John: An In and Out Church

So I'm just gonna jump right in this morning.

This morning's sermon tags on to last week's.

If you weren't here last week, you're welcome to listen online.

If not, I think you'll be able to catch on, you'll do okay.

So uh in the middle of this conversation between Jesus is having with Pharisees, and remember the Pharisees are uh they're the moral, they're the upright, they're the keepers of the law, the standard of how we should behave.

And so they're the ones holding on very tightly to a system of law uh for ceremonial purposes of how we become right with God through sacrifices and then also for behaviors and all the external behaviors.

And so they have externally they have it going on.

They're the upright ones, they're moral ones.

They are, I mean, in in today's today's world, they got the fish on the car, the fish on the radio, every meal, every meal's at Chick-fil-A, breakfast, lunch, dinner, except on Sundays, they fast on Sundays, the Pharisees would in our world today because they couldn't eat at Chick-fil-A.

I mean, they they're they're fierce, they are they have it, they have it going on much more than any of us.

And so Jesus is having this conversation with these people, and he's trying to get them to realize like all this striving to become good enough, it's not gonna work out.

It's not working out right now, and I'm I am the good enough, is what Jesus is trying to get them to realize.

And this is a message of radical grace which threatens everything that they are resting their identities and their life into.

In the middle of this conversation in John 10, we get this verse.

We read it last week.

I read kind of right through it.

I think I even said next week we're gonna look at it.

And here's the verse.

We're gonna use this and we're gonna kind of just flesh this out this morning.

He says to them, and this would be incredibly threatening to them, I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen.

I mean, right away, I mean, that doesn't mean much, and we're kind of like open-minded culture.

I mean, to these to these Pharisees, this is threatening everything.

Because uh, to be fit for God to them meant you were Jewish.

If you're not Jewish, not keepers of the law, you're not in.

You know, so to them this threatens everything.

And he says, I have other sheep, they're not like you, and there have other sheep pen.

I must bring them also.

They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.

So this week I was listening to some lectures online, and I listened to this one lecture, a friend of mine, David Zall, gave it at this conference called Liberate, and it was incredibly enlightening to me.

And I learned something, I'll share it this morning as it meant something to me.

And basically, um talking about if we can tag it into the idea of sheep, because that's what this passage is about.

And what we talked about last week is we talked about how we're all sheep.

Um, that we we all wander, no matter how great you think you are, what grad degree you have, or what business you built, or whatever you're really good at, no matter where you are and how great you think you are, you're still a sheep.

You you're st you still have an inner sense of lostness, of wandering.

And that we do that, and that's what sheep are.

They're these stubborn, timid, fearful creatures.

They without a shepherd or without some fencing, they just wander off.

They will literally eat themselves out onto a ledge of which they can't work their way out of.

I mean, does this sound a little familiar to sometimes some things that you you do?

Does it do to me?

So uh so we're sheep and we we need a good shepherd.

That's what we talked about last week.

And so I'm listening to this lecture this week.

Uh while I was working out, I was listening to this lecture, and my friend David said, we want to hear two things.

We want to hear, you're great.

Don't we just want to hear that?

Like from work or from somebody else or some some group of people, some group of friends from the world, or from your family, or your spouse, or your parents.

I mean, you you you are you are great.

Don't we just want to hear that?

And the other thing we want to hear, and actually I think this is uh this is what we really want to hear when we think we want to hear you're great, is we want to hear, I love you.

And my friend David kind of broke it down from a psychological standpoint, and then the bad thing about us pursuing you are great is greatness is a is a position of how we stack up against somebody else.

Right?

So like if I'm a great preacher, what that means is it means I'm I'm I'm better than a whole bunch of others.

So if my life becomes based on like, can I get people to say I'm great, then then it puts me in a position where I'm always comparing.

I'm stacking myself up against other people.

You're only great in comparison to somebody else.

How are they doing?

What do they look like?

How successful is he?

Where do they live?

What do they have?

What are their spiritual practices?

And how much do they do those?

And then how much do I do mine?

And how so am I great now or am I going to be great then?

And and we're eating our way out onto a ledge.

And and sheep do this.

This is what we do.

We will wander out onto this ledge because we we want that feeling of being important, and this is about identity.

But really, you are great is not what we really need to hear.

What we really need to hear is I love you.

And this is the message of the gospel.

Though you are on a ledge and you ate your way out there, God says, I love you.

This is what this is what we need.

This is the message we need.

So John 10, this conversation with the Pharisees, and Jesus keeps just trying to get them to see, you know, like it is a message of radical grace and the fulfillment of the law, and and I love, I love you right now.

And he's threatening everything that they believe in.

And so I mean, you you want to get, I mean, have you have you ever wondered, like, why would they kill Jesus?

I mean, I mean you think about Jesus.

I mean, he was this great teacher, he's a peaceful guy, I mean, he healed people.

I mean, he was a he was a great individual, and and they killed him.

Why would they kill him?

You want to get a fight, right?

And you know this because you've worked places or you went to school, or you definitely went, you know, if you're in high school, or you went to high school, you know this.

Or in church, you you want to get a fight, take some take some importance or power from somebody?

You're gonna get a fight.

Right?

We know we know this.

I mean, we even know the feeling if somebody has taken some power and importance from us and that rises up in us to fight.

And Jesus is is pulling power from them and pulling their importance, and all of their identity is put into the law, and Jesus is saying, Yeah, I'm pulling that away from you.

And so they're not listening, really listening to Jesus.

They're just fighting against them because they want to protect their identity and protect their importance and protect their world.

And I'm just hoping this morning, my hope this morning is that God will begin to strip away from us or continue to strip away from us this self-righteousness that we can so easily have as people who get it, you know, like I get it, I get the grace of God, and there's almost even a self-righteousness about getting it, or the pride about who we are, or what we do, or what we've become, or in this inwardness that that creates, and it's suffocating, it's suffocating to a church, suffocating to a new person who comes in, suffocating to the world.

And maybe you're here and you're more of the outsider, a friend brought you, or you showed up as possible.

Um, and and we're gonna talk some about you this morning.

I don't want you to feel weird about that, because what you're gonna hear is not that we should beat you over the head with a Bible.

What you're gonna hear is that you're a sheep and that I'm a sheep, and uh Randy on your row, he's also a sheep, and uh and that we we really love you.

And so I don't want you to feel weird if we're talking about you know an outsider or somebody who's already in the church.

Um no matter how you walked in this morning, or no matter anybody else walked in this morning, what baggage you have or what wounds you have, uh we love you.

God loves you.

Whatever led you're on, God loves you right there.

This week also I heard the illustration that the church should be an accordion.

Last night we were watching TV and I saw a trombone.

I said, Christy, what's that instrument?

I don't know my instruments.

She said, that's a trombone.

So the church should be, the music of the church is in and out.

That's when the music plays.

That we're we're in deep relationships, family, right?

I mean, oh, it's rich.

It's so good.

And it's so good, but but that's the in, but the out, arms open wide, whoever comes, whoever shows up.

So uh as a kid, I grew up in this neighborhood called Plantation Woods, and we had plantation uh PSRC, Plantation Swim and Racquet Club.

And so my summers look like this as a boy.

I'd ride my bike down to swim practice, and I'd have swim practice, and I'd ride my bike home, and my mom had would have a list of chores, and you'd work your way through, I'd work my way through the chores, and I looked nothing like having a list and drawing that line through the items.

It feels so rewarding.

And so I'd draw that line and work my way through, and my goal to be done by 11 because I had an appointment with Bob Barker at 11, Prices Right from 11 to 12, that was my thing, and so I'd watch Prices Right from 11 to 12, and then eat my grilled cheese sandwich, and then ride my bike back down to the pool.

Now, when you got back down to the pool, you had to have your tag.

We were family number 116, there's a metal tag I wore on the ankle.

All the cool kids wore their tags on the ankle, not on the wrist.

You wore it on the wrist, forget it, on the ankle, and you signed in at the front when you got there.

There'd be a lifeguard at the front, and there's a lifeguard up on the up on the chair.

And so you had to sign in, Russ Masterson, family number 116, check your tag, all right, you can come in.

And you'd see friends, I'd see Jason, I'd see Brad, I'd see all my friends.

We high five, we get a fan of grape.

We play, you know, we'd play Sharks and Minnow.

I mean, it was great.

You'd see other people's parents, and and they'd ask you how you were doing and how your parents were, and yeah, you know, mom's coming later.

And it was such a feeling of community and of family.

Loving it.

Loved it.

Loved the pool, loved the tennis course, the playground, parties and the club.

I loved all of it.

Now, my my neighbor Todd, he lived across the street, he couldn't come.

His family didn't pay.

They didn't pay the dues.

They didn't pay to be a member.

He he wasn't allowed to come.

At Adult Swim, the lifeguard uh would walk around and check for tags.

And if if you weren't a member, kick you right out.

But you know what?

I'm good.

I'm in, having fun with my friends, got my fan of great, playing our sharks.

I am good.

So this place, which was family and loved it, and it was great.

You know, it was all inward.

The arms were not open wide.

And whether it's PSRC or Health Place or Mary at a country club, nothing wrong with these clubs.

You invite me, we'll I'll come, we'll have a blast, we'll have a good time.

I mean, so there's nothing wrong with these clubs.

Actually, these clubs are businesses, but see, here's the point.

What's my point?

Clubs, clubs don't have to be the church.

Clubs don't have to be the church.

They're they're businesses.

The church just can never be a club.

Not inward like that.

Now, this week I drove to Birmingham to a friend of mine, which I talked about a few sermons ago.

Uh his his baby boy, a one-year-old, had brain surgery in Birmingham, so I drove to Birmingham for the day.

And so I'm driving I-20 out of Atlanta through West Georgia, across the line.

Up on the right is the glorious rest stop of Welcome to the State of Alabama, right?

We we we know this rest stop, or you know other rest stops, and it is arms open wide, by the way.

You go up there and there's spots for truckers, there's spots for anybody who wants to show up.

You can you can go to that rest stop.

They the doors are open.

They'll give you a map, they'll give you brochures, there's a bathroom.

The doors are open to the point where you let your dog just do business all on their grass, fine, no problem.

You can do that, you can run around, you can stretch.

No family though.

I mean, there's no there's no there's no hugging in the rest stop.

I don't I don't know if you've I've never been in a rest stop and just, oh man, so glad you are here.

We were waiting for you.

There's there's no sit, there's no sense of community.

It's all outward.

There's no in, there's no family.

It's kind of cold, really.

So where do we go for a community that is that is in and out?

Where do we hear this sort of music?

I was just thinking, obviously, the answer is the church.

You're ahead of me, right?

You're so you're so great.

Uh so the answer is the church.

Um, I was thinking back 14 years ago, uh, I went with my church and a group of people to Ghana, Africa.

I I could not be more different, is sort of the point.

And so Ghana, Africa, me and one other person, we're in this little town, and it's Sunday, and so we're going to their church, and we're going to help their church plant a church in a further out village.

Um probably, I'm not only the only white guy in the pavilion that's out in the middle of a field and it's hot, and it's and I'm not doing great, and it's hot, I'm not used to it.

You know, it's not only am I the only white person in the pavilion, I'm the only white person in the town, probably the only white person in the region.

I stick out.

And I'm also kind of tall, and I'm tall in comparison to them.

So I'm a tall white guy in the middle of this country in Africa.

I stick out, and everybody starts to show up.

This pavilion out in the middle, they're all hugging.

Man, these people love each other.

I'm just standing in the back watching, they're hugging each other and hugging each other's kids and talking to each other and they're seeing each other.

And while I couldn't be any more different, they're hugging me.

Like, man, they're welcoming me?

Well, we don't even speak the same language.

They didn't ask me any questions about my social standing or what denomination I was.

Like, okay, so well, we're this denominator.

What denomination are you in?

I mean, there's no question.

What's your stance on predestination?

If we can clarify that, then I'll give you that hug and really welcome you in.

There's no none of that conversation.

It's just like, you're you're a Christian?

Like you're saved by the grace of God, Jesus on the cross.

Me too! Like, we're so excited that you are here.

This is unbelievable.

We are family.

And just offer me whatever they have.

Sing with them and dance with them.

It's not pretty, but we did it, and it fed me.

It was clear they were family, and it was also clear that I could be a part of that family.

I mean, see the in and the out?

It was clear they were family.

I mean, you you got that right away.

But but it was also clear that I I could be there as long as I wanted to be there.

God is saying in John chapter 10, we're not we're all sheep.

John 10 · chapter mention

And we're not as different as we think we are.

You and I, and the business owner and the day laborer, the Democrat and the Republican, the libertarian, and even people who don't care about any of that.

We're all sheep.

There is a bond by grace that transcends all of that.

Transcends your views on some social issues, transcends your political views, transcends your social standing, it transcends all of that.

See, we're we you and I, we're we're Christians first.

Then we're Republicans and Democrats and upper class and middle class and lower class and upper middle and lower middle and lower lower and upper upper and all the class.

We're that second.

We're Christians first.

So John 10, 16, um, other sheep.

There's other sheep.

They're not like me.

You know, they're not tall, prim, and proper white guy with shaggy hair and knows his Bible and pretty conservative.

There's a lot of other sheep.

So to flesh out John 10, verse 16, we've got to go to Luke 15, 1 through 7.

John 10:16

We're gonna spend a little bit of time here.

So Luke 15, 1 through 7, Jesus again talking about sheep.

You love this metaphor.

And so, verses 1 and 2.

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus.

But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.

So the key to understanding this whole passage down through verse 7 and even beyond the rest of this chapter, all these different parables he's about to tell, is understanding verses 1 and 2.

So who's here?

Who's mentioned in these verses?

So in verses uh one, we see there's tax collectors and there's sinners.

So we have a hard time getting the strength of how much hatred the Pharisees have toward the tax collectors, and really how much hatred you would have and I would have towards the tax collectors?

I mean, so so here's how at the time Rome was ruling the known world.

And so Rome's ruling the known world from England, France, all the way down, the ancient world over to India.

Huge world.

And there's no phones, no internet, there's no video cameras, there's no quick transportation.

So how did you rule a huge area of land?

You had a massive army, and you put your army everywhere, and they were fierce, and they they ruled with force, and you taxed the people as much as you could to pay your army to stay there to squash any rebellions.

And this is how it was done.

And so the Roman army comes through and they rape and they steal and they kill and they rule by force and then they stay.

And then Jojo on your street, lives down the street from you.

They come to him and say, Hey Jojo, you know everybody.

So uh why don't you be the tax collector?

We'll give you a cut, and then you hand over all the money, and that money will pay for us to stay here.

And so Jojo, your neighbor down the street, is coming to you, and he's getting money from you, and he's keeping a peace, and then he's passing the rest of the money that you are paying for the army that was horrible to you to stay in your area, and Jojo is helping it and benefiting from it.

You and I would hate this man.

We would have unbelievable hatred toward him, and Jesus is having dinner with them.

And he's talking to them.

So the tax collectors are there, sinners are there.

This is almost a class of people, the deformed, uh, uh, the disease, prostitutes, the most outcast of outcasts.

And you know what Jesus is seeing when he sees tax collectors, you see these sinners, he sees the Pharisees over there, they're muttering about the fact that he's talking to these people.

You know what he's seeing?

He's not seeing lines, he's not seeing, he's not seeing a tax collector, lying sinners, line Pharisees.

He just he sees sheep is what he sees.

He just sees sheep.

He's seeing wandering, broken sheep that eat themselves out onto ledges, and maybe they do it uh because they're so insecure and they just want a little bit more money to feel a little bit better, and they're willing to tax their neighbors and sell their soul to the enemy to do it, or maybe it's in a religious way that I will just I will be as moral and abstaining my external behaviors to make myself feel important and value.

And maybe it's that way, or maybe as I'm so wounded and so broken, I will sell my body to people.

And Jesus is just seeing wandering sheep.

And the Pharisees are there, they don't see it this way, and so they're muttering.

So Jesus launches into this story to teach them something.

Then Jesus told this parable, verse 3 Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them.

Doesn't he leave the 99 in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?

And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.

Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, Rejoice with me, I found my lost sheep.

I tell you, in the same way, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents and over 99 righteous persons who do not need to repent.

So does that mean there's people who don't need to repent?

No, it means they've already repented.

They're already righteous.

They've repented of trying to earn their own righteousness, they're in the flock.

So they're righteous by Jesus being their good shepherd.

And so they're the righteous, but there's one, there's other sheep.

There's somebody else out there.

So the church should be about celebrating other people's rescues.

I mean, this is what we just see in this passage.

We should have that sort of heart.

Not the kind of heart that's just self-righteous and proud and very inward and into your own deal.

You know, I'm good, you know, I'm good.

My family's good.

We're good.

We, you know, so we'll come and we'll be a part of it, but but we're looking in.

But we have what we can keep.

That's great.

I mean, I that's that's but but what about JoJo on your street or Randy down the street?

And what what about what about the what about did you know you had cancer?

Did you know you had cancer?

I mean, what what about your your co-worker?

Did you know that?

They feel so shameful.

I mean, did you know that?

Yesterday, I uh I'm like you.

I'm ridiculous.

I watched like an hour and a half of uh on yachts on TV.

I don't know if anybody else caught the mega yacht show.

Anybody else catch it?

Okay, thank you.

Wasn't it great?

Not only that, it wasn't even that wasn't the bad part, it was that I then later went to the Chrisscraft website to check out all the boats.

I would like a Chrisscraft.

If I'm gonna participate in the mega yacht industry, I would like a Chrisscraft because we got the history there and love that.

And not only do I watch it for an hour and a half, I then go to the website later and sort of pick out my boat.

You would never do anything like this, right?

Nothing wrong with a boat.

I'm just saying, let's see people.

So the music sounds like this.

In, I'm good, you know, I'm in the swim club, I have my friends, my family, deep relationships.

It's good, it's sweet, but out, still love my swim club, still love my friends and my family, but out, my heart goes out to whoever else is out there, and they're out, they're on that ledge, and I know that ledge because I still go out there sometimes, and they're out there, but they don't know the good shepherd, and so they're out there and they are lonely, and they're feeling the weight of their shame.

And this passage says that heaven absolutely throws a party when one comes home.

So I say all of that, that's just one question.

How do we become a person?

How do we become a community that celebrates the one?

How do you become like that?

I mean, how do you how do you become where you know my obsession with mega yachts yesterday doesn't just become life or your, you know, or lamps or working out or just progress up?

Somebody can give me a weird look about lamps.

You know you do it, you need a new lamp, and so you research lamps and you look at your Pinterest, as many lamps as you can look at.

And is it at pottery barn or restoration hardware?

You're gonna go to Scots later.

You're gonna go to Scotts, you're gonna wait till next month, and a lamp becomes like just an all-consuming purpose for six weeks.

Y'all know exactly what I'm talking about.

That's why we kind of laugh at it.

Um, how do we become where that doesn't just become our life?

How do we become people who get outside of ourselves?

Where it's not just my deal and my family and my group and my Bible study and my studying and my stuff.

So I have two points.

And and I'm at the end.

I'm on page five, by the way, so you can relax.

Uh first point, we we cannot celebrate with them if we're busy judging them.

We can't celebrate them if we're busy judging them.

And we like to judge them because it makes us feel important, makes us feel great.

They compare like what they have to what we have, or their education to our education, or their morality to our morality, or their family to our family, or their clothes, or their body, or their success.

And if we're in judgment over them, we can't celebrate with them.

So that was number one, point number one.

Short point, right?

That's good.

Number two, we can only celebrate with them when we understand we are one of them.

See, we become outward by remembering that we are the one.

So actually, there are no outsiders because we all know that we are the outsider, and the only reason that we got in is because we were on the ledge, and a good shepherd came out to us on our ledge and found us and put us on his shoulders and walked us back to the flock.

And when that is the meditation of your heart and your life and your resting in, and you get, I'm the I'm the one.

So when you look at the hooker and the tax collector and the sinner and the Pharisee, and you look at all these people, you see, yeah, yep, yep, yep.

I know that, I know that, I know that, I know that.

This is how we get to become a kind of place that's in and out, that would celebrate somebody's rescue.

Is we we just know we are the one too.

And here's what happens when we begin to understand we too are the one.

Just a few kind of suggestions.

Here's what begins to happen.

Uh less judgment toward people and their decisions.

Exclusiveness begins to fade.

Prejudice and racism just doesn't grip you as much.

You just begin to think and care for people.

And you don't become these things perfectly.

We know that.

But you know something.

You know you were, and at times you still are on those ledges.

And that safe pasture only comes by Jesus picking us up, putting us on his shoulders, and walking us back.

We do something kind of weird to close.

Uh, and maybe if you're first time here, it might seem weird to you, you don't have to pray with us if you don't want to.

Um, but uh if we could just join hands, um, and maybe maybe you do want to hold the hand to the person next to you, but you don't have to pray with us if you don't want to.

Um, but to just join hands as a as a as a sign of togetherness and community, and and then we're gonna pray together, and we're gonna pray that God would open our hearts wide to God's grace, and that he would open our hearts wide to the one.

So let's grab hands with somebody next to you.

God, we we hold hands as a sign of togetherness and community and family, and God, we need your grace.

We are the first repenters.

We are the first ones to say, we were on the ledge of trying to earn our own righteousness.

Thank you that you came and found us.

Thank you that you died on the cross, that we don't have to keep trying to earn our way off of this ledge.

God, would you help us as a community?

Would you help us as people to really get it, that we're the one?

And would you open our heart wide to anybody who is around us, walks through these doors?

And would you give us a heart that that doesn't want to sit in judgment over people to feel like we are more important, but that waits to celebrate with them.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.