Fit For Life IV, Everyday Heroes

I invite you to take your outline out of your North Way notes and if you're a guest today, we're glad you're with us. These outlines help us to just read God's word as we go through the message for today. Also, there's a little insert called a communicator. If you're a guest, let that communicator be your offering that you submit at the end of the service if you'd be so kind. I want to thank all the folks that served with us over the last weeks and particularly yesterday for our community day car cruise. They did an awesome job. We had hundreds and hundreds of people that came out on a cold day and just had a great time. If you were a volunteer, let's give these folks a hand. We just appreciate you all so much. Thank you. Next week, I'll tell you about a couple of conversations that I had with people. I really love it when they come here and they don't know what I do. It's just fun. If you came to the cruise and you're here, I'm glad you're here. We had a great day yesterday. Thank you. I want to thank all the folks. People left here at 3 a.m. on Friday from tearing down from the passing conference or concert, rather. Some folks showed up at 6 a.m. to set up for the car cruise day. Marty and Don and the people in Simon said, You do one more thing and we're going to bomb your car. We've had it with all this stuff. Give us a break. Anyhow, I appreciate everybody helping so much. There's one really positive outcome from the tragic events of September 11th. That's been the reemergence of true heroes in America. Wouldn't you agree? Men and women in whom the character and conviction translated in a precise moment into an action that changed the life of another human being that God loves a great deal. Just four weeks ago, had you mentioned the word hero, in most of our minds, probably some kind of sports figure, like Barry Bonds who just broke the home run record. Or maybe some entertainer would come to you and say, Oh, that's my hero. But not anymore. Now we're talking about people who have ordinary lives like ours, doing extraordinary things. In fact, that's the definition. Look in your outline. That's the definition I use for an everyday hero. Everyday heroes are ordinary people who allow God to use them to make an extraordinary difference in another life. Regular people like you and like me. Most recently, I was affected, as I'm sure all of you were, by the different stories that came out of the tragedy. One of them that was so powerful was of Todd Beamer, who was caught on flight 93 that crashed outside of Somerset. Most of you know there's a picture of Todd. His wife, the President acknowledged her when he gave his speech to the nation. He was a believer, from all accounts that I heard. What was astonishing about his story and those on that plane was they didn't hesitate. Here's what J.T. Caruso, who is the FBI Deputy Assistant Director, said this, I can confirm that the passengers engaged in a fight for their lives with their four hijackers and most likely saved the lives of unknown individuals on the ground. In a tour of the crash site, Attorney General John Ashcroft called the passengers aboard flight 93 absolute heroes for their actions during the flight. Theirs was the only one of the four hijacked planes that did not strike a terrorist target. And there were many others, firemen and rescue workers, and many ordinary people who went back in the buildings just to help or in some way afterwards positioned themselves in a way to be used by God to help someone. And you're seeing more and more of those stories now as they come through on the media. But some of that can become a little surreal to us because we're not in those sort of tragic situations right now. So I want to talk today about how God might want to use you as an ordinary person in your ordinary life because that's what God loves to do. You know, if you read the Bible with any sense of sort of continuity, you see throughout redemptive history, God always loved to choose people who were ordinary and turn them into really amazing people. He took Moses who, by the way, wandered around as a sheep herder for almost 40 years and made him a deliverer of the nation. He took Esther who was a slave and made her a spokesperson that saved the people of Israel. And you go on down the list. Now, Gideon is one of my favorites because Gideon represents sort of, like most of us, a guy who just was afraid in the middle of everything that was going on. He was a farmer and farmers threshed their wheat and so Gideon was threshing his wheat and going away. But he wasn't doing it outside like you're supposed to because when you thresh it in the wind, you know, the wheat and the chaff separate. The wind helps blow them apart and makes picking it up easier. He was hiding because of these marauders and bands of enemies that were always attacking the people of Israel. He was hiding in this big wine press, a place where you usually squash grapes. He was down inside there, probably about 10 feet deep, threshing his wheat against the side because he was afraid that someone might see him. And he said, oh, you've got to get this picture. Here he is, you know. He's down here, like, hiding and afraid. And an angel appears to him and says, Hey, mighty warrior! He's like, who else is down here? Because it sure wasn't me. And yet, the story goes on. Judges 6, you can read about it. Book of Judges. God used Gideon to call down this army of people that had tried to assemble against the enemy down to 300 fighting men who staved off thousands who wanted to attack the children of God. God loves to use ordinary people to do extraordinary things. And I want to share with you what four characteristics I see that mark everyday heroes, ordinary people. And by the way, if you have one of these, God's going to use you. If you have all four of them, don't even get out of your seat. You're going to get zapped today. Let's look at them, would you? Let's look at them together. First of all, everyday heroes are available to God and others. I encourage you to write that down. Available to God and others. You will not have the privilege of experiencing God using you unless you make yourself available. Make a decision every day. Every day to be available. Look what the next verse says. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. That's Paul writing in Philippians 2. You know, that would have seemed to be a month ago like a crazy idea for most Americans. But have you noticed recently people tend to be just a little more considerate and looking out just a little. I've noticed that. And God said all along what he wants us to do is not live our lives for us, for me. This is my day. This is my goal for the day and get out of my way kind of thing. Rather, he says, Check your heart and see if you're available to God. Day by day. Get up, start each morning. And a good, by the way, a good way to pray is right on the top of your outline. Pray this little prayer. Give yourselves completely to God. Every part of you. You want to be tools in the hands of God to be used for his good purposes. Say, Lord, today I'm a tool in your hands. What a way to start your day. And then just expect God to bring someone across your path that he's going to use in your life. But you've got to get, you've got to become available. And for a lot of us, that has to do with getting connected. One of the things that makes you more available than anything else is to have a group of people with whom you're connected. Okay. That's a special point. Get that one. Have a group of people that you're connected with because they tend to be the ones that God will most often use in your life one way or the other. I want you to hear a story this morning of somebody who, he was going through life and doing the normal things and then something happened. And in my book, he's demonstrated heroic faith in the last 12 months. But he wants to tell you about his heroes. Give a warm welcome to Ross Hunter as he comes to share. Hi. As Jay says, my name is Ross Hunter. And many of you know me from my years up here on the worship team or more recently from my name being in the bulletin on the prayer list. Pastor Jay and Susan McCabe called me this week, asked me to share about a hero in my life. And to start out, I'd be reluctant if I didn't mention a man named Jim Van Bumble who, back in the late 70s, opened his house to 20 or 30 youth in the South Hills of Cleveland for a time of Bible study and singing and fellowship. And this is where I accepted Christ as my personal Savior and began my life serving the Lord. Well, we're going to abruptly jump ahead 25 years, which finds me now with a beautiful wife, Diane, and three great kids, Matt, Laura, and Nathan. And last September, things changed a little bit for us. Life got a little more complicated. To our surprise, I was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. And stage 3 basically means that the cancer had advanced past two of what they claim are four stages. Well, after surviving the initial shock of this news, it was time to see how 25 years of faith would hold up under pressure. That's where my recent hero stepped in. You see, this was nothing new for our cell group. Our cell group had seen God's healing hand on two other lives, Sue Haskey, who had a brain cancer, and more recently, Doreen Franks, who had breast cancer. My healing process began with prayer, and then surgery, and six months of chemotherapy. The prayer was great. Surgery went well. It feels good just to get that stuff out of your body. And chemo was not so much fun. That's where, knowing that my prayer heroes were lifting me up constantly, even when they didn't know how I felt. My cell group was my foundation, but I know that there were so many more that were praying for me. Clear over to the Starkey's in Malaysia. By the way, the Banes win the prize for the most cards and notes that were sent to my house, and I've kept every one of them. They mean a very lot. All your prayers were answered. I kept my strength up and was able to work half days throughout chemotherapy. Other than a few trips to the emergency room late at night, things really went pretty well. In fact, on my last visit to my oncologist, he suggested that I continue to come for chemotherapy every Tuesday morning. We had not seen my last blood test results and thought, oh no. He quickly said nothing was wrong. He just wanted to keep my uplifting and positive spirit around the other patients. It's been a year now, and checkups show no sign of cancer. I have grown a lot. I know the power of prayer. I know how to claim the promises in God's word, and I felt his grace in my life. We'll be watching closely over the next several years, but as we've all sung many times, God is good all the time. Thank you. Hold me close Let your love surround me And I will soar with you Your spirit leads me along In the power of your love Would you stand? That's what he's saying. In the power of your love Lord, I come to you Lord, I come to you Let my heart be teaching you Flowing from the grace That I have in you Lord, I've come to know The weaknesses I see Maybe we'll be stripped away By the power of your love Hold me close Hold me close Let your love surround me Bring me near Bring me near Draw me close Draw me to your side Draw me close inside As I wait As I wait Oh, how I'd like to live And I will soar with you Your spirit leads me along In the power of your love Lord, unveil my lips Lord, unveil my eyes Let me see you I want to see your face The knowledge of your love Is you in me You know my mind I want to bring to my mind That you are close Living every day In the power of your love Hold me close Hold me close Let your love surround me Bring me near Bring me near Draw me close Draw me to your side Hold me close inside As I wait As I wait Oh, how I'd like to live And I will soar with you Your spirit leads me along In the power of your love Hold me close ...became a need. He had been available helping others where you could never have imagined everyday heroes were available. Let's be seated. Another thing I see in everyday heroes is they have the capacity to see potential not problems in others. Have you discovered that God's given us all this very unique, wonderful gift of being able to see problems in other people? Do you have that gift? How many of you have that gift? You've already seen, you know, some of you have already seen the problems in me or someone else up here or maybe the person on your row maybe the person you live with. And we're all very, I mean, we're just really good at that. I have, if they gave degrees in it some of us would have a PhD in that. The firstborns especially. But God has a little different way. You see, throughout scripture God reveals himself as one who sees the potential in people not the problems. I mean, he sees the problems but he doesn't stop there and say, well, you know, they're just, they're a hopeless case. Forget that. He sees what they can become. He knows what he's prepared for them to do. Look at the next verse in your outline. For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance. In advance of what? Before you were ever born he already knew what it was he wanted you to do. He's already made the way for you to do it. And God used people all throughout the Bible who had problems but he saw their potential. He saw Moses' anger yet he used Moses as a deliverer. He saw Gideon's timidity and fear but he gave him great courage. God seems to look past those problems to the potential that's in each and every one of us. And by the way, everyday heroes do the same thing. They're not put off when they reach out to people and get rebuffed a little bit. They're not timid and just hide because someone rejects them. They're willing to hang in there and help others uncover their potential in Jesus. I want you to hear another story this morning of somebody who, you know, could have been passed over. Somebody could have just given up on him but his hero came along and shared something very important to him when he needed it most. Give a warm welcome. Steve Merzlach, where are you? Steve, come on up here. Morning, brother. Thank you. Morning. Over the last couple of weeks we've heard countless stories of heroes in the news. My hero you won't see on TV. At least I don't think you will. My hero's name is Carl Adler who's an elder here at the church. Carl introduced me to someone whom he said would change my life forever. This someone was Jesus Christ. I still remember the day seven years ago when Carl and I were on our way to an appointment in Altoona. Carl started playing Christian tapes and talking to me about Jesus. I had many questions and the day ended with me accepting his invitation to attend a church service at North Way. You see, I saw how Carl lived his life and I wanted to find out what made him different. I attended the service with Carl and in subsequent weeks accepted Jesus into my heart. My life has never been the same since. Little did I know that I was soon to go through the darkest period of my life. I was comforted to know that I would not go through the darkness alone. I now had Jesus at my side. Carl was a true hero to me and to many others in this church. He was used by God to rescue me from the depths of hell and to secure my eternal future in heaven. Thank you, Carl, for participating in the transformation of Steve Mursla. Thank you. Carl's not even in the country right now. He's out visiting family with he and his wife. Not here to hear Steve, but he knows. Carl would say, like the rest of us, when God uses us, we don't even realize it. It's so wonderful to watch lives be changed because we just had a willingness to show up and let God use us. We look past the problems and saw the potential. Another characteristic of everyday heroes, turn your outline over, is that they see in themselves weaknesses, but they also know God can turn those weaknesses into strength. They know they're not perfect. And by the way, we know they're not perfect. Folks, there's not a perfect one in the bunch here today. But we have a God who sees our weaknesses and our imperfections and turns them into strength. Most of us have an inclination, not all of us, but most of us have an inclination to disqualify ourselves from being used by God because we see ourselves and know what we're like and know that we've got these different attitudes or different problems or different issues that we struggle with. And we think, hey, there's better people around that God could use. I've heard people tell me that. Why would He use me when there's so and so who has all this other understanding of the Bible or they're more mature? You know what? God is not impressed by any of that. He's just looking for someone who will say, Use me, Lord. I'm available to you. Now, that's not a license. Now, catch this. It's not a license to go out and just sin and indulge yourself and do whatever you please and then say, oh yeah, God, I want to be used too. No, that's not true. It is to say, however, if you have weaknesses, if you struggle, that doesn't disqualify you from having God use you because He, listen, He loves to use people who don't think they can do anything because when it's all done, you know you didn't do it. He did. You see? And He gets the glory that way. There's a few too many people who'd like to get the glory for themselves. So God says, well, give me just some people who are trusting me for their issues, looking to me for their struggles and I'll use them and then I'll get the glory and I'll get the praise. Look at the next verse in your outline. This is the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul had some weaknesses but here's what he writes. He'd been struggling with these, what the Bible calls a thorn in the flesh. We don't even know what it was but it was causing him pain and he was struggling and he asked the Lord to take it away and Jesus answered back. Here's what he said. Each time, my gracious favor is all you need. My power works best in your weakness. So now I'm glad to boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may work through me. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Would you say that? For when I am weak, then I am strong. Now that's a paradox. That is something that doesn't make sense in the natural. Most of us, when we're weak, we think, well, that just eliminates me. When I'm weak, allow me to fill you and you'll become strong. I'll use that to my glory. And the Bible has so many illustrations of this and there's so many people around here who have the same kinds of experience. I want you to hear just one of them. Someone like many of you who, you know, life was really pretty good but then she just hit this difficulty, this weakness that came and she didn't know what to do about it. I want you to hear her story. It's very important for some of you today. Vicki Adams is going to come in here. Give her a hand, please. Okay. Can you make it? A little slower this time. Ready? One, two. That's a short joke. Okay. Go ahead. Slow is very hard, but okay. Heroes. What a great word, especially for those who take no pride in their accomplishments but enjoy seeing the mighty healing power of the Lord expressed to them tirelessly. My heroes are Mary Gephardt and Ruth Raycroft. They have given me hope in times of absolute discouragement. Listening to the promptings of others and hearing the prayer counseling ministry, I made one call to Mary Gephardt and I was ushered in to receive the unconditional love of the Lord. In the sessions, I never experienced any judgment or disbelief, just unconditional love. I found myself, after walking with the Lord for 18 years, I no longer could believe the message I once professed. Despair, discouragement, and even thoughts of suicide began to envelop my days. Scripture had lost its power of protection over me. I would pick it up and read in vain. I could understand why now when I had it all. The child I had begged the Lord for and received, a husband who loved me and cared passionately for me, and all the earthly possessions were paid in full. What was missing? What was missing was the message I received on the salvation, trust in God, and knowing the Father heart of God. Because of childhood abuses to numerous and painful dimension, I had somehow applied all my tortured thinking to his most powerful message of unconditional love and grace. Mary and Ruth have spent many volunteer hours, 30 to be exact, ranging over 9 months to a year, 10 sessions, taking me to past memories and experiences to receive God's truth where the enemy has so convinced me of lies, lies I have carried throughout my life and into my belief system today. Unworthy, unloved, should never have been born, just to match a few, were feelings I struggled with. These were not God-breathed. Mary and Ruth have placed themselves in a position of training where they do not rely on their own strength but the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, He being the healer and the truth. Without the truth there is no healing. No matter how painful or unjust the past memories, they stood strong beside me, never flinching. When the pain got too much to bear, they interceded for breakthrough. And it came. My family and I are ever so grateful for their tireless dedication to this powerful ministry and their willingness to share the love of our Lord unto His healing grace. Thank you, Mary and Ruth. Your hours are many and behind the scenes, but the fruit is obvious and thriving amidst the body. Because this great example of selfless love and healing I have received, the Lord has given me the opportunity to grow in the very same expression of His love and healing to others. I have participated in the process with Mary and Ruth, being a witness of His restorative hand over several lives. Once you have received His truth, and all that remains is a vessel to His glory to be used as He sees fit. Thank you. I hope you caught the last part of that. Now Vicki's participating in the process to help others. See, God's turned her weakness into a strength. And I know some of you needed to hear that particular message today. Maybe you felt, maybe you feel today, unloved, unworthy, shouldn't have been born. Those kinds of feelings and thoughts attack all of us at different times. If you're going through a struggle right now, we have a message. The message is don't give up. Trust God. Let's stand as we sing this together. Don't give up. Someone really loves you. Don't give up. Someone really cares. Someone really cares. Don't give up. Someone really loves you. And that someone is the Lord. Keep the faith. Keep the faith. Someone really loves you. Keep the faith. Someone really cares. Someone really cares. Keep the faith. Someone really loves you. And that someone is the Lord. Don't give up. Someone really loves you. Don't give up. Someone really cares. Someone really cares. Don't give up. Someone really loves you. And that someone is the Lord. And that someone is the Lord. You're here today and that message was for you. I'd just like you to have a moment of contact with the Lord and just to say, Lord, I'm struggling. I see my weaknesses and I'm about to give up and I want to receive your grace to continue to battle on. Touch me. Make me whole. I'd like you to just lift your hand up and say, I need that in my life. In the name of Jesus, I agree with you all. Many hands are going up. Nothing to be embarrassed about. It's a moment and God will turn your weakness into His strength. And I agree with the scores of you. Raise your hand. Just get in touch with God as He's here right now to minister to you. He really loves you. He's the Lord of your life. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated, everyone. So what's the common thread that unites all these heroes? Is it intelligence or talent or influence or giftedness or some unique insight? What is it about them? Well, that's not what I found. Over the years, I've discovered this. The one common thread. Listen to this. Every hero, everyday heroes, national heroes, any hero has is the spirit of sacrifice. It's a spirit of sacrifice. They know that there comes a time every day if they're walking with God and sometimes big moments in their life when they have to make the choice to sacrifice what might be in their own best self-interest for the sake of someone else. Sacrificial love. It's just so counter-culture. I mean, the culture is all about indulgence. It's all about doing what's best for me. But God says, no, that's not the way I run my kingdom. Look at the next verse. So, brothers and sisters, since God has shown us great mercy, offer your lives as a living sacrifice to Him. Your faith, next verse, makes you offer your lives as a living sacrifice in serving God. That's how God moves us in His purposes. It takes a sacrifice. Sometimes it's time. Sometimes it's money. Sometimes it's a talent or gift. And there's got to be a few of you thinking, you know what? Pastor Jay, that sounds good and I know I should be there, but you don't know how much my life consumes of me and I don't have any time left, I don't have any money left, and I don't have any giftedness left to give any place else. I'm just trying to survive. But, you know, can I make a suggestion that it might be a time, it just might be a season in your life when God is saying, Re-examine again. What's most important in your life? Maybe the thing you've set out there is this super goal in your life isn't all that important when it gets down to it. Maybe God's saying to you, just adapt things somewhat, adjust them. Put some margin in your life so you can respond to my nudgings. You know, the Apostle Paul was what multi-level marketers call a super achiever. I mean, he was doing it right all the time. If you read about it, Philippians 3, he says, somewhat almost braggadociosly, he says, You know, I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. I was the head of the teaching scribes. I was faultless in my holiness to pursue God. I mean, he was just like bragging on. And then he says this, he says, But everything I had, all the gain I had, I compared as loss to the overwhelming, amazing truth of knowing Christ Jesus. He said, in fact, I count them all as, and what word did he use? Yeah, he uses dung word, and in some translations it says trash or rubbish. Rubbish. So I asked him to get me a trash bag just to kind of represent life. It got me the biggest thing I've ever seen. Maybe it's symbolic, huh? God's saying, well, maybe you want to take some of the things you think are so important about human achievement and just put them in the trash bag because compared to knowing Jesus and giving your life to his purposes, these really don't matter at all, Paul says. And you know what? Thanks, Brian. I believe the events of the last month have maybe made us all rethink a bit what really does matter. Would you agree with that? Maybe it's time for us to clean out our schedules a little bit and turn our priorities around and re-examine and say, well, when I'm putting my time and my money and my talents, is that the best place for them? Here at North Way, we have lots of people who are making that decision every day. And they're not doing it perfectly, but they're doing it with a lot of enthusiasm. And I want you just to say thank you to them with me for being available to us. This church wouldn't be here, wouldn't be doing what it's doing if it weren't for hundreds of people. And we want to show you just a little video of people who've made this decision on a daily basis to be sacrificial, to step up when need be, to serve in the ministry. So watch this video. And if you see yourself, let it be a way of saying thank you. And if you don't see yourself, ask, hey, I want to be in that. How do I get involved? Let's watch this together. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ We really appreciate you all. Thank you. It was hard to calculate the total number of capacity within the church family here. And that doesn't count the ones who are doing things in their small groups or other ministries. 700. But you know what? We also calculated if everyone was, if every slot was, as it were, every assignment were covered, there'd be 1,700 different things happening around here. Including all the kids in the nurseries and the youth ministry and all. So that means a number of people are doing two or three things. So that means there's lots of other opportunities for those of you who want to start getting involved, get your life on track, become part of the solution. I want to encourage you to consider that today. We're focusing on serving as a lifestyle. Before you go today, I want you to take a look in your notes. There's a little insert there. Not now, but you can look at it later. It talks about how you can plug in, a place that you can serve. 301 is the class we have. It teaches you to discover your spiritual shape. And from that, where you can serve in a ministry. There's lots of opportunities. Don't let the excuses mount up. Act on what you know God's nudging you to do. And why should you? Let me close with this. What's the motivation? Well, on your outline, the last thing we talk about, why should we sacrifice for God's purpose? The highest motivation I can conceive of is this, that Jesus Christ has already done it for you. You see, God will never ask you to do something He's already done for you. That's the amazing thing about God. You know, God loves us in a way I just can't fathom sometimes. You know, He has feelings. Have you ever thought that God has feelings? Do you have feelings about things? How many of you have felt, let me get an honest response here, how many of you have felt some anger about the violation that we received as a nation over the last month? You've just felt some anger about it. Just think this isn't right. Most of us have. Most of us have felt a good deal, as a matter of fact. And it's one of the things that is part of who we are as people. But have you ever thought that God has felt anger about the fact that we've rejected His Son and violated Him who is innocent and humble and really just helping people and healing people? Why would God treat us the way He does? Why does He just, do you think He has enough weapons in His arsenal to just kind of make us have a difficult day? We don't know why except this, except that God somehow in His infinite mercy has chosen to give us the opportunity to choose whether or not we'll turn from our own lives, our own way of doing things, and receive the life of His Son. That's why Jesus came. To pay the penalty for our sin. And so God says to us, in a way that I just don't understand, I'll put my feelings aside, my feelings of violation, my feelings of anger, my feelings of retribution against the people that took the life of my Son. And by the way, that was you and me. Don't just point the finger back. Our sin put Him on that cross. The Bible's very clear about that. God could come down today and justifiably wipe us out, but He says, no, I want you to hear my call. I want you to hear my love for you. I want you to receive my mercy. And when you do, when you respond, and then you begin to tell others and serve others, God says, I'm going to reward that. I came across this verse in my preparation this week. Hebrews 6.10. If you'll put that up, please. Hebrews 6.10. I've not seen this as clearly as this week. Look at what this says. God is not unjust. He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help them. Do you see that? How do we minister to God? By ministering to people. How do we show God love? By showing others love. How many of you just rather show it to God? I'll just show you my love. But no, He says, show it to others and thereby you'll show it to me. God says, I'll reward that. Jesus said in Mark 10, if you do that, no matter what you give up, if you give up homes and wealth and fields and families, I'm going to repay you more than you can imagine because God will be a debtor to no one. So the best thing I can tell you is, sacrifice because Jesus sacrificed for you and God will reward your sacrifice in ways you can't imagine. I have found that to be true. And perhaps the first sacrifice we should bring is the sacrifice of our worship. So let's stand together. Let's open our heart song one last time as we say