and others recognized him. On the Mount of Transfiguration, they recognized Moses and Elijah. We will be recognized in Heaven and we will recognize others and the recognition will be even more pristine and more beautiful by far than it is right here on planet Earth.

T.S. So that brings us, I kind of set the stage, I set some framework of Heaven. I set the dye for Heaven. Now I want to segue from that into some questions because I know when I was talking about some of those things about Heaven, for example being a real place. Heaven is a personal space. Heaven is the prepared base of operations for us for the rest of our lives. I know as I talked about those things, and in this series a lot of you are going “yeah, but… I have… I wish I could raise my… I wish I could ask you some questions… I didn’t know…”

OK, we have taken the questions, the lion’s share of questions that people have about Heaven. We’ve done the research, the Biblical research. We’ve consulted and read from some of the great theologians of our time, whoever lived. Here are some answers, biblical answers about however, and most of the questions, quite frankly, can be answered. Yet, as I say, if we knew the 4-1-1 on Heaven, if we knew everything there is to know about Heaven, we would be taking our lives in record numbers. That’s how amazing it is. Let me say it again. If we knew how Heaven really was, we would be like, oh I’m ready to go there now! I’m sick and tired of this anxiety, this depression. I’m tired of these miscommunications. I’m tired of school. Man, I’m going to Heaven. So that’s why God, in his sovereignty, in his omniscience, knew and knows just enough. He gives us just enough, just enough.

Is it going to be boring in Heaven, with harp music and clouds and all that? Answer: No. I used to think that until I began to study what the Bible says about it. It is not going to be boring. The opposite of boring. Hebrews 13:14 says, “For this world is not our permanent home. We’re looking forward to a home yet to come.”

We have a purpose in life. Once we receive Christ we understand the purpose. The purpose will continue to be fulfilled in a pristine way in a perfect way once we go to the other side. Our gifts and abilities will be – I hate to say it but I’m going to say it – on a holy ‘notha level! We’ll be able to do things, create things, say things, lead things, build things like we’ve never, ever, ever, ever dreamed possible! You like gardening? You’ll not believe the gardening in Heaven. You like athletics? You will not believe the athletics in Heaven. You like fishing? You won’t believe the fishing in Heaven. That’s what I’m talking about.

And the Bible says it’s going to be a place of joy, joy unspeakable, joy like we’ve never, ever known before. Because the overarching emotion, the overarching vibe in Heaven is that of outrageous and contagious joy! Joy. Joy because of Jesus, joy because of others. What did Jesus say, the great commandment? Love God holistically, then love your neighbor as yourself. In Heaven we’ll do that perfectly, perfectly. So it’s not going to be boring. We’re not going to skip from cloud to cloud, shining our halos and singing halleluiah! It’s not going to be boring, OK? It’s not going to be boring.

OK, what’s Heaven going to be like? How would you describe Heaven? Do you remember when Jesus died on the cross for our sins, he was crucified between two common criminals. One of the criminals said, “Lord, I trust you. I give my life to you.” Jesus said these words, Luke 23:43, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in Paradise.”

Paradise. Paradise, paradise. The word paradise literally means the park of God. I mean, there are some beautiful parks. I love Clyde Warren Park in Dallas. I love some parks I’ve had the opportunity to exercise in Miami, and I’ve seen Central Park, and I’ve seen national parks, and places around the world that are gorgeous. They pale, pale in comparison to the paradise that we’re talking about. So in one word, what’s Heaven like? Paradise.

Here’s another good question, too. What will we know in Heaven? I mean, will we know everything? We’re not going to know everything. Only God knows everything. But we will know a heck of a lot more in Heaven than we do here. I mean, we’re going to really, really know some serious stuff.

And that brings the question, how about the people in our lives, friends, family members, who are in Hell? Will it make us sad? Will there be tears in Heaven? Tears of sadness because of those people who are in Hell? Quick answer: No. The reason is I think we’ll have the knowledge that they had opportunities to get to know Jesus and they said no. And there’s going to be some sort of, I think, memory wipe or something of all that, but we’re not going to be worried about that in Heaven. Jesus said, when I did the message on Hell recently, he said to those people who will go to Hell, “Depart from me. I never knew you.” So we’ll understand what that means and we’ll be able to take that, apply that, but we’re not going to be thinking about that.

1 Corinthians 13:12, “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror. Then we’ll see face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”

Will we experience relationships in Heaven? I mean, will we be able to communicate and talk? 1 Thessalonians 4: 14, 17, “God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. We who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with him, and so we will be with the Lord forever.”

Short answer: Yes. We will have relationships. We’ll have communication with people, with our loved ones, with friends, with new friends and acquaintances like we’ve never, like we can’t even wrap our brain around. Because there’s going to be no sin. There will be no pride in my life or your life, no ego, no chicanery, no manipulation. It’s going to be pure and pristine. Think about the billions and billions of people in this tangible town, this city of the Savior, Heaven. Think about the time and just the opportunity we’ll have to meet and greet and get to know people from all nations, all tribes, all socioeconomic levels. Just the relational quotient alone blows me completely away.

And that brings another question. Can people in Heaven see us now? It’s a pretty good question. Yes. They can. I mean, why not? You mean you go to Heaven and God closes the blinds? I believe they can see us. The Bible says in Hebrews 12:1 we have a “great cloud of witnesses” cheering us on. We have a standing ovation, those of us who are running the race, those of us who are citizens in Heaven, we have a standing ovation that never sits down. They’re cheering for you and for me. Integrity! They’re cheering for you and me. Commitment! They’re cheering for you and me. Share your faith! They’re cheering for you and me. Worship! They’re cheering for you and me. Endure! They’re cheering for you and me in every slice of life. So yes, yes, yes. People can see us, I believe, in Heaven. The Bible talks about that.

Now one of the main questions that I’ve had asked me about Heaven is the animal question. Will there be animals in Heaven? Yes. No cats, but there will be animals in Heaven. Ed, how can you say that? And I believe that. Because in Isaiah 65:17, 25, it talks about God creating a new Heaven and a new Earth. It talks about in the book of Romans, creation waiting, yearning for a new Heaven and a new Earth. Those of us who have pets, cats, dogs, iguanas, whatever. Those of us who care for pets, who love animals, I truly believe they will be in Heaven. And I’m looking forward to evaluation loving animals and relating to animals and nature even on a deeper level. I love the outdoors and I think one of the reasons why all of us love the outdoors is because it’s been set in our hearts. Its eternity has been set in our hearts.

Sadly, a lot of people are pantheists, meaning they worship nature. No, we don’t worship the creation, we worship the Creator. Yet, the creation is going to be perfect. We’ll see plants, animals. I think we’ll look and relate like we’ve never, ever seen before.

Will we still experience emotions in Heaven? The longest stretch of Scripture that talks about Heaven is in Revelation 21, and it talks about emotions. God has feelings, too. We’re made in the image of God, we’ll experience emotions. Well, how about tears? Yeah, probably tears of joy, not tears of sadness. There’s not going to be anything bad. No sin, no junk and funk in Heaven. There’ll be no crying or no pain, the Bible says. No more death or mourning. God will wipe away every tear from all of our eyes, and that is something that should give us so much hope.

You know, the Scripture says we should have hope in Heaven. Now hope is not fingers crossed. Hope is not rabbit foot. Hope is not well, if I wear the same shirt I did yesterday… no, that’s not hope. It’s not luck. It’s not change. It’s something that’s fixed. It’s Godfidence. It’s faith.

Will our identities stay the same? Huh. OK, Ed Young before Heaven, will he be Ed Young in Heaven? Yes. Because if I changed identities I could not be held accountable for the stuff I messed up on planet Earth. And then I couldn’t be rewarded for the things I’ve done well on planet Earth. Remember this. Let me go back several teachings ago. Those of us who are believers will be held accountable regarding what we did with what God gave us. It’s not talked about very much but we will.

Those who rejected saying ‘I do’ to Jesus, those who rejected his love, they will be banished to Hell. They choose the highway to Hell. God does not send anyone to Hell, it’s a choice. However, those of us who are followers of Christ will be held accountable. So I’m going to be held accountable, and I have been held accountable because of my sinfulness, yet I have received Jesus. He’s washed me clean. What I’ve done with Jesus will be rewarded in Heaven. So that should motivate us to think about Heaven, the backdrop of Heaven. I’ve never locked eyes with someone who is not facing a forever.

Where do I go one second after I die? The Bible says in Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death, the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.”

And remember what I said earlier? Jesus talked to the thief on the cross. He said today… right now. Not that there’s going to be some limbo or waiting period or some waiting room. Right now, today, you’ll spend eternity with me in paradise.

The Bible says in the book of Hebrews, we die, then the judgment. As we think about time, see we think about time in a linear fashion. Yet, time in God’s economy is now. It’s right now. So we die, we face the Lord. Yet I want you to understand this, and stay with me here. When someone dies, their bodies are in the ground, six feet under. Their spirit is with Jesus. And I’m not sure what sort of body, nor are theologians sure what kind of vibe we have in this world; yet when Jesus comes back our spirit will be reunited with our bodies, brand new bodies. Then Jesus will make a new Heaven and a new Earth. So everything that we enjoy here, go back to Hawaii, the mountains cascading into the turquoise sea, the white sands, the flowers, the breeze that even smells like this floral scent, all of that will be on a place in an area like we’ve never ever seen. We can’t even comprehend it. Even if God explained it to us we wouldn’t get it!

ILLUS: When my kids were going up, because I liked the drums, we got a little drum set for them. I think about the twins, they were maybe 3 or 4. They would take the sticks, boom-boom-boom. It didn’t sound that great. The twins playing the drums at 4 years of age doesn’t come close to the drummer of Coldplay. Not even close. It’s like they’re playing a different instrument.

Will we be able to be creative in Heaven? Are you kidding me? I mean, are you kidding me asking that question? First thing we know about God is in the beginning God what? Created. We’re made in the image of our creative Creator, thus we should create. We create here. In Heaven, though, well make Leonardo da Vinci, Picasso, Bach, and Shakespeare look pitiful! That’s what I’m talking about!

So we’ll be able to do a lot in Heaven. I mean a lot! It never gets old, it never gets tired, it never gets boring. Adventure every day, excitement every day, purpose every day. We’ll help God rule and take care of the Universe in a pristine paradise-driven environment. Heaven is real and real people go there.

There are two things, though, we can’t do in Heaven. #1 – we can’t sin. That’s good. Sin is out of the picture in Heaven. Whoo! That will be great.

But there’s something else we can’t do in Heaven. We can’t share Jesus with others. That’s why God has placed eternity in our hearts. That’s why God has placed this holy angst, this holy discontent in your life and mine. Because we’ve never locked eyes with someone who is not going to spend eternity in one of two places. You, if you’re a follower of Christ, are a citizen of Heaven. You’re a citizen. You’re a citizen. You’re a broker. You have an opportunity to connect only by God’s grace and power, by his sovereignty, the Lord with others. Just like I talked about last week I had that opportunity with Muhammad Ali. I’ve had that opportunity with others. Just today I was talking to a friend of mine who is not a follower of Christ who does not believe in Heaven. But see, if I turn my back on Heaven, not only am I wrong, I’m really, really, really wrong. You’re not prepared to live until you’re prepared to die. God has prepared a place for you. Are you prepared? Are you prepared for Heaven? And are you preparing others for Heaven as well?

[Ed leads in closing prayer.]

Words

Fool

Week 4

“WORDS”

April 29, 2018

By Ed Young

Humans, unlike any other creatures, have the unique ability to communicate specifically and strategically with one another through words. But have you ever stopped to consider what your words actually say? As Pastor Ed Young continues this teaching series on the book of Proverbs, he helps us not only understand and unpack the power of our words, but also shows us how to use our words to make a lasting difference in the world around us!

Transcript

Wow, it’s so great to see everyone here. Good morning! I’m here in the Magic city of Miami, our beautiful Miami campus. We have campuses all over the place. We have one right near Sarasota in North Port. Let’s do a big shout out to our other Florida campus! And of course, Dallas/Fort Worth, and these are kind of strange names, I know, to you guys. Prosper/Celina, I love it. It’s an awesome area. Then we have Southlake/Keller, gorgeous Grapevine. That’s where we do a lot of stuff, so I want to say welcome! You guys doing well? All right, so am I. So am I.

Today we’re continuing this series called Fool. That’s an interesting title, isn’t it? I’m talking about the Bible, I’m talking about the book of Proverbs and I’m talking about fool.

What does it mean to be a fool? I think we all have done foolish things in our lives. We’ve done those things that we were going, man, that was just not very bright. That was foolish. The word fool means to be open. You’re kind of open to anything and everything. When I do something foolish I go with my emotions and I kind of go along with the crowd. And I think I know what’s up and I do this or that. When I’m foolish, though, when I take the path of foolishness I pay for it. I run the stadium steps of regret and shame. And I think we can all go, “Man, Ed, I have.”

Do you have our church app? If you have our church app, lift your hand at all of our campuses. Our church app is amazing. If you don’t I’m going to give you 10 seconds to download our app. You might be going, “What is an app?” You’re probably a baby boomer asking that question. That’s OK. Look for a millennial. That’s someone with a scoop shirt on and kind of wild hair, ink all over their body, skinny jeans, that’s a millennial. They might be sipping coffee right now. Just ask them, “How do I download this app?” Go to the app store, type in Fellowship Church. You’ll see “get.” I’ll give you some time. <whistling… beat boxing>

My notes are on the app today. You can follow along with me. We write a devotional every day, it’s called The 90-second Devotional. You can watch messages and join us online if you’re traveling or sick. That’s the only time you can do that. But our app is awesome.

So let’s jump right into what I’m talking about. What am I talking about? I’m talking about talk, that’s what I’m talking about. The book of Proverbs talks a lot about talk. The Bible talks a lot about talk.

We average 30 conversations a day, 30 conversations a day. We send and receive an average of 128 texts per day. Americans send 18.7 billion texts per day. If you took the entire U.S. of A., 18 billion texts a day!

So we’re all about words, are we not? We’re all about conversation. We’re all about this gift of communication that God has given us. Words are wonderful. They can be awesome, but also words can be horrible, they can be filled with hate. Words can be wonderful, they can also start wars. Think about just for a second Adolph Hitler. His words led to the extermination of millions of Jews. Think about Martin Luther King, Jr. His words led to freedom and equality. Think about Winston Churchill. Think about Fidel Castro, what he did to the beautiful country of Cuba with his words. Abraham Lincoln, you, and me.

Your words. What are your words saying about you? Think about God’s algorithm as he looks at the trends and looks at all the math behind it. How are you doing in your conversation? What are you doing with your words?

I want to talk about three things today. You can travel along with me on our app that you just downloaded. First of all, I’m going to talk to you about the wonder of words. Secondly, I’ll spend a brief amount of time talking about the way of words, and then I’ll wrap it up talking about the wisdom of words. Are you feeling me? Nod your heads, yeah. OK, OK, OK.

Now let’s talk about the wonder of words. What is a word? What is a word? Well, I came up with this acrostic. Words: Wonderful Opportunities to Relate Dynamically to Someone about Something. That’s what a word is. A wonderful opportunity to relate dynamically to someone about something.

Words. We’re made in the image of God. God is a God of the word. This book, the Bible, is called the Word of God. God speaks to us through words. He could have made us communicate with smoke signals, with Morse code, with – I don’t know – drum beats, with grunts and groans. What did God do, though? We’re unlike any other creature. We have the ability to speak. Have you ever thanked God for the wonder of words? If you haven’t, we’re going to do that right now. On the count of 3 I want us all to say “thank you, God, for words!” everybody out loud. 1-2-3… Thank you, God, for words! Yeah! I love it!

Words are important, words are huge. What did God do? God created the heavens and the earth with his word. The Bible says he spoke the word into existence. Jesus is called the Word. John 1:1, “In the beginning was the (say it with me) Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Your words.

Think about the words, the words you said already today to your spouse, to that person you’re dating, to maybe an usher, to someone who greeted you at all of our campuses in the parking lot. Think about the words you said to your grandfather, your parent. Think about what you said to your child. Think about what you said last week to the teacher, the coach. Words, words, words. Do you analyze your words? How about this spiritual algorithm, what is God seeing? What is trending in your life and in my life?

You know it’s funny as you think about people and the words that we speak. You have on one end or one side of the continuum the over-talker. Do you know any over-talkers? I mean <garbled speaking> An over talker just talks and talks and talks some more. And over-talkers don’t realize they’re over-talkers, but let me say something to the over-talker. If you see someone avoiding you, or when you walk up they act like they’re having this conversation on their phone, you’re probably an over-talker. Over-talkers just change subjects effortlessly from this subject to that subject. You might be talking about, man, those are cool jeans! Where did you get those jeans? And 5 minutes later you’re talking about breeding English Mastiffs in Northern California. What?! You’re talking to an over-talker.

Now on the other end of the continuum you have the under-talker.

ILLUS: One time I interviewed someone at Fellowship Church and this person was a card-carrying under-talker. We had a massive crowd. I remember it, we had over 27,000 people that weekend. So she was like the star of the weekend. Christian lady, so I’m thinking “This is going to be a great interview! I mean, this is just going to go!” Because whenever I interview someone I try not to meet them beforehand.

So she comes out on stage, standing ovation, she sits down. I felt like… I felt like I had done 4 or 5 CrossFit workouts back to back after I finished interviewing her. I mean, I was just pulling stuff out, and she wouldn’t respond and she would be like, “a-hahaha. Like, I don’t, like, know. Like, I don’t, like, understand, what you’re like, saying, but like…”

I said to myself, “We have 27,000 people here listening to an under-talker!” You don’t know where they’re coming from really. They don’t really communicate.

Now there are other talkers, too. Have you ever talked to a whistle-talker? Kind of whistles? Yes, I love the book of Proverbssssss. It saysssss a lot of stuff about life. Amazing. Do you know any whistle talkers? Just kind of whistle with them. <whistling> Then you have the soft talkers. Do you know any soft talkers? You might be a soft talker. And people are always going, “What?! Uh, come back? I couldn’t quite get…” You’re a soft talker. I thought about doing an entire message one time talking like this to see what people would think, and some people are soft talkers.

Then you have the fader. A fader is someone that is tough because they start out strong. They’ll be like, “Hi! How’re you doing? I hope your…. <quieter> day went well.” How are you feeling? Oh, I’m feeling fine. The other day I went out and …<quiet>. The old fader.

Then – OK, guilty here – the loud talker. My whole life I’ve been told, “Ed, turn the volume down! The decibel level is driving me nuts!”

Then you have the southern talker. I’m from the South so I can make fun of the South. Now, some people think Southern people talk like this, and this is incorrect. “Yeah, well, how you doing, man? Good to see ya. I’m from the South.”

That’s not the way they talk. Southern talkers ramp up and the last part of their sentences, they end their sentences kind of high and they talk through the nose like this. And if you really want to talk to someone from South Carolina or North Carolina, well they kind of go up and high. And it’s really interesting to talk to ‘em.

Then you have… how many people have seen the movie “The Greatest Showman”? Have you seen that? I’m not really big on musicals but some people kind of sing talk. Have you noticed that before? Like especially some women. They’ll talk…. <singing> You’re singing! A sing-talker!

Oh, then in Miami, also here this is popular. It’s also popular everywhere, Dallas, too. The F-Bomber. <boom-boom> Just dropping those f-bombs. And people use f-bombs as verbs and subjects and transitional phrases. I’m thinking, like, “Man you must think about sexual intercourse all the time!”

What if you, instead of saying that word, what if you just said ‘sexual intercourse.’ What in the sexual intercourse are you doing? That’s how stupid it is. This is vulgar language man, it breaks the heart of God, you f-bombers. I’ve had people tell me something in church and drop the f-bomb. Carpet bombing! <boom-boom> wow.

And then of course, hey, how do you like this. This is an underwater Bible, a waterproof Bible. I promise you. I stole it from my wife. Can you steal a Bible? Anyway, here’s what I do. When I’m swimming laps I’m so spiritual I will read this <bubbling sound effect> . Yeah, so you need to have an underwater Bible. Some people are water-talkers. They talk <bubbling> . And I don’t know where you fit into this continuum, but Proverbs has something for you and for me. It really, really does.

Let’s talk about the way of words. We talked about the different way, and different ways that we communicate. Oh! Here’s another one! Let me just throw in one more that gets on my nerves. The close talker. That person that just, there’s no personal space. Close talkers are sly. They’ll start out at a normal, you know, a normal pace or a normal amount of space between you and the other party. Then they’ll get closer and closer and closer.

And there’s this one guy, thankfully he doesn’t go to Fellowship any more, and he would start out – I’m serious – and he would kind of pin me against the wall. But here’s what you do the close talker. If they come in on you, you just step towards them and it blocks them. And you say just right here. And then also, you’re ready right here. Boom! Into the solar plexus, and that’ll shut them up. Anyway. You know, I’m kidding you. Come on. Some are like, is he serious? I’m just joking! But some people do invade. I call them Space Invaders, that space, you know? Others talk way out here. Hey, what’s up!

So let’s talk about the way of words. Three things. Here’s what Proverbs says: Limit your words. It doesn’t mean to turn into a soft talker, but it says limit your words. It doesn’t mean to stop talking, to be an under-talker, limit your words. “Watch your tongue and keep your mouth shut,” Proverbs 21:23 says, “and you’ll stay out of trouble.”

How many times in my life have I gone, “Ed, you’re such a fool. You’re such a card-carrying fool. You’ve taken the path of folly, you talk too much. And now I’m running the stadium steps of regret and shame. Have you ever been in that situation before? I have. If you’re not lifting your hand you’re lying. We have a lot of liars here in Miami, and also that’ll be another subject, lying. And we’ll talk about that, too.

Proverbs 15:28 says, “The heart of the godly thinks carefully before speaking.”

So I need to think before speaking, before I open my mouth, I need to think. Well, how do we do that? Once a person becomes a follower of Christ, and once we receive Jesus we receive the Word, correct? So the Holy Spirit of God, Jesus places the Holy Spirit in our lives, when we’re talking the Holy Spirit is going to warn us. It’s almost like a teleprompter. He’s going to teach us an guide us. It’s that voice. I don’t mean an audible voice but something deeper than that, that speaks to your spirit and mine. He will tell you you’ve said enough. Don’t talk any more. A conversation is a two-way street. Shut up. Let the other person talk. Look the other person in the eyes. Ask them questions. Get involved in this conversational cadence.

Too many of us talk too much, and there’s a correlation with talking too much and getting into trouble. There are over 105 verses in the book of Proverbs that talk about this. Isn’t that amazing? Words. Words. Man, they’re so, so powerful! Wonderful (they should be) Opportunities (from God) to Relate Dynamically (no other creature is like the human being) to someone or something.

Not only should our words be limited, they should be legit. They should be honest. And I’m going to do a whole talk on lying in this series. I hope you keep showing up. Don’t think, like, “Oh man it’s so negative!” Because it’s going to be positive when I talk about lying, because the Bible at the end of the day is a positive book. There are some negative aspects to it. I mean, the gospel for example. The gospel is not all positive. Jesus died on the cross for our sins, right? Rose again. But for us to become a believer we’ve got to admit the negative. I’m a sinner, I’m fallen and fallible. That’s the negative part, correct? But what Jesus had to do, obviously he did it because of his irrational, unfathomable love, then we receive that and that’s the most positive thing we can do. But don’t ever say that everything in the Bible, or everything about our words is all positive because God gets up in our grill about our words.

He says our words should be true. Proverbs 12:22, “The Lord detests lying lips but he delights in people who are trustworthy.” Man, what does that mean? I think we know what it means.

Look at Proverbs 25:18, “Telling lies about others is as harmful as hitting them with a (what?) axe (man, I wish the Bible was straightforward) wounding them with a sword or shooting them with a sharp arrow.”

Isn’t that true? I mean, I’ve said things to Lisa. I’ve said things to my kids. I’ve said things to co-workers. I’ve said things to people who have cut me off in traffic. I’ve said things to authority figures and I’m like, wow. That was an axe. That was a sword. That was an arrow. Our words are powerful, are they not? Make sure your words are honest.

John 8:44, “He (talking about Satan) was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies he speaks (what? li-ese, right? He speaks his native language) lies, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

When I’m speaking in conversation, one of the 30 I have every day, I’m tempted sometimes to lie – to exaggerate, to embellish, to leave something out, to twist the truth. So are you. Don’t act like you’re not. Just go ahead and … uh-huh. Again, all of our campuses are videoed. Just go ahead. Uh-huh. All of us, yes all of us. Yet the Holy Spirit of God is taking someone like me and he has turned me into a truth-teller. Not perfectly, no, not perfectly. More and more as I walk with God I’m sensitive to his spirit. I can be even preaching or talking to Lisa or talking to a friend of mine, and I’m about to say something that is a little bit … an exaggeration. And the Holy Spirit will like, “Ed, don’t say what you’re getting ready to say. That’s not true. I mean, that fish did not weigh 75 pounds. It weighed about 52 pounds.”

But they’ll think I’m a better fisherman if I give the bigger number! We play that game, just quickly, quickly. And more and more I’m listening to the voice of the Spirit of God. And most of the times I do this. Not perfectly! When I listen to that Spirit, that prompting, and when I say a truth I feel and know the heart of God, and I know God smiles. That’s right. And it helps me to have people in my life who will tell me after a sermon of whatever, “You know, what you said about the under-talker…” but you know what? I know it’s true. People who were there, I will not mention this girl’s name, know it’s true. So nothing I said was an embellishment. And I felt that tired afterwards. Sometimes I’ve said something that was not true and it’s not pretty. It always leads to trouble. You tell another lie, and another lie.

Are you lying? Are you lying to your spouse? Lying to your kids? Lying to your parents? Lying to your co-worker? Exaggeration, innuendo, leaving stuff out? I mean, I’ve even come face-to-face with industrial strength serial liars, that will look you in the eye and I’m talking, just lie! It’s scary, man. It hurts the heart of God because our condition was caused by the telling and believing of a lie. Go back to the book of Genesis. Make sure your words are words of honesty. Make sure you limit your words. Make sure your words are legit. And then, make sure your words are life-giving.

I can give life-giving words to people. Proverbs 10:11, let’s read it together again, 1-2-3, “The words of the godly are a life-giving (<bubbling> let’s say that like I did.. yeah) fountain.

And Proverbs talks about that we can gush truth. We just gush it. Again, it all goes back to God. Without him I can’t do this. He is the Word of God, the God of the word. He gives me words. I’m made in his image to communicate wonderful opportunities to relate dynamically to someone.

All right, let’s talk about the wisdom of words. The wisdom of words, and this is the last thing I’m going to say. I want to share with you some power phrases, you know, power phrases that will change your life today. The first phrase: please. Not please! No. Please. It’s a polite request.

ILLUS: Yesterday morning I was eating at a little hole-in-the-wall diner for breakfast. I’m sitting at the bar, had my notes spread out, studying words. And I was just listening to people as they walked into the restaurant. And I listened to the words they said when they ordered food. “Uh, gimme scrambled eggs… no, no, do you have biscuits. OK, I’ll take some toast.” I mean, just like the mood is rude. I thought, “Where’s please? Where’s a polite request?” Please, please.

The Scriptures implore us in so many areas to be gentle, not gentle/weak, snowflake, but check this out. Proverbs 15:1, “A gentle answer deflects anger but harsh words make tempers flare.”

What do you do when those veins are popping out of someone’s head? The decibels have been doubled, they’re kind of bowed up, showing their teeth. What do you do? What do you do? You better incorporate please. You better incorporate this one: thank you. I didn’t say, “no problem.” Please, I beg you, don’t say no problem. That’s awful! It’s a double negative! No problem. Where did that come from?

Thank you. Have you ever said thank you to God for words? Did you ever say thank you to your spouse for what she does or for what he does? “Oh, they already know it.” No, they don’t. I mean, I can live on one compliment for a couple of months.

People sometimes say, “I know you hear it all the time…” and I go, “No, I don’t. Bring it on.” Because I don’t. Are you saying thank you at restaurants? Have you ever said thank you to a police officer? Have you ever said thank you to a fireman? Have you ever said thank you to your mom? Thank you to a friend? Thank you. How about thank you to your mother who carried you for 9 months. Have you ever done that? Thank you. It’s huge! See, it doesn’t work. “No problem.” You carried me for 9 months. Oh, there were problems. Have you ever heard of labor?

I’m proud of you. Now, guys, we’re weak. We act like we’re not, but we are. Women understand who they are, I think, better than men do. Women will admit their weaknesses quicker than we will. But we’re really weaker than women. But in this machismo culture, no! Not me, man! I’m the man! Please. Playah! If you’re a girlfriend or a wife, you tell him, “I’m proud of you.” Man… you tell him that, you tell your son, you tell your coworker, you tell that friend I’m proud of you. You want to change your company? Your classroom? You want to change your practice?

I’m sorry. Those are some other words. I’m sorry. I’m not talking about what some lawyer will draft or some pseudo-apology for some celebrity to read on TMZ. I’m not talking about that crap. Those aren’t apologies. A true apology is: I’m sorry. I was wrong. Not, “Hey, man, I’m sorry if I offended you.” If I say that I’m saying man, you’re an idiot. You’re an emotional wreck. That’s not an apology. That’d be like us saying, “Hey Jesus, I’m sorry if I offended you.” Are you saying that regularly? Strategically? Intentionally?

Last one, and this is probably the most life-changing one maybe right now, when you get in a situation where you’re feeling the temperature rise, where there’s a (I love this) miscommunication? We love that word, don’t we? What do you say? Here’s what you say: Help me understand where you’re coming from. You will not believe what that will do to the beginning stages of conflict. You have some people that report to you in some way, shape, or form. Maybe you’re a mom, maybe you’re a dad, maybe you’re a CEO of whatever, maybe you’re a surgeon. I don’t know what you are. An attorney, a pastor, help me understand. And all of a sudden you’ll have communication and connectivity and it will be phenomenal.

WORDS. Wonderful Opportunities to Relate Dynamically to Someone. Jesus is the Word. If you want to talk about a wonderful opportunity to relate dynamically to someone, that’s Jesus. He lived a perfect life, died on the cross for our sins, something we don’t deserve, rose again, and he offers you eternal life. And you can have eternal life just by giving him the word. Have you given him your word?

[Ed closes in prayer]

Last Words: Part 3 – Why

LAST WORDS : WHY

03.11.2018 | DR. JOHN CROSS

Intro:

We are so excited to be part of Fellowship Church! We live in Colleyville, about 20 minutes from the Grapevine campus. We have received such a warm welcome from everyone. In fact, it’s kind of amazing! My wife and I have both been randomly selected for personal greetings by local law enforcement! You know, you’re driving down the road and out of all the people driving on the streets, they choose us to talk to!

ILL. Sunday Morning

January 14, 2018

6:15 am

I was driving my daughter, Hope, for band rehearsal here in Grapevine. It was dark. Very little traffic. I looked up in my rearview mirror, and I see the red and blue lights.

-Pull over

-He asks where we were going

-I was speeding 10 miles over

-He takes my license, vehicle registration,

and insurance info

-Gives me a warning for speeding

-Gives me a ticket for no Texas driver’s license

-Tells me that my Florida license is suspended.

I had no idea at all.

*I called Florida Highway Patrol and found out the reason is because I had dropped the insurance on two older vehicles we had left in Florida. I was told that my license was suspended because I did not return the license plates to the county government. When I tried to explain I had no idea about the law, even though I had lived in Florida for 27 years, the lady kindly said ignorance wasn’t an excuse!

*I got my Texas car tag and Texas driver’s license!

*I went to pay the fines and was told I had to appear in court! Again, I was shocked! Paying the fines was not an option! I was told it was simple and I’d only be meeting with the city attorney.

*This past Thursday was my court date at 8:30 am. I had no idea so many others would be there too!

-Finally, I had my day in court! I told my story to the city attorney and the city attorney dismissed both tickets and I didn’t have to pay a fine or any court costs!

Note: When it comes to sin, someone has to pay!

On the Cross, Jesus was paying for our sins!

Transition: A few weeks ago, Pastor Ed began this series “Last Words” referring to the last words of Christ on the cross! If you’ve missed those messages, I want to encourage you to check them out!:

Luke 23:32

“Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Luke 23:43 “Today you will be with me in paradise.”

Exp: Jesus was crucified at 9 am.

Today we pick up in the story with these words,

Matthew 27:45 “From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land.”

Matthew 27:46 “About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani?’ which means, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’”

Exp: It’s dark. Thick inky black darkness that covered the earth like a shroud. There was no ray of light whatsoever. Just chilling darkness. It was midnight at midday.

46 “Jesus cried out”

lit. “a blood curdling scream, schriek”

Why? Why the darkness?

Why the screaming of Jesus?

46 “forsaken”…”to abandon, desert, leave down in”

Exp: God the Father abandons, turns His back on, forsakes Jesus when He finds Himself literally in the darkest moment of His life!

Why? It was at this moment that Jesus took upon Himself the sins of all mankind for all time!

Jesus Was Forsaken So We Can Be Forgiven

2 Corinthians 5:21 “God made Him Who had no sin

to be sin for us,

so that in Him we might

become the righteousness of God.”

App: The Sinless Savior became sin for us Sinners!

Why was Jesus forsaken? It was in this moment that the holiness of God met the sinfulness of man!

Quote: John Stott

“Sin cannot approach God and God cannot tolerate sin.“

Habakkuk 1:13 “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; You cannot tolerate wrong.”

ILL. Magnifying Glass

-Laser Light Beam Will Start a Fire

App: At 12 pm God took the magnifying glass of His holiness and focused the energy of His wrath at one point, the cross of Christ. God’s wrath due to man’s sin was taken out on Christ.

Note: God was not angry at His Son, He was angry at sin!

ILL. Hands

-One hand I have my Bible representing mankind/sin

-Other hand is open/empty representing Christ

App: Jesus paid a sin debt He did not owe!

We had a sin debt we could not pay!

ILL. Imagine being $1 Billion in Debt

from Bad Business Deals

-You arrange a payment plan

-You’re making $250,000 a year

-You’ll pay ON the debt but never pay FOR the debt.

**Jeff Bēzos, founder of Amazon is worth over $100 Billion, comes and offers to pay off your debt!

App: Jesus paid FOR your sin debt! All you have to do

is receive His payment! His forgiveness by faith!

Fact: Jesus experienced hell for you!

Warning: If you refuse Jesus’ payment FOR your sin,

you’ll spend all of eternity

outside of God’s presence in hell

paying ON your sin debt,

but will never be able to pay FOR your sin debt!

Note: Hell is a place of:

-No Light….God is Light

-No Love…..God s Love

-No Life…….God is Life

App: “Today is the day of salvation,

now is the appointed time!” (2 Cor. 6:2)

Transition: Jesus Was Forsaken So We Can Be Forgiven

If We Have Been Forgiven, We Will Never Be Forsaken

Matthew 27:46 “MY, God, MY God, why have You forsaken ME?”

Exp: It appears as if Jesus is saying God has failed Him. Doubters and skeptics think this must have really happen because who would include this if it wasn’t really true?

Quote: Martin Luther

“God forsaking God. How can it be?”

Key: This was a cry of distress, not distrust!

Note: In the darkest moment of Jesus’ life,

He still looked to His heavenly Father!

How?

Jesus prayed, “My God, My God….”

Exp: At the lowest point of Jesus’ suffering

and when being abandoned, He still turned to God!

Problem: When we feel abandoned,

we tend to follow our Feelings rather than by Faith!

Quote: Corrie Ten Boom

“Look within be depressed, look around

be distressed, look above be at rest”

Note: Jesus did not cry out to His family or friends, but to His Father!

Jesus looked to the Word of God!

Exp: He is quoting Psalm 22!

Jesus clings in faith to God!

46 “My GOD, My GOD…”

App: He trusted God even though that moment was unbearable. He did not give up on God even while asking the, “WHY?”

App: There are a lot of things in life we’d like to know the answer to the “WHY?” We feel abandoned by God when:

-A spouse dies

-A child dies

-We get cancer

-Our spouse leaves

-No one at work seems to understand

-The person you want to date is not interested in you

-Everyone else seems to advance in life,

but you’re not

Why? Why?

ILL./Joke: Why?

Is baked chicken better for you

than fried chicken?

Does spinach, celery, carrots, broccoli,

asparagus have the vitamins,

but candy doesn’t?

Fact: Even if God gave us answers to the “Why” questions, our minds could probably not understand the answer!

Question: What’s better, an explanation or help?

ILL. Fall of 2013 Playing Basketball with the Boys

-Knee cap turned, but my leg didn’t

-Dawn told me I should go to the Doctor

-I started literally falling!

-Go to Dr. and get an MRI

-Dr. explains that I have a couple of torn ligaments in my knee

Imagine: After he explained my problem, he said, “There’s your explanation! And left the room…

No! I wanted help! -He did surgery, etc.

-As they were rolling me in I was quoting to myself, Hebrews 13:6

Hebrews 13:6 “Never will I leave you,

never will I forsake you.”

“forsake”-“abandon, desert, leave helpless, let down,

give up on”

Literal Translation: “I will never, not, not ever,

no never leave nor forsake you.”

Key: Five negatives in this promise!

App: Because Christ was forsaken, we can be forgiven and therefore we’ll never be forsaken!

Listen: Don’t confuse life with God! Don’t mistake God’s silence with God’s absence!

Phrase, “God forsaken feeling”…..It’s just that! A feeling, and it’s not reality!

ILL. Daniella Delices (FAMILY PHOTO -1- FULL)

-About 4 years ago (2014) her husband suddenly at work

-Left Daniella with 6 kids from grade school age thru high school (FAMILY PHOTO -2- Daniella and Kids)

-They continued serving the Lord stayed involved in church

–Last July, Jonathan her oldest son, a senior in college planning on going to law school, went to get dinner one night at a fast food place. He was approached by 3 guys who tried to rob him. They left.

-After he got back in his car and left, they chased him down and shot and killed him!

-I’ll never forget walking into her home with two of my kids who went to try to console their friends.

–Daniella was crying out, “Why? Why? Why?…..Lord You Are Good! Lord You Are Good…..I Trust You Lord!”

Note: Daniella continues to pray, look to Scripture, trust God, stays connected at FC, and serves!

-Her second oldest son, Nick, is a student at UNL

and was here serving at C3 Conference!

App: When God feels most absent, He is most present. We may feel, abandoned by God but we’re not! Jesus was forsaken so that we can be forgiven and never forsaken!

Exp: Where is God when it hurts, He is in us…..

not in the things that hurt,

helping transform bad into good!

Closing: In just a few weeks we will celebrate Easter weekend!

It starts with Good Friday.

ILL. Good Friday

-Was not “Good Friday” 2000 years ago!

-Today, we look back at an empty cross and an empty tomb!

App: We have hope!

Look back at what God did on the Cross/Tomb

Presently, God is with us, in us, upon us, beside us!

Future, Heaven is our home! No more pain,

sorrow, sickness, or suffering!

Where Was God, You Ask?

Where Was God When There Was No Answer

To Your Prayer?

Where Was God In The Midst Of Your Pain?

The Best Case Scenario Is That God Is In Control

Of Your Worst Case Scenario

Even When You Can’t See HIM!

The Cross Says God’s For You!

He Will Always Stand With You

Jesus Was Forsaken, So You Would Never Be Forsaken

Today

Last Words

“Today”

March 4, 2018

Pastor Ed Young

Transcript

But Jesus, I mean, you’re talking about His last words, they were something else. And in fact, they were so powerful, so amazing we’re spending several weeks talking about them.

So the death squad was probably like, “All right, these guys, man, we need to take them out. But Jesus, this preacher? I’m not so sure.”

I don’t know if you it or not, but a supernatural situation caused you to even attend Fellowship Church today.

You’re like, “What?”

Jesus is like, “Man, you don’t get it, My brother. I’m talking about eternal freedom.”

So his friend goes, “Oh man, what’s the deal? Say, man, if You’re the Messiah jump down off the cross, save Yourself, and by the way, save us too.”

Well, here’s what his friend said, the guy who ended up on the right side. Luke 23:40, but the other criminal rebuked him. Don’t you,” say it with me, “fear God?”

Fear, fear God, the fear of God. I call it FOG, fear of God. I’ll come back to the FOG in a second.

“Don’t you fear God, since you’re under the same sentence? We’re punished justly, for we’re getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

I mean look, already he’s having faith in the person of Jesus, and then he’s going to have faith in the pardon of Jesus, and then faith in the paradise of Jesus.

“Ed, did you make that up?”

No, I’m just reading the Bible. I’ll say it again. A person cannot become a believer until they have the fear of God.

Wow. “Be afraid of the one,” Jesus said, “that holds the key to both heaven and hell, both body and soul.”

I mean, that, theoretically that could work but I wouldn’t roll the dice, so, you can accept Jesus as your Savior today, because if you don’t do it today He might be your judge tomorrow.

So, it’s a supernatural situation today, and we’ve had a critical conversation, and it’s my prayer that we have, that you have a spectacular salvation. Let’s pray together.

[Ed leads in closing prayer.]

Take Out The Trash

Adult Children

“Take Out the Trash”

February 4, 2018

By Ed Young

When it comes to dysfunction and character defects, we all deal with them. They infiltrate our lives at a young age, only to manifest themselves years later. Too often, we reserve ourselves to the fact that we just have to deal with them. But God has something better for us! In this message, Pastor Ed Young shows us what it takes to get rid of the dysfunction in our lives. It’s all about learning how to take out the trash.

Transcript

ILLUS: Seeing this trash up here reminds me of moving up to Dallas/Fort Worth 27 years ago to kick off Fellowship. Lisa and I drove up, I like to say, with 1 car, 1 kid, 1 dog. We were in a rental house and we started this church with 30 families. We had no idea it would turn into what it’s turned into but what an amazing journey. Anyway, when we moved from our rent house to this new house we rented the ubiquitous U-Haul trailer. We were excited about that. So we were packing all this stuff in the U-Haul, throwing all the stuff in the U-Haul. And there were like, I guess five or six bags, trash bags, full of clothes, I thought, left in our garage. We had some people to help us move. I was the last one there, sweating profusely. So I’m looking at these clothes, I’m just tossing them. I’m kind of angry, you know when you get tired, like uh! Like that. I’m just tossing them in the U-Haul. And I’m tossing, I’m tossing, I’m tossing. I failed to remember that one of the trash bags was full of a week of trash. And we had had this massive chicken dinner the night before, feeding the people helping us, etc. So I threw all of this in the back of the U-Haul, locked it up, drove the U-Haul to beautiful Irving, Texas. We were living in a little neighborhood at the time, Hackberry Creek. Drove up to our home in Hackberry Creek, parked the U-Haul trailer, it was on a Friday afternoon. So we didn’t really start the moving process into our new house until the following Monday. Because, you know, Saturday/Sunday I have to work so, you know. That trash sat out there in the boiling sun in that U-Haul trailer for days.

So, we get up bright and early on Monday. Lisa is so excited to move into the new house, so am I. And I go to unlock the U-Haul trailer… <blowing sound effect> and I’m talking about the smell singed the nostril hairs. It like blew you back. I thought, is there a dead body in there or something?

Trash stinks, doesn’t it? It has an odor, it’s rotten. I read this past week that American’s produce 4.3 pound of trash a day. Think about that, a day. And if you eat healthy, if you eat gluten-free and organic and, I don’t know, Paleo or whatever, you do all that you will produce over 117,000 pounds of trash. I’m talking about you! You! So turn to your neighbor and say, “You’re trashy, man.” Yeah. And that’s some serious trash talk, is it not?

So we hung out in the house in Irving. Really loved it. There’s no place like Irving. All roads lead to Irving. It’s amazing how many people I meet, “Oh yeah, I started in Irving,” or “I’m from Irving.” Lee Harvey Oswald, Irving. Jack Ruby, Irving. The Dallas Cowboys used to be in Irving. Man, I wish the Cowboys hadn’t moved all the way out there. I mean that’s great, I love Arlington, but come on! What happened to Dallas and Irving? Where there is no vision, the Bible says, the people perish.

Anyway, the Bible also says be fruitful and multiply to Lisa and I began to multiply. We had three more children, we had the twins in Irving. Brought them home and all of that. So when you have twins and especially when you have 3 kids in diapers under 3 years of age, when you have that you’re going to produce a lot of trash. I mean, a bunch of trash. Now the houses were pretty tight where we were on our street. I could, like, reach out and touch the fence of my neighbor. Well, many times at night I’d put it off, procrastinate guys, as far as taking out the trash.

One evening, though, I’ll never forget it. I was taking out the trash and we had all of this trash. I mean, it was just ridiculous. I’m dragging the trash on the side yard to the street. Our next door neighbors, great people, had this massive privacy fence and they had two gargantuan Rottweilers. And there was about a 6” space underneath the fence. So I’m just like dragging the trash at night, all of a sudden whoomp! It felt like my arm was being jerked out of socket. The dogs had grabbed the trash. They were pulling our trash underneath the fence and I just let them have one bag. I just said, take it. So, I took the trash out to the curb – well, most of it – put it out and it was like, wow. It became like, you had to be quick to evade those Rottweilers.

Could it be in this crowd that some of you have trash in your life? Could it be that you, my friend, have some garbage? Maybe some character trash, some stuff that’s stinking up your life. I’m talking about pride. I’m talking about envy. I’m talking about anger. I’m talking about lust. I’m talking about gluttony. I’m talking about greed. I’m talking about slothfulness. Just trash, man. Trash, it’s not pretty, it’s ugly.

You know, we just generate character trash because we have this sin nature, the Bible says, this fallen and fallible condition. We got it from the origin of our family of origin, Adam and Eve, and now, of course, we’ve grown up in a very dysfunctional place and a dysfunctional planet. And we all produce trash. But could it be that some of us are living in our own garbage dump? Could it be that we’re rotting with rebellion? That we’re just littering with lust and just piling up all of this trash of pride?

The Bible says, and let’s read this together at all of our campuses. Whether you’re in Miami, North Port, Dallas/Fort Worth, Southlake Keller, where else do we have them? Prosper, Allaso, wherever you are, online, I mean if you’re online and you’re watching it and maybe your husband’s in the other room, just read this out loud. He’ll go, “What are you doing?” 1-2-3… Let’s do it again, 1-2-3. Proverbs 15:14, “A wise person is hungry for knowledge while the fool feeds on trash.” Garbage in, garbage out. What are you feeding on? What am I feeding on? Very convicting questions.

In this series we’ve been saying to one another that we’re riding this vehicle called Denial. That’s right, it spells Denial. We changed the lettering. It was Denali, now it’s Denial. Denial is a serious thing because we learn denial, many of us, in our family of origin. Maybe you grew up in a divorce situation. Maybe you grew up in an addiction situation. Maybe you grew up with abuse. You learned at a young age how to live in denial. And now that you’re an adult child, we really know how to do the denial thing. Many of us have set our lives up around denial. Go back to the soils of the Garden, Adam and Eve, confronted with their trash. What? God, what are you saying? Denial, denial, denial. Denial is some powerful stuff.

So we learn it as kids and then we build our lives around it as adults because we’ve looked at each other and said children act like adults and adults act like children. So this heavy denial stuff doesn’t really hit us until we’re adults. And so often we never really look back at our lives individually. We never really look back and go, “man, how did this divorce situation affect me? I’ve got trust issues. I’ve got abandonment issues. I’ve got issues with affection. I don’t trust anyone, really. I don’t think there is such a thing as love.” No wonder! I understand, I get it. Our world is in such turmoil.

Maybe you grew up where your father or mother was an addict in some way, shape or form, and you’ve reacted against that. The pendulum has swung so far the other way and it’s caused a lot of resentment and anger in your life. Emotionally you have this hair-trigger temper… boom! Emotionally it’s like when I unlock that U-Haul trailer door – whoomp! We just rage on people, man. We’re all up in their grill! And we see it all the time. The freeway, the boardroom, the classroom , on the basketball court, on the football field. Yes!

Then you have lust. Take a child who has grown up in a dysfunctional family where you have divorce or maybe addiction or maybe abuse. Many of them will be highly promiscuous, trading lust, trading in the highs of that sexual fantasy land and sexual conquest for what they deeply desire from God… depth and love and intimacy.

So I’ve said it. I mean, I’m in denial, you’re in denial in certain areas. And the funny thing about denial is – and I’ve been in denial and I’m sure I’m still in denial over certain areas of my life, but when you’re in denial you’re in denial about being in denial. So if you think “I’m not in denial!” Well, you’re probably in denial.

And we’ve said we’ve been driving this SUV through life and we’ve picked up a lot of baggage. And we’ve talked about the importance of going through the baggage, going through the contents of our lives, of our dysfunctional duffel bag. Then, we said, we have to come to a point where we say, “God, I can’t change. I’m powerless to change. I don’t have the sauce, the juice, to change. But God, you’re all about change and you can only change me because of this exchange that took place. You took my trash, my debris, on the cross, something I don’t merit. You paid the price for it, and because of that I can exchange my garbage for your grace, my mess for your mercy. “

So, Jesus challenges us to get into the will, W-I-L-L barrow. He challenges us to give our lives to him and our futures to him, and God has a great will for every single person.

Then we said last time, just a quick review, that many of us are stuck on character stumps and we talked about the importance of curling your toes over the bow of the boat, jumping in the water, the scary water, and finding those character stumps that are driving so much of this.

Well, this next step, the trash step, is one of the most crucial. This is where we regularly need to take the trash out in our lives. Trash pickup, at least once a week, right?

ILLUS: I jumped online and I thought some of this was kind of humorous. This is what the city of Dallas says about sanitation services. You don’t really think about it that much, I mean I don’t. But it happens regularly. They talk about garbage collection overview. And then they talk about placement. I mean, there are very, very specific, definitely a bunch of lawyers came up with this, about the placement of our trash bins. And I’m sure I’ve messed up many, many times. So make sure to know your position. It’s like in the Super Bowl this afternoon, I mean those guys will know their position and I think many of us when it comes to taking the trash out, we’re out of position, OK? So I don’t know, I just…

So, it talks about the collection frequency, talks about how the city will give us these beautiful rolling bins, you know you got to love those, and here’s what I think is funny. Items not accepted… have you ever thought about that? I mean, there are certain items that aren’t accepted. It says, “Do not place hot ashes, yard debris, concrete rocks, or lazy husbands in the trash bin..” What? And then it says that we’re responsible for keeping our trash bin and trash clean. I love that. We’re responsible for that. But it is great, though, that we live in a nation that we have a city that collects trash.

But I want to ask you, are you taking out the trash? One day Jesus, in John chapter 5, did something that was really, really unique. He was always out of the box. John 5:6, he was walking through the streets of J-town, Jerusalem, and we’ll be there very, very soon. Don’t miss the Israel trip, next Thanksgiving. That’s right, next Thanksgiving. Don’t miss the Israel trip. We’re going to see exactly where this took place, because I’ve been there before. He’s walking through and he sees this pool, kind of this giant Jacuzzi thing, and there’s these crippled people, physically challenged people, lying around. And he comes up to one guy who’s been crippled for 38 years and he leans down. Now this is a weird question Jesus is asking. He goes,

“Hey, man, do you really want to get healed?”

Now, think about that. I’m sure his disciples were like, “What? What? <rewind side effect> What? What? Jesus, you asked this guy who has been crippled for 38 years, ‘Do you really want to get healed, do you really want to change?’”

Why do you think Jesus asked this guy that question? I’ll tell you why. Because there’s a tendency in your life and mine to build our lives around our infirmity, to build our lives around our dysfunction. Maybe he liked the fact that he didn’t have to get married. Maybe he liked the fact that he could just barely survive. Maybe he liked the fact that he could lie down by the Jacuzzi every day. Maybe, who knows? Maybe so!

So I want to turn and ask you the same question. Do you really want to take out the trash? Do you really want to change? The first thing you have to say is, “God, I can’t change. I can’t.” Secondly, “You’re about change, God.” Thirdly, I” get in this will barrow. You have a purpose and a plan for my life, and today, God, I regularly want to take out the trash.”

Philippians 3:8, let’s read it together. Yes, let’s read it together. “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else counting it all as garbage so that I can gain Christ.”

See, that’s the beautiful exchange. If you want to talk about recycling, here we give Jesus our trash. And man, I’ve got trash, and you have trash. Four pounds of trash, 4.3 pounds of trash per day, but I’ve got a lot worse trash in my life than that and so do you.

Regularly, as a believer, I’ve got to be specific about the trash I’m dealing with. Because remember, we’re going to be prolific when we’re specific. I don’t just say – I mean here’s what I’ve said before, “Lord, wow, you know I’m trashy. I have this trash. Forgive me of my trash. I turn from my trash. Amen.”

I mean, that’s a great prayer and all that, however, we’ve got to be specific. So what I would challenge you to do is… OK, let’s say anger is your issue. And maybe you have anger, gluttony, sloth, a lot of them. Let’s just start with anger. Maybe that’s the main one, anger. Instead of saying, “Lord, wow, I get angry. I’m sorry for that. Forgive me, God.” Again, he will, but I want you to be specific when you deal with anger. Like this: “Father, today I’m going to be in a meeting from 9:00 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. I’ll have a tendency to rage, to be defensive, to be arbitrary, to one-up people, to be mean-spirited, to condescend, to just get angry. And over this little time period, God, give me your strength. I’ll rely on it. I can’t change. Your power to push me through this.”

That is what I’m talking about and that’s what the Bible is dealing with. The Bible says don’t start off in many different directions, focus! You’ll be prolific when you’re specific. Take out the trash. What’s your issue?

“All right, Lord, I’m going to be around some people and when I’m around these people they cause my competitive nature to go nuts. They cause my envy engines to rev up, and when I’m around here (maybe you’re a lady) and see the way she looks, the way she dresses, the kind of purse that she has, where she lives.. whatever. I am tempted, God, to really get envious. <hissing sound effect> So, during the time period I’m around her (and if someone causes you that much consternation don’t hang around them very much anyway, but that’s a whole ‘nother story) give me the strength, God, to be content, to understand I’m unique, I’m beautiful, I’m one of a kind.” That’s that specific prayer.

That’s why Jesus said, “Hey, don’t worry about tomorrow. You’ve got enough stuff. Ed, you’ve got enough junk, enough trash, enough rubbish, enough debris for today to handle.”

I like to say sushi-size your life. I love sushi. I bet I eat sushi a couple of times a week. Hopefully I don’t have a tapeworm. I saw the other day – this is really gross – they pulled a 5-foot long tapeworm out of a gentleman in California who ate sushi every day. Don’t Google it. It’ll make you… I have a doctor friend of mine. He took a tapeworm out of someone and I promise you – this is really gross. If you’re squeamish just cover your ears. He was just giving this guy a physical. He had some stomach pain and he said, “OK, open your mouth and stick out your tongue.” And when the guy stuck his tongue out he saw the little head of a …. I’m not going to lie. I’m in church. If you don’t believe me ask Dr. Randy Perkins. Those are his initials, Dr. Randall Perkins, leading-edge medicine. He’s the titan of tapeworm-ology. You have a tapeworm? Go to Dr. Perkins. I mean, he said it was massive. Anyway, wow.

Yeah, sushi-size your life. Be specific on those issues. So some of us, this is weird, we like to live in a trash dump because we’ve lived there so long. It kind of becomes part of who we are, part of our identity. “I’m just that way.” So, we’ve lived there for a long time and they become part of our identity. “I’m just a lustful person. I mean, I like the lust and I just you know drop those suggestive hints and log onto that. And I go to that gentleman’s club.” Which is… that’s funny. “Gentleman’s” club, isn’t that funny? So gentleman who turn women into objects to be used for their sexual hit and they call it a gentleman’s club? It doesn’t quite compute.

And then also, too, every defect has a payoff. I mean, pride has a payoff for me. When I’m prideful I’m like, “Whoa! I’m the man! You’re not. I’m here, you’re not.”

And so much of social media is that. We have to realize so much of social media is not even real. So many of the bots fuel all of the crapola and junk that’s on there. So much of it’s not real. So many of the posts aren’t real, I hope you know that. I mean you know that but do you really know that? So see, what I’m driving at is not the effect of the trash, I’m driving at the cause. You know, we’re great at the effect. Oh, the trash stinks and it piles up! I want to get you to think about the cause of it. Because those 7 ugly sins: pride, envy, anger, lust, gluttony, greed, and slothfulness.

ILLUS: One time I was on a talk show (#humbled) and I thought about this on my way to church. I’m on this talk show about this book I wrote called “Fatal Distractions.” It’s out of print but I’m going to redo it. It’s about the 7 deadly sins. So I’m sitting there and they’re asking me questions about the book. It’s my first book. I did it years ago and I’m talking. And here’s what the host asked me – I wanted to punch him. “Name me the 7 deadly sins.” Like that. I mean, put me on the spot. That’s brutal, isn’t it? I mean, it’s not easy. The camera’s rolling, and this was like a pretty big show. “Oh, name the 7 deadly sins.” I’m… I… again, anger. Do you ever have these fantasy conversations with people? This guy’s a little… you little… <snarling talk> and I was, like, scrambling.

“Pride…”

“Yes.”

“Envy…”

“Good.”

“Anger, lust…”

“Got a few more.”

“Gluttony, greed, and slothfulness!”

“You got it!” And then the fake laughter. There was a little studio audience there but they crank up the laughter and then the applause.

I was thinking about that today coming here. I’m still mad about that. I’ve got an anger problem. That was terrible, wasn’t it? Can you recite the 7 deadly sins? Which one sticks out? Which one – boom!

You’ve had them for a long time. They’re part of your identity. “Well man, I’m just a greedy person. I’m just competitive. I just got to have more. And hey, it’s great to have ambition. That’s fine. Jesus doesn’t want us to sit there and go, “well, I have no ambition.” But greed is when we take it to a HNL, a ‘hole ‘notha level. It’s when that drives us, we become selfish. It’s the me-monster and the more-monster and it’s mine! That’s when greed takes over. Every defect, I’ll say it again, has a payoff. Pride does, again. I told you earlier. I feel good when I’m prideful. I feel good. I’ve spoken before at conferences before full of pastors and I’ve thrown out numbers. And I thought, Ed, why did you say how big Fellowship Church was? Well, to elevate me. I’ve done that before. I didn’t have to. Everybody there was like – wow! But most felt like, “Dang. I’m not doing anything for God.” Do I need to throw out numbers? No. Do I need to tell? No. I’ve done that before and it felt good, really.

“Our church is bigger than every church here!” That’s what I’m thinking. Whoa, man. Pride. It feels good, though, a little bit. Come on, now! Doesn’t it? Doesn’t it? Don’t be lying.

How about lust? It feels good. Foom! That sexual hit, foom! Wow! I’m married but look at her! Look at him! And lay around and talk a little bit and go here and go there, yeah, this is great! And go online and see the millions and millions of images that no one could compete with, no spouse anywhere in the world. We objectify people and we use people and we look at people like animals. And we’ve animalized humans and humanized animals. The hypocrisy of it all. It’s almost as hypocritical as the Grammys. Did you see those? That’s got t be the height of hypocrisy. Hopefully you saw it. Because here you have these women. Now Hollywood is all about morals, yet they’re the ones that have thrown filth and trash at us for decades and decades and now – I’m all about this – but I mean, now they’re the moral police? So then you have these ladies and they’re talking about the morality and about boundaries, and then the next act you have people grabbing their crotch talking about bitches and ho’s. You want to talk about hypocrisy? Are you kidding me? You got the media, they’re always talking about accountability? They have zero. None. When they talk to you, talk to me or someone else, they want to know all the stuff and take it out of context. But when you ask them about their lives, when you ask them about their adultery, their divorce, their anger, their anger, their envy. Oh no, no, no. That’s not relevant. Hypocrisy! Is it just me?

See, we’re all hypocrites. I’m a hypocrite. You’re a hypocrite. Because I’ve always said I want to do this but I’ve done the other. Yet, when we get specific about this trash, I’m telling you, friends, that’s when freedom happens. Because the thing that’s keeping you and me from the freedom that God wants is this trash. So what I implore you to do is think about your life five years from now. Think about your life 10 years from now. OK, if you don’t deal with this trash, if I don’t deal with this trash regularly and strategically, where is my life going to be in five years? If I keep this lust unchecked, where’s my marriage going to be? Where are my kids going to be. If I continue to concentrate on gluttony, which is an obsession with food or an obsession of not enough food, worshipping your body, worshipping food, worshipping GMO, worshipping organic eating, worshipping clean eating. We have so many people, especially women, who struggle with eating disorders. Anorexia, bulimia, where are you going to be if you continue to live in gluttony? How about slothfulness? The sloth says, “Oh, yeah, yeah! Yesterday. Oh yeah, yeah! Tomorrow.” How about now? “Oh, no, no. I’m just going to chill. I’m just going to relax.” It’s so interesting.

So here’s some homework. Are you ready for some homework? I know this is kind of negative. I know you’re like, “Oh my gosh!” It’s positive, though, because Jesus is in the recycling business. He can take all of this trash and recycle it. OK, here’s the review, because I’ve gone through a lot of points.

#1 – Tackle each character defect or each piece of trash one at a time. Have you ever lost something in the trash? I have, a cell phone recently. You know what I did? Went through the trash. It’s gross. Just… uh.

#2 – Focus on one victory at a time. V-I-C-T-O-R-Y. How many cheerleaders do we have here? Any cheerleaders? Former cheerleaders? Oh, I know. You’re afraid because you know if you think about it too much you’ll go, boom, boom, boom! No. I used to like that. V-I-C-T-O-R-Y! V-I-C-T-O-R-Y! V-I-C-T-O-R-Y! Focus on victories! Celebrate wins! Give yourselves a round of applause! I made it through the business meeting without raging on somebody! I was around that girl and she was showing off all of her bling and her figure and I made it through without being envious! That’s what I’m talking about. I had a Whataburger and I loved it! Come on somebody! You know how hilarious?

ILLUS: I had a checkup a couple of days ago with my cardiologist, and of course he said I’m doing great. You know, I had heart surgery a while back, that’s a whole ‘nother subject. He said, “Man, you’re doing great. Tell me about your eating.” And I said,

“We eat probably 5% clean, the other time we eat whatever we want.”

So it’s in moderation, man. Don’t lose your mind over this “oh I’ve got to have an 8-pack. I’ve got to have 8.3% body fat!” I mean, great for you if you have those genetics. I mean, everyone doesn’t have an 8-pack like me, but you need to have balance. So focus on one victory at a time.

Also, rely on God’s power, not your willpower. We’ve been going back to this verse over and over. Philippians 2:13, let’s read it together, 1-2-3. “For it is God who is at work within you giving you the will and the power to achieve his purpose.” So my willpower, yeah, a few things I can do OK. But what we’re talking about here, trash? Only God can do it.

Associate with people who will help you, not hinder you. Associate with people who will help you, not hinder you. You do not want to hang around with people too much who cause you to get trashy. That’s why the Bible says in Proverbs 27:17, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man or woman sharpens another.”

When I interviewed therapists, when I read these papers, when I talked to people in small groups, even physicians, here’s what they said. When it comes to dealing with the trash, the defects in our lives, the sin, it always is better in community. That’s why I’m so excited. I talked to several people this week, “I’m involved in a small group. I went to that seminar. I’ve been going to table talks.” Awesome! You meet the best people doing that!

Last thing. Pursue progress, not perfection. The Bible says again in Philippians 1:6, “God, who began a good work within you, will keep right on helping you grow in his grace until his task within you is finally finished.”

So God will, God will see you through. So we’re not going to be perfect but our God is perfect, and God is taking care of our trash.

ILLUS: So remember, let me go back to my story. You remember I had all this trash, you know, and you know I’m dragging it at night and these Rottweilers grab it. And again, I gave them one of the trash bags. Walk out into the street, you know. And I’m pilling the trash up and everything, you know. Pushing it around, OK. Positioned it correctly. Then I walked inside. The next day I heard the rumbling <rumbling sound effect> of the garbage truck. And I looked outside the window and the garbage truck stopped and then it went in reverse <backup sound effect> because we had so much trash. And I looked, and to my amazement on the side of the truck it said this: “Father and Son Sanitation Services, Taking Care of Trash in People’s Lives for 2,000 years.”

And I looked and the person driving it was Jesus. And the guy on the back of the truck was Simon Peter! So Jesus nodded to Simon Peter, Simon Peter opened up the bin and dumped all the trash in the truck. Jesus looked at me, winked, and <truck sound effect>.

Jesus has taken care of our trash. I’ll say it again. Our Savior is in the sanitation business. He died on the cross for our sin, for our garbage, for our rubbish, for our rot, and rose again. And he’s saying, “Give me your trash. I’ll recycle it and change your life.” Life change here is happening.

I want you to meet a man whose life was trashed out until he met our Savior, who is in the sanitation business.

Wow, there are so many Luises out there. And I want to give you an opportunity, the same opportunity, that I gave Luis years ago. I don’t care what kind of trash you have in your life, where you are, I want to include you in this prayer, this prayer of change.

[Ed leads in closing prayer.]

Dive Deep

Adult Children

“Dive Deep”

January 28, 2018

By Ed Young

At one point or another, we have all dissed God’s function for our lives. Thus, we all have a level of dysfunction in our lives. However, to get the most out of the life God has given us, we must do more than recognize the effects of our dysfunction. In this message, Pastor Ed Young helps us dive deep to discover the cause of our dysfunction, and he helps us realize what it takes to experience true freedom and continue pursuing God’s purpose for us.

Transcript

ILLUS: I tell you, being in this car brings back memories of a boating trip I took years ago. I was with a good friend of mine and we were launching a boat like this one in a beautiful, beautiful lake. This lake had the coffee-black water, the lily pads, the moss. We’d seen some crazy creatures on the banks. We’d seen the water moccasins, the nutria, we’d seen the big alligator snapping turtles, and just kind of a swampy lake. We launched the boat and we’re motoring across this body of water. <boat motor sound effects> You know how you do when you’re in a boat. You can look around <boat motor>. All of a sudden… <boat motor… poowsh!> we hit something. Now that’s a common occurrence, especially in kind of a swampy lake, to hit something. And I thought to myself, we’ll just keep going. But everything stopped. So we rocked the boat back and forth, nothing happened. We paddled, nothing happened. Cranked the motor up, nothing happened. I thought, man, we’re stuck. Something is up. So I decided to do something and I acted like it was no big deal but in my mind I was thinking, <shuddering sound effect>. I curled my toes over the transom of the boat, dove into the coffee-black water, and I swam up underneath the hull of the boat feeling around for what was messing with us. I was trying to feel around and find that object or something that was keeping us stuck. And I touched it and you think, is it a snake? Is it – I don’t know – an alligator? No, no, no! Wow! It’s a massive stump.

This stump had literally impaled our boat. We were like a floating shish kabob. It had penetrated the fiberglass into the Styrofoam so the more we rocked the boat, the more we tried to get off of this, we were boring a giant hole in the hull of our boat. Had we continued doing what we did we would have sunk. But we were stuck out in the middle of this beautiful lake because of an underwater hindrance, this stump.

Maybe, just maybe I just described your life. Maybe, just maybe, I mean you don’t look like it but maybe you’re stuck. Maybe you want to move along and you know you should function in a different way but because of your dysfunction and the reason we all have dysfunction is because we dissed God’s function for our lives. Because of our dysfunction, because of your dysfunction, to personalize it, you’re stuck. You can’t move. And you think, well, maybe it’s due to my family of origin. Maybe it’s due to my marriage. Maybe it’s due to the cards I’ve been dealt. Maybe it’s due to my genetics. I’m stuck. And you’re trying to get off of this stump but it’s not working.

I’m in a series called Adult Children. We’ve been saying around here that we treat our children like adults and yet when we become adults we act like children. Children learn at surprisingly young ages how to live in Denial. This was a Denali but we had someone to change it because we live in Denial. And growing up, a lot of us lived in denial and it served us well. Now that we’re adults we still are in denial. Maybe you grew up in a family where divorce occurred. Maybe you grew up in a family where you had an addict. Maybe you grew up in the family of a narcissist. Maybe you grew up where there was some sort of emotional, physical, or even sexual abuse. I’m here to tell you that those issues can keep us from cruising. Those issues can cause so much commotion, so much mayhem that we can’t really do what God wants us to do because we haven’t dealt with those underwater character stumps that have us stuck. So what is that character stump? What is that thing in your life? Are you man enough, are you woman enough, to curl your toes over the transom of the boat to dive down deep in the murky, black, critter-infested water and feel that stump? To name that stump? I know it’s weird. I know it’s kind of freaky but I want to challenge you to do so.

In this series we looked at each other in the first week and said, “Hey, I can’t change.” In the second week we noticed that we can’t change, but God can change, and then we said to ourselves, Lord, I want to submit my will and my purpose to you. We called it the will-barrow step, or the will, W-I-L-L, God’s will barrow because God’s will for your life and mine is amazing. God wants us to function to his purpose, to do his will.

You remember when Jesus taught us to pray? Jesus said, “Our Father who art in however, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” It is what it is, right? God’s will is perfect in Heaven. And those of us who say “I can’t change,” God you can change me. I want to submit my life and my will to you, God. Well, what’s going on in Heaven can happen on earth. Not perfectly, but it can happen. Are you in God’s will? Are you in God’s purpose? To understand all of this, to understand the luggage rack and the baggage that we carry, you need to go to www.fellowshipchurch.com and look at the other messages to really understand the context of what I’m talking about.

T.S. But let’s go back to the boat. Are you ready to look at some character stumps that have you stuck?

The Bible says in John 7:24, let’s read it together. “Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly.”

Well, what’s the first character stump that all of us deal with? As we dive deep, as we go under the water, as we feel around, the first one is pride. Pride, the precursor, the forerunner of all sin, pride. I can recognize pride in you but I have a hard time recognizing it in myself. Oh, I can see it on social media but I can’t see it on my posts. Oh, that’s a humble brag. I can’t believe she would post that, or he would post that. Man, they have a pride problem. So in this series I want us to have more thumbs than fingers. At Fellowship Church that’s what I love at Fellowship. We’re not a finger-pointing church, it’s more about the thumb.

Lisa and I lived in a neighborhood years ago and the houses in the neighborhood were nice. They were cool. But there was one house that was totally junked out, full of crap. And I called the people, although I’d never met them, Jim and Jill Junkster. They had jibbeldy-junk everywhere. You know what I’m saying to you? Those people that just had too much going on. I wanted to go over there and say, “Have you ever just looked around? Have you ever noticed how junky your house is? It looks like a flea market in Canton, Texas, man. It looks bad! Clean your act up!” But see, I’d be an idiot to do that. I have to take care of my own yard, my own house, my own situation. So I know it’s tempting to think about your husband, or your father, or your ex, or your boss, or your coworker, or your teammate, or your teacher, but think about yourself. Lamentations 3:40, “Let us examine our ways (the Bible implores us to do so) and test them and let us return to the Lord.” The ride of pride.

See, pride comes before all sin. I can’t lust until first of all I’m prideful. I say, you know what? My sexual function is my deal, it’s not yours, God. So I lust and I have a God-given desire that goes haywire. The Bible says about pride something very, very real. It says in Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction. A haughty spirit goes before a fall.”

Could it be that you have a pride situation? Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, oh, I know the prideful person. That person who’s blinged out, the person that drives a fancy car. That person that’s always talking about me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me! I know that person. You know the person that’s always one-upping everybody at the party. I’m here and you’re there! Oh, that’s pretty cool but look at me! You know? You know? You know? Yeah, that person, the me-monster, that person’s prideful but I would submit to you that some of the most prideful people I know are prideful in their humility. Interesting.

So the moment I think I’m humble, I’m prideful in my humility. Wow. Pride, pride, pride. Pride is ugly. It is. Pride. I can’t say pride without thinking of I. Pride, me, my. It’s just this natural tendency we have to elevate our self above God. You have to say, you know what? I’ve got a pride issue. Have you ever done that? Have you ever said, “I have a pride character stump in my life.”? Well, there’s another one. And this message is tough, I’m telling you. The first three steps, OK. I can deal with that. But when it talks about doing a sinventory, that’s step 4. Really getting into that deep and dark and dirty water and finding the character stump of pride. Or maybe the second one, envy. Envy. I wrote a book years ago and the title is Fatal Distractions. And one of the chapters I wrote about was this sin called envy, envy. You know, you hear of someone who is green with envy. We look at people with an envious eye. We’re envious over someone else’s spouse, or portfolio, or house, or influence, or their gifts.

We’re going to find out that envy and greed are twins, ugly twins. U-G-L-Y, you ain’t got no alibi, ugly twins. I mean greed is a sin but envy is on a HNL, a ‘hole ‘notha level. I’m gonna bring back that. I haven’t said it for a long time but with the whole millennial crowd, what’s old is new. What’s old school is new school. Let’s say it again, ‘hole, ‘notha level. Envy, envy, envy.

I think about the Bible. I think about Saul. You remember when Saul saw David? David had just defeated Goliath. He was blowing up on social media, trending on social media, all these clicks, all these likes, all these followers and Saul looked at him and the Bible says he looked at David with that eye of envy. Envy is “I want what you have.” And when I’m envious I’m always comparing myself with others. So when I’m envious – this is just me – usually I feel discouraged. Sometimes I’m just discouraged when I’m envious. I’m like, “Man, they’re better than me. They’re just better! Well, I feel bad. I’m not that talented, I’m a no-count.” Or, I compare myself with others and I say, “I’m better than them! Oh, I’m a lot better than her. Yes! I’m better than that!” Envy takes us to dark places. Could you be dealing with this pride. Maybe you’re dealing with this desire to hear the words you never heard growing up: You’re great at that. You’re good at doing that. I love you. Maybe pride is that character stump. Maybe it’s envy. Maybe you grew up in a very competitive family of origin and you think, I’ve got to always belittle someone because when I belittle someone I feel better about myself. Maybe you dress to belittle others. Maybe you talk to belittle others. And it’s a sinister way of being envious.

And then, I think about another character stump, there’s another one. I know it’s negative but I know it’s going to get positive, I promise you. Anger is another one. Anger. Maybe anger is driving you. Anger, anger. Everybody is outraged these days, have you noticed that? Everybody’s outraged. Everybody’s angry. I was reading this past week online about all the different groups that are angry. I promise you. There’s the outrage of the Knitting Association. There is the outrage of coaches, the outrage of teachers, of course the outrage of lawyers and preachers, and everybody is just outraged. Everybody’s angry, you know? We even have groups that are outraged about all the outrage that’s going on. It’s like our culture is cutting its teeth now on being outraged. I read one psychologist who talked about all of these “champions of moral outrage” and this psychologist was saying so often when people stand up and go on social media about moral outrage, they just want you to notice them and say, oh that’s a good guy. That’s a good girl. And this man was submitting that do they really care that much about the issue that they’re freaking out over? Anger.

Anger is an easy emotion. I’m just, I get angry easy. It’s easy. It’s a secondary emotion, did you know that? It’s not the primary emotion. Go back to Saul. I mentioned him earlier. Saul, instead of feeling insecure, instead of absorbing that ‘wow, I’m gonna run in my own lane and be my own guy’, what did Saul do? Saul jumped to anger. Saul tried to kill David over anger. Anger, it’s an easy emotion. What do we do with anger? Maybe you grew up in a family and maybe you have learned how to do anger like your family of origin. Some people suppress anger. We Tupperware anger. We put it away, put it in the fridge, and it’s there for 4-5 months, maybe 4-5 years. Then one day we open it… <whoom!> where did that come from? Or some of us just express it. Yeah, we handle it gunslinger-style. <The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly theme song> Who knows that song? Oh, that’s for the 45 and over crowd! Yeah! If you don’t know that I’m telling you, talk about some great movies? Those spaghetti westerns with Clint Eastwood, I love those things! You can kind of see the sweat, you hear the flies, I love those! The cigar… man, we just don’t make movies like that anymore. Anyway, I was thinking about those movies. But some of us handle anger that way. We just rage on people, rage on our spouse, rage on our kids, rage at work. We just love rage. It’s the age of rage. The mood is rude. I’ll just get angry. I mean, somebody cuts you off in traffic, oh my goodness! You’re standing in line at Starbucks and the person in front of you changes her order. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t want four shots, I wanted two shots. Two caff and two decaf, and plus the foam is not enough on my cappuccino.” <snarling sound effect> We’re angry! Now there’s a time to be angry. Most of us, though, jump on anger because that’s the way we learned how to deal with stuff. And it’s an easier emotion. Feel the first feelings. So is anger keeping you stuck? Is anger keeping you from cruising?

Now the fourth character stump… well, let me put it this way. When I say this don’t shift nervously in your seat because we’ll know that you deal with it. Lust. I told you. Lust. As I said earlier, lust is a God-given desire that’s gone haywire. We’re sexual creatures, sex is a good thing, it’s a God thing. I’ve lectured about it, written about it. We have an attraction for the opposite sex. But what has happened is we’ve dissed God’s function and we’ve said, you know what? I’m gonna function sexually my way. And you have this whole craziness going on, this whole thing with porn. This whole thing with #metoo from Harvey Weinstein to Bill Cosby. You have premarital sex, you have homosexuality, you have adultery, you have premarital sex, you have people masturbating in front of computers by the millions and millions and millions for their sexual hit, and you’ve got lust and lust is messing a lot of people up. Could it be that it’s messing you up? Could it be that lust is putting a hole in the hull of your life and you’re sinking because of it? Thirty-five percent of all internet downloads are porn-related. Porn increases marital infidelity by 300%. That means if you watch porn together or separately. The most common female role in porn is women in their 20’s portraying teenagers. Several years ago I did a television interview with a porn star and her porn star boyfriend, and they actually talked about some of those issues with me as they defended porn. Porn is a global estimated $97 billion industry with about $16 billion of that coming from the U.S. Unbelievable. Pornography.

How do you deal with lust? Are you dropping those comments to find the lust quotient in other people? Do you find yourself in this situation where you’re functioning your way and you’re not functioning God’s way? I’m here to tell you that you do sex God’s way and great things will happen. But if you don’t, I mean, read the secular stats on this stuff, friends! It’s dark and deep and dirty and nasty, so no wonder half of the marriages are ending in divorce! No wonder the mayhem due to divorce and abuse and addiction. Most of the roles that porn stars play in the movies, the female porn stars, would be that of teenage girls. And we wonder about child porn? We wonder about all this stuff? Are you kidding me? Yet our world does not have the answers. The world of science doesn’t have it, biology doesn’t have it, psychology doesn’t have it. Yeah, they can say there’s a problem but what’s the answer? Is it keeping you stuck?

Another one is greed. Greed, what is greed? Is that saying you should never have any ambitions or goals? No, it’s not saying that. Proverbs 28:25 says, “The greedy stir up conflict but those who trust in the Lord will…” What? Well, you sounded excited about that. “But those who trust in the Lord will (what?) prosper!”

Yes! We get in the will (W-I-L-L) barrow we’re going to prosper. Does that mean have a lot of money? For some people. Does that mean to have just amazing relationships? Yeah, because that’s more than what money can buy. Does that mean we can do life the way we’re supposed to do it? Yes, because we’re functioning the way God wants us to function. But greed is when I say more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more! And greed will make you nasty, man. I know some people who are greedy and they don’t have much. They have this scowl on their face. They look bad. Greedy people. I know this one guy who’s greedy. I met him when he was a young guy, before he had anything and he was, he looked good. As he’s gotten older – and he doesn’t go to church here so don’t look around – as he’s gotten older this guy has gotten freakier and freakier. And I’ve talked to a number of people who have done business with him and they’re like, “Man, this guy is greedy! Just greedy!” You can have stuff. The Bible is not anti-ownership. You can have goals and do all that but are you generous? Are you unselfish? Because if you selfish your self will smell like a fish.

ILLUS: One time I took the twins fishing. They were tiny! We caught a little perch and without me knowing it they put the perch in my tackle box. I went home and put the tackle box up in our garage and after about two weeks of triple-degree August Texas heat our garage was not smelling too pretty. And finally we figured out what the problem was, a fish! You’re selfish, you’ll smell up the joint.

Another one, if you’re keeping score, #6 that’s gluttony. What’s gluttony? The word gluttony comes from a Latin term to gulp <gulping sound effects> too much food or drink, or I would say not enough food or drink. How do you spell relief? Give me some nachos and cheese! Can I have another milkshake? We’re like a bunch of blue sharks in a feeding frenzy. An obsession with food, too much food or too little food. We have a whole culture now that worships food. Oh, you’ve gotta eat clean, man! Eat clean! Gluten free! Organic! Vegan! Forks over knives! And we bow down at the altar of food, and we worship physiques, and worship all of that. We say, “Yeah, I’m eating clean, man. Yeah, I know, at least I’m not addicted to porn or have an anger problem.” You’re addicted to food! You’re addicted to having an 8-pack! You’re addicted to working out! You’re addicted to yourself! You’re a glutton! It’s so easy, so easy to do that. We have eating disorders. Anorexia, bulimia, just for the look and we so often say I’m just eating clean to camouflage that deadly sin. Wow, this a tough message. I don’t even like to talk about this stuff. Let’s be honest. Let me do one more, though, and we’ll change the subject to something good.

Slothfulness. What’s a sloth? It’s a slow-moving, tree-dwelling creature, a sloth. I love this next verse (Proverbs 26:14 KJV). Check it out. <creaky sound effect> “As the …” what? “ As the door..” There you go, that’s better than my sound effect right there and I’m not being envious. “As the door turneth upon his hingeseth, so doth the slothful upon his bedeth.”

So, a lot of people deal with slothfulness. I’m not talking about sloppiness. Well, I guess you could say that but really it’s sloppiness. Like, the sloth always says, “Oh yesterday… tomorrow… oh you must be talking about tomorrow… or yesterday.” Well, how about today? “Oh, no, that’s yesterday or tomorrow.” They just kind of skim over things. They make decision of comfort, soft commitment. You know what I’m saying to you? They never really complete the task. They have all these dreams and all these unfinished projects. Could that be stalling you, keeping you from cruising? Sinventory. The 7 deadly character stumps.

ILLUS: I left you hanging because I left myself and my friend out in the middle of the lake. You’re going, what happened? We were trapped. We were stuck. I swam up under the boat, felt this giant stump, felt the hole in our hull. I told my friend,

“Listen, you go to the opposite side of the boat, I’m gonna dive to the bottom of this lake and I’m gonna come up as hard as I can and push this boat off the stump and I think it’ll work.” He was like,

“OK, bro.” He called me bro. Whatever happened to that? Bro. See, that’s old school. Let’s bring it back. Let’s call each other bro. What’s up, bro? Just say it. Just turn to your neighbor and say “What’s up, bro?” I’ve never really used the term bro but I’m starting to use it now. Again, what’s old school is new school. Anyway, I dove down and when my fit hit the bottom… I mean, I like the outdoors but I’m like, what is down here? You never know. When you can’t see, that freaks me out, man! I’m like oh my gosh! And lily pads all up in my shoulders and stuff and little, you know, leeches and stuff. And I’m like – wham! So I go up and push as hard as I could. The boat wasn’t that big, I mean we’re not talking about a giant boat. But I was able to get it off of the stick up, crawl back in the boat, and we <boat motor sound effect> cruised across the lake. I did several things. Things that I am going to challenge you to do.

I got out of the boat and stopped the shenanigans of just on the surface paddling and cranking the motor up and rocking the boat. I got out of the boat, in the water, found the character stump. Then I told my friend about it.

That’s your homework. Your homework is James 5:16. “Therefore (anytime you see therefore always ask, ‘what’s it there for, God?’) confess your sins to …” Who? We didn’t say that with much conviction. I thought it was just God and I! Come on, Ed! You’re…. that’s the first thing. But the second thing the Bible says confess your sins to someone with skin on. OK, “therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for (who?) each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

The prayer, the prayer, the prayer. So confess one of your deadly hang-ups. Which one is it? Just write it down. Now somebody who is a mentor, somebody who is spiritually mature. Maybe in your small group, maybe a pastor, maybe a Christian counselor.

Here’s what I do when I’m prideful. When I’m prideful in this meeting I say… when I’m prideful here’s what I post… just write it down. Whatever it is, say it. When you’re specific you’ll be prolific. So confess it to God, confess it to others. But here’s what we do. So often we want deliverance from our own prayer requests. Did you get that? I want to change! I know I can’t change but you’re about change. I get in the will-barrow, I have these character stumps. Well, God starts working in your life and he’s like, I’m answering your prayer! You want patience so I’m gonna put you in a situation where you’re going to have to have patience by the Holy Spirit of God. I mean, you’re talking about pride? Pride is your issue? Well, I’m gonna put you in a situation where you’re gonna be tempted to one-up that person. You’re gonna wait for his lips to stop moving and say, “You think that’s something, I went on a yacht to the Maldives…” Me, me, me. So don’t ask God to deliver you from your own prayer requests. Proverbs 28:13, “Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.”

God wants you to cruise. Don’t diss his function. Go with it. Locate, replace, that character stump. Stop your paddling. Stop cranking the motor. Dive overboard. Tell God about it and a friend about it and you’ll be free. Free indeed.

[Ed leads in closing prayer.]

The Will Barrow

Adult Children

“Will-Barrow”

January 21, 2018

By Ed Young

Life comes with baggage. Some of the baggage is emotional. Some is relational. Some may be spiritual. But no matter what the baggage looks like, we all have some. Why we carry it and how we carry it may vary. But we all carry it. In this message, Pastor Ed Young helps us take a look at the baggage we carry. And more than that, he helps us to come to a point of handing it all over and experiencing true freedom in Jesus!

Transcript

It’s a pretty sweet SUV, isn’t it? Pulling a boat? Well, the boat’s next week. You don’t want to miss the boat story because it’s something that we need to deal with. If this is your first time here you might be going, why in the world do you have an SUV on stage? I mean, why the car on stage? Well, last week I told a little story about what happened.

Well last week I told a little story about what happened when our adult children were children. We took a weeklong vacation in beautiful San Antonio Texas. Really, though, when you take little kids, I said last time, on a vacation, it’s not a vacation it’s a family outing. OK? And many times after the family outing the parents need a vacation, so don’t call it a vacation. Anyway, we had and we have so many kids we had to pack the car. We packed the suitcase and luggage on top of the car using a luggage rack. So we finally made it back to Dallas and I drove into our neighborhood. And I was like, oh man this is so great to finally be home again. Our driveway was on an incline so as I approached the driveway and garage I instinctively pressed the garage door opener. The garage door opened. Then you have to kind of, you know, mash the accelerator, kind of push the accelerator kind of strong because you have to climb up this incline to get into the garage. Well, in my excitement I forgot about the fact that we had these giant piles of luggage on top of our SUV. So when I pressed the accelerator we flew into the garage and I heard this explosion! Drywall, and Nels, and bags were everywhere. Lisa and I looked at each other and we go, the luggage! The garage! Oh my gosh! We got out of the car and assessed the damage and it was very, very costly. I had forgotten about the luggage. I had forgotten about the fact that it wouldn’t fit into our garage and it caused a lot of destruction.

Last week we looked at each other and we said, hey, we can’t change. We said we all have baggage, we all have family baggage we are lugging around on our lives. And if we stop, and look around we see some of the destruction, some of the collateral damage that this bag which has caused. We admitted that. And for some of us it was like a wake-up call. For some of us it was the first time we had ever really thought about the baggage that we are carrying around in our lives. We also established the fact that every one of us is dysfunctional. We have dissed God’s function for our lives in some way, shape, or form. Oh, my family is dysfunctional. We are all dysfunctional now, I understand that. True dysfunction can be traced all the way back to the origin of our family of origin, Adam and Eve, because in the soils, in the toils of the Garden, Adam and Eve did their own thing their own way. They wanted to be the boss. They wanted to be like God. They wanted to simply say, you know what God? I’m going to run the show. You know what, God? I’m going to drive the vehicle. You know what God? I am going to have a white-knuckle grip on the steering wheel of my life. Yeah, there are dashboard warnings. Yeah, the fuel light is on. Yeah, I have a couple of flat tires, but I’m going to do what I’m going to do. And the Bible calls that attitude sin. It’s our depravity, it’s our dysfunction. We diss the function that God has for our lives. God wants us to function in a certain way, the best way, as a student, as a husband or wife, grandparents, as a manager, as a CEO, as a coach, as a nurse, as a physician. God wants us to function in a certain way. Yet, too many of us carry around bags of dysfunction. We forget we have baggage. The baggage has caused destruction and we don’t realize the cost of it. Dysfunction.

How many of you come from a dysfunctional family. For example, how many of you have grown up in a divorce situation? Lift your hands. In the balcony, divorce has affected almost all of us. And the stats on divorce are amazing. They’re sobering. If you read about it, so much of the stuff that comes out, happens when we are adults. So is it true that in our culture through dysfunction, through divorce, we treat children like adults and then when they become adults, we tend to act like children.

You know, years ago like in the 70s, people said divorce doesn’t affect or influence or mess up anybody. I mean it’s good for the parents, and it’s really eventually good for the kids. But the new research coming in isn’t very pretty, friends. It’s devastating. It’s dysfunctional. How about addiction? Maybe you grew up in the home of an addict, lift your hands. Alcohol was abused, drugs, maybe narcissism. I define narcissism as drinking yourself. There are a lot of dry drinks and there. They have the characteristics of an alcoholic or drug addict. They may be addicted to approval or to themselves.

So a lot of us have grown up in divorce situations. A lot of us a grown-up in situations where there is addiction, maybe abuse. Any verbal abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse? In this series I talked with therapists. I talked to doctors. I talked to people in small group situations. I interviewed people. I looked at my own life and about my own life experiences, and then I went to the ultimate source, the Bible. And I realize that, wow, all of us have dysfunction. So for us to function the way God desires we have to deal with this dysfunction. But too many of us are in, did you see this? We did this, this week. Too many of us are in what? Not Denali, but Denial. Say it again. We are going to keep this on this car.

We are in denial. Are you kidding me? What? I don’t have any baggage. I don’t have any luggage. I’m not weighed down with dysfunction. Not me! Are you kidding me? You are a Louis Vuitton Linda. Are you kidding me? You are Samsonite Sam! Are you kidding me? You are TUMI Tina.

Oh I am, I don’t deal with that, man. I don’t deal with that. Yet you’re carrying around this heavy duffel bag of dysfunction. Trying to date. Maybe you’re online and trying to date. That’s were dating happens these days. Maybe you were trying to work as a coach in a school or you have this baggage. Maybe you were trying to negotiate life as a single parent. Maybe you’re trying to be the best husband, the best wife, the best schoolteacher, yet you have this baggage. Too many of us are in denial and what’s so funny is that those of us who are in denial are in denial about being in denial. That’s why you are in denial! So we are describing this SUV called denial and we are causing destruction in our lives and in the lives of others. It’s very costly. Let’s see what scripture says.

Hebrews 12:1-2, let’s read it together. “Let’s throw off any extra baggage, get rid of this in that trips us up and fix our eyes on Jesus.” This baggage can mess us up. It can trip us up. It can cause us some serious problems just waited down. Yet how funny do we look in the eyes of God? Baggage? Me? I don’t have any baggage! Again, we have it because of our depravity, because of our sin nature. We have it because in our choices. We have it because of our family of origin. Baggage. Dysfunction. We diss God’s function.

Let’s say, for example, just use your imagination. Let’s say you met someone who owns the largest skyscraper in Dallas, which happens to be the Bank of America Plaza, 72 stories tall. And let’s say this person invites you and your family down to his building and he took you to the observation deck to check out the sights and sounds of Dallas. So you drove your Denial down to the building, VIP parking of course because this guy is very wealthy. Must be nice. Someday. Wow! You own this? You know? So we have special parking, private elevator up to the observation deck, and we are checking out the sites and the sounds on the building. I mean the tallest building in downtown Dallas. Wow! There’s Fair Park! Look at that bridge! Whoa, there’s Klyde-Warren Park! Yeah, American Airlines Center. I used to live over there. It’s amazing! Look at the growth that happened! All of a sudden, though, you’re standing on this observation deck and your worst nightmare becomes a reality. Your son goes,

“Dad I smell some smoke.” You’re like,

“Smoke? That’s just from that barbecue stand down there, see it? It’s really good barbecue, by the way.”

And the owner goes, “No it’s not! The building is on fire!” You’re standing on a towering inferno. Oh no! The elevator system is jammed, the stairs are closed, we’re going to die! And you look and your Yeezys are melting.

Some of you didn’t laugh. Just go home and Google Yeezys. I don’t have a pair but Kanye designed these things and people pay thousands of dollars for a pair of Adidas tennis shoes. They’re called Yeezys. Go figure. Anyway, your Yeezys are melting. Your hair is being singed. You’re standing on the 72-story building and you look through your tears and through the smoke and the flames, and you see a sole, solitary figure on the building adjacent to you, across the street from you. This building is only 65 stories tall. And you see this guy kind of moving around and he takes out the cannon. And you think, I’m dying and this guy is firing a cannon? Boom! He fires a cannon. Out of the cannon explodes a 3-inch wide steel cable. It flies from his building to your building, and the cable, like Batman, wraps around the air conditioning unit. And then to your shock you see this lone, solitary figure hop onto the 3-inch wide cable between the two buildings. And he’s doing some dance moves on it, and he’s walking around you know, 360s, all the stuff. And then you see him disappear and you see him bring out a wheelbarrow. And he wheels the barrow, I guess it’s called a barrow? Yeah, a wheelbarrow. He wheels the wheelbarrow across the 3-inch wide cable. Through the smoke, flames, he wheels the wheelbarrow right up to you. He looks in your eyes and he simply says, “Get in.” Get in the wheelbarrow. It’s your only chance of survival. Get in, I’m going to rescue you! Get in, I’m going to save you! Get in, get in, get in! What are you what do you do?

Last week we said, remember step 1? I can’t change. Step 2 – God is the only one who can change me. And then the true change comes because of the exchange. Jesus gave your life for your sins and mine, for your dysfunction and mine. And if we receive Jesus, he comes into our lives and we exchange our guilt for his grace, our mistakes for his mercy. Our sins for the Savior of the world. We said that. Well, step 3 is the wheelbarrow step. Step 3 says that our great God – don’t miss this – has spanned the chasm from one building to another. Our great God has sent Jesus to fire the cable from God’s side to man’s side. He’s crossed the cable. We’re in a towering inferno. He’s locked eyes with you and me and he looks at us and says, “Get in.” The wheelbarrow is right up in your grill. “Get in,” Jesus says. Get in. I have a will, W-I-L-L-barrow for you. Get in! Some of us have gotten in. Some of us have said, OK, Jesus I realize that I’m on a towering inferno and I get in. Others of us, though, standing here with our baggage (and my shoulder is hurting right now but because I have massive deltoids I can stand here for hours). Others of us here, we don’t comprehend our true condition. Again, we’re in denial. Fire? Yeah, my Yeezys are melting. Yeah, I have blisters on the bottom of my feet but I can take care of my situation! I’m the man. I’m the woman. I don’t really have dysfunction. I don’t really have issues. I can do what I need to do. Well, the Bible says this. Satan, who is the god of this evil world, has made him blind, unable to see the glorious light of the gospel that is shining upon him, or to understand the amazing message we preach about the glory of Christ who is in God.” That verse keeps doing, doesn’t it? So the person standing here in denial doesn’t get it.

So then we have the person who blames. You’re standing there on the observation deck, towering inferno, and you blame others. It’s my son’s fault. It’s my wife’s fault. You know, when I walked down the aisle and said “I do” I didn’t really mean it. How many times have I heard that load of crap? It’s my coach’s fault, my parents’ fault, my grandfather’s fault. I’m just this way. I can’t help myself. Well, that’s like saying. “OK, I’m 6’8”, 225 pounds, I have 5% body fat and a 40” vertical jump. I can’t help myself. I’ve just got to play in the NBA.” No, you have a choice. That’s what the homosexual crowd says. “Oh, I just can’t help myself.” Yes, you can be predisposed to homosexuality. You have a choice. “Oh I just have to sleep around, go from bed to bed. I’m just that way. My father was a ladies’ man. I just can’t help myself!” What are you smoking? Because you probably are. We have a choice. We all have predispositions, we all have tendencies. I understand that. Because look at our background, look at our origin of the family of origin? A crooked landscaper, Adam? The diva mom, Eve? Chose to sin, chose to rebel. We all have that tendency, we all do. Join the club! I’m not talking about genetics. I’m talking about something much more powerful than that. I’m talking about sin-etics.

In Hosea 4:4, let’s go, “Don’t point your finger at someone else and try to pass the blame to him.” The Bible says this. And you go back to the soils of the Garden, go back to the mud. I mean, you’ve got Adam and Eve blaming each other. And then you have Eve blaming the snake, and the snake didn’t have a leg to stand on. Yeah. So. We love to blame.

And another reason we don’t get into the wheelbarrow is because of fear. We’re fearful. Oh no! What if I jump in the wheelbarrow, where will Jesus take me? He might take me to Borneo and I’ll become a missionary! Or he might crash my fun! We don’t really trust him. I’ll be less of a man or less of a woman. We don’t really trust him. He has the best way for us to function. His way works. And then some of us do this. We take out our duffle bag of dysfunction, take a knee, and we go, “OK, Jesus. Yeah. Uh-huh, uh-huh. But look. I’ve got this approval situation.”

Maybe you grew up in a family that you’re just trying to hear the words that you never heard growing up: You matter. You’re great at that. I love you. A lot of people are being driven by that. Or resentment, you’re just resentful. It was unfair, the hand that you were dealt. Unfair, you say. Egotism. Pride comes before every single sin. It’s the precursor of every sin. Pride. You can’t go in an anger fit unless you have pride. You can’t go and take the lure of lust unless pride is in place first. You can’t get greedy unless you’re prideful or envious. It’s ugly. U-G-L-Y, you ain’t got no alibi, ugly! Pride is.

Then we have promiscuity. Why are people going, “You know what? I don’t want to get married. I don’t want to get married.” They’re saying that because they grew up in a divorce situation and they have zero trust in the institution of marriage. Also, too, many did not receive affection and love and they’re looking for it in the arms of another man or another woman. And what’s so ironic is that sexual intercourse you have oneness, and that’s the closest to God that many people will ever get. That’s deep stuff. Think about that.

Criticism. I want people to feel as miserable as I feel. You know, I grew up where I was criticized and where I heard criticism. And what do we do? We either repeat or repel it, and a lot of us repeat it. I’m just gonna build a wheelbarrow wall. I’m not gonna get in!

Anxiety. Oh that’s another major, major situation from dysfunction. Anxiety, anxious. Too much pressure too early. Research abuse, research children of addiction, research adult children of dysfunction and just think about divorce. Too much pressure was put on kids at too early an age. Couldn’t handle it and now they’re adults, they’re about to lose their mind because of anxiety!

Deception. It’s so funny I talked about deception last week, because in deception from a dysfunctional situation, we’re just deceptive just to be deceptive. We’ve seen deception and we’ve seen truth. We’ve seen the capriciousness of that, so a lot of people just lie just to lie. I talked about it last week. Sunday afternoon Lisa and I had two people in their 70s look into our eyes and lie to us three straight times. Right after the service! Is that crazy? Deception.

And don’t try to figure it out. It was just some situation and it was sad and that’s the way it is. People like, “I wonder what happened? Where were they?” The big idea is deception! Don’t worry about it. We’re doing great, OK? Isn’t that funny how nosy we are? I’m the same way. Where were you? I know what you’re thinking. What were they doing?

Forgiveness! That’s another one, forgiveness. Forgiveness is the greatest gift so often that you need to give yourself. Maybe you grew up in a family where there was no forgiveness. Or maybe you’re harboring this hurt and you’re like, I’m not going to release my father. He took advantage of me. He said that, or that person or that situation, but we build that on the wall that keeps us from the wheelbarrow.

Control. I was out of control, my family was, so I’m gonna be in control. And maybe someone in your family controlled everything. You know what I’m talking about? You’re like, my mother ran the show. She controlled my father. I mean, it was sad! Talk about domination. Or maybe your father did. Or maybe you were in another situation. Control. So what happens? You repeat that. Or maybe your home was out of control and you’re like, I’m gonna control my life. I’ll tell you one thing I’m gonna control, money. I’m gonna be the control freak! I’m gonna control people in my life. I’m gonna control. Isn’t that something that we deal with? Uh-oh. No, it’s not gonna work. I’ll just do that like that because I can’t control it. You know, my nose is kinda runny. Would you mind handing me? This is horrible. I talked about Lisa. If you missed this message I talked about Lisa blowing her nose so much. Excuse me. And I said I never blow my nose. We had a friend over at our house yesterday, one of Lisa’s friends, and I went to blow my nose. She goes,

“Wup! Caught you! Blowing your nose!” Those of you who laughed were at that message when I talked about nose blowing. I’ll keep it. It might be a new style. Look at that! That looks pretty cool, doesn’t it? OK. Well, we’re having fun, aren’t we? Is this fun? It should be fun. Church should be fun. Church should be fun. Because these are heavy topics.

Perfectionism. Maybe that’s you. Anger. Oh, man. Took those emotions, stuffed them down as a kid. You stuffed them, you stuffed them, you stuffed, then and now they’re coming out! You watch. It’ll happen when you get older. Gotta deal with that stuff.

Trust issues. A lot of us have a hard time trusting because we’ve been messed around so much. We’ve been betrayed so much, so. Uh-oh. I just can’t balance it. Trust issues. So, we’re on this side. Jesus is on the other side. It’s the wheelbarrow step. We’re in denial, we blame, we’re fearful. We’re not desperate enough so we use these things and we double down on our dysfunction and when we double down on our dysfunction it brings us to our knees.

Maybe you’re down on one knee… put the other knee down. Because these things will bring you to the bottom, rock bottom. And you might be saying, “Ed, I’m at rock bottom, man. I’m sitting on the last row, the last seat in the balcony up there and I am at rock bottom.” Good. You know why I say good? Because if you’re at rock bottom, God can build a foundation, and the rock is named Jesus, in your life!

#1 – I’m powerless, God. #2 – the second step – you’re powerful. You sent Jesus to die on the cross for my sins. And I want to get into the wheelbarrow.

ILLUS: I wore this coat today. You like this coat? I do. You know, I’ve always loved fashion and I can tell you how old everything I have is, if it’s an item of clothing, and where I bought it. I bought this across the street at that store, Last Call. But this coat is a magic coat, I tell you. I bought it and it was too big and I had someone tailor it after I bought it. It’s cotton, because I sweat a lot up here. Lactating. And what? This coat is magic. Let me show you who made it. New – I can’t pronounce the guy’s name – cantinalali or lini, or something. Anyway, I guess it’s Italian. Somebody read that for me? I don’t know what kind of coat that is. What’s that say? Tantarelli? Never heard of that. But I love it. What happened? Oh my gosh! Aaaah!! Embarrassing! AAAAHHH!!!! Anyway, I know I’m sweating … like a pack mule. But it’s all right.

This is a magic coat, it’s magic. And you might be thinking, OK, it’s 100% cotton, which I like. And normally I like to preach in it because I do perspire and it’s not as hot as some of the other coats. Some of the other coats I’m drenched, OK? But this coat is a magic coat and this coat has a real strong self will. When I bought it last fall, this coat is laced with technology. Watch this. Hey coat (you won’t believe this), lift your right arm please. Listen, I said lift your right arm. You’ve done it before. Lift your right arm, use your determination and will power, OK? Lift your right arm! Whoa, pathetic. OK. Now, coat, this is easy. Stand at attention. Watch this! Works every time. This coat, I’m telling you. With the technology and the will power, stand at attention. 1-2-3… pathetic. Helpless and hopeless, this old coat.

But… if I put the coat on… If I put the coat on.

When Jesus comes into my life, when I admit that I’m helpless, I can raise my right arm. I can stand at attention. I can get in the wheelbarrow and he will give me true, supernatural change. I’m helpless! I can’t do a thing! I’m like the coat. Have you admitted that? Have you said, Jesus, you’re all about change. I mean, you’re allowing these things to keep you from Jesus when… Get in, you say, and we can take all the blocks and put them in. Oh, turnover. Have you done that? Or are you still trying. Hey, I can do it! Raise my right arm! Stand at attention, I can do it! Or maybe you’re like, you know.

Here’s another thing that will keep you from jumping into the wheelbarrow: if you’re too pretty, too rich, or too smart. If you’re good-looking, great. If you have those genetics. If you’re good-looking it can be a block that keeps you from saying, “Lord, have you way in my life.” Why is that? Let’s say you’re a beautiful woman. All you gotta do is like, I don’t feel good. I’ll go with him. And I don’t feel that great right now, and because you’re good-looking they’ll give you a chance or an opportunity. If you wear the right stuff, wink at the right time, kinda look… oh you’ve got it made, man! Really?

Some are too rich. I mean there’s no such thing as being too rich, but you’ve got money and you can buy stuff to numb the pain. I have a control issue, approval, anxiety, I’ll just take a trip. I’ll just buy another blue, double-breasted magic sport coat. I’ll buy a new pair of shoes. I can buy my way out. I can charm my way out, because I’m good-looking.

Or you’re Mr. Smart Guy or Ms. Smart Girl. I can think my way out. I’ve got a brain, I’m really smart. I’m Mr. Smart Guy. You’re building is on fire! You’re standing on a towering inferno! I don’t care how good-looking you are, how smart you are, how big you are, how bad you are, how rich you are, you’re on fire, man. Get in the wheelbarrow. Get in the wheelbarrow. Because that guy, that day, jumped in the wheelbarrow in the story. Jesus turned and took him away, across the cable. Whoa! Through the fire and the flames, waaaaa!!! To places and a purpose like this guy had never seen before in his life.

Jesus, my friend, has pushed the wheelbarrow up to you. He’s locked eyes with you. He’s said I love you. I’ve forgiven you. I have a plan for you. Get in. Won’t you do that? Because when you do your life will never, ever, ever be the same.

[Ed leads in closing prayer.]

Baggage

Adult Children

“Baggage”

1/14/18

Ed Young

Every time we take a trip, we pack our bags and load up our luggage. When we arrive back home, we empty the bags and put them away. But how often in life do we refuse to put the ‘baggage’ away? The fact is, too often, we carry baggage from our past that weighs us down and keeps us from experiencing the freedom God wants us to have. In this message, Pastor Ed Young helps us examine the baggage we carry, and he teaches us what it takes to unload the luggage and instead allow God to transform and change us so we can experience true and lasting freedom.

Transcript

ILLUS: You know, every time I look at a SUV, especially like this one with all of the luggage on top, I think about a vacation that Lisa and I took years ago with our family. Our adult children were children then. The twins were a year, EJ was three, Lee Beth was eight. We went to the Hyatt Hill Country in beautiful San Antonio, Texas, to Sea World for a vacation. And I found out that it’s impossible to take kids on a vacation. I found out you never call it a vacation when you take your kids. It’s a family outing. So let’s just lose that word. Family vacation? No, it’s a family outing. Because when the kids are small, when you get back from the vacation, you need a vacation. Am I right?

Well, here’s what happened. We had this big SUV, I think we had a Suburban at the time and four kids, so there was no way the luggage would get in the car. So we piled the luggage on top of the car. We had these cheap luggage carriers, and it was like a CrossFit workout just to put all the paraphernalia on top of the car. It was unbelievable. It was like in August, triple-degree heat, and I had to take like two showers after I packed the car.

So we all loaded up and we headed out to beautiful San Antonio, Texas, to see Sea World. When we pulled up, the bellman at the hotel just stood there and he was like this. He said, “I’ve been doing this for eight years,” he said, “I’ve never seen this much luggage from one family on one car in my life.” That started our vacation.

So during the vacation, we had a good time. We had some conflict, arguments, you know, because everyone’s in close quarters, but it was good, it was good, really good. We were there for awhile, and then it was time to go back to Dallas. I was so excited. I got up early, went through the same drill and packed the car, and loaded up all of the baggage. I mean, we had portable playpens and strollers and Power Ranger duffle bags, we had it all. And I packed it up, and we headed out to the big D.

When we turned into our neighborhood, I was like, “Hallelujah!” I said to myself, “I will never do this again.” I turned into our neighborhood, there’s our house. Yes! Turned in the driveway, and instinctively, I pushed the garage door opener. And in my excitement, in my elation, I forgot about the baggage on top of the car. I pressed the gas, and boom! Drywall flying, boards, nails going everywhere. I ripped off the top of our garage. I was like, “Oh my goodness. I forgot, just for a second, the bags were up there!” Tore the garage to smithereens, and it was expensive to fix.

I think if the truth were known, a lot of us here would sort of identify with that story. A lot of us here have some serious family baggage. We’re carrying around a lot of baggage on top of our lives; yet, most of us are unaware that we have the baggage. We’re just sort of used to it. Now, we think it’s normal, we think it’s healthy. Yet, if we stop and look, we see the carnage, we see the destruction that the baggage is causing. And also, we’re discovering if we really take a look at our lives, that it’s expensive. And if we keep on driving the way we’ve been driving, if we keep on forgetting about the baggage, we’ll keep on destroying stuff, messing stuff up, and it’ll be very, very expensive. Life is too short to go through life like that.

Yet, what do we do? We say, “Okay, okay, I’m in control, I’m in control of my life. And I’m going to white-knuckle grip this steering wheel, and I’m going to do what I’m going to do, because I know best how to function as a father; I know best how to function as a spouse; I know best how to function as a high school student, as a single adult.”

Really? That’s why we’re all dysfunctional. We have dissed God’s function for our lives. Are you from a dysfunctional family? People say, “Oh, yeah, everybody’s dysfunctional.” Yeah, and technically that’s true, we’re all dysfunctional, I understand that. But do you come from a dysfunctional family? That’s a good question. Because if you do, you’ve got some baggage. If you do, it’s causing some carnage and destruction. If you do, it’s costing you something emotionally, psychologically, spiritually.

During this series, I’ve interviewed a lot of people about dysfunction. I’ve interviewed people from divorce situations. I’ve interviewed people from addiction situations. I’ve interviewed people who’ve been abused, whether it be physically or verbally. I’ve talked to psychologists. I’ve read scholarly papers. I have been in small group discussions about our family of origin. Then I went to the real source, the Bible. The Bible talks so much about dysfunction, and there’s so many dysfunctional families in the Bible. Have you ever thought about that? They’re littered throughout the pages of Scripture, dysfunctional families.

So in this series that I’m very, very excited about, and I’m happy, too, I’m so thrilled that you’re bold enough to be here. I really, really am, because that says a lot about who you are; that you’re like, “Okay, I want to get this right.” Because all of us have some issues, some baggage that we need to deal with.

But I thought we would have a working definition of a dysfunctional family. A dysfunctional family is a family in which conflict, misbehavior, and often child neglect or abuse on the part of individual parents occur continually and regularly, leading other members to accommodate such actions.

Just for an example. How many of you come from a divorce situation, or maybe divorce has touched your family in some way? Lift your hand. Wow! See, divorce has affected our family as well. Abuse. Verbal, physical abuse, lift your hand, it’s okay. All right, unbelievable. How about addiction? Now I’m talking about drugs, alcohol, but also I’m talking about maybe you’re in a family, and you’re like, “Man, my father is addicted to himself. My mother is addicted to herself. I mean, they drink themselves, you know. They’re dry drunks.” Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So we all deal with dysfunction. But some of us, in fact, I would say the majority of us have emerged from families like this. Now, I want you to hear me very, very clearly. I’m not here to parent bash, I’m not here to slam our family of origin. I’m not. Because really, when we parent bash, we’re bashing ourselves. Have you ever thought about that? Because you are your parents, and I am my parents.

And one of the reasons that we’re married is that our spouse keeps us from turning exactly into our mother or father. Did you know that? “Oh, you’re acting just like your mother. That look.” Be careful, guys, be careful with that one. You know what I’m saying, though.

And we need to build on the good of our families. Our families, you can find some good, some good things, build on those things. And the things that weren’t so good, you know, go “Wow, not going to do that! I’m going to go the other way.”

Here, though, is the problem. We try to change and we can’t. That’s what we need to understand. I can’t change in and of myself, and you can’t change in an of yourself. If you think about psychology, for example. Psychology, the world of psychology just takes unique terms and words and attaches them to sin and the results of sin. That’s what psychologists do. And for the most part, they’re great at labeling stuff. But they fall miserably short when they talk about the cure. Now, if they’re Christian psychologists, that’s a whole other game, because they’re coming from the anchor of Scripture. But let’s just be real here, you know, we can’t change. I can’t change, you can’t change.

And a lot of us need to come to that point where we go, “God, I don’t have the juice, I don’t have the sauce, I don’t have the stuff to change. I can’t change.” Say that with me. I can’t change. That’s liberating. Because we want to control our lives. I can do it, I can change. “I know how to best function as a father, a mother, a student, a child, a single adult. I know how.” No, no, no, no, you can’t change.

And I have got to ask you, are you dealing with your baggage? The Bible says in Isaiah 57 18:19, “I’ve seen how they acted, but I will heal them, I will lead them and help them. I will comfort those who mourn and offer peace to all, both near and far.”

Okay, let’s personalize this verse. And here’s how I would read it if I personalized it. Isaiah 57:18-19. “I have seen how Ed has acted, but I will heal him. I will lead Ed and help Ed. I will control Ed when he mourns. I will offer peace to Ed, both near and far.”

That’s the text, that’s the foundational text of this entire series, adult children, because we want children to act like adults, and then we have adults acting like children. Why? Well, I’ll tell you why.

The root of our problem and the fruit of our problem goes all the way back to the origin of our family of origin. The origin of our family of origin would be that husband and wife team, you know, that crooked landscaper, and that diva named Eve. They’re the ones, they’re the ones who dropped the ball, they’re the ones who said, “Hey, I want to be God, I want to run the show.”

So from there, forget genetics, let’s talk about sinetics. From there, we’ve been dealing and trying to process these issues, these bags.

See this duffle bag right here? This is a heavy, heavy bag. This looks like some of us. I mean when God sees us, this is what he sees. Other people don’t, but this is what he sees. You’re single adult, maybe you meet someone online, okay, wow. You have coffee with them. You walk into the coffee shop like this, with a duffle bag. This thing’s heavy. There are blocks in here. You’re a single parent or student running around. Yeah. But this duffle bag. Baggage, man. Baggage.

The baggage comes from our depravity, you know, we’re sinners, we’ve messed up. We get that from Adam and Eve and we double down on our dysfunction, and we become more and more and more dysfunctional. We diss God’s function for our lives and it’s recreated and the luggage is redistributed in the family of origins.

So let’s just see what’s in our duffle bag. I told you it was heavy. Thankfully, your pastor is super strong, and can carry this heavy weight and burden on his shoulder. Any baggage here? And some of you, I’m telling you, are like this. “I don’t have any baggage, are you kidding me?” Really? “I’m not really messed up or there’s no carnage as I look in the rear view mirror of my life.” Oh, think about it. Is it damaging? You feel like, whoa, man. I just feel like I’ve been paying the piper, you know.

What’s in the this bag, what’s in this bag? You come from a dysfunctional family, again, a family of, let’s say, for example, divorce, abuse, let’s say addiction. Perfectionism. Perfectionism. We have a tendency to be perfectionistic sometimes when we emerge from dysfunctional families. Everything’s got to be right, everything’s got to be perfect. Maybe your mom or dad, they were very perfectionistic. Or maybe, like in my family, the pendulum has gone the other way, from perfectionism to “Man, I’m just going to be laid back. No problem, man. I’m just going to chill.”

But see, we work hard at trying not to work hard. We’re still perfectionistic in our laid-backness. But that’s a whole other subject.

Control. Oh, I want to control, I want to control my problems, I want to control my past, I want to control people, I want to control. And if I’m out of control, it reminds me of my family of origin, because my family of origin, see, we were out of control. So I’ve got to control, I’ve got to control my spouse, I’ve got to control my finances, I’ve got to control.

Guilt. That’s a big one, isn’t it? We carry guilt. Some of the guilt we carry is not necessary. What if my kids had gone, “Oh, dad, the reason the garage got all jacked up and messed up is because of my Power Ranger duffle bag.” Or the twins had said, “It’s because of my playpen, my portable playpen.” No, no, no, no, no. I’m the idiot. I messed up. You see what I’m saying to you? So some of us are living life and we’re carrying this guilt and shame around that we shouldn’t carry, we’re not made to carry it. What’s in your duffle bag?

Egotism. “It’s all about me.” I talked to one family therapist who said, if you take a dysfunctional family, and usually you have one member who’s dysfunctional, he said, you watch, everybody in the family will orbit around their dysfunction. And then, as people orbit, as family members orbit around the dysfunction, they will fly out of the family with great trajectory and oftentimes repeat the dysfunction whether it be abuse, whether it be divorce, whether it be addiction. Really, really sinister.

Then you have criticism. You grew up in a family where your dad, your mom, just criticized you. You couldn’t do anything right. The criticism hurts, doesn’t it. So what do you do? Well, you emerge from this dysfunction, and you criticize others. Because when I criticize you, I feel better about myself, I think, but not really. I feel bad. But I want you to feel as bad as I do, so I’m going to criticize you. “I don’t like the way you walk, I don’t like your car, your house is too big.”

Forgiveness, or the lack thereof. What a gift we can give ourselves. We’re going to learn how to forgive ourselves in this series. Some of us, again, we’re carrying in the duffle bags, guilt and shame, we need to forgive ourselves and forgive others. That’s why we need to preach the gospel to ourselves every day. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Because when we do that, we’re going to walk in grace and mercy and humility and forgiveness. I’ve been much forgiven, so the least I can do is forgive you, release you, mom, release you, dad, uncle, brother, sister, someone who take advantage of you, someone who shamed you, someone who left you.

Deception. You know what? I’ve never seen the level of lying like we have in our culture today. People will just, I mean flat out lie for no reason. And the liars that I’ve come in contact with, even here, over the last couple of decades, some of the stories I can tell you would blow your mind. Lying. You grew up in a deceptive household. And of course, we have this deceptive depravity in our lives from our original family of origin. Remember that? Adam and Eve. So we have this desire to deceive, to exaggerate, to hide, to cover our tracks. It’s, again, sin.

Anxiety. Anybody here understand anxiety? So, so, so, prevalent. Anxious. We grew up in an anxious family, and now we’re anxious, and we’re anxious about so many things, about the future, about the past, about our family now, about our lives.

Anger. It’s another big one. You show me someone who’s grown up in a dysfunctional family and I’ll show you somebody who has an anger issue. Defensive, ready to pounce, because they saw that modeled in family and that’s just how people roll. Or, we’ve taken all our emotions and bottled them, and Tupperwared them in our lives. “If you cross me, if you get up in my grill, if you cut me off on the overpass.” Anger. Anger.

In this duffle bag of dysfunction is something else, and then promiscuity. Sexual promiscuity. Let’s talk about that, because maybe you grew up in the family of a divorce situation. Alcohol, drugs, narcissism. Maybe you grew up with some sort of abuse. What do you do as a young person going through puberty, you begin to say to yourself, You know what? Wow! I need intimacy, I need love, I need acceptance.” So you have these young girls and the first guy that winks at them, the first guy that sends them a suggestive text, boom! They’re having sex with that guy. And the same thing can happen to guys as well. And then you have confusion, and these families where maybe you have an absentee father or mother, you have homosexuality, and addiction to porn, lust. I think we see it played out all the time.

And if you look at how many couples are living together now, I understand it, I get it. “I’m not going to repeat what I saw in my family. I mean, my parents hated each other. They divorced, I’m not going to do that. I’m going to test drive this girl, test drive this guy for a while until we get married, and I’m not even sure if we are.”

Depravity, dysfunction, this diabolical nature that the enemy has perpetrated upon us. Trust issues. A lot of us just have a hard time trusting people. I read this over and over. Just trusting, just having faith in someone. Because the trust was always broken in your family. “Hey! We’re going to go to that game. Hey, we’re going to take that trip. Hey, we’re going to do this or that. Hey, we’re going to go to Sea World.” But when the time came, it didn’t happen. So you got trust issues, and you go abandonment issues, and they segue into trust issues.

And then approval. Oh man, I’ve got, I want to hear the words I never heard growing up. “Ed, you matter. Ed, I love you. Ed, you’re really great at doing that.” I know so many, especially men, who are on that treadmill doing this doing that, wanting to hear those words they never heard as a child. Wow! Approval.

ILLUS: I have a friend who lives in another state. And God has blessed his life, he is so, so successful for the things of God and he’s an amazing guy. Yet, he’s on that approval treadmill to such a degree, I just want to see him and give him a hug and go, “Man, you’re the man. You’re doing. You don’t have to do all this stuff for people’s approval. You know this. You got God’s approval. You got your family’s approval. You do.” It’s just amazing. And I guarantee you, back in this, this guy’s life in this duffle bag, you got these issues.

Kind of negative, isn’t it? You’re just like, “Oh man, wow, this is heavy!” It is heavy! This is a very, very heavy series. So, what we do is, I’ll say it again, we double down on our, on our dysfunction. We say, “I can control it, I can do it, I’m the man, I’m the girl,” and it doesn’t work. Because again, we forget about the extent of the baggage, we forget about the destruction that we’ve caused, and we forget how much it’s going to cost.

Well here’s some good news. The first thing, we’ve already said, let’s say it again. We have to admit that we can’t change. So, I have to admit I can’t change. Say that with me, one, two, three, “I can’t change.” I can’t change. I can’t. I’m helpless, I’m hopeless, I don’t have the juice, I don’t have the sauce to change. I can’t change.

Here’s the root of my problem. Genesis 3:5. I’m going to fly through these, and just take notes. “For God knows that when you eat from it,” this is the enemy, our origin of the family of origin, talking to that crooked landscaper, right, that diva, that’s Adam and Eve, kind of a little joke there, get it? I guess you didn’t, that’s okay, that’s okay. No one laughed, I don’t think they even. That’s okay. Okay, Adam, a landscaper, ’cause God said, manage my garden. See, okay, crooked landscaper. And Eve being a beautiful diva. Did you get that earlier? Did everyone get that? I thought it was pretty funny, but I guess when the topic is this serious, I understand, it is kind of hard to laugh, but. Okay. “For God knows that when you eat from it,” the devil says, your eyes will be opened.” Notice that’s the omnipresence of God. Write that in the margin. “…and you’ll be like God,” that’s the omnipotence of God, “…knowing good and evil.” That’s the omniscience of God.

Adam was trying to be God. He was trying to function as God, dysfunction. He’s dissing the function of God. He’s saying, “I’m going to function as God.” That’s still my problem. I fight that every day.

So what’s the result of living like this? I mean, of this dysfunction? What’s the result? Fear, fear. So many people deal with fear these days over so many different issues. The Bible says in Genesis 3:10, and this is basically what Adam said. “I was, say it afraid, because I was naked.” That’s the pilot episode of Naked and Afraid right there, you have it. Okay. Feel good now, approval. Approval. I have approval issues, I do, okay. Thank you.

Frustration. It’s another one, Psalm 32:3. My dishonesty made me miserable and filled my days with,” let’s say it together, “frustration.”

Are you frustrated? Are you fearful? You’re trying to control your own life. You’re trying to function as God.

Fatigue is another one. Psalm 32:4-5. “My strength,” let’s say it together, “evaporated like water on a sunny day, until I finally admitted all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide them.”

Denial takes energy. And here’s what I thought about this car. This car, let me get a tight shot of this. This car is called a Denali. If you rearrange those letters, you got denial. Somebody help me with that. Thank you for the approval, again. Thank you. I’m feeling so good now. But see, it doesn’t last long. See what I’m saying to you? And it’s great, yeah, but I want some more applause, I want more people. I want more likes and more clicks. You have to understand that you’re approved by God.

So we’re fearful, we’re frustrated, we’re fatigued, and then how about failure? You ever feel like a failure? Wow, maybe you’re asker is broken? You’ve not asked God to take control of your life. Proverbs 28:13, “You will never succeed in life if you try to hide your sins. Confess them and give them up. Then God will show mercy to you.”

So step one, I can’t change, say it with me. I can’t change. Step two, God can change me. Step two, let’s say it, God can change me. Jesus is all about change. The gospel is all about change. Change, change, change.

The change cannot take place unless there’s an exchange. And that’s what happened on the cross, the exchange. I can trade my mistakes for God’s mercy, my guilt for his grace, my shame for the Savior. What kind of deal is that?

So the work’s been done. Jesus has the power, the octane, the juice, the sauce to change my life. To change trust issues, perfectionism, control, egotism, approval, forgiveness, promiscuity, anger, anxiety, deception, criticism, and guilt, and many, many more. It’s about Jesus.

Well, what happens when we do this? Well, what happens when we say, “Okay, God, I can’t change, and I admit that to you, but I know you can, and the change agent is Jesus.” What happens? Well, here we go. We can comprehend God’s character. What does that mean? God knows about my problem. Isn’t that great? God knows about my criticism, God knows about my trust issues, God knows about my promiscuity.

Psalm 56:8, let’s say it together. “You know how troubled I am; you have kept a record of my tears.” Now, what about that? A little bottle with your name on it, all the tears you ever shed. That’s strong. So God knows about my problem.

God is sympathetic about my problem. Psalm 103:13, “He is like a father to us, tender and sympathetic.”

God can change my problem, Luke 18:27. “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”

So we comprehend God’s character, and we simply comply with God’s offer. What’s God’s offer? Last verse we’re going to read. Philippians 2:13, for it is God who is at work within you, giving you the will and the power to achieve his purpose.

That’s willpower. That’s willpower. I can’t change. God, you can change me. Every day for the next week, wake up, “God, I can’t change. But God, I believe and know you can change me.”

So right now, focus in on the primary block that you’re dealing with. You might be like, “Well, man, I’m all of these.” No, no, no, no, no. Let’s just do one. The first one, the Holy Spirit of God brings to mind, I don’t know what it is. That is your homework this week. You mention that, because you’re prolific when you’re specific. You mention that, you own that, you tell God about it. You say, “God, I have tried, I can’t change, you can. I have the power in my life,” because it’s my prayer that you give your life to Christ. He wants to meet you right where you are. He knows about your problem. He’s sympathetic about your problem. He can change your problem and mine.

Another thing I want to challenge you to do is to think about community. I have it written down right here, the bottom of all the Scriptures that I’ve been reading, community. That is what I kept hearing over and over and over and over and over again over the last several weeks as I researched this particular topic, community, community. Do this in community. Face this in community. Don’t face it by yourself, in community, community, community. Our church is a place of community. We have small groups, community. We have table talk, community. We have Bible studies, community, community, community. We serve in community. Make sure you do this in community, because I’m here to tell you, you’re not the only one who’s carrying around this stuff. We all are.

And I’m so happy we have a church like Fellowship Church, that’s open and honest about the baggage, the sin. I’m so glad that we have a church that’s open and honest about the problems that it can cause. And I’m so happy that we’re so open and honest about talking about the cost, because where are you going to be in five years from now? 10 years from now? Are you going to keep on driving the way you’ve been driving? Clueless about your baggage? Clueless about the destruction? Continuing to just pay and pay and pay? Jesus paid it all. He took your destruction and mine. And if we’ll just confess who we are to him, he’ll come in and begin to change our lives. Is that good news?

Man, I needed to hear that myself. Adult children, children act like adult and adults act like children, yet adults become a believer by having the faith like a child. And I want to help you and lead you and include you in this prayer as I believe many of you will follow Jesus.

[Ed leads in closing prayer.]