Resurrection Radar Easter Sunday

You know, one of the things that it means to be created in the image of God is the ability to create. We're given gifts to create music. These people served us in that way. Mimi and Gloria and the people with the banners have gifts of creating a visual thing. I don't know what more of a message we need. You think we could just go home now? Don't get your hopes up. I know for me, this entire experience today has been hard to describe. Because what I'm seeing is something I prayed for for a long time. I'm seeing the body at work. I'm seeing every part contributing. And that's what it is you're sensing. That's the energy, if you will. That's the life that's here today. It's everyone doing their part. And friend, I want... If I could come out and look right into some of your eyes. Some of you need to know today that you have a part to play. You have a contribution to make. I'd like you to pray with me and we're just going to look into the word here for a few moments. Father, thank you for this glorious day. A day that we set aside to celebrate the resurrection. That stands for us forever, Lord. As a symbol of hope that we too one day will be raised with you. But in the meantime, Lord, teach us how to live with our eyes. Not on death, but on life. We ask it now in Jesus' name. Amen. Take your notes, if you would, and your outline. I just want to encourage you to do that. Just to jot down a couple of things. If just one or two things make sense to you today, take them with you. It will help you. You know, it was just a week or so ago that Carol and I were heading back home from a morning event in downtown Pittsburgh. And we were on Interstate 279 in her car, I might add. It was one of those very sunny days we had a couple of weeks ago when it was warm and spring was just starting to break out all around us. And I was just enjoying the ride and certainly behaving myself behind the wheel. And so we passed the McKnight exit and headed toward Northwest. Those of you who commute know exactly what I'm talking about. The road kind of curves up to the Northwest. You go up a hill and then underneath the bridge overpass. And then you see this warning sign that says, Construction Ahead. And as we crested that hill and turned that curve, out of nowhere, this huge blinking sign, at least 10 feet square, maybe 12 feet square, angled in such a way that it was pointing right at the cars that were going Northwest, said for me to read, Slow down, your speed is... Let's drop the screen a bit, please. Yeah, your speed is... Well, it had a certain number of miles per hour in there. The blank was filled in. Now, there was another car about 100 yards ahead. I knew it had to be that vehicle that it was pointing to. I couldn't possibly have been going blank miles per hour. Carol looked over at me. She said, Honey, are you going blank miles per hour? I said, No way am I going blank miles per hour. Could not be happening. I glanced down that tiny little difficult-to-read speedometer of mine. It said, Blank miles per hour. I immediately slowed down to blank miles per hour, minus 15 or so. Now, here's the thing. I want to know who gave PennDOT the right to announce to the whole world that I was going blank miles per hour. In fact, I leaned over to Carol. I said, You know, I think we could have a civil rights violation case here. She looked back at me and said, We have a violation, okay, but it's not civil. Fortunately, it was just a warning. I didn't get stopped or any such thing. But that incident caused me to think, What would happen... I mean, if PennDOT can kind of slip into your mind like that and tell you what you're doing without you even knowing it, I really think God could do that very same thing. I mean, what if right now, He pointed His resurrection radar right at your mind and popped it right up here on the screen, what you're thinking. You'd say, Ooh. Some of you would be in deep trouble. Some of you would be like, Wow, that's great. I want Him to know I love Him. Some of you would be thinking, Well, could He do that? Absolutely, He could. God, in a moment, could reveal the thoughts and imaginations of our heart. But what if He was trying to communicate not something bad, but something important? What if He wanted to get a message through to you that could affect your life, could help you in a circumstance you're in, or possibly could even save your life? Friends, you want to know what I've come to believe this Easter Sunday? It's that God has intentions of doing that very thing for many of us that are here today. It may not be in a public sign on a crowded highway, but He's seeking to communicate with you this morning. The problem is that many of us are not receiving the Lord's transmissions. We've tuned into some different frequencies, some different channels, or there's some interference going on in our brain. Even now, some of us are battling whether or not we can concentrate for the next 20 minutes to this message. How many of you have seen these little devices in a home or certainly electronic store somewhere near you? I don't know if you can all see this, but you... Yeah, I'll slide it out of the way so you can all see. You've seen these? Little satellite dishes. Now, God has not affixed one of these on top of your shoulder or on the back of your head, but He's put a receiver inside of you. And the way these things are constructed, when they're put on your home or place of business or whatever, you have to set it at an exact angle to correspond with a satellite some 10,000 miles up in space or whatever it is. And if you misalign it, you won't receive that transmission. Well, what I want to say to you today is that God is sending His transmissions to every one of you. But some of us need... Now listen, watch. We need to shift our dish just a little bit. We need to redirect our hearing to understand the message that God is trying to get through. Because God cares about you. He wants you to know today some very important things. If you would be able to do that and shift your dish just a bit, let me submit to you four different things I believe you might hear God say. Right out of the Scriptures, these are four things that God said to disciples before, and He may be saying one of them to you today. Which one might it be? The first one on your notes, if you're going to take notes this morning, and I hope you will, is... well, let's put it up there. It's... it's blank. It's blank. Because the first thing the Lord may be saying to you today is He may be whispering your name. I want you to write your name in that first blank. Put it in there. Michael, Shannon, Peggy, Jennifer, Tom. Put your name in there. You see, by any measure, the fact that the God who created and designed and sustained this incredibly complex universe, this universe of hundreds of billions of galaxies, each of which have hundreds of billions of stars, any of which might have a score more of planets, any of which might sustain life like we know it, a universe so vast that astrophysicists tell us it's still growing, the God who designed these bodies and made them in such a way that even the most brilliant scientists and physicians today can't figure out how part of it works, let alone recreate it. That same God knows your name and is whispering it right now. He wants you to tune in and hear Him say it. You see, the first thing He said after He was raised from the dead to one person, Mary, was her name. It's right there in your outline, John 20. Jesus looked over and said, Mary, just her name. Friends, there's something wonderful about hearing our name, isn't it? We all love to hear our name spoken. How many of you know when a song comes on in the radio, it has your name in it, you just like tune in a little bit more, you know? Sherry, Sherry, baby. Recently a radio station here in Pittsburgh, a year or so ago, got on the air. It's called WJJJ. I put that on the number one button on my car. I love that, just WJJJ. I mean, there's something about hearing our name. We all like that, don't we? And if we're lost or if we're alone, it's even more meaningful when we hear our name. I shared six months ago about a life-changing experience I had at the Promise Keepers Solemn Assembly in Washington, D.C. I won't go into detail this morning. But I arrived very late at that event. It was my own fault for not listening to God beforehand, but I did what I had to do to get there. And I showed up with a million and a half men. Friends, I've never seen more people. I've been to a lot of big things in my life. There were so many men, I couldn't see the boundaries of them. I was surrounded by a sea of love when I arrived there. I mean, I felt the love, but I also felt strangely alone. Just like some of you feel this morning. Surrounded by all these people, and yet you feel just a little bit alone here at North Way this morning. I felt that way that day. And I started walking toward the Capitol building, just past tens of thousands of men. Walked down a little dusty path, not much wider than this hallway right here. Men on both sides, as far as the eye could see, all the way to the Capitol building. I didn't know where the North Way guys were. There was about a hundred of them there. All I knew was that I was going to look for them. I probably wouldn't find them, I was thinking, but I wanted to try. I was walking up this long, long, dusty road pile. And then behind me, about 15 minutes into my journey, I heard someone say, Pastor Jay. I turned around. I didn't even know the guy. He knew me. He recognized me. I didn't even know. I gave him a hug. Who are you? You know? I said, is there any chance you know where the North Way guys are? He said, yeah, they're like two jumbotrons up and 50 rows in. And up I went, and I looked in, and I remember seeing Alan Pettengill's red hair, and there were the guys. And I connected with them, in the middle of a million and a half guys. But when I heard my name, that huge group of people suddenly became very intimate to me. Today, friend, if you hear your name, God is speaking to you. He's calling you home. He wants you to know if you feel alone today, that He is nearby. He wants you to know Him personally. God has some important things He wants to transmit into your life. And you see, this whole thing about your name, it tells me two things that are very important. Number one, that God wants you to know it's about a relationship He wants to have with you. Many people misunderstand Christianity. I invited a guy to come to church this Easter. I invite him every holiday. He works out down at the gym where I go. And I invite him every holiday. I said, are you going to come to church this Easter? And he said, no way. Kind of abruptly. And he kind of laughed about it. He said, besides that, the place would probably fall down if I walked in. He said, and besides all that, what do I need more religious stuff in my life for? I don't need all that junk. That's okay. He obviously does not understand that Christianity isn't about junk. It's not about rules. It's not about regulations that constrict life. It's about a relationship. You see, he hasn't discovered what some of you have yet to discover, that following Christ is about a journey. It's about a walk with one who created you and knows what you need to fulfill you. That's what this is about. Now, my daughter Amy is here in this service. When she was a little girl, we lived over in Glenshaw. And when I'd get home, some evenings we'd go out and go for a walk together. And she'd walk beside me and hold my hand and just talk to Pooh Bear. Hold Pooh Bear's hand. She'd talk to Pooh Bear and to Daddy and then to any neighbor or any other animal. She'd just talk a lot. And we'd walk, and it would just be a way of spending a little bit of time together. Those walks were a long time ago. But the longest walk that I ever took with Amy was ten months ago. And we walked from that door to these steps together. I had that very incredible moment as a dad to give my daughter away to the man of her dreams, who is a wonderful guy. But I did that. I took that journey. I walked hand in hand with my daughter and gave her hand to another man because I wanted what was best for her. I wanted her dreams to be fulfilled. I wanted her heart's desire to be captured. And friends, the Lord today wants you to put your hand in His hand and walk through life together. Not to crush you, not to constrict you, but to fulfill you. I want to urge you today, put your hand in the hand of the man who stilled the waters. Listen to your name being called by the Lord. And for some of you, the Lord's calling your name because He wants to get your attention, because He has a special mission for you to fulfill. I don't want to take a lot of time this morning. I just want to mention that in 1 Samuel 3, the Lord clearly says, when there's something important to communicate to you, I'll do it in a personal way. That's the next blank in your outline. And that's where this young man, Samuel, was waiting on the Lord. He was a priest in the house of the Lord. He was trying to grow up and understand the ways of God. And the Lord called him by name. Friends, if God has something important to you, He's going to whisper your name and get your attention. He has something for you to do. He cares about you. He loves you. And He wants you to know that you're important to Him. As Max Licato writes in his book, A Gentle Thunder, if God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning. Whenever you want to talk, He'll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe and He chose to live in your heart. He loves you. He's calling your name today. Listen to Him. Some of you need to listen to Him calling your name. The second thing God might be saying to some of you today is simply this. Do not be afraid. Fear is an amazing thing. As Pastor Scott read earlier, fear paralyzed the disciples. They didn't know how to react to Jesus' return and they were afraid of the Jews that were around them. And friends, fear has paralyzed some of you into serious inaction in your life. Some of you have lost relational opportunities. Some of you have lost career opportunities because of fear. Others have lost opportunities to grow spiritually out of fear. You know, what's behind fear, I think the root fear, if you will, is the fear of failure. We think that we're going to fall down and not be able to get up. And we come into a place like this and we think we're the only ones that have these struggles. I just want to assure you about something. Most of us around here are acquainted with failure. We may not look like it. Let's do a little survey. I want you to put your hand up. Here's sort of a series of categories. I mean, if you've ever failed a test... Wait till I get through it. If you've ever failed a test, ever been cut from a team, ever applied for a job and didn't get it, ever lost a job, ever applied for promotion and didn't see it come, ever take an audition for a part and didn't get it, ever lose your cool with your three-year-old, ever give up too soon on an investment, ever said the wrong thing, experienced a moral, athletic, academic, social, relational, or financial failure in life, put your hand up. Okay, look around, all right? And if you don't have your hand up, does the person next to you look like they've maybe failed more than once? That'll count for you, okay? Turn to someone and say, hey, welcome to the failure club, okay? Tell them that. Welcome to the failure club. It's happened to me. It's happened to you. We've all failed at something. It's time then, if you fail, to shift your dish. Tune in to what God is saying. He's saying, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid of failure. I want to say something pretty dramatic to you. You cannot grow without risk, and you cannot risk without failure. So if all you're doing in life is avoiding failure because you don't want to risk, friends, you're not really living. And many people miss out on the greatest things of life out of fear. You know, I've been to the Holy Land a couple of times. It's a wonderful place to go to deepen your faith and to build your understanding of the Bible. But many folks are afraid to go because of the occasional violence that breaks out between the Arabs and the Israelis. To my knowledge, no American has ever been killed there in many, many years. But nonetheless, there's this fear that arises. My last trip, we had a busload of folks and we came up to a site where Palestinian guards had a checkpoint on the way into Bethlehem, as I recall. And the guards stopped us and they were exchanging kind of rather animated words back and forth with our driver and our guide. They had guns and all. And, you know, I could see the people on our bus and our trip were getting just a little bit anxious. And in fact, as it went on for a while, somebody popped up and said, you know, come on, Pastor Jay. You're our leader here, Pastor. Come on, do something spiritual. So I took an offering. And you know what? Everything was fine. Guards went away and we went on. Listen, fear is nothing more than your human faculties telling you, hey, in your own strength, you may not make this. You may not be able to do it. You may not pull it off. You may not manage the circumstance. But faith is the deep assurance that you can trust the person of Jesus Christ, no matter what you're facing, that he has promised and said, I will never fail you or forsake you. Friends, listen, I will never fail you. And therefore, ultimately, you will never fail because Jesus will turn even your failures into victories. In fact, if you're serious about growing in faith, I'm going to say something pretty radical. How many of you are serious about growing in faith? If you are, I'm going to tell you this. I believe God will put you in circumstances where fear will hit you right in the face. God will compel you to stretch your boundaries to deepen things just a bit. I mean, if you can handle a 10-pound problem, the Lord's going to say, all right, how about a 100-pound problem? Last month, we did a series called Five Levels of Faith, how God lifts us to higher levels of trust and dependency upon him. See, when Jesus said to his disciples in John 21, 19, follow me, he didn't mean, hey, follow me, we're going to a five-star destination resort where you're going to have a cushy life. In fact, to follow Jesus back then simply meant persecution, rejection, and many times, death and suffering. Candidly, friends, the Lord is calling some of us to follow him. He's speaking to some of you about following him even in this church. You know, I'm convinced that the Lord has almost with a sense of humor plopped some of you down here today in order to stretch you, in order to put you out of your comfort zone just a little bit. The worship for you today is just a little uncomfortable. The exuberance of the people just makes you a little uncomfortable. The idea of being in a small group, wow, that's really stretching it. The idea of praying out loud in front of somebody, that's wow. Getting involved in a ministry, sacrificial giving like you saw, those things stretch you. And you're thinking to yourself, I'm not sure I like it there. That church, I'm just not, here's the word, I'm just not comfortable. I'm just not comfortable. I want to ask you to please show me after the service where here in this book it says Jesus Christ came, that they might have comfort. That they might be comfortable. You won't find it. In fact, the culture that you're in pushes you back all the time into more and more self-absorbed comfort. I mean, that's what the culture is designed to do. Ease back, relax, don't get yourself out of your zone. You know what the number one selling chair in America is? Yeah, it's the lazy boy recliner. It's not the risky boy. It's not the worker boy or the stretcher boy. It's the lazy boy. Well, listen, if you're being stretched even this morning, friend, listen, it's because God wants you to experience new dimensions of His life. And may God ever stretch me and all of us who serve you here. Listen, the resurrection is your assurance that you will have the power to overcome your fears. Look what your outline says in Romans 8-11. The spirit of Him who raised Christ Jesus from the dead lives within you. And He will by that same spirit bring to your whole being, yes, even these mortal bodies, new strength and vitality. For He now lives in you. God, dear ones, inhabits you. You can trust Him. The greatest demonstration of someone taking apparent defeat and making it into victory, apparent failure, and turning it into a glorious deliverance is what? The cross, absolutely. The cross of Jesus. There it appeared that the Son of God was defeated by earthly powers. But the Bible says, little did they know that they were playing right into the eternal plan of God through which Jesus exacted eternal deliverance for you and me for all of eternity. So the Lord says, do not be afraid. And for some of you today, the Lord would say, and I think it would be sort of a stinging word for some, He would say this, He would say, stop doubting and believe. Stop doubting and believe. Put your finger here, He said to Thomas, in my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Friends, it's not insignificant that on several occasions after His resurrection, Jesus confronted the disciples with their stubborn heartedness to not even listen to the people around them. He knew that they were full of doubt, unwilling to believe. And if you've been around the church as some of you have for a long time, not this church, but some church, maybe even here, if you've read the Bible and you've kind of been pretty good at sort of playing that yellow line in the middle of the road and you're sort of one foot in Christianity and one foot in the world and you're just a little too in control to really throw in and make a serious commitment and you're just a little too discerning to get carried and swept along in all this sort of emotionalism. Let me tell you something, friend. Jesus would say to you this morning, stop doubting and believe. Put your whole heart into it. Get passionate about it. It's the only thing there is in life that really matters. He might even say to you, if you keep going on that road, there's lots of places there where you could stumble and get hurt real seriously. In fact, going back to my journey on Interstate 279, he might even set up one of these things along the way and say, hey, you better wake up because that little yellow line you're walking on, that sort of one foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom thing, there's a lot of compromise along there. There's a lot of big sinkholes that you could fall into. And friends, unfortunately, there's some people that aren't seated here this Easter because they've made a shipwreck of their life since last Easter. Trying to just sort of play it in the middle. I appeal to you today, if you know Christ is calling your life, then be serious about it. Get rid of those behaviors that would cause you somehow to stumble. Come out of the closet with your addictions. Get someone to help you. Turn to some brothers and sisters who can stand with you and love you and help you through the difficulties that you face. Perhaps the greatest thing that some of you need to hear today is that you can trust God with the direction of your life. You know, Billy Graham, in a recent interview, which was not, by the way, carried on national TV, said this, if I could live my life over again, the only thing I would do differently is to give more of myself to the cause of Christ, more of myself to building his church, more of myself to establishing his kingdom. I know when I heard that, I thought, you know, boy, I don't know anyone that's done more for the cause of Christ in this generation than Dr. Graham. And all he would say is, I want to do more. Friend, how about you? This leads me to the final word that Jesus would say to some today. He would say, take care of my sheep. John 21, 16. Take care of my sheep. Take care of my lambs. Build my church, Jesus would say. He made it very plain that if you say you love him, you cannot say, hey, I don't care that much about the church. There's no such thing as being in love with Jesus but rejecting his church. To say that you're a Christian that follows God but you don't have time for the church, friend, is a contradiction. God's plan A for redeeming the world is through the establishment of vital local churches. That's what your outline says. And listen, there is no plan B. The local church will remain on the earth until the day that Jesus comes back to take her home with him. And some of us may be alive to be taken up in the air on that day. You see, I know what goes on in us. All of us have this huge, and I know some of you right now are thinking this. You know, there's this huge wrestling match between what's demanded of you, your personal goals and achievements and responsibilities. You know, what's going on inside the boundaries of your life as you know it and the other side of your heart that's tugged in toward those needs that you see outside of your immediate circle. The people that are around you that you know are hurting. You know, when I went to India two months ago, I mean, you are so hit in the face. You are assaulted with all of your senses with poverty and sickness and despair and filth. And you can't help but want to do something to affect the lives of those people. But here, it's a little neater. Yet, if I could be honest with you, I don't think it's any less severe. Just look down a couple of homes in your subdivision and you'll probably find someone who's deeply hurting. Just look around you in the office. There's probably someone going through a lot of pain right now. And they need you to reach out of your zone into theirs and be there for them to make a difference in their lives. I know of no better context to be involved than in the local church. Jesus said, I'm going to build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. How am I going to do this? Some people are thinking, well, as it said in USA Today this week, some people are taking the option of downshifting just a bit. I had lunch with a man on Tuesday of this past week who left an extremely prestigious job with a major corporation and asked the corporation if he could have a job of lesser status so that he might devote himself in these years to his wife and young children and to his local church. I was blown away by it. Not many men would do that or women would do that. Took a reduction in salary, had to move, the whole thing. But he said, you know, Pastor Jeff, I've never been happier. I'm fulfilled. I know I'm doing what God's called me to do. And some of you here are just exemplifying that. Like the woman in the orchestra for four nights or three nights in a row, the emergency room doctor who came and did each one of those presentations and then left at the end of the last one to hurry off to do her night shift in the ER. Like the carpenters that I know who spent days at a time back in that shed building the sets and making everything presentable for the encounter that we've just experienced. Like the sales manager that I know who meets regularly with his cell leaders just to encourage them in their mission of leading small groups. Friends, I'm not talking about putting aside reality. I'm not talking about becoming monastic or giving away everything or doing away with fun. I'm talking about what needs to happen in your life is that you need to be fulfilled by serving others. Not simply by pouring into your own little world of needs. And I know how difficult that is and yet to not do that is to leave a void that no other activity will fill. The best place to do it is in the local church. You know what's happening these days? Other organizations, and there are other great organizations out there, they're finding that they need the church. Family Life Ministries, some of you have attended their big conferences, the family seminars and so on. They've discovered that they are no longer going to do that unless they do it in conjunction with local churches. I was contacted this week by Greenbrier Treatment Facility who said, we want to get in sync with some local churches in the North Hills because we've realized that our programs really don't help people enough long term. We need to be working. Why? Because in the local church you find vital, committed communities of faith where the rich help the poor and the strong help the weak and the more mature help the newer and those in need can turn to those who have their lives a little more in order and we move together in these little communities, these little cells of life that Jesus designed the church to be. Are you part of one? Are you building the church? Or do you just come on Sunday? I believe if you shift your dish today you might hear Jesus say, take care of my sheep, build my church, feed my lambs. 25 years ago I was about to graduate from college and a young man looked at me and he said, are you going to give your life to the Lord? Now listen, I was a Christian. I had trusted Christ but there was a huge difference. He was asking me, what was I going to do with my life? And I had some things that happened and I ended up taking some detours but in the end, about a year and a half later, I called him up on the phone. He was in California in seminary at the time and I said, John, I will. I'm going to give my life to the Lord. And I did. And I've never regretted it. This Easter, friends, God is asking some of you to give your life. Give your life to Him. Say, I will. I'll follow you. I don't know what the Lord is saying to you today, friend. Is He saying to you, don't be afraid. I've got it under control. Trust me. Is He saying to some of you today, stop doubting in belief. Stop compromising. Throw in 100%. Is He saying to some of you today, take care of my sheep. I don't know what He's saying to you but I'm sure He's speaking. If you'll shift your dish, you'll hear His voice. Let's stand and pray together. Would you bow in prayer with me, please? All around the room as we move into just this moment of prayer. I believe with all my heart this morning that some of you have heard God speaking to you. And the most important thing you've heard Him say this morning is He's whispering your name. He's saying to some of you today, come home to me. You've wandered for too long. Your life is not where you want it to be and it's not where I want it to be. Come back to me, the Lord says. Friend, if you're here today on this Easter Sunday, I'm gonna ask you today, would you like to take the moment right now to say to God, Lord, I will come. I will give you my life. I will. Let's bow our heads, please, everybody. No one looking around. Because this is a moment when some people are confronting God. Friend, if you're here and you need to make a decision of your will today, may I have the privilege of leading you in a prayer right now? Just a very brief prayer. But it's a prayer from your heart. God will hear. Hear the words. Just say them where you are. My Father, just say it to God. My Father, I have wandered far from you. I want to come home today. I receive Jesus into my life. Forgive my sin, Lord. Make me new on the inside. Put me back in your family. I want to walk with you. I want to know you, Lord. In your name I pray. With everyone in a moment of prayer, quiet. May I have the privilege this morning of agreeing with any of you today who prayed that prayer all around the room. Here's what I'm going to ask you to do. While heads are bowed, I'm going to ask you, if you prayed that prayer and you really meant it, I'm going to ask you in a moment to lift your head and look this way. When my eyes meet yours, that will be a signal that today you said, you know what? I've crossed over the threshold. I now have committed my life. I want to be a follower. I receive today that free gift of eternal life. I turn from where I was. I want to go where God is. Heads are bowed, please, so that I'm not confused and I can see clearly. If you prayed that prayer, would you lift your head and look this way and lift your hand at the same time and hold it up real high? That's it, all around the