CMLC 2024-01-14 Sermon

Why don't we do a talk here today that we've had a few weeks of switching from

How to listen to God to following God

and talking a little bit today about what following God actually looks like and

Wanted to talk a little bit of a story that has me and my sister now

The thing is is that when I was in college my sister was a Mexican

Now we were both driving at the same time, but this was really

It was a really backwards really difficult time

See if you wanted to watch a movie you had to actually lead your home

You had to go to this place that had these boxes

We call them cassettes and these things cassettes

They had tape that would play like movies and stuff and so you would take them

You'd have to go to the place that was called a blockbuster

I think it was a name

And you take them from this place this store and you put in another box called a VCR

Okay, and you have to get a reminder. It's very strange

Now here's the worst part about it

Is if you went to this blockbuster and they didn't have one of those boxes there for you to rest

You could watch the movie

I know

Oh my goodness, it was like oh man

This was like a difficult time third world nation has stuff right there

I don't even know how we survived, but somehow somehow we made it through and the thing is is that my sister and I

We were gonna go right on these cassettes and we were carrying down the blockbuster

I have no idea why maybe she was like I want to drive this

You know that's what you get excited about whenever you're younger, right?

And so we're driving down and she's following behind you and we were coming up to a light and that light was yellow

and it was definitely yellow for a moment or two and

I really needed to go ahead and stop because it was definitely going to turn red

But I have a behind me and I swear my sister is this far from my bumper. Okay now

I'm sorry high schoolers. I love you. I don't need to be anxious in any way

But you haven't been driving long enough for me to trust you to not be able to stop with that much of a warning

So I'm like there is no way there's no way I'm stopping at this one

So I push through that yellow which was probably a little orange and my sister definitely ran it as a red for sure

And we finally get over to the blockbuster. She gets out of her car. She's like why in the world did you run through that yellow?

Yeah, that's because you're on maniacs. Why?

And she okay, so if she ever listens to this sermon. All right, you really were just that close. I promise

It was it was it was a bit much

So but that's the thing is that oftentimes following somebody can be harder than the oftentimes stick

The idea of what it is to be close

But also to realize that you need to see where you are going and

That's a good about what I want to look at with three people today

The first one I want to talk about the same

Samuel was young boy

Young boy his mother was able to have any kids and so what happens is that she asks God is that if you were giving me a child

I would dedicate that child to you so Samuel being a

Young boy is that going to live in the temple with the priests

So at this point in time is a very young kid, but one night he ends up hearing

God calling his voice. He doesn't know

who it is

He's not used to this and he goes to Eli because Eli at the time was a high priest

Now you know something about Eli

Eli

He had been serving as priests for such a long time, but his sons

Turn out to be really terrible people

You see the thing is that when making this after us you're supposed to give me over and it's when you

have

Perky like sons

Instead you see this was back in the days where there was no such thing as the last cross you see all the path that you wanted

It didn't matter right that's totally not worked right cross-coded didn't exist before last century right

Okay, well with it though is it well, I know you gotta give us some of the meat

In advance so we can roast it because that he parts

You know like the part of you kind of like watching it drip from the barbecue right the barbecue like I shouldn't eat it

I'm totally going to yeah that was the thing is that they were saying you have to give a sense

And so now the third day sitting against what I wanted, but they were causing other people to feel like the sacrifice

The offering is time important God doesn't happen because you can take whatever you want

But even more than that is that they were also being grudges with some of the women that were there working in the local area

They were setting a terrible example with the offerings also with their own their own personal lives

And God had told Eli

This is not acceptable in your family is going to be caught off

for the priestess

There's a little boy and he's hearing from God and Eli realizes that you speak to him says

Go here what it is that and say or your servant is listening

How serious that

To realize that God is working and speaking in you

And it's up to you to just listen

Don't even hurt her

God tells Samuel to tell Eli that his family is being caught off

How would that be to know that you're going to have to go to the person that you are respecting and learning from and happy to speak

And tell them something that they're not going to want to hear

That's one of the things about following God

Is that all the time to find ourselves in difficult places that we don't want to have to go forward

Because you have to not only be learning from the people who are older than you and more alright

But there are times where you also have to speak the truth to people

when you wonder who the money to see is

I mean, I'm a little bit of a weird snapper. I don't have that much right here in my head

I know that there are times in places where I have to do and say things that are difficult

Question

There's a time when I or somebody else has to say you're going down the wrong path

Would you listen?

How difficult is it to sometimes say what someone needs to hear which features more than that

Is that Samuel speaking those words to you? I

Was in front of you something you already knew

See one of the things that's hard about it is that sometimes

Are saying it

Even if you feel like taking the already know maybe something they don't want to hear is that sometimes it's that moment

When they're garden is down on the economy list

It's sometimes being the person to say it's needed because you're the only one that they can hear

The little boy who has no god living

And he's the one to god

But it's more than just saying we're also listening to john the baptist and don't the baptist

It is that you know listening watch that chosen video series that shows everything and they always talk about them called crazy

And that's really in many ways

John the Baptist they live in the middle of nowhere and he's wearing like this skin

I mean I get that leather comes from a cow but if you come out here wearing a hide of a deer

You're just great over me. I mean you feel a little bit concerned. It's like a kind of a lady Gaga moment here or something like that

And the thing is is that there he is tying around the Sun Belt walking around it

And eating whatever you can find whole things are rocking along the ground

Do you ever see me going out and trying to keep locusts alongside of the road?

Just go check on me if you have a fever or something like that. It does not sound like a good idea

But this is the guy

Why was he like that?

He was like that because he was called to be different

There were times he was never allowed to drink this was a I have a personal decision. I don't feel like

no

To be the prophet who's supposed to be

He was never supposed to drink alcohol. That would put a cram on the brewery ice

Definitely, I think it just would be it just would be

How many times though would he be willing to let something go?

Because we know it's hitting between us and God

Or more than that, how many times would he really be just a little bit different?

There's times we know that we can just

It's kind of keeping our clothes and act like everybody else and be like everybody else and somehow blend in you know

Everything's gonna be okay because you also know

You're making the only person in that place in that time

And

saying what someone needs to do from God

What as we're coming toward next about a month we're looking toward

Essentially letting something go or six weeks fasting or something

When's the last time you fasted?

I did a juice cleanse about five years ago worse three days of my life

No, I was okay, but

Beyond that though

Would we be willing to do what is needed to separate ourselves because let's be honest

We don't eat because we're hungry most of them

We eat because we're bored we eat because it's there in front of us

We eat because somebody marketed to us really really well or driving on the road. That was good. I'll just drive over here

How many things do we place between us?

And you're in for not

That was the least of the person that John was pointing to our third person Jesus

See there are two parts that I want to point out about Jesus one

Was being baptized by John the baptizer and the other part was

He's going out into the wilderness

See here's the thing is that Jesus

He's saying to John I need you to baptize me

Imagine your hero coming and asking something about you

And all John is able to say is no no no no I told you baptized by you and Jesus says no

This is how it's supposed to be. This is the right way to do it

Because now he's instituting

The entrance into the kingdom for both Jews and Gentiles

This is the beginning of how others will be brought into the church

He's supposed to get started

And this is the case with us oftentimes is how many things do we think about that we say oh, I don't really mean that

You know that's not really something I don't really need to go through this part

We do that with so much of our own studies but also even our accountability

The times when we know that we need people in our life to hold us in check

Not just to check on us make sure okay, but also take hey, you know, it probably wasn't the best idea

Not because they're angry at us or they hate us is to make sure because they genuinely love us

But so many times that we don't think we need that

So many times when we back away from our groups and classes and the people that we need the most

Or even more than that

What about the times whenever we are stepping in and saying I don't need to do this to someone else

I keep asking Linda's like do you have people for food bank and that's the thing with it

I'm happy to go and just want to make sure that everybody else has spots to go with

Because I'll go some other time

But there are so many times when we say you know what I don't need to do is somebody else to make it good

Like we have people who take care of the grounds here and they do a great job and it's amazing and I'm really glad we have been doing it

So then does that mean that we should never have a work day we should never come here and take care of things ourselves

Or maybe we pause and say that if we did we might talk to each other more

Might be good they got there and work with your mans

But also to physically connect with the place where you worship

Because we're spending so much time in our heads saying oh we don't need to do that

Instead of saying no we can get to do that

And I want to believe that also to what Jesus is doing in the time of the wilderness

See the temptation is always starting to change

What's such a big deal of bread

This is also actually a part of the need to exist so there were no good guys for anything back then

If you well enough the gluten can just go away

But with it though is we end up seeing that Jesus is being tempted to make these stones into bread

Jesus is out there for reasons

We all know that it is a serious communication to Jesus

There are so many things to make yourself more comfortable

How many times are we tempted to change things just to fit and make ourselves somehow a little more comfortable

Instead of asking what God is already doing at that time

Even more than that

The intention is to throw yourself off of the temple

That Jesus will catch you

You and I both know that this is not how you're going to end up dying

So let's just throw yourself off the temple

Prove that you are the Messiah

How many ways are we tempting God

This time whenever we know that the choices we're ever making are not the choices that the child of God would make

We keep saying God I'm still going to do the same thing

You're still going to love me, I'm still your child, right?

You're still going to love me anyway

And God is saying God is a temple to me

But even third, God I'll worship me and I'll give you all the kingdoms

What kingdom is it that you're wanting?

What is it that you believe you're meant to have or to do or to get to

And you catch yourself doing whatever is needed to get there

Whatever it might be that whether it is fame or it is money or it is safety or it is love

Whatever it might be and you're going to give up whatever is needed to get there

And Jesus says no

Because in reality he's going to need to give up himself

That's in so many ways what we find ourselves

You see, we end up looking at what it is to follow God

And we keep waiting for the times when, okay, I feel complete peace about this

Everything feels like this is exactly the way it's going to go

When in reality all we're doing is just saying well that's the easiest way

So I'm going to hope that that's it

And yet God is calling us to take time with him

To let go of the things that distract us

To spend time in and among the people who are going to draw us closer to him

The times when we say I don't need that

Being the very times when we say yes to you

What is it right now that you realize has been pulling you away?

What is it that you've been running away from because you think it's just a little too hard or a little too much?

And then pause and ask God is this the direction of God is leading you?

See that's the thing is that following is not easy

We can all at times end up taking the pride away

And we can all at times be honest, our kids and our future and with us who are younger than us

If they do all the dumb things that we did, if they do, if we just don't talk about them very much

And sometimes we're afraid of saying hey don't do this knowing very well

Yeah, I would do that

That's the thing about God

That God does not place us here to seek truth because we've got it now perfectly

God calls us to speak truth saying I'm just as much of a sinner as you

And I'm telling you what I know God has said to seek to me

So this morning I will speak to you as people that I think have all together

And I also will speak to you as a baby who pretends that he's out of all together

But instead what I say is that there are times where the times when I've known I've been loved the most

And the times when people did what was difficult to reach me

And I invite you to do what is difficult to reach others as well

Thank you