The DNA of Spiritual Life I, the Father's Genes

Your Bibles, if you brought them today to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, that will be the text along with the 23rd Psalm. I'll just encourage you, though, to look up in the overhead if you don't have a Bible. We'll make sure that you know the text for today. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. And let's read together verses 17 through 21. Let's declare God's word. This is the truth of God to us. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is gone, the new has come. All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him might become the righteousness of God. You know, my notes here say to dive into this and start off my sermon with a lot of energy, and I want to just stop right now and have you look at that scripture again. Can anyone think of a more incredible plan than this? Look up here. Go way out there. I notice some of our CMU students are back. Anyone working on some kind of a computer program that could make that happen? Anybody have an idea how we can change all of humanity? And rescue them from the power of sin in their lives? The moral decline that Paul was describing? And did I read something in there about God is making his appeal through us? How many of you feel like, yeah, I'm an integral part of God's plan? I have to admit to you, oftentimes I don't even know what I'm doing in this thing. What an incredible... I mean, is there something incredible in that? Or did I just read that and it was just for me? How many read that and said, my gosh? And he did it by making his son the sin that was in our lives. There's no... I mean, this is so beyond anything a man can manufacture. This is the wisdom of God. It's not in my notes, so don't even look in your hotline. It's not there. And I read that as we were reading here right now, and I'm just overwhelmed with the reality of the plan of God. And he wants us to be part of it. I mean, is this cool or what? We're being invited in on the most incredible conspiracy in the history of humanity. God making his appeal to ordinary people like us. I want to talk about DNA for just a couple minutes. Five years ago, how many would have known what DNA was? Maybe, but because of a few relatively high-profile criminal cases, we all know, don't we, now, what DNA are about, right? It's those sort of helio-shaped, twisted ladder things that really make up the molecules that make up our genetic composition. I mean, scientists are now able to see those things, and they can even devise models of them. And that genetic code that's all encrypted in there defines everything about us. It tells us who we are. Everything from our height to our weight to our eye color, the kind of hair that we have or don't have, the color of it, I mean, the texture of our skin, everything about us. I mean, everything we spend billions of dollars a year trying to change, it's all coded in there, right? And then we're trying to change it. Even things that we don't know about, our intellect, sometimes our temperament, some even say our sexual kinds of behaviors, it's all encrypted in this code in us called DNA. Do you believe at some point in the future, scientists will be able to do something to rearrange those DNAs so that maybe, you know, we could all be exactly how we wanted to be? Wouldn't that be something? I'd like to have green eyes, so we change the code. No, I don't think so. I think God has made it so complex that we'll maybe get close to it, but we'll never really be able to totally figure it out because God is the creator of all these things. And I was just pondering all this, you know, there is also a DNA of our spirits. Have you ever felt this? A DNA in my spirit. Do you feel coded in your spiritual walk? Do you feel there's some things about you that have been thrown into place that make you who you are and despite everything you might do to try to change it, you know, you just find yourself sort of, that's the way you are spiritually? How many of you find yourself wanting to draw nearer to God? And so you said, you know what, I'm going to change the code of sort of my approach to God and I'm going to try to become more disciplined. I'm going to try to have a quiet time with God every day and read the Bible and pray. And you've tried that and you've fallen flat in your face. The rest of you are not telling the full truth about yourself. Why? Because most of us struggle. We seem to say there's a code in us that rejects the whole idea of being sort of godly. How many of you have made sort of a deal with God like, you know, I want to have, Lord, I want to be able to please you in my life. I want to be a great parent and I never want to lose my temper with my kids. And then you sit down and your four-year-old drops his spaghetti bowl in your lap. And then you have to repent. And there seems to be this code in you. No matter what you try to do, it just doesn't work. You can't seem to get where you want to go. You want to serve God in some way. And so you try all these different kinds of ministries and no matter what happens, you just, I just can't seem to find, I don't feel worth much of anything in the kingdom of God. Is anyone here today tracking with me? It just seems like there's some things in us that we can't seem to get right. Let me take you back just a few weeks to where I was when I started my study break. I have a code in me that just seems to always want to do a little bit more. I'm coded to want to overextend, overcommit, overwhelm myself at times to the point of literally just being exhausted and just really tired, even in my soul. And as a result at times, just to protect myself, there's this internal mechanism that sort of starts to shut me down. And I don't even, I'm not consciously aware of it until after it happens because, see, my heart begins to shrink because it knows if it takes on any more, it's going to break. I was driving down Interstate 79. A lot of you do that trip for business and different reasons. I was coming down from Erie. This was a, oh, maybe third Saturday, second or third Saturday in July, coming back from visiting Kevin Lehman. And I was driving down on this beautiful day, late in the afternoon, got about 20 miles or so south of Erie. And we were, I mean, traffic was zipping along, you know, 55 or whatever. How does traffic zip along in your life? We were really making great time. And it started slowing down. And I could see up along straightaway, but boy, it didn't look good at all. And traffic slowed down and finally just stopped. I'm not talking crawled along. I'm talking turn off the engine, open up the doors and cook hot dogs. I mean, it was dead stop. Now, I was supposed to be somewhere and I knew this wasn't good. I figured, well, it can't be too long. And it just kept happening. And I'm fuming inside about, oh, man, is this messing up the rest of my plans and all this stuff. Fire trucks are going along the berm and, you know, paramedics and all the rest. 45 minutes later, traffic starts moving and inching along. In another 15 minutes, I get up to the accident scene. Here's a car totally burned out. I mean, just destroyed. And I have to be honest. What went through my head was not compassion for the family or whoever was in that accident. I was more ticked off about being late than I was about what was happening to the family. And God caught that. I don't know if God catches what you think. He caught that and he said to me, You want to know how shriveled your heart is? You care more about your inconvenience than your tragedy. I thought I was so convicted. And it was an indication that my heart had really been just shriveling up. This concerned me. I had other things that happened. I had times I'd be going along for days and realize I'd read the Bible. I'd read books. I'd read articles. But I wouldn't worship. Let me just give you an indication. If what we just did there for the last seven or eight minutes made you uncomfortable, then you don't know what worship is about. And maybe you have a shriveled heart. Maybe your heart needs to be enlarged a little bit. Let me give you four indicators of a shriveled heart real quickly. Donna's going to help me. The first one, by the way, is not on your outline. I just threw this one in after the outline was done. The first indicator. You can say maybe this one applies to you or not. But the first indicator is a constant or at least frequent sense of being rushed all the time. Do you find yourself looking at your week and just wondering how you're going to get it all done? Anything that can make your projects and your responsibilities go faster, you tend to buy into. Think of how we do this as a culture. We get our packages from one place to another using Federal Express. Our long-distance company is Sprint. Our personal finances are handled by Quicken. Maintain our schedules with our Day Runner. There's a thing called a Day Runner out there. Our diet plan is called Slim Fast. When we exercise, we wear our bathing suit by Speedo. We're going along as fast as we can to get this done. We're going to get this done. But we can't keep up. This rush, friends, this begins to shrivel our hearts down. I want to say this. This is pretty heavy. Listen to this next statement. I want to submit to you that possibly the most formidable opponent that we have in this culture today to the will of God being worked in our lives isn't a satanic plot to somehow bring kind of witchcraft or weird religions around us. It's to hurry us to the point where we're too busy to find God. Most of the people, most of the men and women that I interface with really don't seem to have a defiant attitude toward God or a rebellious in-your-face attitude. They have, you know, I'm sure that's all. But I don't really have time to go to church, time to go to a Bible study, time to talk about this because I've got things to do. Millions of people will never know the love of God, never develop a heart for worship or place of service, not because they defy God, but because they just simply cannot find the time to discover Him. Many, many people won't become the kind of parents that they want to be to their kids. They won't find a place to serve those who are less fortunate than themselves. They won't be able to leave a legacy or make a difference in relationships. Not because they don't really want to, but because they're too busy to make the investment in doing it. Listen, if Satan cannot get us to rebel or flat out disobey God, I'm convinced he'll simply make us busy, unfocused and exhausted. And that's why it says in Revelation, I think it's 17, that Satan's strategy is to wear out the saints. How many of you are here today? Don't put your hand up. But I'm describing you. You're wearing out. I'd like to say a lot more about this point, but I don't have time. Second indicator is a lack of compassion. Lack of compassion. There it is. I already gave you my illustration. How many of you can think of one thing that you went by? I mean, you walked by in need and you said, you know, I should go see her, I should do this, but I just, you know, can't do it. How about the next one? Indifference toward your disobedience. One sure indicator that your heart is shriveling is you cannot do what God's prompting you to do and it doesn't bother you. You better check your heart. And finally, very little desire to serve. I'm happy to show up at church, show up at my small group. Let someone else do the things. I just need to get blessed. I need to be received. And friends, if those four things describe you, can I say, then it's very likely that your heart is shriveling up. It's very likely that you're in this condition of soul shrinkage. And you're much like I was when I started this study group. The difficult thing you see is you begin to believe that you can't change that, that you're wired that way, that your DNA, spiritually speaking, is such that you can't change. And it wasn't long into my study break time and I said, Lord, I got to admit to you, I'm kind of a mess here. And I wish I could say, listen, I wish I could say that, well, then I had a revelation from God and I said, well, you know what I need to do? I need to get serious and go on a fast and go on a 40-day fast. I read this week where someone went on a 70-day fast. I wish I could say I had that, but I didn't. And I hope that doesn't damage my image in some of your minds as your pastor or at least your respect. But I had a shriveled heart and all I could say was, listen, all I could say was, God, here I am. If there's any way you can do something with a sinner like me, then I said, Lord, I'm available. Would you try saying those words? I'm available. Lord, I'm not going to promise you self-improvement or self-enlargement. Lord, I just want you to know I'm here. If you would be merciful to me. And over the next weeks, I fell back into open arms. To my astonishment, God did not do what I thought he should do, which was basically chastise me and set me aside. But God received me. He opened his arms and received me. And the only reason I even had the courage to pray that prayer was that A.W. Tozer said this. He said, what you believe about God is the most important thing about you. And I changed that just a little bit on your outline. What you believe about God is more important than what you know about yourself. You might want to write that down. Do you believe that? What you believe about God is more important than what you know about yourself. You might know about yourself a lot of things that you wish weren't true. But if you believe God, he can change what you know about yourself. Isn't that great news? And so God began to just draw me in. You see, I know the Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in selfless love. Psalm 103. I know what Jesus said in Matthew 11. He said, come unto me, all you who are weary, look at it, and burdened, and I will give you rest. And I found the invitation of the Lord to come and spend time before him. To come and just begin to be recharged in his presence. And I would spend the next days and weeks just acknowledging as God prompted me the things about my life that were really kind of whacked out of order. My weaknesses and my passions and my fears. My hurts. The struggles that I was having with doing the things I thought God wanted me to do. Where my pride was in the way. Where I felt judgment had crept in. Where fear had begun to paralyze my faith. And over time, listen, I discovered something in this process of confessing my sin before God. When you own it, when you admit it, there's something about, listen, the power of acknowledged weakness that draws God towards you. He doesn't run from it. That's how we're different. Sometimes when you disclose yourself to someone else, it's a reason for them to kind of say, well, I've got it over you. When you disclose yourself to God, it's a reason for him to come and say, I was waiting for you. Just to acknowledge that. Matthew 7 came to me in a new light. How many of you know that passage where it says, you may say the right things, but be very surprised in that judgment day. I had someone tell me in the first service, they don't like the scripture. It makes them very nervous about their last day on earth and their first day in heaven or before God. Let's put that up. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? And in your name, drive out demons and perform many miracles. In other words, weren't we great godly men and women? And then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you. Away from me, you evil doers. And what struck me was, look at the line there that I had underlined in the overhead. I never knew you. Well, how is it that God wouldn't know us? Doesn't God know everything about us? Yes, he does. But he wants you to reveal yourself to him. What that came to me through, I've never seen it before. It's a call from Jesus to say, tell me about yourself. Disclose yourself to me as you really are. Not as you want to be or purport to be or pretend to be to somebody else. But as you really are. I want to know you. And I want you to know me. The Lord began to remind me in profound ways that I was born with a flawed spiritual DNA, but that he had exchanged my old DNA by his new and living power of life. He had given me the father's genes. And now what I needed to do was to be able to keep my focus on the main thing. Remember someone who said a few years ago, the main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing. Have you heard that? Yeah. The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing. And so often I get hung up on side things. Do you? Do you get hung up on secondary issues? I said, Lord, help me to keep the main thing, the main thing. And God led me into the Psalms. And I just want to talk for a few moments here as we move to end the message today about Psalm 23. Psalm 23. How many have been to a funeral and heard someone read Psalm 23? Almost every time I go. But do you know that Psalm 23 was written by a man by the name of David who was a man like you and me, a man chosen by God, loved by God, a man who God had said this was after his own heart, a man with passions like yours and mine, a man who wanted all that God wanted for him. And yet a man whose flawed DNA caused him to sin before the Lord. And we know the sin that he committed was grievous and he fell. And he took Bathsheba to himself and then had her husband killed and the Lord found him out and exposed him. And yet this same David, a man that I so identified with as I read these Psalms, a man, by the way, of great accomplishment, a man who was a statesman, a leader, a warrior, a poet, a musician, I mean, a great, great man. Here's what he said about God. Here's how he kept the main thing, the main thing in his life. He said, Psalm 23, verse 1, The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Let's talk about that for just a second. This isn't something that you and I very easily understand because we're not used to shepherding. How many sheep ranchers do we have here? Any? Do we have any? Any? You see, in his culture, there were a lot of sheep herders. And yet, David chose that image over every other image he could have used. He could have talked about the mightiness of God or his holiness. He talked about the Lord as his shepherd. A picture of someone who was nurturing, caring, concerned, loving. David saw the Lord as his shepherd. Jesus later affirms this and says, I am the good shepherd. John 10, 11, there on your outline. The good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. Friends, listen to this. How many of you need someone to guide you? You know, this is a complex world we're in. And how many of you found that worry helps a whole lot? How many of you found that worry that you just slip into about your bills, about your relationships, about your job, about your health, that really helps the outcome a great deal? It's probably the most unproductive thing that any of us do, and yet we all do it. David says, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. I remember reading this this summer. I think, wait, Lord, you don't mean I shall not want. I mean, anything? How ludicrous. I certainly want some things. Do you want some things that you don't have right now? I mean, how many of us want to be successes? How many of us want to have more power, influence, or how many of us want to have more, just more things? You can't mean I don't want anything, Lord. Has anyone else discovered that you can have all that I just described? You can have a lot of stuff, a lot of power and influence, a lot of success, and still want? I mean, the world is beginning to, the revelation is coming in our culture. A lot of people are getting to the place where they get what they think they want, and they still don't have what they want. Many people have climbed the ladder of success only to find that it was leaning against the wrong building when they got to the top. David says, The Lord is my shepherd. He gives me what I want. And the word to be given what you want, I looked that up, it's the word for satisfaction. He brings me into contentedness. The state of being satisfied with who one is. That's what the Lord will give you. If your shepherd is anything or anyone else, you'll want. You'll want. If another person, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a husband, a wife, someone else is your shepherd, you'll want. They'll not satisfy you. If your job or your career or your dream for your business is that's your shepherd, you'll want, even if you attain your dream. If your shepherd is some kind of physical thing or sexual thing, whatever, you'll want. You'll never be satisfied. If your shepherd is having things your way because you've got to be in control, you'll want. But if the Lord is your shepherd, you shall not want. Might I just say, all I really want these days is I just want more of God. How about you? I want more of what God wants to do. I was so encouraged as I read this summer of God just stirring in congregations like this one. Stirring, I mean, where people were hungering to be with Him. People were sacrificing. People were giving of their time. They were waiting on God. Revival opening up in all kinds of crazy places around this world. Around this country, particularly. And I said, Lord, that's what I want. And if the Lord's my shepherd, He's going to give me God. He's going to give me continence. And by the way, if there's some other things in your life that you want, can I just suggest this? Ask Him. Boy, that's really profound. Did you have to go away to get that? Well, let me just tell you some things. I believe that some of us sort of have forgotten the basic law of prayer. Prayer is about negotiating with God about the needs in your life. I mean, it's all about relationship and communication. But it's also about saying, Hey, God, listen. I've got this need in my life. And you know what I discovered this summer was, when I came to God with these things, I guess rediscovered is the best way to say it. Just asking God for something that's a need sets into motion dynamics, powers that release the very blessing, the very answers, the very provision that I desire in my heart. Dad, some of you know this is true. When your kids ask you for something, even if you don't want to give it to them, it sets something off in you. Huh? Dads? When your kids ask you, don't you as a dad immediately begin to think, Well, I'd really like to be able to do that for you. I mean, asking, even if I would ask some of you for something today, if I say, Would you take me to lunch today? You're thinking about lunch right now? Well, I sure am. And I went up to you and said, Would you take me to lunch? Even if you didn't want to take me to lunch, my asking would put you into a mode of thinking, Well, I guess we could. As a dad, my oldest son needed a car this year for school and he said, Dad, we've got some limitations here, seriously, financially speaking, but this is the kind of car I'd like to have. Would you see what we could do? Well, just because he asked me, I said, Well, let's see. And I went on an all-out hunt. I mean, newspapers and, you know, the penny saver and cruising the car lots and the internet and every other place, trying to find this exact vehicle in this price range that would make him happy. Now, why did I do that? I mean, that was basically irrational in a lot of ways, wasn't it? Why? Because I'm his dad. And Luke 11, 13 says this, If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? Just ask the Lord. How many of you have something to ask God for and say, Lord, I believe that you're going to supply my needs. Bible then says, verse 2, He takes care of my soul. And I won't get into this. I have a lot more to say about this today. But friends, some of you need to have your soul restored. Some of you have found that your soul has been so bruised. You know, when I would pray for you and go over those lists, I couldn't help but understand that some of you have been so wounded. Some of you have been through such heartache in your relationships. Some of you, listen, some of you are broken up inside and you can't even believe anything good could happen in your life. You need to have your soul restored. And there's only one person that can restore a soul. Pastor can't do it. Psychologist can't do it. You need to go to the expert. This past Thursday, Pastor Jeff came down to my office and said, I just got a phone call from my daughter. It was a little bicycle accident. We didn't know how serious it was. Well, it turns out it wasn't like a real serious accident. She didn't hit a car or anything like that, but she was thrown off her bike. And when she fell off her bike, her front teeth got chipped. You know, that's pretty hard for a little... She's 8 or 9 or 10, Scott, something like that. And Jeff piled her in the car and he didn't say, Well, yeah, your teeth are chipped, Amanda. Let's go down to the auto mechanic and see if we can put some body putty on those things. Where did he go? He went to a good dentist here in our congregation. And he did all the right stuff and fixed her teeth just like new. And, oh, by the way, it looks like she broke her arm. That's not nearly as important as the teeth. But let's get this arm fixed. He didn't take her down to the Maytag man to see if he had any, like... He took her down to the emergency room to the doctor who checked her arm. It wasn't broken, but it all fixed up. Friends, if your soul has been crushed, you need to go to the only one who can fix it. And that's the Lord. And I want to urge you. We have lots of ministries here. We meet all week long. Take your need. Take your wounded soul to get healed. Take it to Dr. Jesus. He takes care of my soul. Number three, he guides us in his paths. I have a lot to say here, but I just want to point this out. Many of you are looking for guidance right now. You're saying, God, what am I supposed to be doing with my life? Where am I supposed to be going? I had three conversations this week with people who are making life decisions. Should I sell my business and go into that? Should I take this transfer offer to another city and leave the things that were really important to me here? Should I take early retirement? Is this the guy I'm supposed to marry? Sometimes, friends, these are huge decisions that you know, if you make the wrong one, it can make an unbelievable difference in your life. Well, over the years, David discovered, the same as I, that God wants to guide us, but he doesn't do it in the ways that we wish he would. Now, a little honesty here, a little transparency. How many of you have more than once in your life, or at least once in your life, have said, in a big decision, God, if that's you, somehow do something up in the sky? Huh? Like rear... ...to point an arrow over toward Ohio, or, come on, how many of you, at least once, you say, up in the sky, take the stars, I have. Make something happen up, so I can see it. Never have. But he has spoken to me, in three specific ways. First of all, his word, I'm not sure if it's on your outline, but jot it down. Through his word, through the whisper of his spirit, God just speaking to my heart, and through the wise counsel of trusted friends. God will lead your decisions. He will guide you in the paths of righteousness. And then he'll protect you along the way. He said, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, here's the paradox. Many of us think that when God is leading us on the paths of righteousness, that everything's gonna work out just great, I mean, everything's gonna be fine, no problems along the way. How many have discovered you can be in the will of God, and all hell can seem to be breaking loose? Why is that? Because sometimes, God has to lead you through difficulty in order to take you where he wants you to be. One of the great paradoxes of the Christian faith is that in order to get to the mountaintops, how many wanna soar in the mountaintops? How many of us wanna be where God is and say, I'm living in the high things of God? Anyone wanna be there? I say that often. Lord, I wanna be able to, I wanna be up in the mountains and soaring with wings like eagles. Well, you know what? I can tell you this about mountains. The only way to get to the top of the mountains is to work your way around the valleys to get up to the mountaintop. And so you gotta go through these valleys of the shadows of death. At times, there're gonna be things that'll happen to you you can't explain. But they're necessary to get you where God wants you to be. David Hunter, our missionary to Turkey who was here this summer, when we were at lunch, he said to me in June, he said, you know, this past year, some really good things happened but one difficult thing happened. The hunters, in case you don't know, for 12 years have been serving in a very antagonistic culture in Turkey. And this year, one of the people that had converted, apparently, to Christ betrayed their mission. And he went and told the authorities about the Bible study and about the literature distribution and about the Bible correspondence course. And so, David and Betsy and their family were under a lot of scrutiny. But to top it off, he got some of the enemies of Christ to start to call the hunters and threaten David's family. And say to him, if you don't get your wife and kids out of here, you won't have them. Now, how many dads in the room today would say, you know what, I get my kids out of there in a hurry. And certainly, David took the threats very seriously. But when he prayed, God didn't give him the guidance to get out. God said to him, I am with you. And over the next months, David and Betsy and their family felt the presence of the Lord protecting them. And their tormentors stopped calling. You see, friends, sometimes you go through terrible things. We had some difficult things happen in this church this summer. Michael Merzlach's situation and Steve Lars, the man with brain cancer that's going through this difficult time right now. These people that you know, I've called them, talked to them, spoken with them. They said to me, you know what, it's miraculous. God seems to just rise up and surround me in these times. He's with me. I just want to say to anyone that's going through something today, the Lord is with you. His rod and His staff, they comfort you. He protects you. He provides for you. Number five, He'll anoint your head with oil. That's a picture of Him blessing you with His provision, providing for you beyond what you could ever imagine. God loves to do that. He loves to give you something that will assure you of His blessing in your life. And you know what, I just want to say thank you for giving to me. Sometimes God uses you to bless me, giving me your prayer support and encouragement. I have this time of life. Thanks for being such a blessing to me. And then David says, number six, that His blessing is now and forever. David looks at this all and says, well, you mean this is, wait, surely goodness and mercy will follow me some of the days of my life. What? No. All the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for 500 years. Forever. He looks at it and says, God has started something in my life that will follow me all the days of my life and in the end when it's all over, I'll be with Him in His presence forever. How do you know there's no better deal in all the world than Christianity? Following Jesus has no comparison. Nobody could ever offer me anything that would lure me away. Do you believe that about God? Is that possible that He's that good, that He's that caring, that loving? Some of you are concerned about the future, you know, going back to school or your health or your bills. The Lord says, my goodness, my mercy will follow you all the days of your life. Do you have a flawed DNA, spiritually speaking? Yeah, you do. Unless you've come to Christ. And I w