eMerge 2011

eMerge is this upcoming week! Please be in prayer for the 11 volunteers that we will be taking. Pray that God opens doors and allows us to be the hands and feet of Christ to a hurting people. We want to see peoples eternal destinies changed! We will be gone Sunday July 10th - Thursday July 14th. We covet your prayers!

Sports Theme Night 7-6-11

We just had our theme night for July this past Wednesday! It was a blast! Our theme was "Sports" this month. You may be thinking, "Sports? Really?" But had you of been there you would have seen quite a different scene than a normal soccer field or badmitten game. We did some game switch-ups like "Badmittedwaterballoonball" and "Soccerbowling". Don't miss out on our next theme night August 10th "Night at the Oscars".

 

Dear Galatians, Session 1 "Clarity" 7-6-11

            My family went through a puzzle phase for a while. We loved pulling out all the crazy 1,000 piece puzzles and would work on them until we all had sore necks and backs from hunching over them. There was one crazy double sided puzzle that we took on for about a week. We finally got it done!

            But what is the point of putting together a puzzle? It is to see the finished product. It ends up being the picture on the box only a little bit bigger. Our reward is only temporary when you think about it. It doesn’t take long before you decided to crumple all the pieces up and throw them back in the box.

            Can you take a class on puzzle assembly? Do they come with instructions? What if you tried to put that puzzle together without the main picture? It would be ridiculous right? You wouldn’t know which piece went where. The whole thing would be a guessing game. It is important to have the entire picture so that you can see the end result, the end goal.

            For the next few weeks, we are going to take a look at the book of Galatians in the New Testament. It is a fascinating book, because Paul, the writer of Galatians, spent his life helping people determine the foundational issues of Christianity. The people of Galatia were putting the pieces of the puzzle together and they needed Paul to help them see the big picture.  

At the start of the Christian faith, the church consisted of a small group of people. And these people didn’t have Bibles; they didn’t have a church model; they hadn’t been to any camps or heard everything explained and outlined. All they knew was that Jesus had been alive, He died on a cross and then He rose from the dead. So it was Paul’s job to travel to these different communities and help them get the big picture, and then he wanted to help them figure out what this newfound faith meant for them personally.

Here we are 2,000 years after Paul’s travels to these young Christian communities, and we think we have all the pieces in place when it comes to faith. If we're honest, we would admit we often think we have it all figured out. We often think we know exactly what it means to be a follower of Jesus, who gets to be one, what it requires and what a legitimate response to Jesus looks like. We could give a step-by-step outline for what we think every appropriate response to Jesus should look like.

And as much as we like to think we’ve got this down, over the next three weeks, Paul is going to mess with not only the Galatians’ ideas, but our ideas today as well. Paul is going to assemble the puzzle. He is going to teach us to look at the big picture—to catch the vision of what this looks like—and then make it a reality in our lives. Because even though we have Bibles, youth groups, devotionals and Christian music, what we may be focusing on may not even be the right picture.

As the Christian faith began to grow after Jesus’ resurrection, there were big questions over what this new faith meant. There was a lot of confusion about how to live in response to Jesus. Everyone agreed on the basics—Jesus, the cross, and the resurrection—but beyond that there were a lot of unknowns. And sometimes when we’re faced with things that we’re not quite sure about, we hold on to things that are comfortable and familiar.

Many new followers of Jesus were converts from Judaism. And the Jewish faith was very clear cut. Essentially, to have a relationship with God, you had to follow the Law, the commands of the Old Testament and all that encompassed—you just did what it said and God would be pleased. Sounds easy enough, right? Maybe. But it wasn’t that easy. What started out as guidelines for how to love God and others, commands God gave a guy named Moses in a conversation on a mountain, grew a lot more complicated over the years. In fact, by the time Jesus was on the scene, the Pharisees had added so many extras to the Law that keeping all of the laws straight was nearly an impossible task. The Law wasn’t as simple as we may think.

The Pharisees had added some pretty tricky and complicated elements to the Law, and with so much to remember, people were living under the pressure of making sure they never messed up—and thinking that when they didn’t get it right, it jeopardized their standing with God. Even though no one did everything right and no one lived the Law out perfectly, the Law was all the Jewish believers had ever known, and they were reluctant to let go of it completely.

So many new believers in Jesus had this history with the Law. But the question that Paul is addressing in Galatians is, “How does this Law fit in with this new faith in Christ?” This was especially important since not everyone coming to faith in Jesus was Jewish. Some had no history with the Law, so it really didn’t have a lot of meaning for them. The problem was that no one could agree about what the Law meant after Jesus. Some people thought the Law was vital to the message of Jesus—that in order to follow Him, it was necessary to adhere to the Jewish Law completely. In other words, just because Jesus came, it didn’t mean the Law was any less important.

And word had gotten back to the church in Galatia that this was the new rule. They heard that it didn’t matter if you had never heard of this guy Moses, or if you didn't understand the ideas of Sabbath or sacrifice—you had better start learning. They began to think that it didn’t even matter if they were Jewish or not; if you wanted to get to Jesus, you had to embrace the Law and all it asked of you. They were basically saying God loves you unconditionally because of Jesus. He sent His Son to die for your sins. And that’s great. That’s awesome. But you’re still going to have to earn God’s acceptance. You’re going to have to obey the Law to be okay with Him.

It wasn’t that the law was bad. In fact, the ones God set up were still very good and very valid. Don’t murder. Don’t steal. Don’t commit adultery. It wasn’t like that was okay now. But it’s what they people thought would happen by following those rules that was the issue. They thought it would make them righteous. They thought it make them acceptable to God. They felt like what Jesus did wasn’t enough to put them in right standing before God.

You see, our sin separated us from God. The Law was a way we could interact with God. It involved rituals and sacrifices. But the funny thing about the Law was that the more you followed it, the more you realized just how sinful you were. It was a glimpse. It paved the way to a bigger story.

 But Paul felt differently about the law. As it turns out, he felt pretty strongly. When he heard that this was what was being promoted in Galatia, he was furious. The book of Galatians was his way of saying clearly, succinctly and effectively, “Stop! Hold on a minute! The Law was and is good, but it’s part of a bigger picture, it’s part of a bigger story. There’s more to it than that.” When the Galatians said that the Law would make you right with God, they were adding to the gospel—the message Jesus brought for all people. And according to Jesus, following the Law was not the complete point. Jesus’ message was that of acceptance, unconditional acceptance, made possible by His death on the cross. Period.

Listen to what Paul writes to the people of Galatia: So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified (Galatians 2:16 NIV).

 It doesn’t get much clearer than that, does it? Paul is saying, “We tried living by the rules and doing everything the Law said. We tried to aim for perfect obedience, and we failed. We tried to be better, and we couldn’t cut it. But because of Jesus, we don’t have to try to be something we aren’t. We are sinners. All we have to do is trust Jesus as the Messiah, and in that, we find the gospel—the simplicity of the gospel. Because of Jesus, because of what He did on the cross, because of who He is and what He has done, we find acceptance with God.”

And this is important for us to get. Because if we decide to try to keep the Law, or if we decide that our approval from God depends on what we do and how we act, then Jesus becomes unnecessary. Paul writes: Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily (Galatians 2:21 MSG).

Paul knew we would be walking a dangerous line if we allowed the Law to continue to dictate our behavior, if he left the Law as the way we are made right with God. He knew that the more power we give the Law, the less power we give Christ. Our righteousness, our right standing before God, depends only on the work Christ did on our behalf, and anything we do ourselves falls short in comparison.

Paul wants people to learn what it means to follow Jesus and live in tune with Him. It is like putting a puzzle together. The idea is to get the big picture. What Paul was telling the Galatians, like he is telling us, is that we are all set free by the cross. The big picture is about the cross and what Jesus did on it. Period. Paul is writing to remind them of just how free they are, how simple Jesus’ way is. We are made right with God not because we obey the Law—but because of what Jesus did. That’s the complete picture.

A lot of people, ourselves included, feel more comfortable when we know there is a list of things we need to do in order to get the acceptance we want—from anyone, but maybe especially from God. We want to know there is an exact, perfect way to follow Jesus, that we need to do all the right things in order to find acceptance. But sometimes we make things more complicated than they have to be. We seek out certainty at the expense of simplicity. We make the gospel about Jesus and: Jesus and the rules we think we ought to follow; Jesus and the behaviors we think are required of us. But in doing that, sometimes we miss the point. That is why Paul is writing to simplify it. He's cutting through the excess, the stuff that may actually serve as a stumbling block, and getting to the heart of it all—the big picture, the relationship with Jesus.

Listen to what he says in his letter to the Galatians: I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing? Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard? (Galatians 3:2-5 NIV).

Paul says it is faith in the resurrection of Christ—faith alone—that brings you into relationship with God. Paul knew that the Law itself would ultimately be a stumbling block. Keeping the Law would serve as a hindrance to those who simply wanted to get closer to Jesus because it was adding to the gospel in a way Jesus never intended. The gospel was always supposed to be centered on Christ and no one and nothing else—not even the Law that came before Him. Everything before Christ was foreshadowing. So, Paul tells these infant churches maybe the best news they have heard since hearing Jesus was raised from the dead: Belief in your Savior doesn’t come with conditions. The gospel doesn’t need an “and,” an “in addition to,” an “also.” The gospel is enough all by itself.

We may not call it the Law, but I think a lot of us would admit that there are times when it just seems easier for us to count on Jesus and something else when it comes to our confidence in our standing with God. Sometimes what should be such a simple thing is too simple for us to get, so we add to it.

Do you have trouble believing that today? Do you have a hard time believing that nothing you do or don’t do, say or don’t say, think or don’t think could keep you from the work Jesus did on the cross? When we add to the gospel, it is our way of saying,

“Thanks for being willing to die and everything, but, Jesus, I just don’t think death is enough to get me to You. I think I have to believe You and have a quiet time seven days a week.

And go on a mission trip twice a year.

And give all the money I earn from babysitting to the building fund.

And never curse.

And never think lustful thoughts ever again.

If I do all of that, in addition to believing You died on the cross for my sins, then I should be taken care of. Then I can be acceptable to You.”

But what He did is enough. And the moment we take away from that, the moment we strip the cross of the significance Jesus gave it, we undermine Jesus’ death and His resurrection.

Sure, we may never say it quite like that, but every time we do something believing that what we do or avoid doing is working at getting us “in” with God or keeping us in, we are essentially saying this very same thing: “Thanks, but no thanks. Thanks for Your willingness to lay it all on the line, Jesus, but I think I may need to do something else to make sure it is a done deal.” Can you imagine what this sounds like to Jesus?

Basically, when it comes to following Jesus, we’re not sure if we can really trust that it’s that simple, or that easy. We create miniature laws, follow arbitrary rules and count on meaningless order to get us right with God. When we do this, we aren’t that different from the Galatians. But that doesn’t excuse our faulty thinking.

Sometimes I just have to wonder why it is so hard for us to believe simply and completely in Jesus as the only way, the only means into a relationship with God. Why are we so tempted to think there is more to it when Jesus Himself, and later Paul, made it so clear that the gospel is about as simple as it gets? Why are we so quick to assume there is more to the story? More for us to believe? To do? To accomplish? Why can’t we simply take Jesus at His word when He tells us He is enough—it doesn't depend on us or what we bring to the table, what we have to offer, what we have done or haven’t done. Jesus doesn’t care about that. And we shouldn’t either.

For those of us who claim to be believers in Jesus, who claim to follow Him, we have to get this right. If we're tempted to add to the gospel, to add to the simplicity of the message of Jesus, to create a “law” that Jesus never intended to be a qualifier for a relationship with Him, then we have a problem. We can’t get hung up on the idea that if we have a quiet time at this time of the day and go to church on these days of the week then we are good with God. What we need to do is keep in mind this idea of the big picture—the vision behind the puzzle—and then hold loosely to the methods used to get there. Basically, we need to remember what Jesus did for us, and then we need to remember that is enough.

For a lot of us here today, we need to learn how to simply believe. We need to learn how to rest in what God has already done on our behalf. We need to throw out all the rules that we think are part of the way for us to arrive at the final product, and go instead for the big-picture vision—a relationship with Jesus. Jesus fulfilled the Law for exactly this purpose—to make it easy, to make it simple, to make Himself accessible to everyone. Or as Paul writes: Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law (Galatians 3:25 NIV). The hard work has already been done. All we have left to do is simply believe.

This is good news. Jesus has come. Jesus has freed us. Jesus has made it so that we no longer need to live imprisoned by a system that discourages, burdens and complicates. Jesus is the big picture. And when that is what we keep in mind, when that is what we pursue, when that is what we aim for, we will find freedom every time.

GodView, Session 3 "Clarity" 6-27-11

We began the first week of this series by saying, “The most important thing about a person is what they think about when they think about God.” The reality is that we all have a picture of God, and that picture, whatever it is, determines how we live our lives.

For most of us, our picture of God is really small. We see God the way we saw Him as a child or we think about God only as a distant mysterious Being who got everything started. And we’re not alone in our distorted view of God. There are people in their 40s, 50s, even 80s who have a very small picture of God. They might think God is big while they sing about Him on Sunday. They might know that God did amazing things back in the stories of days past, like in the Bible. They may even know stories about how God showed up in someone else’s life. But for them, in their own lives, God is relatively inactive, small and insignificant.

            We can’t allow for our personal view of God to stay the same and dictate how God actually works.

            Everyone goes through a time of doubt. Back in Africa I had seen some awesome things happen, but I wanted to know for sure that God was who He said He was. It was a moment in which I needed some clarity. So I prayed and asked God to show me that He was real. I wanted to experience Him in a new way.

            Now my room was the typical teenager’s room, posters were up on the walls and all of that. Right after I prayed, and I mean as soon as I opened my eyes. A poster fell off of the wall. I sat up and picked it off the floor checking the “Sticky-tac” on the back and making sure it was ready to be put back up. As soon as I flipped it over to the poster side it hit me like a ton of bricks. It was a Christian poster with big bold letters saying “No Doubt”. It quoted a scripture verse about how God will always be with us and never forsake us, but the “no doubt” was what struck me.

            God is not so big that He will not interact with us on a tiny scale. God is not so small that He can’t make things like that happen to show us just a little bit about who He is, or what His character is like. 

We all come to points in our lives when that small God is not enough. And that’s when we all need Somebody bigger.

God is a big God. You may not realize just how big He is and the incredible depth to not only His bigness but to His nature and His character.

*Ge 1:14–19 ¹⁴ And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, ¹⁵¹⁶ And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. ¹⁷ And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, ¹⁸ to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so.

If you read this cluster of verses you get the idea that God is a big God. He created the Sun and the Moon. That alone is a crazy thing to think about! He created the Sun to give us light and life on the earth. He created the moon to rule over the night and cause waves in the oceans. That is just one small factor in the greatness of God. You could spend years studying the effects that the sun and moon have on the earth and be blown away at the intricacy that God put into motion in one day.

But if you stop there and just say, well, my God made the sun and moon and leave it at that, you would be missing out! The most incredible thing stated here is almost like it was an afterthought. (Vs. 16) “And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars.” And the stars? What? Think about that for a second. The sun is one of trillions and trillions of stars.

Have you ever been somewhere at night and seen the stars in all their brilliance? Not just looking up into the sky on a clear Fairborn night, but being somewhere that city lights and smog don’t interfere with your view of the stars? It is incredible! (Story about time in Tanguieta).

Video: Awe Factor of God (Shows the huge nature of space) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbaGg5xNjT8

You would never know God to be that big unless you understood the universe in that way. Don’t trap God into your little box and say, this is the only way that I know Him, this is the only way that He will work. God is so much bigger than that! If you let that be your defining characterization of God you will miss out on Him revealing Himself in new amazing ways!

Most of us tend to picture God in one of two ways. When we are really little, we think about God primarily as a caregiver. Many people never really expand this view. When they think about God, they think about a nice, loving God who offers comfort in times of trouble, blesses the food they eat and maybe helps on a test from time to time. For many people, they don’t even pray unless they are facing some kind of tragedy. This view of God says God exists to provide for us and make us happy.

As we get a little older, some of us expand this view of God into one that tells us that God is a rule-giver. If you see God as a rule-giver, then you know the God who set up boundaries for the people He created and loved. This is the view many people have when they follow God on the premise that following Him leads to good things, a healthy lifestyle, wisdom or intimacy. In other words, God comes to make us good.

Both of these Godviews show us amazing aspects of God’s character. Yes, God is both of those things. He does offer comfort, and He does offer rules. But last week we talked about how those aren’t God’s primary goals. Because when we are really honest, we can admit a caregiver and a rule-giver aren’t really enough. We want something more. We want adventure and excitement. And if the real truth were known, because of our limited Godview, there are many other things apart from God that grab our attention. There are many other things that can seem appealing, something we want to be involved with.

We walk away because we think we know all about Him. The mystery is gone. We walk away from our picture of Him because He’s so small, so boring, so predictable.

The exodus story—the story of Moses and the Israelites—is epic. If you’ve never read it, you can find the whole thing in the book of Exodus in the Old Testament. And I promise you it’s worth reading. It’s one of those kind of stories when God shows up and does some amazing things. Plus, there’s a lot of human drama as well. One prominent theme of this story is how much the Israelite’s view of God played into their grand adventure.

The Israelites were slaves in Egypt. The God who had described the Israelites as His people in the days of Abraham and Joseph seemed distant. Some even wondered if He had forgotten about them because they had cried out to Him but nothing seemed to change. But God was listening.

*Ex 2:23–25 ²³ During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. ²⁴ And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. ²⁵ God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

(NIV - God was concerned about them)

But before God acted, another player in this story had his view of God altered. You see Moses, the hero of the story, was hiding out in the desert in a place called Midian. He was a wanted man, guilty of murder. He had fled Egypt to escape punishment and start a new life, and he was content that life in Midian was as good as it would get. He didn’t deserve anything else.

But even though Moses was content with his life the way it was, God wasn’t. So God showed up and interacted with Moses through a burning bush.

*Ex 3:3–6 ³ And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” ⁴ When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” ⁵ Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” ⁶ And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

God called Moses to be the one to lead His people out of Egypt. God showed patience with Moses as the two went back and forth on why Moses thought someone else should lead.

*Exodus 4:10-12 ¹⁰ But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” ¹¹ Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? ¹² Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”

And when this encounter was over, Moses walked away with a different Godview—but this was just the beginning.

Moses went to Pharaoh just as God instructed, and he delivered God’s message to release the Israelites. This was an incredibly bold move. A person doesn’t get that bold on his or her own. Something (or Someone) has to empower them. There are no self-help books that can bring that kind of courage, especially when you consider where Moses was before and where he is now. On his own he wasn’t a very confident guy, but his encounter at the burning bush had stretched his Godview. He knew he was following a God that demanded his life and complete surrender.

God worked through Moses to continue altering people’s view of Him through a series of miraculous signs including ten plagues that eventually led to the Israelites release. Burning bushes, plagues—most of us would think that would be enough to convince them of God’s character. “Okay, God cares about the Israelites and He wants to let the Egyptians know they need to let them go. End of story.” But God doesn’t stop there. He doesn’t say, “Okay, you’ve got Me figured out.” No, God kept revealing more of Himself. When the Israelites left Israel, God took the form of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night, leading the people every step of the way.

When the Egyptians started pursuing them, God parted the Red sea and allowed His people to walk across on dry ground. Then once every one was safe on the other side, God allowed the sea to flow back together and crush the Egyptians pursuing them.

End of story? No way. God fed the people manna and quail morning and night. He provided water in the desert for them to drink. And all along, the Israelites doubted. They wrestled with fear, wondering if God had done all He was going to do. They grumbled, they complained, they whined. But God continued to show them how big He really is. God led Moses to a mountain top and gave Moses the laws that would protect their community and give them guidelines on how to live in ways that would show a respect and love for God and for others.

But God still wasn’t finished revealing who He is. In fact, from that moment on, Moses met with God in what was called “The Tent of Meeting” in a way that no one else had ever interacted with God up to that point on a consistent basis—personally. *Exodus 33:11 ¹¹Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. Thus the

The God who showed up in a burning bush, plagues, pillar of fire, a parted sea, manna, quail, still had more of Himself to reveal to Moses. And beyond the regular time of talking to Moses as a friend, God led Moses back up the mountain to show Moses something else.

As Moses encountered God there, God passed by Moses and revealed His heart to Moses:

*Exodus 34:6 (Re-carving the 10 Commandments)

⁶ The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,

God revealed to Moses that He was more than a caregiver, providing manna and quail. He was more than a rule-giver, providing the Ten Commandments. God gave direction and inspiration to the Israelites. God showed up in ways no one would have expected. And for a God who had revealed Himself in so many ways to His people, there was still more for them to discover. That’s what makes the journey so big. That’s what makes this relationship, this life of following God such an amazing journey.

When we think about an extraordinary life it can sometimes sound overwhelming. I think we sometimes hear stories about the disciples or Bible heroes like Moses and we think, “That’s great. But what does that look like for me?” I mean tomorrow morning you and I are going to wake up in our own reality. Most of the year you’re sitting in school—and let’s face it, there’s nothing really glamorous about sitting through 50 minutes of U.S. history in a room of concrete blocks and fluorescent lights. And this summer you’re either flipping burgers, babysitting kids or staring at a computer screen.
            I don’t know about all of you, but most of you probably aren’t going to lead a revolution to get people out of slavery. Most of you aren’t going to find the cure for a major world disease. Most of you aren’t going to end world hunger. Some of you might. God might use some of you for some earth-shaking, history-defining, culture-revolutionizing kind of thing. Our God is big enough to do that in all of us. But God is also big enough to make extraordinary things out of our ordinary lives. And the only way it begins is when we have a big and ever-growing GodView.

Guys, our mission here is not to grow this youth group into a place that has 120 students gathering on Wednesday nights. But our mission is to be faithful to what God has called us to do. If you are open to God using you, you will start to see amazing things happen. What is it that you need to start doing? Is it just to live a life that reflects Christ to your school? Do you need to start speaking up about your relationship with God to your friends?

When you are open and ask God to start working in your life you will be blown away at the things He will do.

Story about Genette and Justin. Giving up “our” time at home to be a witness. That is an incredible thing when you just allow God to work. You can be a part of that!
           

Our soul is longing for a God who doesn’t have limits. Yet how often do we reject God when He pushes past our view of Him? How often do we say, “No, thanks, I’m okay with where I am,” when God is saying, “I want you to know Me more. I want to go on this adventure with you.”  

We often try so hard to jam God into our little picture. We already have expectations about who God is supposed to be and what God is supposed to do. It will be a tendency that each one of us will have to fight for the rest of our lives. But God doesn’t work very well with our small pictures.

I am learning to change the way I pray. Instead of saying, “God, please do as I ask,” I am learning

to pray, “God do as you will.” I am looking for His answers to prayer.

That is the prayer of the follower of Jesus. God wherever. Whatever. You are in control. Come the way You want to come. Be the kind of God You want to be. We always wonder why life is so boring. It isn’t until we pray that prayer and begin to see God as a big God that we live differently. People who begin to allow God to come as an amazing God begin to live amazing lives.    

You know what this means for many of us. God isn’t going to be just a rule-giver. This means for some of us, God isn’t going to be just a caregiver. This means God is about to climb out of the box you have put Him in. When the God that we know is just a set of rules, when God is just a caregiver, we do not expect for Him to do amazing things in our lives.

The reason many of us look back on the past year and are stuck in friendships, stuck in bad dating relationships, or sitting on the same addictions is because the God that you know isn’t the God who frees people. He isn’t a God who heals wounds, He isn’t a God who sets the captives free. Consequently, you don’t expect that much out of Him. You don’t expect Him to be able to work in your life that way. It’s not a life problem, it’s a picture problem. You have a really shallow view of God. You don’t allow God to come in surprising and amazing ways, you only invite God to meet your very limited expectations.

We could come up with lists of things that we need to work on to be better, but all of the self-help tactics in the world can’t remedy a jaded picture of God. When you came to church, when you said “yes” to Jesus, you said “yes” to a caregiver, you said “yes” to a provider, but more than that you said “yes” to attaching your life to an amazing, romantic, fearless, limitless God who can daily work in your life and can daily shape your character and values by just coming to know who He is.  

We all have to come to a place where we can say, “The God I knew when I first met Him is far more personal now, is far more in view now than He was in the beginning. And His love, His character—everything about Him—is so much more vast and mysterious than I ever thought.”

GodView, Session 1 “Clarity” 5-25-11

Has anyone here seen ET? I know, it is getting to be a really old movie these days! I don’t particularly think it was a great movie, but I was intrigued by how my sister felt about it. When she was younger she could not stand the sight of ET. To her credit, ET wasn’t exactly the cuddliest looking fellow was he? His big flat head could extend a few feet past his body and his little creepy fingers could light up.

When we were stateside (Home from Africa) we would often stay at my grandparents, who live up in Massillon Ohio. They have a pretty big house with a fully furnished basement. The basement is a great place to hang out, but when the lights are out, it can be pretty creepy. Well, my sister had made up her mind that ET lived in the basement. She would not go down there without someone being with her.

Naturally, my brother and I “Encouraged” her false idea of ET living in the basement and would often try to get her into the dark basement to face her fears. We were being good older brothers trying to help her overcome a false idea right?

When we perceive something to be true, we accept it as reality. ET didn’t live in the basement, but Kari was sure of it.

 All of us can agree that the way we perceive something determines our response to it. If this is true, then isn’t it also true that an incorrect perception can lead to an incorrect response to the same thing? Think about it for a moment. Anytime we don’t see clearly, we have an inappropriate response. For example, someone has probably said something rude to you because he thought you did something rude to him. But maybe you didn’t do anything at all—he just thought you did. His incorrect perception led to an incorrect response. Maybe you have had an enormous argument with a friend, or have even seen a relationship end because a friend perceived something that wasn’t true. Does anyone know what I’m talking about here? (Have students raise their hands if they've experienced something like that.) An incorrect perception can lead to an incorrect response. 

There is a famous quote I want to introduce to you. It’s from a theologian named A. W. Tozer. Tozer said:  "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us." (Repeat the quote.) I think that is true. Think about it. If you’ve been in relationships that ended over a misunderstanding, if you’ve lost a friend because she thought something was true about you that was not true, then what about the relationship you have with God? If we don’t perceive God correctly, then the way we respond to God is wrong. This is true of everyone. We all have some sort of picture of God. A way we think about God. A Godview. But what if our Godview isn’t right? Then everything about how we respond to God isn’t right either, is it?

Take a look at some of the following Godviews and think about how they might cause a person to

respond to the world around them. Open your envelopes and tell me how that view of God would affect you.

• God is a judge waiting to punish people when they step out of line.
• God blesses good people with lots of money.
• God is so in love with me that He will always answer my prayers the way I want Him to.
• God is really mysterious and does not understand human emotion.
• God has a specific plan for me that includes where I spend every minute of every day.
• God is preoccupied with running the world and really doesn’t care what I do with my time.

I am often reminded about how badly people can misunderstand God. Have you heard of Westborough Baptist Church? They are the people that picket military funerals. This guy is angry because somewhere in his Godview, oddly enough, he saw a God who says it’s okay to hate people as long as you hate them for the right reasons. Phelps hates gay people and it pushes him to doing extreme things.

What about Harold Camping? He has predicted that the world was going to end in 1994, this past Saturday, and now has updated it again to October 21, 2011.

How do people get so twisted? Aren’t we all reading the same Bible?        

 I wonder what these people would think about my Godview. Is my Godview wrong? I mean, we would all agree that their Godview got scrambled, but what about mine? How do I know it’s right? I could say my view is in alignment with the Bible, but they would probably have Scriptures to back up their point of view also (Although they are twisted and out of context). People have used the Bible to do and say a lot of crazy things. So how do we begin to have the right perception of God, and how do we even know if we have the right perception?

 Over the next few weeks, I want us to wrestle with that question.  I want us to think about how we think about God. I think Tozer was onto something. How we think about God really is the most important thing about us.

            We are going to take a look at Peter and what sculpted his Godview.  We know a little about him from what Scripture tells us. We know he came from an Israeli town called “Bethsadia” that would be the modern-day equivalent of Podunk. He was just a lowly fisherman. He was not an exceptional student in school. He wasn’t noted for his talents. Yet Peter was one of 12 guys invited to follow Jesus.

It wasn’t easy for Peter. He sometimes had great moments of clarity, but he also stuck his foot in his mouth several times. In Matthew 16:13-17, Jesus is traveling in a region called Caesarea Philippi. He and his disciples are walking along, and suddenly Jesus asks them a very important question. He wants to know what people are saying about Him. “Who do people say that I am?” He asked. The disciples came back with an assortment of responses that basically showed there were many rumors about who Jesus is. Then Jesus asks the disciples a more personal question: “Who do you say that I am?”

Peter steps up boldly—because Peter was just a bold kind of guy. And Peter says: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16 NIV). Good job, Peter! Extra points. Gold stars. You’re right. Jesus actually calls Peter blessed because of this answer.

But then Jesus goes on to explain what it means to be the Son of the Living God. Jesus says there will be suffering and that He will be killed. Then Peter actually takes Jesus aside, and the Bible says that Peter “rebukes” Jesus. Peter actually tells Jesus, “Look, You must have it wrong. That’s not how it works out for God. God is all-powerful. Surely God will not suffer and be put to death!” Peter’s view of God was somewhat true but not completely accurate.

If we skip ahead in the story, we see that even after following Jesus, watching Jesus perform miracles and hearing Jesus teach, Peter still has a somewhat distorted Godview. Peter is with Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane on the night when a crowd of men comes to arrest Him. When the servants of the high priest grab Jesus to take Him away, Peter steps up and comes to Jesus’ defense. In fact, in a moment when all the others are confused, Peter moves into action. The Bible tells us: Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear (John 18:10 NIV).

But in a moment when Peter thought he was doing the right thing, Jesus confronts him. Jesus tells Peter he’s acted incorrectly. Peter was confused. Think about it: It would be kind of like arriving at the big battle scene in Braveheart only to find out that William Wallace wasn’t going to fight after all, but was going to surrender and let himself be tortured.

 After Jesus’ arrest He was taken before Annas the high priest for questioning. On the way into the temple, a woman at the gate asks Peter: “You’re not one of his disciples, are you?” (John 18:17 NIV).

Maybe it was the tone of her voice, or maybe it was the fact that he was looking at Jesus in a new light now that He was being dragged into the temple like a thief, but for whatever reason Peter decided that this Jesus, the Jesus he’d just watched be arrested, was one he wasn’t sure he wanted to be associated with, one he wasn’t sure he wanted to follow. He answered the woman saying, “I am not” (John 18:17 NIV).

 Once Peter was inside the temple gates, he sat nearby listening in. Still, things did not go the way he expected. He listened as the priest talked down to Jesus. He heard when the temple guards slapped Jesus across the face. Peter must have thought about how all this time he had been following God, the all-powerful, and he thought he was on the winning team. But at this point in the game, it looked like everything was falling apart. And then it happened again, a group of people asked Peter, “You’re not one of his disciples, are you?” and again Peter denied it saying, “I am not” (John 18:25 NIV).

 Some of you know this story well. You know that Jesus predicted Peter’s denial and that Peter went on to deny Jesus a third time. But think about this for a moment. Sometimes we rush past this part. Here is a guy who just a few hours earlier was cutting off a guy’s ear to fight on Jesus’ behalf. Here’s a guy who stood up when everyone else was silent and said, “You are the Christ.” On some level Peter had always been one of Jesus’ closest followers, but here he is pretending he doesn’t even know Jesus. Was Peter right? Did he know Jesus, really?

Can you know someone but not really know that person? Think about it. Who are some of your closest friends? Who are the people in your life who know you well, and you know them well? Did you start off knowing everything about them? Do you really know everything now? We learn about people in the context of our relationship with them. We live life with them. We go through good times and some really tough times with them. We see what makes them happy and what makes them sad. It’s a process, a normal process of being in a relationship with someone. And in that relationship, there are times when someone doesn’t act or think the way we think they will.

That’s where Peter was. He knew Jesus, but there was so much about Jesus Peter thought he knew and really didn’t. The Jesus who was now arrested wasn’t the Jesus he thought he knew. He never expected Jesus to submit to beatings. He never expected Jesus to allow Himself to be so degraded. He never expected to watch Jesus die on a cross!

The disciples expected Jesus to be an earthly savior. They thought He would take on a throne here on earth and rule. Peter’s perception of Jesus was wrong and it led to a wrong idea about reality.

 After Peter’s denial, Jesus was crucified, and on the third day He rose from the grave. And one morning, after Jesus has risen, He comes to the Sea of Galilee looking for His disciples. I have to think He is especially interested in finding Peter because after making a grand entrance and after eating with the disciples beside the sea, Jesus calls Peter aside for a very interesting conversation.

When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me?”

He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”

The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?”

He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!” (John 21:15-19 NIV).

So what happens? Jesus basically tells Peter that even though Peter denied knowing Him, Jesus still wants Peter to be the one who advances the church. And in fact, Peter does advance the church. Shortly after this conversation, Peter preached and 3,000 people were saved. Peter was the leader of the church in Jerusalem—which was kind of the church headquarters. And not only that, but Peter went on to die for the sake of the gospel. Many people believed that Peter died on a cross as well while trying to advance the gospel of Jesus. Although Peter asked that his be an upside-down cross because he felt unworthy of dying the same way Jesus died.

So how does Peter go from being the guy who wouldn’t admit to knowing Jesus to being the guy who was willing to die for Him? His Godview changed. As his perception of Jesus changed, and as he began to see Jesus in new ways, Peter's way of responding to Jesus changed as well. Once he had seen Jesus get up from the dead, everything was different. His perception of Jesus now demanded his entire life.

 Perhaps more interesting to me is that Peter's perception of God was capable of change. Often times, our posture before God is that we know and understand Him. We think we have God figured out. This wasn’t true for Peter. Peter was a follower of Jesus for years, but clearly had an incomplete, sometimes even inaccurate Godview. This is true of many of us. It is possible to be a Christian and have an inaccurate view of God. It’s possible to grow up in church and have an inaccurate view of God. It’s even possible to read your Bible and know the teachings and miracles of Jesus and still have an inaccurate view of God.

Have you ever cleaned out your closet, but gotten stuck looking through old photos or things

that bring back memories? Things always seem to have been simpler in the past don’t they? The world was a big place, but it wasn’t something that you had to face. Our perception of the world was much different.

                You can’t continue to live with that mindset though. You will one day have to accept that the world is changing as you change. You will have to face it without your parent’s protection one day.

                There was a person that came out to Africa to work as a 2 year journeymen. Journeymen live with only the basics. They are intertwined with the culture in the area that they minister. This one guy had not updated his view of the world. He had still been living at home (Even though he was in his 30’s), Mom cooked all the meals, washed his cloths, and basically dressed him! He didn’t last a week.

                Our perception of the world has to grow up as we grow up. In the same way, the Jesus we know at 15 has to be different than the Jesus we knew when we were 5. The Jesus we relate to at 25 has to be different than the Jesus we knew when we were 15. Not because He changes, but because we discover more about Him. He’s bigger.

           As we close, I wonder what ways your view of God needs to change. How is your picture of God different today than it was 10 years ago? Because if your picture of God isn’t changing and growing as you grow, if it isn’t changing as you get to know more about God, then you may be like Peter in the garden, watching from the sidelines as your Godview gets blown out of the water. You may be missing out on God completely.

          But when our Godview is in line, when our perceptions start to be made right, then things on the outside start to change too.

          Let me ask you a question, does your behavior need to change? Maybe you have some kind of habit or addiction, or maybe there is something about your personality or the way you react to people that you want to fix. Perhaps it’s not your behavior that you should be focusing on. Maybe instead you need to change your perception of God. Because your behavior will begin to change when you see God differently. Peter’s did!

          Many times we try to fix our behavior, and we don’t really think about our Godview. But when we open the Bible, we discover God works the opposite way. God shows up and changes the way people think about Him more than He shows up just to change the way people behave. He is always trying to get people to understand Him, to know His true nature and be filled with a sense of wonder.

          I don’t know about you, but I generally don’t want to know God; I just want to skip ahead to knowing what God wants me to do. Is your life being molded by a list of rules? Do you do things because you “have” to in order to be a good Christian? Or do you do things to honor God and your relationship with Him?

          Isn’t this why many of us in this room rebel against God. It’s not actually Him we are rebelling against—it’s all the rules we think we have to follow. What if, over the next few weeks, we focused on changing our view of God and making sure we know God, not just all of the things we have been told about Him.