Howdy. Well, glad you are here for worship today. Thanks to everybody joining us online as well.
We've been spending a few weeks talking about the book of Ephesians.
In the last two sermons, we looked at what it is to be predestined by God,
as well as who are those who are fellow citizens with us in God's kingdom.
One of the things that we saw about being predestined by God is that whenever we ignore the overall story of God,
and we just focus on individual verses, then sometimes we get it in our heads that God has some desire
that some people would only exist just to find their way to eternal damnation.
And we see over and over again that that is not who God is and where his spirit is.
We even saw it in our gospel today that even the disciples had hardened hearts,
and God was still moving them and changing them so that they could see that he was bringing them hope and salvation in Christ Jesus.
And then we ended up going to look at what it was to be fellow citizens.
There are often times where we look at some people and we look for those that are more like us,
the ones that we really understand and we see them as the ones that we're really supposed to reach out to,
and those are the ones that we're supposed to be in the kingdom of God with.
But God is actually wanting us to be connected to people that do not see the world the way we do,
who come from backgrounds that we will never understand,
but rather is that together we're meant to be one church that builds each other up and learns and grows from each other.
And today we're looking a bit more at what it is to reach out to every family in heaven and on earth
and how maybe there's something a bit about that that may be mysterious,
but is still something we're meant to hear, to see, and to follow.
And whenever I think about what it is to see a mystery, something that seems unknown and strange,
my mind and my heart always go back to Ireland.
I was in high school whenever a Titanic came out.
I didn't really care anything about the whole rest of the movie, but the music.
Oh my word, I loved the music.
Irish music, a lot of those Celtic, you know, the fiddle and everything that's in there and all,
or at least we call it a fiddle, and with it is realizing that a lot of that music there,
so much of it was this kind of idea of to go to a land that seemed like it was a part of, you know,
all these myths and fairy tales and legends.
And so finally, two decades later, I finally got myself over there.
And I was traveling around from place to place, and you see these castles and all these beautiful statues
and you see the old graveyards with the Celtic crosses and the water is so gorgeous and the cliffs are so sharp
and the land is covered in greenery and why am I here? I need to go back.
I don't even know. I should probably finish the sermon first, at least.
Then I'll go.
Okay.
But you know, while I was there, though, this land of mystery and of the unknown beauty,
it really was something where you sense that God is there
and that God is doing more than what you could have imagined.
But it was strange to me, though, also what was happening while I was there on my trip
is that I found out that there was actually somebody who was romantically pursuing me.
I know, difficult to believe, but it happens.
And this was some years ago, but what was funny about it is that this person, she was someone I grew up with.
And what was strange to me was that as a child, I had always wondered, you know, what would happen if we worked out?
And then there I was on the other side of the world, getting a message telling me how much that she really wished that things could work out between us.
And in my head, I'm thinking, I mean, that's great.
I mean, you know, she's beautiful, she's sweet, she's intelligent, she has a quirky sense of humor,
which means that she might actually get my jokes.
This is wonderful.
And yet this whole thing in my head, I'm asking, and I'm like, God, but why?
Why would it take so long for this opportunity to arise?
Why would it be that in your plan, like we knew each other over and over again whenever we were younger,
why is it that it would take decades before this opportunity would even arise?
And then I would end up discovering that God is working in the mystery, even when we are not quite ready to understand it.
You see, that's one of the things that is difficult, is that sometimes the strength that we need to have is the strength to accept the mystery.
See, sometimes our soul, our heart, it takes a lot of strength to believe that even when we're not understanding things, that God is actually still at work.
You see, we struggle often with the mystery of what God is doing, and so whenever we don't get it, how do we respond?
We push even harder until everything is the way that we want it to be.
I'm sure nobody here has ever pushed everything to be exactly the way that they want it to be.
Nobody could possibly be that controlling, right?
But you see, that is a temptation that we end up seeing, is that whenever something isn't quite fitting what makes sense to us,
is that we are going to push until we can get to where it does make sense.
And that's actually something that's important to know about Paul having written the letter to the Ephesians, is that Paul had been that guy.
Paul, his name originally wasn't Paul, it was Saul. I know, very creative to go from one to the other.
But with it is that when he was still Saul, and he didn't know that Christ was the one sent by God,
he was so focused on trying to preserve what he saw as God's ways, that he ended up pursuing the persecution and the death of many Christians.
Think about what kind of a person that he was willing to become, because he thought it was needed to get to where God wanted them to be.
Whenever we hear about the story of Stephen being martyred, because he shared what he knew about Christ Jesus and the Gospel,
who were they laying their garments in front of?
Saul, the person who would later become the apostle Paul.
How often do we pursue goals at the expense of God's laws and God's ways?
How often are we so sure that where we're trying to go is where God wants us to be, but we're willing to do whatever it takes to get there?
See, that was one of the things that kept striking me, is that as much as I wasn't understanding what was happening in my own life years ago,
is that I was looking and saying, but wow, what a great opportunity to be with somebody that I was thinking, oh, this is the perfect person for me.
This is the person that I need to be with.
And so in my mind was, now she is within reach.
Let's go. Let's figure it out. Let's make it work. Everything will be great.
But what I started seeing though, what was happening in my own life, is who I was becoming in order to try to get where I thought I wanted to go.
Is that I was becoming a person who was willing to let others tell me what I should or shouldn't do.
Whenever I felt something wasn't right, I was willing to ignore it.
Whenever it felt that I was letting go of what God was calling me to do in my life, because I have to pursue this goal no matter what,
I started seeing in myself that I was not being the person that I should have been.
I was so focused on where I thought I should go and who I thought I should be with.
I wasn't pausing to say yes, but who am I supposed to be?
And why have I stopped being that person right now?
How often is it that we end up betraying who God has called us to be right here right now, because of where we think we're trying to get to?
See, that's one of the things that we ended up seeing as God was reaching out to the Gentiles,
is that we know from Scripture that God wants all nations to know who he is,
but the people in Paul's time, they could not wrap their minds around what it was to reach out to the Gentiles.
It made no sense to them whatsoever.
We talked last week about how it is that Christians oftentimes expect others to be exactly like us before we could possibly imagine that they're forgiven by God.
You know who I'm thinking of.
Come on, think about it in your mind.
Who is that people group that you just cannot imagine that they can possibly be a part of God's plan,
because they're just too far off of the path?
They're just too far gone.
They're just too different where we need to be.
You see, we have goals in mind, and we're oftentimes deciding how we're going to achieve them.
But what we end up doing is we end up ignoring the sins that we are struggling with now,
because we think that this is acceptable, because I know ultimately that God has plans in my life,
but then we see what others are struggling with, and we're like, you know, they are clearly disqualified.
They're clearly not a part of what God had in mind.
And that's the thing is that as we keep going with where we want, not just our life to be, our family's life to be,
the community that we're in, maybe even the world as a whole, and it doesn't matter what type of person we become,
as long as we say that's where we're trying to go.
We can be rude, we can be cruel, we can mock people, we can undermine them in their lives,
we can end up showing them as little mercy as possible,
as long as we make it clear where we want to go,
because we want to get to a place where we think that's where God wants His kingdom to be.
But as we get there, who are we willing to try to appease as we make our journey along this path?
Because oftentimes, as we're trying to get to where we want to be in our life,
it's amazing the friends and the community that oftentimes we find ourselves with.
But also, those are the very people that we're sometimes the least likely to speak truth to.
The people that are the closest to us on this journey in our life are oftentimes the ones that we're the most afraid to speak truth to.
See, that was one of the things that I discovered is that even though I knew that there were things that were wrong,
and I was seeing things in this person's life, and I'm like, this isn't right.
Something isn't true, this isn't real.
I'm seeing things that are hurtful, I'm seeing things that are wrong,
and yet there was this little inner circle, this little bubble of people that were saying,
no, no, no, you need to be completely supportive. You cannot say anything against this person.
You cannot say anything to question what it is that they think and say and do, because they need you.
They need your support. They need you to be behind them, no matter what.
And then realizing that when we feel like we can't even question what the people around us say and do,
is then we stop asking what it is that maybe God wants to speak at that moment.
See, that's the thing is that sometimes we have the hardest time letting go of that bubble that we live in,
that little inner circle. Sometimes we have a difficult time letting go of that,
because we don't want to be the one that sticks out.
We liked knowing that we had that core group, you know that little group, that little circle,
that they're always there and they're always saying, yeah, to whatever it is that we say and do,
they're saying, good job, yeah, that's exactly it. Doesn't matter what we say, it doesn't matter what we do,
they're going to cheer us on, and they expect us to do the same.
That no matter what it is that they want, we're supposed to say yes to it, because we want the same from them.
How often are we willing to accept lies and to deny truth, just to fit in with the groups that we like the most?
It's not about saying I'm going to abandon this group for that one or that one for this one,
but instead saying maybe at this one moment in time, I have to stand for what is real and what is true,
even if nobody else gets it.
And then you may be wondering, but then how am I ever going to get where I'm going if I don't have my little inner circle?
True, because maybe the question is, are you really sure that was where you wanted to go in the first place?
You see, Paul ends up saying in chapter 3 that he is in prison for the Gospel, and you're wondering what kind of a world was this.
But you see, that's the things that Paul had been a very important person in the Jewish community.
There were any number of ways that he probably could have spun it.
He probably could have found ways to, you know, you just kind of change things a little bit about Jesus, the Messiah, the Gospel.
Just tweak it a little bit, because then the community he was a part of, they'd probably be okay with it.
If you just rework it, re-market it, kind of re-brand it a little bit, okay, make it look a little bit different.
Maybe they needed to be on Instagram instead of Snapchat or something else in there.
I don't know, one of those, one of those. Don't even try Facebook, because those are pagans right there.
But with it is that he didn't end up leaning on them to try to make him feel that he was in the right.
Because not only was he not willing to change who Jesus was, but he was also not willing to change who Jesus was going to reach out to.
See, not only was it that he wasn't going to say, well, you know, Jesus is a son of God, kind of like we all are, no.
He's the son of God. He wasn't willing to say, he's a Messiah sent by God. There are many Messiahs, no. He's the Messiah.
Well, you know, the Gentiles, they'll eventually figure it out, and God really wants them as kingdom, but at some point, no.
Salvation is theirs now. And then when it came down to it, there was no one for him to fall back on when they were throwing him in jail.
But he willingly went, because he knew that he could not deny what was true.
Even though at the end of the day, he didn't know where it was going to lead, except he knew he would get a chance to proclaim the gospel.
See, that's the thing about this, is that we don't always know where things are eventually going to go.
And just to be completely honest, I can't hold things in very well. I'm not very good at it. I used to be. I'm not anymore.
And after a while was finally saying time and time again, some things are right and some things are not.
And sometimes you have to be open to hearing what other people need. And apparently that relationship was not the one that I was meant to be in.
Because I would have had to have denied many things that God was doing in my own life, but also the hope of what God was doing in hers.
Because as long as I was feeding into all of that enablement, she was less likely to hear what God needed to speak into her life.
See, that's the thing. See, we don't get to decide the outcomes. We don't know where all of this is going to go to. We have no clue.
We don't know the ultimate goals. We don't know the ultimate outcomes.
But in reality is that we're not meant to try to focus on manipulating things to get to where we want to go.
But rather is to ask how we're supposed to follow God at this moment.
What is God saying at this moment? What is God calling me to at this moment?
I don't know if it's going to get me in my little inner circle. I don't know if everybody's going to like it.
I don't know if it's going to necessarily get me to some goal that I had in mind. I don't know. But at this moment, what does God desire of me?
And what does God desire of you?
Because that's the thing is that there are others that are outside of our norms.
The people that don't fit in what we're expecting, but we're not called to try to manipulate them to try to get to where we want them to go,
or where we want to go ourselves, we're called to follow what God is saying to us, in us, through us right now.
Because that's the thing is that God is doing more than what's obvious.
God's plans are deeper, better, more thorough. They end up pervading time and space.
Things that we never expected, things we were never waiting for.
But God is doing things. We don't see it. We don't know it. We don't get it.
But at this moment in time, it's not just what can God be doing all around us. No, what is God doing through you right now?
Because the greatest mystery is oftentimes what God is doing through us.
Even with regard to doing things that we never considered, we never imagined, or even ever even wanted.
Because that's the thing about it is that our goals, that's not where God's leading us.
God's leading us to His paths.
But then I don't know how to get there if I don't know where we're going. You're right. You don't.
And that's why right now the only thing you're called to is at this moment, right here, right now, what is God calling you to?
Because God is not asking you to make sense of His plan. He's not asking you to figure out how we're going to change the entire world.
He's not saying for you to figure out how we're going to get everybody to see the world the same way we do,
or somehow make everything fit the way we want it to. He's just saying right here, right now, what am I calling you to do right now?
So as unsure as you may be about where we're going, or what it is that God has in mind,
may we continue to follow the mystery, trusting that God has it figured out, and that all He's calling us to is the present,
and what He wants of us here and now.
Because if the world had worked out the way I thought it would be, I wouldn't be with here, you here, right here and right now.
And I think God is doing something. And I'm really excited to see what it is, even if none of us have any idea.
With that, thanks be to God.