Big Church |Big Picture (Northwest)

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Transcript

April 1 and 2, 2017

Big Church | Big Picture (Northwest) Matt Hessel | 2 Corinthians 4

Hey Traders Point. How are we? Oh, nine o’clock was so much better than that. How many of you have just gotten back from some place warm on spring break? Yeah, good for you. How many of you are bitter, like me, because you’re not someplace warm on spring break right now? Okay, good. That’s the rest of us. Hey, if you’re a guest—welcome. We are glad that you are here. If you’re joining us online, welcome. My name is Matt. I’m one of the pastors here. And we’ve got to give you a lay of the land and what’s going on for the next two weeks. It’s kind of hard to believe that Easter is two weeks away. We’re going to have services on Saturday and Sunday—two on Saturday at 4 and 6 and then Sunday morning 8, 10, and 12. And if you’re a guest don’t worry. I’m not going to ask you to do anything right now. But if you call Traders Point home I want to ask you to do something. First of all I want you to consider, if you’re going to come on Sunday morning, come to the 8 o’clock or to the noon service. I think the 10 o’clock and the 4 o’clock on Saturday are going to be our prime services so we want to open up as many seats and parking spots as possible for guests. If you’re a guest—you come to whatever service that you want. Also, if you call this place home and you’re not serving on Easter I want to encourage you to do that for that weekend. Go to tpcc.org/easterserve and you can sign up for one two or three services to serve at. We’re going to have so many people here that weekend so we want to do our best job to remove barriers and serve that way for Easter—okay? Hey, if you’ve got a Bible with you go ahead and open it up to 2 Corinthians, chapter 4— 2 Corinthians, chapter 4. That’s where we’re going to hang out. If you don’t have a Bible there should be one in the seatback in front of you and also I’ll have the verses up on the screen. So a few years ago on my birthday my wife had planned out a date night for us. And I asked her, “Hey, what are we doing? What are we doing? What did you plan?” And she would refuse to tell me. She just gave me this really mischievous smile and said that the kids were taken care of for the night—awesome—dress nicely and we have reservations at 7 o’clock. Okay, great—okay. So we get ready. We get in the car. We’re backing out of the driveway and I asked again, “Hey, can you tell me what we’re doing? I’m driving. I kind of need to know where to go.” And she says, “Just head downtown.” Okay, great. We get on 65. We start heading

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Big Church |Big Picture April 1 and 2, 2017

downtown. Great conversation—I don’t even know what we talked about but it was quiet. Nobody was screaming in the back seat or throwing Cheerios at me. It was a great start. As we get further downtown, I’m starting to wonder where I’m getting off. Am I getting off at West or Meridian? What am I doing? And I asked Kelly and all of a sudden she’s looking at her phone. And she’s got this confused look on her face like she doesn’t know where to go. I got a little nervous because we’re about to Methodist on 65—do I need to get off at West? Do I need to get off at Meridian? Am I going around a little bit? What am I doing? Finally she yells, “Get off at Meridian.” Okay great. We get off at Meridian. And at this time it’s 6:55. Our reservations are at 7 o’clock. Now for me, next to people who drive slowly in the left-hand lane, I cannot stand to be late. I can’t stand to be late. If you’re late—that’s fine. It doesn’t bother me. Me personally, I hate to be late. I don’t really exude a lot of patience in those moments so needless to say, I wasn’t much of a help in this situation. All I’m thinking is, “We’ve no idea where we’re going. Great. When we finally find this mystery restaurant, then we’ve got to find a parking spot. Who knows how far away that’s going to be? So we’re going to have to walk and then do whatever else.” So 7 o’clock it’s a pipe-dream right now. So I ask Kelly, “Okay, where do we go?” And she just says, “Go north on Meridian.” “Now what?” She says, “Turn right.” So I turn right. “Now what?” “Ahh, ahh …” That’s her response. Not instilling a whole lot of confidence. She says, “Turn right again.” Okay great. “Now where?” “Turn right again.” We end up back on Meridian further south than where we started. Needless to say, my attitude is not very stellar at this moment and I look over at her and ask her what we’re doing? And she’s just looking down at her phone typing away. That makes me even more frustrated. And I say, “Kelly, just tell me where the restaurant is. I’ll find it. Tell me where to go.” And she didn’t look up she just kept typing on her phone which makes me more frustrated. And then finally she says, “Just keep going north on Meridian. I’m sorry. Go Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.





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north on Meridian.” I’m like, “Okay, calm down.” I had this pep talk with myself, “Relax, it’s okay. Maybe it’s a brand new restaurant and it’s kind of hard to find.” She planned out your whole birthday for you. Relax. Be patient.” It really helped. That calmed me down. It lasted about 2 minutes. Then I said something very helpful. I said this, “Kelly, this is not New York. Indianapolis is much smaller. Plus we’ve lived here our whole lives. This is the age of Siri. We’re not navigating by the stars. We should be able to find this restaurant.” Helpful—don’t judge me. Don’t judge me. I’m just being vulnerable. I’m being real. To her credit, she ignored my impatience and just kept typing on her phone. And then she says, “Hey, park in this garage up here on the right.” Great! Progress. So we park. We get out of the car and we start walking. We walk some more. And we walk some more. I’m all for big, long walks downtown. Love them. Just not at the beginning of February. Not at the beginning of February. So we walk close to nine blocks in downtown Indianapolis—nine blocks and then finally she says, “We’re here!” Great! I can’t wait to see this mystery restaurant. This restaurant that is so hard to find that Google Maps can’t even find it. It must be extremely exclusive. The waiting list has to be nine months long. I can’t wait to have dinner at this mysterious restaurant. I look up, it’s Harry and Izzys—Harry and Izzys. Now confession. My first thought was not, “Hey, I get to have a great dinner with my wife at a restaurant that I really enjoy. My first thought was, “We can’t find Harry and Izzys?” It’s in the middle of downtown. It’s right on the corner. So it’s after 7:30 at this point. I’m not in a good mood. We walk up to the host. Kelly is standing right there and I kid you not—again me being vulnerable—here’s what I said, “Hi. Reservation for Hessel at 7 o’clock.” Don’t boo me. That’s just going to give her more ammunition. So the host looks down at his piece of paper and he says, “Oh, yeah. Hessel. Right this way.” Okay. So I let her go first and he walks us through the restaurant and he leads us past all of these open tables, which I thought was a little weird. And then he leads us to the back of the restaurant because, obviously, they’re going to make us eat in the kitchen since we’re so late. And he walks us down this hallway and he points to this door. And I walk up to the door and I start to open it. And as I open it I see that the room is filled with my friends yelling surprise. Don’t say, “Ahh,” either. Don’t clap for her. She’s in this service right now so I know that she’s enjoying this. My shock went to guilt really quickly and the whole time she’s playing it up like, “Oh, I’m so sorry for ruining your birthday, I’m so sorry.” I look over. Now she’s got this big, stinking grin on her face. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.





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Apparently here’s what happened. Some of our friends were stuck in traffic while they were trying to get downtown so she wasn’t trying to figure out where to go on her phone. She was texting with them trying to help them find a faster route, stalling me so that my friends could beat us to the restaurant and still surprise me. Yeah, I hope you’re enjoying this, Kelly. I look at her and I just said, “I am so sorry. I was such a jerk.” And again, to her credit, she looked at me with those big green eyes and with grace just filling her face she said, “Yes, yes you were a jerk.” I could not see past the fact that we were late. I couldn’t get past my frustration in that moment. But Kelly, she could see the big picture. She saw that my temporary frustration was going to lead to something so, so much better. So how do you handle surprises? Good ones or bad ones. How many of you like surprises? Anybody like surprises? Okay, some of you. How many of you, not so much. You could do without surprises? Yeah. How do handle the unexpected things in life? Good or bad. Are you a big picture type person? Or do you only get stuck in the moment like you can only see right in the here and now? What about when unexpected negative things come? How do you deal with them—pain, suffering, a rough season? What about the good stuff? As a church how do we deal with that? Would we say that we are a big picture church or do we just get caught in the moment? Can we only see what’s going on right now? These are the types of questions that we’ve been hitting on over the last few weeks in our series Big Church. When it comes to the church numbers do matter—they do. We’ll get to that later. But having a big church numerically just for numerical’s sake—wrong motivation. Wrong motivation—God will actually hold us accountable. It’s just like what Aaron said last week. We just want you—whoever you are, whatever you’re story is, wherever you’re at. Maybe today is the first time you’ve ever walked into this building. Maybe today is the first time you’ve ever walked into a church. Maybe you’ve said before, “If I ever walked into a church the ceiling would collapse on me,” or, “Lightening would strike me.” You have no idea how many times I’ve heard that story. Well, if lightening would strike you as you walked into this building, it would strike me too. I don’t deserve to be in here either. If you don’t deserve it, we’re in the same boat. Maybe you’ve had a relationship with Jesus most of your life. Whoever you are, we just want you and as many people as possible to meet Jesus and to know Jesus. That’s the big of church. There are roughly two million people in and around Indianapolis. That’s a big number. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.





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Wherever there are a big number of people there are some big problems. The good news is that we have a very, very big God. So as a church, we have to see the big picture. So what is the big picture? If you’re not already there, get to 2 Corinthians 4. This is a letter written by a guy named Paul who has an unreal story of how he came to know Jesus. And he’s writing this letter to a church in Corinth, which was a city in ancient Greece. The nice way to describe the church at Corinth is that they had a couple of issues they had to work out. The direct way to describe the church at Corinth is that they were a train wreck. But Paul loved this church—he loved this church. He had their backs. He spent time with them. Now he’s writing this letter to try to help them. He’s trying to point them back to Jesus—to get their eyes back on Jesus. And chapter 4 is all about perspective. That’s what he wants to see. Look at verse 7. That’s where we’ll start. “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” So the first thing he says is that there is this treasure—it’s the first thing that Paul points out. He says that if we’re going to see the big picture he wants us to look at the treasure. Keep your eyes on the treasure. Focus on the treasure. The treasure is the gospel—the good news of Jesus Christ. Because of sin—your sin and my sin—we have been separated from God and we were meant to be connected with Him in a relationship. If we look at the world around us we see all of the brokenness, we see all of the pain, we look at our own, individual lives and we see brokenness and we see pain. It’s all a result of sin. But Jesus, in His goodness and in His grace, willingly came down, He gave Himself up, He sacrificed Himself, He died to pay the penalty that is attached to your sin and my sin because there is a penalty. There is a debt attached to sin but Jesus covers it with His death. And then three days later He rose from the dead. He actually walked out of a grave—this happened—conquering death, conquering it for us. The good news is that not only does Jesus give us forgiveness, he gives us grace. So whatever your story is, wherever you’re at, whatever is in your past, whatever is in your present, whatever is in your future the grace of Jesus Christ can cover it. It doesn’t matter what it is. Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, we’re made right with God. We’re good. He’s reconciled us. He’s redeemed us. He’s restored that relationship back to what it was supposed to be. The treasure is not that we get to be with Jesus one day in heaven, if you follow Him. That’s not the treasure. That’s true and that’s coming but the treasure is we get Jesus right now. The same power that raised Christ from the dead now lives in you. That relationship with Jesus—you have it right now. You don’t have to wait for it. That’s the treasure. Paul is saying, “Keep your eyes on that. Don’t forget that. Don’t take your eyes off of that at all.” And he also says, “Hey, remember. That power that is now in you, that Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.





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power is not from you and it’s not about you. That power is from God and it’s about God. Don’t forget that.” He calls us jars of clay. What’s that all about? Well that was a saying pretty common in the ancient world referring to things that are weak, fragile, and breakable. He’s saying, “Hey, you guys—Matt—you’re weak, you’re breakable, you’re fragile.” And this becomes more and more true to me every time I go play basketball. Every time I go play something breaks. He’s saying, “Hey, when people focus on the treasure—when they see the treasure, when they see Jesus, when they see that power in you they should focus upon Jesus and that power not the vessel that it’s in. It’s about Jesus, not you. Don’t forget that.” If you make it about you you’re going to lose your perspective. You’re going to lose the big picture, which is exactly what works-based religion does. That’s exactly what moralism does, Hey, if I can make myself better, “Look God, I’ve changed myself. Look at what I’ve done out of my own power,” you lose it. Paul says that you’re fragile. Here’s the thing that we have to remember about the gospel. When it comes to the gospel the first and ongoing response is always humility, always humility. Jesus came down to us. We didn’t go to Him. He came down to us and willingly gave Himself up. He died for us to pay that penalty, to reconcile us with God, to give us eternal life. What kind of love does that take? I can’t comprehend it. That should humble us. That should continue to humble us. And if you’ve never been humbled by the gospel then you may have never actually responded to it. We’re fragile—humility. And he keeps going with the fragile statement. There’s a purpose to it. Look at verse 8. It says this, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.” I’ve got to be honest. That doesn’t sound like very good news to me, “Hey, come follow Jesus. You might be afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down.” They were being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, “Death is in us so that life can be in you.” That doesn’t sound like very good news. Why would Paul put that in there? That’s not a very compelling argument. Why would anyone want to follow Jesus after hearing that? Here’s the reason why. He says it in verse 13. He says this, “Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written,” this is Psalm 116, “‘I believed and so I spoke,’ we also believe, and so we also speak,” key word, knowing, “knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into His Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.





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presence.” That sounds amazing, “For it is all,” being perplexed, afflicted, struck down, persecuted, serving, it is all, “for your sake,” here it is right here, “so that as grace extends to more and more people,” big church, “it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.” Here’s what Paul is saying, “We know who Jesus is.” We know Him. We know that He rose from the dead. We know that one day He will raise us with Him into His presence and give us eternal life. We know that everything in this life—good and bad—is temporary because we know—conviction. That’s why we go through pain. That’s why we suffer for other people. That’s why we serve. That’s why we speak the bold truth about the grace of Jesus Christ to as many people as possible. So that more and more people might meet Jesus. So that more and more people would know Jesus, not just know about Him but know Him. So that more and more people would be saved by Jesus because we know. That is why we serve, suffer, and sacrifice to remove as many barriers as possible and to extend grace to more and more people. That’s the big picture that Paul is talking about. That’s what he wants us to see. And because of all of that, when we know that, when we have that mission mind-set he says this, because of all of that—verse 16, “So we do not lose heart.” We don’t lose heart. We’re not driven to despair. We don’t lose hope. We don’t quit. We don’t have to back down. We don’t have to bail out no matter what comes at us. We don’t lose heart. “Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.” Here’s one of my all time favorite verses, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look,” big picture “not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” Here’s what Paul is trying to get us to see. When it comes to following Jesus, perspective is key—perspective is key. Can I only see the fact that I’m frustrated because we’re running late or do I know that my wife has something so much greater planned? Can I only see the moment? Can I only see the here and now or do I see more? Write this question down. Talk about this in your group. Write it in the margin next to chapter 4 in your Bible. It’s a simple question: Is my perspective temporary, or is it eternal? Is my perspective temporary, or is it eternal? Can I only see the here and now— good and bad—or do I know that the here and now is part of a much, much bigger picture? This might sound counter-intuitive, but events that happen in your life, moments, things that go on they do not shape your perspective. Your perspective shapes how you see those moments. Is your perspective temporary, or is it eternal? You’ll look at things Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.





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completely differently depending upon how you answer that question. And maybe you want to push back right now, “Matt, you have no idea what I’ve been through. You have no idea what I’ve suffered through. You’ve no idea the kind of pain that I’ve been in. You don’t know what I’m struggling with right now. You don’t know what I’m suffering through right now. You don’t know what I’m experiencing. Yeah, of course you’d say that. You’re supposed to. You’re a pastor. Of course you’d say it’s temporary, but you haven’t experienced what I’ve experienced. You haven’t been through what I’ve been through. You haven’t suffered and felt the pain that I’ve felt. So it’s easy for you to say. You can’t relate to me.” You might be right. Wherever you’re at, I might not be able to relate to you. I might not be a credible source when it comes to suffering. So don’t listen to me. Listen to Paul. He says, “This light, momentary affliction…” And Paul lists out what that light and momentary affliction was for him. He says it at the end of this letter. Chapter 11—here’s what happened to Paul. Here’s what he tells us. He said, “…far more imprisonments,” he got thrown into prison a lot because of the gospel, “with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one.” That means five different times he was whipped, each time 39 lashes. It was considered a death penalty if you whipped somebody 40 times. That happened to him five different times. “Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned.” Maybe not the stoned you’re thinking of. That’s an awkward laugh. That means being hit with rocks until you die. They left him for dead after they threw rocks at him. “Three times I was shipwrecked;” he doesn’t say it right here but in the Book of Acts it says that after one of his shipwrecks he get ashore and he gets bit by a snake. Come on! “… a night and a day I was a drift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people,” that sounds like Oregon Trail, “danger from the Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.” That doesn’t sound like light to me. It sounds like torture. And that did not happen over a month’s period of time or even a year. All of that happened over a span of roughly 30 years that he went through that. Why would someone in their right mind call that light and momentary affliction? Well if Jesus never walked out of a grave then there is nothing after this mortal life. And if that’s true, that kind of suffering that’s an eternity of suffering and Paul’s life has been wasted. But if Jesus did walk out of a grave, if that’s true, then there is something much greater after this life. And if that’s true that means that 30 years of torture, in the scheme of Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.





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things, is about 30 seconds. Perspective is key. Paul had a big picture perspective. He knew who Jesus was. He knew that Jesus rose from the dead. He knew that Jesus would raise him into His presence and give him eternal life. Because of all of that he knew that everything that happens in this life—good and bad—is just temporary. An eternal perspective will shape how you see the temporary. That doesn’t mean that there is not going to be pain. That doesn’t mean that suffering isn’t real. No, that stuff is real. It doesn’t minimize it either. You might be in the middle of that right now. You might be in pain right now. Maybe you’re a Purdue fan and you just lost by 32 points to Kansas in the Sweet 16—I’m kidding Purdue people. I’m just a bitter IU fan. But seriously, maybe you lost your job this week. Your boss walked in your office, told you to pack your stuff. You’ve been with the company for decades. You got a letter of downsizing. It stinks. Maybe your spouse told you that he’s been having an affair or that she’s leaving. Maybe you’ve suffered through some form of abuse from someone who should be the last to put you through that. Maybe the cancer is back and you’re not ready for another round of chemo, you’re not ready to go through radiation again. You’re tired of being so weak that you can’t get off of the couch other than to go the bathroom to get sick. Maybe the chemo and radiation aren’t working. The doctors are not sure what to do next. Maybe you’re broke and the uncertainty of how you’re going to make ends meet is overwhelming to say the least. Maybe you’re being sued right now. It’s not your fault. Somebody is just trying to take advantage of you. Maybe the best word to describe your life is alone and you’re tired of that. It just hurts—hurts. Maybe you’re struggling with some sort of addiction that you honestly want to beat— you honestly do. And you’ve tried but you keep falling into it. Maybe you’ve been told your whole life that you’ll never amount to anything—that you’re worthless and now you’re beginning to believe that narrative. Maybe you’ve got a child who is starting to walk down a really, really dangerous path and the only thing you can do is watch hopelessly. Maybe you’ve lost a child. I know some of you have. You’ve lost a spouse, or a best friend, or another family member. What kind of suffering have you been through? What kind of pain are you in right now? I came home one day and my wife surprised me with the news that we were expecting our fourth child. And I cannot overstate the word surprised. I said, “How did this happen?” I mean I know how it happened… How did this happen? And then after the initial shock wore off, which it took a while, we started talking about what it was going to be like to have either have three boys and one girl or two girls and two boys. And I didn’t know if I could handle two daughters because my daughter already has me wrapped around her finger—two girls, I don’t know if I could handle that. We picked out Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.





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names. We had, in my mind, the dreaded conversation about whether or not to get a mini-van. I know some of you are all in but I don’t have your back there. Sorry I’m not in your camp. All of that stuff is fun, right? It’s fun. Then, nine-and-a-half weeks into the pregnancy we suffered a miscarriage. And that hurt. Still does. And even though I’ve never met that baby, it still feels like somebody is missing from my dinner table. Here’s what I know. Here’s what I know about God and here’s what I know about His character. One day, when I’m standing in the presence of Jesus, like Paul is talking about, there is going to be this little boy or this little girl who comes up to me and I’m not going to know who he or she is, but he or she’s going to know who I am. And that little boy or that little girl is going to look at me and say, “You are my daddy.” That’s going to be amazing. Many of you have been through some pretty severe pain. Many of you are in some pretty severe pain right now. All of us are going to go through pain again. When that happens, when you’re in that moment when it just hurts the only thing that you really can do is just hurt. That’s okay. I don’t know what to tell you to do other than this. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Look at the treasure. Don’t take your eyes off of the treasure, because with Jesus no matter how severe the pain is, no matter how severe it is, with Jesus the pain is only temporary. Remember this: The way you suffer through you’re most difficult times will be shaped by the perspective that you bring into that difficult time. The way you suffer through you’re most difficult times will be shaped by the perspective that you bring into that difficult time. So when the rug of life gets yanked out from underneath of you—and it’s going to, it’s going to happen to all of us—when that happens, what’s your reaction? Is it panic because now life just seem hopelessly out of control? Or is there this unexplainable and unexpected peace because you know that you’re being prepared for something so much greater? Here’s the thing. There is pain in the middle of suffering. But with Jesus suffering isn’t lost. Suffering is an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to prepare us—to prepare us for something so much greater. If you’ve been told at some point, “Hey, if you follow Jesus, if you love Jesus, if you put your faith and trust in Jesus you’ll never suffer, you’ll never experience pain.” If you’ve been told that, I’m sorry. You’ve been lied to. That’s not true. But here’s what is true. There’s never a promise of immunity from pain and suffering in Christ but what is promised is that in Christ, whenever you have pain or whenever you suffer—it will never be in vain. It will never be in vain. God will use that to prepare us for something. Whatever it is that God has planned for Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.





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you, whatever it is that he has planned for me on the other side of eternity—it is so far beyond this present suffering. Whatever that suffering is, we can’t even compare it. The Bible says, “No eye had seen no ear has heard, no one can imagine what the Lord has prepared for those who love Him.” That sounds awesome. I want that right now. Paul says this eternal weight—it’s heavy. So we have to be prepared for it just like he says in that chapter. God’s building in us and if we have a temporary perspective we will miss the fact that God will use that to build and prepare us; that’s why having an eternal perspective is so huge because if all I see is the temporary then life becomes shallow and hopeless really quickly. But having an eternal perspective is a game changer. It’s a game changer. Maybe you’ve heard this story before. There are two brick mason. The first brick mason was asked, “Hey, what are you doing?” He said, “Well, laying brick.” The second brick mason was asked what he was doing. And he said, “I’m building a cathedral.” Perspective. Big picture. With whatever is going on with you right now, whether you’re in a season of success or in a season of suffering, whatever it is for you right now can you only see the bricks or do you know that God is building a cathedral in and through you? Which one? Do not let pain that is temporary take your eyes off of the big picture, because here’s the thing. Satan, suffering, pain, trials, and brokenness cannot take away what is waiting for you and what is true of you in Jesus. They cannot take away your future reward and your future glory. They cannot take away your forgiveness or God’s grace for you. They cannot take away His love and His redemption for you. They cannot take away your status as an adopted son or daughter of God and they cannot take away your salvation. But they can take away your perspective. That’s all they need to take away because you’re perspective is always attached to your hope. If my hope is only on the here and now, only on the things that I can see, only on the temporary then my hope is always going to be attached to very unstable ground. If all I can see is the here and now, if all I can see is the election—who won who didn’t win—if all I can see is my relationship status, if all I can see is how well my kids are doing then my hope is always going to be on unstable ground. If your hope is not connected to forever, your hope will somehow die. Do you see just the bricks or do you see the cathedral being built? Do you know that a cathedral is being built? I have no idea what God is preparing in me and building in me or through me because of the miscarriage. I have no idea. I can’t tell you what it is. I don’t know. But I do know that He is preparing me for something. I do know that He is building a cathedral. And I do know that our God will make all things right: miscarriage, death, divorce, abuse, and suffering. Our God will make everything right one day. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.





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Big Church |Big Picture April 1 and 2, 2017

Romans 5:3 says this, “…we rejoice in our sufferings,” how do we rejoice in our sufferings? The only way that you can do that is if you know that there is something so much greater after the suffering. Only if you have an eternal perspective can you rejoice. “… rejoice in our sufferings knowing,” there’s that word again, knowing “that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” That is our promise. That is our anchor. And if the church is going to say Amen to anything say Amen to that verse. The only true, lasting and stable hope is found in Jesus Christ alone. All other ground is unstable. So what does that mean for us as a church? If we’re going to talk about an eternal perspective, if we’re going to talk about pain and suffering what does that mean for us as a church? How do we apply that? Well, the church is made up of individuals. As a church if we keep our eyes on the big picture, if we do that, we’ll act it out. We’ll act out the big picture. And when we act out the big picture, other people get to see and experience it. That’s what Jesus had in mind the whole time. That’s what big church means. Keep your eyes on the big picture, live it out, and invite people in to experience it. So as Traders Point, how do we apply that? What does that mean for us? If we want to keep our eyes on the big picture, how do we apply that? Well the application is actually pretty simple. There’s nothing profound about it at all. But it does take discipline and it does take attention. Here it is. It’s simple this: A big picture church serves together, suffers together, and sacrifices together—serves, suffers, sacrifices together. That’s it. First, as a church, serve together. Jesus came as a servant. He didn’t come to be served. We have been graciously served by Christ so that’s what we need to do. Serving is one of the ways that we remove barriers. It’s one of the ways that we extend grace to more and more people. I’ve said this before around here. When it comes to serving, there are no tasks that have to be performed only purposes to be fulfilled. Everything that you do, any role that you have around here—when it comes to serving you are fulfilling purpose. And that purpose is to remove barriers and to extend grace to more and more people. We get to be a part of that. I want you to be a part of that. I want that for you, because not only will you bless other people by serving—whether you realize it or not—it will bless you. It will grow you. Does that mean serving isn’t hard? No. It’s hard. Of course it is. It wouldn’t be worth doing if it wasn’t hard. Is serving inconvenient at times? Absolutely it is. Absolutely. That’s why we keep our eyes on the cathedral not just the bricks. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.





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Big Church |Big Picture April 1 and 2, 2017

I’ve got this question written in my office. It’s kind of a gut check for me to kind of check where I am at and really measure myself. I’d encourage you to write this down, talk about this in your group this week, put this question somewhere where you’re going to see it often. It’s a simple question. Here it is: Is my life consistent with what I confess? Is my life consistent with what I confess? For me personally, I confess that Jesus Christ is my Lord and my Savior. Well my Savior saved me from the penalty of my sin so am I continuing to live in my sin? Or am I running away from the sin that put Jesus on the cross? Am I repenting? For me to live in and continue on in my sin would be inconsistent with what I confess. I also confess Jesus as my Lord. My Lord is a servant. So am I a servant? To not be serving would be inconsistent with what I confess. Is your life consistent with what you confess to believe? Here’s the second: As a church we suffer together. The church is a family. Family members share each other’s burdens. When someone suffers, we suffer with them. When someone is mourning, we mourn with them. This is one of the many reasons why we want you to be in a group. Being in a group is one of the ways that we grow the church smaller. And when you’re in a group, then you can have authentic relationships and you can lean on those authentic relationships when you’re suffering. They can help you carry that burden. At the same time, when others are suffering they can lean on you and you can help carry that burden. In a church, suffering should never be an isolated experience. Be known. Get connected. We want that for you. We suffer together. Here’s the third: As a church, we sacrifice together. Jesus sacrificed Himself. He gave Himself up for all, that’s the church, the world, that’s everyone so that all could be redeemed so that all could have eternal life. As a church, we’re called to live like Jesus. Here’s the thing. You cannot live like Jesus unless you’re willing to give yourself up like Jesus. This is one of the reasons why we serve. You’re giving yourself up. You’re sacrificing. It’s one of the reasons we give. Giving our tithes and offerings is not just about generosity. It’s not. It’s also about sacrifice. Because if I have a temporary perspective well then a scarcity mindset is always going to be attached to that. But if I have an eternal perspective, well then giving sacrificially in order to remove barriers and extend grace to more and more people, that doesn’t become an obligation—that becomes a privilege and a no-brainer. Of course I want to do that. If we’re going to serve, suffer, and sacrifice together as a church, then as a church we have to keep our eyes on Jesus no matter what comes. We have to keep our eyes on the Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.





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Big Church |Big Picture April 1 and 2, 2017

treasure, focus on the treasure. Not only do we have to believe that but we have to demonstrate that. An eternal perspective is also a redemptive one. So not only do we have to believe that relationships can be redeemed, we have to demonstrate that here for people. Not only do we believe that everything is going to be restored that is broken—that is going to come, God is going to do that. But we’ve got to model and demonstrate that here. And wherever you’re at, whoever you are, whatever you’re story is we want you to experience that. This is a safe place for you to experience that. So, as a church, keep our eyes on the big picture. Let’s live it out. Let’s invite people into experience it. Let’s have that eternal perspective. Let me pray for us: Father, You are a big God. A God who covers us with grace and forgiveness, a God who is outside of time and who sees eternity, a God who loved us enough to send His Son, Jesus, to die for us and to live for us. Father, it’s hard, it’s hard not to just look at the temporary. God, You know that I struggle with that. It’s hard not to look at things that are good; things that I’m excited about and just not look beyond that. It’s hard to look beyond things that are going poorly or suffering or any kind of pain. God, I pray that You would give us, as a church, the ability to look up and see the eternal. That we would trust You. That we would know that You are building. That we would know that You are caring. And even though we don’t know what it is that You have planned for us, that You would give us a heart that looks forward to that with joy and that we would trust You in it. Father, I pray that Your Spirit would move right now that people would respond to You right now. Maybe today is the first day that someone would say, “Okay, Jesus. I still have questions but I want You.” I pray that that happens and then You get the glory for that. That as a church we will rally, that we’ll encourage, that we’ll be convicted and that You get the glory for that. We’ll give you thanks. It’s in Jesus’ precious name we pray. Amen. Right now we’re going to go into a time of communion. And this is simply a time for you to reflect, to have that eternal perspective. The juice represents Jesus’ spilled blood and the cracker represents His body being broken for all of us. So take time. Thank Him for that. Ask Him for perspective. If you’re not a believer, if you’re not a Christian, that’s okay. You don’t have to do this. Let the tray pass, actually. Nobody is going to be looking at you. Nobody is going to watch. Nobody is going to think anything of it. I would encourage you to just take this time to reflect too. If something is stirring in you, if you’ve got questions, take that to God. There’s no special prayer that you have to pray. Just ask. Take this time to reflect. Servers would you come. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.





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