CJ Johnson | Summer at Northview

north view it is an honor to be here and i feel like i'm in the coliseum right you ever watched the movie gladiator like what we do today echoes in eternity right i feel like i'm there it is an honor to be here and a privilege uh to get to be in this pulpit and to share with you on father's day men this is our day this is maybe the one 24-hour window we get to make demands we could never get away with right and we celebrate you men happy father's day i am a father myself and i think we have a family photo of us this is my my wife and four children uh to speak of her first it's clear in every relationship there is a settler and a reacher i was praying for a nissan god gave me a corvette and my wife i believe was praying for a f-150 god gave her a mopad nonetheless this is us we have four children 11 9 8 and then three had a little bit of a surprise but that's what you get for going home for lunch on a tuesday some of you won't get that until lunch on tuesday and others of you you're not laughing maybe because your halo is too tight you just gotta relax a little bit and we are from minneapolis minnesota which up until 2020 was like oh i love minneapolis now you say and people are like what is that like apparently rock bottom has a basement anyone look at the last year and you almost felt like we were playing the game jumanji like is this happening i felt like i was being grounded for everything i didn't get caught doing as a teenager all our vacations were canceled we ended up having to take a trip from lost living room to puerto backyard right it's like i gotta go somewhere and uh but it could be worse right it could be worse our grandparents were sent off to war we were sent home to our couches it could be worse and even though it was a trying year for us as a city in minneapolis god was still faithful church still moves forward and the good news is still the good news and so we bring you greetings from minneapolis minnesota and i just got to say on the front end you guys are a remarkable church i feel like sometimes in a position like this my my responsibility is to bring about some self-awareness because what you think is normal is not normal at all in fact some of you you may need to go on a church appreciation tour to find out that what you get to experience every single week it is outstanding i mean even watching that dollar club video anyone else find themselves just caught up in their fields i'm over there like emotional like pull it together it's it's outstanding your generosity the movement that is known as northview your guys's ability to reach this community and have an impact not only in this state and not only within our nation but around the world it's outstanding and i applaud you guys and i certainly salute your pastor pastor steven sandy you guys are blessed with the best you know that bless you the best it's easy being a guest speaker but to do it every single week week in and week out for over two decades i mean that's impressive and uh sir i just thank you for giving guys like me a vision for the level of ministry and the greatness of what god can accomplish if you're just faithful and thank you for leading well and again can we just thank god for your pastor outstanding well today i want to talk to you and i've titled today's message growing up look at your neighbor and say grow up which i feel like i just did someone a favor you've been wanting to say it preacher just gave you permission to do so growing up is hard you ever found that getting older is harder the older i get i am finding that i i'm discovering muscles i didn't know i had not that i'm getting stronger but that i'm getting sorer i didn't know i could have a pain in that place and now my kids are making me see my age differently i look at them and i see them getting older i see them changing before my very eyes i can't help but think am i changing as quickly as they're changing and now they're getting older they're able to reflect my experience back to me it comes with some commentary recently my my daughter presley turned three we were celebrating her birthday and during the whole deal we started talking about dad what did you want for your birthday growing up what were some of the things that you wished for so i was starting to think of some of the iconic things that that i put on my list this is what i want for my birthday and top of the list was a sony walkman come on 80s and 90s babies if you grew up with a sony walkman some of you young people are like what is he talking about i'ma inform you back in the day we first started out with cassettes mine actually didn't have a fast forward button only a rewind button remember how you have to eject it turn it around put it in rewind it eject it turn it around put it back in we never got to listen to a song from the actual beginning you were just laying somewhere in the first verse but it was suffice and then sony came out with a walkman that played cds compact disc anti-shock absorption right so i'm telling my kids you could listen to music it was amazing they're looking at me they're scratching my heads and their heads and my daughter says so was it was it waterproof no it wasn't waterproof my son says well did it have wi-fi no it didn't have wi-fi my next kid says how about bluetooth another one comes back with did it have any apps and i was getting frustrated you wanna find yourself annoyed with the next generation and i said no it didn't have all those things my daughter says i just don't get it am i what's not to get it's in the title walk man in the 90s we could walk and listen to music at the same time folks would be in their cul-de-sac holding a salad plate like but it just it was the deal right then one of my kids says dad what else was it like in the 1900s [Laughter] you ever heard the statement hurting people hurt people i was offended so they picked weeds all afternoon growing up it's it's hard it's hard in many facets and i find that it is also difficult when it comes to growing up spiritually how do we do this ever felt clunky in your faith what is my approach to faith how do i understand what god is trying to accomplish in and through my life and today i kind of want to lean into that so maybe you would have a vision or an understanding as to what god is trying to accomplish in and through your life and on the front end this is going to this is going to come with some information maybe a little heady but i think it will serve you well and you should know that your life of faith breaks down into three stages and the first stage is justification which is freedom from the penalty of sin justification i mean it's this remarkable idea that jesus steps into our shoes also that we could have the opportunity to step into his jesus takes on our death also that we could take on his life and in some brilliant fashion jesus takes two pieces of wood in the form of a cross and he bridges the gap between us and our heavenly father i mean it's fascinating it is brilliant because on the cross jesus somehow managed to punish sin yet preserve the sinner i mean at some point our brokenness had to be addressed and god figured out a way to punish sin and preserve the sinner i mean that is outstanding that it is in christ that we have this remarkable grace it is in christ that we have this abundant grace and some of you may need to be reminded or may be told for the first time god's not holding out on his grace so maybe you should stop holding on to your shame there's something so liberating when you discover wait a second in christ i now have freedom from the penalty of sin i mean that is outstanding to be in christ is to be justified which is kind of like a redneck word anyone familiar with some redneck words like mayonnaise is a redneck word you could say man there's a lot of people in here today justified's a redneck word because when you give your life to christ you are in christ that's what the bible says in the same way we are in this building so when people drive by they don't see us they see the building we are in the building well when you are in christ when god looks upon your life he sees jesus when he looks upon my life he sees jesus he views me justified never sinned justified it's a redneck word right but it is fascinating that is in christ i now have freedom from the penalty of sin and this triggers the next stage which is sanctification freedom from the power of sin you wake up one day and realize hey i gave my life to christ but there are still some things that trip me up still some things that entice me still some things that are tempting there are some things in my flesh and in my character that i'm still working out and what you should know is where justification happens in a moment sanctification will take the rest of your life and it's recognizing over time as i as i grow in my faith and as i stay in step with my savior over time something happens in my character my posture changes i mean i take on a new demeanor i suddenly have different desires i make different decisions my life is anchored to a new devotion i am heading in a different direction and the things that once used to influence me and the things that once used to trip me up they no longer carry the weight that they once did i'm i'm growing up in my faith that's what sanctification is and you should know that god is more concerned with the strength of your growth than he is with the speed of your growth sometimes we get this wrong church in in circles of christians where we try to almost make environments like this into a spiritual microwave where we try to rush the process process for others or maybe we take on a pressure ourselves that we're not meant to carry god is not in a hurry with you makes me think of my daughter presley like i said she just turned three in i'm loving this stage of life anyone else you just love having little children and i can't wait for the day to see her accomplish all the things god's going to do in her life i look forward to seeing her play sports i look forward to seeing her thrive through school someday get a degree launch into a career i look forward to seeing her dreams come to pass and and her thriving as a young independent woman i i look forward to those moments but i'm loving having a three-year-old like yeah that's going to be amazing but i love the stage of life i have with my daughter because here's the reality at some point you pick your kid up and you put him down and you never pick them up again which i have a feeling we're going to walk out into lobby and see someone carrying a 27 year old like it's my baby right like you don't pick them up again i yes i look forward to seeing all that god's going to do in your life but i'm in no hurry for this moment to pass and some of you should know that your heavenly father is loving this season of life with you i mean he's loving the stage and he is so involved and so intimately connected and so thoughtful and intentional and he treasures this season that he has with you god's not in a hurry you don't need to be in a hurry and it's just recognizing i get to live daily and step with my god he's not trying to get me off his to-do list and if i'm not dead god's not done there's more to him that i can discover see that's what trips us up sometimes is we we lack an appetite or we lack a vision for more of god we show up to churches looking for enough jesus to be informed but not enough jesus to be transformed we show up to churches looking for advice not an adventure but sanctification it's an invitation to be a part of an adventure and it's growing in stature and then it comes to the final stage which is glorification freedom from the presence of sin at some point we all meet our maker at some point we step into eternity scripture says where there is no evil there is no pain there is no sorrow every tear will be wiped from our eyes i mean you and i live in eternal perfection and harmony with our heavenly father that is outstanding but again justification glorification and i know it's a lot of information they happen in a moment sanctification takes the rest of your life justification and glorification god does for you sanctification you do it with god i mean this is what makes the gospel so outstanding this is what sets the gospel apart from any other major world religion in fact i think when you look at the criteria for what constitutes a world religion i actually don't think the gospel fits every other major world religion has a as a leader who came saying hey i know the way the gospel is the only community of faith that says no our leader came claiming i am the way every other major world religion is doing whatever they can to somehow get to god christianity is the only faith that says no our god came to us this is radically different and my challenge for you is don't settle for religion and substitute of a relationship you see religion says i made a mistake my dad's gonna kill me the gospel says i made a mistake i need to call my dad i mean there's something about living in this grace that we get to run into our heavenly father's arms this is what makes the good news good news amen and what you find in scripture is people would bump into this and it would radically change their life and what i love about reading the bible is it's not just the retelling of a story it's the reliving of a story that the same god that did that can do it again right here and right now in scripture we're introduced to a guy by the name of peter and if you never met peter you should get to know peter he is that friend that makes everybody feel better about themselves anyone else got that friend if you don't you're that friend you just boost everybody's confidence in minnesota we have this term called minnesota nice it's not nice at all it's basically being passive aggressive and offering backhanded compliments one sunday a lady came forward after service and she said i just love attending church here every single week you remind me god truly can use anybody when i first became a pastor i was talking to my father about it and he said you know what son as long as you preach from your brokenness you'll never run out of material 17 years in he's right you know i feel like i'm cut from the same cloth as peter and peter at times he was clumsy in his faith times he was miscalculated at times he put his foot in his mouth one time peter tried to correct jesus which just you should know if you ever get in an argument with jesus and you win you lose peter corrects jesus and jesus turns around to peter and he says get behind me come on church folks satan i mean peter was clumsy in his faith yet god used him still in remarkable ways because here's the beauty of grace even when we get it wrong god still gets it right even when we get it wrong god still gets it right and so god we're going to use peter in profound ways so much so peter would get to the end of his road and he would start documenting some of his experience he would write letters like first and second peter and he would include some narrative in there i mean he would include some personal testimony in there he'd throw a little bit of theology in there he would try to pass on to the next generation what god did in his life starts out in first peter chapter one and he introduces this idea that we have a living hope he's saying guys i witnessed it that the the man who i was following as my teacher the one i thought was our messiah he died and i was devastated yet he came back to life like this hope we have in christ is alive it's active that you should know that the hope we subscribe to as followers of christ is not some archaic idea it's not some urban legend tied to some remote region that you don't have to go to galilee or a town called jerusalem to discover this hope no we have a living hope and our hope is locally grown that you can experience the same god that touched peter's life right here in the beautiful state of indiana you know what else got some locally grown hope it's like god's doing some things in my life i've encountered god in my life in this season so he introduces this idea that we have a living hope and then chapter two verse one he says therefore rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit hypocrisy envy slander of every kind like newborn babies crave spiritual milk so that by it you may grow up in your salvation now that you have tasted that the lord is good and i wonder how many of you can truly say you know i've tasted that the lord is good i know without a shadow of a doubt the goodness and i've seen it on display in my life growing up i always heard this statement the proof is in the pudding i'm an argumentative person at times i disagreed with the statement i don't think the proof is in the pudding i think the proof in the pudding is in the tasting chocolate pudding looks like a lot of things it's not until you taste it that you're like it's pudding like it tastes like pudding right and peter's saying hey when you encounter this jesus you start to realize there is no comparison there really is no substitute or alternative this god is good and every single time i step onto a platform my whole agenda is to get someone in the room to bump into the reality that the god that we serve is bigger than you think he's brighter than you think and he's better than you think he's bigger than you think he's brighter than you think he is better than you think and i pray and i pray and i pray that some of you will lean in and taste the goodness of our god he goes on to tell us in verse 4 as you come to him the living stone rejected by humans but chosen by god and precious to him you also like living stones are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to god through jesus christ for in scripture it says see i lay a stone in zion a chosen and precious cornerstone and the one who trust in him will never be put to shame that's what i love about your church connecting real people with real problems to a real god that your church exists to get shame off of people not to place more shame on the people and that's what this verse is saying so he ends in verse 7 and he says now to you who believe this stone is precious but to those who do not believe the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone he wants us to understand that based on your beliefs you will develop one of two realities i personally believe take it or leave it that the most important thing about a person is what they believe about jesus i think at some point we all step into the biggest defining moment of our life and the number one question is what did you do or make of jesus and in it peter wants us to know there are some of you who believe and this is your reality and there are some of you who don't believe and this is your reality as we all know life is life is trying life is difficult life comes with pain it comes with predicaments and problems comes with some confusion but know this if you have placed your faith in jesus christ life as we know it is as close to hell as you'll ever be now if you haven't placed your faith in jesus christ life as we know it is as close to heaven as you'll ever be now it's important to note that doesn't make us as christians better than anybody that just makes us better off we're not better than anybody but because the good news and the grace of god that is at work within our life we are simply better off grace doesn't give us the opportunity to look down on people grace gives us the obligation to look out for people so even as a pastor to some of you who are not a christian maybe watching online i'm not better than any of you i'm just one beggar trying to tell another beggar where i found the crumbs i mean this god he's he's outstanding i mean his work in your life will leave you perplexed and amazed that you can't help but give him praise for the uniqueness and the wonder of who he is and in this peter he goes down the list of all these metaphors which i love the metaphors in scripture i think when you change the metaphor it changes your imagination i think much of what god is trying to do at times in scripture is to stretch our thinking he's a bigger deal than you think and maybe you need to open your mind and stretch the horizon of your belief system this god is a big deal i wonder how many people would make god feel claustrophobic he is a big deal and so he starts out and he says you're like newborn babies that when you first give your life to christ you are in this infancy in your faith and scripture kind of splits some hairs at times at times it talks about being childish and at times it talks about being childlike it tells us not to be childish but it encourages us to be childlike childish is to say hey put off the things that are unproductive in your life put off the things that are robbing you of your joy robbing you of your peace hindering your potential stealing your purpose put off the things that are creating emotional and psychological turmoil put off the things that are being disruptive to your relationship those are childish things but don't lose your childlike wonder don't lose the the audacity to believe god for the impossible don't lose the thrill of following him and leaning into your heavenly father so he says there's a difference right and you you grow out of you grow out of those things and then he goes into these other ones and he starts out and he says eventually you become a spiritual house what does that mean he's saying before you know it you you begin to inhabit the presence of god in your life and you begin to facilitate the spirit of god and the promptings of god before you know you can sense what god is doing in your life before you know it you can discern god's will what's the good news about this point is i get to breeze past it because my man pastor steve knocked it out of the park and did the heavy lifting last week which if you missed last week's message you have to listen to it because at the end pastor steve gave us six questions as to how we all can better discern god's will for our life and discernment's a tricky thing but it is something that as you grow up you gain a handle recently my daughter riley came home and she was asking my wife about some things she heard her friends say and she asked her she said mom and dad is that a bad word my wife said yeah that's that's a cuss word and riley said how do you know which is a cuss word how do you know it's a bad word and so kristin was talking her through this and they started talking about conviction which i know is not a popular topic but church i would rather my sin come with conviction than my sin become a condition hello right like i would just god say hey that ain't working you can be better than that right and so she's talking to her about this and kristen at one point said you know babe conviction sometimes sometimes you'll just get a yucky feeling and that one's not right a few months later we're hanging out with some friends and their mom's in town and the mom goes up and introduces her kid herself to my kids and she says her name to riley and riley goes don't say that and um she said what do you mean don't say that she said that's a cuss word she's like that's not a cuss word that's my name and she's like well it's making me feel yucky inside this doesn't always come immediate you have to grow into it right but you start to develop this ability to discern some things the more you're disciplined in god's word you discover god's ways the more you discover god's ways you can discern god's will you start to look at situations and think well god wouldn't want me to do that doesn't align with his ways like pastor steve said there's the general will of god and there's the special will of god and until you master the general will you're going to have a hard time discerning the special will so he talks about this spiritual house and then from there he says and you're also a a royal priesthood which would have confused the original audience wait a second how are we all now priests up until that point church as they knew it was a spectator sport individuals would show up and they would watch the priest do god's work but peter's saying no because of what christ did on the cross and the holy spirit coming to us on pentecost we all now have the spirit of god at work in our life we all now have a priestly mantle meaning we don't get to spectate we get to participate we get to be a part of god's story so you go from discerning god's will to doing god's work before you know it god starts to utilize you to have an impact which is the goal as christians not to be impressive but to be impactful to live in a way that god uses us as instruments of change and agents of hope and and people who bring about love and grace in a world that desperately desperately needs it you got to do god's work and again this is clunky but you grow into it ever felt incompetent in your faith right it's like i know i'm supposed to be generous but nordstroms just keeps tripping me up right i know i'm supposed to be loving but facebook just gives me some triggers it makes me want to respond in harsh ways i have to grow into this there's four levels of a person's competency here comes some more information you ready for it level one is unconscious incompetence a newborn baby has no idea that they can't read right or ride a bike they're unaware of it they're unaware of their inability they're unconscious incompetent second level is conscious incompetence before they start to know hey those words are they're actually meaning something these people are talking they're transmitting communication and information hey i want to learn how to ride a bike i don't know how to do that right now i can't read that book i'm conscious but i'm still lacking some competence then you get to this stage where it's conscious competence before you know it takes a little bit of effort takes some discipline takes some willpower and some focus but you can do it and if you trust the process you will land at a place of unconscious competence before you know it you don't have to think about it you don't have to plan for it doesn't exhaust your willpower it just happens over time something in your nature changes and your instinct becomes a reflection of god it's unconscious competence that is growing in your faith but then he lands with this last one he says but then you become a living sacrifice you become a living sacrifice i uh i struggle with grammar i didn't realize i struggled with grammar until i signed to a publisher and joined a phd program and now i have my advisor and my editor saying you don't know how to talk right you're you misuse words all the time you want to have someone in their family who just doesn't use words correctly my grammar is a work in progress so i find myself frustrated because i'm like which one is it is it ironic or is it a coincidence are we composing something or comprising something am i nauseous or am i nauseated is it fewer or is it less right it is maddening further or farther and words are weird and words are hard and sometimes we use them incorrectly and when peter says sacrifice i can't help but wonder is he misusing the word i think when we think sacrifice we think giving up something you love for something you love more i agree to that but here's my question for you church if what you give is less than what you gain is that truly a sacrifice if what you give is less than what you gain that's not a sacrifice that's a prophet at one point jesus is speaking in his hometown and he leaves without doing any miracles and there's a statement that says he was a prophet p-r-o-p-h-e-t without honor in his own home and i wonder does he remain a prophet p-r-o-f-i-t without honor in his own home as you grow up in your faith you not only discern god's will you not only do god's work eventually you discover god's worth you're like this isn't a sacrifice this is a prophet i will give my entire life to this jesus makes me think of going to costco there's always that question the cashier asks you when you get to the front did you find everything you were looking for i'm like no i wasn't looking for any of this i showed up to get two chicken pot pies i'm leaving with a pressure washer three pillows a stack of coloring books and six months of strawberry jam i wasn't looking for any of this that'll happen if you follow jesus you'll be like man i'll be honest i just showed up for the free child care and then i bumped into some grace then i bumped into some peace and i bumped into some strength then i bumped into community and before you noticed i didn't show up looking for this i didn't know that he was a waymaker a miracle worker promise keeper i didn't even know that but the more i get to discover him the more i am amazed by the magnitude and the magnificence and the brilliance of our god you start to bump into things in scripture and you start to realize he is the alpha and the omega meaning he starts and finishes everything amen you start to recognize he's the lamb of god the lion of judah he's the way the truth the life he's my rock he's my redeemer he's my shield he's my reward i mean his integrity is impeccable and he makes 5 000 promises to me in the word of god he's a good shepherd i mean he is a good friend i think that's why the hymnist said what a friend we have in jesus you start to realize oh my goodness i had a bad appraisal this god he's bigger than i thought he's brighter than i thought in church he's better than i thought see true maturity is not just discerning god's will and it's not just doing god's work it's discovering god's worth and i end with this jesus once told a parable he said the kingdom of god is like a man walking through a field and he finds a treasure sells everything he has and he buys the field the original heroes of that would have been confused because there was a public policy similar to the one we had on the playground as kindergartners finders keepers losers weepers you found the treasure you don't have to buy the field to which jesus would have said that's the point because of where he what he found where he found it suddenly his appreciation for the field skyrocketed think this guy understood there's no way i could ever afford this treasure but i can afford to treasure it and that is preaching to the choir for some of you this church is a beacon of hope and inspiration for our entire nation it's because some of you found a treasure here you can never afford but you've decided you know what i can afford to treasure it and northview don't take your foot off the gas amen can i pray with you dearly father god we thank you for your grace and we thank you for your goodness god we thank you that your grace is sufficient even though it's not efficient god you're not in a hurry guys so help us just slow down and enjoy the journey that we have with you thank you for sending your son to die on a cross to experience a vicious death all so that we could experience a victorious life god thank you for being bigger and brighter and better than anything we could ever comprehend in jesus name we pray amen you

Channel: Northview Church

Views: 1,800

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Northview Church, Northview, Steve Poe, Carmel, Fishers, Westfield, Lafayette, Indy North, Indianapolis

Id: pYYEBTwHX7M

Length: 40min 1sec (2401 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 19 2021