The Invitation

Amen.

Hey, happy new year, Church of the Grove.

My name is Russ.

If I hadn't met you, it's so good to see all of you here this morning.

Happy New Year.

I hope you've had a beginning, a great beginning this first week of January.

And uh and we're beginning a new series called Adventure Awaits.

And if you've got your Bibles, we're gonna start out in Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

I'm just gonna really, really be in a few verses this morning.

Um but but I want to start off by saying that that I am easily bored and restless.

I am easily bored and restless.

Sounds like your house, right?

Um I I can get infatuated with something, I can dive head in, head first, and and and I can be excited about something, but then I can easily become bored.

I can I can I love to read.

I'm a reader, but I I'll read, I'll have a stack of books, and I'll get a few chapters in, and I'll get easily just kind of dissatisfied, bored a little bit, and then I'll move on to the next book I have underlined and highlighted and dog eared, and then I move on to the next book.

I can easily get bored.

I love new stuff.

I love new gadgets.

I I love new ideas.

I can easily start a new year with this idea that I'm gonna begin a new set of habits, but I know from my experience at this place in my life that I'm easily distracted from those new habits.

Um I recently read these words and I thought about this this morning as I as I drove down Highway 81 to come, the sunrise was absolutely breathtaking.

And I thought of these words by written by Trevin Wax, that familiarity is the enemy of wonder.

What becomes so familiar, and God's goodness, God's grace, God's power, God's God's design, it can become common, but it is sacred.

And so we we we easily lose our sense of wonder in all of our areas of life.

We can have something new, it's a new job, it's a it's it's a it's a new uh thing in our life.

You you you kind of you save for something, you crave something, it's a car, it's a house.

We're just we're pulled anew, new.

I want something different.

But man, as soon as we get it, it loses its luster.

J.R.R.

Tolkien, uh the great writer, he says the most regrettable feature of human nature is how quickly we become unsatisfied with the good.

God is good to us, but we can become easily unsatisfied or dissatisfied with what God is.

And I think it's so true for us when it comes to our relationship with God, our journey with Jesus, that we easily take for granted how He is good and we treat our journey as a follower of Jesus like a gem membership.

And we get excited about new beginnings and all of a sudden it loses its luster.

New things, new life, new habit, new book, new reading plan.

And for many of us, we think of faith as a destination rather than the journey that God has given us.

And we call ourselves a Christian or we identify ourselves as a follower of Jesus, and then we live a year, two years, three years, and there's no real life change.

There's nothing.

And it's just like waiting for a football game on a Monday night in January.

It's gonna come and it's gonna go.

Win or lose?

It's gonna be forgotten.

It's really not that big of a deal.

Well, it is.

What if there was more?

What if there's more to this Christian life?

Well, is there more to what God has for us?

What if there's more if we're willing to step out?

John Orberg says the adventure of faith is not about reaching a destination, but about learning to trust and follow Jesus wherever he leads.

And so the big idea is Jesus invites us on this adventure to follow him.

He invites us on the adventure, not just to get to heaven, but to follow our master, to follow our rabbi as he teaches us, as he leads us, as he forms us.

And so there's these two major themes in Scripture.

There's this theme of invitation, and there's this theme of challenge.

And the first theme is invitation.

You see it in the Old and New Testaments.

You see, God is inviting men and women.

God is inviting people into this journey.

With Adam and Eve, it was an invitation to walk with God in the cool of the day.

It's an invitation to take dominion over the earth.

It's the invitation to multiply and to fill the earth.

It's the invitation to purity and holiness.

Invitation to the goodness that God has.

With Noah, it was an invitation to escape the judgment that God was bringing because of sin and because of disobedience.

With Joseph, it was an invitation to embrace suffering because God, through suffering, would bless his people.

It was an invitation to King David to trust the Lord even when there were many odds against him.

There were challenges against him.

It was an invitation to Daniel, trust the Lord, even though you're living in an enemy nation.

With the disciples, it was an invitation to follow God in human flesh.

With the disciples, it was the, by the way, they were the not good enough.

They were the rejects in the rabbi school.

And they had gone back to their trade, and Jesus said, you know what?

I'm going to call you to follow me.

And so the Bible is full of invitations, but along with invitations, it involves challenge.

It involves challenge.

God always invites us into something greater.

But with the invitation comes challenge.

What was it?

Adam and Eve had the clear invitation, but they also had a challenge.

Don't eat from this tree.

Noah, there was the challenge.

The invitation, invitation to escape judgment.

But here's what you've got.

It has never rained in human history, but you've got to build a boat in front of all the public who will laugh at you and scorn you.

Joseph says the invitation was to suffer.

The invitation was to be used by God to bless his people, but the challenge is to suffer immensely and to be accused.

Over and over again, King David had to wait a long time to see the fulfillment of God's promise in his life.

The invitation involved waiting on the Lord.

Daniel had to live faithfully among the enemy nations to face the fulfillment of God's presence in his life.

The disciples were invited to follow Jesus, but it meant leaving their families, leaving their homes and jobs and even their reputations to follow this new rabbi, Jesus.

It's how God works: invitation and challenge.

And see, the American in Christianity, I think, in general, but mostly in the American version of Christianity, we love invitation, but we don't like challenge.

We like to be invited into something.

But if it costs us too much or if it brings about too much change, oh, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.

You're going to bring drums in the church?

See, we laugh at that now because we're over the worship wars.

I know some churches that are still fighting some of those battles, but but we've been through those, we've been through those kind of invitation challenges.

We're going to change, you're going to bring something new.

There's this matrix I want to just show you.

We call it the invitation challenge matrix.

And our staff, uh Nathan and I, and some of us that went through this discipleship process for about four to six years.

We we use this matrix a lot to help us inside think through God's call on our church as a whole, but also it applies to us individually.

There's this matrix and the line going up and down vertical, it is the invitation line.

The line that goes horizontal is the challenge line.

And there's four quadrants that involve this matrix.

And the bottom left quadrant is the board quadrant.

It's low invitation and it's low challenge.

It's boring.

No change.

Nothing changes.

It's doing the same thing over and over and over.

Let's don't change anything.

Let's not do anything new.

Let's not look out over the horizon and see what God might have for us.

Let's just keep everything the same, which is probably one of the reasons our American Western church is in the decline and the predicament it's in.

It's a boring culture.

Then there's the bottom right quadrant.

It's the high challenge, low invitation quadrant.

It's the distressed or discouraged, stressed culture.

This would be probably what many, some of us would call a legalistic culture.

Some of us would say it's a hellfire and brimstone.

It's, hey, you follow these five rules.

You don't drink, don't smoke, don't, you know, do these five things.

But if you cross any of those lines, you are damned and you are destined for hell.

I mean, it's it's just somebody's always pointing their finger at you and it feels distressed, and it's it there's no invitation, there's no grace.

And then there's the low challenge, high invitation.

High invitation, low challenge quadrant.

This is the cozy church quadrant.

Man, we we like grace.

We love grace.

Preach grace, invite us to Jesus.

But don't challenge us to step out on faith.

Don't challenge us to leave what's comfortable.

And it's cozy church.

It's cozy.

I like, I mean, I I love, I love this worship.

I love the culture.

I love being able to be casual.

But man, where's the challenge in that?

And then there's the high votation, high challenge.

You know what we call that?

It's called a discipling culture.

It's when you are invited.

Follow Jesus.

You are accepted.

You don't have to, you don't have to have a high pedigree with religious training.

You are loved.

Grace is given to you.

God will never love you any more than he does.

He will he will never love you any less.

He he accepts you, but you know what?

He calls you on a journey.

He calls you to leave what's comfortable, he calls you to step out in faith.

He calls you into something that is great, something that will that will that will bring him glory because he is worthy.

Genesis 12, 2.

This is the story of Abram.

We see this in every remarkable man and woman in Scripture.

But let's look at Abram.

Verse 2, chapter 12.

Genesis 12, 2.

I will make you a great nation.

Isn't that great?

I love it.

There's the high invitation.

I'm gonna make you a great nation.

I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others.

I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt.

All the families on earth will be blessed through you.

So later Abram would become Abraham, God's chosen man.

And through his faithfulness, through his willingness to receive this invitation, God would bless him in order to be a blessing to others, which is really the call he's given to us as the church.

And so we see it.

This is invitation and challenge at its greatest.

I'm gonna use you.

You're gonna be a light to the nations, Abram.

So stop for a second and think about God speaking to Abram.

God speaks to him.

How good is that?

How great is that?

What has God ever, how has he ever worked in your life and called you out of darkness into light?

Called you out of out of out of just boring or maybe stressed or discouragement into adventure, called you out of cozy culture, into adventure.

That's what God is calling Abram to leave the mundane for something that is greater.

And I didn't read verse one.

Let me read verse one.

You see, I read verse two and three.

He's gonna make him out of through him, he will make a great nation.

But the Lord said to Abram, Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father's family, and go to the land that I will show you.

Then he says, I will make you into a great nation.

I will bless you and make you famous.

You'll be a blessing to others.

I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt.

All the families on earth will be blessed through you.

Here is the high challenge.

Abram, leave your home, leave your comfortable place, leave something behind that that will that will show, that will identify you as a man of faith.

Our sinful human fleshly nature is to love, comfort, and reject risk.

Now, that's why I could tell you exactly who was gonna be here at 8 15 this morning.

I knew, I knew, I knew, I knew.

I mean, and you I I know pretty much where you're gonna sit.

I do.

I take a mental picture every now and then you throw me off and you move.

And I can't lose my ability to take attendance.

And so God's calling us to experience the invitation He has for us.

And experience the invitation of God, we must embrace what?

The challenge of God.

Rick Warren says the adventure of faith is not for the faint-hearted, it is for those who are willing to take risks, to step out in faith and to trust God and lead them in ways they could never have imagined.

I don't know.

This in Scripture, we don't know.

There may be an untold story.

Had God ever revealed himself to somebody before Abram.

I think this is just a question to ask.

Could he have invited somebody that rejected the invitation because the challenge was too great?

I think we live in a culture where we we we we love.

We love the cozy.

We love what's comfortable.

We love maybe even we're willing to put up what's boring so we can be comfortable.

Rachel, would you throw that chart up again?

I want you to think about which quadrant you're living in right now.

Which quadrant?

Now I've been I've been walking with Jesus for 39 years.

And I'm none of you business old.

And so I look back over my life.

I really I went back and just really thought about invitation and challenges.

When I turned 18 and and I came to Christ, I I put my faith in Jesus on New Year's Eve of 1983.

And I began the journey with Jesus.

When I put my faith in Jesus, I had a job on Sunday.

I worked, I worked on Sunday, and so so unless I had Sunday off, I missed church.

And at first I didn't even feel, I didn't feel this, this, this conflict.

But as Jesus began to work in my life, I began to miss the fellowship.

I began to crave being with my church family.

I begin to to I just realized I can't afford to miss out on God speaking to me.

And so, but I didn't want to lose, I I had to work.

I was part of a lower middle class family.

I had to, I had to have a job.

I had to work.

I had to kind of, I was paying my way through college.

And my youth pastor, we were in a conversation, and I was sharing how much I miss being with my church family on Sunday.

What am I gonna do?

I I I've got a job, I can't afford it, and he said, Russ.

He said, Where are you putting your trust?

He said, What if God has something better for you, but he's just waiting for you to step out in faith?

And that week I went and put in my notice.

My first step, my first willingness to embrace challenge.

God changed my life and then he challenges me.

And he leads me.

And and and and some of you've heard this story.

It gets old, probably, but but working in the business world, God began to speak to me about leaving the business world and going into ministry.

But God, I'm comfortable here.

I mean, I'm in a job here.

I'm I'm I'm I'm I even I even look back now and think, where would I be if I'd stayed in that job?

How much money would I possibly be making?

But I but I but it came down to it.

I had I had I remember February, I remember February of 1993, getting on my knees in my apartment in Savannah, Georgia, and saying, God, if you want me to follow you and submit and go into ministry, I will do whatever you want.

I will follow you.

Another invitation, another challenge.

I mean, we could go on, right?

We could go on.

We could say, man, I go into ministry, I go into, man, youth ministry.

It was my gig.

It was my thing.

I'm a recovering youth pastor.

I mean, I just it was I I loved it.

God calls me.

Rush.

I want to call you.

I feel like you're supposed to plant a church.

Plant a church.

I didn't know what I didn't know how churches started.

I just thought people got mad, and that's how they the church would start.

People got mad at each other.

I didn't know you could plant one on purpose with a with a mission.

And so and so God calls me out.

And He He calls me into this challenge.

And He calls me to plant a church.

Leave what I'm what is comfortable.

New campuses.

New churches.

Something new.

God is calling us to embrace the challenge.

Jesus calls us.

He says, Come follow me.

Come follow me.

We're going to be talking about this over the next several weeks.

What does it mean to really to leave what God wants and to follow Jesus?

What is it that God may be speaking to you about?

And Jesus says this.

To those that might would consider accepting the challenge.

He says, Come to me, all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you.

Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart.

And you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy to bear.

And the burden I give you is light.

Jesus is calling you into a different life.

He calls us into something that is that is defined by how we live.

It is defined by our habits.

It is defined by our practices.

Those people, and I'm speaking from a cultural place of a non-believer looking at these people, those people who call themselves followers of Jesus, these people who call themselves Christians, how will I know that they are legit?

How will we know they're real?

How will we define them?

I think it's through an uncommon obedience.

An uncommon obedience where we establish our lives going against the flow of the culture.

And our habits, our practices, our decisions, how we live is different.

And see, we all want the promises.

We all want what Jesus promises us, what God promises us, but to experience the life and to receive the promises that Jesus gives us, we must live the life that He has called us to live.

If you want to experience the life that Jesus promises, you must live the life that He's called us to.

And it includes invitation and it includes challenge.

So as we begin a new year, as we begin a new season in our life, I want to speak from the standpoint of us as a church family.

What is it that God is inviting us into and challenging us with?

What is God saying to you as we teach this series, as the venture awaits, what is it that God could be calling you to vocationally?

What is God calling you to?

Is there something God's calling you to?

Is there something God calling you from?

Is there a relationship the Lord is calling you to invest in?

Is there a relationship he's calling you to cut or sever?

Is there a sin that you need to confess?

That you need to share with somebody, share with somebody?

Is there someone you need to forgive?

Is there some bitterness that you need to let go of?

Is there a love for something other than God that is greater?

What's God saying to you?

And then what are you going to do about it?

Can we just have a moment?

Will we just lean in and just bow our heads for a moment?

Let's just bow our heads for a second.

I want to ask you, is there something that you need to say yes to?

Is there something that you need to cut or sever?

Is there something you need to confess?

Is there something?

Maybe you can't even identify it, but you say, God, I want more of you.

I want, I want you.

I want to follow you.

Not sure where it's leading, but I want to follow you.

I want more of you in my life.

Is there somebody that God's calling you to share your faith with?

Is there somebody that God is putting on your mind to invite this outside of church or that that's outside of the faith?

Is there something you need to give up that is comfortable in order to see the blessing that God wants to pour out?

Can I just ask you for a second if you want more of God?

If there's something, something that you specifically are praying for right now.

You say, I need God to show up.

There's somebody in your family, there's somebody in your life, there's something going on, and you say, you know what?

I need God to show up.

I need, I need God to change me.

Need him to change these circumstances.

I need him to heal.

I need him to I need him, I need him to deliver.

If that's you, I just stand up, say, I want, I want, I've got I've got a need, and I I just I want to stand and I want to say I'm not ashamed to admit that I need and I want God to bless me or my family.

If that's you, just stand up.

Right where you are.

Stand up.

Stand up.

I want to just pray for you.

I'm gonna pray for you.

I don't know what your situation is, but Father, you see the hearts of those who are standing representing.

I need they need you to show up, they need you to change, they need you to deliver, they need you to set free, they need you to break chains, they need you, and they are, I think by their standing, they're willing to say, I'm I'm not, I'm willing to say I need God, and I'm willing to follow where he leads.

I'm willing to surrender, I'm willing to say yes to Jesus.

We're gonna enter into a season of prayer and fasting.

We've got a season of audio devotionals that will begin this week.

You can find those on our app, on our website.

Some of you will receive them by email if you're on our list.

But here's what God I think wants for us.

The adventure of life is a fight for astonishment, a determination to resist growing bored in a world of wonders.

The Christian life begins with spiritual astonishment at the glory of the gospel and the goodness and the beauty of the Christian truth with wide-eyed surprise and the infant brought into a new world of grace.

Father, would you work in us?

Would you challenge us and invite us?

And may we respond with yes, yes, Lord, I will follow you wherever you lead.

I will be obedient, I will be the one that stands out, I will identify myself as the Jesus follower with an uncommon obedience, an uncommon love, a willingness to forgive, a willingness to embrace the new, a willingness to obey, a willingness to love, a willingness to follow wherever you lead.

It's in Christ's name.