Fill er up REFUEL your Imagination

June 21, 2015 Fill er up REFUEL your Imagination

Who remembers the very first car you owned? Keep your hand up if it was a beater, a tank, a ghetto-crusier. What d you have? Let s take a poll: Chevy Impala. Ford Pinto. Gremlins? Rambler? I got my first car in 1970. A 1962 Ford Fairlane stationwagon. 3 on the tree. About a 100 ft wheelbase. It would regularly hold 12 kids, maximum 21. The car was a very rare color. You may not have heard of this color. It was called 2 tone Chick Repellent brown. Imagine a big box of milk duds with wheels. We went bombing around in The Brown Bomb. I spruced it up by spray painting a big green peace sign on the roof. The thing about that car was, we were always running out of gas. We were always running on empty. I actually never remember ever filling it up, it was always 2 or 3 bucks worth at a time. One time it was 79 cents! Anyone here ever run out of gas in a car? More than once? We re not to smart, are we. I don t know what you came here wanting today, but you probably didn t come here to talk about cars. But since it s father s day I just had to do a car analogy. For the last few weeks we ve been in a series of messages talking about faith. We ve looked at what faith is and what it isn t; we ve looked at seeing from God s perspective; we talked about miracles, we ve looked at the benefits of having faith in Jesus and what believing in Jesus really means. Last week we saw how important faith is to God s gift of imagination. How imagination and our dreams shape our lives and then we talked about how FEAR and DOUBT can destroy our imagination and the dreams we have for our life. One of the things that happens because of doubt, because of fear, because of worry, is dreams and imagination begin to dissipate in your life. A lot of people start off with a great dream, a great cause and purpose to live their life for. But over time it begins to fade. 1-2

And we end up NOT dreaming any more. And not believing anymore. So what we have to do is re-energize the dream. The thing is, we get a dream but we leak! We try to run on an empty tank. We run on fumes. We have to re-fuel the dream because we run out of gas. (ok now you see the car tie in) Since it s fathers day I was going to title this message Got Gas? Here s the thing we don t want emptiness. The good news is God doesn t want us to be empty either. I don t like living on empty. But the truth is we run on empty a lot in our lives. We ve got to refuel all the time. When I m spiritually running on empty I sputter and stall. I m more selfish. I m angered easily. I lack compassion. I m more vulnerable to temptation. It s more difficult to make good decisions. When I m empty I feel a distance from God. Here s what I ve learned about my own spiritual journey. If I don t refuel frequently, and if I don t CONNECT with God a lot, I go empty pretty quick. I m not alone, am I? That s reality. Do you want to hear some really good news? You and I don t have to live life on empty. We can be refueled. We can be filled with LIFE and POWER. Ephesians 3:19: May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you ll NEVER fully understand it. Then you will be FILLED with the fullness of LIFE and POWER that comes from God. I can be FILLED with God even though it says I ll NEVER fully understand it. A lot of things fill us up that we don t understand. I don t fully understand how a TV works, but I can sit in my big chair, grab the little plastic man-toy, push the buttons and all of a sudden people appear that FILL me up with entertainment. 1-3

Here s the deal. LIFE and POWER doesn t come from an infomercial. Or a self-help product. Or support groups. Or government programs. Or other people. LIFE and POWER comes from only one source God! And here s the kicker, it s available to ME. Sinful, selfish, silly old me! It s available to me! And it s available to you too. The fullness that you want is available to you. How do you refuel God s dream for your life? GOD S SPIRIT and GOD S WORD fuel my imagination. These are the two sources that God provides to energize your life so you don t run out of gas. First he gives you his own Spirit, the HOLY SPIRIT. And then he gives you his WORD and the promises of the Bible. John 14:16-17 Jesus says I will ask the Father, and he will give you another HELPER who will be with you forever. That helper is the Spirit of Truth. [That s God s HOLY SPIRIT.] You ll know him, because he lives with you and will be IN you! That s where the POWER comes from. The other source for refueling is GOD S WORD. Psalm 119:18 says this Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your law... Help me understand the meaning of your commandments, and I will MEDITATE on your wonderful miracles. We need to do this on a daily basis. Where you LISTEN to God as you read his Word and you talk to God in prayer. This is the key to maintaining a dream for your life. A daily quiet time with the Holy Spirit and you and the Bible, get alone and you listen to God and talk to God. That energizes your vision. The key to a stronger, healthier imagination and faith, is frequent TIME spent with Gods SPIRIT and Gods WORD. This is God s gas station. God s filling station. 1-4

But this refueling is NOT what you think it is. When people are tired and worn out and experiencing emptiness, they usually respond with MORE things they need to DO. Stuff like I need to get up an hour earlier and read the Bible. I need to spend time keeping a prayer journal. I need to go to church more often. I need to do more Bible studies. IF I did all that stuff, THEN I d be refueled. Where does this idea come from that we get refueled by all that we DO? Where does all this DO stuff come from? Not from Jesus. I think it comes from people like me! Sorry! Well intended, goodmeaning pastors and teachers. I was taught that to be refueled you ve got to pray. Why? Because Jesus prayed. You ve got to read the Bible. Why? Because Jesus had the Old Testament memorized. Now that s another thing you have to do. Memorize scripture. Jesus witnessed to people, so I have to share my faith more. Jesus road a donkey! Where am I going to get a donkey? Jesus also fasted. And not only do I have to pray, and read, and memorize, and fast, I ve got to do it in a quiet place, because one verse out 31,000 in the Bible says Jesus withdrew to a quiet place. Then there s one verse in the gospel of Mark that says He did it in the morning so I ve got to do it in the morning. And he did it on a mountain. The closest mountain is like 1000 miles away. Would a cliff on the north shore work? What time am I going to have to get up to be there by morning? Ok, please don t misunderstand me. I m NOT saying prayer is bad or you shouldn t read the Bible or memorize scripture. These are actually foundations to your faith. And if you have a daily routine going right now and it doesn t move you to guilt and you get refueled, keep on going. 1-5

But the majority of people get hung up on all the stuff we re supposed to DO and then we get frustrated because we can t seem to DO it all and then we move into failure mode. When Jesus called people to him it was very INVITATIONAL. He used words like Follow me Come to me Be with me Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus said, Come to me all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you because I m humble and gentle and you will find rest for your soul. The Message Bible says it this way, Come to me. Get away with me and you ll recover your life. I ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you ll learn to live freely and lightly. When you think of your spiritual life, do you think My burden is light Come to me or do you think of I m not doing enough, I need to do more Drop down and give me 20 Bible verses! This idea of I m not doing enough is an invitation to PERFORM. And a performance-based faith puts you on a treadmill where you end up feeling like a spiritual failure. The pressure to perform leads to rituals. Rituals lead to to-do lists, things I need to do. To-do lists can lead to failure. Failure leads to guilt. Guilt leads to withdrawing away from God. And withdrawal ultimately leads to emptiness. Jesus doesn t tell us to perform. Jesus is saying, Come to me Be with me Follow me My burden is light that s an invitation to CONNECT. Refueling isn t performance based, refueling happens when we CONNECT with Jesus. Food fills us up. It refuels our physical body. When I go out to eat I like a place that s comfortable and inviting. With great food. 1-6

Like the Italian Gardens. I could see CONNECTING with friends and having a meal and talking and laughing. That seems comfortable and INVITING to me. A cafeteria buffet would be more like performance. You ve got long lines and mass consumption and there s this move em through ambience. It s an institutionalized atmosphere. It focuses on speed and quantity. There might be a lot of options but everything tastes like chicken. Except for the chicken. So you ve got this comfortable, quiet setting over here. Then you ve got this institutionalized cafeteria line over here. Which one seems more inviting to you? We re talking about connecting. We re talking about developing and deepening a relationship with God in an inviting atmosphere that s natural. That s not forced, (the unforced rhythms of grace) that s not institutionalized, not formalized. It s not about lines and food of mass consumption. It s about CONNECTING with God. So today I m NOT going to send you home with a list of things to do. Today I want to challenge you to STOP feeling like a failure. That s the opposite of being refueled. The Bible teaches this: we re all failures! Are you happy now? We re all failures in our attempt to be perfect. That s why we need a savior. The thing I d like you to walk out of here knowing is that Jesus died on the cross to pay for your failures. When I put my FAITH in what Jesus did on the cross, imperfect Scott gets to have a relationship with a perfect God. I can be CONNECTED to him. That s what salvation is. I can be saved from my failures. What a great message! The Bible says this in Romans 3:22-24 We are MADE RIGHT in God s sight when we do a bunch of stuff. NO! We are made right in God s sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in the same way no matter who we 1-7

are or what we ve done. For all have sinned. All fall short of God s glorious standard. Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus who has freed us by taking away our sins. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us. Have you made that connection? God wants to have a relationship with you, He wants to fill you up. Many of us already have a relationship with God. I d say STOP feeling like a spiritual failure. You re not. You ve been saved. The first step to refueling is to STOP feeling like you re a failure. STOP looking at everybody else and comparing. Then START thinking of God as a friend. For the refueling process to be natural and comfortable, many of us have to change the way we think about God. To talk to him as a friend who is inviting us into a relationship. Think about when a good friend invites you over to their house. Do you stress out and feel pressure to perform? No. Not if it s a good friend. You walk in; you get something out of the refrigerator. You be yourself. You re not trying to perform. If they re a good friend you just get to be who you are. START thinking of God as a good friend. God has the power to part the Red Sea and raise people from the dead. But He also has the capacity and desire to have an intimate and personal relationship with YOU. When Jesus said, Come to me, Follow me, Be with me, he also said in John 15 I no longer call you servants. Now you are my FRIENDS. I am a friend of God. God is my friend. When this old body dies, I ll be in the presence of my friend. My savior. The one I ve had a relationship with, and connections with for many years. 1-8

I ll be in the presence of my friend. And I seriously doubt I m going to say, Hello God, let me go through a list of all the things I DID for you while I was on earth. No! He s my friend. Our relationship isn t performance based. We need to shift our minds and stop feeling like a failure and start thinking about God as our friend. Connecting with him is not about a bunch of things you need to DO. It s not a to-do list. It s not jumping through hoops. It s not about rituals and rules and religion, it s about a relationship! It s not about your performance; it s about being in the presence of God. It s not about guilt. It s about his grace. So my question to you today is this: when you think of God, what God do you see? The one who lights up at the sound of your voice? Or do you think about an angry tyrant where you re never good enough and he s ready to smack you in the back of the head? Your view of God changes everything. A lot of times it s based on how you view your earthly father. Was your father a friend? So as we make this attitude shift look for connection opportunities. Start looking for NATURAL ways to connect with God. Talk about stuff that s going to fill you up. Stop by the filling station. Jesus says, Be with me, keep company with me relax rest Just dream with me for a second what would happen if you lived your life refueled? If you lived your life totally filled with the power and life that comes from God? What would happen? There d be more JOY in your life. More PEACE. Your relationships would be more significant. You d be HAPPIER. Your conversation would be more meaningful. God s Spirit would impact your decisions and the way you treat people. Emptiness would be a thing of the past. Being filled up with the power and life that comes from God 1-9

It s going to change everything. Remember, refueling is NOT an invitation to do more. It s an invitation to be connected. To be connected to the one who loves you and wants to fill you up. Prayer: God, thank you that we don t have to be the same when we walk out of here as we were when we came. Thank you God that you desire to fill us with your love and your power and your presence. Lord, I pray for those here today who live on empty. That you d reveal yourself to them that you want to be their friend and that you want to connect with them. Thank you Jesus for paying for our sins so we can be connected with you. All glory goes to you. In your name we pray. Amen. 1-10