Lifestyles of the Raised and Famous

The reason why a show like Lifestyles of the Raised and Famous, or as we know it, Rich and Famous, is big these days, the reason why Pennsylvanians buy over a billion dollars of lottery tickets every year, the reason why three million Americans will spend nearly a billion dollars this year to a handful of personal success and achievement gurus on cable TV, the reason why I'm never going to need to wallpaper or paint my son's rooms anymore because of the posters is because we're a nation of dreamers. We love to dream about what might be. We want to nurture in our spirit the possibilities of making us something that we're not, of attaining a lifestyle that we don't have. How many times our dreams don't exactly live up to reality? Ever have a dream that you thought was coming true? I'm not talking about marriage here, but you've had that kind of thing, haven't you? Did you ever look into a vacation brochure and see a hotel or a motel that was describing one of those things, and you showed up on the scene? I remember once staying at the Royal Palms, a place I picked out of a travel brochure. They should have called it the Royal Palm for the one that was remaining beside it. You know, the swimming pool, of course, was empty, out of service, I found out later, for three years. It did have a mountain view, but you had to look over the dumpsters to see the mountains. It was quiet and restful after 3 a.m. when the traffic on the interstate next door had stopped. You've had those kind of things happen, I'm sure. But it was Napoleon Bonaparte that said, imagination rules the world. What he meant by that was people are more moved by powerful ideas and visions than personalities, legislation, or even brute force. And it's true, isn't it? I mean, people will go to extraordinary lengths, give heroic devotion and heavy sacrifice for something they really believe in. I've heard the troops, our troops in the Middle East, now returning, saying when they were there that they had gone because they believed in what America stood for and what our nation was standing for. Throughout history, certain leaders have been able to capture such devotion by articulating a vision so compelling that people could no longer just watch it. They had to climb out of the grandstands and out of the shadows and get on the playing field and say, I want to be part of this vision. Think about it. In American history, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson articulated a vision of a nation that was freely governed by a democratically elected ruling body and thousands of people believed it was worth dying for. Later on, Abraham Lincoln articulated a vision of a nation free from slavery and hundreds of thousands gave their lives for that vision. Later on, Franklin Delano Roosevelt had a vision that would lift this nation out of depression and lead it into prosperity. And thousands sacrificed to see the vision come to pass. More recently, Martin Luther King stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 and said what? Do you remember? What did he say? I have a dream. And his dream was that men and women would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the character of their lives. And millions have caught part of that vision as well. But I want to submit to you tonight that the greatest visionary in the history of the world was a carpenter from Nazareth by the name of Jesus. It was Jesus who stood outside a tomb once and declared, I am the resurrection and the life. And the Easter message I want to bring tonight is not just about resurrection, it's about life. It's about a vision for life. Jesus gave the world the most powerful vision it had ever known. When Jesus spoke, you know the people around him listened. He was the E.F. Hutton of the first century. He was able to attract multitudes of people. Even to this day, people study his words like no other words ever spoken. I'm going to ask you for the next minutes to consider what your vision for life is, what is really driving you, what idea is moving you through life, what's playing on the TV screen of your heart this day? And I want you to do something. You know today you could go into the appliance store and buy a TV with a big screen and then there's a little screen that comes on. Have you ever seen those? That was a question. Let's try. Good. It's screen on screen. And I want you to for a few minutes insert inside the big screen your vision perhaps what this Jesus gave as a vision for life. I want you to compare it for a few minutes. See the truth of the matter is I think it's fair to say that Jesus spoke like no other man ever spoke. He had a vision that people, when they heard it, they said we've never heard anything like this. This man has the ring of authority. What was his vision? Jesus said, simply put, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That is the message of the Gospels. In other words, Jesus was saying that I have come, that the kingdom of heaven or the rule of God, the kingdom of God could come right here, right now on the earth. That was the vision that Jesus had for his day and for our day. Now this was so revolutionary people didn't understand it. They said, what's he talking about? And so he used a long list of parables and object lessons and what we've called parables, that is, and stories to illustrate these concepts. He would say the kingdom of God is like a treasure in a field where a man sold everything he had to buy the treasure. Or the kingdom of God was like a man who threw a net out into a lake and hauled in a great catch of fish. He would go on and on and talk about the kingdom of God, eternal things in everyday values in terms so people could understand him. And as the Lord began to articulate this vision and what it meant to live under his values and priorities and his quality of life, some people began to catch on. It was slow at first. Everyone wasn't convinced right off the bat, but as they heard him and watched him, and then as they saw the miracles that he did to confirm what he was saying, some began to climb out of the grandstands and some jumped out of the shadows onto the playing fields of life and said, I want to be part of this Jesus. I've never heard a vision like that. I've never heard something that was worth giving my whole life to. Now you know that what took place was that a few zealots and religious bureaucrats decided they didn't like Jesus' message, that he was infringing on their turf. And so they arranged to have someone betray him for 30 pieces of silver. They arranged to have a mock trial where Jesus was found guilty. They arranged to have him beaten, tortured, and crucified, thinking that in that way they would end this talk about a new kingdom and a new vision. But what happened? It didn't work, did it? Jesus died, and three days later he rose again from the dead, came back in the midst of his disciples, and said, hey guys, let's get going. The vision is as alive as I am. Let's go for it. Let's do it. Let's get on with it. That's why I came. And a few weeks later, Jesus gave the directions and the Holy Spirit gave the power, and those early disciples established the first New Testament expression of this vision for life. And they called it the church. The church. That was what Jesus was talking about. And I want to give, if I might, three characteristics of the vision for life that's to be seen in the church that Jesus died and rose to say. See if these three things are in the screen of your life. Are they in your life's vision? Number one, compassion. The mark of the resurrected lifestyle is one of compassion. What drew Jesus to the earth in the first place was he saw the needs of men and had compassion on them. It says in Psalm 116 and verse 5 that the Lord is gracious and righteous and full of compassion. Compassion isn't pity. It's identifying with the needs and hurts of others in order to help lift them out of it. Jesus said over and over again when he saw people hurting, when he saw large multitudes gather and individually said, I have compassion on this people. I care about what's happening to them. Now, how much compassion do you have in your life these days? Some of us long to see more compassion. We know we should have more, but because of abuse, because of hurt, because of neglect or sometimes perhaps insensitivity when you were growing up, you're afraid to show compassion. I've had numbers of people tell me that their mom and dad never once told them that they loved them. Every time they made a mistake, they were judged and criticized for it. Every failure was kind of touted in front of them because that's what you're like. And so when it comes time to show compassion to others, you're not able to do it. You have to withdraw back into your little shell and protect yourself for fear of someone judging you once again. Now, some of us I'm sure are thinking when it comes to compassion, hey, get real. I work in the real world. I mean, it's dog-eat-dog where I'm coming from. I'll get eaten up if I start showing compassion out there. Michael McCovey wrote in his book, The Gamesman, in the typical corporate setting these days, qualities of heart like compassion and generosity and a capacity to love are discouraged, not encouraged. One man said, to keep my job, I have to check my heart at the door. The problem is I often forget to pick it up on the way home. A man told me this Friday at lunch, he said, it's my heart that gets me into trouble at work. Can you relate to that? Others out there, you're thinking, they're not worried about showing compassion. They'll do anything to make a deal or to get ahead. And I know sometimes you can't help but feel schizophrenic about it all. Here in church, you know you should be compassionate and you want to be. And you go out on Monday in the business world and it looks like if you did that, you'd die. Others of us are so busy, so busy moving from here to here so quickly that we never have time to show compassion. Remember the story of the Good Samaritan? If we're honest folks, some of us are in such a hurry to fulfill our responsibilities, we don't have time to even notice the needs around us. And pastors are that way too, I might add. I was coming up out of North Park, going up the long hill toward my house. There's quite a line of traffic and halfway up the hill, I noticed this old beat-up station wagon, kind of rusted, little smoke, pulled off to the side. You know, people were honking their horn and going around and waving and all that kind of stuff. And I don't mean waving like this waving, I mean this kind of waving. And I finally had my turn and looked, I could see heads bouncing, kids, you know, in the backseat and just got up beside it. And just out of the corner of my eye, I saw it. A fateful moment. But God is my source, bumper stick. And here's this car off to the side, you know. And I knew right then, I needed to stop. It was a lady with her kids, car broken down. There it was. I went right on by. Hey, I got meetings tonight. Come on, you know, this is for real. Got up to the top of the hills and the Lord said, what are you, the Levite? Priest? What are you doing? Turned the car around, went back down, helped figure everything out, got her back on the road again. You see, I know what it's like. Compassion is to be the mark of the lifestyle of a person in the kingdom of God. When a people lose compassion, they lose their God-likeness. Look at the dictators of our day. What was Saddam Hussein called? The butcher of Baghdad. He didn't have compassion. He was ruthless. On the other hand, Jesus knew that compassion and strength weren't contradictory. They were complementary. One of our heroes, General Schwarzkopf, in this edition of Newsweek, distinguished himself as a military leader, not just because of his tactical brilliance, not just because he had things figured out to the team, not just because he handled the media well or because he was able to anticipate Saddam Hussein's move before they even took place. One of the reasons why he was considered such an outstanding leader was his character and his compassion. He was known as a leader who cared about his troops. I'll quote Newsweek. He knew one thing. If it ever came to a choice between compromising his moral principles and performing his duties, he would resign his commission, hang up his uniform, and go with his principle. Later on, it says he talked up the righteousness of his mission and he showed compassion for the dead and the wounded. There's nothing that conflicts between being strong and being compassionate. It's a mark of the kingdom of God. It's what Jesus wanted us to know about living a resurrected lifestyle. Have you checked your compassion quotient lately? Got a lot going on. The second characteristic of the lifestyle of the raised and famous is community. Jesus said that in his vision of the kingdom of God, there would be a strong would support the weak. The mature would support the immature and stand with them. The powerful would help the oppressed. There'd be so much sensitivity and support and sharing going on that people outside of the kingdom would be found peering through the people, looking in at those that were sharing life together and saying, I want to be part of that. I've never seen anything like that. That's what the Lord intended. He wanted this to be magnetic. One of the men in our church recently shared with me, in fact it was last Sunday, that his wife had fallen and broken her ankle in several places quite severely and she was completely incapacitated. His home group began showing up at the door with meals. They'd help clean up the house. They encouraged him and helped in any way that they could, shuttling and so on. As he began to recount this to the people he worked with, he told me this last week, he said, they wanted to know what kind of church do you go to? What are the people like there? And he said, some of them are even going to come this weekend. You see, it's this type of community that Jesus wants us to embrace, where no one would be left out, where education didn't draw the line, where marital status didn't matter, where income levels weren't gauged, where race and age weren't considered, where people were truly accepting and real and caring, where people could open up and share their joys and sorrows and victories and defeats, and they could know that they were accepted for who they were as a foundation for all that was ahead. I don't see a lot of community out there. I hear it talked about a lot. Out there in the world, I hear it talked about, you know, embracing diversity and openness to others and all this kind of things, but in the North Hills, all I see are a lot of NIMBYs. You know what that means, don't you? Not in my backyard. Let's be open and let's be embracing and let's do all the neat things we want to do, but not in my backyard. You know what it's like, if you break the code, you're out, you know? If something goes wrong, you no longer fit the mold. Teenagers can identify. Strangely enough, we adults can identify more than we think. You want to know how a teenager feels when they break the code? On Monday, when you go back into the office and you're in the express elevator and one melon bank, walk in the door and face the back wall. That's all I'm going to say. Just mention to people, well, we're going to ride together, why don't we talk? See how far you get. So much of our culture these days is into privacy and protection, you know, smoke glass and alarm systems, and people are making a lot of money just like insulating themselves and isolating themselves, and more and more and more, I sense we don't want to touch and we're afraid. Have you ever bought your gasoline in one of those places where you walked up to the glass enclosed cube? It's usually kind of smoked and you can't see inside, and all of a sudden this drawer comes out, and then out of nowhere, a person says, that's $7.50 for gas and $1.50 for Hershey bars. You know, he's like screaming loud, you know, it's on a monitor, PA monitor, and everyone's looking at you, and it's so impersonal. I hate those things. Jesus says my kingdom will be a place where life can be shared together, where real options can be talked and discussed and evaluated, where frustrations can be exposed, where real growth is authentic, not just religious jargon, folks, but real life happening, where warmth and loyalty and trust and affection can grow. And I want to remind you, North Way Christian community was called that because this was a priority of our life. Because church in everyone's mind meant religion. We don't mean religion, we mean community. It was a mark of Jesus' vision. The third mark I want to discuss is that of consequence. Perhaps the point where Jesus' vision most strikes at home for us this Easter is in our personal lives. I have a strong conviction that people want their lives to count. They don't want to just go through the motions and end up and ask themselves, what did I really accomplish? Survival is not where it's at these days. Although, I went into a bookstore recently, I found how to survive a bad marriage, how to survive the 90s, survival in the coming stock market crash, and survival this, survival that. Jesus said in my kingdom, it's not surviving, it's overcoming that I've purposed for you. You're going to be important, not just a number, but a contributor. You'll have a gift, an endowment that I'm going to give you to make a difference in the lives of others. Jesus said, I've come that they might have life and have it more abundantly. I'm not talking here about being a missionary or a minister necessarily, but what God designed for you in your own unique way to make a contribution in the kingdom, to be important. I'm not talking about doing an obligatory stint in the nursery where you endure the crud for a while just because you want to be helpful. What I'm talking about is getting involved in something with eternal implications. I was talking to a man yesterday, actually this morning, a man who was very streetwise, had done a lot of drug dealing when he was younger, gotten hooked up with an incredible, motley bunch of people, many of whom have criminal records. He shared with me that his gift that God's given him is to go into the jails and talk to the inmates. I've been with him when he's done, and he's one of the most incredible people I've ever seen at it. Last week he shared with me, just using his gift, he's not eloquent, couldn't write a speech. Last week he saw 23 people give their lives to Christ, and 42 inmates who were believers made recommitments and reestablished their walk with the Lord. You see, we've only got one crack at making a difference, of having consequence. I don't want to be playing t-ball and little league. I don't want to be in the minors my whole life. I want my life to be played on major league terms, don't you? Why settle for something less? You can grab hold of a vision that has world implications. You can be part of something that will be here in 5, 10, 25, 35 years. You can be part of the answers to life's problems and not contributing to them being more and more difficult. You can make a tangible impact in the lives of people. You'll say to me, I'm just trying to survive, just kind of get from Sunday to Sunday, hoping that God will get me through. That's not what the Lord died to give you. He came that you might have abundant life. He said you're more than a conqueror through Him we love. He said I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, not just survive. People say, well, I haven't thought about all this. It kind of overwhelms me. Well, one of the reasons why we don't think about it is because we don't want to. We're too busy just surviving, just being good this's and that's. Honestly, I think we're so afraid to stop and ask. I think we are afraid because if we do, we know we're not going to like the answer. We're going so fast, we don't even know where we're going. Two weeks ago, I was up around Sharon and Carol and I were doing some business up there, taking care of some things. And I missed some kind of an entrance onto an expressway going from Sharon coming back to Pittsburgh. And I ended up over in, I think it was Newcastle. I still don't really know. But I knew we were going on. I said, here's Youngstown. And I said, here's Youngstown. What is Youngstown? The road looked exactly, it was a four-lane highway exactly like the one I went over on. It looked like Interstate 80, but it wasn't. Carol looked over at me and said, you know where you are? I said, no. She said, you know where we're going? I said, no. She said, why are you going so fast? So we'll get there sooner. I don't know where it's going to be. We're going to get there in a hurry. Now, honestly, have you really stopped and done a vision check? Do you know what your life's going to amount to? Are you just going through it so fast you don't need to ask any questions? Those are the three marks. Can we put them all up again, please? Compassion, community, and consequence. You know, some 20 years ago, a college classmate of mine sat down with me in front of my locker following a basketball practice. He told me later he prayed for two months about this encounter. He asked me the question I'm asking you right now. He said, what's the vision for your life? He shared with me his relationship with Christ. He asked me, what am I doing that's really going to matter when it's all said and done? Honestly, I said, probably not much. And if I'd been really honest, I would have said nothing. And if I'd been really, really honest, I would have said I'm bowing down in front of a full-length mirror. My whole world is me. And he challenged me to take a few months, really investigate what Christ was all about. And I did that, and I've never been the same. And I want to ask you the same thing. If your screen is full these days, does it have these marks on it? Is there compassion through your life and community? Is your life amounting to anything, or is it just kind of full of stuff? Folks, some of us have lived a third, a half, two-thirds of our life. And what's it all coming to? Tell me, where's it all going to end? What are you going to be able to say? Well, I retired at Myrtle Beach and shot a five-handicap. So what? Or I was a gracious hostess. I mean, I just could really throw a nice party. Who cares? You see, Easter, the resurrection of Jesus, is the irrefutable evidence that Jesus' vision for life is the only one that really stands the test of eternity. And if you've not come to the place of submitting yourself to that, then I implore you to come to terms with it. Jesus will give to you the compassion, the sense of belonging and community, and the consequence that each of our lives needs to make a difference. But you've got to come and make the choice. I remember thinking back then, 20 years ago, I thought, if I did what he's saying, if I made a decision for Christ, if I acknowledged that I'd been self-centered and self-willed and finding my own plans and doing my own thing, I said, God will make me weird, He'll make me a missionary, and He'll make me a minister. I'm not a missionary. But the lifestyles of those who were raised in Jesus Christ cost you this life. Simple as that. Jesus said, you want my life? It's time for an exchange. It starts with an exchange. It starts with a willingness to say, God, I'm not making it. I want to do it your way. Let me say to those of you, and there are many of you here who've made this decision a long time ago. I know that. But I wonder today, if maybe you're just a little tired of fighting for the Jesus vision for your life. Maybe you're a little bit out of compassion. Maybe you're burned out on giving care. Maybe you're tired of trying to hang in there and make a difference, because it's not easy to do at times. I just want to give you this word today, this Easter. Where else will you go? Peter said it this way, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words. You alone have the words of eternal life. And if you're weary today, take a rest. But don't get out of the game. Come to Jesus and let Him breathe on you and receive the Holy Spirit afresh as He did to the disciples in John 20, 19. This is it, folks. This is what God's given us to play it out in. And let's make the best of it. I trust you'll do that. Jesus said, if you hang in there and you're faithful, if you continue to contribute and make a difference, He said, in the end, I'll give you the crown of life. Now, some people misunderstand what this church is about. It's not about numbers. It's not about getting bigger. It's not about empire building or marketing. What this church is really about is just trying to live the vision of Jesus. Just a few of us started trying to do it. And a whole lot of you have said, I'd like to try myself. I made a lot of mistakes. I disappointed some people. But by the resurrection power of Jesus, I want to say to you, the next 10 years of our life are going to count more, are going to be more knitted together in community and more overflowing with compassion than the first 10 ever were. That's why I'm committed to it. I extend that same invitation to each of you. Would you stand? Lord, these are words that come down through the halls of time, words of lasting impact. And I pray tonight, Lord, that you'd touch every heart here, that you would say to those who have a heart to hear it tonight, come and take my vision for life. Come and receive what I have to give. Come and open your heart to me.