So today is part two of our series, Too Good to Miss, and the subtitle is Too Small to Read, so we're gonna make it bigger so you can read it. The subtitle, is Three Things You Can't Afford to Miss and How to Ensure You Won't.
And last weekend I focused on the second part of the subtitled, which is how to ensure you won't. And I made a case, and if you didn't hear last week's message, I hope you'll go back and listen or watch. Last week I made the case that we miss out, We miss out on the things that we shouldn't miss out on because of three things. We miss when we're deceived. Or when we're misled, either we've misled ourselves or we've been misled or deceived by somebody else. We miss out when we are distracted and specifically when we were distracted from ultimate by the immediate. I'm so caught up in the immediate, I miss the ultimate. You're so caught in the intermediate that you miss the ultimately, we get distracted. And the third reason we miss out in life is because we're disobedient.
And so at the end of the message, I went kind of old school. Talked about sin, you know, you may remember that, right? And the bottom line was simply this, if you're a Christian or if you are a Jesus follower and you ignore the teaching of Jesus, you're going to miss out on what you don't wanna miss out on in this life.
If you're not a Christian, if maybe you're from a different faith tradition or you used to be a Christian. If you dismiss the teaching Jesus, you're gonna miss out as well. And I'm not talking about heaven when you die, I'm talking about in this life.
And again, if you're not a Christian or you're a person of faith, I have no authority, I have business telling you how to live your life, but I would just say this to you and hopefully you'll pay attention through the message. What I would say is this, here's my hunch, even though we've never met. If you had been following Jesus, if you had a Jesus follower, not just a believer or a Christian, if you'd been a Jesus' follower in the season when you created your greatest regret, you may have avoided your greatest regrets because of the teaching of Jesus, which leads us to the first of the three things that you can't afford to miss. Three things you can afford to mess, and the first one, no surprises, don't miss Jesus.
Now, here's why this is a big deal and here's specifically what I'm talking about. I don't want you to miss Jesus unnecessarily. I'm not talking about church. I'm talking about religion. I'm even talking about faith. I don't want you miss the person of and the teaching of Jesus unnecessarily. And people miss or dismiss Jesus unnecessarily all the time.
And here's what I mean by that. If you're a Christian, a Jesus follower, you're like, well, man, I am locked in. This sermon isn't for me. Life is coming for you, right? And life is coming us. And all of us are gonna hit those bumps where we will be tempted to say, I'm out of the faith game, I'm outta the Jesus thing, I'm out of the church thing, it's not working, he doesn't work, he didn't work for me, he hasn't come through for me. And you will be tempted, you will tempted as we're gonna see in the next few minutes. Potentially in your future. To dismiss Jesus because of something that really has nothing to do with Jesus.
So I don't want you to dismiss in the future and for those of you who have never dialed in or embraced the teaching of Jesus to begin with, I don't want you to spend the rest of your life missing it.
So here's what I'm gonna do. I don't usually teach lists and points. I think that's just a different way of preaching than I normally do. But today, I want to give you or address the five primary reasons that people miss or dismiss Jesus. And this is a list that I just compiled from my experience as a church leader and as a pastor. So if any one of these five things connect with you, maybe that's your cue to lean into your faith or to consider faith. For the first time.
Real quick, first reason, number one reason that people that I would encourage you not to miss Jesus, don't miss Jesus because of a church or a church leader, including our church and including me. Do not give up on Jesus because of a bad church experience. People do this all the time. And don't give up Jesus because of the hypocrisy of a specific church leader.
Now, as you would imagine, people leave our church or one of our churches all the times. And when we hear about it, we know about it. We always follow up. And I've made so many of these phone calls. Tell me what we did or what can we do different. And part of my concern is, hey, if you're upset with us or we're not your style anymore, I'll say to people, Look, you've been listening to me preach for 10 years. You probably need another voice in your life. I'm not offended. I just wanna make sure you're not leaving the faith. I just want to make sure you're leaving Jesus because a bad church experience or a church leader that kind of gives you the creeps or they do something weird, that's not a good reason to leave. Jesus, so if you have to leave a church for a while or take a break from church, I understand that. I've heard those stories. But please don't leave Jesus. Please don't Leave Jesus.
And please don't dismiss Jesus because of a church or a church leader. In other words, please don't allow someone else's hypocrisy, someone else is politics, someone else' ignorance, immaturity or insecurity to get between you and your savior. You don't have to do that. It's not worth it.
Reason number two, don't miss Jesus because of something disturbing you've been taught about Jesus. Don't miss because of something disturbing you've been taught by Jesus. Here's what I mean by that. If you were raised in a Christian home, you were on a version of Christianity. If you are raised going to church, you went to a church that taught a version of Christianity, there's so many versions of Christianity
So here's my challenge to you. You're an adult. Find out for yourself. Don't let childhood narratives or some other things a pastor taught you or a youth pastor taught your or something you heard in a camp and you've just assumed that's what Christianity is all about. You have an opportunity to find out for your self.
And the challenge to use this is to find a Bible, get your Bible or download a Bible app. And pick one of the four gospels and find out for yourself what was Jesus about. How did Jesus represent God? What did Jesus actually say? What did actually teach? And don't take anybody else's word for it. You're an adult and you don't have to.
For example, In the book of John, we're told that Jesus began assembling the 12 apostles. He began to put his team together for the first time. And while he was doing that, this happened. John records, and of course John was one of Jesus' original 12 apostles.
John writes, Jesus decided to leave Judea, that's in the south, and go to Galilee, which is in the north, and finding Philip, Philip had heard Jesus teach and was convinced that Jesus was the prophet, the ultimate prophet sent from God. He finds Philip and he says to him, as he's leaving this region, Philip, I want you to follow me.
Now, this wasn't like, let's take a walk. This was like, I want you to leave whatever else you're doing and I want to be one of my guys. I want for you to be on the inner circle, which was a huge deal when a rabbi, especially a famous rabbi or a. Soon to become famous rabbi said to a young man, I want you to follow me. It meant I want to leave what you're doing and I want for you to learn to do what I do and ultimately potentially take my place. It was such an honor.
So Philip, you may have heard this before, Philip found Nathaniel and told him, we have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, the great ultimate prophet that would come and prophesy and lead the nation. We found the One Moses wrote about in law and about whom the prophets also wrote Jesus of Nazareth. And he's thinking Nathaniel is gonna be like, whoa, you know, Nathaniel's like, hang on, hang. I attend synagogue and, you know, I don't remember everything they say, but I remember this, the great prophet, the great Messiah is gonna be born in the city of David, like Bethlehem, not Nazareth. Besides, listen to what he says, besides Nazareth, can anything good come from there, Nathaniel asked? I mean, he's just like, not buying any of this.
And I love Philip's response. Philip doesn't get in a Bible argument, doesn't in a theological argument. He doesn't start arguing about where's the Messiah coming from and what does that text really mean. Philip simply offers and extends an invitation. Philip's like, hey, I was taught the same thing you were, but I want you to come and see. Philip and Nathaniel, look, I can't argue with you, I can convince you. I just want you come and say.
In other words, don't take my word for it. Don't take word for. Investigate for yourself. And Nathaniel agrees to come along. And the point I'm trying to make is simply this, be a Nathaniel. See for yourself, you don't have to buy into, and you don't have to believe everything you've been taught about Jesus, especially if what you believe about Jesus is an obstacle to pursuing Jesus.
You have an opportunity to read it for yourself and for the person that says, Andy, I don't believe the Bible, we're gonna get to that in just a minute. I'm not asking you to read the Bible. I'm just saying be curious enough to read one of the accounts of the life of Jesus so you don't miss Jesus.
Now, Third reason that people miss or dismiss Jesus. Don't miss Jesus. This is a tough one. Don't Miss Jesus because of life. Don't this Jesus because of what's going on in your life. And don't miss because of what not going on in your live. And please don't dismiss Jesus because of can't go on in you life. That's not reason enough. And I know this is gonna sound insensitive because I don't know what's going on in your life. But I know that's not recent enough to walk away or to dismiss Jesus.
Another way of saying it is don't confuse Jesus with life. This is hard for us to get our minds around. But when you know anything about the environment that Jesus walked into. If you know anything about what was going on in the first century, especially in the area of Judea and Galilee, everybody, everybody except the wealthiest of the wealthy, everybody was just one bad financial decision, one failed crop away or one undefended wall away from becoming a slave.
Life was harsh to a level we can't even begin to imagine. And so regardless of what you're going through, as bad as it might be, as indefensible as it may be in light of the fact that people like us say there's a good God in heaven, there is really no reason to necessarily dismiss Jesus or miss Jesus because of all of that.
His life and His teaching, this is the thing, His life in His teaching take whatever you're going through into consideration, into account. It's why the oppressed and it's why the distressed. Flocked to Jesus. They flocked at him and followed him in spite of what life had thrown their way. In fact, they followed because of how hard and how harsh their life was.
And besides that, and hopefully you've heard us say this before, Christians have never believed in, Christians have ever believed in a God that doesn't allow bad things to happen. Christians have always believed in God who allowed the worst possible thing to happen to the best. Possible person.
In other words, Jesus, our King, experienced the full measure of life at its worst. Injustice, tragedy, loss, abuse, those things don't stand in contrast to the teaching and the message of Jesus, they are actually baked in.
And as you read through any of the four gospels, you discover that God knows and God cares, and the reason you know that God cares is because as you read the gospels, you discover that Jesus cared for people who were going through those very things.
And then he said this, he said, if you've seen me. You've seen the Father. If you wanna know what God is like, watch me. If you want to know what is like listen to me. If you wanted to know how God would respond, watch my response.
And it's in the message and the life and the teaching of Jesus that we find the assurance we need that God does know and that God does care and that God does love you. And that even though he is often silent, he is not still, it is not a reflection of a lack of compassion. Because through the message and the the teaching and the Life of Jesus. We begin to understand in a sensitive and personal way that God is in fact a God of compassion.
Besides that, and you may disagree with this, but let's think about it. Apart from Jesus, apart from the worldview that Jesus presents to us in terms of who God is and what God is like, apart from Jesus there is only pain without purpose. There's just tragedy without any redemption. There's ashes. And no beauty, but with Jesus, as many of the people around you and many of Christians you know have discovered, all of that changes.
So please don't allow what's going on in your life to cause you to miss or dismiss Jesus. Don't miss Jesus because of life.
Number four, don't miss Christ because of the Bible. This is a big one. People wanna dismiss Jesus because of slavery in the Bible, misogyny in the bible, apparent genocide in the biblical, old laws, harsh consequences. But the interesting thing is this, when you actually read the life of Jesus and follow Jesus through the gospels, you discover what's reiterated is that the Old Testament law, the Torah was a law, was a civil law given to ancient Israel. It was way ahead of its time, but it was for a time. And when Jesus came, he made it clear that the time for that was up.
That he came to establish a brand new kind of relationship between God and the entire human race, that he come to establish a brand-new covenant for all people, a brand New covenant that was far less complicated, but far more demanding, that when you follow Jesus through the gospels, you discover that he redefined sin in such a way that it's evident that anything that's not good for you is a sin because God loves you. And anything that is not good for him is a send because God love him. And anything is not for her is a sand because God loves her. And anything that's not good for them is a sin because God love them.
And that suddenly the dignity of men, women, and children is elevated that we're considered children of God. And just like you, just how you would feel toward anyone that hurt one of your children, so your heavenly father feels toward those people or toward you when you hurt yourself.
And suddenly the world is a different place and the world looks different because he established a brand new covenant. A brand new covenant with one overarching command. He said, here's my new command in my new kingdom under my new covenant. Here it is, you are to love. As I have loved you, that's it. There are no loopholes in love.
When you're not sure what to say or do, you just simply do what love requires of you. That is the kingdom of God on earth. And when that shows up in a marriage, and when that show up in business, and when shows up a community, and when it shows up on a world or a nation, if that ever could take over the ethic of the world, the world would be a different place. But when it happens in a family, the family becomes different, the marriage becomes different. The school becomes different the community becomes different in fact, there are two or three things that Jesus taught. You'll discover them for yourself. There are two or three that Jesus thought that if everybody just did those two or things, you would feel the difference in our community and you would feel the different in our world. And it's the simple things. That Jesus taught that would ultimately make all the difference.
And this is why we go back to this over and over. He said, it's not enough to listen, it's enough to hear, it not enough believe. If you will put these things into practice, the world changes. One overarching command, to live and to love like the King.
And the interesting thing is this. Ancient Gentiles, first century and second century Gentiles non-Jewish people who embraced Jesus, they were not tripped up at all over the Old Testament law or over Torah. They understood that was for an ancient civilization. That was for ancient Israel. Someone new has come, something new has begun. Their faith centered on a person, the person of Jesus in your faith and my faith should as well.
And this is why, regardless of what you've experienced, regardless of what you've experienced, even in a faith system or even in church. There's no reason to dismiss or to miss Jesus or to say it another way. We have not been called or commanded to be biblical. We've been called and commanded to Christ-like, to be like our King.
And the reason perhaps you had a bad church experience, if that's the case, is because you were surrounded by some people perhaps who believed all the right things, but they did not behave like their king. But don't give up on the king because of some of his followers. So don't miss Jesus, don't Miss Jesus because of the Bible.
Last one, I'll make this quick. Don't miss Jesus, this is super important, because his disciples almost made this mistake. Don't Miss Jesus because of the hard and harsh things that he said. Because some of the things that Jesus said, they're hard and they're heart. They're hard to understand and on the surface they come across harsh.
Now. The interesting thing to me is his entire crew, all 12 of the apostles, one afternoon, they almost all abandoned Jesus because of one hard and harsh thing he taught. And at the end, right before they all bailed, Peter, the apostle Peter, asked this extraordinary question. I'm gonna read it to you in just a minute. And I think this is a question you might wanna write down. I think that this is question you need to kinda keep in your back pocket. This is the question that brings everything about Jesus back in to focus regardless of some of the hard things he taught and some of harsh things he said,.
So here's what happened. Famous story, Jesus had just fed the 5,000. He'd done this massive public miracle, taking some. A few loaves of bread and fish and fed this crowd. He leaves to try to get away, have a break. The crowd, they want more. So they find Jesus, you know, Jesus comes back out and they find him and they want another miracle. We want another sign, really what they want. You read it for yourself and John, what they really want, some more free food. It's like, do that one again. Don't just do a miracle, do, that miracle. Again, that was amazing.
So Jesus decides to use the miracle of multiplying bread to make a point, and he makes this point. He claimed to be the bread from heaven. Just like this physical bread nourished your body, I'm the spiritual bread from Heaven, I've come to nourish your soul. So he begins to talk in this figurative language, and it gets, honestly, it just gets a little weird. Okay.
Here's what he said. He said, whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. It's like, wait, what? And he says, and I will raise them up at the last day, the last of judgment for my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
Now, this is offensive to us. You can't even imagine how offensive this was to Galileans and Judeans who weren't even allowed to have the blood of an animal in their food. And here, I mean, this was just too much.
So John is honest in his account. He says, I gotta tell you, I was there on hearing it. Many of his disciples, not the apostles, the general crowd that followed Jesus, many of his disciple said, this is a hard teaching. Who can accept it? We're like, no kidding.
But a lot of Jesus' teaching is hard and some of it comes across as harsh. And John tells us what happened. He said, from that day, because of that one sermon, from this time, many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. They did what I don't want you to do. They missed Jesus because of something they misunderstood. They missed the Messiah, they missed the Son of God. From that point on, as the story continues, they're out of the picture. They missed because of Jesus because of something that they misunderstood,
And here's what happens next. As the crowd is leaving, the 12 apostles, Jesus' closest followers, They're thinking about leaving too, because this is about to get hard. If we lose the crowd, we lose our cover. If we lost the crowd we lose the momentum of this movement. If we loose the crowd they're gonna think we're crazy to follow this guy.
And Jesus turns to them, it's so great. And he says, hey, you don't wanna leave too, do you? Jesus asked the 12. Now, one thing they knew is you don't lie to Jesus. He knows everybody's heart. He answered people's questions right before they asked them. They knew better, they'd seen this. You don't want to leave too. Do you, Jesus asked? Nobody says a word.
And Peter looks around and he thinks back. And here it is. Here's the question you just need to keep handy when it doesn't seem like it's worth it anymore and when it does it seems like doesn't it seem like its working anymore. This is the question that will keep you from missing Jesus.
Peter says, Lord, to whom shall we go? Yeah, this is hard. Yeah, This is rough. Yeah, we have no idea what you're talking about. And yeah, we're losing the crowd. And yeah this isn't going the way we thought it would. But... But if not you, who?
Here's our version, to whom shall I go? To whom shall go? That's the question you ask before you miss or dismiss Jesus. Here's the rest of the statement. Peter says, Lord, to who shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Nobody else is talking about that. Nobody else has explained the Father the way that you have. No one has demonstrated the kind of compassion that you have.
I mean, you have words of eternal life and we've heard too much, we believe, and we seen too much. We've come to know that you are in fact, the holy one of God. We've seen too, much we've so much too much So you're stuck with us and we're stuck with you. We're not leaving, but later they would.
On the night of his arrest, they're out, it's too much. We didn't understand some of the stuff you said. The parables quit making sense about six months ago and now you've been arrested. None of this is working out the way we thought it would. We are so confused, we feel so misled, we feel used and we're so afraid and they all bailed on Jesus.
And do you know what brought them back? This is so important, please listen. Do you know it brought them? Not their ability to sort out everything Jesus taught and not their able to explain all the parables and not they're ability to figure out what in the world he was talking about every time he opened his mouth.
What brought them back was an event, the resurrection. Of the rabbi,. This is why I will continue to do everything in my power to tether your faith to the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection of the Jesus is what launched the movement that eventually brought us our Bible 300 plus years later. The resurrection Jesus is the event that launched the church that eventually brought us the Bible.
And here's the thing, if Jesus rose from the dead, then you can navigate a bad church experience. If Jesus rose in the dead you can now navigate corrupt church leaders. If Jesus rose from the dead, now you have a context for injustice in the world. If Jesus Rose from the Dead after being murdered on a cross, then you understand that God has compassion on those who face injustice in world, just like he had compassion on your King.
And your King understands. He understands your temptation. He understands you heartbreak and you are invited into that grace and you're invited into the compassion. If he rose from dead, he's who he claimed to be. You're king.
So don't miss Jesus. Follow him, learn to love like him, learn to forgive like him. Learn to do for others like him learn to take people's stories into account before you judge them like him And why not? Because in the end, following Jesus will in fact make you better and will make you at everything you do.
And maybe in the if your curiosity gets the best of you, if you're willing to explore, if you are willing to get your own answers and not trust what everybody else has told you growing up, if you'll do the work and it's not that much work. Then over time, as you follow, you may in fact come to the conclusion that he is exactly who he claimed to be, your savior and your king. But please don't miss Jesus.
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