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HECKNOLOGY

The Ride of Pride

January 12, 2014

Ed Young

Technology allows us to experience life like we never have. It opens the door of communication and allows us instant access the world, and the world instant access to us. But along with the opportunities for greatness, it also paves the path for some serious pride in our lives.

In this message, Pastor Ed Young takes a look at some dangers of what we say through technology. We see that what we communicate speaks more than the words we type or pictures we post. And we learn how to win in God’s eyes by taking the focus off of ourselves and placing it where it needs to be.

Transcript

Good morning this morning!  The #1 word in 2013 was the word ‘selfie.’  It tells you a lot about our culture, doesn’t it?  Selfie.  A couple of nights ago Lisa and I went out to eat at an Italian restaurant and we looked around and we were flabbergasted at how many smart phones we saw.  It’s almost as if the smart phones were a part of the silverware.  When I ordered I almost said, “Hey, I’d like some pasta with some marinara sauce and could you give me a side of smart phone?”  You go to a movie and people are checking their phones after the movie before they even look at their date or their spouse.  We’re tethered to technology.

Technology, though, I think sometimes people think that it’s just horrible, it’s bad.  It’s not bad.  Technology is a tool.  Now it can become a tail and the tail is affixed to a pit bull if you let it go, and that pit bull <barking!> can mess you up.  Technology is neutral.  A lot of us have a love/hate relationship with it.  We either love it or we loathe it.  I think it’s time we face it and embrace it, and understand the power of it and utilize it for some amazing things.  And today I’m kicking off this series on technology because I think if the truth were known a lot of us have looked at our iPads and smart phones and we’ve looked at our Xboxes and we’ve said, now and then, “What the hecknology?”  Technology works just enough to keep bringing us back, doesn’t it?  Just enough to keep bringing us back.

I love technology.  I’m not at all, in this series, going to challenge you to burn your technology or throw it away or go back to just one cell phone the size of a shoe box.  We’re not gonna go back to sending smoke signals or Morse code, we’re not going back to the Guttenberg press or anything like that.  No, no, no.  We’re gonna face it and embrace technology, and that’s a good thing.  But you have to ask yourself what the hecknology?  Because if you’re not careful you can end up being wrecknology.  So checknology before you wrecknology.  Get it?  Got it?  I got it, do you got it?  Yeah.

Hey, we live in one of the best places in the world for airports.  Have you noticed that?  Dallas/Fort Worth, we’ve got so many incredible airports it’s ridiculous.  And so often you look up in the sky and it’s littered with plane after plane after plane.  Wherever I’ve lived in the Dallas/Fort Worth area I’ve lived close to airports.  Sometimes I look up in the sky and when I’m really contemplative I say, I wonder where they’re going.  Some people I know are going on vacation.  I’m all about vacations,  they’re fun.  Others are going on business trips.  Others are going maybe to funerals, family reunions, to weddings.  Some are going to serve our country.  Have you ever thought about the people?  Where are they going?  All these people traveling here, there, and yonder.  They’re just taking off and they’re going.  They’re cruising at an altitude of 35,000 feet, or whatever they say.  I think if the truth were known all of us here are on a trip.

Now I shy away from saying all, but I’m pretty confident.  All of us now are on a trip.  An ego trip.  We’re on the ride of pride.  I confess.  I’m a prideful person.  I struggle with pride.  I struggle with my ego.  Technology is a massive mirror.  I think the mirror of technology is more telling than any mirror that we look into.  Technology exacerbates who we are.  It shows the good, the bad, the ugly like nothing we’ve ever seen before.   We go online.  We text.  We Tweet.  We e-mail.  We log onto different web sites and chat rooms and we post all of these pictures on Instagram.  It’s so telling about your life and mine.  Because who you follow is who you will follow.  Who you friend is who you friend, you know?  I can predict your future by some of the friends that you have.  Technology is fascinating.  We can leverage it, I believe, for greatness.

Today, though, I want to talk to you about a subject that is a painful one to talk about.  I mentioned it earlier, I want to talk to you about pride.  Psychologists call it narcissism.  Greek mythology, Narcissus, walking down a path one day.  Looked, saw his reflection in some water.  He began to fall in love with his reflection.  Maybe the first selfie in the history of the world was right there.  And now, all of the thinkers say, “Oh, we have a culture of narcissism, and technology is the major contributor to narcissism, this me-istic mentality.”  I agree.  I totally agree.  We all have struggles with narcissism.  However, God is the one that pinpointed narcissism.  It’s pride.  It’s pride.

See, I can see pride in you but I have a hard time seeing it in myself.  “Oh, you’re prideful.”  Because I have certain things in my mind, certain little components and if you mess up on one of those little components, “Oh!  You’ve got a pride problem!”  And you’re the same.  What is pride?  Pride is giving myself the glory that is only reserved for God.  It’s rebelling against Him.  That’s what pride is.  You think back in time, back specifically in the life of Lucifer, a.k.a. Satan, Lucifer had a pride problem.  He was the worship leader in Heaven, meaning that he was all about giving love and honor and glory to the Lord.  But check out what he said.  It sounds like someone is Tweeting.  It sounds like one of the, maybe, people that I follow or you follow.

“I will ascend to the Heavens.  I will raise my throne above the stars of God.  I will sit enthroned on the Mount of Assembly, on the utmost heights.  I, I, I, me, me, me, my, my, my.  The ride of pride.  The ego trip.  And the plot clots in Psalm 138:6, “Though the Lord is great he cares for the humble.”  The sin: pride.  The win: humility.  “But, he keeps his (say it with me) he keeps his distance from the proud.”  Pride distances us from God.  It attributes to self the honor and glory due to God alone.

The Bible uses the term in Romans, chapter 11, high-mindedness.  It comes from the Greek word ‘to surround in smoke or mist.’   You might say, “Oh, man, that’s just smoke and mirrors.”  Well, you’ve got a pride problem.  So we’ve taken off and we’ve left the Earth’s atmosphere, we’re trying to get into this universe called Me.  We’re surrounded by clouds.  We’re surrounded by mist, and we don’t know which way is up.  Pride is rebellion, pride is deceptive.  Pride is disrespect toward God and it always leads to destruction.  You’re on a doomed flight.  I’m on a doomed flight, when I take this ego trip.  Pride distances me from God.

But notice this.  It also distances me from the gifts and the abilities he has bestowed upon my life.  I have gifts that you don’t have.  You have gifts that I don’t have.  You have abilities I don’t have.  I have abilities you don’t have.  Everything I have comes from God.  Everything you have comes from God.  If I’m prideful I’m like, “I did it.  I’m the man.  I’m quick.  I’m fast.  I’m creative.  I’m visionary.  I’m the leader.  I’m this, I’m that, I’m this, I’m that.”  Pride.

So pride is about elevation.  I’m here, you’re there.  We post something.  I’m here, you’re there.  There’s a picture.  I’m here, you’re there.  Why do we say certain things online?  Why do we post certain pictures?  Why do we read certain things online?  A lot of it is fueled by pride.  Pride.  It distances us from God.  It distances us from his gifts and abilities.  We don’t appreciate it.  We think it’s all about us.  It distances us from the church.  You show me someone who’s kind of numb toward the church, who kind of keeps the church at arms’ length and I will show you someone who has a pride problem.

Because the church is all about worship (God, you’re God, I’m not).  The church is all about serving, getting outside of yourself, losing yourself in this situation.  Someone who’s prideful is like, are you kidding me?

One day the disciples were arguing about who’s the greatest?  Who’s the greatest?  Who’s the greatest?  Who’s the greatest?  Who’s the greatest?  Jesus said you want to become great?  Become a servant.  Humble yourself before the mighty hand of God.  Then about a week later they were reclining at a table.  Now back in the day you can imagine the foot odor that was around.  Just think about the foot odor.  They wore sandals, they walked around, their feet were all funky and dirty.

One time about a year ago Lisa and I were on a transcontinental flight and before we took off this guy removed his shoes.  I’m telling you, I have never smelled something that rancid in my life.  And I was thinking to myself, oh no.  I have got to endure this for 14 hours?  Because you see, I was going to Africa to humbly serve the Lord.  <laughter>   Anyway….  See?  I’m humble in my pride.  I’m prideful in my humility.  Isn’t it crazy?

Thankfully his seat was broken and the flight attendant had to move him somewhere else.  I mean I stood up and worshipped the Lord.  “Thank you Lord-uh!  Thank you Jesus-uh!”  I mean, I don’t know what happened to this guy’s feet.  I have nightmares about that.  The guy sat down in the seat and just took his shoes off.  <whoosh!>

Well, here you got back in the day the disciples reclining, and when you recline that’s when they would eat.  Study your Bible, the history.  So your feet would be in other people’s faces.  No one was there to wash the feet.  You know what Jesus did?  Without saying, “Hey, where’s our foot washer?!?  Do we have a foot washer in the house?!”  He didn’t say that.  He got up and what did he do?  He started washing the feet of the disciples.  Here is the son of God – have you ever thought about the humility of God?   The humility of God, just leaving what Jesus left, becoming man, and then serving?  Wow.  It’s awesome.  Humility.

So pride, we see, distances us from God, from the gifts he’s given us and from the church and from serving, from others, but humility connects us with those things.  Ultimately I’m in the right position.  Your God, God, and I’m not God.  I submit myself to you.  I honor you.  I humble myself before you.  Then that segues into everything I do, say, touch, and feel.  Humility is losing yourself in service.  And we can never arrive there, we can never get there, but I want you to see the difference between the two.  You’ve got pride and you’ve got humility.  I would argue that we can leverage technology to reveal and to show others our humility.  But be careful.  The moment you think you’re humble is the moment you have a perverted form of pride.  Oh man, I’m really humble…. And then I begin to think about things that make me humble.  A-B-C-D.  Oh, OK.  I don’t see that in you so you’re prideful.   I would argue that the most prideful people in the house are not necessarily the ones who are blinged out, who are like, “Yeah!  I’m here, man!  I’m in church!”  Yeah, you can see you’ve got a pride problem.  I would argue, too, that some of the most prideful people in the midst are the most conservative.  Those who are quiet.  Those who look around.  Those who are the martyrs.  You might think… no!  He’s not prideful!  She’s not prideful!  Watch out.  Watch out.  Pride, pride, the ride of pride.  It’s a nasty ride.  It’s a bumpy ride.  You leave the Earth’s atmosphere and you cruise around in this universe called me, and you can’t see because you’re enveloped with smoke and mirrors.  You’re enveloped with this mist.

Have you ever wondered what the passenger list reads like on the ride of pride?  I mean, we’re on this incredible vessel.  You know who the captain is of this plane?  It’s a special plane.  The captain is Ned Narcissist.  “Hi, I’m Captain Need Narcissist.  We’re leaving the Earth’s atmosphere and we’re entering a universe called Me.”  Well, I have stolen, and I don’t steal but I did, I’ve stolen the passenger list of this flight.  And maybe, just maybe, I’m talking to young people, I’m talking to junior high students, I’m talking to high school students, I’m talking to singles, I’m talking to those who are 25 or maybe 95.  Maybe you find yourself on the passenger list.

The first person: Hal Humility.  He’s just humble.  I described him a second ago.  Hal Humility, a man of humble means, a man who is just getting by, a man who just knows what he knows.  He’s not gonna really ask anybody any questions because he kinda knows it all.  He’s not gonna be vulnerable because he’s the man.  Could it be that we have some Hal Humility people on this flight?  Could it be that some of you maybe would be Hal or Henrietta Humility?  You know, you judge people so quickly.  You go maybe on Facebook and say, “Oh man, they’re this.  They’re that.  I can’t believe they said this” or whatever.  Be careful!

There’s also Dana Destination.  Always Tweeting and texting about, “Oh, I’m going here!  I’m traveling over here!  Yeah, you might be in Midlothian but I am in Rome.  You might be in Grand Prairie but I’m in Hawaii.”  And you, like, see this person on Facebook.  You see them on Instagram and it’s like, what?!  I deserve that!  Why do we post pictures of the different destinations?  Could it be, OK, I’m just suggesting, could it be OK, I’m here, you’re there.  Again, elevation, see?  Pride.  I’m here, you’re there.  It’s about me.  I get to travel here to eat this food, to do this, and you don’t do it.

There are some people that I cannot follow because it revs up those envy engines in my life.  <engine sound effect> envy-envy-envy-envy-envy-envy…  Because I begin to say, “I deserve that.  I deserve.  God, I work for you.  I deserve to speak there.  I deserve to… why is this person writing this book?”  Pride.  Pride.  The ride of pride.

There’s another one on the passenger list.  Tim Trophy.  You know the person who’s always parading the trophy friends around?  This happens with students.  You know, that popular girl, that popular guy.  Oh, gotta take a picture with them… do the duck face.  What is that about?  Because see, I can parade my trophy friends around.  See, I’m so insecure that if I get my picture taken with a trophy friend it’ll give me security.  People will think I’m all that.  Pride.  Pride.  Oh, I gotta get a picture with a celebrity.  When you get a picture with a celebrity here’s what it means:  You don’t know them.  You don’t know them.  You go to my office I’ve got a couple of pictures with me and celebrities.  I don’t know those people.  They’re on my ego wall.  But I’m not gonna take the pictures down because whenever I feel insecure I go, whoa!  That’s me with… yeah.. I feel good!  I feel a lot better about myself!  I am something, yeah, uh-huh.  “But Ed, they don’t know you.”  I don’t care.  I’ve got my picture taken with them.  Isn’t that funny how we do that?  Why do we do that?  Pride.  Insecurity.  We’re looking away from God and we think others can satisfy.  Others can carry the freight that only God can.  Our world can’t carry the freight, Tim Trophy, Tina Trophy.

Oh here’s another one of my favorites.  Susan Selfie.  Selfie.  Does that tell you a lot about our world?  Selfie.  Selfie.  <cachoong!… camera sound effect>  Selfie.  Why do we take a selfie?  Then we take them over and over and over again to get that right shot.  Oh, double chin.  Shows my muffin top.  No.  Shows my love handles, no.  I gotta look really cool.   Ya know?  Selfie.  Who do you need to de-friend?  Who do you need to stop following?  They’ll mess you up.  You’ll begin to get into opinion worship.  You don’t worship God any more, it’s like instantaneous.  Now I post this and … how many likes?  And how many comments?  Oh my gosh!  Any comment section you read is from the pit of Hell.  Let me say that again.  That is the lowest of the low.  Rats stay away from that.  The comments section.

Lisa and I tried to go to this restaurant and we called up for reservations.  It wasn’t like super fancy, just this like hot restaurant.  Four days in advance you need to call.  So I go online.  The first three comments about this restaurant were horrendous.  Brutal.  Nasty.  Horrible.  I’m saying to myself, man.  Four day wait just to get reservations just to show up and eat and these people are ripping it to shreds?  Finally we ate there and I looked around.  What if someone stood up while we were eating in this hip restaurant?  What if someone said, “This restaurant is horrible, man!  I hate it!  The waitresses and waiters are bad.  And the owner is a crook. And the food makes me… <pre-vomiting sound effect> upchuck!  Blah-blah-blah!”  Ah they would drag you out like that.  You’d probably get arrested or something.  But we go online and it’s secretive.  No one knows.  I’ll disguise myself.  FSUBowler#12.  You know?  “I hate this restaurant.  The pasta is pitiful.  The food is cold.”  You talk about displaying our depravity?  You go online, I go online, we expose ourselves to these spineless platforms, these people.  It’s amazing.

But there’s another one.  I kinda got off subject.  There’s another one.  Paula Partay.  You know Paula, don’t you?  You’ve seen her.  She’s all over technology.  Paula Partay.  Party all the time, Partay all the time, Partay all the time.  Always at a party.  All those pictures.  She’s a party girl, party girl.  And you post and post and post and it’s like, “I didn’t get invited to that party.  Why didn’t I get an invitation to that party.  I don’t really know that many people.  Look at Paula.”  See?  Again, pride.  Let’s just admit it.  I’m here, you’re there.  Why do we post this?  I’m here.  You’re there.  I’m at this party with all the people, the cool people, and you’re at home in your apartment alone.  You didn’t get invited.

Then we got Sam Soapbox.  You know the soapbox people.  Just one issue.  They’re just obsessed in this one issue, enveloped in this one issue.  One issue, one issue, one issue.  Always they’re just dieseling on about this one issue, one issue, whatever it is.  One issue, one issue, one issue, one issue.  Standing up on their soapbooooox!!!  Oh they love it!

All this e-communication, all this technology.  It’s secretive.  We think we’re secretive but we’re not.  I would argue that when we go online and type out messages or things to other people that it can hurt the other person more than if you met with them face to face.  Don’t ever try to communicate something emotional online.  And what’s so sad about pride is, pride distances us from others and so often I talk to people and they can’t even talk any more.  I mean, yeah, they can go online and do this.  But you sit down with them?  They can’t talk anymore!  They can’t ask you a question about your life.  They can’t engage you.  Pride.  Narcissism.  Whenever they do talk it’s, you know, about yourself.  They might ask you this pathetic question like, “How are you?” and they just ask you that question just so they can wax eloquently about themselves.  See, we’re prideful and don’t even know it.

Oh here’s another one, one of my favorites.  Barbara Bikini.  Posting pictures in a bikini and writing Scripture verses beneath them.  Hey, here’s your homework.  Don’t take a picture and post it of you in your swimsuit.  No!  Don’t do it, don’t think about it.  Somebody help me up here.  I’m gonna start preaching in a second.  What?  You’ve gotta be kidding me.

See, pride, is a form of insanity.  Gonna take a picture of you in a bikini and put it online.  See, back in the day, old-school, we had something called photo albums.  I loved the photo album!  Had your little coffee table in some drawer somewhere.  People ask you a lot of questions and finally you’re like, “Well, I will show you a photo album if you want to see it.”  It’s like, all right.  You only do this with a close friend or family member.  And then they would look, “Oh, this is good,  OK, right.  I can understand that.  You went to Galveston.  Got married in Garland.  That’s cool.”  Put it away.  Now it’s like, “Let me post it for the world to see, baby!”  Pride.  I got this figure, I’ve got this physique, you don’t.  Pride.

Now I’m not saying we should never post a selfie.  I’m not saying we should never post a selfie.  I’m not saying we should never post a picture, but edit your Tweets.  How many personal pronouns are you using?  I did this with myself recently.  It was very convicting.  Very convicting.  Are you an informer or a me-former? Informers are people that are, “OK, let me help you.  Here’s some information.  Here is this or that.”  A me-former is, “This is about me, me me me!!!  Me!  It’s about me!  I learned it’s my sin nature and I want to display my depravity.  It’s about me!  I’m here and you’re there.  And God, you’re way away.  Church, you’re way away.  It’s about me!  Meeee!  It’s about me.  It’s about me.  It really is, it’s about me.  It’s about me.”  Me-former.

“This morning I woke up and I had some gas.”  I don’t care.

“I’m drinking coffee now at Starbucks.”  Whoop-de-do-da-day.  But we’ve gotta post something.  We’ve gotta put something out there, don’t we?  We have to.  We have to.  It’s about me.  Me.  Me.  It’s about me.  It’s me.

There’s another one, this last one.  And this is kinda up in my face.  Ed Ego.  Ed Ego.  See this?  I took that picture about a week ago.  You know where I was?  I was in Miami.  I was with the twins and we went into this really cool cigar shop in Little Havana.  That lady was one of the cigar rollers of Fidel Castro.  It’s very fascinating to watch people roll cigars, those people that really know what they’re doing.  This lady is absolutely unbelievable.  So I said,

“Hey, Landra!” (one of our twins), take this picture.  So I sat down by her – I can’t pronounce her name and she doesn’t speak English, and she’s rolling a cigar there, and there I am.  And when I saw the picture after Landra took it I said, “Let me see the picture… let me see the picture!”  and there were others I didn’t look that great.  But that one, look at my triceps.  Look at the size of my tricep.  It looks like I have a horseshoe on the back of my arm!  And also, you can’t see my little flabby flab because I have a black shirt on, but see, if you look closely the black shirt, there’s a picture of the continent of Africa because as I was humbly serving the Lord on that transcontinental flight I went there and, you know…

Here’s what Christians do.  This is pitiful, guys.  Christians will brag.  I mean, we’ll be so prideful but we’ll throw in words like humbled, blessed, it’s a God-thing, so we’re pimping God now.  I’m just gonna brag.  I’ll just brag and brag and brag, bless.  Anyway, put the picture back up.  I did not post the picture.  Now, first of all my arms are not that big.  Somebody takes a picture and it comes out perfectly.  Lisa and I worked out, back in the day, three years in this gym.  I mean, hard-core training.  Lisa has the genetics and muscularity to really excel.  Well, at the end of our three years of working out with a trainer someone took a picture of us and my brother was like,

“Man, Ed, I’m gonna be honest with you.  Lisa’s arms look a lot better than yours.”  So I just told Lisa,

“You gotta stop working out.  You’re too muscular.  You look too good.”  So my arms are not that big, they’re really small, but right there they look huge.  So I thought, “I’m gonna post that because, I don’t know, I just look good.  Plus I have the Africa shirt on, which means I’m humble. I’m humble to go to Africa and serve.  And God answered my prayer because the guy with funky feet got moved on the flight so I was able to sleep.

Now surely you don’t think things like that before you post pictures, I know it’s just me.  Surely you … you do?  No… You do?  You try to put yourself in a good light?  Like I… pride.  Pride.  I can see it in you, you can see it in me, but it blinds us to its existence.

Pride is the forerunner of all sin.  It’s the precursor of all sin.  I don’t have an anger problem, I’m just emotional.  I don’t have a lust issue, I just have a strong sex drive.  I don’t struggle with envy, I just want what you got.  I’m not slothful, I’m just laid back.  Pride.

So what do we do about it?  Well, on this flight we’re distanced from God and his gifts and the church and others, what do we do about it?  Well, let’s go back to Captain Ned Narcissist.  Let’s land the plane.  Because we left reality.  I would argue that a lot of the stuff that’s online, a lot of the stuff that we post is not even reality.  It’s fantasy files.  It’s ESPN Sports Center highlight-reel living.  It’s not real.  Everything is not a highlight.  So what do we do?  We land the plane.  We’ve gotta get grounded.  And I can hear Captain Ned Narcissist saying,

“Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve started our descent.  In preparation for landing please make sure your seats and tray tables are in their full upright and locked position.  And by all means, please turn off all electronic devices until we’re safely parked at the gate.”  <jet engine slowing down, brakes>

All right, I’m on the ground now.  No longer that ride of pride, that ego trip.  I mean, I’m gonna stay grounded.  But then when I stay grounded I’ve got to stay away from the sin, I’ve got to go and walk with the win.  So I’ve gotta go back through security.  Is that a beat down?  Back through security.  But this security is good because we’re gonna put on a cloak.

1 Peter 5:5, “Clothe yourselves in humility toward one another because God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”

God, I believe you sent Jesus to make up the distance caused by my pride.  I receive that, I humble myself before you.  You be the Lord of every venue of my life, of my direction, of my gifts and abilities, of my future.  I give it all to you.  I submit myself to you.  I’m gonna be grounded in you, God.  That’s what I want.  Because the last thing about pride that’s so scary… pride can distance us from God throughout eternity.  That’s the last thing I want to say.  So you play with pride.  You say, “Well, God grades on a curve.  If I’m a good guy or good girl he’ll let me in.  If I’m sincere he’ll let me in.  All religions, everything, leads to the same ultimate goal.”  That’s like saying you can dial any number arbitrarily on your smart phone and get my number.  There’s only one number.  That’s why Jesus said there’s only one way.   Pride can keep, and it does keep, many people away from knowing Jesus, from eternity.

Technology, what the hecknology?  Pride and humility.  It’s time that we land the plane and humble ourselves before the mighty hand of God.

[Ed leads in closing prayer.]

SNAPSHOTS OF THE SAVIOR

Like Jesus

Ed Young

February 21-22, 2004

A while back I bought a digital camera and I thought it would be kind of fun to take a snapshot of a group here at Fellowship Church to capture the nature and essence of what’s going on.  So, I’ll go ahead and kind of pan the crowd.  Let me see if I can get a good picture.  Let me see, I’m not sure….  Okay, oh, there.  Now that is an exciting group right there.  One, two, three, smile.  Boom!  [Ed takes a picture of a group in the audience and it is displayed on the side screens.]  Look at that!  So attentive, so alert, so full of charisma.

If I saw you on the street and handed you that snapshot and said to you, “This snapshot, I believe, captures the essence of what’s going on at Fellowship Church today,” what would you say?  You’d say, “No way, Ed.  I mean those are some people, but that doesn’t capture what’s going on at the church.  To capture the essence of Fellowship Church on a weekend you’d have to take hundreds of pictures.  You’d have to take enough pictures to fill up several photo albums.  You’d have to take pictures of the parkers, the greeters, the ushers, and the people back stage tweaking dials.  You’d have to take pictures of those people working in the children’s ministry, the nursery, the preschool, and the student ministry.  There’s no way with one photo, Ed, you could capture the nature and essence of Fellowship.”

A lot of us carry around a photo album of Jesus in our hearts and in our minds.  Amazingly, most of the photo albums we have are incomplete.  Amazingly, some of us only have two or three snapshots of Jesus, and we think that’s pretty much it.  We might have a picture of Jesus in the manger, another one of him walking on the water, and another one of him dying on the cross for our sins and rising again.  But that’s pretty much it.  That’s why I’m beginning this series today called Passion—Snapshots of the Savior.  The goal of this series of talks is simply this: I want all of us to have a complete photo album when it comes to the most important person to ever walk on planet Earth.  We talk a lot about Christ’s divinity, but so often we miss talking about his humanity.

As I talked about last time, this past summer Mel Gibson’s agent called my office and asked me and several other pastors and leaders from the Dallas/Fort Worth area to go to a small theater and to watch a private, uncut version of “The Passion.”  And to top it off, his agent told us that Mel himself would be in the theater.  We could talk to him and ask him questions.  And I was saying to myself, “Man, this is pretty cool!”  I told Lisa about it and she freaked out.  I’ve never seen her so excited.  She thought she was going, but I said, “No, Lisa, no, no, no, no, no.  I thought you were, too, but they said only pastors and hand selected leaders from the Dallas/Fort Worth area we going.”

I went with a good friend of mine who was also part of the selection and it was funny because both of our wives dropped us off at the theater and I watched them kind of hanging around in the lobby hoping to catch a glimpse of Mel.  And sure enough they saw him up close.  It was really exciting for them.

The movie, though, was riveting.  It’s the most powerful thing I’ve ever seen.  It’s Biblically accurate.  I highly recommend “The Passion.”  It’s a life changer.  I will never, ever look at the last twelve hours of Christ like I see them now.  Mel Gibson has done a phenomenal, masterful job at making the image of Jesus, his humanity, and how he identified with us so crystal clear.  It’s just amazing.  I’m looking forward to the great things that will happen because of this film.

There’s another goal that I have for this series.  I want us, after this series, to look back seven weeks from now and say, “You know what?  I had no idea that Jesus was this multi-faceted and multi-dimensional.  I had no idea that he was all about these things.”  So often, I’ll say it once again, we think about the divinity of Jesus, yet we forget about his humanity.  We only think about the fact that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose again.  And you’re right.  That is the point.  That is the message.  That is the focus.  However, his identity is something, his identification is something, his humanity is something we don’t really process.  We don’t really think about it.  We kind of skip over it.  Until this series of talks….

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed lately, but the Presidential election is already underway.  It really is.  You know what I’m talking about.  The candidates are already campaigning.  Politicians will politic, won’t they?  I love to watch their different strategies.  There’s one strategy, though, that every politician falls into.  It’s called the photo-op tactic of campaigning.  The old photo-op, here’s how it goes, and we’ll see this played out hundreds of times over the next several months.

The motorcade will come to a screeching halt, let’s say, in front of a Krispy Kreme donut shop.  [Ed has a strong love for Krispy Kreme donuts] Ray Ban-wearing Secret Service agents will make a line, the candidate will walk into the donut shop, and the employees will applaud enthusiastically.  Then the candidate will put on a Krispy Kreme smock and hat, he will walk behind the counter, and he’ll clumsily try to take those incredibly tasty donuts off the conveyer belt and put them into boxes.  He struggles with it, because it really takes talent to be able to do that.  He’s smiling while the cameras are going off, and he does this for a couple of minutes.  And then when the cameras stop taking pictures, what does he do?  He takes off the smock, takes off the hat, jumps in his motorcade and off they go to another scheduled campaign stop.  Off they go to another place at another time for yet another photo-op.

It doesn’t surprise me.  It doesn’t shock me that politicians do that.  The photo-op is seen all the time.  We’ll see it in Time, Newsweek, The Dallas Morning News, The Wall Street Journal, and so forth and so on.  What does shock me about this tactic is the reaction of the workers in Krispy Kreme.  It’s the reaction of the people on the assembly line in Detroit, the textile mill in Greenville, South Carolina, or the computer plant in Silicon Valley.  Look at the expressions on their faces when these pictures are taken.  You would think they would be saying, “Who are you trying to fool, man?  You’re not really going to be one of us.  You’re not going to get paid by the hour.  You’re not going to wear that smock or those protective goggles or that hard hat or these kind of boots.  You’re not going to do that.   You’re not going to give up your law degree from Harvard or Yale.  You’re not going to give up all your multi-millions of dollars.  You’re not going to do that.  What are you trying to do?  You’re trying to identify and connect with me?!”

You would think they would have that kind of expression, but they don’t.  Instead they have crocodile grins and they’re applauding.  They’re like, “Yeah!”  What they are really saying is, “At least this guy tried.  At least he tried to connect with me and identify with me.  At least he tried.”

These people are settling for what?  An illusion of identification.  Our God did not accept an illusion of identification when he sent Jesus Christ to be born, to die on the cross and rise again.  No, no, no.  Jesus didn’t just do a quick fly over.  He didn’t just come in some cosmic motorcade and walk into a donut shop, smile for the cameras for a couple of minutes and then cruise off to the heavens.  No, no, no.  He identified with us.  He connected with us.  Jesus was fully God and fully man.  Something we can never totally comprehend in our finiteness.

However, it’s something we better study and better try to understand.   Because if we truly understand the whole identification process of Jesus, we will leave this place (I’m talking about Fellowship Church) a different person than the person that entered this church.  The identification of Jesus.  Jesus identified with us.  “Well, Ed,” you might be asking, “How did Jesus identify with us?”

Philippians 2:5-6 says, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped…” (NASB).  Look at verse 7, “But emptied himself (limited himself), taking the form of a bond servant, and being made in the likeness of men.”  This doesn’t mean that he emptied himself of his divinity.  Once again, he was fully God and fully man—divinity and humanity.  It does mean, though, he voluntarily limited himself.

Years ago, I was chaplain of the Houston Astros baseball team, which is kind of hilarious because I don’t really like baseball that much.  I admire people who like it and I admire people who play.  But I quit during little league because the ball was too hard.  It came too fast.  I got hit a couple of times and it hurt!  And I said, “I’m through with baseball.”  Every week as the chaplain, I would do a service for the Astros in their clubhouse, then I would go to the opposing team’s clubhouse and do a service for them.  It was pretty crazy.

One day, a major league all-star that I got to know asked me to come on the field and he said, “Ed, let’s play catch together.”  I said, “No thank you.”  He said, “Come on.  I won’t throw hard.”  This guy threw in the 90s.  I said, “I really don’t want to do it.”  He goes, “Ed, I’ll throw 20-25 miles per hour.  That’s it.”  Here’s the key word.  He said, “I will limit my ability.”  I said, “Okay.”  And it still hurt my palm, you know, to catch that ball.

Jesus limited himself.  He could have thrown 90, 95, 100, 200, or 500 miles per hour.  But he threw 25.  He threw 30 just so he could connect with you and connect with me.

HIS OCCUPATION

Think about your job just for a second.  Think about what you do professionally.  Have you ever thought about the fact that Jesus identified and does identify with our marketplace endeavors?  Have you ever just considered that?  Jesus spent more time in the marketplace than he did as a minister.  He spent more time working than he did as an itinerant evangelist.

What does the Bible say about Jesus?  In Mark 6:3 he is called “the Carpenter.”  Not a carpenter, not the son of a carpenter, but “the Carpenter.”  What does that mean?  It meant that Jesus took up the trade.  Back in Biblical times it meant that he was responsible for the excavation work, the foundation work, and the finish out of a project.  Jesus was probably a stone mason.  We have this whacked view of Jesus as some pail, frail, blonde hair, blue-eyed guy.  He had a dark skin tone and long hair.  The guy had to be buff.  He had to be in awesome shape just to do what he did professionally.  We’re talking about a man’s man.

Jesus knows all about pay disputes.  He knows all about boredom.  He knows all about the monotony of work.  He knows all about stress and pressures.  He’s been there.  He’s been there.  Don’t you see the genius of God?  Don’t you see the brilliance of God?  He knew that we would spend most of our time in the marketplace, more time in the marketplace than we would with our families even.  That’s where the rugged plains of reality happen to be in your life and mine.

So often during my moments of whining….  Do you ever have moments of whining?  Surely you do.  “No one understands what I’m going through.  No one understands this deal.  No one understands my job.  No one understands this pay.  No one understands.  No one understands.”  But add two words to that statement: like Jesus.  Like Jesus.  To top that off, work is a gift from God to man.  Work was given to us before sin ever entered the equation of life.  When we understand that, our workplace can become a worship place.

Genesis 2:15, “The LORD God took the man (that’s Adam) and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”  This verse should put to rest the age old debate about what is the oldest known profession.  It’s landscaping.  It’s right here in the Bible.

It’s about time, though, that the men here, especially, who are so great at compartmentalizing stuff, resign the personal presidency of their life and give it to Jesus.  It’s about time that you allow Christ to sit in the corner office and run the show, call the shots.  There is no way we can ever discover our identity in the marketplace until we synch up with the identity of Christ.  Apart from Christ, I will never know who I am, and you will never know who you are.  Talk to Jesus about the stresses and pressures and junk that you deal with in the marketplace.  He’s our sympathetic Savior.

HIS RELATIONSHIPS

How about relationships?  That’s another way that Jesus identifies with us.  Jesus was brought up in a family.  The Bible says he had four brothers and sisters.  He had best friends.  His best friends turned on him during his greatest point of need.  Have you ever felt that before in relationships?  Have you ever felt misunderstood in relationships?  Maybe you’re a student and you’re saying, “My parents don’t get it.  They just don’t understand.  Who understands?  No one understands.”  You know where I’m going.  Add two words: like Jesus.

Relationships—we’re all about that, aren’t we?  It’s very interesting when you meet someone who’s had a similar background, someone who has “been there,” relationally speaking.  Have you ever met someone like that?  You’re like, “Wow!  That happened to me.  They…yeah, my family was like that and that’s where I am now.”

And when you have that connectivity it’s like the lights come one.  It’s like you have this huge identification thing going on.  I was thinking about that last weekend.  Last weekend I was in the Atlanta area, and I was with a good friend of mine, Andy Stanley.  Andy and I have a lot in common.  Let me tell you what I’m talking about.  I cannot remember a time in my life where I was not recognized by a bunch of people I don’t know.  Why?  Because my father pastors one of the largest churches in America.  He’s on television around the world.  He’s on radio.  He’s written books.  He’s kind of a known guy in the Christian community.  So I grew up in that.

Dad always told me, “Son, if you can do anything else other than being a pastor, do that.”  He said, “The only way you should be a pastor is if you know God is leading you into it.  You’ve got to be led into the pastorate.”  I said, “Okay, Dad.”  And sure enough when I was 21, I felt led into the ministry.  At 28, we began Fellowship Church and God has blessed it.  It’s been an incredible ride.

Well, there is a very small group of people that I can identify with relationally.  It’s a small group of people who’ve grown up like I’ve grown up.  Let’s just face it.  Then I met Andy Stanley.  Andy Stanley’s father is Charles Stanley.  Charles Stanley pastored and pastors one of the large churches in America.  He’s on television all over the country.  He’s written books and done all this stuff.  Andy, at about the same time we started Fellowship Church, started his church, North Point Community Church.  It’s a dynamic church.  And Andy and I met each other several years ago and the connectivity was scary.  I was at his house last Sunday after church and we were talking.  It was like, “Andy, I think that.  Yeah, I understand that!” And we’ve said to each other many times, that there are very few people that understand our background because very few people have that specific background.

Well, take that feeling and that illustration and multiply it exponentially and you’ve got relational connectivity on another planet, on another plane with Jesus, because he has been there.  He knows you.  He knows relationships better than you will ever even realize it or understand it yourself.  Call out to him.  Pour your heart out to your God.  Pour your heart out to your Savior.  Think about your relational past, what you’re going through now and also your relational future.

HIS TEMPTATIONS

There’s another area, though, that I think about when I think about Jesus identifying with us.  It’s about the area of temptation.  The Bible says when you’re tempted, not if.  We’re going to be tempted.  I’m going to be tempted and so are you.  It’s a part of life.  The Bible says Jesus was tempted.

Think just for a second, where are you tempted right now?  Are you tempted to mess around your parents?  Are you tempted to be disrespectful to them?  Are you tempted to maybe lie or to exaggerate something in the marketplace?  To say something’s worth “X” amount but it really isn’t?  Are you tempted to be unfaithful to your spouse?  What area do you really feel like you’re being tempted in right now?  What area do you feel that cross pull?  You know what I’m saying?  You might be saying to yourself, “Well, Ed, you know, no one knows the force of my temptation.  No one knows what I’m dealing with.  I mean, I’m on this island, man.  No one gets it.  I’m here by myself and there’s no one in this predicament.”  You’re wrong.  “No one understands.”  You’re wrong.  I’ll add two words again: like Jesus.

Hebrews 2:18, “For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted” (NASB).  Remember that word “aid.”  He is able to come to the aid.  Do you know what the word “aid” means in the original language?  It’s the picture of a mother running to the cry of her infant.  All these high tech parents these days have these baby monitors, and moms can hear that little cry, “Ah!  Eeh!  Ahhh!”  They have rabbit ears and they’ll run to the cry of their infant.  That’s awesome, isn’t it?  When I’m tempted, when you’re tempted in any realm, all we’ve got to do is cry out and Jesus will come to our aid.  He will strengthen us.  And Scripture tells us that we will never get into a situation where he will not give us the strength and the power to escape.

Do you remember when Jesus went one on one with Satan?  We talked about that several weeks ago.  Jesus used the power of the Word and the power of the Spirit of God.  Two things that are available to us right now.  We don’t serve a sequestered Savior or a detached deity.  We serve someone who has been there.  Jesus knows the potency and the pull and the power of temptation more than we will ever know it.  You know why?  Because he didn’t sin.

The sinless one knows it to a greater degree than we will every experience it.  So don’t let the evil one say, “You’re the only one dealing with it.  You can’t say no.  You can’t turn the other way.”  Yes you can because Jesus will give you the strength and power to do so.  He’ll come to your aid.

Hebrews 4:15, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (NASB).  Here’s something that is really cool.  Jesus is our high priest.  I don’t have to go through a priest, an earthly priest, to get to God.  You don’t have to go through an earthly priest to get to God.  Jesus is our High Priest.  If you’re a child of God right now, the Bible says Christ, our high priest, is in heaven articulating words and prayers that we can’t even say to the Father himself.  If that’s not good news I don’t know what is, because so many times when I’m praying I just don’t know what to say.  Are you like that?  “I just can’t find the words, God.  I, I mean…”  Jesus promises me and he promises you that he’ll take our mumblings, our stumblings and our words and even give us new words.  And he will articulate stuff to the Father and help us and encourage us and empower us.  He’s our High Priest.  Theologians call this the priesthood of the believer.  24/7 we can go into the throne room of God by our High Priest, Jesus, himself.

HIS SUFFERING

Think about the sufferings that Jesus went through.  Think about the pain.  That’s something that we can identify with.  Are you going through pain right now?  Suffering?  The Bible says Jesus was hungry.  It says that Jesus was tired.  It says that Jesus was angry.  It said that Jesus was down.  I can identify with that, can’t you?

How about physical pain?  Do you have the pain of arthritis, maybe?  Some other physical pain that no one really knows about but you and maybe your spouse or a couple of close friends?  Or maybe you’re dealing with cancer right now?  Maybe you’re dealing with some sort of physical pain.  Jesus identifies.  He’s experienced pain like we will never, ever experience it.

Isaiah 53:3 was penned hundreds of years before Christ came.  It says, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.”  He was rejected by men.  As I said earlier, his best friends turned their backs on him during his greatest time of need.  And then—check this out—as he was paying for your sins and mine on the cross, the Father couldn’t look at sin.  The Father separated himself from the Son.  You want to talk about rejection?

Look at Mark 6:3—here’s what the people said who were taking offense at Jesus.  They said, “Isn’t this the carpenter?” They were saying, “Hey, blue collar kid.  You’re the Messiah?!”  “…Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon?” They teased him, “Oh yeah, aren’t you the illegitimate kid?”  They knew there was some mystery behind the birth of Jesus.  These guys didn’t believe in Christ until after he rose from the dead?  “‘Aren’t his sisters here with us?’  And they took offense at him.”

Has anyone every made fun of you because your skin’s a different color?  Jesus was a Jew under Roman control.  Again, he’s connected.  He’s identified.  He’s been there.  All we think about so often is just the divinity of Jesus.  And that’s great.  We’ve got to do that.  But we’ve got to think about his humanity too, don’t we?  His identification with us?

Isaiah 53:5, let’s go back, “…He was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”  Jesus identified with you and me to such a degree that he became sin.  He took our junk, our rebellion, our guilt, our pain, and our moral foul ups; everything we’ve ever done wrong, thought wrong; everything we will do wrong and everything that is bad in our lives.  He took all of that upon himself.  We don’t deserve it, but he did it.  That’s how much he has identified with us.

God saw this cosmic chasm caused by our sin, and because God wanted to identify with us to such a degree, he commissioned Jesus to live a sinless life.  The Bible says Jesus was 100% righteous.  Isn’t that something?  Perfect.  And because he was 100% righteous, he voluntarily was nailed to a Roman cross.  Then the Bible says he rose again.  And Christ’s resurrection is the evidence of living a 100% righteous life.  Thus, when I identify with Jesus and receive him, I find my identity in Christ and the righteousness of Christ is imputed into my life.  So now when God sees me, he doesn’t see Ed Sinner, Ed Moral Foul Up, Ed Mess Up.  He sees Jesus.  He sees the righteousness of Christ.  And this whole thing plays out in his humanity and his divinity, his salvation and his identification.

Let me go back to this camera for a second, this high tech digital camera.  What if God could take a picture of you?  What if God could take a picture of me?  Think about that.  What if God could do that?  What would we see in the picture?  Would we see a sinner?  Would we see just a guy or a girl?  Or would we see a snapshot of the Savior?

WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?

Happily Ever After

February 9, 2014

Ed Young

It’s the fairy tale ending we all want to hear. It’s the ideal ending to a perfectly crafted story. But is ‘happily ever after’ the kind of ending we’re designed and created to discover?

In this message, Pastor Ed Young takes another look at a unique and powerful love story found in the Old Testament. As he unpacks each character, we discover that ‘happily ever after’ requires some very strategic and very intentional steps. And when we are willing to do things God’s way, it’s the kind of ending we can all experience.

Transcript

Good morning!  What’s love got to do with it?  That’s what we’re talking about today.  We’re talking about this secondhand emotion.  We’re talking about commitment.  We’re talking about pledging yourself to a position no matter what the cost.  Well, since we’re talking about love and love stories I’ve invited my man back.  I’m talking about Chuck Bethany!  Let’s give him a round of applause.  Because since we’re talking about romance we need some music, don’t we?  What do you think?  Valentine’s is right around the corner.  Guys are you square for Valentine’s?  Hope you are.  Are you?  I like it… I like it!

Today I want to tell you a story, and this story is a true romance novel.  It’s found in the book of Ruth.  Now, Ruth is nestled over in the Old Testament.  I think it’s the greatest love story out there not only because of the character development but also the subplot.  Last week we opened this series, What’s Love Got To Do With It? And we talked about Ruth.  Basically Ruth was from a land called Moab.  She left Moab, went to God’s country, Bethlehem.  You know, where Jesus was born.  She happened to meet (because her husband had died in Moab), she happened to meet billionaire Boaz, this man of God, called the kinsman redeemer.  Basically, as we left them last week, we saw that they lived happily ever after.

I don’t know about you but I like to live happily ever after.  When I was a kid my mother would read me all those children’s books, all the epic children’s books.  And they lived happily ever after.  Go to a movie and what do you want?  You want a good ending.  Or maybe someone reads a book or whatever and we say, how does it end?  And now and again if you’re reading something or watching something you might fast-forward to the end.  Or maybe you’ll turn to the last chapter because we like an ending.  I would argue we’re made for happily ever after.  We’re made for it.  All of us face an ever-after.  We either face it with God or without God.  Yet we find that Ruth and Boaz lived happily ever after.

Well today I want to give you the back-story of Ruth and Boaz, this couple.  And what I love about the Bible is the Bible keeps things real.  No smoke and mirrors, no veneers, I mean it’s like boom, boom.  Keeps it real.  The Bible, in many circumstances and in many areas, is not G-rated, it’s R-rated.  So if you’re ready to tackle that, here we go.  Are you ready?  Yeah, I think you are.

Now the book of Judges, the last verse says something pretty scary.  It says, “In those days there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes.”  Does that sound like 2014 or what?  I’m just gonna do right in my own eyes.  If it’s true for you and you don’t hurt anybody (sounds sexy) you go ahead and do it.  I’m just gonna do what I’m gonna do.  What’s true for me is true for me.  What’s true for you is true for you.  That’s what was going on in the book of Judges.  And that’s where we find ourselves with Ruth.  Ruth was in Moab.  She was a Moabitess.

But to give you kind of the backdrop of the story let me open up the book of Ruth.  Ruth, chapter 1, verse 1, check it out.  “Now it came about in the days when the judges governed everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes that there was a famine in the land.”  The food was scarce, all right?  “And a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn (that means he took a little trip) to the land of Moab.”  Moab.  I love that name, don’t you?  Moab.  It sounds like some exercise equipment.  I need some mo-abs!  anyway, Moab.  “… with his wife and two sons.”  So we’ve got, and don’t let these names confuse you, but we’ve got Elimelek, his lovely wife Naomi, and their two sons, Kilion and Mahlon.  They bolt from God’s country because the food was scarce.  They go to a land that God said not to go to, that God said to avoid.  They go to a land called Moab.  Where’s Moab?  Moab is on the eastern side of the Dead Sea.  I’ve swum in the Dead Sea before and it’s eerie.  All this salt floating around.  You can’t even sink.  You know what, we’re gonna get another trip on to Israel.  Who wants to go to Israel with me?  I’m serious.  We’re gonna go.  You watch for it, over the next year, we’re gonna all go to Israel.  It’s an awesome trip.  Swimming in the Dead Sea.  We’ll all swim right there.  It’s pretty crazy.  We can look to the east and there’s the land of Moab.

Moab was wheels-off.  A decadent culture.  The gods they worshipped, one God named Chemosh, when you wanted to please Chemosh at certain times you would simply sacrifice children to him.  There was another god, Baal-Peor, the god of perversion.  Ginormous orgies, the god of pornography.  Those body parts we cover were uncovered.  The god of prostitution.  The god, one commentator said, of anything goes.  Sounds like our culture, doesn’t it?  Just look around.  I mean, you’ve driven down north breast, I mean Northwest Highway before, haven’t you?  We live in Moab!  We live right there in Moab!

So you’ve got Ruth living in Moab and then you’ve got this other chick named Orpah (I didn’t say Oprah) living in Moab.  And here’s some trivia about Oprah.  I even looked this up.  Originally Oprah was named Orpah from this Moabitess, yet her family didn’t like the way you had to pronounce it so they changed it to Oprah.  And speaking of Oprah, I want to give away a new car to everyone who showed up today at church!  Yeah.   No one believes me.  That’s OK.

So, this family, they leave God’s country.  It’s supposed to be just for a little while.  And they go to Moab, where they’ve got more food.  I would rather have an empty stomach and a full heart in God’s country than have an empty heart and a full stomach outside of God’s country.  How about you?  Isn’t that a fact?  Many times we’ll go, like, well it’s getting tough!  It’s getting difficult in God’s country.  Man it’s really difficult.  Well, there’s no opportunity without opposition.  And when you have opposition that means you’ve got a real opportunity many times.  The opposition should alert you and me to our position where God wants to put us.

Well, Elimelek was like, “No, no, no.  I don’t like, kinda having some hunger pangs so I’m just gonna go and take my family from Bethlehem (which means the house of Bread, Jesus said in John 6:35, “I am the bread of life.”  And he was born in Bethlehem, get it?  Get it?  Are you feeling me?  Yeah.  I know Chuck’s feeling me).  They left the house of bread and they moved into the house of blues.  They moved to Moab.  What in the world are they doing in Moab?  I mean, come on Elimelek!  Somebody stand up and lead somebody!   Just cowering, just caving in.  So they make their bed, they make their whole living in Moab.  And here’s what’s so sad.  When they moved to Moab, not only did they move to Moab, Moab moved into them.  And that’s what happens.  Whenever you make the move or I make the move from God’s place, out of God’s will, to Moab, not only do we move into Moab, Moab will move into us.  And when we move into Moab, here’s the Tweet of the day, are you ready for this?  When we move into Moab, #1 it takes us farther than we want to go.  We stay there longer than we want to stay.  And it costs us more than we’re willing to pay.  I would clap right there.  I think that’s a clapping line right there.

I’ll say it again.  When we live in sin, outside the will of God, it takes us farther than we want to go.  “I can’t believe I’m into Moab this deep!”  We stay there longer than we want to stay!  “I only meant to stay here like for a day or a couple of hours and it’s been 10 years!”  That’s how long Elimelek and his family stayed in Moab.  And it ends up costing us more than we want to pay.

“Well, Ed, what do you mean?”  Guess who clocks out?  Elimelek.  He does in Moab.  Every time I go to a funeral, every time you go to a funeral, the body in the casket preaches a sermon.  It’s the last sermon.  When I do weddings, no one pays attention when I do a wedding.  They can care less what I’m saying.  But when I do a funeral, I mean they are locked in.  Because we’re talking about life or death.  Elimelek preached a sermon.  Naomi should have woken up and smelled the espresso but she didn’t.

Then her two boys, they married these two hot Moabite women, Ruth and Orpah.  Guess what?  They clock out.  So stay with me.  You’ve got four people moving from the house of bread to the house of blues and only one coming back.  Because Naomi, this widow who was depressed, despondent, downtrodden.  She’s like, I have nowhere to go.  Because back in the day if you were a widow you had nothing.  All the property, everything was about the man.  If you were a woman, too bad.

So here is Naomi, again just hammered by grief.  Definitely in a dark, deep time of depression.  Let me tell you something about depression.  Depression is real.  Don’t ever think it’s fake.  Don’t tell somebody who’s depressed, “Hey, snap out of it.  Hey, just think good thoughts.”  I mean that’s fine and dandy but it’s amazing how many times in the Bible men and women of God went through depression, went through a time of darkness.  So you’ve got Naomi, she’s been in Moab now for a decade.  And now she says, I’m gonna go back home.  I’m gonna go back to B-town, Bethlehem.  I’m worthless.  And she wanted to change her name to Mara, which means bitter.  That’s how bad it was.

Well, you won’t believe this.  Her two daughters-in-law, now this is a miracle.  Orpah and Ruth, the Bible says they attached themselves to their mother-in-law.  That’s a miracle.  You know I’m just kidding, right?  He knows.  They attached themselves to the mother-in-law, Naomi.  And they look at her, think about it, Naomi’s old, man.  And they’re young at the zenith of their life.  And they probably made their way back to Bethlehem, back from Moab, back from outside of the will of God into the will of God.  Don’t you know they saw the Lord in Naomi’s life, even though she wasn’t really living it totally and completely for God.  They saw something different so they just made their way back.  Three women.  Burdened with guilt.  And maybe, just maybe, they pulled over in a Chick-Fil-A parking lot.  I don’t know.  But think about it.  Three chicks who’d been filleted by the world.  And here’s what is so whack about it.  Here’s Naomi, she’s going, “I’m going back to Judah.  To Bethlehem.  I’m leaving this ungodly place.  I’m leaving Chemosh and Baal-Peor, and all this other wheels-off-ness.  Yet she encourages (and I kind of understand why she did this, but then again I don’t), she encourages Ruth and Orpah to go back to Moab.  Three times, read your Bible, “Return to Moab.  Don’t hang out with me.  Go back!”  go back, go back, three times.  Return, return, return.  Go back, go back, go back.  Now that’s some pressure.  Presha busta pipe!  Right?  And Orpah was like, she’s kinda lagging behind and she’s like, well I’m not sure.  I mean, I want to go with you, Naomi, but now she looked up at the Chick-Fil-A sign, then looked back to Moab, and she thought, “Man, I’m gonna go back to my religion.  I’m gonna go back to my relatives.”

I meet so many people who say, “Well, I’m not sure about giving my life to Christ, because what will my relatives think?  What will my grandmother think?  What will my uncle think?  I’m not sure about being baptized.  What will my relatives think?  Hey, God bless your relatives, that’s great, but you’re big enough and old enough and responsible enough now to make the decision yourself.  Because when I get into Heaven, God’s not gonna say, “Hey Ed, first of all let me talk to your grandfather.”  No, no, no.  He’s gonna be talking to me.  He’s gonna be talking to you.

I will never forget.  One time I was at a baseball game, of all places.  A guy invited me to go to this box.  And I was hanging out there and I was in the back.  It’s weird that I even did this, eating hot dogs.  I don’t even eat hot dogs.  But when I eat one I just have to eat like three of them.  I love hot dogs, although I don’t eat them.  But I found myself eating hot dogs.  A guy came up to me that I recognized from a Jewish background.  He told me that he had been coming to Fellowship Church and he said he really enjoyed it. And he said,

“I’m just kind of on the edge of giving my life to Christ.  But my relatives, I mean, I’m Jewish, dude.  I am Jewish!  What are they gonna say?  What are they gonna do?”  And I said,

“Yeah, I understand there’s gonna be pressure.  But Jesus was a Jew and I think Jewish people make some of the best Christians I know.  Because they have this capacity, they’re God’s chosen people and all that, whatever.”  So while I’m talking to him, this guy in this box at the back of the box while I’m stuffing my face with hot dogs (and I like mustard on them.  That’s it.  Mustard and onions, that’s it), while we’re doing that this guy’s getting ready.  He like wants to do the deal where we are.  And right when we’re talking some idiot, and I’ll say it, an idiot comes up and tries to talk him down from making this decision.  And this idiot tells me,

“Oh, yeah, I’m a Christian.”  I’m just praying to the Lord, “Lord, take this idiot away.  He’s gonna ruin the deal.”  He’s messing the whole thing up.  Thankfully he walked away. And in that box, this guy bowed down his knees and asked Christ to come into his life.  Is that amazing?  You talking about facing your religion?  You talking about facing your relatives?   So that’s what’s in play here.

So, Orpah’s like, “I don’t know.  It’s a lot of pressure.  And you know I could look back and…” Here’s the deal.  Naomi, she was not in her right mind.  She wasn’t living for the Lord.  Don’t take advice, especially relational advice, from people who are living in Moab!  Don’t do it!  Because they’re gonna have crazy mc-craze advice for you and me!  You ever talk to someone and you’re like, man, that advice is crazy mc-craze!  It’s nuts!  What’s Ruth doing?  I mean, I understand some of it.  “Go back to Moab… go back…”  What-what?  What? What?!

Well, they got to this decision time and as you know, love is a decision.  Someone asked me several days ago, in fact I was getting my hair cut and this lady was cutting my hair and there were some people and we were talking and stuff.  And she was asking me about Fellowship Church, blah-blah-blah.  And they were asking about love.  And I said,

“You know, love is a decision.  It really is.  There’s strong emotion, but it’s not like it’s emotion and flowers and hearts and chocolate candy coming down from the sky 24/7.  I love my wife.  Today I told her more than I did 32 years ago, but some days we don’t feel in love.”

“I’ve never met anybody who’s been married over 10 minutes.”

“Oh, I feel in love every second…”  No you don’t.  You’re lying.  It’s commitment, right?  I mean, yeah, you have to have the chemistry.  I understand that.  You’ve got to be attracted.  But once you step over the line you understand that love is a decision.  It’s lived more at 98.6 than 102.5.  (it’d be a good place to clap… somebody clap).  But our culture says differently.

So anyway, we get to the parking lot (you thought I’d forgotten Chick-Fil-A), in Chick-Fil-A Orpah goes back to Moab.  And sadly we don’t hear from her again.  It wasn’t a happily ever after ending.  On the other hand Ruth (Baby Ruth is my favorite candy bar), Ruth follows Naomi and she works in these fields and meets billionaire Boaz, who probably looked at her and said, “You’re my baby, Ruth.”  He probably said that.  That’s where we get the candy bar from.  And he redeems her.  That was sad.  He redeems her, marries her, and they live happily ever after.

Did you know this?  I just looked this up and I was blown away.  Did you know that Boaz’s mom was a hooker?  A prostitute?  We would say a ho.  Rahab!  That was Boaz’s mom!  Doesn’t that give you confidence?  Godfidence?  And now God has used Ruth, a Moabitess, in this crazy land.  God has used her in this beautiful romance novel.

Let me stop for a second.  You are a central figure in God’s love story.  So am I.  But the question is, have you acquiesced to him and allowed him to do what he wants to do in your life?  Because we will never understand love until first of all we respond to this irrational, one-of-a-kind love from the God of the universe.

Well, Orpah bolts and here’s what Ruth says, baby Ruth.  Here’s what she says.  nce again, I can’t believe it.  Naomi gives Ruth an opportunity to bolt but Ruth is like, no way, no way!  Check this declaration out.  Ruth chapter 1, verse 16.  “Don’t urge me to leave you or turn back from following you.  For where you go, I will go.  And where you lodge, I will lodge.  Your people shall be my people and your God, my God.”  She is not just a professor of her faith, she is a possessor of her faith.  There are a lot of people that we meet, especially in DFW.  There are more spiritual pygmies than anyplace in the world.  So many people we meet, they profess but they don’t really possess.  Isn’t that a fact?

I think about Elimelek. You remember Elimelek, earlier in the story, who moved from the house of bread to the house of blues?  You know what his name means in the Hebrew?  God is my king.  Wow.  He didn’t quite live up to that, did he?  The moment I become a follower of Christ my last name is Christian.  My full name is Edwin Barry Young Christian.  And if you’re a follower of Christ, Christian is your last name.  I ask myself regularly, Ed do you live up to your name?  Are you living up to your family name?  Or are like Elimelek going, “Yep, uh-huh.  Oh yeah.  God’s my king but I’m gonna live in Moab.”  As you read the Scriptures they’ll get even deeper.  You’ll see right before Orpah left and made the move back to Moab, you know what she did?  She kissed Naomi.  How many people in this area kiss God on Sundays but live in Moab the rest of the time.  Interesting.  But you’ve gotta love Baby Ruth.  The truth about Ruth.  The proof is in the pudding.  She said, “I am fully and totally committed.”

It reminds me of Psalm 37:23, “The steps of a good man (or good woman) are ordered by the Lord and he delights in their way.”  I’ve gotta ask you. Have you made a declaration of your faith to God?  Yep, you’re gonna have well-meaning people, people like Naomi saying, “Don’t do it!  Don’t think about it!  You shouldn’t do it!”  So it’s either Bethlehem or Moab.  It’s either the Promised Land or the wilderness.  Moab.  Moab.

That’s a weird name.  Yesterday as I was trying to put the finishing touches on this message I began to look and research the Hebrew behind Moab.  What is Moab?  Where did that name come from?  And what I saw just like, rocked me.  You remember back in the day (because we’re going to Israel next year and we’ll do this), remember back in the day before this story you had Abraham.  And I’m coming back to where we are, this is about the love story too.  Don’t worry.  Abraham and Lot.  Abraham, heavy hitter.  The dude was absolutely, transcendently wealthy.  So he had this relative with him, Lot, and it was like two Fortune 500 companies moving through the wilderness.  I mean, these people were like major, major players.  So it became so big, so crazy that Abraham said,

“Lot, man, we gotta part ways, brother.  People are fighting, all this competition. I will give you first choice.”  Now that’s amazing because Abraham was the man.  He should have chosen first.  So Lot looked one way and it looked like West Texas.  I’m not dissing West Texas but you know what I’m saying.  He looked the other way, beautiful mountains and fertile plains, and he said,

“You know what, Abraham?  I’m not going to West Texas.  I’m going here.”  And that’s where he went.  And ultimately he went to Sodom and Gomorrah.  Lot did.  So he ended up being in Sodom and Gomorrah.  And you know what God said?  God said, “I’m gonna judge Sodom and Gomorrah.  The fire is gonna fall on Sodom and Gomorrah.”  And to give you the Wikipedia, Lot and his family got the insider information and God allowed them time to flee Sodom and Gomorrah, because the fire was falling.  And God said,

“Don’t look back when the cities are going up in flames.  Don’t look back.”  So Lot and his family <panting>, but Lot’s wife stopped and this was a look that killed.  She turned back <whoomp!>  Turned into a pillar of salt.  And as I’ve said, and I will say it again, I’ve been in the Dead Sea.  I’ve swum in the Dead Sea, and to this day there are pillars of salt around the Dead Sea.  Some of them even look like humans.  I’m serious.

Wouldn’t that be a great zombie movie?  You’re like floating in the Dead Sea and you feel someone scratching… oh it’s Lot’s wife!!! <bphbpbhbpbhbhb!>  Salt going everywhere.  <shudder>  It scares me.  That’s not in the story, I just made that up.  It’s my imagination.  Yet, Lot’s wife turned into a pillar of salt.  So then from there she dies.  Lot escapes (and this is where it gets R-rated) to a cave with several of his daughters.  The daughters say, “The world is coming to an end!”  They get their daddy drunk.  They both have sex with him, both get pregnant.  One of the sons is named Moab.  Guess who found the land of Moab?  Lot’s incestuous son, Moab.  Isn’t that crazy?  And then you’ve got Lot’s wife, who looked back… boom!  And now you think about Orpah, who looked back… boom!  That’s freaky, isn’t it?  Moab.  Moab.  Bethlehem.  Bethlehem… Moab.  God’s country… or the enemy’s country.

And then I started thinking about these different characters.  I started thinking about Boaz.  Because we’ve got Boazes here at church.  Some single girls are like, “I just would love to meet a Boaz.”  They’re here!  How do you find them?  You start doing what Ruth did.  Be others-centered and you begin to work and serve and you’ll find Boaz.  I’m not saying he’s gonna be a billionaire, I’m not saying that, but I’m saying he’s gonna be rich in ways that money can’t touch.  Boaz.  Boaz.  Boaz.  We got some Boazes here.  Boazes who love God.  Boazes who are standup people.  Even though you might be from Rahab, cool.  You love the Lord, you’re mature, you’re on fire.  We’ve got people like that here at Fellowship Church and at our many campuses.  Thank you for your Boazes.

Now we also have people like Naomi.  You’ve been in Moab.  You’ve kinda back-slidden, fallen away from where you should be walking with God, but you’ve come to your senses.  You’ve gone through a difficult situation and now you’re like, all right.  I am making the move back to the house of bread.  We’ve got a lot of people here like Naomi.  We love you.

Also, too, we’ve got some people here like Ruth.  You’ve grown up, yo’re a Moabitess.  Here and there.  You’re into this, you’ve been into that, but you’ve made a declaration of your faith.  You’ve said, “Jesus I give my life to you.” And now you’ve made this step.  You’re in the Promised Land.  You’re in the house of bread, feeding (John chapter 6, verse 35) on the cosmic carbohydrate, Jesus.  He said, “I am the bread…”

Still others, we’ve got some Orpahs here.  And if you’re an Orpah, man, we love you!  And I don’t care if you stood in the Chick-Fil-A parking lot and gone, “Well, I don’t know…” and you’re tossed this way and that way.  You’re thinking about Moab.  Moab’s pulling at you.  That relationship, that relative, that Baal-worship, that religion.  And maybe you have some people that even are well-meaning but they’re not giving you good advice.  They’re saying, “Go back to Moab!  Stay in Moab!  Stay back there!”  Just like that idiot said to me while I was sharing Christ with my Jewish friend, “Oh no, don’t.  You better think about it.  Stop.  No I wouldn’t do that now.”

I would challenge you to turn, to roll the dice, to take the step, Orpah, into freedom, into emancipation, into salvation.  And this is the foundation, friends, of love.  This is the foundation of it.  So is it gonna be Bethlehem or Moab?  Where are you in God’s love story?  Boaz, Naomi, Ruth, or Orpah?

One last thing, then I’m gonna go.  Moab was the incestuous son of Lot.  What a founding father.  But then I even looked up in the original language what Moab meant, the name Moab, and the name means “who is your father?”  Here’s how I put it:  Who’s your daddy?  So if I’m in Moab, I’m asking, “Who’s your daddy?  Who’s your daddy?  Who’s your daddy?  Who’s your daddy?”  God.  He needs to be your father. And he will adopt you into his family only through the Son.  Our Boaz, kinsman redeemer, Jesus Christ.

[Ed leads in closing prayer.]

WAKE UP!

A ‘Hole Mutha Level

Ed Young

May 11, 2008

Happy Mother’s Day. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you, moms, especially for being here. We honor you and love you. I want to welcome all of our campuses to Mother’s Day. We’re going to have a good time. It has already been awesome. Let’s bow for prayer as we begin to study God’s word.

Father, give us your mind, give us your wisdom and give us your ability, Lord, to wake up and to understand your will for all of us and especially for the moms here. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

When we’re asleep, we don’t realize that we’re asleep. You don’t really understand it nor do I until we wake up. That’s a unique thing about sleep. It is sort of like snoring. Snoring goes together with sleep. Some of you are snorers. You’ve never heard yourself snore. People have told you that, but you’ve never said “Hey, I’m snoring, wow!” It is just like that with asleep. It just doesn’t happen that way. You wake up. Then you realize I was asleep.

I think in a crowd this size a lot of us are sleeping. Now, we’re not asleep physically. There’s always one or two who nod off, but a lot of us are asleep in a much more profound way. Some here are asleep spiritually, parentally, financially, psychologically, or emotionally. We have some people who are asleep in the house. And the funny thing about that sort of sleep is it’s analogous to physical sleep. You’re asleep but you don’t know that you’re asleep. And you won’t know it until you wake up. So it’s been my prayer that we’ll all wake up and discover the greatness that God has for us.

Today I want to tell you a story out of the 1 Samuel chapters 1, 2 and 3. And just stay with me as I talk about some of the key players. I’m going to talk about Hannah, not Montana, Hannah. I woke some people up already. Hannah, she was this woman who took her life to a ‘hole mutha level. And that’s what we’re going to do today ladies. We’re going to take it to, say it with me, a ‘hole mutha level. Her son is Samuel. So we have in this corner Hannah and her son Samuel.

In the other corner we have Eli. Eli was the high priest. Eli had a couple of sons and these two guys make the all name team in Scripture, Hophni and Phinehas. “Basket by Hophni, assist Phinehas.” Sounds like a band. “Have you heard the new band Hophni and Phinehas? They’re awesome!”

So you have Eli, Hophni and Phinehas. Israel, the nation of Israel was in a funk. Basically they were asleep. If you know your history, the biblical body builder Sampson has just clocked out.

He has just died.

Israel found themselves leaderless, helpless and hopeless. They were basically in this state of slumber. God was speaking, yet the Scriptures tell us that a word from the Lord was rare during those days.

God’s always communicating. God is always talking. But many times we’re not listening. We’re asleep. And the devil, he is a great singer. Did you know that? One of the devil’s favorite tactics is to lull us to sleep. And he sings lullabies to us.

“Rock‑a‑bye believer in the tree top, snoozing will cause your influence to stop; ignore the alarm, stay in bed, say no to opportunities and you’ll soon be dead.” He says, “Shhh, don’t wake him up. Shhh, don’t wake her up. I’ve got them right where I want them. They’re in the nursery.”

He had the whole nation asleep. But there was a woman who took it to a ‘hole mutha level. There was a woman who heard the voice of God. There was a woman who was a woman of prayer, a woman of priorities, a woman of power and a woman of purpose. I’m talking about Hannah.

Let’s check out Hannah, because whenever the Bible gives this much ink to a character, we better stop and press the pause button and study them. Now you won’t believe this verse I’m going to read to you. You’re talking about soap opera!

1 Samuel 1:2. “He had two wives…” That’s Elkanah, Hannah’s husband. Not one, no. Elkanah had two wives. Ladies, can you image that? I mean, put yourself in Hannah’s pumps. Put yourself in her, I should say, sandals. Can you image that? That’s a cat fight waiting to happen. Can you image the drama and the trauma and the craziness that our boy Elkanah had to deal with? Hannah’s rival, you have to love this girl, was Peninnah. There was a problem. Let’s keep reading.

“…One was called Hannah, the other Peninnah.” And here’s the problem, “Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.”

Peninnah was a baby-making machine. Peninnah was Fertile Myrtle. All Elkanah had to do was wink at her and she’d get pregnant. Hannah was infertile, barren.

And so many couples are dealing with infertility right now and it’s a silent thing, a painful thing. Well multiply that pain exponentially back in the day. Because back in the day if you were barren, you were cursed, something was wrong with you.

So Hannah was trying to process all of that and then Peninnah just jammed her day after day, week after week, and the Scriptures say, year after year. Because Elkanah would take his whole dysfunctional family, that’s right, whole crazy bunch, to a place called Shiloh to worship.

And they would worship at Shiloh, and they would make sacrifices. And the Bible says that even at Shiloh Peninnah would be just torching the girl, just sharing secrets with others and slandering her and messing her around.

When she felt that, when Hannah processed that, what did she do? Did she come back at her? Did he try to fight her? Here’s what she did. Look at 1 Samuel 1:10, “In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord. ‘O Lord Almighty if you will only look upon your servant’s misery and remember me.”

“If you will.” Now take that and put that in your mind for a second. If you will, Lord, if it’s your will. That’s what prayer is, isn’t it? “God, not my will, but your will be done.” Do you remember in the garden, what did Jesus say? “Father, not my will but your will be done.”

She put it in God’s hands. And here is what’s so exciting. The entire nation was asleep. Hannah, though, was awake to the voice of God. She was awake in prayer. She knew how to talk to God.

Also, this girl knew how to get her praise on. I mean she got her praise on. Read 1 Samuel 2. No one, though, can recite it like Maria. That was Hannah’s prayer of praise.

Also, Hannah understood her priorities. She understood it was about God, and then it was about her family.

So here is what we have. We have Hannah praying. Hannah is at Shiloh. She’s on her knees in the morning asking God for a child. Then she’s saying, “Lord, if it’s your will. Lord, if it’s your will.”

She was awake to the voice of God. Now enter our boy Eli. Eli, Scripture says, is sitting on stool. Eli is the high priest. He is supposed to be God’s anointed and appointed.

He is sitting on a stool and Eli is watching her and Eli thinks that Hannah is drunk. You have to kind of laugh; you’re talking about someone asleep at the wheel! Not only was Eli asleep at the wheel, but his two kids Hophni and Phinehas were wheels off.

So Eli is the high priest, and Hophni and Phinehas were following in their father’s footsteps, they were priests. Eli didn’t know this, let me let you in on a secret the Bible says. He didn’t know this, but Hophni and Phinehas were abusing the sacrificial system. And you know you don’t abuse the sacrifices of the Lord. You don’t play around with the holiness of God. They were doing that.

Number two; they were having sexual relations with the women who worked at the temple. And our boy Eli had no idea about it. Eli was asleep at the wheel. His two kids; wheels off. He could not hear the voice of God. Why? Because he was asleep. He was asleep parentally and he was asleep emotionally and he was asleep as a leader. He was totally asleep.

And talk about poor discernment, he thought that Hannah was drunk. Then Hannah says, “I’m praying. I’m talking to God.” She asked God for a son. She said “O Lord Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then,” check this out, check this vow out, “I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life.” Now that is a powerful, powerful voice.

“Lord, if it’s your will give me a son and if God you give me a son I will give him to you. I will just dedicate him to you.”

Be very, very careful what you promise God in prayer. Be very careful.

Now, let me ask you a question. I want to ask the moms this question. Moms, why do you have children? Don’t answer it out loud. Just marinate on that for a second. Why do you have children?

Okay now let me ask the guys something, guys, guys, husbands, husbands. This will take longer. Why do you have children? No, guys, you have to look past making love. I’m talking about why do you have children? Why are you a father? Why do you have this desire? Why?

It might take the guy’s hours. Ladies, I know you’re tracking. Let me tell you why we don’t have kids. We don’t have kids to fulfill our unfulfilled dreams or fantasies. That’s not why we have babies. We don’t have babies just to dress up or to play catch with. That’s not the reason we bring children into the world.

That is not it. If that’s your reason I’m going to give you a deeper reason, something to contemplate that will help you, ladies, go to a ‘hole mutha level because some probably have kids that way.

“I’m just going to make a baby and I’ll have a little mini me. I’ll just do it. I have this desire to do it and I guess that’s just what I do.”

And the guys are like “Yeah, I can father a child. I really wanted to play in the NBA but never did. Maybe junior can become an NBA player.”

Well if you didn’t play in the NBA, there’s a good chance that junior won’t, either. So there’s something a little bit deeper than that. We have babies to do what? To glorify God. We have babies, the Bible says, to be image bearers of Jesus Christ himself. That’s the reason. We have babies so the babies can grow up and they can follow Jesus Christ and they can become worshippers. Because everything is made to glorify and reflect the glory of God. Everybody worships, but we’re made, we’re wired, we’re hard wired to worship God. That is why we have babies.

We have this desire to reproduce. Where do we get this from? It’s from God. We reproduce physically and then it’s God’s intention for us to teach our children how to reproduce spiritually. So we make babies by God’s grace and the miracle of life. And then they grow up and they become believers and they share the good news with others and they get married and you see the why’s and the what’s and the how’s behind children.

Well, Hannah understood this. She knew that she didn’t have anything. She knew if God did give her a baby it was not hers, it was God’s. And she was to make a vow, a promise. She was saying, “Okay God, I’m giving him to you. I’m making a promise. If it’s your will, Lord, he’s yours.”

If you’re sleepwalking through life you’re not going to make good choices. If you’re going Eli, you’re not going to make wise decisions as you negotiate the maze of your existence. And here is what’s interesting about it. I’ll say it again. When you’re asleep you don’t realize you’re asleep until you’re awake. And it’s my prayer as maybe some here step off the edge and the ledge and hit rock bottom, it will wake you up. Maybe today this message will be like an alarm.

Beep, beep, beep! Ephesians 5:14, the alarm is saying 5:14. Let’s begin to read it, “Wake up,” that’s what the Bible says, “o sleeper, rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Be very careful then how you live not as unwise but as wise,” and I love this next line, “making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish but understand what the Lord’s will is.”

So if I wake up, if I respond to the voice of God, if I’m like Hannah and hear the voice of God, what can I do? I’ll make these wise decisions.

So if you make these stupid, “what was I thinking” decisions, if you look back on your life and think, “Man, I have made some bone headed moves. I have made some ridiculous choices,” then you’re asleep. You’re asleep. And I pray this talk wakes you up. You’ve been listening to Satan’s lullaby.

“Rock‑a‑bye believer in the tree top, snoozing will cause your influence to stop. Ignore the alarm, stay in bed, you’ll never reach your potential you sleepy head.”

Opportunities come into your life and mine at a rapid fire pace. If we’re not awake, we’ll miss them. And here we have Hannah with this opportunity to have a child and to have a baby and for this baby to grow into one of the great leaders in the history of Israel. She had this opportunity. She was not asleep; she was up and was saying, “God, I hear your voice.”

And guess what? God gave her a child. God gave her a baby. I’ve already told you his name, Samuel. That word means “God hears my prayer.” Samuel. What a man! He was unbelievable.

So track with me now. Eli missed opportunity after opportunity. He missed it in his work, he missed it with his kids, he just missed it. He had poor discernment, evidenced by thinking, for example, that Hannah was drunk instead of praying. He had poor discernment. He didn’t know what his kids were doing. He could not make a decision, and when he made one it was unwise. He hadn’t heard the voice of God in a long, long, long time. And also he was a man who had zero discipline.

Hey parents, single parents, today’s single moms, our kids are screaming out for discipline. They want guidelines and boundaries. Football is a beautiful game when it’s played within the boundaries. But if it’s chaos, if people are running up in the stands and knocking over people at the concession stand and grabbing popcorn and bringing it on the field and bringing a soccer ball while they’re trying to watch a football game on the field and just going nuts, it’s an ugly game. The parental game is a beautiful game when it’s done within the parameters, within discipline.

You show me a kid, you show me a little child who is rebellious, who has these authority issues, who is always testing the boundaries and limits, and I will show you a home where discipline is not happening. I will show you an Eli-driven home.

But here is what God’s doing. And this is scary; it’s really a frightening thing. When someone does not step up and take advantage of the opportunities that God has given, God always brings in a replacement. That’s what he’s doing.

Eli had the opportunity. Eli had the chance. Eli could have walked through that open door, that window. He didn’t. He was asleep. Hannah heard the voice of God, she had Samuel, she brought him up and Samuel was able to do and be the kind of guy that God wanted him to be. And here is what’s crazy about Samuel. As Samuel grew up and he became this huge difference maker in the nation of Israel, Samuel had the opportunity to anoint David as king. Because remember Saul? Saul was the king of Israel. But psycho Saul blew it. He had all these opportunities, all this potential, with the beautiful long hair and stood six feet six inches tall, and he was articulate. He had all the stuff that great leaders were made of, but Saul was asleep. So Samuel, who was the replacement for Eli, ended up anointing David who was the replacement for Saul. It is just crazy.

And again the scary part about it is, if you’re not stepping up and stepping out into opportunities; if you’re not taking advantage of the different situations that God presents to you, God right now has a replacement for you. And if you’re sleeping or if I’m sleeping, we don’t even know it. So it’s time to wake up. It’s 5:14. Wake up o sleeper, wake up, wake up.

Well, Samuel’s born. Isn’t that great? Hannah gets her praise on. Hannah begins to bring him up in the ways of the Lord. Hannah begins to show him how to hear the voice of God. She shows him the priority of worship. Everything is going great. And I love 1 Samuel 1:28, “So now I give him to the Lord.”

This girl, Hannah, she has made good on her vow. “For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord. And he will worship the Lord there.”

Now the Bible says that when Samuel was weaned he was probably, I don’t know three to five years of age. When he was weaned he began to work in the house of the Lord. Now check this out. Hannah brought Samuel to Shiloh and gave him to the church, to the temple. Wow, man, three years of age, four years of age, five years of age, giving a kid up like that?

Now just recently behavioral experts are telling us that 90 percent of a child’s personality is formed by the time they’re three. Some of you are going to read this and say “I have it, I’m just going to give my kids to Fellowship Church!”

No, we don’t want your children. Don’t give your children to the church, but give your church to your children. Give your church to your children. And parents, we cannot give them something that we don’t have.

Over the last ten weeks, and I shared this last time, we have had over 8,500 children attend Fellowship Church. I mean, children, little ones. And we have all the vitals on them. Only 161 of those children have attended every Sunday. Only 161 out of 8,500 have come to church every Sunday. And only 30 percent have shown up every other week. So 70 percent are coming once a month or once every six weeks.

Beep, beep, beep, beep, wake up! It’s 5:14 a.m. Wake up! It’s time that we make a personal relationship with Jesus a priority. It’s time that we make prayer, moms, a priority. It’s time that we get our praise on. It’s time that we see God’s purpose and his opportunity and jump on the train, because the train ain’t always going to be available. So it’s time to do the stuff. The time is short. We have a whole generation, this next generation that needs the Lord. And it’s happening at younger and younger ages.

Notice Samuel, was around four or five and he is ministering before the Lord. And then check this out, don’t miss this verse. This verse is awesome. 1 Samuel 2:11, I love this and it’s so easy to skip right over. I have skipped over it for many, many years until several days ago. It says, “The boy ministered,” isn’t that crazy? He’s a little kid.

“The boy ministered before the Lord under Eli the priest.” He was under authority, under structure. He learned this from whom? His momma who took it to a ‘hole mutha level. He learned authority.

One of the things that our culture struggles with so much these days is honor and authority. Have you noticed that? We have authority issues. God loves us so much. Again, God has a wonderful will for all of our lives, amazing stuff for all of us. And I really believe if God right now could just show you his will for every person’s life we would fall flat on our face in disbelief. That’s how amazing God’s will is for our lives.

And one of the things that God always uses when we’re walking in his will is this little concept known as authority. I call it authority issues, because whenever I have an authority issue, do you know who I really have an issue with? God. If I have an authority issue in marriage; if I have an authority issue at the doctor’s office; if I have an authority issue with a police officer; if I have an authority issue with some manager or some president of some corporation; if I have an authority issue with maybe another pastor; if I have any kind of authority issues, ultimately I have an issue with God.

There are some women here, some moms here and you have some major authority issues with your husband. Now Scripture says, ladies hear me, that everyone is equal in the sight of God. We’re equal in form; we’re unique in function. God has given the authority to the husband in marriage. And that’s why the Bible says “Husbands, love your wives. How? As Jesus loved the church. How did Jesus love the church? Selflessly and sacrificially. He laid his life down for the church. That is our example, guys. So that is heavy. Okay.

Then it says, “Wives, submit…” That’s right, submit.

“What? Submit? No way, not me.”

Yes, you. Submit to your husband as you would the Lord.

So if you first have the husband loving the wife like Christ loved the church the wife will have no problem submitting to him. Now let me describe and explain submission in just a few seconds. There are many things that I submit to in my marriage. I submit to Lisa’s leadership in many areas. Where she is strong, usually I’m weak. There are also many areas that Lisa submits to me to in marriage. And I’m strong where she is weak. So we compliment one another. However, the spiritual leadership, the direction, the focus, the path is set forth by me, the husband.

And men, women are dying to be led. So we have to get under the authority of God. God always works through authority. He does it in marriage, and he does it in the family. So student, junior high student, high school student, listen up. Listen to me now. First of all, your parents know more than you do. I hope you understand that. And your mom, she is taking it to a ‘hole mutha level.

There is no job as difficult as being a mother. I hope you know that. There is no job like it. I could not do it. Whenever I tried to be a mommy for the day, I mean I need to go to the ha‑ha house after about four or five hours. But students listen to me, submit to their authority. God has placed them there in your life to form you, to motivate you, and to make you into something beautiful. They are a part of the will of God.

But I know what you’re thinking, “You don’t know my parents. I just don’t respect them.” Don’t we love to say that in our culture today? “Man, don’t disrespect me. I want respect. You know, yes Ed, I will submit to someone but I have to respect them first.”

No, if you wait to respect someone you will never submit to people. Half the people I submit to I don’t respect. So we have to respect the position, not person. “You’re my mom. I don’t respect you. You’re my dad. I don’t respect you.”

Well, submit to them. Now, if they’re telling you to do something whacky or immoral or non biblical, that’s a whole other issue. But submit to them. I’m telling you, they know more than you know and they will mold you and shape you into greatness.

And that’s what Samuel understood as a little guy. And because of that, he was able to submit under Eli. Do you think he respected Eli? The older he got when he saw how nutty and how crazy and what a sleeper Eli was. Do you think he was thinking, “Man, I really respect, Eli, your relationship with the Lord. I really respect how you pray. I really respect how you have ministered to your kids, Hophni and Phinehas.”

Do you think that happened? No. Why was Samuel great? Authority. So to go up we have to get under. So whatever you do in life, you find the authority structure and you fit under it and God will take you to a level you’ve never dreamed possible.

Now it gets real fun. Samuel is asleep in the temple. Eli is asleep in the temple. Have you ever seen that movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark” before? There’s a new one coming out. Do you remember that? That’s classic. We’re going to do a series on movies coming up in July. It is called “At the Movies.” You do not want to miss this thing. It’s going to be off the chain. Anyway. In the temple you have a place called the Holy of Holies. In the Holy of Holies you have the Ark of the Covenant. Inside the ark you have the Ten Commandments. I have to tell you a quick story. I know I’m going over time but I have to tell you this.

When I was 20 I took my first fishing trip into the jungle. And the reason I took it is because a friend of mine gave it to me. We flew down to this little place in the jungles of Belize. Again, I’m talking about the serious, real deal with monkeys and snakes and quick sand and everything.

We fly in; in this little puddle jumper and land on this old run way with pigs and dogs. We jump in the back of this old broken down pick-up truck and they were going to drive us to the lodge.

So here we are in mosquitoes and dodging potholes and our luggage is bouncing. So I’m trying to make conversation with the guy driving and everything is open air.

I say, “Hey, is the fishing camp pretty full?”

“Yes, man, it’s full. There’s a movie being filmed here.”

I looked at my friend and said, “Did he say movie in the jungle? No way!”

We finally get to this little fishing camp in the middle of nowhere and I jump out of the truck and who was sitting there with a cup of coffee? Harrison Ford. I’m like “Dude, its Harrison Ford. That’s Indiana Jones, Jack. This is sweet!”

And you know you try to act nice when you see someone famous. Then he was at his peak. Now he’s kind of old and weird. He was at his peak. I’m thinking, “Lisa isn’t going to believe this, Harrison Ford.” I even got my picture taken with him. Normally I wouldn’t do it. But every night we ate with him, had this buffet with him and he talked with me. He is a little strange, but I really enjoyed it.

Why did I tell you that? “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” that’s why, Indiana Jones. So anyway.

Eli and Samuel were asleep right outside of the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant is, inside the Ark of the Covenant is the Ten Commandments. All of the sudden Samuel hears this, “Samuel, Samuel.”

He runs into Eli’s room, “Eli were you calling me?”

Eli is clueless. “No, go back to bed.”

This happens three times. Finally Eli figures out, “Maybe this could be the voice of God calling Samuel.”

Here is what I find so interesting. If Eli was this great man of God, this great priest and he even thought that God might be speaking audibly, I mean if I’m Eli I’m thinking, “Okay, let’s wait right here together. We can both talk to him.” But here is what Eli said. “Go back to your room Sam, and if you hear the voice again, just say ‘Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.’”

Sure enough, “Samuel, Samuel!” That was back in the day when God talked audibly.

Samuel said, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening. And then God downloaded all of this information into Samuel’s life about what he was going to do to Eli and Hophni and Phinehas and how they were going to face the judgment of God.

We like to talk about the love of God so much, the grace of God. But the Bible also talks about how the wages of sin is death. The Bible talks about the judgment of God. The Bible talks about the fact that there is going to be a payday someday. And that day happened with Eli and Hophni and Phinehas. So they ended up getting wiped out because of the abuse of the sacrificial system, because of immorality and because they were asleep.

It’s time to wake up. It’s time to be like Hannah. It’s time to be a man or a woman of prayer, of praise, of priorities and power. Because who knows, ladies; who knows, moms, you might have a Samuel in your lap. Let’s pray together.

[Ed ends in closing prayer.]