You Belong. Dr. Scott Dudley May 27, In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, Ananias!

Transcription

1 You Belong Dr. Scott Dudley May 27, In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, Ananias! Yes, Lord, he answered. 11 The Lord told him, Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight. 13 Lord, Ananias answered, I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. 14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name. 15 But the Lord said to Ananias, Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name. 17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit. 18 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, 19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength. Acts 9:10-19 NIV Prayer: Jesus, thank you for what we celebrate this weekend, the men and women who gave their lives for our country. Lord, thank you for the freedoms that have been preserved, including the freedom to gather and worship you. And Jesus, thank you for your word, and I ask that you would teach us from it, and teach us how to be more like you and how we can be more loving toward your people. We pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.

2 Well hello, 11:00 service and middle schoolers, high schoolers, those of you online. Hello 9:45. Thank you guys for being here. Really appreciate it. Did any of you notice that there was a wedding about a week ago? Did anyone? If you are alive on planet Earth, you could not have missed the royal wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, and one of the most widely circulated images was this picture right here, of them riding around after the wedding in a horsedrawn carriage. Well I think that this picture got into my head because one night I had this dream where I was in the carriage with them, talking with Harry and Meg, as I called them in my dream, right? I was giving them marriage advice, and Prince Harry was saying, "Oh this is so wise. This is so good, Scott. You are so wise," right? Really good stuff. Meg, on the other hand, was not interested. She just kept waving. I do not know what that dream says about me. I think the word might be narcissist. It's a disorder. I think the dream also kind of reveals this universal human longing we have to be included. We want to belong. We want to be invited in to some inner group or inner ring and be part of a community. In fact, we cannot survive without community. Some of you right now are going through really difficult times. Death of a loved one, a problem in school or at work, troubles in your family. I'm going through a season with my aging parents. I could not get through it without community. We need people who are close to us, friends that get beyond news, weather and sports, where we share the good stuff, the joys, the victories, the successes but also the things that we are struggling with. That's part of why Jesus didn't leave behind an institution. He didn't leave behind a religion. He started a community of 12 disciples and then it grew from there. A community where people experienced God's love and then went out to share that love with the world around them. Now, that's not always how folks think of church. I have a friend who's a pastor, was a pastor up in Anchorage. One day there was this guy kind of hanging around the church property, looking kind of grungy, smoking cigarettes, cussing. An elder in that church asked my friend to kick this man off the church property, right? He said you ve got to understand, pastor, people like that don't belong in church. Kind of an interesting sentence right? Who exactly would be the people like that, that don't belong in church? If anyone didn't belong in church, it's the guy we just read about today, in the scripture, a guy named Saul. He eventually becomes the Apostle Paul, but he really didn't belong in church, to start out with, even though he launched a church. It said, "Meanwhile Saul was breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples." See 2

3 Saul murderous threats, not just threats. Saul not only persecuted Christians by throwing them in jail. He thought Christians should be killed, right? If anyone doesn't belong in church, it's Saul, but while on the road to Damascus, he sees a blinding light. Jesus speaks to him and says why are you persecuting me Saul. He's blinded and then he's led into Damascus. Then the text says, "In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, Ananias! Yes, Lord, he answered. The Lord told him, go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man named Saul. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight. Ananias answered, Lord? I've heard reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people." In other words, is this a good idea God? Do you know what you're doing? The Lord answered him, "Go." I love that. You heard me. Go, go, go, go, go. On your way, go. So Ananias goes. An act of radical obedience because notice God didn't say it's going to be okay, you won't get killed, you won't get thrown in jail. Sometimes, God sends us to people to welcome people with no guarantee that it's going to be the way we want it to be. It might be hard. It might be awkward. God says go. So Ananias goes and it says, "Placing his hands on Saul," a gesture of love and acceptance. He said, "Brother Saul, Jesus has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Immediately something like scales fell from Saul's eyes and he could see again." Brother Saul. Not hate you murderer. Not listen here, jerk. Right? Brother Saul. In that moment, Saul knows that he's included, knows that he belongs, and when he feels he's belonged, the power of God is unleashed because God's power is unleashed in community, and Saul is healed and he can see again. Because one of the things that heals us of discouragement or loneliness or fear, what helps us be more confident is when we belong to a community that loves us. Most of us in this room would say our lives were not ever changed by a book we read, right? Like how many of your lives were changed by some book you read? Certainly no one would say by a sermon they heard. But most of us would say my life was changed by a parent, a teacher, a coach, a mentor, a friend. Because life on life changes life. It's just how it works. That's why we need community. To follow Jesus means we are placed in a community of other fallen sinners and discover that we are brothers and sisters in Christ. Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future in God's community. Just as an aside, Ananias didn't compromise God's moral standards to welcome Saul. He didn't say it's okay that you're a persecutor Saul. No, no. He just welcomes him because often 3

4 we belong before we believe and then when we belong we come to believe and want to follow Jesus' commands for our lives. When we welcome even the most unlikely people, like Saul, amazing things happen. Because you see because of this encounter with Jesus and because of this community, Saul changes his name to the Apostle Paul, and spreads Christianity all around the Mediterranean world which led to the Roman Empire becoming Christian, which led to things like democracy and civil rights and hospitals and universities, all of that stuff. All because a brave man named Ananias went to a street called straight, placed his hand on a murderer and called him Brother Saul. So much depends on that hand on that shoulder. So much, the future of the church, the future of the world depends on that hand on that shoulder. When we belong, we are not only healed, but we become healing agents in the world as Paul does here. If Christian persecuting Saul can belong, well then anyone can. So let me ask you this. This will be the audience participation part of this sermon. If you have a checkered moral track record, do you belong here in church? Yes. If you are a Democrat, Republican, or something else, this is a hard one, do you belong here in church? Yes. If you are a senior citizen, middle-aged, or young, do you belong? Yes. If you like cats, do you belong? No. No you do not. If you like cats, the church down the road is awesome. No, even you belong, cat lovers. Jesus extends his love to everybody. Different ages, nationalities, education levels, income levels, straight, LGBTQ, and I know we don't all agree on that last one in this church. That's okay because that's part of community too. We sometimes disagree. It happens, but I know we all agree everyone deserves to be treated with the love and respect of Jesus. Right? 4

5 So practically, wow, you guys are awesome today. It's because Harvey was here last week. You guys are like amening. Keep it up. This is fantastic. So how do we do this? Practically speaking, what does it look like, nuts and bolts? How do we do community? What helps us experience community and what helps us then extend it to others? The book of Hebrews says this, "Let us consider how we may spur one another toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another." Let me talk about each of those underlined words, because they kind of give us a how-to packet on how to do community. Okay. The first word there is consider. The Greek literally means to notice, to pay attention to, so the first step in community is just like noticing each other. Like hi, right? Like, how you doing, like hello. It also means to get to know other Christians who can encourage you. That may mean joining a small group. It may mean volunteering in one of our ministries, so you can meet other people. It may be not adding anything, just inviting people into what you're already doing. There's a guy in our church who, he has some weightlifting equipment in his garage, so he started this thing that he calls Barbells and Bible. He's invited some other guys once a week, once a week right before work to come over and lift weights with him. They read a devotional. Right? Somewhere during the week they've read this little chapter in the devotional, so as they lift weights, they talk about the bible, right? See, for community, you don't necessarily have to add something to your busy schedule. They were all going to workout no matter what. They're just once a week working out together and talking about the bible in their lives. Didn't add one hour to their schedule. Who can you invite to join you in what you're already doing? A former pastor here named Jim Berkeley had what he called the two-minute rule. The first two minutes after a worship service, say hello to someone you don't know. Say hello to someone who maybe looks new or maybe kind of feels like they're out of place. Just say hello to someone you don't know. It's really easy. It's just hi, I'm Scott. Hello. Right? It's really easy to do. Consider. To consider one another also means to be considerate to one another, which I think is a culture we're losing right now, the ability to be considerate toward one another. God calls us to be considerate because see, the corollary to you belong means other people belong too, right? Of course all of those other people think like you think. They like the same kind of music in church that you like. They vote the same way you vote, right? No. That's the problem with community. 5

6 Other people. Like community is awesome except if it's just those other people, right? One person loves this kind of music in church. Another can't stand it. Some people love the games in the lobby. Makes it feel like this is a home, not an institution. Other people don't like the games in the lobby. Those of us on staff, this is what we hear all week long. I love that. I hate that, right? Crazy making. Now, it is fine to have our preferences. It is also great when you tell us your preferences. Don't hear what I'm not saying. That's fine. That's fine. But to be considerate also means every group has to make some sacrifices to ensure that everyone feels welcome here. That's just part of being a family. Before I was a pastor, I had a lot of opinions on how church should go, and sometimes there was something in church I didn't like, and I learned this discipline. I would say, you know what? This particular thing here, in this church, I don't really connect with it, but I know that a brother or sister in Christ does, and so I will sacrifice some of my preferences for the sake of my brother or sister in Christ. It's called learning to die to self a little bit. Those sacrifices have to be evenly shared by every person and every group. Church is like a tossed salad, okay? Lots of ingredients, and if you don't like the green peppers, just know that someone else here does, and you just move past the green peppers and go for the artichoke hearts or whatever it is. The bible calls us to honor and bless one another. That doesn't mean we all have to like the same things. But it means younger people; honor the older generation. Many of you have made deep sacrifices for decades to build this church, and younger folks are called to honor older people for all the things that they've done before them. And older people are called to bless, encourage and empower younger people. As my friend, Pastor Brian Dunnigan said, when honor goes up, blessing comes down, and it works vice versa too. When blessing comes down from the older generation, honor should come up from the younger generation. Consider. Be considerate. Next word, spur one another. The Greek word for spur there actually means to irritate each other. Part of the church's job is to irritate you. And some of you are like, mission accomplished, right? Like maybe even that last sermon point, right? What it's getting as is that in real community, we are that loving spur that spurs each other on to grow and mature. Biblical community is when we say to each other, look I want to live my life like Jesus commands in scripture, so if you see me getting selfish, if you see me not forgiving someone, if you see me being greedy, if you see me doing something sexually that the bible says I should not be doing, bug me. Spur me on to be the person that Jesus calls me to be. 6

7 Now, we don't have the right to say that to someone unless they have invited us to, right? Important caveat, but in real community, we share our victories, our joys our successes as well as our struggles, and we say to a few close friends, I give you permission to tell me what I need to hear, not what I want to hear. I give you permission to tell me what I need to hear, not what I want to hear. A few weeks ago, I was talking to my good friend Chris who moved to the East Coast last summer, but we still talk every week, which with a three-hour time difference takes some doing, because to have community, you sometimes have to be intentional. I was going on and on about some difficult things in my life. He wasn't saying anything. He was just kind of un-huh, un-huh, unhuh, and finally I said I'm kind of complaining and feeling sorry for myself right now aren't I? And there was just this silence on the other end of the phone. I said, I'll take that as a yes. It was actually super helpful for me because it shifted my perspective from why is all this crap happening to me, to God, how are you using these difficult things in my life as tools, discipleship tools to help me become more like Jesus, right? Now I still share difficult things with him and with a few other people. I still share them, but not hopefully in a complaining poor me way, but in a please pray for me, spur me on to grow kind of a way. Consider, spur, next, good deeds. It just means practically to help each other. I've shared with you that my mom has Alzheimer's and that my dad has had two strokes and both are kind of confused, and my siblings and I get over to Eastern Washington where they live as much as we can, which lately has been once a week, but we can't be there all the time. We've hired some caregivers to help with that, but their church community, oh my goodness, it's an amazing community. Neither of them can drive, so there's this couple that takes them every Sunday to church. They take my dad golfing. They take him to Kiwanis. They visit. We could not be managing this, my siblings and me, we could not be managing this without that community. So many of you in this church do it. You're so good at taking a meal or helping someone out practically. That's a real strength of this church. Keep it up. You guys are doing great on that. Consider. Spur. Good works. Next, gather. Together. Right? Fellowship. In order to have community you need to be in the same place at the same time. Right? It says do not give up meeting together. For community to happen, we have to find ways to meet together. In church, for sure. That's part of why we come to church, but in small groups and other ways. We ve got to be intentional about it. We ve got to kind of make it happen. Otherwise it's not going to happen in our busy lives. 7

8 Consider, spur, good deeds, gather, and finally, encourage each other, because especially in our divisive culture right now, oh my goodness, where every little thing you say or do provokes judgment and criticism, we need folks to say, way to go, keep it up, you're doing a great job. Right? Biblically speaking, community is a non-negotiable for Christians. Christianity is personal, but it's not private. That's really hard for us to understand because our culture is so individualistic right? But we can't hang on to our Christian hope, we can't become more like Jesus without other people. Part of church is to come and be encouraged and experience God's love so we can go out there and show the world God's love. If we could learn in this room to be considerate to one another, if we could learn in this room to be a community in spite of our differences, maybe we would have something to teach the rest of our culture, which increasingly is making it impossible. We're just shrinking into our smaller and smaller and smaller little communities where everyone thinks the same way we think and likes the same things we like. Democracy will not survive that. Democracy cannot survive that, but if we, the people of God, can learn to be community in spite of our differences, then maybe we can take that to the world and show them how. Show them how it's done when Jesus is part of it. What empowers us to do all of that isn't just a lot of do-gooding. What empowers us to do all that is what the bible says right before this passage in Hebrews that I just looked at. It says, "Therefore, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, let us draw near to God with full assurance, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience." In other words, in spite of all the sins we sinned, all the ways we have messed up, all the ways we have hurt people, all of which should exclude us and disqualify us from being part of community. None of us belong in church. None of us belong in God's family, but Jesus paid the price for those things on the cross, erased our sins so now there is no condemnation. We can draw near to God, fully confident that he is not mad. He is not displeased. He is not grumpy. God is in a good mood and he always loves to see us. When we get that, when we really understand that, that we are included in God's community, not because of what we did but because of what he did, then we don't expect anyone else to have to perform or earn their way into community either, because we were invited in. We didn't earn our way, so we don't expect other people to earn their way. We all want to feel like we're included in an inside group, right? In some elite group. Sometimes we overwork, trying to be included in some elite group of top performers, or think of gangs. Sometimes young men join gangs because they want to be in an inner ring. Some elite ring, right, 8

9 so they join a gang. Or getting good grades because you want to be in an inner ring called Harvard or Yale or worse case scenario, your fallback school, Stanford. God forbid that should happen, right? If we don't get that God is pleased with us, then we're going to try to get that sense of belonging somewhere else. But when we get that because of Jesus, we're included in the innermost, inner ring of all, like way better than being in the carriage with Harry and Meg, right? When we get that we are invited into the intimacy between Father, Son and Holy Spirit, even though we don't deserve it, we joyfully welcome others. Because when we realize our belonging is not because of anything that we've done, then we don't expect anything from others for them to belong either. We're all just sinners in need of God's grace. That's what we ve got in common. There's a lighthearted poem that gives a great image of heaven, but also of here. It says, "I was shocked, confused, bewildered as I entered heaven's door, not by the beauty of it all, by the lights or its décor, but it was the folks in heaven that made me sputter and gasp, the thieves, the liars, sinners, alcoholics and the trash. There stood the kid from seventh grade who swiped my lunch money twice. Next to him was my old neighbor who never said anything nice. Herb, who I always thought was rotting away in hell, was sitting here in heaven looking incredibly well. I nudged Jesus, what's the deal? I'd like to hear your take. How'd all these sinners get to heaven? God must have made a mistake? Why is everyone so quiet and somber? Jesus give me a clue. Hush he said. They're all in shock. No one thought they'd see you." All God's children got stuff. But Jesus makes us new and includes us in the innermost inner ring of all, and when we get that, we are changed and we can go be a change agent in the world. First time I experienced genuine authentic Christian community was my first year in college. Back then, I was so shy, I couldn't bring myself to live in the dorm, so I lived by myself in an apartment. It's interesting. I'm not an introvert. Some folks say, you're an introvert. I'm not an introvert. I'm an extrovert, but I'm shy. So I'm a shy extrovert, which means I really want to be with you. You just scare me. Right? That's kind of where I'm at there on the Venn diagram. Back then, I was exploring this whole Jesus thing, but I had this really checkered moral past, so I was afraid to be around Christians in particular, so I used to go to church five minutes late and leave five minutes early so I didn't have to talk to anybody. Maybe some of you do that too, but that's not how you grow as a Christian. So eventually I joined a small group with some other college guys my age, and they were very different than me. They were good looking. They were popular. Women wanted to date them. They were very different than me, right? They were cool. They were doing pirouettes at the top of the cool pyramid, and I felt out of place because I didn't 9

10 feel like I was cool, but they didn't see me as out of place. They invited me to go skiing with them, go to football games together, hang out. We spent time praying together, sharing our struggles with each other, and I was shocked to learn that being wealthy, good looking and popular didn't mean you didn't have any struggles in your life. I felt a part of God's family. I went from being a shy, socially awkward person to someone who is at least socially functional. Eventually, I got to be someone who can talk to 2,000 people every Sunday, without getting nervous except for when the sermon is a real dog, and then I get nervous. I went from having this checkered moral past to feeling like I was part of God's family, which made me want to follow Jesus and his commands. And it helped them too, it worked the other way around. Like this isn't cool frat guys save nerd from social annihilation, right? It went both ways. Everyone was blessed. What made all that possible was only one thing. Jesus. Jesus held us together because the one thing we knew we had in common was that we didn't deserve God's grace. We didn't deserve to be in God's family, but Jesus forgives us and invites us in anyway. So what steps can you take to maybe just get a little closer to someone, a friend at school or at work or in your neighborhood, get a little beyond news, weather and sports? Go a little deeper, or get in a small group or serve so you can meet others? How can you extend warm community to other people, knowing that none of us really belong? That's what we have in common. We're all just sinners, but Jesus forgives us and makes us part of his family anyway. That's the good news and that's why we can be together. Let me close by just asking this. Have you ever been a little too self-focused? Or ever had a sexual thought that you knew was not pure and honoring? Have you ever been unfaithful in your marriage or been addicted to something? Have you ever held on to a grudge or said something behind someone's back that you never said to their face? Have you ever stretched the truth, even just a little bit, to make yourself look better? Have you ever lost your temper when you probably shouldn't have? Have you ever kind of lacked will power in a key moment? If any of the things on that list, if any of those things that I just listed apply to the person sitting next to you, would you please stand? Stand up. Now look around the room. What a disaster. What a moral basket case, right? Including me. Including me. I'm on that list too, in a couple of places, and don't go be trying to figure out where, all right? For the 11:00 crowd, someone said, "Oh we know." We all go stuff. I got stuff. You got stuff. All God's children got stuff, right? 10

11 So I have a word for you from your Brother Jesus, as you stand here. Welcome home. Jesus we are at home because we are with you. Jesus we know that you include us, not in what we've done but in what you've done. So, God, help us, for that truth to sink in deep, and Lord help us to welcome and extend that love to people around us. Be the community you've called us to be. We pray this in your name, Jesus, amen. Discussion Questions Please Read all of Acts 9 and Hebrews 10: If you were Ananias, how would you have reacted when God told you to go and lay hands on Saul? 2. What effects did Ananias' action have on Saul? 3. Who has been like Ananias in your life? 4. Based on Jesus' sacrifice, what actions and attitudes follow for us? How does Jesus' sacrifice enable us to have those attitudes and do those actions? (See Hebrews 10:19-25). 5. In what ways can you spur others on to growth in Christ? What or who has spurred you on to grow in Christ? 11