Hope Church LV Sermons
The Life of a Jesus Follower :: Abide
During the 1970s, in America, tensions were at an all-time high. We were in the middle of what has historically now been referred to as the Cold War. The threat of nuclear war with the nation of Russia was imminent. And both countries were sitting on ready, and America lived with the tension of knowing that the red button could be pushed and nuclear war could begin in response to that threat. The United States of America invested literally billions of dollars into technology to develop a global positioning system to enable us to better navigate our submarines. Because in the middle of the threat of nuclear war, the United States needed to be able to get an accurate fix of their submarine positions in order to launch a ballistic missile strike should that opportunity ever present itself. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan issued an order that that global positioning system that had been designed by the United States military to prepare us for the threat of nuclear war, he mandated that that global positioning system now be made available for civilian use. And because of that decision today when you leave, you can grab your cell phone and type in the closest chilies or cheesecake factory or Texas day Brazil and your telephone will walk you step by step exactly through how to get there. I don't know about you, but I think it's the best billion dollar expense the United States government has ever made. We now know it as simply GPS. That's where it came from. This week, Pastor Travis and myself were traveling down to Orlando, Florida at a meeting, a board meeting for a church planning organization that our church works with that enables us to be able to currently be involved in planting churches all over America, six of them, particularly in the western United States that God's given us a passion for. And at that board meeting, we arrived there in Orlando and like you do and you fly into a city where you don't live, you rent a car and you get in that rental car and you don't really know where you're going and the rental car we got one ahead, one of those never lost systems in it, the GPS. So we used that to kind of navigate and get around and we'd go into a restaurant on Thursday night and then on Friday, we liked it so much, we decided, well, let's just go back to that same place. So Friday, we decided we're going to go back to the same place and being two men who did need directions, having already been there once, we decided we'll just fly solo on this one. We can get there. And after ten minutes or so of driving in a direction on the road that the restaurant was on, we began to say things like, you know, I don't remember seeing that when we went to the restaurant the time before. And we continued on and we didn't remember seeing these shopping malls and these stores and these, and so we thought, you know, let's turn sweet little Susie on here in the car and find out exactly where we are. So we turned on that global positioning system that now was in the car and the first thing that she said to us was, as soon as possible, make a legal U-turn. Here's what Susie was trying to tell us as kind as she could. You're going the wrong way, idiot. And if you don't turn around, you are never going to get to the destination that you have typed into this GPS system. And here's what we learned from the GPS. If you start out going the wrong direction, you will not end up where you want to be. Last weekend we kicked off a new series, a series that we've simply entitled "The Life of a Jesus Follower." And we begin to ask the question, what does it look like to follow Jesus? Because like driving directions, Christianity, if you start out in the wrong direction or if you're aiming at the wrong target, you are never going to arrive at the destination that you desire to get to. And I'm afraid that all across America, probably all around the world, but I know us better. I know that all across America, there are people that are filling churches this weekend who are going in the wrong direction. They've started out down the wrong path. They've embraced a philosophy of religion and works and morality and self-effort and trying harder. And they believe if they just continue to try harder and do more and get better and improve that hopefully, ultimately, someday they'll get where they want to get to spiritually in their relationship with God. Last weekend we gave you a statement, it was kind of a foundation for the whole series, and here's what we said. The life of a Jesus Follower is all about relationships. When you came in today, you were given one of these a listening guide. This is just a tool to help you follow along as we walk through this series, to write down some notes, to fill in some blanks, and then to take this with you to a small group and use it to facilitate discussion and dig deeper into these principles. But that's the foundation, the life of a Jesus Follower. I want you to look up here and read this off the screen with me this morning. You ready? One, two, three. The life of a Jesus Follower is all about relationships. You say, "What do you mean by that?" Well, last weekend we began to unpack the biblical reality that following Jesus is first and foremost about a relationship with God. And I gave you a keyword, it was the word abide, abide. First and foremost, our relation, our following Jesus is about a love relationship with God. And if you miss that, you miss everything else. Everything in Christianity is built on the reality that God didn't invite us into religion and He didn't invite us into a system of do's and don'ts, rights and wrongs. He's invited us into a love relationship with Himself. And the keyword for that is abide. I am to daily, moment by moment, abide in my love relationship with Him. This weekend and next weekend we're going to talk about this relationship. The second relationship was a relationship with one another. And the keyword that I gave you is the word connect, the word connect. Because we have a relationship with God, we now have a relationship with each other. We are to connect with the body of Christ. We're to connect with our brothers and sisters in Christ. And we're going to spend two weeks unpacking what it looks like to live out our relationship with God in fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. And there's a third relationship and the keyword is the word share and it describes your relationship with the world. You see because of my relationship with Jesus, He's also transformed my relationship with the world, people that don't know God. You see now my life is on mission with Him. And I am to live sharing in the mission of God locally and globally to introduce the person of Jesus Christ and a relationship with God to people that do not know Him at all. Following Jesus is those three relationships first and foremost, a love relationship with God and everything then is built on that. So this weekend we're going to dig a little bit deeper into making sure that we're starting out in the right direction. And to do that I want you to take your Bible and turn to Mark chapter 3. And Mark chapter 3 verses 13 and 14, there are two little verses that describe for us when Jesus called His very first disciples. So there's really no greater place for us to answer the question, are we heading in the right direction, than to go back to the very beginning. When Jesus invited those first people to follow Him, the first Jesus followers, we're about to read the story of how they begin to follow Jesus. Mark chapter 3 verse 13, if you don't have a Bible, these verses are on the bottom of your listening guide and if you'll notice, we've also designated them as this week's memory verse. And I know you're panicking, right? Because last week we only gave you one verse, not it's two. What are we going to do by the end? The chapter, no, don't worry. We're just raising the bar a little bit, but these verses also going to be on the screen. Mark chapter 3 verse 13, it says, "And He went up on the mountain and summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him. And He appointed twelve so that they would be with Him, and that He could send them out to preach." Three realities that I want you to see out of these verses this morning, and here's the first one, being a Jesus follower begins with an invitation. Being a Jesus follower begins with an invitation. Now there are a few things that I want you to see out of these verses about this invitation. But what we see here that Jesus, first of all, invited them to follow Him. When I'm preparing a message and I'm studying to preach and teach to you, and any one of our pastors is getting ready to teach and preach God's Word here, we always devote many hours during the week to study and to prepare, and one of the things we do in study is we take the New Testament or the Old Testament, whichever it is, and we do the best we can to do some Word studies, particularly in the New Testament, the Greek language is loaded with significant words. For example, in the Greek language, they may use a verb. That verb by itself would require a whole English sentence just to translate the meaning or the significance of that verb. Well the word that Jesus, or that the Bible translates here, summoned, He summoned those whom He Himself wanted is one of those loaded Greek words. It's loaded in its meaning and it's loaded also in how it is used. The word summoned is a word that at its core means to call or to invite, but because of the way that this word is compounded together with another word, it literally means to call or to invite to one's self. And the voice that this is used in is the middle voice which is emphatically saying that Jesus is inviting these twelve men to Himself personally. Here's what I want you to hear me say. Jesus was not inviting them to a system. Jesus was not inviting them to a set of rules and regulations. Jesus was not even inviting them to a new religion that they could participate in to earn a right standing before God. Jesus was not even inviting them to go to heaven when they die. He was inviting them to Himself. He was inviting them to a love relationship, a personal, intimate relationship with Himself. Don't misunderstand me, going to heaven when we die is not a bad part of the package. Amen? That's good news. But let me tell you why heaven's so sweet. It's just taking the relationship to another level. You see now we have that relationship by faith. Let me tell you, Friday morning at 1130, Art Perea no longer had that relationship by faith. Art has that relationship now by sight. That relationship has been taken to a whole new level. That's what makes heaven so sweet. It's elevating the relationship. Jesus has invited us to know Him. Let me give you a second thing about the invitation. Jesus invited them to follow Him because He loved them. That's important. Let me tell you what would help a lot of us today. If you just grasp the reality that Jesus didn't invite you into relationship with Himself because of what you can do for Him. If you'll get that, I'm going to tell you what you'll leave here with a lot of pressure gone. He invited you to know Him because He loves you. You say, "Where's that in the text?" Listen to what it says. Run up on a mountain and He summoned, called to Himself, those whom He Himself wanted. The word wanted is a word that in other places in the New Testament, I'm going to show you one in just a minute, is translated desire. The Bible says Jesus invited them to a relationship with Himself and get this because He desired a relationship with them. I don't know who in your mind is a person of influence or significance that you really look up to or respect, I don't know if it's a sports hero or a world leader or who it may be, but can you imagine what would be your response if this afternoon when you got home the telephone rang and you picked up the telephone and on the other end of the phone was this person that you admire and you look up to and you respect and you would love nothing more than to just have a conversation with them and they're on the other end of the line and they're saying, "Hey, I've noticed you and let me tell you what I'd love them to invite you into a relationship with me because I'd really love to get to know you." Here were these twelve Hebrew men, they'd grown up being taught about a Messiah, a Messiah who had come as God in the flesh, a Messiah who would be God who created the world, God who spoke everything into existence and one day this Messiah would come and now they've begun to hear about this Jesus, they've begun to follow and listen to His teaching and now this Jesus approaches them, the one that they recognize is literally God in the flesh, the Messiah that they've been taught about their whole life and Jesus says, "Hey, I'd really love for you to know me and I'd really love to know you and I'd love for us to have this relationship because I've set my heart on you." You say, "That's great for them or about me." Let me show it to you. Just Timothy, chapter two, look what it says on the screen, "This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior who," what's the word I have underlined, "desires," same Greek word that in Mark chapter three is translated, wanted, "God desires," what are the next two words, all men, it means every person, every human being, let me make it more specific, it means you and it means me. This is good, Paul says, "Man, I'm going to tell you something good," this is good, this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior who wants, who desires every one of us to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, get this, God wants a relationship with you, God, the God, whoever was on your list for the phone call pales in comparison to God, God is calling you today and God is inviting you today into a personal one-on-one love relationship with him because he loves you. Now the problem is our sin, let me show it to you in Isaiah chapter 59 and verse two, the Bible says, "But your iniquities," the word iniquity is one of four Hebrew words that's translated sin or iniquity or transgression. This particular Hebrew word is a word that means deliberate or conscious wrongdoing. The word says that my sin, my iniquity has made a separation between the Bible says you and your God and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. Because of my sin, I'm separated from a relationship with God. The very reason that I was created was to know him and to live my life in fellowship with him, but because I've deliberately and willfully and consciously sinned against the Holy God, I'm separated from that relationship with God and there's nothing I can do to bridge that gap. There's no work I can perform, there's no church activity I can participate in, there's no ceremony that I can go through, my sin has separated me from God. We had a problem, but God provided a solution. First Timothy, we read it just a moment ago. The next two verses in chapter two say this, "For there is one God and one," what's the next word? Mediator. You know what a mediator is, right? A mediator is somebody who comes in between two parties that are separated and a mediator reconciles those that are separated. There's one God and there's one mediator, only one, one mediator between God and man who, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all the testimony given at the proper time. Here's what the word says, I was born, I was created for a relationship with God. God said his heart on me, God loves me, God desires intimate fellowship with me, but because of my sin, I was separated from God and there was nothing I could do to change that, but God did for me what I could not do left of myself and in the person of Jesus Christ, God provided a mediator who took all of my sin on himself and he died for my sin and he rose again from the dead, defeating death, hell and the grave. And now by grace, when I put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ, he reconciles me with God and gives me that which I could never earn an intimate love relationship with the God of heaven. God's invited us into a relationship. He's invited us to follow him because he loves us. Here's the third aspect of the invitation, it had to be accepted. Go back to Mark chapter three. He went up on a mountain and he summoned those, he invited whom he himself wanted, he'd set his heart on and listen to what it says next, they came to him. The implication of Mark three thirteen is Jesus extended the invitation and then Jesus began to move on. They had to respond and surrender and trust and embrace this gospel that Jesus had proclaimed to them. The word came there is an interesting word, it's a word that means to set off on a journey. I love that. You see being a follower of Jesus is not just an event that happens in your life and then you hold your breath until you go to heaven. When you begin to follow Jesus you set off on a journey for the rest of your life, of living your life out of the overflow of intimate fellowship with the God who loves you and who's invited you to himself. And this is where I want to stop for a minute before we continue because I believe many have started in the wrong direction. There's some of you today who you're here and if I were to ask you do you know God are you sure that if you were to die today you'll spend eternity with him, your response would be well I hope so or well that's why I'm in church. I'm trying to turn over a new leaf pastor, well I'm working on it. Jesus didn't invite you into a system or an attempt or a set of rules and regulations. He invited you to himself and let me show you why this is so serious. In Matthew chapter 7 verses 22 and 23, why don't you listen what the Bible says, Jesus says, many, that's a very important word, many means a lot, many means most, many. He will say to me on that day, Lord, did we not do all the right things? Lord didn't we prophesy, didn't we cast out demons, didn't we perform miracles? I mean are there any more spiritual activities that would go up the Natalyas and that's a pretty strong list, Lord didn't we do all the, Lord didn't I go to church every week, Lord didn't I read my Bible every day, Lord didn't I give 10% of my income gross, not in that, Lord didn't I go on mission trips, God. Listen what Jesus says, Jesus says to them, then I will declare, depart from me. I never knew you. It's interesting the word no here is the same word in John 17, this is eternal life that they may know you, implies personal fellowship, intimate relationship. Jesus says, I don't have a relationship with you. So I'm going to ask you to just bow your head for just a minute. Don't pack your stuff up. It's not done, all right. I got some more to say, but we're just going to take a time out. Do you have religion or do you have a relationship? Listen I can't answer that question for you, your small group leader can answer that question for you, this between you and God. But if you started out in the wrong direction, listen, no matter how religious you become, no matter how committed you become, no matter how hard you try, if you started out in the wrong direction, listen to me, you've missed it. It's time to hear the voice of the Spirit of God say, as soon as possible, make a U-turn. The pant from your religiosity, and turn to Jesus. All right, let me give you a second statement. Not only is being a Jesus follower begin with an invitation, being a Jesus follower is all about intimacy, it's all about intimacy. I want you to go back to Mark chapter 3 verses 13 and 14, you can look at it on your listening guide, you can look at it on the screen, and so far we've unpacked verse 13. If you look at it, we've just gone phrase by phrase, listen, he went up on the mountain and he summoned, he invited, those whom he himself wanted, he invited to himself, those whom he'd set his heart on, and they came to him. They responded, they embraced his offer, his invitation. Now verse 14, and he appointed 12. What are the next two words, say them out loud. So that, say that with me. So that. Let me tell you what that means. Here's why. In the Greek, it means for this purpose, here's the reason, here's why. He invited them to himself to a love relationship because he loved them. He set his heart on them, and they responded to that invitation. And here's why he invited them so that they could live for him. Is that what it says, so that they could obey him? Is that what it says? So that they could, what's it say, be with him, wow. I want that to sink in. You ask the average Christian, what's the goal of the Christian life? So obey God, sounds good, sounds spiritual, sounds jerky. So if that's the goal, what do I do? I try as hard as I can, to obey God. You ever set out on that pursuit? How'd you do? Yeah, me too. What's the goal to live for God? That sounds even more spiritual because it's more ambiguous, right? Lees a little more room for interpretation. Let me give you the purpose to be with him. The purpose of following Jesus is to be with him. When you understand that, there is incredible freedom. You see, following Jesus is not about doing. Following Jesus is about being. Let me say it another way. The goal is the relationship. I want to make you say that out loud. The goal is the relationship. Look at the person sitting next to you and say, the goal is the relationship. Now, do you believe what you just said? I'm asking you. Do you believe what you just said? Listen to me. We in American Christianity, we think you embrace the relationship. You get saved and then you do the best you can to try to obey God until you get to heaven and get your rewards. We think the relationship is the starting line that you step across and then you enter the race to live it out as best you can. That is not the truth. The goal is the relationship. Everything he's invited us into is the relationship. Remember John 17, 3 last week, Jesus said, this is it? This is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God. And Jesus Christ, whom you have sent, I want to give you the simplest summary of the Christian life maybe that you've ever heard. There are only two goals. The first one is what I call the overall goal. It's the big umbrella. Everything else falls under this one. Here it is. You ready for it? The overall goal is to know God. That's the big one. No implying personal fellowship, intimate relationship. Now you ready for the second one? The second one is the daily goal. Here's the daily one, to spend time with God. That's it. If you got more added to it, you drifted from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Jesus. Big pictures to know him. So here's today's goal. Let me tell you what your objective is today. Spend time with him. You know what's interesting? What is the most difficult thing for us to do or to practice with consistency in our daily life? Spend time with God, right? I mean as a Christian, the most difficult practice for us to consistently participate in is carving out time to be alone with God. Why is that? Let me tell you why. The enemy knows the deal. He doesn't care what you do as long as you don't be. He doesn't care if you're doing is sex, drugs and rock and roll or church and serving and attending events or conferences. He doesn't care as long as it's not being intimate with God. You see, I believe religion is the enemy's great substitute for relationship. It's all about intimacy. So let me give you the third statement we're finished this morning. Being a Jesus follower overflows in every area of my life. I want you to see it again. Give me Mark 3, 13 and 14, back up here on the screen. Mark 3, 13 and 14. We've just walked through it and phrased by phrase. He went up on a mountain and he summoned. He invited to himself. Those who he himself wanted, who he'd set his heart on, and they came to him. They responded and he appointed them so that, here's why, they would, what? Be with him. Now, look at the next phrase, and that he could send them out to preach and I know what you're thinking, aha, I knew we'd get to it, pastor. Here comes the stuff we got to do. No, you missed it. Let me show it to you. Look up there and he appointed 12 so that, what's the next word, they, notice the they and the he, they would, what, be and he could send them out. You see the they and the he, they were to be, he would send them out to preach. The word preach, when you hear it, you think about what I'm doing up here with the Bible and waving my arms around that, that's preaching, right? Well the word preach here is literally a word that simply means to make public or to announce. Let me tell you what this verse says. He invited them to be with him and out of the overflow of being with him, he would send them out and literally make his life public through them out of the overflow of intimate fellowship with God. You see the freedom in that? It's not me doing something for him. It's Christ doing something in and through me out of the overflow of an intimate love relationship with God. That is radically different than what we teach in many of our churches in America. It's so busy getting people to make commitments to do stuff. Listen, today we're not asking you to commit to live until we're asking you to do, to die, to die that Christ may live in you. And that happens moment by moment as I live out of the overflow of an intimate love relationship with God in Jesus Christ. Here's the summary statement, "Everything Jesus desires to do through you, he will accomplish as the overflow of his relationship with you." I hope, I hope, I hope the Lord is giving you ears to hear today because if so, I'm telling you, you get this, there's freedom, man, there's freedom. God saved me as a freshman in college, sophomore in college, I surrendered to ministry. For the next decade of my life, I served as a youth pastor, began to pastor a church in a small town of about 4,000 people. The church grew to almost running a fourth of the town in our church. We were doing all the right things, and God brought me to a point of brokenness as a pastor. God brought in that brokenness, he brought a man into my life named Clyde Cranford that began to disciple me, and he taught me those two simple goals. Time will tell you up to that point in my life, I had so complicated what it meant to follow Jesus. And man, in that moment of transformation that took place over a period of months in my life, God showed me that the primary call on my life wasn't ministry, it was intimacy. And ministry is what he desires to do out of the overflow of intimacy. Here's what that means for you. God's primary call on your life isn't obedience or activity or spiritual involvement. God's primary call to you is to a love relationship with him and ministry and service and obedience is what happens out of the overflow of an intimate fellowship relationship with him. If you think obedience is the goal, let me tell you what you focus on, you focus on obedience. And obedience is a cheap substitute for what he's really invited you into, and that's himself. When you focus on him, guess who obedience, who takes care of that, he does. That's where real freedom and victory and joy is found in him. God began to change my life as a pastor. It's almost like the skis, almost like I got born again again. I knew I'd been saved, I've been born again to relationship with God, but I'd added so much to the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ that I'd so complicated and God began to open my eyes and I began to see the freedom of just abiding in Christ and living out of the overflow of a love relationship with God and that was the only, the only thing that God had called me to. I was reading one morning in Luke chapter four, just spending time with God my personal quiet time and I read this verse where Jesus said I must preach the kingdom to the other cities also for I was sent for this purpose and God began to rock my world and it was that very verse that God used to call us to Las Vegas be involved in planting a church. Can I be honest with you? You Las Vegas, you were not on my GPS radar. And let me say it this way, God didn't need Vance Pittman to do this. You see God was doing this with or without me. This is his work. He didn't need me. He just loved me enough to invite me to be a part of it. I didn't set out on a plan to go plan a church in an unreached area. I wasn't smart enough or spiritual enough for that. I didn't have enough boldness for that but out of the overflow of a love relationship with God, God just invited me into it and here we are. You see everything he desires to do through you, he does out of the overflow of his relationship with you. Now let me tell you what I've asked myself many times, Lord. What have I hadn't been with in that morning? Now don't misunderstand me. He didn't need me. He was doing this with or without me and my family and the team that moved out here. Here's why I've asked the question, Lord, what would I have met? Let me tell you something, he's got a plan for you and it's better than your plan. Let me tell you how you stay there, be with him. the end.