C3 Global Leader

We would go through sensory overload if we had just a scintilla of the stress and the press that he was involved in as he entered the garden.  Because again, he knew the opportunity, he saw the opposition; yet he faced it.  And I don’t want to go into the prayer too much, but Jesus even said, “God, if it’s your will, may this whole situation pass from me.” Yet Jesus knew it was the will of God.

So here is what he did.  Let’s pick up this text, because this is some cool stuff right here.  Matthew 26:36.  “Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.”

He basically said, “You guys sit here, Peter, James and John. The other eight of you stay by the gate. But you three just sit here while I go over here and pray.

Verse 37-38, “He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.’”

So first he says, “Sit.” Then he says, “Keep watch.” And then he tells them just to pray.

Well take a wild guess at what Peter, James and John, these phenomenal stand-up guys were doing.  They weren’t sitting; they were not watching, and they sure weren’t praying.  They were sleeping.  They were sleeping.  And that’s just crazy, isn’t it?

So they’re asleep. And Jesus, at the most critical and crucial hour of his life, is troubled.  He is in that press and he sweated drops of blood.  He knew what was going to happen.  He is in this situation that we cannot even comprehend; the whole sin of the universe and everything was upon him.  And here we have Peter, James and John sawing logs.

Again, I want to say happy Memorial Day weekend.  And it is really just amazing to think about what our men and women have done as they have gone before us and sacrificed many of their lives for our freedom.

Whenever it comes to freedom, you always have to talk about opportunity.  And today I do want to talk about opportunity because opportunity comes at us at a rapid fire pace.  And while I’m talking about opportunity, I want to do a big shout out to all of our campuses in Miami, Plano, Downtown and over in Fort Worth.  Welcome and happy Memorial Day! I want you guys to be thinking along with us as I talk about some opportunities.

We have all had opportunities in our lives to do a lot of things.  And I think one of the cool things about technology is the fact that it gives us more and more opportunities to make more and more decisions.  And I believe we can look back in the rearview mirror of our lives and say, “I have made a lot of good choices.  I have made a lot of good decisions.  I have taken advantage of certain opportunities and they have served me well.”

But I think we can also say, “I have taken advantage of other opportunities and they have not served me very well.”

And to me, one of the biggest struggles that I have as I look back in the rearview mirror of my life is I like to beat myself up over missed opportunities.  I think I do that probably more than anybody.  I don’t know if it’s OCD or what, but I do that.  And maybe you’re the same.

It could be a coach.  It could be a teacher.   A former friend.  It could be anyone who do you have on your most wanted list?  Who do you have?  Who do you have?  The tortilla of death.  So often we’re served up the tortilla of death.  I’m talking about a warm tortilla with peanut butter on it.  Revenge is so attractive isn’t it?  It’s so alluring.  It’s so tempting.  We want to gnaw on it.

We think it’ll satisfy.  When I make it to this position, or when I have the opportunity to say that, or tell him off or to put it back in their face, that will satisfy my soul.  That’ll give me nourishment.  Oh, that peanut butter is good and the tortilla (Ed gestures something in a squeaky voice and audience laughs.)  What do you do when you’re presented with tortilla of death?  What do you do?  What do you do?

Revenge is anger incarnate.  Anger plus repression plus avoidance equals death.  We think the tortilla of death will satisfy us.  We think it will bring us happiness, but we become ensnared in it and all of a sudden – WHOP!  WHOP!  WHOP!  We feel the cold steel from the trap and we began to revolve our lives around revenge.

You’re hurt, I’m hurt and, and what do we do?  Sometimes we dive into work or, or dive into an activity and we, we say to ourselves, okay, I’m gonna make a pile of money or I’m gonna get to this position and once I make that money or get to that position, that will settle the score with the people who messed me around.  Revenge is weird.  It promises stuff, but it can never really deliver the stuff that we want it to deliver.

So I ask you, how do you get to Zone 2 and Zone 3 without this seat?  You have to have this seat.  It’s about the seat.  So we have to do the work.  And I want to thank you so much for the work, the work that you’re doing at Fellowship Church.

Illus: We had a group to go to our campus in Miami about two weeks ago and this one HomeTeam leader, a small group leader from Fellowship Grapevine, saw a number of people volunteering at Fellowship Church Miami who had only been believers for 3 or 4 weeks.  And this guy said, “Man I have had people who have been in our HomeTeam for three years and they have not done jack! And here are people in Miami who have only been believers for three weeks and they’re already serving?  Hello, anybody home?”

And check it out here, it talks about work and work. But look at John 4:39, “Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony.”

Because of the woman’s ‑‑ let’s say it together ‑‑ because of the woman’s testimony.  What’s a testimony?  It is just telling the truth about your life before Christ, how you met him, and what happened after.  It is easy. Before, what happened, how you met him and after.  That’s what we’re called to do.

And then she said, “He told me everything I ever I did.”

And then in John 4:40-41, “So the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers.”

That’s why the church is the church.  That’s why at Fellowship Church we’re taking hell by the acre.  Because we’re inviting people, we have the invitation that’s out there.

And if you keep reading, she changes the subject.  She says, “Well let’s talk about the differences, Jesus, of the Samaritans and the Jews and where we worship and let’s start talking about the history.  Some say, you know, the messiah is coming….” She was just changing the subject.

Again, when I talked to the woman who is the adult film star, as we began to talk about her life and what she was going to do with Jesus, what did she say?  She said, “Well I’m not sure if I believe the Bible.  I read this book that said Jesus was having sex with Mary Magdalene because Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. The Da Vinci Code said that.  I don’t know about the Bible.  The Bible was written by men.  Maybe they changed it and tweaked it over the years and I’m not sure.”

It was all smoke screens, detours.  We don’t become followers of Christ without first of all getting under conviction, because conviction leads to a conversion.

So Jesus brought the whole thing back to himself.  And you’re talking about classic, look at John 4:25‑26.

“The woman said, ‘I know that Messiah’ (called Christ) ‘is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.’ Then Jesus declared, ‘I who speak to you am He.’”

I mean, the first response we have to Jesus is not, “Jesus, you’re going to make my life easier.  This is great.  It is all about me.”  There is so much faux faith out there, a lot of bogus believers out there because we get it so twisted.  Too often we say, “Jesus, you join me and my story.  You see, you become a part of my parade, of my selfishness, of my greed, of my desires, of my appetites, of what I want to do when I live my delicious life.”

You have it too.  You want to give gifts and receive gifts.  It’s from God because salvation is about the gift of God.

Are you a gift giver?  That’s one of the ways that we should display our appreciation.  Do you give gifts to others?  I don’t mean Neiman Marcus stuff.  I mean gifts that matter, maybe a picture, maybe a CD, maybe something from Fellowship Bookstore or some other gift that means something.  But you display it.  You say, “Here it is.”  You show it.  It’s something tangible.   We need to become great gift givers.  God did it.  We need to do it as well, devotion and display.

There is another one, description.  It doesn’t stop with just devotion and displaying it, we have got to describe it.  We have got to write it down.

“Well, Ed, I know what I’ll do.  I’ll just call them.”

That’s weak.  Who can’t pick up the phone and say, “Thank you.  You mean a lot to me.”

That’s alright but that doesn’t do it, that doesn’t bring it.

“Well, I’ll just display it.  Give them a gift.”

Well, that’s good too, but write it.  Something powerful happens when we write.

“I’ll just email it.”

No, no, no.  Take a pen and a piece of paper and write it.  What if God would have said, “I don’t need to write down how I feel about people.  They will just know it.”  If he would have said that, we wouldn’t have the Bible, would we?  Write it. Let me talk straight now to the children and teenagers among us, the Junior High and High School students.  Some of you are dissing your parents.  Some of you are rebelling against your parents.  Some of you are talking back to your parents, and it is a sin before God.

You know what worry is? Worry is forgetting the resources of God. God says, “I’ll take care of you day after day after day if you’ll only rely on Me.”

Now, a lot of us, we read this Lord’s Prayer, and we’ll say this. “Our Father who art in Heaven.” Yes, I understand that, God. You’re in heaven. “Hallowed be Thy name.” Alright. I’m supposed to reverence your name. Amen. I hear you. That’s relevant to me. “Thy Kingdom come.” O.K. I can see that. That means I should do your will and I pray for your kingdom to come. “On earth as it is in Heaven.” O.K. You’re doing everything in Heaven and now, on earth. “Wait a minute. Give us this day–”

That’s irrelevant to me because you don’t understand something, God. I live in a very influential place in the metroplex of Texas. Boy, the socioeconomic level is way up here. How does that relate to me? Now, if I lived in Cambodia or Bangladesh, yes, I’d understand it, but “Give us this day our daily bread.” The prayer for most here should be, “Prevent me, God, from this day, my daily bread. Help me to stay away from my daily complex carbohydrates intake.” Because t6 many of us, the word “bread” is translated in the Greek, “Twinkies.”

So, it says, “Give us this day our daily bread.” What is “bread”? This Greek term, “bread” means all the physical resources of life. All of our physical needs. It’s the essence of life, our sustenance. Look at Philippians, chapter 4. Turn right. Philippians 4. A verse we’ve gone over and over here. Philippians 4:19. Philippians 4:19, and we’re going to see how relevant this word “bread” is.

Verse 19, it says, “And my God shall supply all”~not your greeds~”all your needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus.”

Now, look at verses 25-27, still in Psalm 37. It says this: “I have been young and now I am old. Yet, I have not seen the righteous forsaken.” What’s God saying, here? God says, “I am the source.  You ask me, I will take care of my children.”

Now, God is not obligated to take care of all the earth. God said, “I’ll only take care of those who are my children.” For example, I don’t take care of every child on the earth. My daughter-Lisa and I have LeaBeth. I’m responsible for LeaBeth. I’m not responsible for all the other children. Now, as a Christian, if I truly know Christ, when I see someone in need, or see someone poverty-stricken, or sick, I should help them because I have a proper view of God, a proper view of man. But, I’m only obligated for my own. And God says this:  “If you seek me first, I’m going to meet your needs.”

There is one more thing he does.  It is very simple.  The thing that is amazing is that we keep falling for this stuff time and time again.  The third thing that he does is snare his prey.  We are his prey.  This is going to be really cruel because we begin to flirt with the bait, mess around with the bait, test the bait, mouth the bait and then suddenly out of nowhere we feel that cold snare break our backs. Fur is flying, bones are crushing, we are gasping for breath.

Satan said to Eve, “Eve I know that God said you would die if you eat the fruit, but you are not going to die.  You are Eve.”  She began to take the bait, eat the bait and the result was death.  Wherever there is sin, there are consequences of that sin.  And you would think that the Evil One would stop here.  “OK, that’s enough.

I am going to set some more traps for other people.”  You would think that, but that is not true.  He comes to steal, kill and destroy, John 10 tells us.  When the cold snare breaks our back, when the fur is flying and the bones are breaking and we are gasping for breath and screaming out to God for forgiveness and mercy, you would think that he would quit. No, he picks up the trap, looks at us and laughs.  He accuses us, tempts us, deceives us.  He asks, “Who do you think you are?  You think that God will forgive you?  You think that you can be used again?  You think that there is a place for you in the church?  Come on.  Who are you trying to fool?

C3 Global Leader – Don’t even jump on that train.”  How ugly.  How horrible.  How devastating.  And a lot of us have felt that before and it hurts.  It is bad.  It doesn’t feel good.  We feel worthless.