A SERMON

For those who may have missed it, here's the rough draft of the sermon I did for our church on Sunday night. God was all over me this week, and I knew that He was calling me to speak up in our church. I honestly felt like Jeremiah when he wrote that he wanted to stay quiet, but the word of God was in him like a fire. Jeremiah admits that he wanted to hold it in, but it hurt so bad that he had to let it out. Sunday afternoon my stomach was physically sick as I waited to speak to our church. Once the message came out, I was fine.

This past Sunday night our church really worshiped. Not because of anything I said, but because our students came before our church and showed them the love of God. They showed them that God can and will move in the hearts of people. If you pray, please pray for our church - for healing, for forgiveness, for the desire to see God move, and please pray for our search for a new pastor. God bless you guys.

Note: This is not word for word what I said. I changed it up a little as I spoke. This is also incomplete. I added to it and left some of it out.

"I’m going to take a minute to brag about what God has done with our students over the past year. I’m not bragging about what they have done. I’m not bragging about what I or Cruz or Shari or Tiffani or Jerry Hill have done. It’s all about what God has done. I want to take this opportunity to brag because in Jeremiah, God says that if you’re going to brag about something, brag about me! That makes God happy – when we brag about Him. So if you don’t mind, I’m going to share with this church what God has done with your students.

When I was hired as the Interim Student Minister, our youth ministry had a sickness. Our students did not look like followers of Christ, and I think they will tell you that as well. Instead of building each other up, they tore each other down. Sometimes, I think it became almost a contest to see who could be the cleverest, the wittiest, and the funniest person. If you could cut somebody down, then you could make it in this youth group. A lot of times our students were really funny, but they fell short of what really mattered. We forgot that we were supposed to be the 0church; we were supposed to be the people of God. Instead of growing, our youth ministry was divisive. There were clicks, and there were groups within the ministry. People made each other angry and there was not much room for forgiveness. During this time, we had a lot of students leave and never come back. People were hurt. We were supposed to be building each other up, not tearing down.

Things started to change when we noticed the problem and pointed it out to the students. The word of God was able to get a hold of their hearts and the word of God helped to change our ministry. Over the past year our students have grown so much. I think it all started with camp last year. Our students shocked us last year because they were so open to other churches, and I think for the first time in a long time, they really saw what it meant to love and serve others. And over the last year we have taken every opportunity to show what it means to love each other. We have learned what it means to be family, to be a church, to be the people of God. Our students genuinely care about one another. They really do love each other. And this full year of learning and growing just exploded this past week at camp. Camp wasn’t just a fluke experience for us this year. God has been shaping us and preparing us all year for this past week. And as you saw our students come up here and share their hearts with you, know that camp was a result of a year’s worth of growth. God has worked in their lives. This past week at camp we had 6 students give their lives over to God, 2 students surrender to the ministry, and 1 student made an extremely hard decision about forgiveness. God has blessed our students because they have been open to His word. They have been open to following Him. They deeply desire to serve Him, and They want with their whole hearts to see Him move. They are hungry to see God. And God has changed them. He has changed my heart.

I tell you this story today because I am deeply troubled. My heart is heavy. I am tired and I am hurting for this church. Before God brought change in our youth ministry, our students were a microcosm of what our church looked like. Honestly, at times, going to church has become more of a burden than a time of worship, and I am ready to see God work. There are people in this church who are hurting. There are people in this church who have become bitter. There are people in this church who are angry. There are so many in this church who have been hurt by others, and there are so many who have hurt others – whether intentionally or not – it still hurts. And I am grieving because instead of giving this pain over to God, our church has put up walls and created a battlefield. We have sides. There are those who think that their side is right, and there are others who think that their side is right. There are still others who look at the situation and condemn both sides. There are still others who think that because Mike and/or Roger are leaving that the problem is going to go away. I am here to tell you that this situation is not something that we can just ignore and expect to go away. The problem runs much deeper than that.

I want to take a look at a passage that our camp pastor used this past week. It truly was amazing because his main theme throughout the week is relevant to what I wanted to speak about originally tonight. If you’ll turn to Jeremiah 24…

This passage is referring to the exile into Babylon. The people of Judah had messed up. They stopped following God, so God allowed the Babylonians to take over. Jeremiah sees the situation and says that there were some bad figs in Judah. They are rotten to the core. Zedekiah, the king and the leaders of the nation had forgotten who their God was. They forgot about their daddy. There was nothing good in them, they were the bad fruit. If they were the fig tree, there was no good fruit on their tree. And Jeremiah says that God is going to let the bad figs go. God’s going to give the bad figs over to their own selfish desires and their own sin. They’re going to rot in their own filth. They’re nasty and rotten because they refuse to let God work in them.

The good figs, on the other hand, God has a plan for. In verse 9, he says that “I’ll give them a heart to know me. They will be my people and I will be their God, for they’ll have returned to me with all their hearts.” The good figs in Judah had messed up too. They had sinned against God, but the difference is that they desire to follow God. They desire God, and as a result, God shows them himself. The good figs have to suffer, but God is going to take care of them. God is there for them. He says, “I’ll build them up, not tear them down; I’ll plant them, not uproot them.” The good figs, the people of God are going to suffer and they’re going into captivity, but God is going to take care of them as he says in Jeremiah 29:11: he’s going to take care of them and He has a plan and a purpose for their lives. They will come back to Judah with a heart to see God.

It’s like the story that James Darby told of the man who found a cocoon….

Here’s the deal, church: if we ignore the problems that exist, this church is going to die like that butterfly. We have to allow God to work in us. We have to let God sift through our pains and our hurts. We have to let God heal us. We have to forgive one another. If we do not do these things, this church will die. God will do to this church what he did to the bad figs in Jeremiah. We can see this again in Revelation 3 when God is talking to the church in Laodicea. He says you are neither hot nor cold. You are stagnant. God says he wants to vomit them out of His mouth. They claim to follow God, and they act like Christians, but they give no fruit. They are not real. Our church is not far from this. The bitterness and the utter hatred within this church are far too prevalent to be ignored. God desires healing, and he wants us to repent, to change, to alter courses. And as James Darby said all week, “We’ve got to hang on!” We’ve got to give all of ourselves to God. Everything. No exceptions! Give your pain over. Give your hurt over. Give your anger over. Let God work in this church. Let God deal with his people. I am on my knees begging you! Let’s forgive one another.

My heart is burdened even more because I am convinced that everyone in this room pretty much agrees that something needs to be done in this church. But here’s the problem: everyone thinks that everybody else needs to get right with God. In other words, some of you are sitting in your chair right now thinking of somebody else who needs to change, somebody else who needs to forgive, somebody else who needs to stop the hatred. And if you’re sitting here thinking that somebody else needs to change, my brothers, it’s you who needs to change. It’s you who needs to look inside of yourself and search deep into the dark corners of your heart and find out what God is trying to say to you. Because guess what? We’re all people, and we’ve all messed up. And this mess within this church has been going on way to long for you to be completely innocent. Have you ever talked about anyone behind their back? Have you ever judged another without looking at yourself? Have you been just flat out rude to someone? Chances are that there’s something you’ve done. I’m not innocent. This church is hurting, and it goes way back. It goes back before Brother Mike even came here. The pain is deep. We have to seek God’s mercy and grace and find a way to heal.
My friends, church is not about what you want. It’s not about I want. Church has nothing to do with politics. Church has nothing to do with the way you think it should be run. Church is not a business meeting. Church is not something you go to every Sunday and Wednesday. Church is NOT ABOUT YOU. It’s not about your goals. It’s not about your agendas. Church is not about whether or not you can control things. It’s not about a certain worship style – whether it be traditional or contemporary. Church, my brothers and sisters, is about the people of God being the people of God! We are supposed to work together in this. We’re supposed to be a family. Sure families fight, but this has gotten ridiculous. We don’t even have to like everybody, because let’s face it, some people just aren’t going to get along, but we darn sure better love everybody. We darn sure better respect everybody.

What does it look like to be the people of God? This is a completely different sermon, but here’s three things that James Darby talked about this week that we as a church need to do. One: We need a heart for God. Because Jesus said that all of hearts, souls, mind, and strength are supposed to be in love with God. Do you really love God? Do you obey God? Do you seek him day in and day out? Two: we worship God. Like I said before worship is not about a style. Worship is letting God come in and us falling on our faces before Him. Worship is not a song. It’s mind’s attention and heart’s devotion looking toward our creator. Three: We love people. The second greatest commandment according to Jesus. Love your neighbor as yourself.

I have actually had a conversation with someone who didn’t believe that our church could change. I have a problem with this because if you don’t believe that God can change our church, then you don’t know my GOD. I have seen God work in our students lives and change our youth ministry over the past year. I have seen miracles. I have seen the love of God pour out where there was hatred before. If you don’t think that God can change our church, then I tell you to look at our students. God can and will change us if we want Him to. In Chronicles God says that if my people will humbly pray, then I will come to them and heal their land. If we as a church fall down on our faces before God and seek forgiveness, then God will do great things. He can and will work miracles. I am begging each and every one of you in this room to dig deep down in your soul and find what God would have you do. I am begging you to pray. To pray for change within yourself and to pray for change within this church."