MCC Podcasts
Rediscovering Adventure - Midway
The joy for our church to get to come to the communion table together about once a month, sometimes we push it off a week or back or whatever, but we get to come to the table and celebrate with all of God's people all across the world the sacrament of Holy Communion. We come to the table to experience and remember what Jesus did on the cross for us. And so I want to follow in our kind of theme of adventure that we've been talking about and bring a little bit of an adventure message from the book of Exodus which is also where we've been studying this idea of adventure and bring it to this kind of table talk where you know, you know, a table talk is table talks where you get down and we kind of sit around the table and you get real. Talk about what real life is about which is part of what that stuff was up there when I was bringing that. By the way, did some of you think to yourselves, man, church has always talked about money. We never talk about money around here. You know why? We don't ever have to really, but it's part of our stewardship, it's part of our walk with God. So by the way, if you think, dang, I came to church or I brought my friend to church and they talked about money, trust me. That's not all that we're about. It's part of the journey of following and the adventure of following Jesus and we're on this one plan. So can you hear that grace and hopefully you'll come and kind of get a sense that we're not money-hungering, right? Give me an amen if you're in our church and you know that. Yeah. Okay. You know, that's always my, you know, part of my heart is that there may be some of you that are here for the first time going, "Really? That's just like on TV. It's all about money." This adventure, we're talking about rediscovering adventure because adventure is a core value of ours. And adventure is a core value because adventure is about, we say adventure, the definition of adventure is that it's being out of control because that's following Jesus. Adventure is being out of control and we talk about it this way because there's this adventure that we get to be on where we follow Jesus and we exchange our plan for our lives with His plan for our lives and we get on board and it takes us wherever Jesus takes us. And the reality of actually walking with the living God is out of control, scary, adventurous, radical, life at its fullest. And we value that around here. So we've been talking about rediscovering adventure, this adventure of saying, all right, Jesus, my life's yours. I'll give it all to you and I'm going to live for you and I'm going to follow you. Let's go. Bring it. Let's go. We've been talking about and we've been seeing some passages in the book of Exodus and studying that. If you haven't read the book of Exodus lately, you need to do that and we're only in five chapters into four chapters into it, but you can get caught up and I won't take too much time. I'm not going to take any time to get caught up to the other passages that we've done so far, but here we are in the story and many of you know enough about the story to recognize this part that we've gotten to. And here's the part that we're at that Moses now has been met by God at the burning bush after he lived 40 years away from the people in Egypt, the Israelites had been enslaved in Egypt and Moses killed a dude, super bummer, and had to go out 40 years and live away because they were seeking his life. And the Lord showed up and said, now's the time, well, I didn't mean to say that. That's the name of the capital campaign. Now's the time, Moses. Go build a building extension. Now's the time God said to Moses, showed up and said, go back to Egypt. I am going to rescue your people. So let's go. And so Moses goes, whoa, really? I don't know because whenever we hear adventures, whenever we hear the Lord call us to step out and follow him somewhere and we don't know how the end is going to be. We always get a little scared. And so Moses is scared and Moses offers excuses and these are some of the sermons you've heard in the last few weeks. But Moses ultimately gets on his donkey and goes back to Egypt with his wife and kids and he finds his brother and he shows up now, all right, ready to be obedient. He shows up in chapter 5 to Pharaoh and he says, I've heard from the Lord and the Lord said, you've got to let my people go. This is the plan. God called me to this journey at all these crazy, you know, worries and fears. But God said he'd be with me and God said he's going to rescue my people. Here we go. I'm going to do it. God. Hey, Pharaoh, I'm in the plan of God. He says, let my people go and Pharaoh goes. What? No. So the journey starts out, oh, man, this is not going the way that I thought it was going to go. And then it goes from bad to worse and the wheels come off and Pharaoh gets mad and goes, listen, you come asking about that, you must have extra time on your hands. So now I'm going to make you work harder and he takes away their straw with the bricks they're trying to make, says you've got to make the same number of bricks, but you're not going to have straws. Now you've got to go out and find straw at the same time, you're trying to make the bricks and he goes and stop being so lazy and stop talking about worshiping your God and he becomes harsher on them. And then starts beating them even more for not making their quota bad to worse than the foreman, the Israelite foreman, go to Pharaoh and goes, what are you doing? You're being awful to us. And he goes, that's because you're Moses people trying to come in here and tell them you got to go worship. No, you're lazy, drops the hammer on them. Those guys go and find Moses and Aaron and go, well, you're killing us here. What are you doing, man? It's just been awful for us. And this is the story of starting out on the adventure with God. God calls you to this grand adventure and you go, hey, hey, set my people free. And then it just goes haywire and it's awful. And Moses in this text now goes, what happened? And the message that God ultimately is going to give is, things aren't always what they seem in the middle of the journey. When you feel like it's not working, things aren't always what they seem. And here's some questions that Moses asks that I just want to look at very briefly in this last two verses of chapter 5. Look at it with me. It says this, Moses returned to the Lord and said, why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak your name? He's brought trouble on these people and you have not rescued your people at all. That's what it feels like sometimes in the middle of the adventure when we step out for God, when we live out on, okay, I'm following you, whatever, when we step out for God and we tell somebody about Jesus, when we step out for God and invest our money in a village in Africa or in a building so the people come in the Lord, when we step out for God and use our spiritual gifts and we haven't done that before, we step out for God and pray depending on God to come through. When we step out for God, sometimes in the middle of that adventure, it feels like God's not rescuing us and coming to us and in it at all, at all. But things aren't always what they seem in the middle of the adventure. And friends, this is Table Talk because we come to the table to remind us midway on the adventure. Oh, yeah. Oh, no, he's a rescuer. He's a rescuer. He's here. He called me. He's good. He's going to come through. He is listening. He is noticing. But we ask these questions sometimes in the middle of the journey. So in the middle of the journey, we come to the table. Here's some of the questions that come up in the middle of this adventure and this is why we lead into the table with this. Number one question, he says, and he said, "Why, Lord, why?" Why? That's just, I mean, that's about how he begins it. Man, he went, "Hey, why are you not doing anything? Why, Lord, what are you up to?" This is the existential question that every human has asked forever. Why is this happening? Right? This is what we ask. You ask it all the time with God. We've asked it ever since we were little. You have kids? You're two-year-old. Ask this. They start asking it when they're two. Don't touch that. Why? Well, because you're going to burn yourself. Why? Well, because it's hot. Why? Well, because, right? You do that. Eventually, you don't have that conversation. Your kid says, "Why?" One too many times, about the time they're two and three quarters years old. And they go, "Why?" And you say, "Because I said so." Really? What awful parents you all are. It's short. That, why? Because I said so, or because I'm the parent or whatever. That's short for because I've got a plan and you don't understand it. And you're asking why? Because it doesn't look like it's going the way you want it to look. But I'm in this and I know better. Come on now. Isn't that not right? That's what God does as our heavenly parent to us. You know, we get out in the middle of that adventure and we go, "Really, Lord? Really? This is what's going on here. What?" And we go, "Why?" And God goes, "Cuz, I'm the parent and I know what I'm doing." Sometimes we get those answers. Sometimes we don't get the answers. Sometimes we see a glimpse of the answer. One of the stories I tell, I shared it last week in Alaska where I was speaking and I remembered it and I've shared it with you. When I left Marin Covenant, Lord let us out of Marin Covenant, go out, go do great things. Okay. We landed it. We ended up in Colorado the whole time. Why, Lord? I love Marin Covenant. What am I doing in Colorado? I'm recognized, if you ever changed a job and then recognized 11 and a half days into your new job, that it's not the best fit. Why, Lord? What am I doing here? What's that? My kids, of course, hate me because we moved, right? The end of my time in Colorado was running with Brooke and we were having a conversation and she said, "You know, Dad, you know it's the best thing that ever happened to me. The Brooke's our oldest of four. You know it's the best thing that ever happened to me that I moved to Colorado." I said, "Why? What do you?" She said, "That was not in a good place when I was in high school in Marin and I don't know that I would have been following the Lord if I had stayed there." Three and a half years in Colorado, here's me, "Why, Lord, why I got to move to Colorado? I didn't leave all my friends and I didn't like the job that you sent me to and it's a hard job. It ain't even me, it ain't even me." And I heard on that run on the beach in San Diego at a family wedding we went to, I heard when Brooke said that I heard the Lord say, "Would that have been worth it? Would your three and a half years in Colorado have been worth it if that was the one reason I did it so that your daughter would be protected and would walk with the Lord at the end of this time? Would that be worth it?" And then overwhelmed in worship saying, "Yes, Lord, that would be worth it. I heard the Lord say this and I got a million reasons like that. You can't begin to understand the scope of my sovereignty and all of the reasons you spent three and a half years on that adventure." We say, "Why, Lord?" And he goes, "I got a million things I'm doing." And we come to the table to remember there's a bigger picture. Jesus died for us. Jesus created a relationship with us and that he will come and walk with us and rescue us and be with us. He's got a million plans and he'll come through. Why, Lord, is what we ask. I'm just going to buzz through these last ones and be done. Second one, he asks the question, "Didn't you want this to be good? Why have you brought trouble on these people?" You brought trouble? Wasn't the plan supposed to be for good but you brought trouble? Why would you bring trouble? Isn't when I follow you then it's supposed to be like a good thing and we actually see people asking that question of God a whole bunch in the Old Testament like, "Why did you even do this?" And what happens is we begin to get this place inside where we go, "You must not be good because this isn't good." And I thought I was stepping out on an adventure with you and it would be awesome but it doesn't feel awesome. Here's what I think happens. In the mid-way, the question we ask mid-way on the adventure, we forget and confuse the difference between easy and good. What we say is, "This isn't easy. I'm in the middle of this adventure. You called me on it. I'm on it." Whoa, wait a minute. This is not easy. And then that just real life, hello, say to myself, "Grow up, man. That's life. I get on this adventure. It's not easy. That's not. That doesn't mean that he's not good." We come to the table to remember again that in the middle of the adventure when the wheels maybe have come off or we don't know what he's doing and we're going, "This doesn't feel good or at least it doesn't feel easy." We come back to this and he says, "This is my body." Which is for you. And this is the new covenant in my blood. It's good news. We come back to the table and remember mid-way through the journey that he's good. Then he goes on to ask the question, "So is this, is this why you sent me? This one piece? Is this the whole adventure?" And he's taking a swing at God. He's looking at God and he's going, "This is the adventure. That is so not an adventure. That's so not fun. And be truthful. I don't know that I want to be on it anymore." And every single one of us has gotten mid-way out, stepping out for the Lord and has felt like the wheels have come off a bit and have freaked out about, "Why, Lord? What are you doing?" And every single one of us has gotten to the place where we said to him, "Is this the adventure because if it is, I don't want it. I don't think I want to be on your adventure." If you haven't said that, you're either not really stretching on an adventure or you're being dishonest. Every one of us authentic lovers of Jesus have said, "I don't know that I want the Jesus thing in my life. Mid-way on the adventure we go, is this what you have?" And the answer to it is always, "No, no, my child. This is part of the adventure. Is this the adventure? Is this the reason you sent me?" You go, "No, this is part of it." And we get stuck in part of it. We usually get stuck in the worst part of it. I remember taking kids to Mexico and my first trip taking kids to Mexico and everybody got sick. I remember Christine Gilmore over here in the front row. She survived it, fortunately. I remember her in the medical tent, IVs, "Dude, this is awesome. I'm going to Mexico on a mission trip." Piles of vomit outside every tent door, right? And I remember as the leader laying in bed awake going, "Okay, is this the reason you called us to Mexico? Because this is awful." And the answer is always, "This is part of the reason. This is part of the picture and midway through the journey." We go, "Really? This is why you sent us all down here so that we're all half dead." No, that's part of it. Because when you vomit in your tent and then get up and pound nails all day, you depend on Jesus like never before and those kids come away going, "Bring it. I'll barf all the way home. I'm on next year." Right? That's what kids do. God's go, "I got it." And that's God again going, "I got a million reasons why this happens, but it's only part of the adventure." We come to the table because this is the whole story. It's a bigger picture. God's still our rescuer. God has still saved us and God will continue to be with us. Last question he asks is, "You aren't going to rescue us, are you?" That's his last phrase. You see it? It sounds so petulant. You and you have not rescued your people at all. Do you hear it? Again, it's so like a child. You don't love me at all. You're right. You're right. You're right. I don't let you go to a drinking party when you're 13. Yes, I don't love you. That's right. That's what we say to our kids. No. The kids go, "You're not doing anything. You don't net. You never." Right? Your kids say that? We go, "Come here. Shut up." Never. It's such a child thing, but what's behind it is you're not the rescuer, are you? You're not coming through. You're not doing anything. It's the fear inside. He says, "You said you were going to rescue us. The wheels came off in this adventure, and I don't see you. You're not coming, are you?" And friends, that's at the bottom of every lie from the pit of hell to our souls. He's not going to come through for you. So if you step out too far, you're on your own, and that gets us in the core place where we start to freak, and we go, "You're not rescuing me at all, are you?" But he promised two chapters before this, "Well, no, I'm going to come, and I'm going to come rescue these people. I'm coming to rescue these people, and we come together to remember at this table two chapters ago." We come to remember, remember the words of institution on here? When we read, we start this out, that we say, "We do this in remembrance of Him, and we take this bread, and we drink this cup, proclaiming the Lord's death, proclaiming our salvation, proclaiming He went to the cross, and we He saved us." We proclaim that truth until He actually comes fully, and we're rescued. The lie, the question, "You're not rescuing us at all, are you? Where are you?" And the answer is, "Oh, no, I'm coming, and I am your rescuer, and we come to the table to remember that." I'm going to read the words of institution as the band comes up, and the ushers come up, and we'll enjoy the Lord's table together. Hear it again with fresh ears, friends, from 1 Corinthians. For what I received from the Lord, Paul says, "I also passed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night He was betrayed took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and He said, 'This is my body for you.'" Do this in remembrance of me, remember this. In the same way after separate He took the cup, He said, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. There's a new agreement with us now. It's good news." You can say, "Forgiven, set free from the bondage of sin, there's nothing that keeps you out of relationship with God because of Jesus' death on the cross." It's a new covenant, it's a new agreement. We're in relationship, he says, through what Jesus did. He says, "So do this whenever you drink it, in what? Remembrance of me, where as often as you eat this bread, and you drink this cup, you're proclaiming, you're remembering, you're saying it's true, that the Lord has died for you. And we'll do this until He comes, until our rescue is complete. But midway on the journey, we remember that He's still rescuing us, even when we have questions. God does not hang us to dry, but you remember that as you take the Lord's table. I'm going to pass the elements out, the bread first, hold it, we'll take it together, and we'll pass the cup out, hold it, and take that together. May you enjoy the reflection and the remembering that He is our rescuer.