This summer were doing a short series we’re calling 5G. One of my childhood dreams was to become a Top Gun fighter pilot. I would walk around wearing a white T-Shirt imagining I’d be Tom Cruise one day. An ordinary person can withstand 4 or 5G’s without passing out. But a professionally trained fighter pilot can withstand even greater G-Forces. What if, as a church we were to push the throttle and pull back the stick—what greater altitude might we attain?
The “Top Gun-5G” thing drew confused stares from the staff. So…virtually everyone has a cell phone--5G is the standard. If your device has 5G, or 5 Bars, you are fully connected and fully empowered to be all that you can be. What would it look like if we were fully connected and empowered spiritually? In this series we’re going to explore some of the most foundational principles and practices… that if we prioritize them, cause us to flourish.
The most foundational principle to the Christian life and flourishing is GRACE. Everything essential, indeed beautiful, in the Christian life builds upon GRACE. The first verse I ever memorized was John 3:16, “For God so loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” Grace is rated E for Everyone. In Jesus’ day, there were so many people being left out in the cold. You had a sharp divide between insiders and outsiders.
Years back, it was actually about the time I started pastoring, Toby Keith released this song called, “I Love this Bar.” In the video he’s singing behind chicken wire in a rowdy bar. Some are singing along with him, but others are throwing beer bottles at the band. But what a cast of characters he paints! He sings, “We got Winners & Losers… Chain-smokers & Boozers… Yuppies & Bikers… Thirsty Hitchhikers. The girls next door (who dress up like movie stars.) Cowboys & Truckers. Broken-hearted fools & Suckers. Hustlers & Fighters. Early Birds and All-Nighters. Veterans (talking about their battle scars). High-techs. Blue-collar boys and Rednecks. Lovers & Lookers. Dancing girls & Hookers. Divorcees. Barflies. A [Dummy] & a wise guy. Bouncers, Waitresses, Hard-core Musicians.”
This song randomly popped up on the radio the other day and it got me thinking. Who do we, the Church, got? If you walked into a church that looked like Toby Keith’s bar, would you stick around for the show, or would you spin on your heel, and run out the door? If one of the characters from Toby Keith’s bar showed up at church, and sat in your aisle, would it make you smile or make you scowl? Would you reach and welcome that person? Would you befriend them? Would you be excited to help them explore hope, to get to know Jesus? Or let me try this… What if you were one of the characters from Toby Keith’s bar… would you dare set foot in this church? Would you feel loved, welcomed, accepted?
By the way, “I love this Bar” is decades old and quite outdated. What if we were to update the cast of characters? There isn’t anyone in that list I’ve probably not shared Christ with at some time, in some way. Sharing Christ is one thing… but not many churches are rated E for Everyone. It wouldn’t be hard, or take very long, to make a list of characters we’d not be so sure about were they to show up seeking Christ. People we’d rather not disrupt our nice Sunday mornings, our comfortable small groups, or our tidy gatherings.
I spent time this week reading through Luke’s gospel. The cast of characters in Luke’s gospel are every bit as vivid, colorful, and diverse at that at Toby Keith’s local watering hole. In Luke’s gospel we have Sinners and Tax-collectors. Outcasts. High-society Elites—Scribes, Pharisees, Priests, Teachers, Elders, Rich Young Rulers, Political Zealots. Everyday Workers, Fishy Fishermen, Smelly Shepherds, Hardened Centurions and Soldiers. Broken-Hearted Widows, Parents, Orphans, Traitors, Extortionists, Clean and Unclean. Lepers, Adulterers, Prostitutes. One of Jesus’ closest companions, Mary Magdalene, had evil spirits cast out of her, and had to be cured of various diseases. There were people in every category of sickness and illness. A Woman Bleeding 12 years. A Desperate Dad pleading for his boy who was afflicted by demons. The freakiest encounter Jesus had was with the Gerasene Demoniac. He was this wild beast of a man, a total outcast, living naked among the tombs of the dead. The locals didn’t know what to do with him, so they just chained him and assigned him caretakers.
The great irony is that the Temple was to be a house of prayer, a house of grace. It was supposed to be a place rated E for Everyone—but its purpose had become corrupted. Can you imagine the chaos, the spiritual crisis, Jesus was creating roaming about befriending all these rogue sinners and misfits? We’d much prefer John 3:16 say, “For God so loved people [like me]… He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone [like me] who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
I think of Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:18-19 (NLT), “… And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”
That sounds like a really good prayer for us. It’s hard enough on a personal level to grasp God’s love. It’s a whole other thing to get our mind around just how wide, long, high and deep God’s love is for whole world, for “Everyone.” If you think Jesus’ interactions, befriending sinners and tax-collectors, was problematic… his parables (his story-telling) had a way of inciting sheer RAGE!
Smack dab in the middle of Luke Jesus tells a series of parables. I want to save the first two for next week. So, allow me to skip to the third parable. In Luke 15:1-2, it says, “All the tax collectors and sinners were approaching to listen to him. 2 And the Pharisees and scribes were complaining, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” I envision a couple Pharisees bumbling around under some sinner’s window. One sitting on the shoulders of the other. Both losing balance. “What’s going on? What’s Jesus doing now? Come on, tell me, what do you see?” to which the other sneers, “Uck. He’s welcoming sinners and eating with them. Disgusting. What an animal.”
Jesus is a creative genius. In Luke 15:11-12 he says: “11 A man had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate that belongs to me.’ So he divided his assets between them.” Two words I’d never dare to speak to my dad-- “Give Me.” The audacity, the presumption of those words transcends cultures and generations! But the younger son had such audacity! Notice, the father divides assets to both sons.
And what do you think happened? Luke 15:13, “13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered together everything he had and traveled to a distant country, where he squandered his estate in foolish living.” All the wealth in the world can’t subsidize a person’s bad character. If you gave them $1, if you gave them $1,000,000 the same would unfold. Luke 15:14, “14 After he had spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he had nothing. 15 Then he went to work for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one would give him anything.” The younger brother wasn’t just having bad luck. You could put a wise man in the exact same circumstance with a $1 and he’d find a way through. But what does the Bible repeatedly teach? God gives grace to the humble but resists the proud. It’s not just bad luck, God doesn’t allow us to run away in pride.
Luke 15:17-21, “17 When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I’ll get up, go to my father, and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. 19 I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired workers.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. The son said to him, 21 ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.’” The younger son’s reunion is every bit as scandalous as his rebellion! You’re going to go back to the Father and do what? And then of course, “The Father did what? He was sitting there waiting for him? He saw while he was still a long way off? He threw his arms around his neck and kissed him? What kind of family is this again?
Luke 15:22-24, “22 “But the father told his servants, ‘Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Then bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let’s celebrate with a feast, 24 because this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ So they began to celebrate.” The son wasn’t just another character sitting in a bar, trying to drink his past away. He was wanted, desired, missed, profoundly loved. And the only thing the Father cares about is that the younger son figured it out before it was too late. And the Father wanted everyone to know how wide, long, deep and long was the grace he had for this wayward son of his. There isn’t anyone too unclean, too dirty, with too disastrous a past, there is no character Father not willing welcome home.
If you’re that younger son, that “character” who had to muster up every bit of courage to come to the Father—to Church—we want you to know you’re welcome here, and even more, loved. The pivotal point in that younger man’s life was coming home. *It would be our deepest pleasure if after the service you made your way to the POINT and let us hear your story, and pray with you, and point the way to hope.
There is more to the story… remember there are two sons. Luke 15:25-32. The irony is that the more religious you are, the longer you’re religious…the greater the danger you become disconnected from God’s grace. “25 “Now his older son was in the field; as he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he summoned one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 ‘Your brother is here,’ he told him, ‘and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he got him back safe and sound.’ 28 “Then he became angry and didn’t want to go in. So his father came out and pleaded with him. 29 But he replied to his father, ‘Look, I have been slaving many years for you, and I have never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me a goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him!’ 31 “‘Son,’ he said to him, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
There wasn’t just one son who needed saving—there were two. Sad to say—grace can be just as scandalous for those in the church as those outside… for those who presume to be closest to God, as those far from God. There isn’t a single one of us in this room who doesn’t need to be humbled even more by God’s grace. Thus, the urgent necessity of Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:18-19 (NLT), “… And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, (though it is too great to understand fully.) Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”
No one of us is worthy to receive the Father’s grace. But we’re here not because of our worthiness but because of the Father’s goodness. Period. Grace is single most foundational, single most defining thing to celebrate and to put into practice! Now imagine us being 5G Church... as fully connected to God’s grace as possible… and as fully empowered as Christ, as the Father himself, to show it. Maybe a way we can learn to share God’s grace is to remember what kind of characters we were before God’s grace rescued us…