Learning To Live Life With Jesus

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Father God, thank you.

Thank you for saving us from our sins.

Thank you for allowing us to live life with you and not by ourselves on our own.

Lord, thank you for being the perfect Father.

And it's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Good morning.

Well, my name is Travis Dunham, and I'm the connections pastor here at the church.

And what that typically means is I get to help people make four different connections.

First, a connection with God, a connection with the Bible, his word, a connection with one another, and a connection to the mission of the church.

But this morning, um, it's my opportunity to get to um share God's word with you.

And if I seem a little out of my element, a little nervous, it's because I am.

Um, but I'm also excited because um together we're the family of God, and I love y'all, and I believe that God has a word for us this morning.

So let me pray for us and we'll get started.

Father God, um I ask that you be glorified today.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

All right, so in Mark chapter 9, there's a story about John and Jesus.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

I want to read it to you.

John said to him, Teacher, we saw some, we saw someone casting out a demon in your name, and we tried to stop him because he is not following us.

But Jesus said, Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me.

For the one who is not against us is for us.

For truly I say to you, whoever gives a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will be no means able to lose his reward.

So let me give you a little background of what's going on.

Um, John is one of the twelve disciples who is going around with Jesus on the on the missionary journey, just proclaiming the good news, teaching people about Jesus and his kingdom.

But more than that, John's part of the inner three.

There's Peter, James, and John.

And he's kind of like the inner circle with Jesus.

But even more so, John is known as the one, the beloved disciple, the one that Jesus loves.

And I share this with you because it's important for us to understand that Jesus and John, they're tight.

They have a very good relationship.

But here in this passage, John is kind of um, he's a little confused.

He's feeling a little insecure because he put it in the ditch earlier, and now he's just, he's not really sure where he stands.

Have you ever feel like that?

Like you made a mistake and relationally just kind of like unstable with someone?

Well, that's how John's kind of feeling right here, because earlier in the chapter, John and the other disciples were asked to heal this man's son.

And so, like, sure, we'll try it, we'll come back, we'll try to heal his son, but his son was not only sick, the son was demon-possessed.

And so they tried to cast out the demon, but they couldn't.

And so now they're confused, they're frustrated, the father's mad, but Jesus shows up.

And when Jesus shows up, everything changes, right?

Jesus cast out the demon.

The boy is healed, the father's rejoicing, Jesus is celebrating, but the disciples, I mean, they're they're confused.

Lord, why couldn't we cast out the demon?

What Jesus says to the disciples in that moment is kind of perplexing to me.

Jesus doesn't give them a lecture.

He doesn't say, well, the reason you couldn't do that is because I haven't taught you how to do it yet.

He doesn't tell them, hey, that's above your pay grade.

You have to be at a certain level to do that.

He doesn't give them these excuses.

He just simply says something.

He says, Hey, to do this can only be done through prayer.

I mean, what a what a gut punch, right?

But it's truth.

He goes, hey, to do this kind of ministry, that can only be done through prayer.

Growing up, when I was about 16 or 17, you know, getting that little bit of independence, before I'd go out at night, my dad would often say, Remember your name.

In the back of my mind, I'm thinking, how can I forget my name?

My name is Travis Wayne Dunham.

I've had that whole name a whole life.

But what my dad was saying is, hey, remember your name.

You're a Dunham.

You bear my name.

What you do reflects on me and on this family.

So remember your name.

When he said that, it was weighty because it had some weight to it, right?

And when Jesus says, hey, this can only be done through prayer, it was weighty.

What he was saying is, hey, John, if you want fruitful, effective ministry, you have to have a be a connection to God the Father.

You have to abide with God.

You just can't go out and do ministry in your own way, your own name.

You have to do it his way.

So John's kind of feeling down in the dumps, just trying to figure this out.

And he's walking, he sees somebody else casting out a demon.

And so John's kind of like, hey, this he kind of overcorrects.

He runs up to him and goes, hey, you need to stop this.

And then he runs back to Jesus and kind of tattletales.

Now I don't know what John is expecting to happen, but things do not go as he plans because Jesus begins to correct him, right?

Jesus said, John, man, you shouldn't have done that.

Jesus just simply corrects them.

Notice what Jesus doesn't do.

He doesn't um he doesn't give him a lecture.

He doesn't ask him questions like, John, were you jealous that he's doing what you wanted to do, but you couldn't do?

He doesn't use it as a teachable moment, which my kids accuse me of doing a lot.

He just simply corrects them.

And then after he corrects them, he reassures them.

He says, John, do you understand that, hey, even if you were just to give a cup of water in my name, I'm pleased?

If you do something as giving someone a cup of cold water in my name, I am glorified.

It's as if Jesus wants John to understand his kingdom economy.

It's not, it doesn't matter so much what you're doing, whether you're casting out a demon, giving a cup of water in my name.

What matters more than what you're doing is how you do it.

You cannot do effective ministry in your own strength, regardless of how big or how small it might be.

Said differently, you can't have an effective, fruitful life in your own strength.

If you want your life to glorify God, we have to do it in his strength, his way.

So Jesus corrects them and then reassures him.

And it's important for us to understand that because in this next section of scripture, Jesus gives a um kind of a warning against the temptation of sin.

Let us read it here.

It's found in verse 42.

It says, Whoever causes one of these little ones who believes in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and we're thrown into the sea.

And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.

It is better for you to enter life crippled with two hands and go to hell to the unquenchable fire.

And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off.

It is better for you to enter life lame with two feet than to be thrown into hell.

And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out, for it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes, and to be thrown into hell.

Where the worm never dies, and where the fire is not quenched, for every one will be salted with fire.

Salt is good, but if salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again?

Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.

Jesus is not mixing words, right?

He's coming out really strong here.

And we're not going to have time to cover everything in this passage, but there's three things I want us to see.

There's three things that Jesus really values.

And one of them is Jesus values the marginalized with the protective love.

Think about it right here, you have the author of life, the creator of life saying, Hey, listen, it is better for you to die than take advantage or to hurt or to lead someone into sin that I love.

I mean, those are bold words, right?

In commentator's debate, is Jesus specifically talking about that God loves sin?

I mean, excuse me, that God loves the kids, or that God loves those who are young in faith.

But to me, they both kind of make sense.

And the point is, God has a protective love for those that he does love, right?

We see this throughout the Bible.

In James chapter 1, verse 27, it says, religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from sin.

James 1:27

God has a protective love for those who need help, right?

God has a protective love for sometimes for those who are taken advantage of.

In Isaiah 58, it says, and this is the kind of fasting I want.

Free those who are wrongly imprisoned, enlighten the load, enlighten the burden of those who work for you.

Let the oppressed go free and remove the chains that blind people.

Share your food with the hungry and give shelter to the homeless, give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.

God has a protective love for people that He loves.

And if you and I are engaged in taking advantage of them, of harming them in any way, oppressing them, or causing them to sin, what we need to understand is we are fighting against the Holy God.

Sometimes I don't know if that enters our mind, like we just kind of live in life and we don't really weigh out what we do.

But if we are endangering or causing people to sin that Jesus loves, we're fighting against the Holy God.

And I just want to give you three quick examples of how this happens or might happen, just to kind of get your mind spinning.

And the first one is porn.

I mean, it should be kind of obvious.

We shouldn't have to talk about that.

But the porn industry grossly takes advantage of people that Jesus loves.

And if you are engaged in that activity, you are fighting against the holy God.

Another one is scams and schemes.

Today, people do whatever they can to get a leg up, even take advantage of people.

They take advantage of people who have big hearts and are generous.

And sometimes they take advantage of people who lack understanding.

And people that are engaged in taking advantage of others that Jesus loves, you are fighting against the holy God.

Another one that we may not think of sometimes is parenting.

If we parent with a heavy hand, void of grace, mercy, and forgiveness, we are fighting against the holy God because our God has a protective love towards those that he loves.

And we're better for that.

The second thing I want us to see that what Jesus values is extreme obedience.

I mean, in verse 43 he says, if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.

Verse 45.

If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off.

Verse 47.

If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out.

What Jesus is implying here is that as a Christian, it should be difficult for you to sin.

Now, sinning is easy.

We all know that.

But as a Christian, it should be difficult for you to sin.

I mean, how many of you would struggle if you had to cut off your own arm?

Or if you're like, hey, man, you have to cut off your leg.

I mean, we would fight against that.

We would procrastinate as long as possible.

We do not want to do that.

And what Jesus is implying is, hey, just as if you wouldn't want to cut off your arm, just as if you wouldn't want to pluck out your eye, you should not want to sin.

It should not be easy for us to sin.

But let's face it, in today's culture, that seems like a foreign concept, where self is exalted, where everything is personalized and customized, extreme obedience seems foreign.

Because full obedience, where nothing is altered to your personal preference, sounds threatening to a me-centered culture.

And to some, it might even sound like hate speech, unless, of course, it goes along with your personal narrative.

From time to time, I get to meet with people, they'll call the office and like, hey, I want to talk to you.

I want to grow in my faith, but I'm struggling a little bit.

Can we meet?

And uh I love those kind of conversations because remember, I get to help people connect the guide, the Bible, one another, and the mission of the church.

Well, one day um I'm meeting with this guy and he starts to share his story.

And uh I say, Hey, you wanna what the Bible says about that?

And we're like, Yeah.

So we open up the Bible.

He's like, Yeah, that's not gonna work for us.

You really don't understand my circumstance.

I'm like, oh, he's one of these me center type individuals.

And I said, Well, let's look over here and look at Proverbs.

He goes, Yeah, if you knew my home life, you wouldn't have read that passage to me because it's a little different.

And um, I'm starting to think, okay, you're one of those Christian snowflakes where everything has to be personalized for you.

And we start talking a little bit more, and um, Pete, I'm getting frustrated.

I'm wanting to reach out and put my hand, not around his neck, but on his shoulders and just and just say, hey, wake up.

If you are a Christ follower, your life is not about you.

And the problem is everything's about you and it's not meant to be.

When I get in those conversations, I usually try to bring up three points.

And the first one is if you want to walk in obedience, your view of God must increase, and the view of yourself must decrease.

Your view of God must increase, and your view of yourself must decrease.

And strangely, this guy didn't have a problem with that.

He's like, Yeah, I get that.

I can be kind of selfish.

I'm like, yeah, but that's true for all of us.

If we want to walk in obedience as Christians, we should have an ever-increasing view of who God is.

And he goes, but my problem is I just don't know if I can trust God.

And I think I don't think he's alone in that.

I think a lot of people feel that way.

And I said, Hey, this is the way we learn to trust God is by trusting God.

And he kind of looked at me and just, yeah, what?

It's kind of like when you're in love and you say, Mom, dad, how do you know if you love somebody?

And the baby starts, well, you know you're in love when you're in love.

It's a true statement, but it's not very helpful, right?

But it's true.

The way you learn to trust God is by trusting God.

And he goes, Well, here's the thing.

He goes, I want God to prove to me that he's trustworthy.

I want God to do this for me, and then I'll trust him.

Pete, I started raising my hands up.

Jesus could not show us any more than that he loves us than on the cross.

On the cross, he showed us that he's trustworthy.

But I think we're all like that guy.

We just want, Lord, I need a little extra.

But it doesn't work that way.

The way we learn to trust God is by putting our trust in God.

And the last thing I tried to tell him was if you want to walk in obedience, your affections for Jesus need to be stronger than your affections for your sin.

In other words, you love your sin more than you love your Savior.

He did not like hearing that.

And I understand because the first time somebody told me that, I didn't like hearing that about myself.

But it was true.

If there is a sin in your life that you just keep running back to, that you're bent towards, there may be a lot of reasons.

But one of those reasons is you love that sin.

And if we want to learn to walk in obedience, if we want to walk in an extreme obedience to Jesus, we have to stir our affections up so that we learn to love Jesus more.

Does that make sense?

So you may not know this about me, but the way my mind works is I learn through asking questions.

I'm like a little kid, like 21 questions.

I latch on to this concept, and the questions just start coming to my mind.

I got some questions for us this morning around this concept of, hey, what does it mean for you to stir your affections towards Jesus?

What lengths are you willing to go to to avoid sin?

We go to great lengths to stop our arm from being cut off or our eye being plucked out.

All of us would go to extreme measures for that.

But what lengths are you willing to go to to avoid sin?

What lengths are you willing to go to to obey Jesus?

Would you wake up 90 minutes early to cultivate a better prayer life?

If your smartphone leads you to sin, would you get rid of your phone?

If you were in a meaningful, enjoyable relationship, but it was unholy, would you end the relationship?

Would you sacrifice your comfort and embrace being misunderstood if it honored Jesus?

Would you be willing to go first in offering forgiveness and making amends?

Would you be willing to go without so that you can live generously to benefit someone else?

Would you be willing to give up seven hours of your week for kingdom purposes?

Now, in some ways you hear those questions like, oh, those are a little silly, maybe a little juvenile.

Well, maybe.

But they also kind of help us think through, hey, what are our what are our affections attached to?

And if our affect if our affections are attached to things other than Jesus, we're gonna find ourselves always making excuses of why we can't do something.

So if you find yourself making excuses about why it's hard for you to be obedient, ask yourself, am I loving Jesus the way the Bible tells me to?

So the third thing we see in this passage that Jesus values is his kingdom.

He says it is better to enter life than to go to hell.

I think we'd all agree, right?

He says it's better to enter life than to be thrown into hell.

I mean, it's a little more aggressive there.

It's better to enter the kingdom of God than to be thrown into hell.

Jesus is making a clear distinction.

You either live your life for me and his kingdom or Jesus and his kingdom, or you live your life for yourself and your kingdom.

There is no middle ground.

You can't say, hey, I'm gonna live my life for Jesus and his kingdom until things get a little hard and I don't get my way and then I'll go back to living for myself.

You can't be wishy-washy with this.

With Jesus, he's saying, you are all in or you're out.

Now that doesn't mean you're gonna be perfect.

Doesn't mean we're not gonna make mistakes.

I mean, we started off this passage looking at how John and the disciples were making mistakes, right?

And what did Jesus do?

He corrected them, he reassured them, he pointed them in the right direction.

Jesus is very gracious towards us, but he does demand full allegiance.

He does expect for us to be extremely obedient to him and his teachings.

Well, so far this morning we said that living for Jesus means that we no longer live for ourselves, that we live for him, that we love and care for people that Jesus loves, and we go through to extreme measures to obey Jesus and to avoid sin.

But living for Jesus and his kingdom, there's so much more to it.

We don't have time to fully explain it this morning.

I mean, there's a whole series on that.

But just want to point out a few things that I think are important living for Jesus in his kingdom.

It means we live with the understanding that Jesus has rescued us from the dominion of hell and the sins that sent us there.

As Christians, we should have a joyful attitude about us that we have been rescued.

But I think sometimes we forget that.

Living for Jesus in this kingdom means we embrace our new identity in Christ as a follower of Jesus.

And with new affections for Jesus, we try to live for him because we deem him as worthy.

We see him as the greatest treasure of all.

Living for Jesus means that we are compelled to tell others of his goodness.

Not because we have to, not because we're told to, but because we're compelled to.

We can't help but to speak of his name and his goodness.

There's been a transformation in us, and we cannot contain it.

Living for Jesus and his kingdoms means we're available.

That we understand that at any given moment, without our permission, Jesus can interrupt our lives for his missional purposes.

And as Christians, we say, yes, Lord.

Use us for your glory.

Living for Jesus is about abiding with him instead of following a list of rules.

And so when you hear a message like this, there's typically three responses, right?

The first one is, I'm out.

Jesus, this extreme obedience, you're asking too much of me.

I'm out.

I'm happy living life the way I want to live.

So you just check out.

The second one is, man, I love Jesus.

I want to live my life for Jesus.

I need to try harder.

I just need to try harder.

Maybe I'll get it right.

And if that's you, here's some things I know to be true about you.

You're often tired.

You long to have more joy than you currently have.

You feel insecure, and you often feel way too guilty.

You feel like you can never be good enough or do enough.

Therefore, you're overcommitted.

You seek to please everyone, and you second guess yourself a lot.

I mean, I know that's true for the people who desire to live for Jesus because I have been there most of my life.

Trying really hard.

Jesus, I want to be pleasing to you, but then falling short.

And it just seems like this tug-a-war of tension, of frustration, and you're wondering, God, is it supposed to be this way?

And the answer is no.

God has something different, different plan.

Well, um, I was in seminary and they offered a preaching class, and um, I took it.

Not because I want to stand up here every Sunday and preach.

Um, it's a little nerve-wracking to be honest.

But when I'm given the opportunity to stand up here and preach, I don't want to make a total fool of myself.

So my pride led me to a preaching class.

Well, uh, I think it was the second day of class, the professor um writes up on the board.

He goes, Hey, I'm gonna show you the non-gospel preaching outline.

Meaning, hey, whenever you preach, whatever you do, do not preach this way.

And so um, not being a preacher, I'm like all I'm all in, I'm taking notes, I'm sitting up.

And he starts writing it on the board.

And this is what he says.

A non-gospel outline is here's what the text says.

Here's how we must live in light of the text.

Uh now go and live that way, and God will help you.

That's supposed to be now.

Um, I'm I'm reading that and I'm like, what's wrong with that?

I mean, I that's how I want to live.

I want to know what the Bible says.

I want to know how to apply the Bible to my life, and I want to live for Jesus, and you tell me what to do, and I'll go do it.

What's wrong with that?

I'm not saying this out loud, I'm just thinking it.

I mean, I want to live for Jesus.

I want to do what the Bible says.

And then the professor kind of lightens the mood and he goes, here around the campus we call these doo-doo sermons.

And everybody laughs just like y'all did.

He goes, Because all they do is they tell you to go, go do this for Jesus, go do this for Jesus, go do this for Jesus.

And he goes, the truth is when you preach a sermon like that, you're creating Pharisees.

You tell them to go and do things for God, but you never teach them how to live with God.

You teach them to go and do things for God, but you never show them how to enjoy God.

Now the class is quiet.

You got everybody's attention.

He goes, now let me show you what the gospel outline is.

And here he is.

Here's what the text says.

Here's how we must live in light of the text.

But we simply cannot do it.

That describes all of us, right?

We can't do it.

Ah, but there is one who did, and through faith in him, we can now live, as the text says.

That makes all the difference in the world.

We cannot live for Jesus in our own strength.

When we try, we're gonna be like John and the disciples trying to cast out a demon.

It's not gonna work.

But when we confess, God, I cannot love my wife the way you tell me to.

God, I cannot control my tongue when I get angry.

God, when I get in certain moods, I cannot control what I look at or what I think.

God, I cannot be generous with my money.

When we begin to confess that we cannot do what Jesus commands, we're moving into the right direction, which is our third choice of living life with Jesus.

And that makes all the difference because living life with Jesus is a surrendered life.

It's where you confess, Lord, I can't.

And when you do that, it's almost as if God's in heaven looking back down and saying, You're right.

You can't love your wife the way I told you to.

But by abiding in me, with me, together we can.

And you cannot control your tongue when you're angry.

You're right.

But by abiding with me, with me, we can.

And it's learning to go to God and allowing God to transform us and teach us.

It's a humble lifestyle.

Years ago, I used to be a college pastor, and uh God taught me this lesson in a way that I will never forget.

Uh, we had a student, his name's Matthew.

Matthew was older than most of the college kids, but Matthew had some mental challenges.

Not a little ones, he had a lot.

But as a college ministry, everybody loved Matthew.

They really did.

And most of the time, people were patient with Matthew.

It's the end of the summer, and we're at a summer retreat, and everybody's tired.

And the reason we're tired is because there was a lot of pressure on us from the leadership of the church to grow the college ministry.

By directives, we were like, hey, you're gonna have these many, this many events a week, this type of events every month.

You're gonna give us a report of how you're gonna grow the ministry.

We're gonna check on it.

And man, to some ways, back then, that kind of fed into my ego.

You give me a challenge and you reward me when I'm meeting that challenge, man, I was I was all in.

And as a result, we were growing.

I mean, we our ministry started growing, more numbers were coming, and people were having fun.

It was exciting.

Now it's the end of the summer, we're a bit exhausted, we're at this retreat, and you're going through the lunch line and you're fixing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Um, Matthew's up there and he's trying to put the peanut butter on some cheap bread.

He just starts to crumble.

He just gets mad, he throws it down, tries again, throws it down, tries again, he can't make it.

Line's backing up, people are getting impatient, but it's Matthew, so you're showing patience.

And he thought, and now he's starting to cry, not because he's embarrassed or anything, because he's mad.

People are going to get me like, hey, Matthew's struggling.

So I come up there and I see what's happening.

There's like a half a loaf of bread on the floor.

And uh he's mad.

I put my arm around him.

I was like, Matthew, can I help you?

He's like, No, I can do this.

I know what to do, I know how to do it, I can do this.

And uh I don't know what to do.

I said, Well, Matthew, let's.

And Ryan's about to pull Matthew over to a different part of the cafeteria.

Um, Matthew holds up a piece of bread in his hand.

And he goes, I know what to do, Travis.

I just can't do it.

Will you help me?

I'm like, Well, I help you.

Heck yeah.

Come on, Matthew.

Like, I'll do anything for you, Matthew.

I want to serve you.

You want three sandwiches?

Come on.

And me and Matthew go to the side, and he gets his sandwich, and I get extremely emotional, which I don't understand why.

And so I leave, I go on a little walk.

I'm like, God, why does that bother me so much?

In a way that God speaks to us that you can recognize, God said, Hey, because I want you to live like Matthew.

I want you to throw your hands up to me and say, I can't.

And I want you to learn to trust me because I'm able.

He goes, this summer, you've been really, really busy.

You've been doing a lot of activity, but it's fruitless.

You may have grown some numbers, but it's not effective ministry.

Your activity is fruitless.

But if you want a fruitful ministry and you want a fruitful life, stop trying to do things for me and learn to do things with me.

And the way you learn to do things with me is through confession and through faith.

Church family, that's the same message for us today.

We need to learn to do things with God.

And we do that by confessing what we can't do, asking for help, and say, Lord, with faith, we can do it together.

Let's pray.

Lord, um I don't think by default we go into a living life for you mentality.

I think we just get busy.

We get forgetful, and we just kind of slip into it.

But Jesus, you've called us to more.

We get the privilege, the privilege to live life with you today.

We don't have to wait till we die and go to heaven.

We can experience life with you today on this earth.

And Lord, we we just want to say, Lord, teach us how.

Show us how to live a with you lifestyle.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

We have some questions on the screen for you to think about here for a moment.

Father God, um, on Father's Day, Lord, we just want to say thank you for being the perfect Father.

Lord, when we um mess up and we put it in a ditch, you lovingly correct us, you reassure us, and you teach us how to go about life.

Lord, we say thank you for being good to us and being kind.

Lord, teach us to live our lives with you.

And it's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

This morning we have a few announcements for you, so if you'll turn your attentions to the screen.

Thank you for joining us today.

Here's a few things we want you to know.

Today is the final day to donate to the Baby Bottle Boomerang, supporting our partners at the Pregnancy Resource Medical Center.

We are receiving bottles in the lobby.

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If your child is 18 months through kindergarten, we would love for them to join us for three days of exploring our faith in God.

Register at grandparkoy.org slash events.

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Register at grandparkoy.org slash events.

If you're new or would like someone to pray with you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

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If you'll take the time to fill that out and drop it in one of our wooden boxes, we'd appreciate it.

If you'll stand to your feet, I'd like to speak a blessing over you.

Father God, as men and women in your kingdom, help us to go and live with you.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.