Special Sunday | FOLLOW | Pastor Tirza Magdiel

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I'm Pastor Jamie, and I'm excited that you're joining us for this week's message.

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Thanks for listening.

Hello everyone.

Welcome to 1130 service.

My name is Tirza, and I am the digital pastor here at IES.

And it's a pleasure to be here sharing with you.

IES is my home.

It has been my home for uh about 20 something years.

And I was telling the previous service that it felt a little bit full circle.

I love that Pastor Josh was leading worship because we used to lead worship together when we were teenagers in IES teens, and that was a long time ago.

So thank you, Pastor Jamie, for giving me the opportunity to speak and share my heart with everyone.

And I just love being part of IES.

I've worn different hats over the years in IES, and I've gotten to meet and be part of a lot of your lives and your journeys.

For the parents who have let me pastor their teens back when I was the teens pastor, thank you.

For the teens who let me pastor them and are now adults, thank you.

And for all of you in my soap groups, life groups, ministry teams, different things, uh, those who have let me into your lives and into your uh families, thank you so much.

Um and for those who trust me enough to go along with my crazy ministry ideas, mostly the volunteers and the staff, um, thank you.

Uh they they know me a lot.

I I came in yesterday wearing sneakers, and one of the guys in the back, he looked at my sneakers and said, You're wearing that to preach?

Because everyone knows by now, the higher the heels, the shorter the sermon.

Um so I wanted to preach on something else.

I had prepared a different topic, uh, but I talked to the Lord and the Lord said no.

I and this year, my word for the year, because every year I ask God for a word to kind of define the year.

And the word for me this year is follow.

So when God says no, and I said, Okay.

And it's hard for me because just following is hard sometimes.

And so I feel like I'll need prayer, you need prayer, we all need prayer.

Let's pray together.

Jesus, we thank you that you are faithful.

We thank you that you know what you're doing, even when it's very difficult for us to see where you're going or what you're doing.

But Lord, we ask that you would teach us today.

Speak to us.

We're so excited to just spend time with you.

Lord, encourage us in areas of our lives that need encouragement and challenge us in areas of our lives that need challenging.

And in everything, Lord, we pray that we would draw closer and closer to you.

We thank you, Jesus.

We love you.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

So let me give you a disclaimer.

Uh, the moments that include kids are going to be in this sermon.

So I would invite all of you to join in, have fun, and maybe it'll help make the message stick.

Any kids in the house?

Any big kids in the house?

Woo!

Great! So today we're talking about faith, and uh faith, the definition of faith is found in Hebrews 11, verses 1 through 2.

Hebrews 11:1–2

It says this.

What then is faith?

It is what gives assurance to our hopes, it is what gives us conviction about things we can't see, it is what the men and women of old were famous for.

So this definition of faith can be difficult to digest.

So we often use metaphors to wrap our mind around a concept.

And in this chapter, one of the metaphors that's used is that of a journey.

And that metaphor is actually quite familiar to us because we talk about our faith as a faith journey or a walk of faith.

It's not a drive, it's not a ride, I don't know why, but it's a walk of faith.

But you know, when we talk about this journey, we want this journey to be like a cruise.

We're on the deck, laying out in the sun tanning, um, and holding a drink with an umbrella in it, and knowing, okay, there's the itinerary, and the next stop we're stopping here, there's all of these buffets to eat, right?

Or at least we want our faith journey to be predictable, like when we drive to Sanayan.

Some of you know how many exactly, like red lights are there between here and Plaza Sanayan.

You can time it.

Okay, I will get there in however many minutes.

Um but oftentimes it's not like that.

And we were talking about this in some of my groups, and so I have some quotes from people in my groups.

The first is from Sava.

Sava said this people usually look back to the past because it feels safer.

Looking forward doesn't.

They're not optimistic about what's to come.

And Riri said this: following something when we know the results is easier.

When we don't know the outcome, or we don't have all the resources, following is hard.

And we see that.

So we expect cruise ship, but what we get is the odyssey, right?

Setting out, not knowing what is going to happen and how long things are going to be, and then you find yourself 20 years in, you're still feeling seasick and on a boat.

So we talk about Hebrews 11, verses 8 through 19.

Hebrews 11:8–19

And let me read this for you.

It was by faith that Abraham, when God called him, obeyed and went out to a place where he was to receive an inheritance.

Off he went, not knowing where he was going.

It was by faith that he stayed in the promised land as a stranger, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, who were joint heirs of the same promise.

He was looking ahead, you see, to the city which has foundations, the city of which God is the designer and builder.

It was by faith that Sarah herself, who was barren, received the ability to conceive a child even when long past the right age, since she considered that God, who had promised, was trustworthy.

Thus it came about that from one man and him more or less dead, there was born a family as many as the stars of heaven in number, as uncountable as the sand on the seashore.

All these people died in faith.

They hadn't received the promise, but they had seen it from far off and had greeted it and had recognized that they were strangers and wanderers in the land.

People who say that sort of thing, you see, make it clear that they are looking for a homeland.

Had they been thinking of the place from which they had set out, they would have had plenty of opportunity to go back to it.

But as it was, they were longing for a better place, a heavenly one.

That's why God is not ashamed to be called their God, since he has prepared a city for them.

It was by faith that Abraham, when he was put to the test, offered up Isaac.

Yes, Abraham, who had received the promise, was in the very act of offering up his only son, the one about whom it had been said that in Isaac shall your family be named.

He reckoned that God was capable of raising him even from the dead.

And in one sense, he did indeed receive him back from there.

We'll kind of skip over to Hebrews 12, verses 1 through 2.

Hebrews 12:1–2

It says this.

What we must do is this we must put aside each heavy weight and the sin which gets in the way so easily.

We must run the race that lies in front of us and we must run it patiently.

We must look ahead to Jesus.

He is the one who carved out the path for faith, and he's the one who brought it to completion.

So that's a long passage, but in order for us to all remember kind of the point of it, uh, the kids usually do this thing called the power verse.

And so it's a short verse with motions, and I'm going to invite all of you to be a part of this.

And so I will invite up teacher Marianne, teacher Irene, teacher Fab.

Actually, I'm also inviting my life group.

Come on up.

Quickly, quickly.

So there are motions to this.

The verse is from Hebrews 11, verse 8.

Hebrews 11:8

It says this.

No?

By faith.

By faith?

Hebrews 11, verse 8.

Hebrews 11:8

Yeah.

It was by faith that Abraham, when God called him, obeyed and went.

So the movement goes like this.

It was by faith that Abraham, when God called him, obeyed and went.

Hebrews 11, verse 8.

Hebrews 11:8

Is that easy enough?

All right.

Kids, you might need to show the adults how it's done, okay?

So I'm going to invite all of you to stand to your feet and we're going to do this together.

This is your exercise for the day, okay?

All right, let's do this together.

One, two, three.

It was by faith that Abraham, when God called him, obeyed and went.

Hebrews 11 verse 8.

Hebrews 11:8

All right, really good.

One more time.

One, two, three.

It was by faith that Abraham, when God called him, obeyed and went.

Hebrews 11 verse 8.

Hebrews 11:8

Wonderful.

Thank you so much.

You may have a seat.

Thank you so much.

It's nice to have friends up here.

So Hebrews 11 talks about how different people exercise their faith, and we're going to focus on Abraham's story as outlined in Hebrews.

And so there are some things that we can observe about faith, God's call, and how we can respond.

And since this is a journey, we will have checkpoints.

There are four checkpoints, so you know when the sermon is about to wrap up.

So this is where the journey starts.

Checkpoint number one: God calls everyone to follow him.

And so let's look at the story of Abraham.

It's really hard getting old.

Oh yeah.

And especially you brought your freaking luggage of your lovely wife.

Okay.

Let me check.

My thing's already here.

All right.

Oh yeah.

Already here.

Oh yeah.

Everything I think is shut up.

Yes.

Okay.

It's already here.

Hello.

Hello.

Honey, I'm here.

Hi, honey, my shara.

Oh my goodness.

Hi.

Hi.

Yes.

Um, what are you doing?

Why are you packing?

We are leaving.

God told me we are leaving, Sarah.

Okay, Subhantar Honey.

I opened up my Karudum, okay?

Can you repeat it one more time so I can hear it clearly?

Yes, we are getting old and a little bit hard to hear, but we are living, honey.

We are leaving now.

Living?

Yes.

Now?

Yes.

But where?

I don't know.

You gotta be kidding me.

You don't know?

I don't know.

Okay, take a deep breath.

Let me ask you one question.

Okay.

How far are we living?

Are we going to Bali?

Not Bali, no.

No, no Bali.

Okay.

Are we going to Singapore to visit Pastor Misha?

I don't know.

You don't know again.

Okay, let me change my question.

How long are we going?

One month?

Two months?

Not that long, right?

I know, but I don't know.

You don't know.

I don't know.

Okay, okay, okay.

Last question.

Are we going to meet someone there?

Or you know we are old enough, so I might have a back pain from walking long, long way.

Is there any cocoa over there?

So we're going to go.

Not cocoa.

I told you.

You don't know.

You don't know.

Then if you don't know, why are we going?

You should read my t-shirt.

The answer is there.

Okay.

Wait, honey, your jangot now.

Maafia.

Okay, read it loud.

Read it loud.

Let everybody know.

Okay, okay.

The answer is here.

Masa do pan itu sapati sape ring tepe.

Tita atyam tao.

Oh, is that no one tahu?

No one no.

Even me, I don't know.

I don't tao.

But I want to know the reason.

Why are you going, honey?

You know what?

What?

I don't know my future.

I don't know where we go.

Well, I know God who told me to go.

So let's go.

But but honey.

Let's go.

Sorry.

Let's go.

Okay.

So let me tell you a little, I guess, secret, not so secret, but Abraham did not have a full picture of who God is when God called him.

He didn't even have what we have the Bible where we can consult, okay, what did God do before?

Abraham had nothing.

He didn't know the God who called him.

But somehow he went and he followed.

We do, though.

We have scripture, and we have seen not just through the life of Abraham, but we have seen God call Moses, Gideon, the Israelites, and they didn't have a full have full information, all of the information about God when they followed.

The disciples, too, in the New Testament, when Jesus called them and they left everything behind, they didn't know the full purpose of why they were they were being called.

They had conflicting ideas of what they think Jesus was going to do.

Some of them thought that Jesus was going to overthrow the Romans.

Others thought, like, oh, prophet, teacher.

When God calls, we have a choice on how to respond.

The most important decision that we make in our lives is to follow Jesus.

And some of you might be here and you're struggling to make that decision, and you're already at the very edge, you're almost there, but not quite there.

And maybe you're asking some questions like, what's going to happen when I follow Jesus?

Will all of my questions be answered?

And here I am telling you there's gonna be more questions.

Or will things get happy and all resolved?

If you look at the list in Hebrews, a lot of them ended tragically.

So so there's always this struggle.

But let me tell you this following Jesus is always worth it.

Following Jesus is always worth it.

Ask anyone who's might maybe farther along in their faith journey, and let us tell you our story.

Because God has been faithful, and we love to tell the story about Jesus.

Um, but let me tell you this: following Jesus is worth it.

Even when you don't know all of the information, when you don't, you only have some pieces of the puzzle and not the entire puzzle.

Jesus doesn't ask us to get everything right, he doesn't ask us to sit through an entrance exam in order to fully believe.

Jesus just said, come follow me.

So God calls everyone to follow him.

That's the starting point.

Now we move on in our journey to checkpoints.

Checkpoint is this God calls us to rely on him.

So we look at Sarah's story.

Sarah was way past the age of giving birth.

But it says in Hebrew, in Hebrews 11, that Sarah believed that God who promised her is trustworthy.

So, friends, when God calls, we have a choice on how we respond.

We pray in faith, acknowledging that God is both able and cares to act.

Let me ask you this question.

What kind of prayers do we pray?

I was in life group not too long ago and we had this discussion, and there was a question.

If God can raise people from the dead and can do the impossible, what kind of prayers should we pray?

Should we pray impossible prayers or should we pray realistic prayers?

And so, and that's that was a very interesting discussion in Life Group.

Um, and sometimes I I realize that we choose to pray realistic prayers, even though God is big and he is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine.

And not only that, he cares about us so much.

But often we limit our prayers to something that is realistic.

Because maybe if we pray realistic prayers, the likelihood of God answering it, in our opinion, is more.

Or we're like, we're praying realistic prayers because we don't want to bother God with our prayers.

Maybe he's too busy, la.

He has a lot of things that he needs to take care of in the world.

So let me just pack my prayer into into small Small, realistic prayers.

But friends, God, what Jesus mentioned to his disciples and said, Hey, ask and it shall be given unto you.

Seek and you will find knock, and the door will be opened.

If earthly fathers can give good gifts to their children, how much more does your father in heaven give good gifts for his children?

God wants us to rely on him.

God wants us to ask the ridiculous prayers for him because that's part of being in a relationship with him.

So, friends, God calls us, invites us, beckons us, dares us to rely on him.

Pray the big prayers.

Don't just pray the realistic prayers, pray the impossible prayers.

Because your God loves you.

Now it's getting a little bit more challenging.

So our next stop is checkpoints.

And checkpoint number three is this God's call involves letting go of something.

One of the famous stories of Abraham is that one time when God asked him to sacrifice his only son, Isaac.

And this is the son that he had prayed for and believed God for, and finally God gave him this son, Isaac.

And then in the next moment, God asked him, give him.

And this story does not sit well with us because it feels like a contradiction.

Wait, a God who loves people is asking Abraham to sacrifice his son.

Doesn't that make him like the gods of the pagan world during that time?

And so we start thinking that we're not safe from God, that God will take away the things that we love.

But that's farther from the truth, my friends.

Well, first of all, if you don't know the story, God did not let Isaac be harmed.

Letting you know this.

But what was important is God had a purpose in that whole thing with Abraham.

He wanted Abraham to do a DTR with him.

Do you know what a DTR is?

You don't need to do this when you're married, your relationships are defined.

But if you're maybe dating or you like someone and you're like, oh, we've been hanging out a lot, and then at some point you want to define the relationship.

Like, what are we?

Are we friends?

Are we more than friends?

It's called a DTR.

Well, at least it's called a DTR when I was back when I was in college.

That was a long time ago.

Um, but when God asks Abraham, sacrifice your son, God is asking him one question.

Is your son what's most important for you?

What's most precious for you?

Is he more important, or am I more important to you?

And so God is asking Abraham to define the relationship.

Am I the most important person in your life?

So Jesus calls people to follow him.

And in the Gospels, we actually see that some people have a huge problem with this.

One man said, you know, leave everything I own, but I have a lot of things.

I'm pretty rich.

And so it saddens him, and he didn't want to follow Jesus.

Some other person said, Oh, wait, Lord, I will do my responsibilities first.

Bury my dead, the the dead, bury, like, yes, the dead feed my cows, all of those things, and then I'll follow you.

Following God involves letting go of things that we have positioned in the place of priority in our lives, in that one place only God should occupy.

Abraham's most precious possession was Isaac.

And God was asking, does Isaac have the number one priority spot, or do I have it?

When God calls, we have a choice on how to respond.

We reorder our hearts so that God comes first.

And this is something that I actually struggled with a couple of months ago.

I had already had plans to go to Brussels to go to seminary, and I'm happy to do that, and I'm excited for that.

But there was something, there was one thing that I was definitely like it was difficult for me to let go.

And that was I guess.

I wanted to have both.

Because way back when, when I went to college the first time, um I had my parents here, they were my anchor.

So I can go travel, do all sorts of things, and my family were there.

And um my parents, both of them, have passed, and IES is my family.

You're all my family.

And so in May, I was in a I was in a situation where God told me, you know, you need to be completely present in the place that I call you to be.

And that meant letting go of IES.

I was standing there worshiping, Pastor Misha was leading worship, it was his song, uh, My God is sufficient, and I was bawling my eyes out over there because what God asked me was, Am I sufficient for you?

And and it was difficult.

But God asked it, so I let go.

So what is it that you need to let go?

Maybe, like me, it's your safety net, because IES was my safety net.

Or maybe it's a sin in your life.

Scripture says we must put aside every heavy, each heavy weight, and the sin which gets in the way so easily.

God is asking, what is it that you have been holding on to that you need to let go?

Or maybe it's our attitude.

We have put our feelings or ourselves in the place that's supposed to be God's, the first priority.

And this one's hard.

Letting go of things that is taking God's place in our lives.

But that's what God calls us to do.

We have one more stop.

The last checkpoint is checkpoint number four.

Checkpoint number four is this God's call has one destination, Himself.

Yes, honey.

Come on.

Are we living again?

Honey, you know we're not that young any longer.

Any boy on, honey.

Is there something in your mind?

A lot.

We're living again.

Yes.

You know, I finally made this place called home.

I know.

These are all my friends.

I know.

You are my friends, right?

See?

Are you my friend?

Are you sure?

And our family is here.

I know.

Then why are we living again, honey?

I don't understand.

I don't know.

You don't know again.

But you have to go.

Honey, one more question.

Okay.

Are you sure?

No.

Then if you're not sure why, honey.

Thank you for saying that.

I don't know too, Sarah.

I don't know.

Sarah?

Yes.

It's because God is just because of God is God is sure.

Okay, then.

If he calls us, we have to go.

Okay, I'll go.

Let's go.

But honey honey honey, one more thing.

Can we say bye-bye to them?

Bye-bye.

Bye.

We're living again.

Let's go.

So Abraham and Sarah lived a nomadic life.

And it says that Abraham didn't see the complete fulfillment of God's promise in his lifetime.

Abraham had been called to believe that God would give him a homeland, even though he was a wandering stranger, a nomad with no fixed abode.

Friends, we are nomads here on this earth.

And we are looking towards the fulfillment of that homeland that Hebrews was talking about.

Abraham and everyone on that list in Hebrews, what did they look at?

In Hebrews chapter 12, it says, look to Christ.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

God's people are invited to look to Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith.

We must look ahead to Jesus.

He is the one who carved out the path for faith, and he's the one who brought it to completion.

When God calls, we have a choice on how to respond.

We choose not to settle for the world, all so we can have God.

But friends, there's nothing that the world offers that is worth taking our eyes off of Jesus.

In Hebrews, actually, my favorite part of Hebrews 11 says this all of these people have gone through everything that there is that they can go through.

And it says the world was not worthy of them.

Why?

Because they are not made for this world.

And we are not made for this world.

God wants us to look up and focus on Him.

In Exodus 33, Moses had a conversation with God, and God said, Moses, go, go into the promised land, but I'm not going with you.

I'll give it to you, all of it to you, but I'm not going with you.

And Moses said, Lord, if your presence does not go with me, I am not going.

The destination, my friends, of this faith journey we're on has never been geographical.

It has always been God.

My destination is not Brussels.

Some of your destination isn't here, Jakarta.

And sometimes we just really want to nest and feel comfortable.

But friends, our destination has always been to be with the Lord.

What we are looking forward to is Revelation 21.

Says this, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.

The first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.

And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride dressed up for her husband.

I heard a loud voice from the throne, and this is what it said.

And God himself will be with them and will be their God.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

There will be no more death or mourning or weeping or pain anymore, since the first things have passed away.

Friends, the ultimate destination is being with the Lord.

And even as we are wanderers and sojourners, nomads in this world, what we look to is God.

And we're looking forward to when God is physically present with all of us.

But his presence is also here.

So seeing these four checkpoints, I observe something about the process, the journey of faith.

There's a little bit of a pattern to it.

First, God calls.

And then we follow.

And then God reveals himself.

Can we show the diagram?

I thought there was a diagram.

No?

Okay.

Yes, that one.

So God calls, and then we follow, and then God reveals himself to us.

And then he calls us again.

And then we follow again.

And then God reveals more about himself and of himself.

That's what Abraham went through in his entire life.

And that's what we're called to.

We're invited to.

Because the more we do this, the more we follow God's call, the more he reveals himself to us, the deeper our relationship will be with him.

The more we will know God.

It's going to be personal, friends.

He's inviting you and I to a personal, an intimate, a deep relationship with him.

The process is he calls, we follow.

And then he reveals more of himself.

This is what we are invited to.

So I want to challenge you today.

There were four checkpoints, four challenges.

The first is that God calls everyone to follow him.

If this is you and you're like, I I'm thinking about following Jesus.

Friends, this is a great day to start following Jesus.

And this is an opportunity for you to follow Jesus.

The second, God calls us to rely on Him.

What kind of prayers have you been praying?

Pray the big impossible prayers because God is able and God loves you.

The third, God's call involves letting go of something.

Because He wants to be the most important thing, most important person in your life.

And if that's you, if there are things that you need to let go, whether it is your safety net, maybe, or your comfort, or maybe it's a sin that you've been holding on to for way too long.

If that's you, today is an opportunity to let it go.

And fourth, God's call has one destination: Himself.

If you have been settling for the world and the world standards, God is calling you to realign yourself to him.

Look up and see Him, the author and the completer of our faith.

Refocus on God.

If this is you, it's time to look up and see Jesus.

So if you say about any of these points, oh that's me.

I need to make this decision, I want to invite you to respond.

And the way we do it is uh today we're going to sing a chorus.

And if you want to make that decision to follow, I invite you to sing with us.

And if you're not a singer, say it out loud.

Because there is something about declaring our commitment to the Lord so that we can hear it ourselves.

I hope you enjoyed today's sermon.

Feel free to contact us with any questions through our Instagram.

You can share this podcast with others.

And until next time, may God bless you and keep you.