Where Are You?

I want to talk about how we can leave a legacy in our life times by being contritely submitted to the will of God. Yes, that’s a mouthful, even for me. Here’s what I feel, and you can tell me that I’m wrong, but I doubt that I’m wrong. We have some skeptics in this room. And I’ll be the first to tell you that that’s cool. Yup, I said that’s cool and the reason that it’s cool is because as much of a skeptic you think you are, I’m more of a skeptic than you can even dream of being. So if you’re skeptic, if you’re here because somebody forced you or brought you here, then I wrote this especially for you—from God’s heart to yours. I want to call this sermon: Where are you? 1And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.- Ephesians 2:1-10 This is hard to swallow. What kind of “sin” and trespass did I commit that I deserved to die? Here’s the second thing you’re thinking, “when did I ever follow a tool named the prince of power of the air?” Third thing, when was I ever a disobedient child? I do everything my folks tell me to do, except when I don’t and when I complain about doing it. Here’s the part that we don’t want to believe or find anything wrong with: when are our passions of the flesh not fulfilled at the cost of somebody else? Here, let me give you an example of that because I think maybe that I’m being a little abstract. Yesterday, before I came to Virginia, I had to take a three hour train ride in the other direction to Albany, which is the capital of New York State, for a 12 o clock meeting. So in order to make it to the meeting and still leave enough room just in case something happened, my colleague and I left NY at 8AM. But because I had to stay late the night before, she said that she would bring breakfast. So at 7:36AM, I get a phone call from my colleague and she says, “Jonathan, I’m so sorry!” Now, I’m a little concerned, because this girl never says sorry. I say, “what’s wrong?” and she replies, “I lack self control!!” She ate all the breakfast on her way to the train station! Like four pastries! I said, “where’d it all go? Man, for a fat girl, you’re mad skinny.” Don’t we generally follow these three patterns? Though? We do stupid things, we disobey everybody because we don’t like being told what to do; we follow tools. I break up with a lot of the boyfriends that my girls bring to church because they’re tools. Yeah, I break up relationships too. Girls are generally good to their boyfriends but boyfriends, they’re such tools to their girlfriends. For some reason, girls like that and follow these tools to the pits of failure. It drives me up the wall. And their excuse is, “but Pastor Jonathan, I’ll never get married and then I’ll be lonely and single like you.” But maybe, just maybe, we follow a fourth pattern. You can’t be Christian and not a Christian at the same time. You have to live it all the time. There is no turning it off and no turning it on. We have passions within us at war– this is a reference to the human inclination toward sinning and evil despite trying to be good. If we’re Christian, we’re most likely suffering from this pattern. Trust me, I battle this every single morning when I wake up. Your pastors, teachers, and other people battle this every single day. We wake up and just like you guys, we battle the inclination to do wrong, knowing wrong and despite wanting to do right. Like I I want to eat hotdogs and hamburgers three or four times a day and/or days in a row. I want it so desperately, but I know it’s wrong. I’m told it’s wrong all the time. I have this lunch monitor. This accountability partner. This accountability partner has one major function—that I eat healthy and balanced. Everyday I get a text message about what I eat and where I ate and this partner can tell if I’m lying or what not by how fast I respond. Paul writes about this in Romans. 21So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. – Romans 7:21-25 How many of you know this feeling of trying to do something write and you set out to be resolved about it in your mind, but every time you physically attempt to do it, you fail? Is it just me? I think I constantly do this especially when I think about all the “lies” I tell. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a pretty honest and straightforward guy, but there are a times when a more delicate handling of the situation has to be pictured and the roses do get redder and the greens more green when I say things. It’s like every time I resolve to not do it, I do it almost within the next 5 minutes and I find myself doing it more often as well. It’s crazy. People who are addicted to something, whether it be drugs, activities or etc, they make an idol of those things but that’s not the bad part. The bad part is when they want to change and they have the mind to change and they can’t. Their bodies simply won’t allow them to do so. The biggest problem and the reason why Paul writes this in Romans 7 and why James had made it a theme in his letter is because our human nature makes us more naturally inclined to do things that are ensure the survival of just one being and that being is us. To be more specific, our physical and carnal dispositions are to “me, myself and I.” This is why people come and go and relative obscurity in their lives. It’s because their concerns reach only as far as themselves and their immediate surroundings. If you want to leave a legacy in the world your desires and concerns have to be about the world—not yourself. We want and crave and kill most often because of us, our own sake. This is why we’re so drawn to CSI and Law and Order and ER. Minus all the reality TV shows, most shows are about murder and suing people and not getting caught and reality TV is just an outlet for us to express what we wanted to say but we were always too ashamed to admit to. I know that some of you really thought “chicken of the sea” was actual “chicken” and not tuna. This all culminates in the notion that all is hopeless and all is lost and there is nothing left for us because we sin, because we’re worthy of death and because we don’t have anything to offer God in return for his sacrifice. Am I not right? This would mean that we’re just fooling ourselves and that our only chance to leave a legacy is either to do something incredibly bad and wrong and live forever in infamy or become a reality show princess like snookie and ruin the lives of our future progeny. Yet we know this is not the type of God we worship. He gives and he gives generously and unconditionally. We have the right to ask God for anything and everything. If we have to figure where we are, we have to say that we are exactly where we ask God to put us. And if we’re not asking God, then we’re nowhere. Do we have a right to ask? If we ask on behalf of other people, then does that justify our asking? Is that not selfish also? We read the exact oppose it of this in the letter of 1st John. 14And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. – 1st John 5:14-15. I am going to tell you this, God’s will is God’s will and is God’s will. You want to pray or ask God what He would ask and He wouldn’t ask about lollipops which is essentially what we ask for in our petitions to God. Everything is for the purposes and glory of God—I say this to you because I think we get too caught up in success and using God as a magic 8 ball. Getting everything you want does not lead to leaving a legacy God wants you to leave. Hell, it doesn’t even lead to a better future. Absolutely, it doesn’t. At the end of the day God wants you to be wholly dependent on Him for everything and in order to do that we have to request and speak with Him about where He is going to be. This verse can most easily be explained by a passage Paul writes to the Corinthians in 2nd Corinthians 6:16…”For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Submission to God is literally putting on the armor of God. 10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints… – Ephesians 6:10-18 This is not a call for people to be emo in anyways. Rather this is the posture and practical application of recognizing our inequities and inability to save ourselves. If we recognize how much we fail, then it puts us in this posture of mourning and weeping. When we come to God knowing who we are and how much we’re worth without Him. God will come near to us and allow us to leave a legacy only He can write into the hearts, mind and fabric of history.