The Way
From the Series: Greater Things
Speaker: Joel Schmidgall
Date: February 22, 2009
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Transcript
How ya doing? My name is Joel Schmidgall. I’m our Ballston Campus Pastor. I want to give a huge welcome to all five of our locations, including Kingstowne! Welcome everyone. If you’ve got your Bible, you can turn to John 14 and we’ll get there in a moment.
In 1999, I finished my Biblical Studies degree in Springfield, Missouri and headed east to a small town called Washington D.C. I came here to work with the National Prayer Breakfast for my first year. Monday through Friday I was with the National Prayer Breakfast office then on Saturday and Sunday I worked at National Community Church, so I didn’t have a day off for my first year. Ignored that whole Sabbath thing, I wouldn’t recommend that. How many people didn’t have a day off for a while for their first year? Welcome to D.C., suckers! That’s how it works around here! After that first year, I spent some time in a Senate office and it came to the point where the Senator didn’t get re-elected, so I found myself in a place a searching, degree in hand, ambition in mind, bills on the desk, a future uncertain. I was excited! I was ready. I was anticipating greater things in my life for that next step, but at the same time, a lot of you know what I’m talking about when I say I was a little nervous, a little confused, I had some anxiety and some worry in my life, and to be honest, I was a little bit scared.
I want to ask a question. Everybody at all locations and on video as well, with a raise of hands, how many of you have lost a job or know someone who has lost a job in the last year? Wow! That is incredible, I didn’t know it would be that many. So many hands lifted up, we have been praying for so many of you, prayer requests have come in and we’ve been praying for you and standing with you, but the fact is, a lot of us, or should I say all of us, have been affected by this economy. A lot of us are in a place of uncertainty in our lives, so we step into John 14. Here’s the context, this is the last night before Jesus’ crucifixion, so we find Jesus in his final address to eleven of the disciples. He has dismissed Judas in the chapter before. So we find Jesus at this critical moment in time, it’s the Lord’s last hours with the disciples. These are crucial moments, these are crucial words in crucial hours because Jesus is setting the tone, He is preparing these guys for what is about to happen, the traumatic, shocking experience of his death. So we find them in a similar place of uncertainty in their lives. Anytime you have uncertainty or a tough decision, I think you come to a point of desperation, you begin reaching out. That’s where I was. I prayed over and over, God show me your way, show me the place I need to end up at, reveal your will to me, and over and over I felt like God didn’t answer that prayer, He left me hanging there, so I’d pray God make clear my path. It is a similar question that we find Thomas asking in John 14.
Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"
He makes this statement of desperation a prayer, if you will, saying, ‘There is unknown in front of us, things are unclear and uncertain, so show us the way Lord.’
A Professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan spent a number of years studying and taking a look at how perceived insecurity affects people’s health. Here’s what she found. People who felt chronically insecure about their jobs reported significantly worse overall health in both studies and were more depressed in one of the studies than those who had actually lost their jobs or even faced a serious illness or life-threatening disease. In other words, uncertainty can sometimes take a greater toll than bad news. Crazy. That the bad news that’s in the uncertainty that could come, that this place of uncertainty could be worse off than actually finding the bad news out. But the fact is that when we are in a place of uncertainty, this is how it is for me, the thing that I crave the most is direction. You can take a little bit of instability, you can take losing some of those perks or joys in life, you can take going through a rough circumstance or situation if you know what is ahead, if you know the future, if you have a plan moving forward. So we crave this thing of direction, so we find ourselves at this place and that’s where Thomas finds himself in the Scripture. That’s where I find myself, trying to find direction before the Lord. We see Thomas seeking this. Here’s what we say, we say ‘God, give me the purpose for my life. What is the place you are calling me to at this moment.’ I came to the point where I felt like I just needed to keep praying to God and so I came to this point and I felt like God gave me an answer, a simple answer, too simple, one that I didn’t like. He said, ‘Quit it.’ Here’s what He spoke to my spirit, ‘Stop asking for the place and start seeking my face.’ In other words, I had to quit asking where I needed to be and start realizing who I needed to be with. Then we see Jesus’ response to Thomas in verse 6.
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Thomas just wanted to know the way. Jesus said, ‘I am the way. Stop seeking a path or a direction and start seeking Me, the person that you need to become.’ I believe that the Lord leads us to certain places at certain times, I do believe that. You see Jonah called to Nineveh, a specific place for a specific calling in time in that place. You see David going to the field when he was about to meet Goliath, it seems like God orchestrated his steps right unto that point, so I believe that those are divine moments and that God certainly does that but sometimes, it’s not about being in the right place, but it is about becoming the right person, and then God blesses the place. In Genesis 13, Abraham and Lot are family and they’ve got their family and their herdsmen and different people that work for them and they are co-existing and have a good relationship but some of their herdsmen start to get in a fight. This is a Joel paraphrase. They are going along and Abraham decides – we’ve got a great relationship here, why are we doing this? You go one way and I’ll go the other, you pick a place and I’ll take the other. So naturally Lot picks the plush, well-watered beautiful land where the crops are going to grow and he takes that side and Abraham goes the other way. Well, what happens is God blesses Abraham’s land and he becomes fruitful and he becomes fruitful and he begins to overtake new lands and his herdsmen grow and all these positive things happen to him. So we look back and maybe we say wow, what an unfortunate decision, Abraham was lucky that Lot chose the wrong land. Do we say that, or here’s my observation, that it had nothing to do with the decision. Does God bless the decision or does God bless the person. Ya know? Whichever way Abraham was going, he had made a choice and he said, ‘I will follow You, my focus is You’ and the circumstances don’t matter. The blessing didn’t come from making the perfect decision or the other guy making the wrong decision, the blessing came from Abraham having the right attitude and serving the Lord in those circumstances.
We see this too in our own lives. We go through a tough time and what do we do? We search for a purpose, right? We search for a principle, ‘God just give me a principle that I can live by through this tough time.’ We look for a promise. We’ve heard people say – I’m just standing on a promise. It sounds so good, but I heard a pastor friend recently say, “When we look at the Scriptures, we’re not called to build on a promise or on a principle or a purpose, we are called to build on a Person.” In other words, Jesus comes to Peter and He says, “On this rock I will build my church.” Remember that? He is not saying the rock down by the beautiful ocean, He is saying this person. Peter, meaning rock. On this person, I will build my church. We seek God for direction and we want to know the plan and we want to know everything in front of us, but God is saying focus on the Person. Simplify things and come back to the gospel.
Scriptures say to trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding but in all thy ways, acknowledge Him and He will direct your path. I want to get the direction first but God says He is going to give the direction last. That is the outcome of seeking God. I remember the quote that Pastor Mark shared last week, he said the impact God has prepared for us doesn’t occur when we pursue impact but when we pursue God. I wonder today if this is the application to your life, if this is the thing that needs to get in your spirit and take control. Stop worrying and getting so consumed with direction, stop focusing on direction and on the purpose and start looking to the Person. It is not a profound statement but sometimes it is this simple. When I was praying over this sermon, I didn’t feel like I was giving an incredible, unique angle on this Scripture, I felt like this is an incredibly simple truth, but the fact is, though maybe not profound, simple truth is often revolutionary in our lives, isn’t it? That is the truth. Nina and I, we have this phrase that we sometimes say to one another when we are second guessing or going through a hard time and dwelling on it, we say – let it go. You have to let it go because our mental state get stuck and paralyzed in a certain situation and we can’t stop it, so we need the other person to shake us up and say let it go. I don’t want to belabor this point because this is simple stuff. I don’t want to complicate this. This is simple.
One of my favorite skits, Mad TV, forgive me for watching that, but it’s Bob Newhart, he comes in as this psychologists and this customer comes in and sits down in front of him and he says to the customer, ‘Here’s how we do it, my meetings last no longer than 5 minutes, I charge a dollar a minute, you are going to tell me what the problem is, I’ll give you a simple solution and you go and apply it.’ So she starts in and she says she has a fear that has consumed her her whole life, she is afraid of being buried alive in a box. He asks if there is a reason for that fear. She said no, it’s just been there in the back of your mind. He says, ‘Ok, get your notebook out, pull it out and get your pen, I’m going to give you too simple words to write down, write this down and go out and apply it.’ She’s ready. He says, ‘Stop it!’ She said, ‘Excuse me?’ He said, ‘That thing where you’re afraid of being buried alive? Stop it!’ She made excuses, she was offended, she said, ‘All you’re doing is telling me to stop it, how is this going to help me?’ He says, ‘Ok, I see the problem, here’s what I’m going to do. Take your notebook out and I’m going to give you ten simple words to fix this problem. You ready? Stop it or I’m going to bury you alive in a box!’
Sometimes we don’t need to complicate an issue, we don’t need to psychoanalyze ourselves, we don’t need to know the why behind the what. We don’t need to get into all the reasons, we need to stop, we need someone to get up in our face and maybe that’s me tonight. Let it go, stop it, stop worrying and getting anxious about things that you have no control over. Start seeking God. When we tell each other to let it go, you know what usually follows? We begin to take what Christ has for us in this situation. It is the letting go and the picking up of God’s mantle.
The psychologist, Professor Robert Lahey, Director of the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy, says there are two kinds of worries, productive and unproductive worries. Productive is that thing that you can actually learn, that you can take a step forward, but most worry is unproductive, those things that you have no control over. Worrying about the stock market dropping, you can’t do anything about it. Many of us live in unproductive worry. Isn’t that what the Scriptures say? Don’t be anxious about this but in everything come with prayer and petition. Come to God. This is what God is telling you. And sometimes we need someone to come along and say exactly what the Scriptures say, take captive every thought. That’s what the Bible says, take captive every thought and take on the Spirit of God. Allow Him to lead you. A lot of people believe that Jesus was merely a good person, a great teacher. But we come to this place in the Scriptures, we see that in the final moments of Jesus’ life, He had amazing clarity. He talks directly and He doesn’t mince his words. He says, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” I’m not just your friend, I’m not just a teacher, I am the way. Think of some of the words that are common denominators right now in news stories and newspapers, words like uncertainty and speculation and fear. So we come into this time of uncertainty and we seek direction. Jesus says, “I am the way.” So we come into a time where we are looking to God. We say need legitimacy and He says, “I am the truth.” And we come into a time where we have fear and we say we need confidence and Jesus says, “I am the life.” Jesus did not come to make us rich, contrary to our wants and beliefs, He came to give us life and life more abundantly. He came to give us redemption in our hearts and in those areas that we haven’t touched or don’t want to touch. He says He will redeem that part of your life. He came to give us life because He is the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through Jesus Christ.
He continues on in verse 7:
“If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."
So not only is Jesus the way to God, He is fully God. Many of you have never seen my father, but you know him, because if you know me, you know my father. Let me give you a few signs. Number one – if you met him, you would think he was just a nice guy. If you met him on the road, you would think he is the meanest person in the entire world. Talk to Nina about my driving habits. They are terrible. There is a reason that we don’t have National Community Church written on the side of our church van! Don’t want to ruin our witness!
Sign number two – he was the biggest hack on the basketball court you’ve ever seen in your life. You could not block his shot, because if you tried, he would give you a shot in the face, and he wasn’t that good, he just had really sharp elbows, and the older I get, the more I realize that people around me are getting hurt. I don’t know why.
Sign number three – he was good looking and charming! Case rested.
Number four – he had a heart for missions and he felt called for missions. When I get up here, I’ll be honest, I have a hard time not coming back to talking about some of our missions efforts around the world, talking about our missions trips, because I get so excited about that stuff. In fact, we need to keep in prayer our Ireland team over in Northern Ireland this week. Also, in a couple hours, at 2:00 at Ebenezers, we’ve got our Lebanon meeting coming up for those who are interested. I’m proving my case right now. Love missions and love to see what God can do around the world and in this community.
My dad was passionate about food. He loved sports, he loved ministry and he loved people. My dad passed away 11 years ago but he still lives on today. You know what I mean. Last week, he invested in a young couple, last month he gave an extra gift toward missions, today he is preaching a sermon. If you know me, you know my father. Jesus says in the Scriptures, if you know Me, you know my Father.
Sabellian heresy taught that Jesus was merely a manifestation of God. But Jesus in this statement right here, He says, ‘I am not just a manifestation of God, I am God manifest.’ An act of love sent by God to this world, God with skin. He said, ‘I know your feelings, I know your fears, I know what you’ve gone through, I have lived it and I have given you a model to live by. God manifest.
Jesus gives these encouraging statements. Philip follows up with his question in verse 8:
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”
There is a difference between growing old and growing up. There is a difference between maturity and experience, and Philip shows us the difference right here between the two because he has been around Jesus. Judas had been around Jesus, but for some reason, they hadn’t soaked it in, they hadn’t processed his life and his actions and his miracles and his works into their lives. There is a big difference between growing up and growing old. It’s like attending this event that was incredible, a magical event, and then someone comes out and says, ‘That was boring.’ 1995, I went to see the Championship Chicago Bulls play the Sacramento Kings, one of the greatest games of all times, one of the greatest stadiums, Chicago Stadium, and we go see this game. My dad had invited one of his friends to come along, so we walked in and I noticed he was disinterested in the game, he was talking a lot and not really paying attention, and after the game, my dad asked him, ‘What’d ya think?’ This is the hottest ticket in town, great seats, ya know, and the guy said, ‘Ah, it was alright.’ I was angry. Are you kidding me? You just watched the greatest team to ever play a team sport! Dave Clark would agree with me. He would say Kobe wouldn’t even be on the starting five. Isn’t Georgetown mad right now? The ’09 Pittsburgh Steelers, not even close. Watching this game, you see Michael Jordan come in and tip-dunk, you never saw that before. Forest Grant and Scottie Pippen running one of the only full-court presses that consistently worked in the history of the NBA. The intricacies of this game were genius. But it was only obvious if you paid attention to the meaning of the game. If you were just around it, if you were just a mere spectator of the sport, you miss it. So we see Jesus’ frustration right here. When He says to Thomas, ‘How can you say show us the Father? Where were you the last three years? Were you just around this stuff? Did you miss the point?’
Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.
Basically what Jesus is saying is this, ‘Look at my words, and look at my works.’ I’ll come back to that in just a moment.
I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
That’s an incredible statement right there. So, we are going to do greater things than Jesus? If this wasn’t in the Bible, I’d call it heresy. When is the last time you prayed this prayer – Jesus help me do greater things than You… I don’t even want to say it! But Jesus genuinely desires our lives to have his truth, for our lives to be about greater things, and He says, “Anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing.
I want to challenge us to a John 14 experience. Let’s make this practical, two parts to it. I said earlier that Jesus says, ‘Look at my words and look at my works.’ If you’ve got a pen, jot these two things down.
First part, look at Jesus’ words. Study, apply the words to your life. Get a Bible that has Jesus’ words in red letters and spend a month looking at those words. Let it soak into your spirit, let it get a hold of your heart. Isaiah 55:10 says that his Word will not return void or empty. When you allow it to get into your heart, change occurs.
Second part, do what Jesus did. Apply Jesus’ actions to your life. I think we’ve got a unique opportunity coming up this week that we can build on for this. This Wednesday is called Ash Wednesday. It’s the first day of a season called Lent. Lent goes for 40 days and 40 nights and the goal of it is to focus on Christ through the practice of fasting. Christ did not practice this Himself, it is not some magical thing to do, He didn’t even command us to do it but here’s where it comes from, in Mark 4, we see Jesus preparing for his ministry, for greater things, He goes into the wilderness and fasts for 40 days and 40 nights. So I think we’ve got an opportunity, take the next 40 days to do two things – look at Jesus’ words and look at his works. Here’s the goal of fasting. The goal of fasting is not just a holy diet, it’s not a second chance at those New Year’s resolutions that you’ve messed up on already. It’s more than a holy diet, it is subtracting, yes, but here’s what you notice in Scripture, every time you see fasting, it is accompanied by prayer. So anytime there is fasting, there has to be prayer. Subtraction and addition. So what are you going to cut out of your life? It’s not just to have another notch on your belt or to be able to feel good that you self-sacrificed for a while, the goal is to subtract something so that you can add, so you can seek the Spirit of God, so you can see his miracles and his practices come to fruition in your life. So what can you add? Maybe take his deeds and put them into action, maybe it’s spiritual discipline like confession and repentance and putting these things into action, a reflection for you.
As we do this together, I want to encourage us, this is an opportunity as a church to come and to take this season together. Here’s what I’ve found, I’ve found that unless I outline some action steps for these ideas, then I don’t do them, so I want to give you a couple of action steps.
First is this – at some of our locations after service today, there will be a coffee or a lunch session just to continue this conversation about spiritual discipline. If you want to learn more, you can hear more about that.
Number two – we have Catacombs at Ebenezers at 6:00 p.m. It’s a 90-minute worship session where we come into this place and we seek the Lord and spend time in his presence. Here’s what we’re going to do, we are going to take some time to ask God, what are those greater things we are seeking for, and we are all going to post those together in this place. We’re excited to see what God is going to do this next year. I want to mention something too, bring a notebook, because I’ve found that when I write things down, when you spend time in God’s presence and you make note of what He is speaking, what He is doing in your heart, it allows you to process some of those things that He needs to say clearly into your heart and into your spirit. So I look forward to seeing a lot of you guys there with notebooks.
Number three – take 20 minutes in the next couple of days, before Ash Wednesday, to pray, to think about, to write down, to talk with someone about your goals. I’m not talking about a goal of running a marathon, I’m talking about a goal of seeking God, I’m talking about spiritual goals that you have. Nina and I do this every year. We come into Lent, and we’ll take some time to sit down and pray, we fast something for the entire 40 days, then we fast something else for each week, getting ourselves out of routine. Then each morning we spend 5-10 minutes doing a devotional together, we read from the Scriptures and every day we make prayer notes out of our prayer time and our devotional time, and we try to apply some of things that we’re learning from Scripture into our daily lives. You might not do all those things, maybe for you it is one or two things, I just throw those at you to give you some different ideas about what you can do. Take this and apply it, take some time to re-align your life through this season.
And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
It’s about time we get to some greater things, right? Hallelujah, look at this! We get anything we want if we pray for it! Amen! But there is a qualifying statement in both of these verses, three words that qualify every prayer that we pray to God – in my name. What does that mean? I think some of us think that it means if we pray and at the end say in the name of Jesus, Amen, then you’re good to go, right? Praying over dinner, ‘Bless this food, Amen.’ Oh, you didn’t say in Jesus’ name, you’re going to get food poisoning! No, that’s not what it means. Let me give you a practical test, it’s not the words that you say, but this will make us think a little bit more about what you say and what you are praying for. Just a couple of words here, if you pray that Father, I do this and I ask this because I know it will bring glory to Jesus, you can’t ask God for a new television and say I know it will bring glory to Jesus. Maybe some of the requests are more personal, which is good. The thing I love about D.C. is that you’ve got so much passion in this city, isn’t there? If we were to take some time today to hear the different passions, it would be so cool to get to know one another that way. And I love our church because we are releasing passions and gifts within ministry to serve those around us. I love that about NCC. But sometimes we take our passions and we decide what to do with them, we decide how they are going to be used and who they are going to be used for, and we forget that every good and perfect gift comes from above. How often do you submit your gifts and your passions to God? So maybe it’s you taking this prayer and saying, ‘I ask this to bring glory to Jesus.’ How does that fit in the greater things that you are seeking? It makes you check your motives doesn’t it?
The disciples know they are about to lose not just their Master here, right, but they are about to lose their source of income, they are about to lose their way of life. So Jesus to them, ‘I will take care of you.’ Matthew 6:33: Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. Seek first the kingdom of God and then these things will come. And then the direction will come. My little two-year old, Ella, got in this habit that I love, the favorite parts of my day are when I’m leaving the house in the mornings, I put on my coat and I’m walking out the door and right as I’m closing the door, I hear her run after me and she says, ‘Dad!’ So I open the door back up, and she says, ‘I love you!’ It kills me! Whatever you want, you can have it! I’ll give you the TV. You better believe that no matter what I’ve got going on, no matter how late I am, I’m going to take a moment to step back in and give her some hugs and love on her a little bit and take care of my little girl. Why? Because that’s a father’s heart. I can’t explain it, that’s just how it is.
I don’t know what each person in this place is going through. I don’t know what you are seeking God for. I don’t know what your greater things are or need to be. I don’t know what uncertainty you have in your life. I don’t know anything else, but here’s what I do know, that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and no man cometh to the Father except through Him.
We come to Him with a simple call, don’t we, ‘Dad.’ And when we do, He takes us in and He takes us to those greater things that He has for us.
Gracious Father, we honor You tonight, we give You our praise today, Father. We thank You for your Word, we thank You that it speaks to our heart in unique ways that every single person here receives something unique from You when we open up your Word. Lord, we come before You right now and we submit ourselves to You.
I want to pause here and have a time of response, not for me but for you. No one is going to see, just keep your head bowed and your eyes closed. If you are here and you relate to God’s simple call, you need to get back to the person of Jesus, you’ve got extraneous things holding you down, possessions or attitudes or things in my life that I need to let go of and you just need to get back to Jesus, slip your hand up right now. Thank you. Maybe you are here today and it’s a commitment for you that you need to make, you’re coming into this season and you need to take 40 days through Lent and just get back to the basics, to spiritual disciplines, to committing to God, to know Him and to seek Him out in my life, and as a sign to Him, you need to make a commitment to Him today. If you want to do that, just raise your hand right now.
Father, every hand that was raised in this place is a unique story. So Lord we come before You and I pray for every single hand that was lifted up, that You would intervene in those stories, Lord that You would come and make Yourself anew in each person. God I pray that You would overwhelm each one of us, that You would give us a new song in our heart, as Scripture says. Lord that You would renew a right spirit in us and restore unto us the joy of our salvation. Lord we thank You that the gospel is profound yet simple, that it is simple yet revolutionary. So we pray today that You would take this simple Word for our lives to come back to the cross, to come back to the person of Jesus, that we would put it into practice starting now. We pray your anointing over this process and Lord I pray that as we draw nigh unto You, James 4, that You would draw nigh unto us. Lord, as these hands have been lifted and as these hearts have been raised to You, that You would come down and make Yourself known in each person Lord that has extended themselves to You. We pray that You would overcome us with your goodness and we pray these things in Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Ministry Transcription
Margaret Salyers
606-706-5006
margaretsalyers@gmail.com
