"The Facade" | ROAD TRIP

across all of our campuses we're glad you're here with us let me ask you this question and my hands up because i'm gonna ask you to put your hand up if you've got this thing called a family raise your hand all right keep them up if you come from a family raise your hand see we're all in this thing together man you put your hand down welcome here at bethlehem church all things family we're going to hop into you're with us oconee211 watching online uh with us in the room in the south venue wherever you're at we are glad you are here and here's how i want to begin have you ever heard you probably heard this statement i remember my high school football coach telling me this he would he would say these things to us when we're hot and we're sweaty uh in the middle of two a day practices in july he would go gentlemen when he looked at it and our face looked at us like what are we doing here why are we wasting our time our all of our friends are out swimming we're here and it's hot and we're sweaty and uh you know he could tell we weren't glad to be there he would say everything worthwhile is uphill anybody heard that everything worthwhile is uphill what that means is everything in life that matters takes work you with me like it takes a little sweat equity takes a little effort the best thing in life don't come easy and sometimes in faith journey we forget that because it kind of freaks us out because we're believe we we're people that believe you were saved by grace through faith and grace is like well no it's not effort it's not work it's all grace and the faith journey all right but there's these words called obedience there's these words called surrender right there's these words called walking in holiness there's these words called submission that takes something on our part take something on our part may i remind you grace is opposed to earning not effort scripture talks about work out your salvation with fear and trembling right there's this thing that happens in us in this journey and he would say everything worthwhile is uphill this is what i know what's worthwhile is your family and it's uphill which means it takes work what's worthwhile is your marriage and it's uphill and it takes work what's worthwhile is raising a family right raising kids and it's uphill and it takes work all of us want the same words when it comes to family whatever season of life we're in when you think about family and marriage whether your kids are grown whether you're newlywed whether you're a grandparent whether you're a single adult looking to have a family at some point whether you're a high school student we think of family we think of the same words we want we'll think about happy nobody goes you know what i'm after i'm after dysfunction well i'm looking around none of you go you know what i want just a dysfunctional mess that'd be a blast we want happy you know what we want healthy healthy both emotionally physically what do you want from family joy what do you want for family peace followers of jesus are not when it comes to our family unit moms dads sons daughters we all want the same thing but here's the difference i love the statement leadership expert pastor turner leadership author guy named john maxwell i read him he said this one time and i've always remembered it we tend to have uphill dreams and downhill habits is that not true especially when it comes to family uphill dreams we want the same things happy healthy whole peace joy the problems not will we want from family the problems the habits we have in family come on church the problem's not what we want from family the problems the issues in there and so this week in fact we're kicking off a few weeks on just the idea of family wherever you're at in fact say that word with me family on the count of three one two three that was good but i think you got more into your third service today the first server's a little louder and y'all they're not near as many people in here that first service here we go one two three we all got them we all come from them right what i do every week is talk to husbands and wives moms and dads sons and daughters brothers and sisters stepmoms and stepdads single moms and single dads grandparents we're a church that's dominated by family a church that's dominated by a family for better or worse the most marking relationships in your life the most formative relationships in your life is families and the reason we're calling a road trip is because if life is a journey or for all of you country music fans from 10 12 years ago rascal flatts life is uh in there like there's a few songs you can just sing and everybody knows it cars made it famous that disney movie do you know who actually wrote the song so you know somebody in the last service yelled at some guy named tom cochran who's canadian right right but rascal flatts made it famous if life is a highway if life is a journey the vehicle we experience this thing called life in is your family so all we're saying this vehicle we experience life in no matter what stage our life finds it says no matter what season the most formative relationships in your life bar none are your family they're the most marking relationships the relationships that are the greatest blessing and at times come on they're the relationships that are the greatest burden so here's three things three things that are just foundational for our conversation as we hop in right that are true of every person in this room and i want you to put them down they're in your notes i don't choose the times in which i live i don't choose the times in which i live when i was in seminary which is preacher grad school for all you like he says cemeteries kind of same thing right which is preacher grad school okay they didn't give me a book they didn't give me a course they didn't write a chapter on how to pastor in a pandemic there was never anything they covered you didn't get a manual on how to parent deer in a pandemic right none of us thought you know what i want to do i want to live in a very divisive time where everybody's mad at everybody and everybody's distracted everything i want to raise kids in that environment that's what i want to do right that just sounds like a blast in fact when everybody's fighting over vaccines and masks i just want to raise a family right in the middle of all that nobody ever said that you don't choose the times in which you live and at times you look at our world and you can get discouraged especially as a mom or a dad i mean it can be discouraging i'm one i'm with you what i'm going to remind you this series is god has called you and appointed you to a time like this and he's sovereign over all of this he's sovereign over all this here's the second thing you don't choose the family you come from right for better or worse they you don't choose the family you come from some of us if we're honest with their in the dictionary it says dysfunctional there's your family right there that you come from right there anybody with me like like somebody the last service raised their hand in the back they're like this guy for dysfunction i'm with you pastor the family you come from the family of origin we all got them for better or worse and we're deeply influenced by them there are 60 year old people that have the same habits they had since they were 15 because they saw it in their mom and dad there are marriages that look the same way they saw their mom and dad's marriage they're like we're never going to be anything like that and here you are at 45 and you're everything like that why because your families have a deep influence but we're not going to spend time talking about our family of origin because you and i if we're in christ we bear a different name we're part of the family of god and that forms who we are more than our family of origin and here's the third thing the thing we're spending a lot of time talking about i don't get to choose the direction of my family i do get to choose the direction of my family by the choices i make and notice i said choices because there are no quick fixes and instant prayers that give you a happy family a healthy family great kids and a wonderful life it doesn't happen in instance most families are not defined by one moment the world sees but by thousands of moments the world doesn't see can i say this to you i've done a lot of weddings i'm looking around the room i've done weddings for people in this room the world's not defined by your wedding picture the world's not defined by the you would not i mean you think that the way moms go out of their way to make sure their daughter's wedding is unbelievable no offense moms i work with you in the weddings and i mean it is planned to a t to a t and everybody looks the part and here's the crazy thing there's not one person whose life's been defined by some random wedding ceremony it's defined by all the other moments that the world doesn't see right think in a road trip i want you to talk for a second i'm giving you two minutes i'm 92 minutes let me give you 30 seconds in your family the people you came with today with you with the kids whether you're with your friends husband or wife the most memorable road trip you've ever had i want you to think about it for a second not not in a plane like a road trip like we're going on i want you to think about it for a second 30 seconds the most memorable road trip you've ever had as a family i want you to discuss think about the most memorable road trip 30 seconds one two three go most memorable road trip most memorable road trip as a family we experienced memorable road trip now how many of you involved a broke down car somewhere along the way right how many of you involved somebody barfing in the backseat you're with me right i remember before i was married i was 19 and i got a chance to start preaching at a young age people would call me and i thought it was a big shot cause i'm 19 and people go hey come preach and i thought it was because i was good now i learned this because i was cheap you know what i'm saying this kid will come preach to you for a hundred bucks and they're like somebody would call me the middle of tennessee we want you to come preach to our youth and we'll pay you a hundred dollars i'm like are you kidding me here i come i'm in the mountains of tennessee 30 minutes before we're supposed to speak at backwoods of tennessee the mountains and this is before the days of waze and google maps anybody remember those days waze google maps before the days like before those days couldn't find my way so i pulled over and this old-timer comes out and he looked like this quintessential i'm telling my kids this and my son's like dad you should have asked siri caleb my youngest one we're we're we're driving around tennessee last year and he's like dad you should ask siri i go hey boy siri wasn't born yet you know what i'm saying and shut your mouth back there in the back seat i didn't say that last part but i pulled over because the map i had the almanac or whatever i was looking at atlas man almanac atlas map i had wouldn't get me there and i pulled over right and this guy with this you know kind of overalls and big beard talking about different times look like he was straight out of andy griffith he comes out there in a place where they still pump your gas you know what i'm talking about and he looks at me and says son you look like you lost i said yes sir and i told him the campground i was supposed to look at he kind of just laughed and chuckled he goes son you can't get there from here right worst words you can ever hear i gotta preach in 30 minutes man obviously you get that from here but he's saying you're a long way away and there's no easy way to get here in this moment listen to me church in our cultural moment of pessimism and cynicism and bitterness and confusion and chaos and anxiety and entitlement and busyness and corruption and distraction in this cultural moment you live in you will not get the family you cannot have the family that god desires living by the world's values the family you won't happy healthy whole isn't going to happen if you're operating by the world's system and it's possible jesus taught this if you got your bibles matthew 7 real quick jesus taught it's possible to believe the right things about god and live by their different value system jesus actually teaches this in the sermon on the mountains the greatest sermon ever where moms and dads anybody see the show chosen if y'all seen that show on tv the app chosen what a great show the last season they just put out jesus the last thing is where he's teaching on the sermon on the mount and crowds are finally coming to hear him they've heard about this miracle worker and moms and dads who've been marginalized and pressed they come to hear jesus and jesus preaches the greatest sermon ever matthew 5 6 and 7. and i'm going to take us to the end in this series what i'm going to do is work us backwards through the sermon on the mount greatest sermon ever jesus would teach this right and the sermon on the mount is not an ideal it's not a sermon about an ideal world or excuse me an ideal life in the ideal world sermon on the mount is about a kingdom life in a follow world you are not going to raise you're not raising a family in an ideal world you're not married in an ideal world you're not raising kids in an ideal world you're not looking for a spouse in an ideal world you're looking for a spouse in a broken and follow world right and so here's the question that we're going to ask for a few weeks what does it look like to have a kingdom-oriented family in a broken world i want you to hear me say that you can believe the right things about jesus and live all the wrong ways and actually jesus teaches this matthew 7. here's what he says and everyone everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock the reigns fell the bloods can't or the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house but it didn't fall because he founded it on the rock a foundation everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn't do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain fell beat against that house and it fell and the great was the fall of the there's a difference between hearing jesus's words and building your life on them knowing the right thing and doing the right thing are not the same thing here's really the question actually knowing the things that are true and wanting to do the things that are true or actually the question jesus is getting at that you actually want to that's a whole different story so jesus tells a story he said there's two guys that set out to build a house anybody looking at him would go these guys are building a house anybody looking at them they would go these guys are doing the exact same thing a house is a metaphor then like it is now for building a life jesus ends his most famous sermon by telling a parable about two guys who are building a life they look at they're doing the same thing again what does everybody want from family happy healthy whole joy peace follower of jesus or not we all want the same thing for our family for our marriage for our kids our desire is the same thing and jesus says there's two guys that are building the same thing anybody looking from the outside in would go they're both building a house and what exposed what they were doing isn't what it looked like on the outside but the foundation that it was built on jesus says the firm foundation are these words of mine everyone in life faces personal storms many of you are walking through your own personal storm we're all the last two years walking through a cultural storm like uncertainty what makes people different isn't what we desire to build or desire to have what makes people different is the foundation that they build it on right the question isn't what we're all trying to build every one of us in this room wants happy i do everybody wants whole everybody wants full right everybody wants peace everybody wants joy again nobody goes nah man you know what i want dysfunction nobody says that but what's the difference is what we're building it on so i'm going to give you a couple of thoughts through this whole series about what the foundation our culture leads us to build family on whether we know it or not and what scripture teaches so briefly this morning let me just give you an example start with this we'll unpack this in fact next week we're going to talk a lot about anxiety jesus talks 20 percent of the sermon on the mountains about anxiety do you know that 20 of what jesus teaches in the sermon on the mount the greatest sermon ever is about anxiety they actually had anxiety before there were smartphones that blow you away we're gonna hop into it next week because anxiety is something that marks our families and so here's what i want you write down in a culture that chases an image we're gonna be different because we're going to be a family that chooses what is real mass marketing consumerism industry retail sales is based on the idea that this thing will make your life better this season will make your life better we'll make you look better we'll make you feel better in a world interconnected by screens do you realize we watch other people and by other people i'm not telling my athletes or celebrities although we see them our friends our co-workers our neighbors our friends from high school our friends from years ago our friends that our kids go to school with the kids that we play but we watch them live their life play their life out on a screen we watch the highlight reel of their life on social media i don't think we understand listen to me from the front to the back i don't think we understand how much of our life we are told subtly in a billion different ways that we are conditioned to believe if we just look like this if we just have this if our marriage just right like if he could be or if she could be or if our kids could or if they could can i say this to you we are conditioned in our culture every person in this room i'm not pointing a finger i'm raising a hand we are conditioned not to be content and chase the next thing i'm fine the way i am no you're not you don't realize how much is in you is conditioned to chase after the next thing the next place the next season what does that look like this is in your notes we never say this out loud but we think it inside in our head all the time life would be better if life would be better if our marriage would be happier if family would be easier if students do it singles do it couples do it again we don't drive down the road with our significant other saying this if we do normally it's accusational and things don't go well but we all are conditioned that's the foundation of our cultures to chase an image things would be better if there's another word for image it's architectural word you know what it is facade facade is this idea that there's this outward appearance that's concealing a less pleasant right inside if you will a less pleasant reality so there's a facade there's this outward exterior that looks this certain way that's hiding that the building's actually decaying and falling apart that's what a facade is speaking of road trip you know the greatest facade that's ever been had when it comes to family and vacation it's the place that the guy with ears came up with this right here here's the word knee disney talk about a facade right the most happy place on earth said no parent ever after being there 30 minutes anybody been to disney in the room raise your hand who's with me on that like there are like listen to me there are people who go to disney and then there are disney people i'm a person who goes i'm not a disney person which one are you but disney's the idea the greatest place on earth you just won the super bowl where are you going to go the happiest place on earth in fact there's a comedian anybody heard a guy named jim gaffigan he's a comedian okay i think he's hysterical he's really clean compared to most comedians let me preface this every once in a while he'll drop a word so if you go watch it you're like my pastor listens to a guy that says a bad word i told you right go you send me an email i'm gonna say i told you he did every once in a while not much but i say all that to go he does the best bit on disney i've ever seen he talks about the idea of this image and this facade and then the reality so take it away jim he says it better than i can last summer we did our first big family vacation well i should clarify we went to disney now if you haven't been to disney as an adult just imagine you're standing in line at the dmv and that's it actually it was orlando in july so it's kind of like standing in line on the surface of the sun would we do this to ourselves when you were a kid you'd go on vacation you'd be like why is dad always in a bad mood now i understand how can i spend an enormous amount of money be uncomfortable and listen to my children complain and whine disney oh god come on who's women right my youngest son's like dad this is like two weeks ago when's the next time we're going to go to disney i said jesus will return before that happens i promise you i'm not going back but we experienced that in life the facade you know a few months ago i told you it's the grass is greener kind of mentality right got choked up the grass is greener mentality and the reason the grass is greener is because there's manure under there man right and you want to roll in the grass you just don't want to taste the manure that's the deal of image we see it we know it but it doesn't matter even when we know it's hollow there's something in our culture that conditions us to go after and here's the two words that define a culture define families that are based on image jesus said there's a firm foundation there's other foundations these words are mine of the firm but let me tell you the pressure that we see in our culture of image here's the two words that define a culture of image performance and comparison excel succeed achieve look the part i'm nailing it look how strong we are look how good we are we got our act together when i talk to other pastors around the country one of the things we talk about it's amazing whether it's california whether it's down here in the south whether it's up in new york and i've got a group of friends that i run with and we'll spend time together we'll talk about pastoring larger churches and situations like this and we talk about the fascination of social media is that it's unbelievable that you can sit and talk with a couple and again when you're counseling a couple and you're helping with somebody you want to do that pastor shane's in here he he does it for us a lot with me with some of the other guys in the room some of the ladies right we're all for being in the middle of your family but what will blow you away is you'll sit and talk to a couple that's an absolute mess their things are going on god loves them we're former with them and what blows me away is three days later there'll be a picture on social media to say look how happy we are facade that's all it is why do we do that because we live in a culture that performs it's supposed to look the part or comparison which means we're always looking over our shoulder again we don't say these things out loud but i'm telling you right now you're conditioned to do this we're always sizing up the competition and here's how i know we do that because that's our culture culture of image it pushes on the on the family because we all are trying to go no we're great everything's wonderful look how great we are we kind of have this thing in our culture where we think you know what like we know the words but we actually live like this you fake it till you make it and here's how i know that's a hollow foundation because in a culture that's built on image that we're always performing and comparing everybody's exhausted and nobody's ever content like you never talk to somebody and no think about how you doing i'm just so rested think about it you never how things go i just just got so much rest i'm just so late no you don't we're always good you know living life man between trying to keep between the lanes right just busy right and so in that culture exhausted and discontent listen to me pastor to people for a second can i be honest with you if there's something that's pained me about the church and by the church i mean capital c church not necessarily bethlehem church over the years and i've pastored for 20 years 10 years a student pastor working with the next generation 10 years a senior pastor some other jobs in there as well right but what's paying me is that for whatever reason our for many people our understanding of the church in christianity has not delivered us from this but added to this and i don't know your story i'll know your background i don't know but what i found in the bethlehem church is oftentimes cultural christianity the understanding of the churches maybe we grew up in or the picture of christianity we felt the most pressure to perform and we were always comparing ourselves with people around us i'm not good enough i don't look the part i don't listen to me right here on everybody look at me this is going to free you up when i preach my preaching i never think to myself man i'm talking to people who got their act together because i think you're like me and i think everybody struggles and everybody's wrestling and everybody has issues i preach to people who i think need jesus and are in need of jesus every day see what's the secret sauce of bethlehem church people ask me thousands of people a weekend multiple campuses 10 years in what we've been blessed what's the secret sauces now am i preaching what's the secret sauce it's not our music it's not our unbelievable facilities we make them work we've got a million services and jacked up parking lots right it's not our kids ministry environments although they're great what's the secret side what what hasn't you listen to me right here for 10 years we've looked at you i've looked at you and said this it's okay not to be okay ten years i've looked at you and said it's okay if you're not okay if you come and go man my life's not okay we're okay with that but here's the deal it's okay if you're not okay we're just not okay with you staying that way because when jesus comes in the middle of things christianity is not an image you keep up as a person you follow once that again christianity is not some image you keep up it's a person that you follow and in a culture what i want you to hear that chase is an image the most real thing and i want you to put this down here's the best news the most real thing that you can hold on to jesus doesn't see the image you want the world to see he sees what you never want the world to know and he loves you anyway that'll preach i should just pray right there and say i'm leaving it there with you but i'm going to keep going for a second jesus does not see in a culture of performance we all and listen i've got a church here we got campuses other places there's a school behind us listen to me i see firsthand cultural christianity at times that is best and this pressure people feel to perform and act like they got their stuff together and i want to look and go you're not fooling anybody nobody's going man they're just wonderful you know what all of us are dealing with our own things and less people are thinking about you than you realize can i free you up for a second there's a whole lot less people looking at you and thinking about you than you actually think there are because everybody's dealing with their own stuff man and it blows me away in our culture where we always think everybody sizing us up that we miss this the people at the end of the sermon on the mount who were most offended like like the people that jesus went at in his ministry were not the people who were in need they were people who didn't think they had a date at the end of the sermon on the mount if you read matthew 5 6-7 i encourage you to do the next few weeks at the end of jesus's famous sermon nobody goes woo we're going to do this we got this thing no everybody was like we could never live that life and that was the point he wanted them to know they had a deep need for him and the people that didn't were called the pharisees they were people who like to act the part without having a need and that's the people jesus went at that's the people jesus went at listen what does it look to have a kingdom-oriented family in a fallen world it doesn't look like you're keeping up an image that you're perfect because you're not our marriage is nailing it good there will be a point where it's not our kids are awesome good there'll be a point where they're a bunch of knuckleheads it's gonna happen look at me i'm not being funny here you can laugh i'm kind of being funny but i'm just saying like we all go no man we got it together good there'll be a point when it's going to be falling apart that's family that's a road trip that's the journey we're on we're all in need so what does it mean let me give you two so we're going to talk about habits this whole series again next week everything anxiety you need to be here you need to invite people in for a few weeks because it's the thing that marks most families anxiety right now in our moment but what are some habits here's what i say we got to choose to be a family that depends on god not performed for others and that's a choice you make and i'm going to illustrate it here depends on god not performs for others that's a choice you make james the brother of jesus who struggled with the idea that jesus was the son of god when he finally got onto when he talked about prayer in james 4 here's what he says if you will draw near to god he will draw near to you god wants to be needed so what does that look like because again i want you to listen right here oh coney 211 watching online stop right there in the recliner look at me for a second sit in this room right here we have a tendency to go we're a christian family because we nod our hats at a bunch of morality but we never actually depend on jesus we've got a a prayer of blessing hang in our kitchen but we live by the value systems of the world so what does it look like here you go this let me give you examples of these are things nan and jason are learning and we don't have this figured out so what nana and i have learned is that praying with our kids about the pressures they feel at school praying with our kids when they're having friend issues when they're trying to make decisions right when they're discouraged actually praying with our kids has way more power than giving them a self-taught talk about their self-worth i just said the whole sermon right there praying with our kids when they feel pressure when things are hard when they're discouraged when there's friend drama when their school stuff actually stopping and praying with our kids has way more power than giving them a pet talk about their self-worth listen to me why because when we all we do is give kids pep talks about this self-worth we're playing on their emotions instead of letting our kids know how much we depend and need god that was worth the sermon right there because we've become a culture that's more conditioned we've become families it's more conditioned by our culture and some of you mamas and daddies in the room all you do is give your kids pep talks and you never show them how to depend on god you never show them how to depend on god that's what makes us different god doesn't want us to manage our fear by self-talk that's called self-dependence god wants me to bring my fears to him that's called depending on god not knowing an answer to something sometimes when we face it as a family when we face it as a couple maybe it might be a right or wrong thing sometimes it's like option a option b option c option d we're looking at some options here we're not sure not knowing that doesn't mean i'm inadequate as a father it means i'm a human that i need to depend on something besides myself and so when i pray i'm inviting god and listen to me if the language of our culture of of image the language of our culture of images everybody performs and everybody pray everybody compares here's what i want you to see prayer is the language of dependency prayer is the language of dependency what is real in a culture of image is we have a deep need for jesus the church is not people who have their act together the church is the people who raise their hand going we don't have it together and we need salvation that comes outside of us and that salvation is found in the name of the person of jesus church he can do for you what no one else can do because he has a power no one possesses can i say this to you again he can do what no one else can do for you because he has a power no one else possesses he will never mock you in your weakness he doesn't look at your family he doesn't look at your marriage he doesn't look at your prodigals and go oh i'm just so over it he never does he's never disgusted with you when you're disgusted with yourself when you're disgusted with your kids when you're frustrated with your marriage god does not look down at us frustrated with us listen to me he has no favorites he shows no partiality god is not exhausted by your need he's drawn to it can i say that ma'am to you can i say that sir to you in a culture that says you better act the part be the part show it most of the time in families the church doesn't get involved until things are so far down the road you can't help them see the way out of it because we're all under this pressure of i got to look the part i got to be the part and what i'm saying to you is this a family that is different understands that god is not exhausted by our need he's drawn to it he's drawn to it so let me say this to you a family that depends on god is in a family that has a plaque on there it isn't a family that prays it just just at meals that has a plaque on their kitchen that says god bless this kitchen or god bless this mess you know that one no it's a family that actually is constantly inviting god in to their life that we're continually depending and that's just part of what we do is invite god in because instead of giving ourselves a pep talk to let us face this big bad world we actually are people who know it's not in us we need help outside of us and that's why we need jesus and that's why we depend on him who's with me church that's the church that's the gospel and sometimes there's a picture that says it way better than i could ever say [Music] how many of you watched the olympics this summer how many of you i like it was obviously it was weird because of kovid and all that jazz like everything else in the world right now but love and respect olympic athletes so much because of how hard how much they work how hard they work how many years of training and conditioning and eating right informing their body informing their skill and forming their talent i mean olympic athletes is the most the highest form of performance you're working for a five minute performance most the time in front of the whole world against the whole world that's the ultimate level of performance an olympic athlete and i remember a story i read i remember as a kid seeing the image the barcelona olympics in 1992 if you can believe it almost 30 years ago and i was a young guy only two at the time i was 12 or 13. but i was a young guy and i remember seeing this image when i was like sixth or seventh grade watching the barcelona olympics it's the one before the atlanta one so i got into it it's like man it's coming to atlanta and there's a story that i read about a 400 meter track somebody who's running named derrick redmond from britain 400 meter track derrick redmond from britain and he was the favored to win the quarterfinals trained his whole life right he was favored to win the ultimate performance 400 meters in the middle of it he was the favored to win this the first turn happened he had the lead and out of nowhere worst possible thing you could believe happened to an athlete he blew his hamstring made the turn first and as he made the turn he blew out his hamstring it was painful to watch both physically and emotionally if you watch this trained his whole life for this moment and the whole world was watching but he wanted to finish the race and so he hobbled along as the other renters had their stuff together and moved on and hobbled along and out of nowhere the most beautiful picture that you'll ever see of the gospel is a man ran to him and this man is jim derek's father and this man ran to and put his arms around his son and in the story if you read about it his dad said derek you don't have to do this and derek said dad i've worked for this whole my life and i'm going to finish it and here's what his dad said then you're not going to do it by yourself and jim walked down the track a hundred meters with his son's weight fully on him because he couldn't do it on his own and as other people came and run to try to stop him you see his father saying get out of here he's with me and they cross the finish line to gather look at me bethlehem church all of us think we're that sprinter that everybody's watching and we look good and we have a god that knows we're way more hobbling than we are performing we have a god that is drawn to our need what he knows is this thing called family this thing called marriage this thing called raising kids this thing called being a student much of our life we're way more hobbling than we are sprinting for the world to see and god doesn't go oh man he's drawn to it he comes forward jesus comes to us just as we are right where we are he doesn't see the image you're trying to put out on the world to see he sees you just as you are and he loves you anyway the beautiful picture of jim and his father excuse me derek and his father jim is a picture of the gospel and that god actually wants to be needed he is drawn to your need he is not disgusted by it he wants to be needed he is not exhausted by will you stand with me across this room can i pray for you as we close with your head bowel and eyes closed the posture of of need is sometimes just holding your hands out maybe by your sides there just kind of hold your hands out for a second like you're asking for something like that legit just hey need and i want you to hear these words i'm saying christianity following christ is not an image you keep up it's a person you follow at the end of jesus famous sermon everybody thought i can never do this that was the point that we would have a deep need for jesus what separates us what makes us a light of the world city on a hill is that we're not people that have our act together we're people who go we don't have it all together we need jesus are you inviting him in choose to be a family that depends on god and not performs for others right now just go we're not gonna look the part we're gonna follow the person just right now right where you're at we're not the call of the church is not for all of us to have our act together the call of the church is that we're different see here's the we are people who are different because of jesus in a world that's in desperate need of jesus that's what it means to depend we're a family that's different because of jesus in a world that's in desperate need of jesus gentlemen fathers husbands and jesus says these words of mine are that firm foundation

Channel: Bethlehem Church

Views: 163

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Bethlehem Church, Sermon, Hope, Pastor, Church

Id: RZvYVethQGc

Length: 43min 5sec (2585 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021