Survey Says I

Let's pray together and thanks so much Jim for sharing with us. Father we thank you for those downtimes, those valleys that Jim mentioned because it's there that we have to learn to depend on you and we thank you that they always lead us to the next mountaintop. Speak to us from your word and teach us today what is you would have us to know about some of the deep questions that many of us share together and we thank you that as the old song says, Jesus is the answer for the world today. In your name we pray, amen. You know as we begin 2009 we do so under what I would describe as a foreboding cloud of one word, just one simple word, uncertainty. When you say that's true, uncertainty is the best word I can think of to describe how most people are entering this new year. Uncertain about the economic situation. Is it going to get better by throwing a trillion dollars at it or is it going to get worse? And all the consequences of that. Am I going to keep my job or not? Am I going to get moved around? You know can I provide all those kinds of things? There's a lot of uncertainty in our world about that. Then there's the whole uncertainty that has to do in a profound way with the new government and the new president and what direction he and his administration are going to try to take our nation in terms of some of the values and things. May be wonderful, may not. It's just uncertain to all of us. And then there's the uncertainty of the international situation. Terrorism every place you turn. You know devastation breaks out here and there and now in the Middle East things have intensified yet again and no one really knows how that's going to end as Hamas and Israel seem to be going head-to-head in the nation. Nations seem to be rallying around as the scripture foretells against Israel. This is a very interesting time. And so you would believe, you'd want to believe that it's just at a time like this when there's so much uncertainty that well there's one thing that's for me certain and that is that you will not see me in a sweater vest in 2009. But with modest certainty I'll say it's for times like this that we're in that I would pray that our faith would be the certain thing that we would have. I mean scripture is very clear. Let me read for you. It's not on your outline but Psalm 96. Let's put up on the screens if we could please. Psalm 96 There's a powerful scripture here about God's sovereignty and His control in our lives. And let me read it for you. Psalm 96. This is something that just take note of, grab your outline out of your notes and write it down and read it later. We don't see it here. That's how it reads. It says, reading verse 10. Say among the nation, the Lord reigns. The world is firmly established. It cannot be moved. For He will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens rejoice. Let the earth be glad. And so on and so on and so on. Why? Because the Lord reigns. We have the certain confidence that God is in control. That's what that means. As we poured over the answers to the survey, this was the intriguing outcome and the primary sort of message that you sent to us by the hundreds. And we have certainly, and I'm not a statistician and I don't do a lot of detailed surveys and polling and all that, but I can tell you that what we have here is clearly a statistical picture that's reliable. I mean based on just sheer numbers. More than a third of you in this, the Living Church of Jesus that we call North Way, at whatever venue you might be participating today, say that you're not really even sure. You're number one obstacle and off to my side over here you can see a hurdle representing an obstacle. The number one hurdle that most of you mentioned is that you're not sure that God really is reliable. You're not sure that He can be counted on. You're not sure, honestly, that He even cares about what happens in your life. You're not sure, I'm going to use the word, if you can trust Him. In trials and difficulties and illnesses and job stresses and family things and problems here and disappointments there all begin to add up causing more than a third of you to say, I don't know if I can trust God. I don't know with certainty if the Lord reigns in my life. I think that's profound. I think that's very significant that so many of us in the church, I'm talking about the body of believers that call this their church home, let alone our neighbors and friends and people outside of the church. We're not sure if the Lord is who He said He is. I have one very strong conviction, born of Scripture, witnessed to in my soul and experienced in my life for nearly 40 years now, and that is God is for us and not against us. God wants what is best for us. God is in and out to put us down and to make us miserable. God wants to empower us to be more than conquerors in this life. I am convinced of that. Some of you really seriously doubt that according to this survey. And here's what's happened. Now watch. A gap, take a look at my hands, a gap has opened up between what we sort of say we believe about God, you know, our declaration, our proclamation, our testimony, and what we really believe about it. And if that gap's narrow then, you know, and we really believe it and what we're saying is the same thing, then life's pretty okay. But as that gap opens up, you know what happens? What we say minus what we really believe, if that opens up, equals disappointment. And we start living a discouraged Christian life. I believe it was C.S. Lewis that says God cannot use a discouraged Christian. And if you want to know one of the reasons why some of us have just sort of flopped in the whole effort that we've made to try to make a difference in our lives with Christ towards others is because we're not all that convinced. It's interesting what a struggle it is for some of us just to talk about the Lord. We're just not convinced ourselves that it's happening. That reality in our lives is waning. You know, I had a friend that told me about an energy drink they came across. And they said, you got to try this energy drink, it's really great. And I said, sure, fine. I've had, you know, tons of people over the years to say, got to try this, got to try that, you know, and get in on this and get in on that. But he said, no, this isn't like a marketing thing. He said, just try this drink. He said, I'll get you some. I'll get you bottles, I'll get you bars, you know, I'll get you chewies, I'll get you whatever you want. He believed so much in this energy drink. He was so fired up because he said, listen, this is going to, you know, help you to lose weight and put on muscle and stay up in the middle of the afternoon and all that stuff. It's going to help you to really feel good. And he became this like, I mean, salesman without being a salesman. Because he believed in the energy drink. And so here I'm carrying around now my own little, got to try my energy drink. It's really good stuff. He believes it. I want to ask you a question. Do you have the same level of conviction that Jesus works? Can you say to people in your sphere of influence, your co-workers, friends, family, can you say, without questioning it, without doubting it, trust Jesus because he'll come through for you? Or is this uncertainty something that sort of haunts you? Because you've called out to God and it hasn't happened. And I know I'm talking to some people right now. You've prayed a prayer and it was like hitting the ceiling and it fell down and nothing happened. And now you're wondering. And you can't remember the last time you've talked to somebody with sincerity because it just hasn't been happening for you. I know that's where a lot of us are living right now. And it's true as we begin 2009. Loved ones, some of us really need to be honest with ourselves and say, God, bring me back to the real thing. I don't want to live in this sort of land of make-believe where I'm saying the right things but not experiencing them. I want what I say and what I experience to match up. I don't want there to be a gap. So that when I walk out of this place, I can walk out just full of expectation that God's going to just put me in the right place. And when I speak to something, it's going to happen. And when I talk to people, they're going to respond because they know I believe it. Listen, how many of you know people are pretty smart? God wants to fulfill His Word and His promises. He wants to demonstrate His truth is real and operating in your life today. And He wants to draw us together in love and in service to Him. Here's just four things as I've been preparing for the new year. And I always start the new year by trying to read through Scripture and reminding myself of promises of God. People are looking at your outline saying, where is this? It's not on there. This is great. This means there's just more content that you could possibly stuff into one message. But here are four quick things. I hope we have these for the screens. If not, then you'll just have to write them somewhere on the sides. Number one, God promised us a place of blessing. He promised us a place of blessing. So as you go into this new year, believe that He is going to. It says in 2 Corinthians 1, chapter 1, verse 20, that in Jesus, all of God's promises are yes and amen. So expect God's blessing. Number two, God promised us a place to live, a place of abiding. And I would love to talk about the abiding presence of God. That's what I believe God wants us to experience, John 15, 10. God also promised us a place to bring forth a great harvest, a harvest of lives, harvest of righteousness, a harvest of abundance in our lives, John 15, 8. And number four, God's promised us a place of victory over our enemies, Romans 8, 37. So many of us struggle against doubts and fears and actually evil things. God says, no, I have promised you a victory if you'll lay hold of it. Who's ready to live in those four places? How many would like to have it mark your life? Amen. That's where I want to be. And I'm declaring, as your pastor today, that that's what God wants for us. And I just want to share with you, it begins, look on your outline, it begins with a certainty right in the middle of your outline. Turn to your neighbor and say, he's already halfway done with the message. All right, go ahead. It's true. That wasn't just the introduction. It begins, effective faith requires certainty about who God is. Write it down. Effective faith requires certainty about who God is. Loved ones, if your response to the survey was, I'm just not sure God is who He says He is, then you'll never have the kind of faith that's going to change your life, let alone somebody else's. Let's read about this, what I call life's most important question. Let's look at it. It's on your outline. Let's read it together. When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, this is on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, He asked His disciples, who do people say the Son of Man is? And so He's saying, hey, what's the word on the street about me? Who do people say that I am? What's the word out there? And you know what they said? Well, some say John the Baptist, and some say Elijah, and they started naming all these religious people. And you know, friends, if you went out and asked someone today, hey, who is this Jesus? Most of them would give you a religious answer, and most of them would say something like this, because I've asked this question a lot of times. People say, hey, He was a great teacher, a great moral figure, a model to pattern your life after, and a teacher of truth. And I say, well, do you believe He was the Son of God? Well, I don't know about that, but He was a great... I say, well, you know what? If you believe He was a great teacher, He said He was the Son of God, so He was either a liar and a fraud, or you got to believe He was the real deal. And then they start to squirm, because now it's heading down rationally into a place where they have to confront, is He the Son of God or not? Today, Jesus is called all kinds of things by people. A religious leader, a great teacher, all that, different kinds of things. And some people will just say, you know, I don't know. It doesn't really matter. All things sort of end up in the same place anyhow. Psalm 14, verse 1 says, the fool says in their heart, there is no God. So if people say, I don't believe Jesus is God at all, there is no God, then the Bible says, well, they're a fool. I would... That's not our problem. Can I say that? That's not the problem that's in this church. You know what the problem more is in this church is that we have adopted, what I want to call, for those who are a little computer savvy, a cut-and-paste sort of theology. In other words, we cut and paste the parts about Jesus and the Bible that we really want to grab hold of, and we put that into our, you know, URL, and that's where we go, and we believe that. But other parts we don't believe, and so... And you know what? We tend to base it on what's now. We base what we believe on what we've experienced, rather than basing what we believe on what God's Word says. And you know what that means? That means that sometimes we have all kinds of weird doctrines, because we've experienced some things that aren't in here, and we believe that, even though it's not in here. Or, more often, we haven't experienced what's in here, so we believe, well, that must not be true, because I haven't experienced it. And let me just say, just because you haven't experienced it doesn't mean it's not true. Some of you have had experiences I haven't had, but I believe they're true, because they're in God's Word. I've had some experiences you haven't had, that are in God's Word, quite possibly. The key is, are you certain about who God says He is, based on His Word, not based on what you think it should be? Some of us would be very... How many of you are very comfortable saying, I believe Jesus came to save, to seek and to save those who are lost? How many of you say, yeah, that's, I believe that. How many believe Jesus came to give us an abundant life? Interestingly, fewer hands. You know, I get more negative emails and feedback when I talk about God giving us an abundant life, than I do when I talk about sin and judgment. I don't know why. People get really nervous about it. I guess it's because, you know, they see the few people that get all sort of upside down with that stuff, and so they cross it out. They delete that part, but it's in Scripture. From front to back, God promises for those who are faithful, He's going to bless them with His presence, His grace and His favor. He's going to empower them to do amazing things. If you have your Bible, turn quickly to Ephesians 1.18. I don't think anything's going to come up on the screen, so just you have to turn with me on these. This is so powerful, I just don't want to miss it. It might come up, Ephesians 1. Here's what it says about believing. Listen to this. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power to those who believe, have faith. That's the issue today. That's the issue in the survey. You've got to believe that God is who He said He is in Jesus, or you will not receive the glorious promises of His Word. Let me say it this way on your outline. Who do you say that I am? For us to have a real breakthrough, loved ones, we have got to determine that we are convinced that Jesus is. And you know what? Even if it's been a tough time for you, we've got to be convinced. And there's no better time to just get started over again than right now, the beginning of the new year, and affirming that Jesus is who He said He is. This last week I had an experience which I haven't had for a long time. I went to a wedding reception, and they had a valet parking thing, and I gave my car to the valet parking guy, and then he came back, and he put the key in the ignition, and I came home, and you know, I pushed the button to turn the engine off. It has push-button things. But I left the key in the ignition, in the on position. So the next morning when I went in to turn the car on to go to work, actually, it was to go to church, actually, to worship, the battery was dead. The only things that worked, I mean, some of the lights were on the dashboard, and that was about it. And I mean, I turned the battery, turned, and you know, I don't know, that terrible sound. It kind of laughs at you, you know. So I called Carol, and we worked together as a team. I have long jumper cables, and we managed to get, you know, the things all hooked up to one of the other cars in the garage, and you know, got the thing going. And I started thinking about, you know what, it's a picture, and I know it's not a perfect picture, but it's a picture of where a lot of us are. Watch, the battery of your faith is dying. It's really low on power. It's got enough juice for there to be some lights, and a couple of things working. But to really see God move, you don't have enough juice to turn over, and you're not making a difference. And I just want to appeal to you, all my heart, to say, as we start this new year, say, Lord, I'm ready for someone to come along, and put a couple of cables on me, and cause my faith to get jump-started again, and get my battery going again, so that I can walk out of here full of God's Spirit, and know that God's ready to use me to touch people, and for the promises of God to come alive in my life, because I don't want to live with this gap between what I say and what I really believe. I don't want to have this big doubt mountain in my face. I want this to be real. And you know what, the only mistake right now would not be to admit that your battery's pretty low, or maybe even dead. You might be going through the motions just being here. I doubt it on a situation like we're having weather-wise. If you're out, you're probably serious about it. But you know, even if it is, the only mistake you could make is just not to admit it. And in a few moments, we're going to come to the communion table, and I can't think of a better time to say to God, God, I want to begin this new year by declaring that Jesus Christ is who He said He was, because He turned to Peter, and He said, He said, who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter answered, look at verse 16, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus replied, blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah. This was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I want you to see, loved ones, that what you need isn't just sort of a harder try at this life. You need a revelation from God. And He wants you to put the cables on today and just do that in your life. And He says this at the same, in the same breath, He says, I tell you, you're Peter. And on this rock, and there's all kinds of debate about the rock, whether it was, you know, Petra, the little piece of the rock, or the rock of the revelation of who Jesus is, which is what I think it means. I will build my church, and the gates of Hades, or hell, will not stand against it or overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed. You're going to walk around with power in your battery. You're going to start making a difference. You are going to meet a person that is overflowing and has something to give people in need. And loved ones, the more uncertain times get as we go forward, and just my take on it, it's going to get worse before it gets better. You're going to have something certain. It's going to flow out of you. You're going to have the life of Christ, the Son of the living God. And so I just want to say as we close, are you ready to come and have your faith battery recharged? Faith is God's favorite invitation to RSVP with power. When you just say, Lord, I trust you. I believe you are who you say you are. He says, okay, let me demonstrate that. I want to show you. I want to do it. It may mean some difficulties. It may mean some trials. It doesn't matter. The core issue is you believe God is who He said He is. And you know what? One last thing. For those of you who understand, sometimes God doesn't seem to come through the way you wished He would. Sometimes, and I'll be the first to admit, I don't get the answers I expected. Let me just say, watch now. This is important. There is some mystery about all this. I'm looking around at some people I love a lot who've prayed a lot about certain things in their life that didn't happen the way they wanted them to, nor what I think is fair or you think it is fair. But you know what? I still believe that God is in control. I mean, my heart was broken when I got the news about Dr. Jim Platt, who shared earlier about his heart attack. And I know those of you who went watching the video didn't hear that story, but here's the man. He was my friend and just came out of nowhere. And I'm sure he wasn't praying, Oh God, give me a heart attack so I can be closer to You. But you know what? God allowed that in his life. And here's the thing. We have to defer to the mystery of God and understand that sometimes in His sovereignty He allows things to happen so that we will be able to trust Him more. And when I see that happen, when something goes on, listen, do you think the people who watched Lazarus die and lay in the tomb for four days, do you think they were happy about it? No, read in John chapter, I think it's 11. They were ticked off at Jesus. That's never a good thing. I mean, but you know what? Some people get, they were, where were you Jesus? He was just saying, well, you know, I just wanted to prove to you that nothing's going to hold me back. Even four days of being in the tomb. And so loved ones, you can count on God. He's going to come through. And what does that mean? That means you can know then His perfect will. I'll close with this. That's another whole sermon I just don't have time for today. I want to talk about God's will, but God's will isn't aligning scripture with somebody's counsel and, you know, inner peace, you know, like there's the harbor light thing. I mean, that's so fundamental. I think the will of God is when you are so surrendered to Christ as the Messiah, the Son of the living God, that your thoughts and His thoughts are aligning. And as Oswald Chambers says, you are the will of God wherever you go. You just speak and your decisions are God's will because you're aligned with Him. You want to know God's will? Get aligned with Jesus and just say, Lord, be everything in my life. And so I offer you today the jumper cables from the throne of God as we start the new year. Are you ready? You ready to say, Lord, fill me with Jesus. Give me a full charge because I want to live for You. I want to be certain that You are who You say You are in uncertain times. Let's stand and pray. Everybody bow, please. Let's pray together. Jesus, I pray for all who would desire a fresh infilling of life right now, life from the throne of God. And friend, if you want God to reach down with the jumper cable, if He'll allow the analogy of His life to reach down to touch your hand, just lift your hand up and say, Lord, I need a charge. I need a charge. Amen, Lord. I need the charge. Oh, God, by Your power. All right. Thanks. You can put your hand down. And you know, I'm pretty confident that in the room right now, there might be some of you who have really never experienced even the first time that sense that God is present in your life through His Son, Jesus. And I'm going to, before we take communion, can I invite you to just pray a simple prayer, but a very urgent and important prayer, a prayer that acknowledges that you want to know God in that personal way through His Son. It's my privilege to lead you in that prayer. If you want to know Him, and you've not done this before, and it's not been clear in your life, just say this prayer, Lord Jesus. That's right, say it to Him, Lord Jesus, thank You for coming to this earth. Thank You for living a perfect life and dying on the cross for my sin. Please forgive me for pushing You away. I receive You now. Make me new by Your power. In Your name I pray. Now, if you prayed that prayer, loved one, you've gotten the ultimate, brand new battery of faith in your heart. And I just want to agree with you that God has heard your prayer. I won't ask you to come up front here. I'm not going to like to agree with you. Here's what I'm going to ask you to do. Every head is bowed, and no one's looking around except me. And in a moment, I'm going to ask you to lift your head and look this way. When my eyes meet yours, we'll agree in faith that tonight, on this day, the 10th of January, you said yes to Jesus, and you opened your heart. Heads are bowed, every head bowed. If you prayed, look up right now and put your hand up at the same time. Just slip your hand up real quickly, wherever you are, and I'll just agree. You said, tonight, I prayed that prayer. I opened my heart. Is there anybody that prayed tonight? Thank you, sir. I agree with you. God bless you. Opening your heart to Christ is an awesome thing. That's all I'm going to do. Anyone else, just wave at me. If I miss your eyes, sometimes, thank you, sir. I agree with you. That helps me so much when you wave your hand, I can see right immediately. That's two I've seen. There's another gentleman. I agree with you, sir. Okay, there's three men. Anyone else? Just lift your hand up real quickly. Last time, I'll look around. Father, thank you. We agree with these and any that I miss, Father. In Jesus' name, that you would now seal their decision with your promised Holy Spirit and never let them doubt your presence from this moment on. In Jesus' name. Do this in remembrance of me, and I want to say, this isn't in the Bible, but I want to say this. Friends, communion, we believe, now listen, we believe is a means of grace. In other words, it is a specific, tangible way that you lay hold of the grace of God to recharge your battery of faith. Take your communion today and say, Lord, fill my faith battery. Fill it full of your presence. Let me begin this year intimately walking with you. Hold your portion until all are served, and then we'll share it together. And listen, as Rob sings this song, listen to the words and let them minister to your heart. Say, Lord, I'm overcome with your great love for me. Son of God, strength is all around me. You alone, the darkness cannot bear. Lord of love, forgiveness draws me near. You draw me near. Son of God, prophesy of old. You alone, redeemer of my soul. Come again, lead your people home. Come lead us home, Jesus. Oh, holy one, I sing to you, forgiven. Say, Lord, I'm overcome with your great love for me. You are worthy. You are worthy. You are worthy of all my praise. You are beautiful. You are beautiful. I will lift up my hands and say, Jesus, oh holy one, I sing to you, forgiven. Say, Lord, I'm overcome with your great love for me. Oh, Jesus, oh holy one, I sing to you, forgiven. Say, Lord, I'm overcome with your great love for me.