God, as we worship your holy name, may our hearts be open.
We know there are so many times we are clinging to things around us,
feeling that there is nothing, nothing there for us if we don't just hold on.
But God, you are the one who is our plenty.
You are our blessing.
You are our joy.
You are our birthright.
So God, we ask that instead of holding on to the things and the people around us
that we would abide in you and that our hearts would be open to what you say and what you do.
Now and always.
Amen.
Howdy.
And for those who don't respond well to a good Texas greeting,
maybe we can just hook them with the word of God.
It's about the best I can do without shriveling up and dying.
Alright.
But with that attempt at loving our neighbor,
I have to tell you that sometimes we get a little bit bored when we are hanging out at home.
And you know, sometimes you just want a little bit of background noise.
Just something playing in the back, you know?
And you are not really sure what you want to actually watch.
Like lately I have been on Tubi because I can actually watch old Doctor Who episodes,
like 1970s old.
Yes, I realize I just dug that hole.
I'm going to put the shovel down next to it.
But with it is to realize that in so many ways is that our opportunity to be able to just sit and listen to nothing,
sometimes we end up getting tricked into things.
So what we realize is that I'm sitting there and all of a sudden I start hearing playing
the Disney opening.
You know, the little tinkerbell is coming up over behind there with the castle.
And I go to grab something to drink and I'm like, I have no idea what's actually playing.
Well, it turned out that Tubi decided I needed to watch Invincible.
So 2006 movie I think it was.
And it's this movie about Vince Papali.
And yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Kind of cool.
Now granted, the movie kind of abbreviated some stuff, but it got the gist of it for the most part.
30 year old who had not gone through the typical route of getting into the NFL,
but with open trials was able to join in as a wide receiver.
Well, with that is that we end up seeing that he brings a lot of heart and character,
but also this hopefulness to the team at a time when they were really struggling.
And later on, the coach would finally be able to lead the Philadelphia Eagles to the Super Bowl later down the line.
But with that, what's interesting is that there is a character in there who is very, very upset at Vince,
played by Mark Wahlberg.
This is before he went to go fight against the Decepticons with the Transformers.
But what happens is that he constantly undercuts him, undermines him,
and keeps saying, you can't do it.
You won't be able to do it.
You're going to fail.
And Mark Wahlberg's character, Vince keeps trying to figure out, why is it that you keep trying to cut me down?
Why are you like this?
And the bartender is saying, you do realize that he doesn't feel like he has anything to look forward to.
Anything that you're just going to leave.
And what it was reminding me of is this idea that oftentimes whenever we see things that are good or going well for somebody,
that oftentimes we just insult them or cut them down.
And that's just a movie though, right?
Whenever we see something that is good, we don't always have to try to cut it down, right?
But I kept getting these little advertisements in my mail that was saying that I needed to see this article about some football player.
I say football in the other sense, as in soccer, named Kaka.
And I didn't know him before, all right?
But it was saying that apparently, like he had gone to the World Cup and everything,
well, he had married his childhood sweetheart and they had two kids.
And then after 10 years, they got divorced.
And it was this strange thing, like what happened?
And the reason why it came back up again, even though the divorce was like a decade ago,
is because his ex-wife finally said, well, the reason why I divorced him is because he was just too perfect.
Now, divorce happens for any number of reasons and usually you never get the full story no matter what.
But it was interesting that the idea of something being that good ended up being the very thing that caused it to be cut out from under them.
See, the thing is, is that oftentimes what is good doesn't always get rewarded.
Sometimes what is good can be punished for its own sake.
See, oftentimes we find that it's easier to bring others down rather than asking how to rise to the level that we know we need to become.
Whenever we see something going well with somebody or for somebody, it's very easy to spend the time just trying to pull them down to where we feel we are,
instead of asking, what can I do to learn and to grow?
And pastors, we're not immune. We still struggle with this too.
There will be times where I'm almost afraid to watch other pastor's sermons because it's this feeling of, if I see them doing something well,
am I going to spend the whole time just trying to find a flaw rather than trying to ask, how could I actually do something like that and improve?
Because it's easier to just try to see how others are failing rather than seeing how we could grow.
But how does the gospel actually change this?
See, it's one thing for us to say, you need to do this, you need to be better at not cutting people down.
Yeah, you could say that.
But why is it that the gospel ends up changing our perspective?
Because the gospel shows us a desire that everyone and everything is a part of God's kingdom.
See, rather than it being this idea that somebody else has done well,
it's rather to realize that we are all meant to be a part of this community of doing good, sharing the gospel, bringing people to know who God is.
So that we realize that their success is ours because we are meant to be serving together.
If somebody already has that figured out, if they're already doing well, guess what that means?
That's one less thing that we have to figure out because they already have it dealt with and we can focus on the things that need it.
But we don't really do that very well, do we?
We spend a lot more time focusing on rivalries and who can be better and who can win.
You see, whenever we see in 1 John, and it talks about Cain and Abel,
this is the kind of sibling rivalry that's kind of difficult to get past at the Thanksgiving table.
I mean, this isn't the sort of thing where you're like, oh no, he got a raise at work.
Oh, well, great. Well, you know, could I get a raise at work?
Or, you know, you were always mom and dad's favorite.
Stephanie, I know you were.
But rather is now we have one that is so difficult that it's basically, I grew some cabbage, God doesn't like sauerkraut, so now I'm going to kill you.
And how ridiculous it is, because this is essentially who should have been the very people that could have been working together.
When you have only a few people in the world and that once growing crops and once raising animals,
wouldn't it make the most sense that they'd be able to work well together and to build up that community?
And instead, what has to happen? They have to kick Cain out of the community.
And from then on, the communities could never seem to get along.
But is that also the way that we act today?
You see, we can look back on Cain and Abel, and we can realize that that rivalry led to so many different places around
that we're constantly at warfare with one another.
But what is it that in the next few generations, people are going to look at us and wonder, why could you just not get over yourselves?
How many ways in which we find ourselves divided in our own country when we're all trying to somehow do the same things,
but can't allow somebody else to take credit for it, even if it was originally our idea,
and we're afraid that somebody else might get the glory for the idea.
Or many of the struggles that are happening with so much raging warfare happening in Central and South America,
that people are trying to get away from that even now.
Or the times whenever we look at Europe, and because one country is their own place and does not want to secede to another,
or be annexed to it, that now they're going to be conquered.
Or even whenever we see the struggles that are happening in the Middle East right now,
where people are even just trying to figure out where to live and how to live,
and then it all comes back again to us, and we need to somehow be angry with each other throughout our country,
just on whether or not we want to agree that people should be allowed to live.
And that's the thing with this, is that we keep hating each other for things that don't need a rivalry,
that if we could just pause enough to bless one another as a part of our community.
But it's even more than that.
Because another thing that stands out is the idea of whether we're willing to give of ourselves for others.
I was talking not too long ago with somebody about a tool that I realized I didn't need,
so I gave it to somebody else that I knew was going to need it.
And they said, oh man, but what if I realized later on that I would need that tool?
I can't get rid of that tool, I can't lose that tool.
And then it's like, okay, but if you pause long enough to say, yeah, but you're not losing the tool,
you're putting it in the hands of the person who needs it even more.
But we're so afraid of the just in case, and it was funny because even after the first service,
and I stepped out in the foyer and the first thing that somebody said was, you know,
I've got a tool just like that, had it for 30 years, never used it.
There was no mention of actually giving it away, by the way.
But the thing with it is that the difference between giving it to somebody versus throwing it away
is that we are continually holding on to things in our lives,
or just wasting what we never really needed just in case.
You see, we know we'd be fine with sharing, but what's interesting is that
you even see sometimes that a person may be willing to hold on to something,
they're not going to give it to anybody, but they're going to hold on to it until it annoys them.
And then by time they do decide that it's annoyed them,
they're not even going to bother to give it to somebody, they're just going to throw it away.
How often is that what we do with things and what we do with people?
How often do we hold on to relationships?
Not because we think that this is actually the person that's going to bring joy to our hearts,
but just because we're like, well, but they're really, really great,
and what if later they change,
instead of realizing that maybe they'd be wonderful just the way they are for the right person.
Or maybe we have this boss that realizes that we are struggling with where we're at,
but instead of allowing us to move into a position that we'd actually be able to do well with,
instead we'll go behind and to make sure that everybody knows every single flaw about us,
and even some that aren't actually true.
But sometimes the opposite happens too,
is that we're so desperate that we'll hold on to a job that we know is going to kill us slowly or quickly,
just because we don't want to risk not having something at that moment.
But then what happens?
Whenever we realize that this isn't the right person or the right place or the right fit,
what do we oftentimes do?
Do we bless them?
Or how often do we throw them away?
Or treat them like trash?
Because we're not getting something from them.
But don't we want things to be different in our world?
See, this reveals much about our hearts.
Why don't we want our hearts to be open?
Why do we want to close off,
even to letting people into our hearts in the first place?
Why is it that we want to have those who are kept outside?
Whenever, if we were to discover that maybe somebody else's life,
maybe it doesn't fit the easy to define boxes in our minds.
Maybe they don't fit easily into what we think they should be.
But just because they don't fit what we were expecting them to be,
why would we need to respond to them with hatred or resentment or judgment
or trying to decide who's good and who's bad?
But even more than that,
is this idea of what it is to sacrifice for them.
Because it's more than just sacrificing something you have
or something that you wanted, but also your very self.
Because here's the kicker about it.
Is that we're not just called to lay down our lives
in the sense that we're willing to give of ourselves
to the point where it may hurt,
but rather because your old way of being needs to die.
Whatever it is that gave you comfort when you saw those who were doing well
but you could somehow bring them down in your mind.
The times whenever you knew you were being challenged
to become more than you were, and instead of the struggle
that it would take to grow,
it would be easier just to diminish everybody around you.
Is that that person has to die.
That part needs to be killed.
And I know that that's not the thing that we always hope for.
We always want to spend our time just finding something really, really nice to hear,
but that's not actually this message.
This message from Scripture is that the old self does need to go
if we want to grow.
You cannot keep the same dead old plant in the ground
taking up the energy and the strength that is needed
if you want a new plant to grow there instead.
One of them's got to go.
But you see, that's the thing about if we were to open up our hearts.
Is that it turns out that if we were to spend our time
saying, what is it that God is doing in this person's life?
What is it that God is doing in the world around me?
How can I bless them?
Instead of saying, what can I get from myself?
And how can I undermine what I can't have?
Is that instead if we are open, then it turns out that that is the way
to find the peace and the joy that we are hoping for.
Because that's whenever it is that God is speaking to us the most.
And that's also when it is that our hearts no longer condemn us.
But the truth is that pruning is not easy.
This does not mean that now once you have been kind to people
and treated them and they're good, that all of a sudden your life is easy now.
You're never going to have a difficult day.
You're always going to feel so happy about everything.
You're never going to struggle with envy.
You're never going to struggle with, well, my life is perfect the way that it is.
I've never been able to talk to a branch.
Or at least when I did, it never talked back to me.
And if it did, I'd probably be very concerned.
But I'm pretty sure that if it could talk,
a branch would never say that the pruning process is all that easy.
But that's the thing about this is that while the world wants to throw us away
when it can't use us, God is instead pruning us so we can grow even further.
Maybe there are nights where you're second guessing things.
You're struggling because you're wondering what you may have missed out on.
Maybe you've been unable to sleep all night before a weekly presentation
because you feel that there's the need to feel guilty about something
that you don't actually need to feel guilty over.
But that's why it always brings us back to the cross.
Because in abiding in Christ, it's not about condemnation anymore.
But rather it's about what God's spirit is actually moving and doing in our lives.
See the thing is that God doesn't take away the frustrations and the uncertainties.
But rather is that he's using them to help us grow the way that we need to.
And that's also where we're going to need to be as a church.
This is the fourth of our six-part series.
See we are reshaping the way that we're doing ministry here
to be focused on things that are for discipleship, for care, and for outreach.
And the difficulty is that oftentimes we can look at something that someone comes up with
as an idea that may very well be a great way of doing things.
But how often is it that we don't want to extend that effort to walk alongside them
because it wasn't the way that we wanted to do it?
How often are we willing to stick our neck out for someone else's way of doing things
when it could very well be strengthening our church because it wasn't the way that we thought about it?
I can't promise that any of this is going to be easy.
We are going to struggle and we're going to have some issues with that.
But what I can say is this.
Is that whatever God is calling us to let go of is that He's filling it with Himself.
And that He is the one who is truly calling us to abide with Him so that He can abide with us.
So wherever it is that your heart has been struggling with trying to hold onto something or someone
and what you wish that they would be to make you feel better,
it's to let it go.
Because only with our hearts opened can God be the one to truly change and shape us on the inside
and that we can actually become the servants that He's called us to be.
With that, thanks be to God.