This Changes Everything

Psalm 90:1–2 (NIV)

Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

Psalm 90:12 (NIV)

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Introduction

One of the things that I have enjoyed seeing as a father is how my boys see themselves in the movies or shows that they watch when there is a hero in the story. So for example, if we are watching the Sonic movie, my son would proudly say, “I’m Sonic!”

My context is all boys… so I suppose this is also what it is like when girls dress up like Princesses.

Notice that the little kids never call themselves the villain. It is always the hero.

Kids grow up seeing themselves as the hero. They save the day. They come to the rescue!

And as kids become adults, I do believe that the desire to be the hero, and to overcome against all odds remains. But, it’s seen through a new lens called Self Help or Personal Development.

Self Help, or Personal Development, is a multibillion dollar industry. It is topping over $11 Billion annually and rising.

Books, podcasts, conferences, and Life Coches continue to grow year after year. And, they point to us being equipped to become the hero of our story.

Now, Christianity and the Gospel read without the western American lens of self help is not about us being or becoming the hero of the story. The gospel, is not about us becoming the Savior of our stories. That’s a very western view of scripture and it’s very much trying to force the scriptures to become just another form of self help.

No, the scriptures plainly tell us that the hero of our story is Jesus, the Son of God, being sent to the world on a search and rescue mission to bring us back to the Father.

Transition

And as we start a new series today, I want to give you the best foundation that I believe you can have when it comes to You in 5 Years. Because it’s really easy to see this and think, self help. It’s really easy to hear this title and the lines are blurred between the Gospel and Personal Development. And we don’t believe you are saved by either. Self help does not rescue you from your sins.

So allow me for a few moments to lay a foundation that I believe will absolutely change who you become five years from today.

Text

The text that we read from this morning is a Psalm by Moses. When we think about Psalms we are quick to attribute them to David. And, he did write the majority of the Psalms.

Let me give you some language about Psalms that I hope you don’t forget. Psalms is actually a Mix Tape.

All right, all my Gen X’ers know what I am talking about when I say a Mix Tape. The younger kids call it a Playlist. And that’s fine. That’s fine. That’s a really generic and vanilla name for it. I think we have a better name, a Mix Tape.

Psalms is a collection of songs, poetry and spoken word written by several authors and they are compiled into a book of songs that we call The Psalms. Or as one young man put it, the Pa-Salms.

Moses writes this Psalm from the painful experience of having to wander in a wilderness fo 40 Years.

When Moses led Israel out of Egypt, and into the Promised Land, there was a moment in their history when Moses sent 12 guys to go and spy on the land before they tried to take the land. 2 came back with a great report and the other 10 spies said, “Hey, there’s already people there!” To which the two said, “Yea, it’s a land flowing with Milk & Honey. Of course there’s people there. It’s prime real estate. It’s La Jolla. It’s beautiful. This isn’t El Centro.”

I’m sorry. El Centro is always catching strays from my messages. I need to stop.

Watch the Lord send me to El Centro to plant a church…

Anyway, I’ve digressed…

So there’s the dispute among the 12 spies and the 10 spies manage to convince all of Israel that the God who just parted the Red Sea, and the God who just miraculously delivered them from Egypt with a series of plagues, was unable to give them the Land that He had already promised them!

This angered the Lord so deeply that he decided that the entire adult generation who left Egypt would not be allowed to enter into the Promised Land. They would wander for the next 40 years in the wilderness. It wasn’t until the last person from that generation died that Israel would enter into the Promised Land.

Imagine being the last person alive and every one else is just waiting for that Uncle to die?

I bet the nephews were like, “Hey, what are we gonna do about Unc? He won’t die and we need him to die. Come on, someone take one for the team and off that guy so we can go get that Milk & Honey. I’m tired of manna and quail.”

The wilderness was wild.

I think that’s a funny name and would make for a great sermon series. The wilderness was wild.

OK, so Pastor Josh, what does the story of the Moses and Israel wandering in the wilderness have to do with me?

St. Augustin, one of the Early Church Fathers said of Moses, “Moses was the Minister of the Old, and the Prophet of the New Testament.”

So we can read his Psalms, and we can read about Israel in the wilderness, and understand that everything that happened in the wilderness was an example for us today.

Paul said this of Moses;

1 Corinthians 10:11 (NIV)

These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.

The Center of the Universe

With that said, I want us to observe the first thing that Moses tells us in Psalms 90 in the first and second verse.

The Lord has been here before the world was brought forth and before the mountains were born, AND… BEFORE WE WERE BORN.

I think this powerful verse highlights the fact the Lord is at the beginning of all things.

Contrary to what you may have been told, you are not the center of the universe, He is. God is the creator of all things. The earth and humanity is not the result of a cosmic accident, but it is the result of intentional design by a divine creator.

Furthermore, Moses tells us that He, the Lord, has been our dwelling place.

We’ve Left the Dwelling Place

OK, so if the Lord was the dwelling place of Israel, why were they wandering in a wilderness?

Because Israel left their dwelling place, the Lord, and they made their own opinions their dwelling place.

When we start to put our opinions or the opinions of others above the word of God and what God says about you, you are moving away from His dwelling place. Now we are moving away from His truths and replacing them with contrary words, or said more strongly, the lies of this world.

Moses experienced this first hand and instead of leading Israel from Egypt and into the Promised Land he would only lead them to a place of wandering. And this ate Moses up inside. He wanted to lead them into the Promised Land, but God would not allow it.

So Moses’ caution here if you read through the rest of Psalms 90 is that our lives are moving at a very fast pace, God is sovereign, we have choices to make with the words we believe, and since our days are numbered we need wisdom to make the right decisions.

How many of you want more wisdom so that you would make better choices?

The Best Version of You

So where do we turn? What is the solution? Where do we find wisdom?

The best version of you begins with a relationship with God.

Why is that?

He created you.

Genesis 1:27 (NIV)

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

We are God’s image bearers.

Since that is true, the best chance we have to become to the best version of ourselves is to remain connected to our designer.

Can I make an analogy?

If my car is acting up, what is the best chance I have of fixing my car?

Should I take my car to the Doctor? A therapist? A psychiatrist?

Of course not. I’m going to take it right back to the manufacturer, or to a mechanic who is going to consult with the manufacturer, and we’re going to fix the issue with my car.

And today, instead of people pursuing a relationship with God they are pursuing relationships with people that they perceive to have the answers to our problems.

Now listen, we wouldn’t do that with our cars, and we wouldn’t do that with some of our electronic devices, so why do we do that with our lives? Why do we do that with our souls?

We are no different than Israel running from the dwelling place of our Lord, and running to the dwelling place of other people’s opinions.

What did that get Israel? Wandering.

What is it going to get you? Wandering.

Why? He’s the same God! And he wants to cover you. He wants to guide you. But he’s also not going to force you into a relationship with him. He’s going to stand at the door and knock.

Another reason that the best version of us is at the other side of a relationship with God is because he didn’t just create us, but he designed us.

Psalm 139:14 (NIV)

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

God made you with great care and with great design. Because of that, I believe it is so important for you to know God, so that you can know yourself.

Have you ever wondered why you are the way that God made you?

God, why did you make me to be so head strong?

Why did you make me so shy?

Why did you make me an introvert?

Why did you make me the life of the party?

Why did you make me so handsome?

I’m kidding on that last one… although I don’t know. Some of you lack no self-confidence in this room.

One of the things that we do here at Lighthouse is we try to help you understand more about yourself through our Growth Track. We want you to know more about your personality type, your leadership style, and your spiritual gifts. We see the benefit in knowing how you are wired and how you can use your gifts to find fulfillment in your life.

Patterns and Principles

As bearers of His image, we need to look upon him more.

We need to fix our eyes on Him so that we have ever before us how we are to live, and how we are to treat others. We take our direction from Him and not from ourselves. It’s in Him.

We pattern our lives like His life.

Then we consume the principles of his word and we love our life on Biblical values.

Let me say it this way - the Bible shapes our values and our values shape our thoughts and our thoughts become our decisions. If your disappointed with the current status of your life, then you need to ask yourself if the decisions you’ve made have put you here. And if that’s the case, how do you change your thinking so that your decisions are moving you in the right direction?

JUCO Chronicles

I grew up next door to a Junior College and I saw first hand that JUCO can be a blessing, and it can also be a curse. It’s great if you aren’t sure what you want to major in and you want to start chipping away at you Gen Ed requirements and you can figure out what you want to do.

If you have a plan and you are intentional, you can knock out your Gen Eds in 2 years and then transfer out to a State or Private University.

But I think we all know plenty of people who get stuck in JUCO. 10 years later, and they are still trying to finish off 2 years of Gen Ed. I don’t want to come across as condescending. That’s not my point. But when we don’t know how we are gifted, how we have been fearfully and wonderfully made, JUCO can become our wilderness.

But when you know what you want - for example. I’ll just brag on my wife for a minute.

She went to JUCO, transferred out in 2 years. Went to San Diego State and got her Bachelors Degree. And by the age of 25 she had her Master’s Degree. And, she did all that while also squeezing in a wedding to this guy.

When you have a clear vision of who you are, and how you are wired, you’d be amazed at what you can accomplish.

He is Close (Conclusion)

So let me ask you the question that is the thesis to this entire series we are in.

Who do you want to be in five years?

What gives you the best shot of obtaining that?

Do you think doing it with the Lord will help or hurt you?

Well, Pastor, of course you would say it’s a relationship with the Lord. That’s the churchy answer?

Is it though?

Or is it the right answer that you don’t want to accept becuase you are unwilling to change.

Can I ask another question? Listen, next week I’m asking a lot of hard questions. Today I’m just teasing out some questions…

Based on who you want to be in five years, are there any changes that you have to make today in order to become that person?

Are these changes that you have the power to make on your own or if you are being honest with yourself you need help?

Friend, I know these are hard questions to answer. But here is what I need for you to know. Having a relationship with the Lord has never been easier than it is now.

Said differently, He is more accessible now than He has ever been.

All of God’s word to us is printed in ways that the disciples could have never imagined! We can read God’s word in multiple versions of the Bible so that we can comprehend it. There’s even a Gen Z Bible Stories version! No cap.

We can read God’s word on our phones. We can curate Bible reading plans, devotions, and set them to pop up as notifications on our phone so that when it’s time for daily reading it’s right there.

We have sermons on demand via YouTube. More Pastors are writing books on so many different topics and thoughts. I mean, It’s Not Complicated. It’s Not Complicated at all.

And yet… many of us will not pursue a devoted, and deepening relationship with God simply because we are distracted.

We’d rather doom scroll than read a devotion.

We’d rather play video games than read and study our Bibles. And I’m talking to the adults in the room, not the kids who video games were created for.

We’d rather spend more time at your boys man cave than join your wife for a Connect Group.

Church, who are we becoming and why are we wasting the incredible resources of our time?

Many Are Making The Choice Today

We’ve got a lot to think about don’t we? And we will do that throughout this month.

But today, we are going to celebrate with those who are making the choice to become the best version of themselves and they are getting water baptized!

Let’s celebrate with all those who are taking their next step today.

But I believe there are more here today that need to take this next step. You are here, and you’ve been coming, and you’ve been putting off this decision to be water baptized.

Why not start the journey TODAY to become the best version of you. I believe you can take this next step and the You In 5 Years will thank you that today, April 7, you made the best decision that you could ever make and you completely surrendered your life to Jesus.