Our first speaking gig.

I say ours, because I certainly don't feel like I'm ready to speak on my own, without a few of my most trusted people reading over what I plan on saying. So I ask that you read over it and please do comment, even if its just I like it or I hate it, though the more constructive the better.

I realized some more explanation may be necessary. This is a week long mission trip for these high school students. Some are from the area but all are staying at churches through out the week. They're building or repairing houses in the area. Each night all of them gather together to eat dinner and worship and hear some thoughts. Some years past you could have called it a message or a sermon. This year we'll humbly call it thoughts. I'll be referring to them as discussions.

One paragraph has been changed. Will had some good ideas so I took them. I leave the old paragraph up and insert the new one and mark them both.

Here it is:

Sunday:

So a little about me. My name is Colin Bready I just graduated UT, did MSP all through high school with St. Mark. Now that I’m a graduate a relevant question I face is “what do you want to do with your life?” Unfortunately I have no answer for that question. All I know about my future is that for the next year, perhaps 2 I will be spending it in a country I like to call “East Asia”. Now you may ask yourself East Asia? That doesn’t sound like any country I know. Some of you may have just taken World History or Geography and are positive there’s no country by that name. Well since I’m up front and you’re sitting down there, I’m right and you’re wrong. Just kidding, East Asia is not the technical name for where I’ll be hanging out next year, but it’s the super secret code word. I don’t know if I can let all of you in on the secret, but I’ll give you all some hints. Here is a map of “East Asia” (power point slides), I’m sure you’ve all heard of the great wall of East Asia. Perhaps if you follow sports you may have heard of Yao Ming, East Asia’s premier sports star who plays in our NBA.

Seriously though, East Asia is a country that is not capitalist and their government is still officially closed to Christianity. This “closed country” status is why we call East Asia, “East Asia.” Don’t worry about me I’ll be safe their but this is primarily for the security and safety of the citizens of East Asia. So now you know. East Asia = East Asia (power point slide)

So the answer to your question is yes I am a professional Christian. But contrary to popular belief, professional Christians do not have all the answers. What I do have are stories. I hope you’ll let me let tell my story for the next few minutes. I was born in McAllen, if you’re not from the Valley, Who’s not from the Valley here? That’s right next door to Mission. I grew up going to St. Mark. When I say grew up I mean when I was 6 months old I was baptized there, and was a fixture there until I went to college 4 years ago. When I was little apparently I asked about our pastor at the time, “Mommy is that the God?” In my defense it may have been my first time to actually attend the service and not spend it in the nursery.

While at first I may have been confused about the identity of God, as I grew up in the church I learned more and more about Him. It was easy to learn about God. We have the Bible, though I don’t understand all of it, you can make some observances about the character of God. God is good. He is loving. He is just. He is almighty and all-knowing. You sing songs, and read stories about God. Everything is simplified. God is a big happy pillow you hug and goodness just comes out.

Ok sorry I went a little overboard, but it’s much harder to know God then it is to know about God. In fact we can’t, can not, know God. We are unable to have relationship with Him. When I was young and learning about God for the first time, this reality was not talked about much, but it was implied. I realized this in that when I went to church and Sunday school I was more focused on my friends and having fun then I ever was about God.

I began to realize though, that I did want to know God. I didn’t just want to know about Him, I wanted that relationship. I knew it was impossible for me to accomplish be cause I could never be good enough for God. But I was also learning about Jesus.

Jesus is God’s son. That famous verse they show at super bowls, concerts, NASCAR races etc. You know John 3:16. He’s the one it’s about. For God so loved the world, us, that He gave his only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

God loves us. But we are sinful. Is not just doing bad. Sin is choosing self over God. It can be active rebellion against God or passive indifference to Him. It’s anything short of perfection. So we sin not just by action, but even by inaction.

That’s why I realized I couldn’t have that relationship with God. But that super bowl verse says there is a solution. In Romans 5:8 Paul tells us that, “God demonstrates His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” Have you guys seen the Passion? Mel-Gibson’s movie? That’s this part. That immense pain and suffering was for the reconciliation of man and God. That’s the blood that washes away our sins, and allows us to have that relationship with God.

I knew all this growing up. I’m sure many of you guys know this today. It didn’t all click though until one afternoon when I was about 8 or so. My family was watching a preacher on TV one afternoon. I know I know, televangelists and all that, but he explained it all very clearly. There must be acceptance on our part for Christ to be our savior. A common analogy is used that when someone offers you a gift it’s not yours until you take it. It was that afternoon that I realized I had to accept Christ in order to be saved, to have relationship with God. And I did. I prayed that afternoon to accept Christ as my savior from sin, so that I could have relationship with God.

So that was pretty early in my life. I got really involved in my church youth group. Did MSP. I thought I had it all together. It looked like I did, but I didn’t. I was still bound by following rules, and being a “good Christian”. What I hope for this week, is that maybe we’ll get past being “good Christians”. I would rather us be real or authentic Christians.

So I’m going to guess that most of you know what it means to be a Christian, but there might be some of you who don’t. There also could be some of you who feel like you know it, but have doubts or worry that accepting Christ isn’t enough or perhaps it just doesn’t feel like you’ve done it right.

Deep within us there is a longing. A deep desire to have relationship with God. I think subconsciously or maybe even consciously that’s why you’re here. Do you know why you’re here? Examine your heart, do you have relationship with the Father? Do you know Him? Or do you know about Him? There is a very distinct difference. God created us to have fellowship, relationship, with Him. We’re not here to know about Him, but to know Him.

Do you know God? I don’t know where you are. Some of you maybe stronger in your faith then I am, to those I say I’ll see y’all in East Asia. But many of you doubt, you have questions. I think there is a great misconception about doubt. Perhaps I am wrong, I give you permission to doubt me on this, but I think doubt is a good thing. How you handle it is where the bad or good part comes in. Doubt means you don’t know the answer. When you don’t know the answer you have three options:

1. Continue to question, but not seek answers. This leads to a faith that crumbles. Relationship with God is strained or perhaps never existed.
2. Seek answers. I think this is the healthiest response to doubt. Here what is seen as a weakening force in fact makes you stronger as you respond to your own questions and seek God through them.
3. Ignore the doubt. It doesn’t go away, but you don’t focus on it. It festers, and it acts like an invisible barrier to growing closer to the Father. Your mind says how can I have relationship with God when I don’t know this key fact about him?

This last semester I took a Rise of Christianity class. It was about the growth of the early church, the writings of the New Testament and the world from the time of Christ to about 300 AD. Actually in class it was referred to as CE for Common Era. This is the secular way to refer to the year. This was after all the University of Texas, the bastion of liberal and free thinking in the great state of Texas. This class had a reputation for causing doubt in Christians. Things that were never discrepancies or conflicts in the Gospels before to me suddenly conflicted. I found myself having to make sense of a lot of different things that I thought already made sense to me. What I found was that every discrepancy that the professor pointed out, he did with the intention of causing doubt. Some of my friends in the class really didn’t like that and in fact really did not like the class. I think the professor maybe promoted too much doubt, but you come out of his class either strong or weaker in your faith. I think that is true to most of life. Perhaps it’s more gradual then that semester class, but during your life you will either be growing in your faith, growing closer to God, or you will be stagnant and your faith will become weak and brittle, your relationship with God will suffer.

I’ll talk more about growing in your faith versus being stagnant later in the week, but tonight I want to start fresh. Some of you have doubts. Let’s try to deal with those now. First of all, I want you to look around at who you’re here with. None of you can build a house by yourself. You’re here in teams. You have different abilities. None of you can fully experience a relationship with God by yourself. If you have doubts talk about it with a friend tonight. I want you guys to think of someone who’s here this week that you can talk to about this. It can be a group or just one person. Guys don’t use this as a chance to try to pick up girls. Believe it or not this is more important then having a girlfriend.

What does it mean to be a Christian? Ephesians 2:8&9 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the results of works so that no one may boast. This is very important. This is foundational to being a Christian. You did nothing to merit your salvation. None of us did, none of us could. Romans 3:23 says, “for all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.” That’s where God’s grace comes in. God’s grace, his free gift of love for us, was the sacrifice of His son on the cross for us. This was absolutely necessary, because God is holy and man is sinful. Romans 6:23 says, “the wages of sin is death.” There is a penalty for sin. It’s like science, every action has a reaction. The reaction or consequence of sin is our death. Death here means physical death, but also the instantaneous complete and eternal separation from God the Father. That is why Jesus had to die. He did die. He died for you, so that now you may have relationship with the Father.

But you already knew that, or most of it. You’re still not sure maybe. That’s because it’s not enough to know. Knowledge empowers us to act. That is the case with anything. Being informed is not enough. Being informed compels us to act. Two of my friends attended a conference during which they learned about the ongoing genocide occurring in Darfur, Sudan. When they got home they were informed. That wasn’t enough though, and it’s not enough for our salvation. God wants man to choose Him. That’s why He created us. He gave us free will so that we could choose. Love involves choice. Salvation and relationship with God the Father involves choice.

What are you choosing? I’m not going to tell you so American dream Gospel. This isn’t the case. You won’t become a Christian and then all the sudden get straight A’s, or be accepted into the best college. What I will promise is that God has a plan for you. It is the best plan. That’s something you’ll have to wrestle with. Do you really believe God’s plan for you is the best plan out there? It’s hard to say no. But it’s hard to say yes because of the implications of that.

I’m not saying that God is going to send all of you to East Asia, or have you all take vows of poverty. I don’t know the details of what God’s plan is for you. I do know that it will be the most rewarding life you can live. I say that with no reservations.

So you must know, and you must choose. The last thing you must do is believe. When you choose to accept Christ you do so in the faith that He will uphold his promise to come into your life and restore you with the Father. In Revelations 3:20 Christ says, “Listen! I am standing at the door knocking; (GET NASB version). You must believe that Christ will fulfill His promise. This is part of Faith. It’s not in your control. That’s probably the biggest hold up a lot of people have. You’re giving up control of your life to God. That’s daunting, but He is infinitely more in control then you will ever be. Faith is believing and trusting.

Just after Lazarus died, Mary and Martha see Jesus and are mourning, they say things like if you had been here he’d still be alive. They know Jesus is powerful, but they don’t understand. Jesus wants to open the tomb so that Lazarus can be raised from the dead, but Mary says Lord no it will stink. Jesus turns to her and says in John 11:40, “Did I not tell you? Believe and you will see the glory of God.” That’s my favorite verse in the bible. There is so much promise there. It is so beautiful. More beautiful in fact then Vince Young’s last touchdown run against USC.

So we’ll close up here. I didn’t talk about emotions. Emotions are a part of life, but everyone responds to experiences differently. You may not have a big emotional experience. Maybe in the past you accepted Christ, but you didn’t “feel” different. Don’t rely on emotions. They’re confusing. Rely on Facts, the Bible, the promises of God and Jesus. Then you must choose to accept Christ as your savior. That He is the only way to the Father. This is a humbling process. You are surrendering control of your life to the power of God. The last thing you have to do is believe and have faith that God is faithful, that He will uphold His promises, you are now one of His Children. In John 1:12 it says “But to all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave the power to be children of God.”

Old Paragrph: This is a one time thing. You only need to do it once. If you’ve done it before but still doubt and do not believe the promises that God has for you in His Word, do it again tonight. Ask Him to come into your heart, accept Christ as your savior, ask Him to forgive you of your sins. Give up control of your life to God the Father who is in control of everything. Pray all these things in Faith. Believe that God will be faithful to you. He promised He would. If you believe you will see the glory of God.

New Paragraph: One one hand, this is a one time thing. When God saves you, you become His child once and for all. You do not need to keep applying for adoption. But our decision to follow Jesus is also a decision that we reaffirm everyday in our beliefs and actions. So what does that mean for you? Well, it means that wherever you are along the spectrum of faith in Christ ... Having never believed, to thinking you may have believed before, all the way to the strongest faith here ... Wherever you are, today is a day to believe in Jesus and give yourself to Him. If you've done it before, it isn’t that you need to accept Christ again. It’s that you never stop needing Him to to be in control of your life. So give up control of your life to God the Father who is in control of everything. Pray all these things in Faith. Believe that God will be faithful to you. He promised He would. If you believe you will see the glory of God.

One last thing. Don’t do this alone. You’ve got friends here. God puts people in our life to help us. He speaks through our friends. I believe these friendships are absolutely essential. Don’t leave them out of what is going to be the most important decision of your life.

Father, thank you for all these students here in your name. I ask that you would let them impact this town, especially the neighborhood that their in. Thank you for the opportunity we have to serve you and to serve others. God I hope you will draw us nearer to you this week. I hope the experiences we all have will let us know you more. I ask that you would provide safety while working and in transportation. Most of all let us experience with each other your love. All these things we pray in the name of your son, Amen.