No Walls II, From the Crowd to the Called

My prayer is that God's Word will nourish your heart today. Just as you're taking your outline out of your notes, if you don't have your outline, one of the ushers will be happy to get you one because you need to follow along with us. While you're doing that, I want to ask you, please, one other thing. Grab your communicator. I mentioned this to our guests, but I did a little something just a little different here. I would love to begin the year by having a personal eye-to-eye exchange with each one of you, just to sit down over a cup of coffee at Panera Bread and say, well, tell me what happened in your life last year that changed you. And also, tell me what you're expecting. What challenge do you face in the year ahead? And I know that I can't do that with everyone. I went over last night and did that with a few people after the Saturday night service. And I might end up there today as well, but would you do me the honor of just maybe mentioning what praise report might you have to put down here, just in summary form. And how many of you are facing one challenge already in the new year? Let me see your hand. But it's the one you don't know that's coming, huh? That's the scary one. But here's what I'll do with that. I will personally look at each of those, and I'm going to be praying about the messages and the direction we're heading going forward. And those inputs help me a great deal in just discerning what's the temperature of the congregation as a whole. And I ask the Lord to lead me in preparation that way. So I'd appreciate that if you have a few moments to do that. Or you can send me a note or an email or something like that as well. Well, with the weather on all of our minds, it's appropriate that I thought of this illustration a few days ago. How many of you heard this story about the Brazilian TV weather guy or radio weather guy that got sued by the mayor of Rio de Janeiro? Did you hear about him? Isn't that a great story? The deal was this. He predicted a major soaking rainstorm for Rio on New Year's Eve. And as a result of that, they canceled the parties and all the festivities and the city events and everything kind of shut down. And guess what happened? Didn't rain. Well, the mayor, the mayor got ticked off. So he publicly went on, and he sued this weather guy. And it turns out there's a law that if they can prove like some sort of fraudulent claim that he could spend six months in jail. Now, there's a little part of me that's saying, yeah, you know, fine. But really, I mean, in all honesty, we know, don't we, I mean, weather people, they're doing the best they can with what they've got. They can't predict the weather 100% of the time correctly, even though it affects 100% of us. And if I learned anything from the year 2001, I learned that we can't predict tomorrow, let alone another year. It was an amazing year, wasn't it? And so much happened that affected all of our lives. We may sense a little more security today than we did a couple of months ago, but I don't think we'll ever feel quite as secure as we did five months ago. And we know now as we begin 2002 that we can't count on things always being predictable and sort of within the parameters that make us feel safe and secure. We can't count on the economy always getting better, even though the stock market looks like it might be turning around a little bit. We can't count on the world being a better place, even though lots of people wish it would be. And we certainly can't count on all of our loved ones being perfectly healthy and well for the entire year to come, because we know many of our friends have gone through a painful year just passed. But I've learned that a mark of maturity, and this is a tough one to learn, and I guess I would better say I am still learning that a mark of maturity is to learn to accept the fact that most of the world is out of my control. I'm not God, you're not God, and we cannot control everything that happens. And when you learn to accept that, life just begins to be a little less intense. And that is a wonderful relief. So while most things are uncertain and there are many things that are under my control, there is one thing I want to affirm today, and that's the title of the message. The one thing that you can count on is this, that the Lord is in control. Let's read this together, the first verse in your outline. Everything in the heavens and earth is yours, O Lord. We adore you as being in control of everything. The Bible calls this control, he calls this sovereignty. That word sovereignty means that he is the ultimate ruler in life, he's the absolute authority, he's the end of the line. The buck stops with him in everything that has to do with his creation. He's in charge, he's in control, he created nature, he controls nature, he set up laws that put it into place. Now sometimes he suspends those laws and we call that what? It's a miracle when God intervenes and moves things around. Sovereignty also means, however, that God is in control of history. Life isn't just going on endlessly repeating these cycles, but we are moving linearly toward a point of consummation. This is an exciting thing to reaffirm at the beginning of every new year. God is moving us along a path that one day will result in the consummation of his story. Jesus Christ will come back and he will establish on this earth his rule for a thousand years. Won't that be an amazing thing? Then the sovereignty that we read about and know about from a distance will become real to us. Then after that thousand years, he'll create a new heaven and a new earth and wow, those who are prepared to be with him will enter into unimaginable joy and celebration and worship as we spend eternity with him. But perhaps most urgently for many of us, sovereignty has to do with your life and my life today. It has to do with our personal walk. It's one thing to say that God's in control of nature and history and all that, but God also controls our lives. And have you discovered that there's a lot of your life that's out of your control? You know, you wake up one morning and you feel great, and you wake up the next morning and you shook somebody's hand and they gave you something. I calculated the odds of me getting something today. I probably, I've had five or six hundred handshakes by the end of the day. Do you know what? Think of that. I just thought of all the things that are passing my way, out of my control. But God's in control. I've prayed a hedge over my hand and I said, Lord, let no weapon formed against me prosper. Did you control where you were born? To whom you were born? Did you control your temperament, your makeup and your IQ and all those things that, you know what? No. You just kind of came out and there you were. And so much of that affects your entire life. Now, the beautiful thing is along the way, God says, now you can begin to make some decisions that will help to control what does happen as you go forward on this journey that's called your life. You do have, because you're made in God's image, the privilege of expressing creativity, freedom and will. It's, people say, well, sometimes I think I'm just a puppet. Well, no, you're not. You've got, you make a lot of decisions in this journey. It's kind of like a person getting on a cruise liner. And let's just say you board the cruise liner out in Los Angeles and you're cruising all the way over to Hawaii for two weeks. And in that cruise liner, you know, you get to decide, you know, what deck you're going to walk around on and where you're going to work out and what side you're going to watch the ocean and, you know, what spa you're going to go into and where you're going to have and all these decisions that you make. But at the end of the two weeks, where are you going to end up? In Hawaii, because that's where the cruise liner is going. Your life's that way. You're on this journey and God's destined for you to go. So you have all these choices that affect the nature of that journey. And it's very important as we begin a new year that you understand the implications of the decisions that you're going to be making. So let's look at these because God is in control. You can know a few things. Here they are. Number one, you can know that your plans will change. What do you mean by that? Well, here's what I mean. I hope you've already begun to make some plans. I hope you've made some changes in your way of approaching things as you begin a new year. It's a wonderful time to do that. The old adage says if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. There's two things I'm doing already this year. I am eliminating some things and I am concentrating on some other things. A little bit of a word of counsel for some of you. Eliminate the things that aren't bearing much fruit and concentrate on the things that are. That's what I'm doing right now as I start this new year. But things don't always turn out the way I planned them. I've learned that. Look at Proverbs 19, 21. Here are the plans. I'm sorry. Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails. In fourth grade, I planned to marry Sandy Kobner. Oh, she was something. She was the first woman in my life. I remember her name. First woman I tried to kiss. Not the first woman. Not the only woman that didn't agree with that, but she was the first. Fourth grade. Parents, remember that. God had other plans. You know, we as a church, we plan to have the road that circumvents our campus going all the way around and connecting at Route 19 up here at the top of the hill by now. But God has other plans. I think the plans are still going to come to pass, but his timing has been different. There was about a thousand people who planned to come to the three o'clock performance for the Christmas Eve presentation on Sunday a couple of weeks ago. And those people had their plans changed. Some of them weren't real happy about it, and I really do apologize for all that, but you know, our plans don't always work out the way we hoped they would. The problem is when some of these plans don't work out, we get all uptight, don't we? How many of you just find something in you just gets all rankled? Traffic may do it to you, or a line in the grocery store, or somebody in the family that doesn't pick up their stuff, and so you're late. We just, all these things that are sort of out of our control. How about this year we begin together by saying, all right, my plans are going to change, and when they do, the first thing out of my mouth is going to be, Lord, thanks, you got it under control. Wouldn't that be a change? For how many of you that would be a change? Oh, man. Big change. But what a wonderful way to start releasing some of the anxiety and the tension, the worry. The key is to remain flexible in your plans and open to God's creative ways of resolving the conflicts that seem to appear when your plans don't work out. Begin every day by saying, Lord, here are my plans, but show me what you're going to do. Look at the next verse. We should make plans, counting on God to direct us, and I've discovered that the Lord will do this many times. We make some plans, and all of a sudden we'll hear a word from the Lord, and we'll go this direction. I mean, this happens. The Lord's given me some plans, and I believe they're going to be up. Here's one of the plans I believe the Lord's showing me. He's showing me in the year ahead we're going to see some great progress in our student ministries. We're going to see student ministries start to explode in the year ahead. Just watch. And I don't know how it's all going to happen, but I know He's just been putting in my heart He has great things ahead. But it's a good thing for all of us to pray every day and say, Lord, make me sensitive to your redirections. Help me to hear what you're saying, and then be flexible. You know, when we started our church, we had very little guarantees. You think this is sort of an awkward moment when it snows. We would show up some mornings at the old bar and restaurant, and we'd have to pick up empty whiskey bottles, ashtrays, and all kinds of stuff that was left laying around just to make room to have Sunday school. And the two bywords of the first five years of our church was we needed to be flexible and creative, because we had to learn how to adapt when our plans changed. Those words have served us well, and they'll serve you well in the new year. Second, because God is in control, your problems will have a purpose. This could be a whole message. Obviously, I just want to make a point. Father God filters, listen, He filters everything that eventually gets into your life. Not everything that gets into your life is God's will, but He allows everything. If you belong to Him, if you're one of His children, He filters everything. Not everything is His will. People say, well, if it happened, it must be God's will. No, it isn't. It wasn't God's will that an airplane flew into a crowded building and killed 3,000 people. It's not God's will when a child gets hit by a car, or a sled runs into a tree. It's not God's will that cancer hits a healthy young person, or an addiction decimates a family. But God allows things to happen. That's why we pray, by the way, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. Because those things don't automatically happen. We need to pray that they come to pass. God does permit them, but He permits them in this world in which we live, this world of free will, He permits them, listen, for a purpose. And the purpose is that we would learn to be more like Him. And I so wish there was some different way to let it happen, but God said, no, the only way that some of my character, the only way that some of my characteristics will become yours is if you go through the pain, sometimes the suffering, sometimes the loneliness, sometimes the emptiness of feeling helpless, you've got to go through it, and I'll be with you, and the outcome will be to your benefit. I went to the dentist this week. I know we have a few dentists in our congregation. I wouldn't have your job for anything. You have to make people think that they're going to have a good time when they come in here. I mean, you smile, and you present them with this nice, and you play this music, and you put things on the walls, and all along you're thinking, man, I'm going to go, and I'm going to drill, and I'm going to, you know, and I went in there, and after years and years and years, it's still the same stuff, isn't it? I mean, it's just fancier, and I don't know what it is, but you get in there, and I don't know about for you, but they just seem to find a way to, you know, when they're knocking things out, and there's that one little nerve that just isn't quite numb yet, and you feel the drill moving toward it, and you usually want to go, and then you know that he's going to hit it, and he usually hits it, and then you say, oh, that's it, and then he comes back at it, and you ever feel just like there's that one place that they're going to come back to? It's like, you know, all the world is in that one little nerve right there, and the only thing that keeps you going through that half hour, whatever it is, is the thought at the end of that time, what? That whatever was really hurt in there before is finally going to be fixed. It doesn't seem right that you have to pay for that. I don't understand that part, but see, God allows us to go through pain so that in some ways we can be fixed, that his purposes can come to pass. Throughout the Bible, God used difficult circumstances for good. The Apostle Paul, listen, I don't believe it was God's will that Paul spent years in prison, but because Paul was in prison, two-thirds of the New Testament was written, aren't you glad? Why was that? Well, my theory is this. Paul was, he was so motivated, he was so apostolic, I mean, he was so compelled to serve, I don't think he would have slowed down long enough to write, but here he is in prison, he's chained to, so all he can do is write. How many of you are glad that he slowed down for a few years and wrote the New Testament that you and I now have? We read a portion of it today. It was not the Father's perfect will that his son die on a cross, but it was, he allowed it to happen so that you and I could be the recipients of the power of the redemption of the blood of Jesus Christ. God allows things to bring about his purposes, even though they may be painful, and the reason he does that is because he is a God of redemption, a God of recovery, a God that more than compensates for our pains. Look at the last verse on this side of your outline. This is the reason we never lose heart, these troubles, which are temporary, you might want to circle that, are winning for us a permanent, glorious, and solid reward out of proportion to our pain. So this year, as you face problems, look beyond them to the possibility of God's purpose in you, and embrace the likelihood that in the end, God will make you stronger and better because of it. Number three, turn your outline over, because God is in control, my prayers will have an impact. Now, probably most of us have made some sort of prayer, evaluation, or recommitment already. You know, it was interesting, I came to a meeting on Friday morning at 7.30 over at the Panera Bread next door, we were getting ready to go to the temple, and I was met there by a long line of North Way people who were already done with an hour of prayer. They said, where have you been, Pastor Jay, we've already prayed for you. And I said, I'm so thankful that people are up praying and seeking God on behalf of our church. Why? Because prayer has an impact. It has an impact in your life, it has an impact in this church, it has an impact in the world. Never, listen, if you're like me, I'm tempted sometimes to think prayer's not going to matter. I mean, how many have prayed for something that just hasn't happened, and it's been quite a while? We had a baptism in the first service, we're going to talk about that in just a minute, where a wife prayed for her husband for 31 years. Today he was baptized. Now, trust me, when she, like you and I, probably had times when she said, my prayers are never going to be answered. But you see, that's the farthest thing from the truth. Prayer touches the heart of God. Prayer moves the hand of God. I've seen hard-hearted people soften in answer to prayer. I've seen desperate people brighten in hope because of prayer. I've seen broken people healed because of prayer. And I've seen prayer do things that all kinds of negotiations and networking and all the rest could not perform in governments and bureaucracies and policies. Prayer changes things, and listen, when it doesn't change things, it changes people. Prayer has an impact. And so, as you start the new year, resolve that you're going to pray. Look at the next verse. God is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of, infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, and hopes. So the only logical response, when things don't go the way you planned they would, the only logical thing is not to worry about it, not to obsess about it, but to pray about it. Plans will change, problems will come, but when you pray, God will move and He'll deal with it because He's in control. Number four, this new year, because God is in control, my personal obedience will be tested. Now see, here's the thing, because God knows what's coming and because God is in control and your life is under His control, He now gives you the opportunity to learn to trust Him with that. Everyone say, oh good, because you're going to have an opportunity to live that out in the days and weeks and months ahead. See, many folks figure out that God's in control and plans change and problems come and so on, but when it comes to this last point of obedience, that's when they fail the test. Look at the verse following. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, Jesus said, He is the one who loves me. And Jesus, listen, Jesus will test your faith this year. He'll test your obedience. You know, when Jesus first called Peter, He said, follow me in Luke 5, what did Peter do when Jesus first called him? Left his nets and followed him. But later, what did Peter do when he was faced with the obedience test? He denied him publicly. Imagine standing in front of a crowd like this, no, I don't even know the man. That's why Jesus gave him one more opportunity later on in John 21. He said, Peter, if you love me, feed my lambs, follow me. And I want to say to those of you who've been Christians a while, and there's some of you who've been Christians a long while, you're going to face some obedience tests because here's what happens. As you learn to obey, listen, there's some things that you only grow in by obedience, not by knowledge. It's only because you're willing by faith to obey God when you don't know what the outcome will be. Then that's the password to a deeper walk with God. So this year, expect it. I'm expecting it. I don't know where it's going to happen, but I'm believing that God will give me the grace when I step out in faith to obey Him. And the one thing I've always put in my heart, the year 2002 is going to be a year of action around here. It's going to be a year when you're going to have to finally step up and do, not just step up and say. Listen, it's very easy to say things. It's very easy to speak this and declare that, but it's another whole thing altogether to do what God calls us to do. James says this, don't merely listen to God's word, do what it says. We are not saved by what we do. We all know that, right? But we grow as we obey by faith. As you enter this new year, God will give you many opportunities. Some of you are going to be called to obey by connecting with someone in a small group. Some of you are going to be called to obey by growing and extending yourself in some form of a ministry and serving some others. You know, success, I've always defined success as personal achievement, but significance is when you have the ability to help others find their place of success. And you see, success never really satisfies you, but significance always does. So this year, some of you are going to go beyond your own personal achievement. You're going to go on to significance, to helping others find their place of success. And then you see, then you just keep that chain growing. God's going to be moving us all along. Now, today, we're going to conclude this message with a very exciting demonstration of obedience, because I want you to look up here. We've had this image of a wall. This new series we're talking about, we're talking about the walls that keep us from enjoying God and reaching others. And we've titled it, No Walls, because we want to eliminate all the walls that keep us from the fullness of God's purpose and will for all. How many of you want to enjoy God in the new year? I certainly do. I don't want to go through the year just, I want to enjoy God, so I want to pull that wall down, but I also want to pull down the walls that keep me from making a difference in other people's lives. And what I've shared with you today, that's the beginning of it, affirming God's sovereignty and then taking those steps of obedience. Well, today, we have three people, three young ladies, as a matter of fact, who are going to share with you their personal step of obedience in water baptism. One of the most specific ways that obedience is fulfilled in the Bible is through water baptism. It is your public statement of the inner faith that you profess. It's your way of saying, I am leaving my old life of independence from God and receiving Jesus Christ and surrendering to him and starting my new direction, my new walk with him. It's a test of just how serious you are. It's a public statement. You know, people will say, religion is a private thing. I'll hear those words. And that's usually people's sort of encrypted way of saying, it's none of your business and I don't really care. But how many know, our faith is a very public thing. We live it out. And baptism is a way of saying, I'm submitting to his control, I'm a member of his family, and I'm a recipient of his grace. You're coming out of the closet of the personal thing and into the public form. It was interesting. This action was not meant to be just for a few people. Jesus just didn't say to the apostles, well, you all get baptized because you're special. In fact, he challenged the apostles and then all who followed, the leaders who followed, to challenge all those who trusted Christ to be baptized. Look at the next verse. This is Peter in the book of Acts saying, look at it with me, repent and be baptized every one of you. Circle every one of you. In the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And so for centuries, despite religious background, despite belief systems, true believers in Christ have taken the challenge, the test of faith seriously and been water baptized. I've had more than one conversation this past year with people who said something like this, well, you know, I accepted the Lord, but my family just wouldn't understand how your church does it and so on, so I'm not going to be baptized. That kind of saddens me. Now, I've been to the nation of India a few times and I'm hoping to go again this year. I've been there when a Hindu or a Muslim Indian goes down into a muddy river and gets water baptized knowing that when they come up out of that river that their Hindu or Muslim family will disown them. They'll never, ever be welcome under that roof again. If they were in business together, they'll be out of the business, they'll lose their livelihood. But they know. It's their test of obedience. And I've seen many Indian believers pass the test, and I'm just going to wonder today if some of you need to wrestle this one to the ground. I was preparing these final notes yesterday morning. I stopped in this senior high group and it was interesting. They were talking about this same thing in their 1.0 class. They were talking about water baptism. Here were a few questions that we talked about. I'm going to jot them down. These are the five most commonly asked questions. Number one, does infant baptism count or should it be a faith decision? Just a little curiosity here. How many of you were infant baptized? Let me just see your hand. You in the front, you can't see that, but almost every hand went up. In this part of the country, in the tradition that most of us have come through, we have been infant baptized. Now, I want to say up front that bright, godly, well-educated people disagree about this, but the argument for infant baptism is definitely one more from tradition than from scripture. In fact, my research team did a study of all the scriptures that directly mention infant baptism. And I want to put them up on the screen now. Here are all the scriptures that say infant baptism. Scott, it's not a mistake. There are none. There's no reference anywhere in the Bible to infants being baptized. So it's the position of our church, as it is the vast majority of Protestantism, that baptism is most appropriate for those who are old enough to recognize their sinfulness before God, mature enough to understand the substitutionary death of Christ, and responsible enough to make a decision to trust Christ and follow him for the rest of their lives. In fact, it's interesting that most references to baptism in the New Testament have with it, like this one did, some mentioning of repentance, some conscious involvement. I mean, do you remember your infant baptism? Was it powerful? You don't, because you were just sort of passively involved. So that's why we teach that believers should dedicate their babies. That's what we did last Sunday, as a matter of fact. And that's a meaningful expression of commitment when a parent and a congregation say, we're committing ourselves to bringing this child to the place where they can make a decision of their will to trust Christ personally. So if you were baptized as a baby, I want to recommend that you profoundly consider the possibility that God would have you be rebaptized as a believer in Jesus. Second question most often asked is, does baptism save anyone? Does the actual act of being baptized, does that have the power to save? And the answer, again, clearly in Scripture is no. It is an outward expression of an inner reality. There's no redemptive power in the baptism. I've had discussions at a restaurant. I remember this year I was talking to someone. I said, well, where are you with God? Are you a Christian? The guy said, well, I was baptized when I was a child and kind of grew up in the church. And see, this person was thinking that because some religious leader did this particular right and put some water on their head, and because they were raised in the church, that their eternal destiny was secure. And I want you to know something. That is a very, very dangerous and a very sad condition. And many of our neighbors and friends are living in the misconception that somehow because of some ritual, they're eternally secure. It's your mission, church. Listen, I'll commission you. It's your mission to let them know that's not true. That apart from a relationship with Christ, they have no hope. Number two, believing in infant baptism as an insurance policy for heaven is a tragic mistake. The Bible says that we are saved by grace through faith. Whether you're an adult or an infant, baptism does not save you. Number three, well, what if I just don't want to be baptized? Well, I just refuse. And I have to say to that question, that is a bizarre question. I mean, I guess I don't understand it at all. If Jesus loved you enough to publicly die in front of a mass of people on a cross and to offer you a gift of grace for forgiveness of sins and redemption, and to walk with you in this life and give you an abundant life, and then to take you across the threshold into heaven forever, and all he asks you to do is stand in front of people and say, I belong to him and be baptized. What in the world would keep you from saying yes to that? People say, well, I want the gift and I want all that, but I don't want to stand up and say I want to be baptized. I think it reveals a lack of understanding, a lack of understanding of the seriousness of the issue, of God's sovereignty, of our own sinfulness, and of the amazing promise of salvation. You see, without Jesus and without his presence and without the full surrender of our life to him, what hope do we have? The older we go here, folks, the longer we go along in this journey, the more convinced I am that Christ is the only hope of our lives and we must give all to him publicly. Our attitude should be, Lord, whatever you want me to do, I'm willing to do. Wherever you want me to go, I'll go. Whatever you want me to give, I'll give. However you want me to serve, I'll serve. I'll stop whatever I need to and start what you want me to because it's all about you in my life. I'm not living for me anymore and I'm not ashamed to stand and tell people that I belong to you. And that's what baptism is. It's an obedience test. Some people are thinking, well, what if I receive Christ at the Christmas Eve service and I'm not ready to be baptized today and I go out and I get hit by a truck in a snowstorm and die? Will I go to heaven? Well, remember, baptism doesn't save anybody. So God knows your heart. And there's biblical evidence that you can be saved and eternally received into heaven without being baptized. What's a good illustration of that? The thief on the cross. Remember Jesus? He had no time for baptism. He was about to die. But Jesus looked down to him and said, today, today you'll be with me in paradise. But don't let that be some excuse to say, well, I'll just keep putting it off. In fact, I just want to say today, if you've not been baptized, then ask yourself, why not? What am I waiting for? Number four, people ask, well, what's the right way to be baptized or the mode of baptism? I mean, is it sprinkling or dunking? Can I go home in my hot tub or whatever? And here are the two things. Basically it needs to be public. You don't baptize yourself. And number two, the word baptize, baptizo in the Greek means to immerse. It was the word that people who dyed clothes used, a person who was dipping a g