Your Forever Life

And all the folks who stuck around here five times to share with us and to experience this time together. And I wanna encourage you to grab your outline out of your notes because we've discovered people don't always bring their Bibles. And so I take the time to write the scriptures that I'm gonna be using on this little outline and you can follow along with me. I don't know if you identified with the people that shared in these little vignettes, but I want you to know something. Every one of those represents a real life story here at North Way. And I would venture to say every one of them represents something some of you are going through here today as well. And if I could share one thing with you today that would fill you with hope, one thing that would give you something to hold on to on this Easter Sunday morning, the most powerful thing I could say is this, God is here. God is right here, right now. You know, for centuries, the Jews worshiped a God who they knew to be out there, but only one person once a year could get into his presence. And that was the high priest as he went into the Holy of Holies. And then Jesus came and he walked the earth. And we're gonna talk a little bit more about that in detail. And he incarnated God for those few years that people could see him. But now in a far better way, God by his spirit is here. And so whatever need that you have, whatever you're dealing with, there's hope for you today on this Easter Sunday that God can meet your need right here, right now, because he's present with us. Jesus said it this way, look on your outline, John 14, 19. In just a little while, speaking to his disciples, he said, in just a little while, the world will no longer see me, see me in the flesh, but you are going to see me because I am alive and you are about to come alive. Now, at least one person's gotta be thinking, I don't see him anywhere. Where is he? But you see, that's the whole point of today. We're talking about not a physical presence, but a spiritual presence that you see with the eyes of your heart. And the problem is, of course, that many of us have grown up and been programmed to not consider things for ourselves. Sadly, some of us have grown up in religious kinds of backgrounds that we've been told what to believe and that's where we're stuck. Reminds me of a story I just heard about a small-time college football team whose starting quarterback had been injured. The backup quarterback hadn't even dressed up, but he'd been sick. And so all that was left was a third-string freshman who'd just been a quarterback in high school and was really on the team to be their punter. Now, to make matters a lot worse, the team was back up in their own three-yard line. The coach knew it was a desperate situation. So what he said to the quarterback was this. He put this freshman, he said, look, all I want you to do is to hand the ball off to our big fullback Kowalski and let him run to the middle of the line and get us a few more yards of breathing room and then I want you to punt. Well, the young quarterback did exactly as he was instructed. First play, hand the ball to Kowalski. And amazingly, a hole opened up and he ran 50 yards with the ball. Wow. Came back, called the same play on the other tackle. Again, miraculously, the hole opened up and he ran another 45 yards. Now they'd gone from their own three to the opponent's two-yard line. The crowd went wild. Everyone was screaming, first and goal to go. Game on the line. Well, confidently, the team lined up once again. The young quarterback received the snap, stepped back, and to everyone's amazement, stepped back a little farther and punted the ball into the end zone, turning it over to the opposing team. As his stunned teammates came off the field, the coach angrily grabbed the young quarterback and said, what in the world were you thinking about in that last play? The quarterback said, I was thinking what a dumb coach we have. Now, we're not here to talk about football. Some of you are getting this very slowly, but you see, what happened was, what did the quarterback do? Exactly what he was told. Hand the ball off a couple of times and then punt. And I've been a pastor long enough to know that there are not a few people here today that have been told by someone in authority, some pastor or priest or Sunday school teacher, maybe even a parent, this is what you do and this is how you do it. And unfortunately, friend, you're at a place in your life where what you've been told to do hasn't worked for you. And you may be here today and you may be thinking, my life is not going the way I thought it would go. Something's not right. God's not making sense. Things aren't fitting together. I lack purpose, meaning, answers for my life. I was quite fascinated by the weekend edition and this week's USA Today on Friday called on the life section, Madonna's Epiphany. I'm not holding her up as any kind of spiritual paragon. However, the material girl concludes that after 20 years, it's all an illusion. Take it from me, writes Madonna, I went down the road of be all you can be, realize your dreams and I'm telling you, fame and fortune are not what they are cracked up to be. Sometimes success is a curse that keeps you from paying attention to what's really important. And then she claims that she has had an awakening to what really matters in her life. Things weren't fitting together for her. Things weren't making sense. Now, well, now she's finding a new way. Maybe for you, your old religion isn't working. Maybe you're saying, my life's not what I expected it to be. I'm here today to tell you that some of us even feel like we're prisoners. Paul writes it this way on your outline. Here's what he says. Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin. Speaking of prisoners, how many of you were lifted just a little bit on Monday when you saw that our seven POWs had been rescued? Wasn't that an encouraging, uplifting thing? I mean, first of all, it was Jessica Lynch a week or so ago that they discovered her and that amazing rescue operation. And then Monday, I remember telling my wife, Carol, a couple of days before I said, she said, what about the POWs? I said, I think they'll probably never find them. And then Monday, the news came and there's a couple of shots of them being picked up by our Marines. And I understand that some of them landed on American soil last night. I mean, you talk about going from hopelessness and despair to being, I mean, a whole new possibility in their life. Some of us feel like POWs, prisoners of what's going on with my life, prisoners of what's going on with my marriage, what's going on with my kids, what's going on with my health, what's going on with my job, what's going on with my finances or my addiction. We feel like prisoners trapped by the way things have been and we can't seem to get out. And by the way, starting next week, we're doing a series on what to do when you feel out of control. I hope if you'll look in the little brochure you received in the mail or get one in the foyer, we have five great messages coming up on these specific topics. But I wanna submit to you this morning that in the same way that those POWs were rescued about a week ago, you today can find freedom on this Easter Sunday if you'll allow God to open your eyes to see the presence of the Lord here and now in your life. You know, I want you to know, I'm not just sharing this as a person who thinks this is what I ought to say. I'm sharing this as someone who just like you has POW experiences. Some folks think, you know, I bet it's really great being a pastor. I'd love to be a pastor. You know, you work one day a week. My dad used to always say, oh, was it your work day last week? Ho, ho, ho, you know? Have a cushy life and all that kind of thing. He was jesting, of course, but you know, I go through some of the same things that you do. Here are just some of my POW experiences of the last month or so. My wife was sitting at a traffic light up here on Route 19 and was hit from behind by a car going 40 miles an hour. No brakes, no horn, no warning. Her vehicle was totaled, and of course, so was the car that hit her. And here was the strange thing. I was 200 yards behind her in another car and watched the whole thing happen. Now, I'm happy to say that both drivers seem to be doing okay right now, but what a shocking experience. And then a baby of a dear family member of mine, now, not my new grandson, Luke, but a dear family member had a baby three days before Amy, and for some unexplained reason, the baby just started to lose appetite, and then blood pressure went down, and the doctors couldn't figure out. And here, the baby had a hole in its little heart, and they had to call a pediatric cardiologist in and do emergency surgery, and the baby was in critical care, and it was very, very serious for a number of days. And then I spent the better part of a day just a couple weeks ago in the hospital for tests on why my back has been causing me so much pain over the last two months. And maybe worst of all, our last remaining cat was recently diagnosed with a rare people allergy, and the vet said he may have to be put to sleep. All right, no, don't do that. But you know, things are difficult for all of us from time to time. And I've discovered it's in those situations more than any other that we look to the cross and we say, Lord, where are you? Why aren't you coming through? And here's what I've discovered. It's in those situations, unlike any other, that if we have faith in God's grace, he opens our eyes to see that he's present with us. Look at the next part in your outline. Your forever life begins the day, and by the way, it continues every day that you look to see Jesus Christ for who he really is, not what you imagined him to be or what someone told you, but for who he really is. Let me ask you a question. Why did Jesus come to the earth? Some say on your outline, he came to show us the way. And if you're taking notes, I'd like you to put a question mark at the end of that. People say to me, well, you know, Jesus came to be a role model or an example. You know, I mean, I don't know if he's God, they'll say, but he sure was a good example. I think, well, maybe, but you know, hmm. He wasn't a father. He wasn't a husband. He wasn't a business guy. He wasn't a competitor from what I can tell. He never lost his temper. He didn't sin. He didn't have to deal with speed limits. All the stuff that I need role models for, he didn't have to do. I mean, he didn't fit my role model. He didn't fit my roles. Now, he wasn't a bad role model, but he really wasn't a role model that I could identify with. And then people say, he was a great teacher. He's an amazing teacher. I'm gonna say, man, his stuff is really, really profound. I mean, have you read the Sermon on the Mount? But here's the thing when I read about that. He was such a great teacher that I have to tell you, when I read what he says about marriage or what he says about what I'm supposed to do with my eyes or how I'm supposed to treat people that don't. I mean, I find his teaching just kind of hard to do. How about you? I mean, last week when I was walking out of Starbucks with my little coffee and this woman, very smartly dressed in a business suit was right ahead of me and she's walking. And I know she knows I was behind her. She walked right out and just let the door shut and the coffee hit me in my shirt. I didn't say, oh, bless God. I just want to return grace on you. I just, I said, I hope someone backs into your car, lady. That's just about how I feel about it. Yeah, Jesus was a great teacher, but sometimes his teaching is more than I can understand. He didn't come to show us the way, loved one. Look at what it says. Jesus said, I am the way. It's all about a relationship. It's all about knowing him. You want to know why Jesus came? Number two, he came to show us what God is like. That's why he came. Think about it. For 30 years, he lived undercover, relative obscurity, working as a carpenter in a small little town in the Middle East. No one really even knew he was there. And then suddenly for three and a half years, he emerges and he interacts with people from kings down to beggars. And he does things with nature that had never been done before. And he heals people and he demonstrates his power over circumstances and then he dies. If he'd just come to die for sin, he could have done that when he was much younger, he just could have walked out and had the whole thing happen and it hadn't been over. That's not the main thing that God was saying, although that was very important. I believe that God had had a little consultation together and they determined what was the best way for the world to see what God was like. And the son said, I'll go and become one of them. Look at Jesus writes, here's what he said in John 14. If you really knew me, you would know my father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. And they said, how have we seen him, Jesus? Jesus turned to, he's talking to Philip. He said, well, anyone who has seen me has seen the father. I started this message by saying, God is right here but we can't see him in the flesh. People who could see Jesus were seeing God in the flesh. I mean, you just think about that. Try to put your head around that. The father was saying these people of mine need a clear, unmistakable understanding of who I am. Why? Because we're all prone to create God in the image we wanna see him. People say, I see God in nature. Well, you may see him a certain way. I mean, maybe you see him in a thunderstorm and someone else sees him in a sunset and we create God in all these different ways. Other people say, well, I see God in circumstances and you can interpret your circumstances in an entirely different way than I do. Some people say, I see God in the traditions of my religion. And I think, well, that's kind of interesting except that many times those religious traditions begin to get kind of lifeless, don't they? And people even start adding to them and they'll start crediting God with things he didn't say. Things like, God helps those who help themselves. That's not in here or takes one to know one. That's not in here. No, Jesus comes and he says, I'll become one of them. And when they see me, they'll see what the father is like. And the more they focus on me, Jesus said, the more they'll see of you. How many of you remember when you were a small child, like a few of the little kids I see here, playing the game, I don't know what it was called. When you hide something and you start looking for it and you'd say, how am I doing? I'm getting warmer, you know, warmer, getting cooler now, getting warm, hot, hot, burning hot. How many of you were playing that game? The rest of you had kind of troubled childhoods, but anyhow, most of us played that game. With Jesus, that's the way it is. The closer you come to him, the hotter you become in your passion for God. Jesus says, the answer to knowing God is to see me. You know, it's been interesting over the years, on occasion, people will come up to me, I've had this a number of times, and they'll say something to me about the church. They'll say something like this. Say, you know, I like North Way, Jay. I like the people there, they're very friendly and so on. And I'm fine with God in my life, really. I want God in my life. And then they'll say this somewhat carefully because they don't want to offend, but then they'll say, but you know, I'm a little uncomfortable because, I mean, you say Jesus a lot, you know. And I'm a little, I'm usually Jesus this and Jesus that and Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, and I'm just, you know. And I used to respond with something like, you know, well, that's fine. It's sort of maybe just a preference that you have and they're all the, you know. But I have come to a different conclusion in the last couple of years. You see, when we just talk about God in that sort of broad sense, it's always more comfortable. I'll tell you why. Because we can make God anything we want him to be. We can define God in our image. Madonna, if you read the article, has defined God in some way that she's very comfortable with. Unique only to her, I might add. God can be cosmic and way out there or God can be sort of in a sunset or in the springtime flowers or whatever. But listen, when you talk about Jesus, all of a sudden, everything about God becomes very personal, very specific, very definable. Now you have someone that you can look at eye to eye, face to face, heart to heart, and you can begin to measure how are you doing vis-a-vis as revealed in Jesus. And now I'm here to say that unless you understand who Jesus is, you don't really know who God is. Defining God in terms you're comfortable with may calm your fears for a bit, but it won't provide you with peace because Jesus said, it's only in knowing me that you can know the Father. So Jesus came to show us what God is like. I love the verse there in Colossians. We look at this son and see the God who cannot be seen. The next verse, the son perfectly mirrors God and is stamped with God's nature. Now turn your outline over. So how do I see him? Well, he came to open our eyes toward God. You see, Jesus knew that all of us were born spiritually blind. We were all unable to see God's purposes and his plan for our lives and for eternity. But Jesus came to open our eyes to true life and eternal life and abundant life. And by the way, speaking of eternal life, if you haven't been with us for the last five weeks, we just completed a five week series called Faith on Trial where I talked in great detail about eternal things, about heaven and hell, about consequence, about reward. And these are available for, I think, a very small amount of money, five CDs or cassette tapes right out in our Lifelines Resource Center. If you have questions about those things, many folks have picked those up over the last four services. I encourage you to do so. Jesus came to open our eyes to the hope of his power, though, in this life as well. Paul said it this way. I love this verse, Ephesians 1. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he's called you and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in heaven. What is he saying? He's saying, friend, the power that you need to live victoriously in this life is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. It's resurrection power. That power is available to every POW listening to me today. And so on this Easter weekend, I pray that you'd be humble enough to say, Lord, Lord Jesus, open my eyes to your blessings. Open my eyes to what you have secured from what you've purchased from me by your sacrifice. And a word of caution here. There are some of you who've been Christians a long time hearing me today. And sometimes we are the last ones to see. I'm tempted to digress and take you into Luke 24 and talk to you about the two men walking on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Two believers who had seen the resurrection. And interestingly, I read it again this week. Jesus came alongside of these two men and the Bible says they did not recognize him. Could it be that you're here today and you're going through, I love Easter, but maybe God wants to get through and you're not recognizing him today in a specific area in your life. Maybe one of these four blessings is just for you. Number one, the blessing that he paid the penalty for your sin and for mine. Friend, listen, there's no way that you could pay the price. It took someone perfect in their life. Jesus did that. It's a blessing available to you. If by faith, you'll receive it. Look what it says. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. Every POW who believes. Second, a relationship with him is by grace, not by works. So many of us have grown up in a religious tradition where we believe that how we act and what we do determines whether or not we're acceptable. That's not what the Bible teaches. It teaches that we are saved by grace through faith. And it's a gift that we receive. Today, you can receive that gift right here. Number three, he gives abundant life or I'm calling forever life through relationship to him. People say, I wanna live the good life. Friend, you can live a better life than the good life. A better life is a life that's full of the power of God to face daily circumstance. You know, sometimes the circumstances that we go through are the very mechanisms whereby God is preparing to show us a blessing. I don't know if you heard, recently I read this report in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Do you remember that terrible sandstorm they experienced two or three days into the project? Two or three days of they were moving in toward Baghdad and this sandstorm came in and you know, the media was saying they're bogged down and you know, and after two days of this terrible blinding sandstorm, they had a heavy rain. And did you know, I read that one of the Marine battalions that was most affected, mired down by this, the day after the sandstorm stopped and the rain stopped and they came out to begin to proceed forward, the rain had washed the sand off all of these anti-tank and anti-personnel mines that were on the road which they were gonna travel. Had it not been that storm and that rain, probably many more lives would have been lost. I said, what a picture that is. Sometimes it's the very difficult storms of our lives in which God is preparing to show us the safe passage closer to his heart. And so he waits today to open the eyes of your heart and mine. You know, years ago, people used to think that if something went wrong in their life, it was because they had sinned. Well, come to think of it, they still do. Many times we POWs fail to realize that God allows us to be this way so that he can show his grace. In the gospel of John, there's a story about a man born blind. And God said it was so that his glory might be seen. I'd like you to hear a version of that story. Let's listen together. Hello, it's beautiful here. I tried to come here every day so that I can remember. My friend, Jimmy, he said, Horace, you should try to eat something bitter every day so you don't lose your taste for it. I sat right there every day for 23 years, ever since I was 12. My friend, Jimmy, he sat right over there in front of the beautiful gate. He was lame and I was blind. So he was my eyes and I was his feet. We was tighter than corn on the cob. I sure do miss him. This here is the best place in all of Jerusalem to sit if you was a beggar like I was. Right over there behind the beautiful gate is the temple treasury. They tell me there are seven boxes for the temple tax and six boxes for the offering. Now, I don't know that, but that is what they say. On a really good day, you could make quite a bit of money off those people going in and giving their offerings. My mama said, Horace, you should be nice to everyone because it don't cost nothing to be nice to people. My friend, Jimmy, he said we was no different than the common folk, except, well, we didn't have no money. You had lots of time to think when you was a beggar like I was. Especially if you was born blind to boot. I used to wonder why I was born blind and sometimes I would wonder out loud and people would say to me, well, Horace, it's because your mama and your daddy did something evil in the eyes of God. Once, when I was just a little boy, I spilled some goat's milk onto the floor. Oh, my daddy, he yelled at me. He said I must have done something evil in God's eyes even before I was born. I don't remember that. I wasn't trying to blame anyone. I was just wondering, that's all. It's not that I minded darkness. I was born blind. It's just that people would spit on me and call me unclean.