newlife

I grew up here in Kokomo and trudged off to experience Kindergarten at Palmer school about the same time that people I would've called adults were off to experience Woodstock. I wore groovy clothes that were----well, frankly back in style right now! The older teachers in that school had lived through World War II, maybe even the depression and possibly were born close to World War I.

I can remember the visually conservative look of the teachers and older adults in general---dark horn-rimmed glasses, long skirts, high collars, narrow ties, bee-hive hair dos and crew cuts. I remember what the younger people wore---Mini-skirts, go-go boots, mod hats, and the wider the tie the groovier baby. And somehow the culture's loud dress and crazy music helped usher in a time of questioning.A time when radical 60's ideas started spilling over into the early '70's.

And even though my parents were, age-wise, part of the "older crowd" their personalities and taste and basically our home was more in tune with the younger culture. If you walked into our house you would see big round paper lamp shades, beads separating rooms, and a lava light. It wasn't quite the conservative look of my friends homes. And this was the background of the formative years of my youth.

Like a lot of people in the late 60's-early 70's I grew up questioning things. We saw Watergate and Nixon's impeachment. We saw Vietnam protests along with casualty reports with Walter Cronkite every evening. The 70's became the "me" decade, and as I look back on it I think I somehow caught that vibe--- I grew up believing and relying on myself and being generally skeptical.

As far as I can remember, I only went to church a handful of times as a kidusually somebody invited me---Our family just didn't go. And the times I did go I felt like it was a pretty square gig. Perhaps my questioning and distrust leaked into church as well. I didn't feel like I was missing anything by not going. So I didn't go.

(Fast forward) But when I got to be a freshman at Kokomo High school, somehow I ended up being befriended by a senior. And not some gimpy, pimply outcast seniorhe was a regular quasi-popular guy with an attractive girlfriend, a big drumset and a car.

You have to remember, that to hang out with a senior when you were a pimply "I can't wait to get through puberty" freshman, was a reeeealy big deal. It turned out that this guy was a big time Christian and he and I had long talks about life---the kind of questioning searching conversations that only a 15 year could have. I tortured him with all of the questions I could about Christianity

"Well how do you explain dinosaurs?Why do all these horrible conditions exist around the world if there's this God?"I was relentless. But he hung in there and answered them the best that he could. That's when I got my first real taste of Christianityand my first real taste of what a relationship was like with a Christ follower who wasn't that different from me.

A year or so later I hooked up with a guy who would be my closest friend from high school. We felt so instantly close that it was like finding out that you had a brother that you didn't know you had. And surprisesomehow this guy I felt so in tune with was a Christ follower too. It was almost like a conspiracy

On and off through high school he and I would have even more wrestling conversations over Christianity that Ray usually started with, "When are you going to?" And I'd rebut with, "Yeah, but what about?"

Sometime after high school he and his family moved to a suburb of San Diego. I ended up going with them and staying for a while. During high school and now living with them, I saw first hand how Christianity wasn't something they did on Sunday morningI saw it in their everyday life. I saw God meet their needs. I saw them tell God they didn't have all the answers. I could see what they were trying to tell me about what it was to have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

And one evening after dinner his parents popped some questions about Christianity..Did I believe Jesus Christ was the Son of God? Did I believe He died for my sins? Was I really happy with how I was leading my life or was I ready to trust God to lead me in my life?

I remember almost surprisingly easily answering yes to all these questions. I didn't give them one "Yeah, but." And before you knew it, they had led me into a relationship with Jesus Christ.

There's a lot more details than that, but in a nutshell, that's my story. Now, what's yours?Where are you in your story today? Are still trying to do life all your way? Is it working? Are you curious about God? Are you close to making a commitment? Have you accepted Christ decades ago?

Many times people start coming to OakBrook --as is probably the case following our Easter servicesbut regardless of when we start coming here, I think we all have roughly the same experience. We look around and it looks pretty cool. We sit back and hear music we're not used to hearing in churchand we like it. We see drama on stage about people just like us. And some mornings we even get to watch the occasional video.

But in our mind, we're thinking ."What is this place really about?" And if you have friends or family that attend a more traditional styled church, then maybe they have wondered to you, "What is this place really about that you're going to?"

Well, everything we do at this church, from summer basketball camps, to Fire Wire youth ministry, to playing the styles of music you like to hear----everything we do, we do so that more people will enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ. Therethe cats out of the bag---The secrets out! That's what we're abouthelping God bring people to himself.

We don't do church the way we do it for the sake of being cool or entertaining---we do everything we do for God's sakeso that you would know him.

So if you're not a Christ follower this morning, you need to listen closely to know exactly what that means. If you are already a believer, you need to listen to be confident that you have entered into a relationship with him---I know for a fact that people accept God on multiple occasions because their not sure if they're saved. I want you to be sure

And if you're a mature Christ follower, you need to know clearly what that means, so that you can lead others to Christ. There's something for all of us this morning as we look at what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

Are you ready?The first step in becoming a Christ follower is to believe the Gospel. Gospel----what exactly does that mean? Gospel literally comes from words "God" and "spell". Has any body every seen or been in the musical Godspell??And from the Greek it means "Good message" or "Good News." (PP) The Good News, or The Gospel, is the story of Jesus Christ. The account of Christ is told in the first 4 books of the New Testament which are known as the Gospels----Matthew, Mark, Luke & John. Each of the books is the same account written by 4 different authors.

FYI, the Bible is divided into 2 sections. The Old Testament starts with creation and is the story of the nation of Israel and contains only prophesies of the Christ that will come---it does not include the life of Jesus. The New Testament begins with Jesus Christ and continues to the end of times.

Last month we celebrated the essence of the Good News on Good Friday and Easter. Good Friday we remembered that Jesus Christ, the Son of God in the flesh, was barbarically crucified. He was crucified to pay for our sins, so that we could have access to God.

Now, for that to make sense, we need to understand that in Old Testament times, which was everything up to Jesus' resserection---that if people sinned they had to bring a sacrifice to "pay" for it. And there was a long detailed list of the exact kind of sacrifices that had to attone (or pay for) your specific sin.

God now decided that he would give the ultimate sacrificeHis Son, so that all of these other sacrifices could cease. From that point on, you didn't have to kill a pidgeon, a goat, a calf, whatever, for forgiveness. Christ has paid the price.

Romans 5:8 says: "God demonstrated his love for us in that while we were still separated from God by sin, Christ died for us." (PP)

Three days later on what we now call Easter, Jesus arose from the tomb overcoming death and ascended into Heaven. If you believe the events of Good Friday and Easter to be true, you believe the Gospel. You believe the essence of the first four books of the New Testament.

At this point, I think it's fair to assume that some people don't exactly feel like they have lived a sin-filled life---that perhaps you feel like you have always tried to treat people well, do the right thing, perhaps you've even regularly gone to church as long as you can remember.

Well, if we look at the word "sin" we find that centuries ago, archers shot their arrows super long distances at targets---The distance was so long that they couldn't exactly see where the arrow landed, so there would be spotters near the targets.

After an archer shot the arrow, if it fell short or missed the mark, the spotter would shout, "Sin! Sin!" That's where we get the wordwhich means to fall short or miss the mark. (PP)

So in God's terms what is the mark? Well God's mark is perfectionflawlessness. Sin is not just actions, but sin can be an attitude. Ignoring God is sin.

Please, I'm not trying to degrade youmake you feel bad..I just want to let you know you are in good company. None of us none of us are without sin. We have sin in common with all human beingsit is inherent in our DNA if you willwe all have the sin chromosome. Just as we all have red blood that flows through our circulatory system, we all have sin that flows through our character.

(PP) And 1st John 1:18 says, "If we say that we never sin, we are only fooling ourselves, and refuse to accept the truth." And Romans 3:23 says, "All have sinned and fall short of God's glorious ideal." Sometimes the Bible is not so hard to understand.

OK, so step #1 is we must believe the Gospel---but believing is not enough. In other words, believing that a 747 can fly you to Florida won't get you to Florida. To get somewhere, we have to get on board---we have to take action.

Having realized that we sin, we must receive God's gift of Grace by talking to God in a prayer. In this prayer we (PP) "A".- We acknowledge the Gospel; that Christ, the Son of God died for our sins. And "B"- Ask God to forgive us for our sin and ask for His leadership in our lives.

Luke (24:46-47) tells us"The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations"

So after we acknowledge the Gospel, we are to ask for forgiveness and then repent from our sins. The (PP) word "repent" in Greek is made up of 2 words, "meta" & "noia", which means to "change your mind" and to "change your attitude". In other words, before salvation I may have been cynical towards God and now I become teachable. Instead of being proud and self-sufficient, now I am submissive and humble to God's direction for me.

In repentance we go from a very "me" centered life to a very "God" centered life. We say to God, "I understand that Christ died to pay the price for my sins, so that I could be in relationship with You. And from this point forward, I am going to sincerely try to follow you as the leader of my life."

At that point of salvation the Holy Spirit comes into you. The Holy Spirit is a part of the trinity of God: (PP) God the Father in Heaven, Jesus Christ the Son of God who paid for our sins, and now the Holy Spirit that is in us which acts as a conduit between us and the Father. When we feel conviction that it's time to change a habit or a behavior that's not appropriate, it is the "still small voice" of the Holy Spirit leading us. God is 3 forms but one God, just as water is liquid, ice and steam yet all water.

That is it. (PP?)That is Salvation. That's what God's grace is. That's what it means to accept Christ. That's what it means to be born again. All these phrases: Salvation, God's grace, accepting Christ, being born againall mean the same thing---that you have eternal life in Heaven made possible through Jesus Christ and until then you have a real relationship with Christ that will fill the God-shaped hole in you.

Let's talk for a minute about what salvation is NOT. As I get to know people around the church, I seem to eventually get around to THE question---which is asking them where they are in terms of salvation; To which I often get very vague answers like, "I'm getting there, but I'm not as far along as so-&-so." To which I often stop and scratch my head. I'm more tactful than this, but what I'm thinking is, "What?! Are you or aren't you in a relationship with Christ?" Because salvation is like pregnancy---You can't be "kind of" either you are or you aren't!

So I think there's a little bit of confusion out here. (PP Grace Graph) So if you'll look at the screens---you'll see my nifty diagram--- On the extreme left you'll see your birthdaythe day you came into the world.

Then somewhere when you're old enough to make decisions and totally understand the situation, you will hopefully have a salvation experience, you will accept Christ---as it's noted by the little line close to the middle.

Your salvation is a finite moment---you sincerely pray the prayer and God gives you forgiveness, the gift of eternal life and his Holy Spirit, period---It is done.

Now when some people accept Christ there are intense feelings associated with their salvation---you ask some people and they'll describe it like it was designed by the special effects crew from Star Wars. Some people will pray the prayer and they will feel little or no difference in that moment. And still some fall somewhere in between. But just because you didn't "feel" something undeniable, do not deny that God heard you and responded to you. (Saul's conversion Damascus Acts 9:1-?)

Ok, so your salvation is a point in your life, as we've indicated on our graph. From the point we accept Christ to our death, God want's us to slowly become more Christ-like. (PP) The fancy $10 word for how God helps us to become more like his Son is "sanctification."

Sanctification begins with our salvation and continues to the end of our earthly lives. We never get to a point as a Christ follower where we've developed enough. We don't "retire" after following Christ for "X" amount of years. As long as we're here on earth, after we've asked God to lead our lives, we follow his lead as he helps sand off our rough edges, and helps us to be less like our old nature and more like Him. When we offer Next Step 2, it is all about how we can help the sanctification process.

So let's not confuse the 2---salvation is a point in your life. Sanctification is a process that starts with salvation and continues throughout your life. Does that make sense??

Let me show you a quick salvation illustration that I got from Lee Stroebel who got it from Randy Raysbrook---(Did you know that if you steal material from one person it's plagiarism, but if you steel from more than one person it's reasearch?!)

Did you know that the Bible is made up of 807,361 words? I had Becky count them this week! But we can get to the bottom line of the Bible in just 20 words:

(PP BIG TIME!)We can make a little graph of what this is saying---you can write this down on the back of your program if you want. Write "wages" on the upper left and draw a box around it. Something has to be paid for our sin. Write "sin" underneath "wages" and put a box around it.

Unless our sin is paid for, the consequences is death. Write "death" underneath "sin" and draw a box around it. The wages of our sin is death. Butwrite "but" below & to the right of "death". But the "gift"---write "gift" on the right across from "wages". The gift of "God"----write "God" under "gift". The gift of God is "eternal life" (not death)---write "eternal life" under God.

Since Adam & Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, we are all on the left side separated from God. And we learned that no matter how hard we try, we can't pay the price for our salvation ourselves. Jesus said, "No one comes to the Father, except through me." John 14:6 (PP)

So what we're saying here is that no matter how hard we try to bridge the gap between us and God, we can't hit the markwe fall short because of sin. And what's the result?.If you follow the arrowWe end up falling on our "but"!!

Well so far we've talked a lot about what it means to accept Christ as our Lord and Savior. Let's see what it really looks like in real life(show clip aprox 3 min.)

You have just seen what hung me up for such a long time about accepting Christ.which is the simplicity of it. It is so simple. In my mind--- it was too simpleit didn't make sense that that was all I had to do. I kept thinking there was a catch. If this gift of God's grace was so valuable, how was it that this was all I had to do?----say a prayer and that was it?

And what if I prayed the prayer, but it didn't work? I'd feel like a fool. This brought me to the issue of faith. Accepting Christ was me standing on my side of the chasm and stepping out and believing God was going to receive me. That He would really accept me with all my flaws and all that I had done.That's where we all come to---all of us come to a step of faith.

Because for all of the evidence for Christ:---all of the over 1500 prophesies of the Old Testament that came true in the New Testament---The eye witness accounts of the disciples when Jesus came back to them after he left the tombhe actually said, "Touch me" and ate with them--- There's the fact that no archeological find has EVER controverted the writings of the Bible---There's the stories of people we know that will attest to what God has done in their lives----But with all of the evidence, the case for Christ is NOT air tight. If it were, we could call it science

Instead we're left a gap that we must fill with this intangible thing called faith. I can tell you thisMy personality is one that relies more on thinking than feeling. I tend to want be able to prove that which I believe. If you ask me why I do most of the quirky things I do in a day, I'll give some logical response that I've thought through with my mind. I usually don't say, "It's because I feel like it."

Well here's the epiphany I finally had, and it's one we all must realizeComing to terms with the Gospel and accepting Christ ultimately is not a decision of the brainit's a conviction of the heart. It doesn't come from here (head), it comes from here (heart).

Paul told us in Romans (10:9), (PP)"If you confess that Jesus is your Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."

Think about love for a minute. Do you intellectually understand love? Of course you doWith your spouse or boyfriend or girlfriend, you know what love looks like---you respect each otheryou look out for each otheryou help each otheryou are there for each otheryou care deeply about each other

But think about what love means or meant in your heart in the earliest days of your relationshipYou wouldn't describe love as the things you did or the external things----You would tell me that love is what you undeniably feel in your heart. In your earliest days together you didn't intellectually love the other person---you loved them in your heart---in the center of your being. That's the place in you that God wants to be and that is where this decision has to come from.

I've told you the Good News----Now here's the best news... It doesn't matter what kind of shape you're in physically, emotionally, financially or spiritually

Physically, God's not looking for modelsand it doesn't matter that Johnny Bench thinks ugly goes clear down to the bone. God made you and He only makes masterpieces.

Emotionally, it doesn't matter if a therapist wouldn't touch you with a 10 foot couch. You can't have too many problems or deals that could keep the God of the universe from giving you grace.

Financially, God doesn't give a rip how many clothes line your closet with a designer's name on it. He could care less how many miles are on your car.

Spiritually, God's not going to give you a test on how well you know the B-I-B-L-E. Do you believe in His Son and what He's done for you & do you trust God enough to want his leadership in your life? That's all he cares that you know, this morning.

There are very few places in this world where everyoneeveryone can come as they are. Where no one is over or underdressed. Where social status means nothing. There is nothing you may have done that God doesn't want to forgive. It doesn't matter what may have happened to you along the way in your life.

There's nothing about us that we can hide from Him anyway---he knows us better than we do. He knows everything that's behind our façade ----

And knowing everything about usevery dark secretevery heinous act.he still wants to give us forgivenesswith open arms, like a parent who is incapable of seeing any wrong in His child---He longsto give us grace.

Right now, some of you are feeling a pulsing in your chestbecause you understand in your heart that what I am telling you this morning is the Gospelis the truthYou realize that it's time to cross the line---that today is the day you need to accept God's grace.

Dale is going to bring us a song that is an invitation for anyone here this morning to accept Christ. God is going to show up in many of your hearts during this song---If you feel that tug during this song, I want to ask you to relax and just tell Him you're open to whatever He wants to do in you.

And after the music team is done, I'll come back and lead us in a prayer of salvation. You'll just have to repeat after me to have eternal life in Heaven and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. If you question your salvation, then I want you to pray with me and accept Christ for the last time believing and knowing it will be done. If you've already accepted Christ, would you silently pray for the people God is going to call this morning?

Romans 10: 9 & 10 says, "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with the heart that you believe and are justified. And it is with the mouth that you confess and are saved."

If you believe the Gospel in your heart---if you want eternal life---if you are tired of trying to make life work by yourself---if you want a New Lifethen repeat this prayer after me---- from your heart and through your mouth at whatever volume you are comfortable with. Trust me--The discomfort you may feel is nothing compared the sacrifice of our saviour.

"God thank you so much for your son Jesus Christ.(pause) I realize that He is your Son and that he died for my sins. (Pause) Lord, I know that I have fallen short and sinned in my life. (pause)God I ask you to forgive all my sins (pause) and as much as I know how,(pause) I want to follow you from now on.(pause) I ask your Holy Spirit to come into my life. (pause) Thank you so much God. Amen.

If you prayed with me, some of the staff and elders would love to meet you and encourage youif you'd go out this door to the hospitality room we have setup when we dismiss, we'd love to talk to you.