02172019 Jason Robertson

35 years ago this year a skinny guy from District 9 started talking to me and in my first PE class at West Monroe High School and it was Jason Robertson and we started a friendship that little did I know that, about three years later, we would . we shared a monk together at camp chioka and that Thursday night of that high school session he would baptize me with Christ and we have been friends since his son Cole and my son Nathan have been friends since diapers and graduated together. and do a lot of things together and they went to preaching school together they kept each other up they didn't do some of those long afternoons and uh and so it's a privilege you know when your two keynote speakers are so talented. to be able to come and share with us today and Jace was willing to do that and we appreciate it and I appreciate his friendship and his dedication to the gospel for so many years, even we were even a couple of punk teenagers with Well, I was the punk, he was the good one boy.

I'm going to pray for him, Father, I thank you for so many years of friendship and I appreciate his wisdom and his boldness and his willingness to share with me. uh, a young angry teenager and um uh, being able to share the gospel and uh, and your love and your peace, thank you for him and his family and what they've done for our church and what they've done. to my family in the uh over the years and my father I ask that you be with him in a special way as he shares your word with us it is through Jesus amen amen thank you Dave I will add that to another memory of special moments this is a special place for me, you know, I've been here off and on mostly for 40 years and I think this is the first time I've ever preached at the first Sunday morning service, so it just goes to show you if you make an effort to do it.

Persevere, all things are possible once in a lifetime, eh? You know there is a lot to the marriage retreat. We are going to have our own marriage retreat this morning of all the things of all the analogies that God could use to compare what we are in. the world that uses that we are the bride of Christ you know it when you read the book of Ephesians chapter 4 he says live a life of love and begin to go through all the things that we know do not be greedy that there is not a hint of sexual immorality he continues lower down he must live as children of light come out of the darkness do not get drunk with wine which leads to debauchery but sing make music in your heart and he enters into relationships and begins to talk about the roles of husband and wife and in chapter 5 and Verse 32 says this is a deep mystery but I am talking about Christ and the church we are married to, he goes on to say in chapter 6 that our struggle is not against Flesh and blood against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

This is a special place to me because there were a couple of people who got a call at this church years ago and said we had one of the sweetest women you'll ever meet. she's married to one of the worst people you'll ever meet and they're separated she doesn't have a place to stay she has three little kids and they moved out they helped her with some money got her place to stay got her a job and then , in a bold move, they got into a vehicle and drove to a bar where the useless husband was and shared Jesus with him, so most of you know the story of my parents and I.

I appreciate that when they got the call and the question was, would you help them if you can?, they said yes, which turned out to be probably a pretty good investment in terms of the money they gave them, they trained them to become TV stars, they gave you is allowing. Do the math in your head and you'll know that the thing about my dad is that I got to see Jesus Christ transform a human being in real life and my mom, as sweet as she was, was outside of Christ until then, so I'm grateful to have done it.

I met my wife here. I remember being right there. My heart was beating hard to say yes. I stuck my head out. I looked back and was surprised that she was still there. She was really going to do this and that's why I compared it to. what we have in Christ God takes us, cleanses us, presents us to the world. I was skeptical, I had doubts, I don't know if it was just the way I was wired, but when I was young I thought well, no. I don't want to just go to church, go to the same church my parents go to.

I mean, there are thousands of churches, how do we know which one is right? I don't know who was putting those thoughts in my head, but that's what I thought I wrote down. I'll list some of the reasons why I believe there is a church around here almost every quarter mile. There is a church building. You know that we are imperfect people. There is no perfect Church. Now Jesus makes us perfect, but we have defects. We have trouble getting along. I think that's one of the reasons we split up into different camps, we don't agree on secondary issues.

You know, I've been all over the world and almost every church imaginable depending on the sign, but what I've noticed is that we have a lot. more in common than I thought, but we don't agree on secondary issues and until we split into sides we have different personalities as people, different talents and you tend to gravitate towards where you fit in and feel comfortable, we have Traditional habits, it's the way what people are like. You can go to another church and they are doing something that you don't do and you start to feel uncomfortable. We have cultural differences.

You know, all over the world there have been people trying to assimilate what we do here in different countries. Sometimes it just doesn't work. What I am here today to discuss with you is that what we do not want to do, this is what we do not want to do as a church, because remember that the church is the bride of Christ that we represent. he we point people to Jesus, what we don't want to do is become private instead of public and you say what do you mean by 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 17. I want to read this to you 2 Corinthians 3 verse 17 and 18 and before we read it , another difference you will see in churches is how we study the Bible.

You know, they taught me when I was younger. When you read this, you find the commandments, you find the examples, you find the inferences and you practically understand. those directly and follow them to the letter and you'll be fine, that's great for the Old Testament, where there was a law that makes sense. You know, when Jesus came, he introduced something special about God and it was the relational aspect of almighty God. that he is our father, we are sons and daughters, Jesus is our Lord, we are his disciples and we are empowered by the Holy Spirit, so when you think of yourselves as the bride of Christ and people see you and say what is happening , said.

Well, I don't have it all figured out. I have defects. People here have flaws. There are no perfect people in themselves, but we find someone who is perfect and who is a Bright Light. Second Corinthians 3 verse 17, we'll start at 16. ...but every time someone turns to the Lord, the veil is removed under this system of law and it works now the Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom and We, with our faces revealed, all reflect the Glory of the Lord. We are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing Glory coming from the Lord, so we are following Jesus into Freedom.

What we want to do as a group of people is we don't want to revolve our lives around what happens here in our performance. because we're going to have trouble getting along we want to get Jesus there now that's harder we want to be a group of people who believe that anything is possible remember the story in Mark chapter 9 you can go there in verse 20. I'll give you the short version: There was a guy who had a son who had a demon and he was throwing this boy to the ground and he was going through convulsions and he had heard about Jesus so he brought him to Jesus in verse 20 of Mark 9 they brought him when the spirit saw Jesus immediately had a seizure.

The child fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked the child's father how long he had been like this since he was a child. He replied that many times they throw him into the fire or water to kill him, but if you can do something have mercy on us and help us and Jesus said yes you can if you can everything is possible for him who believes immediately the boy's father explained to him I do believe, help me overcome unbelief, it reminds me of our churches, you know we are that close of Jesus, we hear about Jesus, but when we think about doing daring things, sometimes we put that word if he can instead of everything is possible for him who believes that following Jesus is never private never Matthew 5 14-16 a city in a hill what cannot be hidden don't take a light and put a bowl on it let your light shine before men Jesus is the light switch in John 17 3 Jesus in his prayer that he then prayed that we could have Unity but in 17 3 it says now this is eternal life this is eternal life this is the edge of your seat time to be known as the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom you sent in John chapter 6, he gave the definition of the work of God.

Does anyone remember what the definition of the work of God is? Believe in the one he sent. He is the light switch. So you say, "I. you have doubts you know that doubts are not necessarily a bad thing you say what depends on what you are doubting if you consider the positive aspects of choices that are ungodly it is probably good to doubt them I mean we do that in our world the doubts cause let's look to find some of our universities they even have courses, one of them I noticed in Colombia, at the Ivy League school of Columbia University, they have a course called ignorance, look it up and they celebrate what we don't know, it made me To think I wish there could be a classroom right across the street that said not knowing Jesus is dumb, you know, the followers of Jesus were uneducated ordinary men, what made them the smartest guys on the planet is that they knew to Jesus, you find a way to receive forgiveness and you find a way to live forever oh that makes you smart and I'm going across the country and I'll use this power of doubt to my advantage I'm a nature lover I look at things in the creation to point people to the Creator Hebrews 3 4 is the idea behind that every house is built by someone, but God is the Builder of everything, what's the point just because we didn't see your house being built?

We know someone built it because it has a design. I had a conversation with a guy, that's how it was. I don't know which came first, the chicken or the egg, that's probably what they're doing at Columbia, they're arguing about that because they don't know, but I had an argument about which came first, the chicken or the human, because I said how long ago? time. It was the chicken raised on a farm and said well, about 250 million years ago, well, well, when was the human form? because this became incredulous. God, he said, well, humans were formed five or seven million years ago, more or less, a couple of million years ago.

I said, well, who took Caring for the Chicken during that period, it seems to me that if a chicken had been here as long as a chicken, extinction would have happened and he said, well, you know, chickens are tougher than you think. . I said, well, wait a minute. you're actually going to defend the toughness of a chicken, the diamond dinosaurs didn't make it, but the chicken did whatever process allowed that to happen. I doubt you said where you read that from, one day it was just common sense. I was looking at a chicken and thought how he did it.

Is incredible. The one I've seen lately is the nine-banded armadillo I shared this Wednesday and I just saw smoke coming out of people's heads so I thought I'd give you the quick version this morning 21 different species of armadillos on the planet the one we have here in North America it's the nine-banded variety when you consider the chances of a human having identical quadruplets four babies that are identical is one in about 13 million so that's right What happens is that in the armadillo world of the variety of nine gangs have identical quadruplets every time, either four boys or four girls, which seems really random and really impossible if we come from seaweed or a spark or a collision somewhere and you start trying. factor in how that happened when the other 20 varieties of armadillos that doesn't happen it just seems like something you should doubt in that it happens randomly and as cool as that is, you know what doesn't change people's lives, I use it to draw people's attention because Hebrews 3 6 two verses later each house is built by someone but God is the Builder of everything two verses later listen to this Hebrews 3 6 but Christ is faithful as a son over the house of God and we are His house The house of God we house Jesus Colossians 1 27, so what you want to know is that the mystery of godliness is that Christ is in you, he is the light switch, that is the only thing that will change the Someone's heart, that's now, where does that happen here?

I guess so. sometimes, but it happens out there, that's where it's supposed to happen, you know, after he gave that analogy in Ephesians 5 of marriage and says where is our fight against the spiritual forces of evil, thenIt says: put on the armor of God, why should we put on? with the whole armor of God here it's comfortable here there's a police officer every probably 50 yards back there spread out why do we put on the whole armor of God? I'm going out, you can't hide the light switch, so I'll tell you. a brief history. A couple of weeks ago I was traveling to Nashville and noticed someone had stopped next to me.

I see movement. It happens because I have a camouflage truck. People saw it on TV. I think there's one of the duck guys so that's a problem and I looked over there and there was an African American family. I realized it was dad, mom and two kids in the back and now they're just waving, that's a little unusual you know? I was in Arkansas and I saw this and they were going crazy so I told them to move on and then I started thinking about it and I realized it was Sunday morning, it was about 11:30 and I thought they were I just left the church and they saw me and they were excited, so we kept going down the road for miles, we ran into a red light and I was trying to, you know, put this in my mind, put the pieces together and that's how it went .

We happened to be pulling up next to each other and I thought let me test my theory, so I rolled down my window, they rolled down their windows, I said where are they from, they said Little Rock is cool, I said I had a question, they were just literally in the edge of his seat I said: does everyone love Jesus? and when I said that the man who was driving and who once responded this way said, Hallelujah, I thought this guy is a preacher, the wife started singing and the two kids started clapping and he said, I told you so, I told you that they loved Jesus well, the more excited they were, the more excited I was, I was like amen, let's go to heaven together, he said, Hey, man, and then I looked up and I realized the lighters were spinning. green but we don't move we're having a moment Alive behind us and people are shocked they start honking and we're like woohoo.

I thought about Galatians 3, 26 and 27. Where else in the world, where else? the world, could you unite people? could you become color blind? Could you demolish the stereotypes about what we have in Jesus? there are no kinds of people there are no colors of people we all gather at the foot of the cross and the hope we have in the resurrection through faith So you come here this morning and say: I have doubts. I have been on mini accounts. I've been to several prisons volunteering a message at halfway houses and it usually starts with good. I had these doubts.

Marriage seminars. Broken marriages. You have a The conversation had these doubts, so I thought I'd do a test of faith this morning, first Thessalonians 4. You're familiar with this from 13 to 18. Basically, what we believe. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and we believe that he will bring. with him those who have slept and him on the last day the last trumpet when you hear the call of God's trumpet which is quite surprising that God has his own trumpet you read it Jesus returns the dead erased we reunite with those who are simply alive They have changed in the place we meet Jesus in the air that is what it says in 1 Thessalonians 4 exciting things we will hear the voice of God we will be able to fly we will live forever we will see our Lord face to face and then something interesting happens in 1 Thessalonians 4.

After that, it says about times and dates, we don't need to remind you and it comes to chapter 5 and verse 4, it says, but this day should not surprise you, you say there is the test of faith. I have doubts. What are you doubting? Who are you doubting? Would that surprise you now? It's getting real now because this is what we believe this is what we share this is where we get this boldness and this confidence we look around in this world we realize there's a war between good and evil we have Jesus we have the light switch we don't want to get comfortable here and make Jesus private when everything is possible once we present him with our armor that catches people's attention because he trusts Me, when you start talking of people seeing their death, they perk up, you know why they're going to die, you say, oh yeah, but they're exercising, they're eating healthy, they're going to die healthy, so would you be surprised where this comes from?

The doubt comes from I know the origin Genesis 3 1. God made humans a couple of days after the chickens, it's true look for it in chapter one to three there it is, eh, everything is going well and then there is a statement in Genesis 3 1. from the spiritual. forces of evil says: Did God really say? Did God really say? and you have your first introduction to doubt. Did God really say? and then in verse 4 you have your first lie, he says that you will not die, that he goes back to serving and worshiping. created things instead of the Creator that is not what Romans 1 says it is a lie when you put created things above the Creator and act as if he is not there because here is the thing with doubt you say I have doubts those of you who do not believe who you're not sure there's a god you're so sure because of your lifestyle that there isn't a god you say you say prove it I don't have to prove it every day by the way you live where you go what you do how you dress words that come out of your mouth yeah If we followed you around it would be pretty clear if you're sure there's a God or not, those are just the facts, those are just the facts, that's why I keep pointing there, I keep pointing there that's what this needs, we're resting here , just think about a marriage, would a marriage work if you were only together a couple of hours a week?

It just wouldn't work, that's not how it works. I have heard it. to the greatest, most special relationship you could think of in marriage, so what are you doubting? Do you doubt that Jesus will return? I'm going to give you these will be the final notes of these three stories. I think this will cheer you up, John. chapter 4. because we want to bring Jesus to the public look at these look at this story John 4 the woman at the well he says look I will give you living water they start a conversation she is not broken you get to chapter 4 and verse 19 the woman said to him sir Give me this water so that I don't thirst and Jesus told her go, call your husband and come back she says I don't have a husband remember this Jesus told her oh you are right and says that you have already had five of them and who are you living with now no?

It's your husband, boy, it just got real, didn't it? This is what I know when Jesus mentioned his private life, what did he do? It started a religious discussion about where different cultures worship you. I noticed she said sir, the woman said, I can see you are a prophet. I think it's sarcastic that our fathers worshiped on the mountain, but you Jews claim that the place we should worship is in Jerusalem, she raised where we do. re worshiping she missed a valuable point is not where and how John 17 3 is who Jesus declared believe me woman and we know this passage is famous you will worship neither here nor there but true worshipers will worship in spirit and Truth which is the inference of that you will worship everywhere you have the spirit of Almighty God in you and you have the truth of who Jesus is oh let's worship everywhere maybe on the interstate heading to Nashville with a group of people I never met before the LIE came in verse 25 the woman said I know that the Messiah called Christ is coming when he comes, he will explain to us, explain everything to us, he is standing right in front of you, what is missing here is that she was so ashamed of the way she had been. living and they justified it by saying that one day Jesus will come and explain this she was looking for an explanation and not a transformation of her life and that is why we have doubts about God, we doubt God when that means we have to change our lifestyle. that's what this is all about what's the lesson here people don't want to recognize or acknowledge Jesus in public because their private life is full of sin things they don't want to change she did well thanks to Jesus let me give you another Thomas, you know, no we name our children, doubt Faith, yes, doubt, no, here is a man who is always nicknamed Doubting Thomas and we see the signs of it in John 14.

Jesus said, I am going to prepare a place that he is talking about. heaven and guess who says in verse 5 but how do we know the way we don't know the way you're going and then Jesus' answer famous answer I am the way the truth and the life between the lines how did you miss this? and you get to chapter 20 and verses 25 and 26 and you guess that Jesus rises from the dead, that is, there is a way to live forever and what does Thomas say, no, don't believe, it didn't happen. I'm going to have to do it. look at the scars a week later Jesus came in even though the doors were closed and what do you know then he believes now the woman at the well was an acquaintance this was a follower he followed Jesus for three years and still missed him he said what is our problem In the churches Today we are so obsessed trying to figure out the map that we forget about the man, the son of God, the mystery of godliness is that Jesus Christ, the light switch of the world, is in the USA, he is in the USA.

Uh, we have to get out there. the light can't be hidden, let's make them uncomfortable instead of you feeling uncomfortable here about how someone worships or where they worship or what imperfect people do and say we all make mistakes when you go private like a country club, everything It is based on your performance, how you understand this. I've changed my views on more things in this Bible in the last 40 years imaginable, but my view on the important things is being a Son of God made in the image of God, protecting innocent life, it's precious. Jesus is real.

He was impeccable He died on a cross He came back from the dead The holy spirit is the source of power that has not changed The last example is Nicodemus John chapter 3. He comes to Jesus at night Where is the lie that he is a religious leader who have? an acquaintance we have a follower now we have a religious leader and he says you know we know you are from God because no one could do miracles why does he come at night why does he come at night what's up with this I wanted the benefits of Christ in private without being seen in public with Jesus we want the benefits we want the good things but he did not want to be recognized as being with Jesus in public and what did Jesus say to him?

What did he tell you? I love this. a religious leader shows up yeah let's talk about how we're doing these miracles and Jesus said you need to be born again or you can't even see the kingdom you need to start over and through that conversation it became the most famous passage in the Bible it was a conversation with a religious leader at night he said because God loved the world so much that he sent us only son so that whoever believes will not perish but have eternal life and it is not something that we use that is in the whole world and it was in the context of a guy three feet from Jesus having a conversation this is the point don't get too close and don't miss him don't get too close and miss him you said well that could never happen I only gave you three examples an acquaintance a follower and a leader , they lost the purpose, they lost the relationship, so today I will give you the opportunity to make it public, but on one condition, if you come here and declare Jesus as Lord, you can recreate his death, resurrection and even water bell. born again or you can just say you know what I've had doubts, those days are over with one condition: if you come here and make it public, put it out because that's where God uses this, if you ever need to come, always stand up and sing thank you