In a new twist, I am posting an advanced preview of the youth ministry lesson for Sunday night. This week pastor Roy will be starting a sermon series on Kyle Idleman's book 'Not a Fan.' I think that this subject is very necessary for us to hear, probably over and over again. Ive decided to go this route as well for youth nights with unique twists from the book and the morning sermons. If you feel like the post sounds like I'm talking to a group of people, it's meant to. Enjoy.
Tonight I want to discuss something that is very sensitive. It has been known to make even the most secure, confident people out there nervous. I have seen boyfriends and girlfriends break-up at the very thought of it. I have seen people break out in cold sweats and literally run in another direction at the very thought of it. It is the point of no return, it is putting all of the cards on the table, going all-in, no turning back, make it or break it time, taking the leap, stepping off the edge, diving in headfirst, well…you get the idea… It’s the dreaded D.T.R
Some of you know exactly what I mean when I reference those 3 letters. Some of you are scratching your heads. DTR stands for defining the relationship. Some of you may never have experienced this, and if not, just trust us.
The DTR is a point in any relationship where it comes to a point of clarification. Maybe you are friends with this guy, he’s a lot of fun, you laugh a lot in class, everything is perfect, or so you thought. Next thing you know he has a serious look on his face. He is trying to be sweet, but it’s getting a little awkward….What is it already?? He wants to know if the friendship you share is something more. This is a sticky situation for both. 1) if you are really just happy to be friends, the friendship is likely going to feel much different than it did before, sometimes just plain awkward. For him, it’s all-in, pride is at stake, his hopes and dreams are resting on every word or reaction (be gentle ladies!)
Maybe the situation involves a boyfriend and girlfriend. In our situation, the guy is living it up. He’s having fun, he has got all he needs, a girlfriend, freedom, his friends, the ability to find a better girlfriend if one comes available, you know the type, c’mon you know the type. The girlfriend, being a girl, is perceptive to these things. Although very aware and perceptive like most girls, she doesn’t know how to handle it. She becomes clingy, jealous, needy, and about that time says something like let’s have a “talk” about “us.” The last thing the guy wants to do. A. it’s either trying to get a commitment from the guy or B. talk about getting married or kids or their “future” and to think, they are only in 8th grade.
The DTR talk is a war-zone full of landmines. No matter what, things are going to be different on the other side, it’s just a matter of if you are going to die or not.
The funny thing is we are often like the boyfriend in our illustration. We have been known to claim Jesus as our “homeboy” our “bro” our maybe our boyfriend for what He can offer us. He can be our forgiveness card when we decide the girlfriend of lust is worth kissing behind the gym, you know the deal.
Hear me loud and clear here. God is not like the girl in our illustration. He does not beg, He is not needy, He will not nag you when you cheat on other girls. Does His heart break? Yes. Does He still love you? Yes.
My experience with God has been like this. When I choose other things as more important than God or when I start finding my identity in other things, other places, other people I start feeling further and further away from God. And sometimes we ask ourselves ‘I just don’t feel like God is near me’ or ‘where is God in all of this?’ Well…He’s still there, we have just run from Him.
In one of my favorite passages of scripture, Jesus is telling a story of what I would assume God is like and what I assume you and I are like. In this story a son gets upset with his dad, asks for his inheritance early (essentially saying, I want what I would get when you die, because as of now you’re dead to me) How hurtful right? The dad does something curious though. He gives his son the money and the son storms off. The dad could have very well said “fine!” “Take it!” “get out of here” and broke ties with his son in the same way, but I don’t think he did and this is why: Eventually the son wasted all his money partying it up, he was broke, homeless, and a sell-out to his culture by living a feeding pigs to survive. (Pigs to a Jewish man were about as low as you could ever get. You didn’t eat them, basically you didn’t have anything to do w/ em. They were bottom feeders, the scum of the earth) It would be like leaving a Christian home and end up scrubbing the floors of a strip club. Here we come to the rest of the story:
Luke 15:17-20
17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
The point here is that when we come to our senses, the God that seems so far away, so distant from us is still there. We begin to think of the right way to pray and ask God to forgive us. We try to make sure the prayer is pretty, we might plan on setting up counseling meeting with the pastor, all the things we must DO (which aren’t bad) but if God feels 10,000 steps away, when we take that first step back to him, God sees us and runs the other 9,999 steps to embrace us.
I saw this recently after the LSU ALA game on TV. I know some pretty enthusiastic fans here of GA…some that go to this youth group…I watched on Facebook as they cheered on “mostly ALA” to win the game and celebrated as if ALA was their team all along. I saw this from people that boldly proclaim that they are Georgia fans, or Auburn Fans (now that’s sad), even TN fans (guilty)
It doesn’t take much to switch allegiances when you are a fan, especially when your team is so bad it loses to KY and misses a bowl game. There are a lot of “fans” of Jesus, Christianity, the Bible, Inspirational stories, ect out there and Im afraid that we are having a hard time knowing what is real and what is fake. Maybe even we have been confused to think fandom is the same thing as followship. Jesus never called fans, He called followers.
Sometimes it is hard to be honest with ourselves. We like to think this is a good topic for other Christians, but its hard to take inventory to think ‘Is this true about me?’ Do I have a fan relationship with Jesus that benefits me when it’s convenient? Do I paint my chest, buy the t-shirts, put the poster on my wall, make every game? “Go Jesus!” There are a lot of those out there, and they look good. OR am I showing up to practice, studying the playbook careful to defend well against the enemy, encouraging my teammates, recruiting well, AM I ON THE FIELD?
I wonder where you are on the journey tonight. Do you feel like your relationship with God is like the boyfriend, the party son, or the fan? Is it a surface relationship?
I think something is necessary. Is scary, it makes grown men break out in a sweat, a lesser man would never do it, the chips are all in, time to take the dive…I think it’s time to have the DTR with Jesus.
It can be uncomfortable, it can be uneasy, but If Jesus was right (and I always give him the benefit of the doubt) unlike many DTR talks you may have down the road, I have a feeling that you don’t have to fear being rejected.
If you remember, I said that the DTR is a warzone. You will never be the same on the other side. It may hurt. You may lose some friends or habits to the landmines, but it’s the only way back from the pigs.
No comments:
Post a Comment