Somebody II

Before I begin I want to mention what a gift it is to have people in our congregation like Cassie who wrote that song for us. God sent them to us as little gifts, and each of you have a gift like that. Yours might not be songwriting, it might not be standing in front of people. It might be helping in different ways, but that's what makes the body of Christ such a great place to be. It's what draws people in and causes them to want to be part of this. And I just feel really blessed to hear. And after the message you'll hear how it's like she knew what I was going to preach on before I did. Because God made me change my sermon in the middle of the week. So it really fits this now. Let's pray and then we're going to dive right into the message and have communion as well. Lord, we are grateful beyond words for what you have done for us. And how we can have somebody in our lives that can change us, sustain us, and carry us. And we pray that you'd open our ears to hear your word tonight. Be ready for what you would want to do to change us or help us to change others in some way. In Jesus' name I ask it. Amen. Well, I'm going to invite you to take your outline out of your notes if you haven't done so already. We're going to jump right into the message today. I've switched the title just a bit. I would call it, Somebody Needs a Cheering Section. Years ago my fraternity brothers looked at me in the spring of my junior year of college and said, you know, we need somebody to give a little credibility to this fraternity because, you know, we're losing pledges and we need someone to have like a student government office position. So we can at least say that we're making a contribution on the campus. And I said, well, good, go find somebody because that's not my thing. I'd never done any high school or college politics, just had no interest in that. And they said, well, you're the only one really in the class that doesn't have an alcohol problem, so you're going to run. And so my senior brothers encouraged me to go do it. And they said, and here's the thing. The first thing that you've got to do is you have to go out into the colonnade of this school in a couple of weeks and give your sort of ten-minute announcement. Now the colonnade, in case you didn't know, I went to Washington and Lee University. George Washington and Robert E. Lee were both presidents of my college. So there's, I mean, a lot of history there. And the main candidate, a guy, a career politician, I would have called him at that age, had been on the student council for two and a half years, slick, friendly. He spoke first, knocked it out of the park. You know, I mean, this guy was just amazing. I followed him. I was clearly nervous. Ten minutes was the amount of time we had. Two minutes into it, people started to leave. I noted that. And by those who stayed for the ten minutes, it was like someone who just tapped in a two-foot putt after a triple bogey, you know, like a golf clap like this. And, you know, that scarred my psyche about public speaking. I still walk off this platform and someone says a good message, and I say, really? I mean, I'll never forget that. And I left that and I said, why am I going to do this? Why do I have to? I mean, because there was like that was the first speech of a whole bunch of speeches I had to give. And that was like what's coming. I mean, I wanted to get off that train. And there was, you know, Q&As and creating a platform of ideas and, you know, debates and all that. I just, I had no desire to do it. I didn't want to do it. I wanted to just quit. I wanted to get off of there. Anybody here ever felt that kind of urge to, you know, you're in over your head. You feel like maybe this is something I just, I thought I could do, but I can't do, or maybe it's something that I really want to be able to do, but it's not working out for me. Anybody here been at the place where you say, well, you know, if something doesn't change, this is going to be a disaster, so I'm just going to go ahead and bail out? Anybody like that? Okay, the rest of you are already sleeping because I believe it's true of everybody in some area of life. On your outline, the first blank, do you ever feel like giving up? And it's sort of a rhetorical question. The answer is yes. At some point, at some time, in some way, we do. Of course we do. Now, it's not a big deal in some things. Like for me, I don't know, my life might have been better off if I just quit and given up then because I didn't have time for that. I was a double major. I was, you know, I just wasn't that into it. But for you, it might be a really big deal not to give up. If you're someone that's here and you're dealing with, you know, maybe a crucial issue in your marriage and you want to give up on your marriage, or maybe you're dealing with this sort of growing sense of need for something in your life to fill the void. Maybe it's a substance or, you know, maybe it's just being out with people you shouldn't be out with. Or maybe it's turning you away from God in some way. Maybe it's the lack of purpose and definition in your life. You don't know what you're about. And these are big things. These will matter in your eternal destiny. And you want to give up because you're having a hard time. You're having a hard time making life work. The truth is, you see, we all want to give up at some time or another. We're referencing the Psalms throughout this series. And look at the top of your outline. This is one of the Psalms written by one of the Korahites who were the keepers of the temple. Not David, but this is a Psalm that says this. Listen to the emotion in these words. As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, where is your God? They're mocking him, actually. These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng. See, things have changed. And he's thinking about giving up. Where is God? Friends, when that happens, we start to question a lot about life. I wonder, I mean, are we really happy? Without God, I don't think we can be really happy. I want to use that word specifically because it's a word, as I interact with the secular culture, that they kind of define life as that's what they're really after is to be happy. What's your goal? I want to be happy and make a difference, I'd say is the standard answer I get more times than not. But let's just talk about that for just a moment. Because I've talked to people quite a bit about that. Happiness. On your outline, somebody wants to know the secret to happiness. Somebody here tonight. Somebody with us in one of our campuses. You want to know the secret to happiness. Well, I'm pretty convinced lots of people come to the church looking for that secret. You know, in the same way, if you've been at all following the financial markets in the last couple of weeks, it's been scary. So where do people go to look for a safe haven? They go to gold, right? That's the standard that everyone says, you know, in a time of upheaval, it's secure and it's risen way up in price. Do you know where people go in times of social unhappiness and unrest? They go to two places. They go to their family and they go to their church. Just check it out. Look at the research. And I believe a lot of people come into the church and they look around and they check it out and they sit with people and they talk to them and they say, well, you know, that person is worse off than I am. That person is not, there's no real peace, joy, love coming out of them. I'm not sure. And they come for a while and then they just leave because they don't find that happiness they're looking for. I'm not saying that's true here, but it's true in a lot of places. And it's true here sometimes, I'm sure as well. People want to find that connection and they don't know where to go to do it. There's actually literally a professional journal called the Journal of Happiness Studies. And it's written by a group of psychologists who are trying to find out what the secret to happiness really is. They've done extensive studies over the last couple of decades. And this is what they found. And I'm going to ask you to take a guess. What is the consistent one thing that separates happy people from less happy or almost unhappy people? There's one thing that's come up again and again and again. Turn to your neighbor, the person you're sitting next to, and just whisper to them what you think it is. If you're by yourself, lean over a couple of chairs and say, I think it's this. Go ahead, tell them what you think it is. I'm not going to move on until you all do. So murmur on. Go ahead. Just tell them what you think it is. In a word or two, that's it. All right? Good. Good. Well, some of you think, well, the average person wouldn't answer money. If I had enough money, I could be happy because I could get what I need when I need it. It's not income. It's not wealth. It's not health, as much as we all want that. It's not security. It's not even attractiveness. It's not IQ. It's not career success. What distinguishes happy people from less happy people is the presence of deep, joy-producing, life-changing, authentic relationships. Spending meaningful time with friends and family and people who care about us is pretty much indispensable to being happy in life. Robert Putnam, an author that I've read a little bit of, one of his books was very popular a few years back called Bowling Alone. And in that book, which had a lot of research, he wrote this. The single most common finding from nearly four decades of research on life and satisfaction in the United States is that happiness is best predicted by the breadth and depth of one's social connectedness. Now, one very important thought here for you to grasp is connectedness is not a word that you can just toss real lightly out there. We live in a world of massive social networks, don't we? Pastor Scott has over 1,500 friends on his Facebook page, most of them from south of the Mon River, but they're good friends. I'm not talking about Facebook or Twitter or, you know, LinkedIn or eHarm or anything like that. Listen, I think networks are just an attempt to find a way to get really connected at the heart level. Profound, I mean, those things are profound because they're bridges that sometimes lead to connectedness. And you see how this works in a lot of other ways. How many of you work out with a partner? And you know if you have a workout partner, you tend to push just a little harder, right? Or some of you maybe have a confidant that you open up to, and you know that that relationship helps you to just be a little more honest with your own journey of faith and what's going on in your life. Parents, I just noted in our car cruise out here in Wexford on Friday night, how many parents come with their kids and just sort of hang out. You know what the parents do? They tell horror stories to one another, just to sort of encourage each other how they got through this week together. And they'll make it through the next, and it's, I mean, in a fun kind of way. They're just sharing life. They're connecting. Partners in business who really connect can grow great businesses much faster than individuals. Look at Google and so on. The reason is God made us this way. He made us to be connected to one another. When God said it is not good for man to be alone, He did not mean just in marriage. Although I know that's the context. That's true of life. I mean, here's what gets crushed sort of out of us if we're not connected. This is what we end up with if we're not connected. Here are some of the signs of things that are happening in us deep inside if we're not connected. Depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, substance abuse, sexual addiction, eating disorders, sleeping difficulties, and the list goes on. Now, you may have some trouble with one or several of those. That doesn't mean you're a bad person, but it may be an indicator that you're trying to do a lot of life alone. And you need to address that. You can't overcome these things alone either. People who are socially connected are two to five times more likely to die from all causes than those who are blessed with close personal connections. Even people with poor physical habits are more likely to live longer if they are strongly connected. Probably the poster child for that is Winston Churchill. You know, Churchill had terrible personal habits, right? His health habits were bad. He smoked cigars. He drank too much. He had weird sleeping hours. He was completely sedentary. But he had a wonderful marriage. He was connected to his family. He had tremendous friends and colleagues, and he loved his nation and his work. He lived to be, what, 90-something? And then he was asked by a reporter one time, Winston Churchill, do you ever exercise? His response was, The only exercise I get is serving as a pallbearer for my friends who died while they were exercising. Power of connection. So it begs the question, Why are so many of us, even here today, so reluctant to get and stay connected? And friends, the answer actually is very easy. It's difficult to form those kinds of relationships. Think about it. The first two people that God created to inhabit the earth lived in the Garden of Eden in a perfect place. And they deceived each other and threw a curse down on all of us. And their offspring, starting with Cain and Abel, those two guys got along great, right? Cain kills his brother Abel. I came across this little video when I was preparing. I want you to watch it. It's 60 seconds long. And I want you to watch the facial expressions on these two little guys. It's like Cain and Abel. And to me, this captures the essence of the personal social dilemma that we face. It's people trying to connect. And here's what happens. Let's watch. Charlie bit me. Charlie. Charlie bit me. Ow! Ow, Charlie! Ow! Charlie! That really hurt! Charlie bit me. And that really hurt, Charlie, and it's still hurting. I tell you, I could watch that every day because that's what happens, right? You reach out to Charlie to help maybe just connect in his world and put your finger out where you need it to be. And Charlie bites it. And Charlie actually took some glee in that, didn't he? That's Cain and Abel right there. I mean, in a nutshell. But that's the whole social condition. And you can't have connectedness without risk. And the reason why many of you will come in and worship with us and enjoy the service but never get connected, despite the thousands of attempts we make to get you connected, is because you're afraid of the risk you have to take, that you might get your finger bitten. And friends, I cannot assure you that you won't. How many of you have been part of a group that had at least one person that you wanted to just throttle? I mean, you would think, if that person is coming tonight, I'm not going to that meeting. I mean, right? A lot of hands are up. That's scary. But you can't let that happen. That's part of what this is about. It's overcoming those obstacles to making real, true connections. Because without them, we start to drift along. We get away from the power to persevere, the power to press on, the power to keep going. And I just want to encourage you, don't let that happen to you. On your outline, somebody here needs to claim these Scriptures. Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another. And all the more as you see the day, that's the day, the final day, approaching, don't give up. Don't give up. Some of you were part of groups at one time, and you've stopped going. And it's time to get reengaged. Some of you have never tried a group because it was not part of your own personal spiritual or religious heritage. I've found that to be a very common response. But friends, here at North Way and all of our locations, we are committed to small groups and always have been for 30 years. And they come in all sizes and shapes, neighborhood groups, affinity groups, men's groups, women's groups, serving groups, care groups. There's a group where you can fit in and find people. It's still going to be risky, but it will make a huge difference if you don't give up, if you keep trying. That same author, by the way, Robert Putnam, said this in his book, and I found this to be pretty stirring. He says this. As a rule of thumb, if you belong to no groups but you decide to join one, you cut your risk of dying over the next year in half. Isn't that remarkable? Anybody here not interested in cutting your risk of dying in half? I think that's sort of an uplifting motto for small group ministry. Join a group or die. You can wrestle with that one, Kristen, but I kind of like it. I just think it has a ring to it. This is the time of year, by the way, when so many of us are starting to make our plans and decide what's going to happen in the fall. I just want to encourage you. Create a space for a group, morning group, lunch group, evening group. Find a place where you can connect and be part so that you can find, you can sink your roots deep down into the life that's flowing through another person, the spiritual life. And I can't tell you how many times in the 37 years that Carol and I have been here that we've been lifted up by our group. It's just part of what God's designed. And that really leads me to the second verse, and this is found. I just quoted it, but it'll be up on the screen. This is from Hebrews 12, verses 1 through 3. Here's what the Bible says about Jesus. It says, What sin is he talking about there? The sin of giving up. The sin of tripping and falling down and not getting up again. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith. Consider or model or emulate him who endured such opposition from sinful men so that you will not grow weary and lose heart or give up. You know, I often read that and think, well, I just put my eyes on Jesus and think about the cross. But, you know, Jesus was committed to being in a group and being part of community. He had the 12 that he met with consistently and then the three that he was intimate with. And you can model your life after him and keep your eyes on him. Friends, listen. The road before us, I don't believe, will be easier. I believe it will be tougher, more difficult, more obstacles. But we're uniquely positioned with a great team of leaders, many dedicated servants all over, throughout all of our locations. And a sense, I believe, of divine blessing from God to take this message of the kingdom and press forward with it and address some of the issues that face our culture and give people a place of hope. Where they turn to find, where can I find answers to what I'm struggling with, to what I'm carrying, the burdens that I'm bearing, my situation, my family, my job, my marriage, my sense of meaning. We can hold up hope to them. And so you can find it here. You can find it here and be part of what we're doing. That's the invitation that the Lord extends to us. And we have the privilege to extend to others. I want you to stand and pray with me, please. Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask that despite all the risks involved in trying to be connected, the possibility of being hurt, disillusioned or betrayed, that everyone hearing my voice would be committed to being connected in a meaningful, deep, joy-producing way in the days ahead so that we won't run this race alone, but we'll run it together and persevere to the end. And I pray you'd give us the grace to do so in Jesus' name. Amen.