Plainfield Christian Church
09-01-24 | If I Only Had One Sermon to Preach: Kyle Costello
Welcome to the Plainfield Christian Church podcast. We hope that this message encourages you today. For additional resources to learn about what it looks like to be fully alive with Jesus, visit our website at plainfieldchristian.com. Enjoy the podcast. Well, good morning. Man, it is so good to be here. I love your energy. I've loved getting to meet. Many of you already just hear a little bit about your story, get to put some faces with names, and I'm just grateful. I'm grateful for that energy. I'll be honest because right now it's 6/20 where I live, and that's not normally the time I get up and preach, okay? So it was not as bad as the last service where it was 4.45, right? Before I jump in today, I just want to say thank you. When I read the Bible, when I see in the New Testament, and if you were new here, if you came because someone invited you and you don't know some of these terms, I'll try to help you out with this. In the Bible, there's this man named Paul, and often he writes these letters and he writes letters to other churches. And Paul is this guy who should have never been following Jesus. Like it doesn't make any sense, but God radically transformed him and converted him, and then he starts writing these letters to these churches, and he'll talk about how much he loves them. And many of them, some of them he knew, some of them he didn't. And he would say, "Your faith and your generosity, like, it is blessed me." And I come here today to say, "Your faith and your generosity has blessed me." Like what it's allowed us to do in Ojai, it has allowed us to hit the ground running. Your kindness, your prayers, your support. It's allowed us to tell a crazy story that the world doesn't understand. Like when they ask, "How have you guys been able to do what you've been able to do in the first year?" I'm like, "Well, let me tell you about some churches. Let me tell you about a church in Plainfield, Indiana." They're like, "Why would they support you?" I'm like, "Jesus." Like, do you know them? I didn't know them. No. Have you ever been in Plainfield? No. Have most of you ever been to Ojai? No. As we learned after the last service, most of you at first thought I was saying, "Ojai, O." I just want to say thank you. There's so many ways that God tells his story and he's doing it through you all right now. So what I want to do is I just want to pray. I want to thank God for you all. I want to ask him to bless the message today as we dig into the Bible and then we'll go. Is that cool? All right. Let's pray. God, thank you for this church. Thank you for their generosity and their kindness and their welcome. Thank you for their willingness to risk God, to trust your kingdom breaking in in a place that maybe they never even heard of before. God, you are good. And each one of us that would be called your children, we know the only reason we are here is because of Jesus. And so today we ask Father as we jump into the Bible that you would just make Jesus just so apparent throughout it all. Your spirit would lead us and guide us into the truth of the text. We thank you and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. So when Luke invited me out he said, "What I want you to do is I want you to preach the sermon, the one sermon you would preach." Like if you could just give one sermon. Like a sermon that's maybe marked your life. And for me it wasn't too hard to come up with that topic, to come up with that idea. See I was born and raised not in the Christian church but in the Mormon church. I was born and raised as a sixth generation Utah Mormon. What does that mean? Only 1850s my family lived in Europe and Mormons were brand new faith at the time but they sent missionaries out to Europe to convert people. They converted my family members and they took a boat from Europe to New Orleans and then my family got off the boat in New Orleans and pushed their belongings in a hand cart which is like an 1850s wheelbarrow from New Orleans to Utah. Right? Like that's pretty wild. Like let's just say it was flat that would be wild but there's the Rocky Mountains in the way. And so my family grew up I grew up in my family proud of that heritage right? Like this is in the 80s and the 90s when I grew up there was no internet there was no like I didn't know much about anything really about Christianity. I lived in this bubble in Utah and I was proud Utah Mormon. I was the oldest of seven. I did what I was supposed to do when I was supposed to do it. Well we said all the time is we want to be faithful disciples of Jesus. Now that might sound confusing to you all because Mormonism is not Christianity but we use the same terms in Christianity. The whole time I was like how do I be a faithful disciple of Jesus? I did what I was supposed to do when I was supposed to do it. Eight years old, 12 years old, 14, 16. There's all these markers in Mormonism and things you're supposed to do as a boy, as a man at those ages and I did them. Now I was supposed to go on a mission. In the missionaries are those people that come to your door with the little name tags and it says Elder on it even though they're 19 and they knock on your door and they try to teach you about Mormonism. And I was going to go do that but I graduated from high school early and so I was too young. And so I went to college and my plan that first year was to kind of do my freshman year and then go on a Mormon mission. But my plan was to prepare for that mission and I'd gotten this roommate matched up with this roommate who was a drama major and he loved practicing his drama and he was like I don't know anything about Mormonism. He's like but what I'll do is like I can practice my drama. You practice your you're getting ready for your mission thing goes I'll be whatever you want me to be. You want me to be an East Coast liberal? I'll be it. Southern Evangelical? I'll be it, right? He'd get into character and I try to convert his character to Mormonism. I wish I had video. Anyway as we did that we got into some interesting conversations he was not a person of faith but he asked good questions and as I went down that road those questions started to unravel my faith in Mormonism. So much so that by the end of my freshman year I had left the faith and I was done. And I didn't have this like existential crisis of who is God but I felt really hurt and I felt really betrayed by everything I called church and religion. So I just went back to school and I paid attention to nothing else. And two years later I met this girl because it always starts with a girl. And I lived in Las Vegas I went to UNLV at the time which I don't know if you know this but Las Vegas is not exactly known as the hotbed of Christianity, okay? So I grew up in Utah I don't know anything about Christianity. You go to Las Vegas don't learn anything about Christianity and I meet this girl and she's really cute and her name's joy and all I want to do is get her to pay attention to me but she won't pay attention to me. My group of guy friends, his friends with her group of girl friends and I do everything in my power to try to have conversations with her and get her to pay attention again and she just won't which didn't make any sense because in the late 90s I had a rad set of hair, okay? But finally one night we're all out at a dinner or group of friends and she's like I gotta I gotta leave early. I gotta go to work in the morning super early and I need to head out and get some sleep and I was like crazy coincidence so do I. Like maybe you could give me a ride home because I gotta get her work early too. I didn't. She's my wife now so it's all okay. Anyway we're walking to her car and I'm like sweet I'm finally gonna get a chat with Joy and we're going to her car and I look on the back of her car when I figure out what her car is and immediately my heart sunk because it had the fish. I had the Jesus fish on it right? And I was like oh man I can't deal with religious people. Like I had grown up in the Mormonism thing I left it two years prior and I can't go down that road but I'm also super optimistic so if you throw something hard at me I might take it hard for a second but then I'll try to figure out a positive way and I was like but you know what maybe it's a used car right? So we go in we sit down we start talking and I ask her about the fish and for the first time in my life someone shares the message of Jesus with me and I would love to say that I said I'm in on that I would love to say that but guys I had some wounds I had some hurt I was thawing out and from just my whole 18 years prior and I was like okay I don't totally grasp this I don't totally understand it but she's cute so I'll just keep going with it right I am not the hero here like I didn't know anything about Christianity this is again the 80s 90s no internet all I knew in Utah that kind of made it in there were Jim and Tammy Fay Baker that's all I knew okay so what I thought about Christianity was that you wore a lot of makeup you cried a lot and at the end you always ask people for money okay and then she tells me this new way to understand Jesus so I started to go to church with her and I didn't want to go to church for her and so I started to go to these classes without her knowing and I went to Central Christian church and in Las Vegas and I had to go to their 101 class their 201 301 401 and in each one they said after you give your life to Jesus then you live a life of a disciple and that was my question well what is a disciple because in my previous world as a Mormon that meant performing that meant figuring out things see Mormons really believe like that you're supposed to just keep getting better and better and better and that it's on you that was a way to bear and when I found out that was false I didn't want to go back into another faith that was just basically saying that again so it was confusing and it was hard for me what is a disciple and thankfully joy the teachers of those classes later a small group leader and then God in His grace and His goodness in the Bible it's begin to help me see what it means to truly be a disciple to get some context in Jesus day it was a little bit like my Mormon upbringing when you called yourself a disciple is because you you were showing people how sold out you were to whatever it is you were following like in Jesus day what would happen when you were a child is all is the kids when they were young age six to ten they would go to school and they would memorize Torah if you're like memorize Torah that doesn't seem that hard do you know how bit you know what Torah is the first five books of the Bible in my Bible this morning I count about 332 pages memorized I have a seven-year-old some days I just did a quiz in Deuteronomy 12 we'll go right I don't I'm just kidding but that's what they could do back then this is how they proved they were disciples of God five books of the Bible memorized now what would happen after your 10th year is almost all of the kids they would then go to train with whatever their father's trade was they didn't continue on this path they'd kind of done their their four years but the best of the best they were like we want them and what they would do is from 11 to 14 they would memorize the prophets and the writings so from six to ten the Torah from 11 to 14 the prophets and the writings and if you're like well what is that exactly that's the rest of the Old Testament okay Genesis to Malachi memorized today would show this is how devoted to God I am this is what I'm all about and you kind of prove that you were a disciple by your resume and your abilities and what you would accomplished now almost all of them after the 11 to 14 they then they they wouldn't continue down this road they would go to the family trade they would get jobs with the the very best of the very best they would then go to a rabbi they would find a rabbi in a way they would perform and if that rabbi accepted them he would say follow me and that person would then leave everything to follow that rabbi but from age six till about age 20 they were training to perform to prove that they could be a disciple back then I didn't want to sign up for that again I had done that I in a way I'd gone down that road and just felt how empty it was and thankfully Jesus's story is different Jesus steps into this day right the day we just talked about that's his time and place and this is how he calls his disciples check this out this is Luke 5 after this Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi also his name is Matthew Levi sitting at the tax office and he said to him follow me there's those words so leaving everything behind he got up and began to follow him now what you need to know is this is a tax collector and if you're new to the Bible if you're new to this story that would mean he was a traitor to his people he was getting rich off their backs and Jesus is saying follow me he's someone if you were boys with you didn't tell people you were friends with him he's most likely someone you wouldn't make eye contact with you wouldn't even you wouldn't even want him to think he was human he was an embarrassment but but Jesus doesn't say perform for me Jesus actually seeks them out and says follow me if you have no business today calling Jesus your savior if you've done some things that are embarrassing if you've done some things that you can't hide Jesus comes to you today and says follow me he comes with a different way of understanding discipleship he says follow me check this out these are now two brothers James and John is going from there he saw two other brothers James the son of Zebedee and his brother John they were in a boat with Zebedee their father mending their nets so what they're doing is they probably went through the six to ten year old range memorized Torah and now they're out learning how to fish with their dad so that they're not like Levi they're not an embarrassment they're just they're just doing their thing learning their trade going to work Jesus finds them since they were in a boat with Zebedee their father mending their nets and he called them and immediately they left the boat their father and followed him so already Jesus is saying if you have a story that the maybe you have some parts that you're embarrassed of follow me if you have a story that's a lot like other people's story I've heard that so often in the church I mean my story is not that special I just grew up my parents went to church I went to church every time I hear that I want to be like I wish I had your story but Jesus is saying if you have a story that you just feel kind of like a lot of people have this story Jesus says follow me and then if you're still right now trying to wiggle your way out and go I don't know if he says follow me it says this then the Jews surrounded him so this is another place where the Jews are testing Jesus and asked him how long are you gonna keep us in suspense if you're the Messiah tell us plainly I did tell you you don't believe Jesus answered them the works that I do in my father's name testify about me but you don't believe because you are not my sheep my sheep hear my voice I know them and they follow me so he goes to a tax collector he goes to fishermen he goes to someone who's kind of embarrassment betrayed his people he goes to some people who are just kind of doing the normal thing and then he goes to these people he calls sheep now I grew up in Utah and Utah has five national parks that they're famous for and they got sheep all over the rest of the part of the state okay so I've never actually lived on a sheep farm but I've seen my share of sheep you know the sheep looks like all the time looks like it doesn't know where to go it looks like it's questioning what does it I go this way do I go this way have you ever been that way in your life are you that way this morning Jesus says follow me I love that he calls sheep calls a sheep you know why there's never an alpha sheep okay like you see a dog you're like that is an alpha dog even cats like I'm not a big cat guy but you see some cats you're like that's a cool that cat looks cool I would not mess with that cat anytime you look nobody ever says man that is a dope sheep nobody ever says that nobody ever like that's the coolest sheep I've ever seen it shows us that we all need a shepherd so no matter who you are you done some things in your past you're ashamed of do you do some things this morning that you're ashamed of he says follow me you kind of going through the motions don't think anything special is gonna happen in your life he says follow me you've ever had those moments of your question which way do I go I'm not sure he says follow me see the lie of the discipleship that I was taught was that you were the hero and that you had to figure it out and you had to pass the test so God would say I want you but the truth and the scandalous and the graceful and the beautiful message of Jesus is that he finds you because I would bet if I got to know each one of you you're awesome but Jesus is better like you're a part of the story but he's the hero of the story this is the message we've been trying to live out in oh hi and it's difficult there because man Pete you heard it for hundreds of years people have been flooding there on spiritual pilgrimages man they worship gods there I've never even heard of but it's all still boils down to they want control they want to be able to shape that God to do what they want say what they want look how they want the lie of our mind is that that's what we think we need but what we really need is that hero that God sends us in Jesus because we can do a lot of beautiful things as people but one thing we are terrible at is being a savior first part of being a disciple is recognizing that he finds you God doesn't hide okay I hear the term I found Jesus I have no problem with that but the only thing that sometimes it makes us think is is that he was hiding around the pillar in the back right in the Bible you never see there was like God was like oh you found me I was trying to hide from you most of the time it's like dang you were right in front of my face I just didn't open my eyes he finds you when I called the church in 2000 the summer of 2000 as when I finally accepted this truth I called the church on my foot phone and I got a volunteer that answered and I was like I've been going to these classes I've been wrestling with what Christianity is and I think I'm ready to receive Jesus I think I'm ready to let go of control of it and I prayed with the with the volunteer and I was like I think I'm a Christian now and they're like no you are you are don't question right this is the first step to being a disciple is letting him be the hero letting him be the shepherd letting him find you now a lot of you in here I bet you know that but this next part is where he starts to speaks to us that the that have followed Jesus maybe five minutes or maybe 50 years because there's a temptation in every one of us once we start to follow him to think all right I've done this now I figured this out now now Jesus is gonna become a part of my life not my entire life and he challenges that take a look at this if they were traveling on the road someone said to him I will follow you wherever you go Jesus told him foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests but the son of man has no place to lay his head he's saying and we don't know what's gonna happen stay with me because then he said to another follow me Lord he said first let me go and bury my father but he told him let the bed dead bury their own dead but you can go and proclaim the kingdom of God another also said I will follow you Lord but first let me go back and say goodbye to those at my house but Jesus said to him no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God these are intense messages but what Jesus is saying is once we go down this road of discipleship he becomes everything and we let him lead us now remember where the sheep so he's gonna be our shepherd and we learn quickly that for the follower for the disciple there is no neutral there's no just staying in the same place see I think I got there early in my Christianity so I'd gone through all that before then I said yes to Jesus and then I even got baptized which you're like even got baptized baptism was a big deal for me seeing Mormonism you get baptized for yourself but then you also get baptized for dead people so I've been baptized over 300 times I was the Michael Jordan of baptism I can baptize myself okay so I gave my life to Jesus and somebody was like now it's time to be baptized I was like I'm not doing that I've been baptized so many times they're like maybe this is different but I'd done that I was going to church every Sunday all then a small group on the Sundays when I would miss I would even go get the cassette tape of the message and I would listen to it if you don't know what a cassette tape is ask your parents on the way home and then God reminded me that there's no neutral he invited me to take a step further I've gotten married to that girl joy we'd bought our first home we'd sold it bought a second home and I was like things are going well I was working for Ford Motor Company I was getting promoted and one night I was working in my office and I'm typing on the keyboard and for some reason I jump into a search engine it's probably Yahoo before Google and I put in the Bible College that my small group leader went to and as I just looked at the website I felt like what God was saying was you need to go to seminary I didn't know why I didn't have any designs on being a pastor that would have been so far from my mind but I was just like I need to know more about Christianity than I do Mormonism and at a time I did not I was like there's a problem I lived in Las Vegas again don't know if you know a lot of seminaries I would have to quit my job because I'd have to fly somewhere often during the week to go to classes if I wasn't gonna stay in Vegas or we might even have to move I got all that can happen you ever do that God put something on your heart and you start telling at first you're like yeah and then you start going no God we can't do it sorry bad timing I was like I know what I'll do I'll go home and I'll tell my wife and when I tell my wife because she's the rational one in our family she'll go that sounds great Kyle except we have to pay the mortgage right I went home we stood at our island of the new home we just bought and I'm telling her ready for her to tell me we can't do it she goes okay she heard me out she said God told me the same thing six months ago but he said don't tell you cuz you wouldn't listen to me it has to be your idea and I was both shocked and offended at the same time right so it started us down our road of are we gonna stay in neutral are we gonna say no are we gonna trust and follow him and folks I'm talking about a big deal right but this also happens in the smallest ways being kind to a neighbor forgiving a family member stepping in to something like a small group joining rooted as you heard about God works in both the big and the small and to him both of them are always ways where we can trust him fast forward about 15 years from that moment around that kitchen island and we lived in Salt Lake City Utah see what God did with me through seminary and ministries he'd taken me back in 2010 to Salt Lake to plant a church there and this just made sense this is where I was raised this is the language I spoke this is where I was supposed to be a man God blessed it in a place where most church plants die way before three years we thrived we were able to buy a building and we saw people come to faith we were able to go to a second location like God was blessing us and I just thought this is where I'm gonna be the rest of my life just make sense right then we had a men's retreat that the men's retreat that we had a pastor come in and I just kind of got to to be a guy there attending the retreat he sent us out into the like the mountains the wilderness for for five hours he's like I just want you to go talk to God I want you to pray Romans 12 if you don't know a Romans 12 is Romans 12 1 it means God God I want to live my life as a living sacrifice to you what does that look like show me and just remember saying that praying that over and over God show me what that looks like I just thought for sure it did not mean moving and I'm walking and I'm praying and I'm looking at the ground because there had been a large forest fire sometime before and so it was kind of wild because there was black but then there was green and all the colors were looking pretty cool and at the end I remember saying God just show me what it looks like to trust you and I stop and I look up and like 15 feet in front of me is literally a sign and this is what it says California now I don't know if you're a geography buff but Utah is not near California and I was like God I don't know what so this is the picture I took with my phone I pulled my phone out of my back pocket took the picture I was like I do not know what you're up to here for the next day I went home and I told my wife the story fully expecting her again to be like that's just as ridiculous I mean it's just a random sign instead she goes well maybe we should put the house up for sale and I'm like well how do you always do this to me and the day after that the will started rolling that eventually let us moving to California followers of Jesus there no there's no neutral God's not gonna always make sense he's not going to wait until you check all your boxes until your calendar is perfect until your bank accounts exactly where you want it to be he's just gonna keep saying follow me we maybe you're like Michael I mean he's asking me to do some things right now but I just I need time like I need training I need a mentor I need someone to help me who's been in this situation before like what he says to that so we saw James and John earlier now he's gonna talk to Peter and Andrew so he was walking along the Sea of Galilee saw two brothers Simon who was called Peter and his brother Andrew they were casting a net into the sea since they were fishermen follow me he told them and I will make you fish for people immediately they left their nets and followed him the literal translation is and I will make you become fishers of people why is this important because when God calls you he's not telling you to figure it out he's saying I will transform you into the person you need to be he doesn't say to them follow me and I will teach you the ways so you figure it out he says I will transform you into who you need to be see the truth of it is no matter what he's calling you into if you're if you are a disciple of hits you recognize that he finds you you recognize that as you follow him there's no neutral and then as you move forward you are qualified right now like that is something I have to preach to myself all the time because my brain always thinks I need more training I need more information I need to figure this out I remember when he called us to oh I was like God why would you call me out of Salt Lake City I know every corner I grew up there I I know the language I know what it feels like I know the ethos the culture I know nothing of oh hi I know nothing of California people in Utah look at California like at the different country I'm sure none of you do that but I remember him saying I'll qualify you I'll I'll give you what you need am I the good shepherd or am I not I just think something you need to hear like if he's asking you to take a step into something right now again it might be like just being kind to your neighbor forgiving that person whose name just God keeps bringing to your mind inviting that person to church or it might be a big move a big change you're qualified right now and I get I used to sit in church for three years and just argue with the preacher in my head all the time it's maybe you're like yeah dude but it's gonna be a disaster it's not this is again the scandalous nature of of the gospel is that he finds us he transforms us and then we get to join him in doing amazing and beautiful things first time I was ever in a small group we had to memorize a verse and it was this verse right here for we are his creation created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them what should you expect as you follow him good things does it mean you'll always feel comfortable no does it mean you'll always have the answer that you want when you want it no but it mean your God it means your God will be with you and as you follow him and trust you can expect good things but I love about God as he's not insecure like we are like when God creates the world do you only calls it good when we eat a taco that we post on Instagram we're like this is the most amazing taco I've ever seen in my life right but God just completely content to say it's good and then he says that we're gonna do the same thing good things Plainfield Christian Church you guys have done a good thing in blessing us in Oaxa when I went down there I had planted a church before and I'd pastored for a long time but I really had no idea what it was gonna look like to reach those people but when churches like you say yes to supporting an endeavor like that you know how it just builds up the spirit the practical tools it gives us to reach the lost you know we live in a church area where most churches barely see over 40 people on a Sunday hardly ever talk about baptisms and God has allowed us to hit the ground running where we got to see 20 people baptized in this last year we got to see people come so far from God they had no idea who he was last year and now they worship him every Sunday that's because you trusted God and following him and he's doing good things so when you think about what it means to be a disciple I hope you don't think it means performing I hope it you don't think it means passing a test but I hope you believe and trust that it means receiving that Jesus will find you he's going to lead you but it's never gonna be a neutral he's always gonna be saying come a little farther a little closer to me he's gonna transform you and in all of that he's gonna do good beautiful things you pray with me God thank you for this church I've loved getting to know them I've loved worshiping with them I've been so blessed by them father would you continue to work through them God would you continue to move in the gifts the wisdom that you have in them God would they continue to realize that you bless them with some special abilities and they can do some good and beautiful things but would they always first hold fast to Jesus the true hero and author of our story we say all this in his name amen thank you for listening to the podcast today it is our deepest desire here at Plainfield Christian Church that you would experience the joy of being fully alive in Jesus if you have any questions about our church or would like a plan to visit with us go to PlainfieldChristian.com if you'd like to receive our podcast every week we encourage you to subscribe to the Plainfield Christian Church podcast on whatever podcasting platform you'll have a great week