The Village Church
Either These Are Not The Gospels, or We Are Not Christians - Audio
There are so many people here that I know from Southwood and to the person, in some way you have ministered to my family individually and a lot of our hurts and a lot of the things that have gone on in our families and so it's just good to be here. These are friends and you guys are my friends and so just glad to be here, glad to bring you God's Word and what I want to do to kick things off is I'm going to read the passage that is sort of the main passage I'll be preaching on but you've got to understand I'm kind of all over the place this morning with this and hopefully I'll be able to go slow enough where you'll follow along with me but the primary passage that God has been working on my heart for a long time and this is really me just trying to think out loud with you guys to think through what does it mean to be part of a church. I mean what does it mean that we are here because God called us to be here and what does it mean that we're going to go and be ministered out to this neighborhood and what does it mean to love Jesus enough to go give things away to other people and so let me read to you the passage that's just been guys been working on my heart and it's from Mark 8 starting in verse 34, Mark 8 starting in verse 34 and this is God's written Word and he called us Jesus called to him the crowd with his disciples and said to them if anyone would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me for whoever wants whoever would save his life will lose it whatever loses his life for my sake and for the gospels will save it for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life for what can a man give and return for his life for whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with the Holy Angels this is the written word of the Lord let's pray father you are here now among us your Holy Spirit is filling our souls and father I pray your spirit would open our eyes and that our hearts would be receptive to hearing your word and father would change me as a result of going over these this passage again and thinking through how you lead each one of us and how you call us to be your hands and feet in a world that is dark and needs the truth needs the gospel needs the joy and the peace and the rest that is ours for Jesus Christ the finished work of our glorious Savior it's in his name we pray amen okay here's the deal I want to start off with a story but I have to be real honest it's a joke I mean it is okay so it sounds better as a story because that's how you start off preaching you tell a story not a joke but here it is okay it is a story of a man who is shipped right on a desert island for 20 years so this castaways they're all by himself until one day a ship sees the smoke from a fire and rescues him and so he the captain of the ship is on the beach with this castaway and the captain is saying to this castaway says look you've been here 20 years I've noticed you've built three structures would you tell me about them what's this first one and the castaway says oh that's that's my house that's where I live that's that's my house and the captain says well what's the second structure and the castaway goes well I'm a Christian and that's my church that's the church I go to I love my church I go to that church that's my church and the captain says well what's this third structure and the castaway says oh that that's the church I used to go to okay I love that story I love that joke because it has a lot of meaning because I think that all of us no matter what's going on we asked the question you know why here I mean why are you here in this church I know the stories of many of us here you've left churches to come here because God called you right and there are some folks here right now that met other people at go to this church and they've been invited to come here and and those of us that may have been followers of Christ for a long time we have our stories of the church that we used to go to you know until they started doing that and we walked away and so we all have that story but we are asking ourselves all the time well why are we doing what we do I mean why are we here why are we why have we attached ourselves to village church why this time and why now what's going on and how do I stay energized how do I stay focused on what God's called me to so I don't become petty and go that's that church I used to go to so how do we maintain that well let me start off by saying this to or let's take you back to the desert island let's go back to that desert island for a second but this time you've lived there all your life that's all you know this is not a joke by the way all you've known is this a desert island in fact all you've had to read your whole life is God's word in the Bible and so you've read this all your life so let me ask you a question if this is all that you had to guide you if God's word was all that you had to guide you what would your expectation be for the church I think about it for a minute what would you expect the church to do and let's imagine that you came off of that desert island and you all you had was this the guide you and you showed up to Huntsville and you were going to start a church and all you had this the guide you would it look like this I got to tell you I don't have the answers I mean would it look like a church would we gather like this on Sunday or would we do something totally different believe me I this is what I do this is what I've God's called me I've been doing this for ten years and I often say well what is the church I mean is it really supposed to look like this is this how we to gather together I don't have the answers but it's worth thinking about because you guys we've all been called to do something amazing for God we've been called out of something into something to be his hands and feet in this world so we have to ask the question if this is all we had to guide us would it look like this now there's a gentleman by the name of Thomas Lineker he was the doctor for Henry VIII that means he lived in the 1600s and he lived in the 1600s and they didn't have Bibles readily available like we do now I mean we didn't go to Walmart and get a Bible but during this time you just you just couldn't get a hold of a copy of the Bible and if you did it was probably written a language you couldn't read maybe Latin or maybe the original language Greek for the New Testament and Hebrew for the old and so very few people had Bibles and could read them Thomas Lineker was the physician for Henry VIII he was a learned man he could read Greek and so some one day he got a copy of all four gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John he started to read it for himself in the original Greek he read them cover to cover and he returned them back to the guy that gave it to him and he said man listen either these are not the gospels or we are not Christians he saw this huge disconnect between the teachings of Jesus and the way he was acting the way he was living he saw this huge disconnect between what the scripture says Jesus said and then the way the church was acting even listen I dared to say that we there's a huge gap even now in the church between what Jesus teaches in the way the church acts and is and I want to know some answers I want to know how he fix that just recently I've been reading a book imagine that a pastor reading a book my gosh but and there was reading a book and there was a quote and in fact I was having lunch with Alex Alex Shipman your pastor and he and I were having lunch and I was sharing with him and I said this is a couple weeks ago and I said Alex I ran across this quote tell me what you think about it the quote was the purpose for the church says the purpose for the church was to is to mobilize a people to accomplish a mission the purpose of the church is to mobilize a people to accomplish a mission and Alex your wonderful wise pastor he said he said Bill I like that I like the second half I don't like the first half he said I would change the word mobilize to disciple and so Alex is helping me here and he said here's how I would say it the purpose of the church and he may deny this when he comes back so I don't know but I like it I said I think you're right Alex but he said this he said the purpose of the church is to disciple a people to accomplish a mission but Alex at least in our conversation says you know I see this God brings people and my job is to disciple this people to accomplish a mission I love that I think that's right because we often wonder what is the church for now Jesus teaches us many times in many ways what is a disciple and in our passage and Mark chapter 8 he says that the purpose of the disciple is somebody who denies himself right if anyone would come after me he must deny himself pick up his cross and follow me forever wants to save his life will lose it whoever loses his life for my sake and for the gospel's sake will save his life but what does it profit anyone if they gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul forfeit their life and then he went on to say at the very end of this he says essentially this I'm going to return and whoever is ashamed of me I will be ashamed of him so Jesus is making a strong connection between self-denial if you can't deny yourself if you can't go and live for someone else if you can't give up everything to follow him it's the same thing as being ashamed of him a staggering it's the same thing as being ashamed of him if you can't let go of anything to follow him so the purpose of the church is the disciple of people to let go of stuff and to run after him one of Jesus's disciples the Apostle John in one of his letters first John chapter 2 said it this way he said whoever abides in Jesus now that would be another way of saying whoever says they're a Christian or in this case whoever says they go to village church if you say village church is my church these are my people here we're going to reach this whole area for Christ whoever says that John says ought to walk in the same way that Jesus walked you have to walk in the same way Jesus walked now for me what I think of immediately is I go right to the thing and some of the imagery that Jesus left for us the main one that I think of is when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples right he's about to go and die and he has this opportunity to leave these really quick vignettes for his people his followers and says I want you to remember me this way and so he goes and watches the feet of his disciples now in that culture what's going on there is Jesus is taking the lowest position in that culture only the lowest of all servants would take that and job and do it so what Jesus is saying to us as we read the gospels because either these are the gospels or we are not Christians he is saying you have to let go of any status that you think is important and take the lowest status in any culture you're in be willing to do that now I'm talking to a room full of people who have done that so I'm preaching to the choir because I'm going to tell you something that partly why I believe that God would leave me to preach this this morning is because I think some of us need to be reminded just be we need to be reminded why we're here some of us need to be encouraged just a little nudge you get a little discouraged very little distracted you need a little nudge some of us need to be challenged and frankly some in this room need to be called to become become part of village church to reach others in this area and do amazing things for God so we're going to look at the scripture and scripture begins to tell us we must deny ourselves John says if you say you abide in him walk like he walked so there's no status there's nothing that's beneath any of us to do now anybody read Donald Miller blue like jazz it's a book that's come out and Donald Miller is an author he's ironic he's sarcastic he's serious and funny all in the same sentence he wrote a book since called the God searching for God knows what and he tells the story in here about a gentleman trying to explain to somebody what it means to convert to Christianity he says converting to Christianity is like not unlike wanting to sit in a chair we've all heard maybe heard this illustration before but it's about placing your faith in Jesus it's like saying you know I believe this chair will hold me up if I sit in it we don't exercise our faith until we really sit in it right and so Donald Miller says this he said I wondered as I heard this if the chair was a kind of symbol for Jesus and how irritated Jesus might be if a lot of people kept trying to sit on him and then he said I wondered at how Jesus could say he was the shepherd and we were his sheep how he could say I'm the bridegroom and you're the bride how he could say we have a father in heaven and you're his children how he could say I'm the king and you're my subjects and then he wondered he somehow that we are missing the meaning and thought becoming a Christian was like sitting in a chair and so here many of us just sit boy I see I want you to know right now I'm imagining myself on the front row and I'm preaching to myself too here we sit either these are not the gospels or we are not Christians either the words of Jesus are absolutely false or we are not Christians so we are called not to sit what will it take to wake many of us up what's it going to take willing to give up anything for Jesus and to be on his mission I think a big part of it though is that I think we just really don't realize how ineffective that many of us are speak for myself certainly because when we read the Apostle Paul's words in Colossians 128 and 29 he says this is what it means this is what it means for him to be on mission we proclaim Jesus admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom so that we may present everyone maturing Christ to this end I labor struggling with all his energy which so powerfully works in me how can we hear that to not think either the this is not God's word or we are not Christians because he takes words like to this end I struggle to this end I labor and the word labor is a word that would be used to describe a farmer on a farm they have a tilling land and sweating and in the sun he's working the land and that's what he does he labors and the word struggle is used to describe a Greek athlete and competition and so they're working to do this to accomplish amazing things and they're out there working no one is sitting we're working to accomplish this incredible mission that Jesus has us on we labor to do this and so just like there's that line from that movie there's no crying in baseball remember that line there's no crying in baseball there's no sitting and following Jesus I got a big fat rear end from sitting too much people that's the truth there's no sitting because if these are these are not the gospels or we are not Christians either this is not God's word or I am not a believer and so let's think about this here's what we're called to be we're called to take the lowest position in our culture there's nothing that's beneath us every ounce of your being is to labor and struggle to make Jesus famous if we really understood who Jesus was we would give up anything anything we think of value and take those resources and use them to be Jesus to hurting and lonely people and we would daily die to self and the great commandment to love God with all your everything in your neighbor as yourself would be exactly what we do all the time we would labor and struggle to do that because either these are not the gospels or we are not Christians now um very few of us get this there are things I struggle to get this let me tell you what keeps me down this is the thing that really keeps me from understanding this it's a simple word discontent have you ever been discontent we just sort of discontent with life and just feel like there's something better and you're looking around discontent you know where discontent shows up it shows up in circumstances and situations that you're in and so there could be things that are going on in your life and you become very discontent Jerry Bridges Christian author listed out some things that are circumstances that get us discontent he said it shows up in things like this an unfulfilling or low paying job in our culture it's a no paying job and so there's just this sort of feeling that nothing's ever really being accomplished because I got such a low paying job there's other things there's some of us who are single again maybe that we were married once and now we're single and there's some of us that have been single all of our lives we're in middle age and now we're we're wondering are we ever going to meet somebody and or are we ever going to meet someone again and so we become discontent there's some of us that um want children but can't there's some of us that have physical disabilities that just keep us down there are chronic and ongoing poor health and then this is the biggie this is really something that gets to me too we start to look around and everybody else is living the life I want you know we we look around and there's that gated community with shiny happy people behind all that and that's what I want and we say they have a better life and I wish I had that life you know I just have 200 more square feet in the house so just a house a car we become very discontent with me as I look around other pastors other churches other ministries in the sickening because it keeps me in my chair I'm sitting on Jesus I've been I've been given the greatest news the gospels and I sit and I become discontent it slows us down and so we become ineffective in the kingdom because of discontentment uh Sherry and I we've looked at I'm sure he's my beautiful wife my smoking hot wife I must say I must say and we our youngest will be 14 next birthday and that's in January and so we have an 18 year old and it's soon to be 17 year old and so like we should be done reading books on parenting you know how you know if I when I meet Dr. Dobson I could just you know just say I'm so sick of you and your books but we continue to read some books on parenting the latest one we're reading is it's called how children raise parents by Dan Allender good book he said in there there was something really helpful he said that our kids are asking two questions all the time it's underneath everything it's two questions am I loved and can I get my way in that true think about it now here's what good parents are supposed to say yes to the first one no to the second one yes your love and no I'm gonna say I'm gonna put something else before no heck no but not even heck no that's good parents are supposed to do that while Sherry and I read the book I think it was she she brought it up to me and she said you know what this is how we are with our father in heaven we want to know the answer to this question all the time do you love me am I loved by you and am I gonna get my way and that the same question all the time it shows up in discontentment you must not love me because look at my life look at my circumstance I want my way I want to live there I want that life I want that person I want their things so we struggle with that and so either these are not the gospels or we are not Christians because Jesus doesn't promise us at all life of comfort and ease it's not part of it now what we do and I told you that I tell you I was gonna be all over the place I told you and I'm gonna try it all tied all together that's my promise to you okay but here's the deal when we are discontent and it starts to weigh us down and we become ineffective in the kingdom essentially being just staying seated and we don't get up and do the things that God's called us to the mission he's called us on what we're doing is we're doing the same thing that non-believers do see non-believers don't factor God into their lives right by definition they don't they don't bring God into their situation and so when we don't do that our circumstances start to push us down but what we factor God in because we're asking you love me of course he loves you am I gonna get my way no see the purpose of the church is the disciple of people to accomplish a mission see it's not an engagement in our calendar it's not Saturday cookout check Sunday church check throw in some good manners and I'm a good Christian that's not right see we're always asking you my love will I get my way Romans 8 28 29 tells us the answer yes your love because God is working together all things for your good for those who love him for those who are called according to his purpose so in my love yes he's working all things for your good in this circumstance yes this low paying job this no job yes this this difficult marriage I mean yes my health issues yes the things God has given me assignment my addictions all of those things he's working it together for good yes he's called you to a purpose and that purpose is in verse 29 it says that from the very get go he predestined us there's a P word right he predestined us he foreknew he predestined us to be made into the image of his son verse 29 to be conformed to the likeness of his son so what keeps us stuck in our chairs discontent and we look around we want other people's lives God says no this is the life I've given you I love you the purpose for this situation you're in is to make you look like Jesus and when you look like Jesus you can go out into the community and you have something to offer not yourself but Jesus because the truth of the matter is the this is these are not the gospels this is not the truth of God or we are not believers does he love us yes will he I get my way no you will get his purpose how do we get to that place where we want what he wants where we want to serve this community with no strings attached you know not to that place where you know I came here to do something amazing for God and it's just not happening I'm think I'm done I just want to go back to wherever it is I came how do we stay focused how do we stay jazzed about what God's doing in our lives how do we do it what what do we do how do we how do we live out all out for God and that feel like you're actually missing something see when Jesus washes the feet people you get you've got to give up a status to go down here and when you're down here you're thinking man it was so much better up here and I'm really missing something so how do we stay energized how do we stay encouraged how do we remain challenged and then how do some of you get called into this work all right let me just go I'm going to go out a little ways and then come back anybody read pilgrims progress the pilgrims progress that's an old book 350 year old book awesome book I love it I love it love it but if you ever read it don't get an old version it's written in old English it's like the Shakespeare stuff that I can't understand get a good English translation of a modern tree and translation of it John Bunyan wrote it and it's a it's a it's a picture of the Christian life there's a character as guy his name is Christian great name for a guy that's a Christian right and you just follow him in his life and he starts off living in a place it's called the city of destruction and it's a picture of where all of us started out city of destruction in the city of destruction it's all about us it's about what we want and when we first meet Christian he's got a burden on his back and it's his sin and he doesn't know what to do with it he's tried looking for things for himself he's been discontent and so he tries things and people and he's got this huge burden on his back and then we see him on his way to the celestial city and as he's going through all his challenges and things he meets people and they ask him the same two questions all the time where have you come from where are you going where have you come from tell me where are you going and what that tells us is that we've got to remember where we've come from and where we're going all the time we have come from the city of destruction in the city of destruction it was about me and now I'm living a life where it's about him because I'm on my way to see him to the celestial city where the king lives and so the whole story just this long story and it's amazing all these different characters all these difficulties he falls out of the way he chooses a different way many times he does things in his own power and he falls and trips and stumbles now the part I'm going to tell you about is the very end of the story he's getting real close to the celestial city so as a reader you're thinking oh this is a guy at the end of his life he knows he's going to die and so here is Christian and he's got a friend that he met a guy named Hope Bull and they're in this land called Bula they're in a land called Bula and from this land they can see the celestial city real clear you know what that tells us that the afterlife the place where he's going is becoming more real to him so it's more real where he's going but it says in this land also that they renewed the covenant with Jesus now that interesting thing about that is they're in a land called Bula and Bula is from Isaiah 62 and Bula is a word that means married and so when you read Isaiah 62 you see a couple of things and all that passage in Pilgrim's Progress is from Isaiah 62 it says in Isaiah 62 that once you were forsaken but now you're my delight God says you were once forsaken now you're my delight but then also in Isaiah 62 it says you were once desolate all by yourself but now you're married you're Bula and so I'm reading this part of Pilgrim's Progress and I got the thinking well why do we have to wait till the end of our life for this to be real to us where we think about the celestial city and Jesus and we renew the covenant often we think about what Jesus has done for us why do I have to wait towards the end of my life now here's the thing I want you to pick up on I told you I'm all over the place but I'm going to pull us together okay here's the thing when you're in the land of married and you're renewing the covenant with Jesus the agreement the thing that Jesus did for us the covenant we immediately think of the cross that Jesus lived the life we couldn't live and he died the death we deserved if you're in the land of Bula the land of married and you're renewing the covenant that must mean that was your engagement day so I don't want to just relive the covenant think about the things Jesus has done for me towards the end of my life I want to do it every day and if you're going to stay a village church and continue to do the work that God called you going to we must renew the covenant all the time think about where you've come from and where you're going so I thought about the engagement day and it's hot in this room right now right when Sherri and I got engaged I was she had just graduated high school I had been in college two years I came home that summer to work construction to buy her a ring she was going to the stinker the same school I was and I had the brander before she got down there somehow but I was going to lose her all right but I loved her and I wanted to get engaged I had to make money so I worked construction one summer in the heat of Huntsville Alabama I worked construction and I was the low man on the totem pole I was the guy that had to make all the runs to go do stuff clean up stuff Sherri she remembers I would come home covered with mud I did all the menial tasks I dug ditches I got electrocuted one time and I grabbed some wires and there was a guy named Udi I don't know maybe some of you guys know his name was Udi and he actually lived in that a-rab and he would drive his red maverick over the river and come to work we worked on some apartments near here and he was a guy that teased me made fun of me maybe do stuff he just totally ride me rode me the whole time and he would make me make runs that you told him everybody remember you totems here in Huntsville yes okay I would have to go make runs for him and he first time he told me what he wanted I thought he was gonna kill me because I didn't understand a word he said he said I want seven-up cup ice I said what some up cup ice I don't know what what do you want some up cup ice well it turns out what that is is I want a seven up with a cup of ice so I would have to go do that well here's the point that engagement I gave Sherry the ring towards the end of summer and there was a little ring little diamond tiny she was worth it she was worth everything that I put up with all the teasing all the mud the electrocution everything so we relive the our engagement day and we look at Jesus what did he endure to come rescue us what did it cost him to call us to himself where did he give up he gave up the throne room of heaven the emptied himself took on flesh suffered under the law but living it perfectly being accused in our place and then upon the cross he was separated from the father all that he endured for you and I and so one that one little project I'm gonna give you and I'm gonna wrap this up next time you're at a wedding okay you know how everybody stands up and looks at the bride when everybody stands up and looks at the bride I want you to look back at the groom's face I want you to look at the groom's face I do that when I'm officiating I kind of do this I look over or if I'm out in the congregation I'm one of a few people that are looking the other way because I want to see his face because his face he sees his bride and his face lights up and the anticipation and the joy so beautiful anybody looks great in a wedding dress but I mean but especially someone we love and so there's that sense well you know what when we go our face to face with Jesus we look into his face we get a hint of what that's like when we look into the face of a groom because when we look into the face of Jesus we are people that we know we've come from the city of destruction we know who we are we're messed up we're unqualified people we're forsaken but now we're loved because we belong to Jesus and so we answer the question and my love yes I think of the engagement day what did he do to come after me yes I am loved then been giving up something is not that hard to do in light of that so yes I'm loved I look at the cross the day of engagement I look at the great cost and so will I get my way a disciple doesn't want his way I don't want my way I want Jesus's way so we have looked into the face of Jesus our bridegroom we've gotten out of our chairs and we want what he wants we want his mission for the world to be Jesus to be made into his image under your current circumstance to not to be discontent but to be made into his image to go be Jesus to a lost world to the lonely the needy the difficult neighbors this city this block you know everything north of Oakwood and south of Oakwood and all over here to the herding God wants you to look like Jesus see discontent is standing in our way but we're to look up and bring God back into the equation look up into the face of the one who gave up everything to be with you and know where you're going I'm from the city of destruction I'm going to a wedding and you're there in everything in anything that you've sacrificed anything you gave up anything you denied yourself it doesn't matter then when you're staring into the face of Jesus and so it doesn't matter now you see either these are the gospels are we are not Christians so in light of that let's don't sit let's be made into the image of Jesus and with reckless abandon go and be Jesus you're not going to miss anything you're not giving up anything because you will stare in the face of the one who made you and you talk about contentment let's pray and let's meditate on what God has shown us this morning father you're so good if anyone would come after you we must deny ourselves pick up our cross and follow you but we renew the covenant we think about our engagement day and so we can't sit anymore you've called us to be free and with reckless abandon to go and be made into your image to to live all out for you you call those to take the lowest position without fear that we'll miss out on something we'll never miss out on anything because we've come from the city of destruction and we're on our way to a wedding in the celestial city to be married to our king to be in his presence father that's glorious how to make that truth alive in our hearts in Christ name and then okay is there