4_14_2024 - “Convinced - Part 2”

(Opening Prayer)

(Back From Sabbatical)

We are so glad to be back from our 8-week Sabbatical that began February 7th and concluded on April 2nd!

It was a great time away, but we have missed you more than I can say!

(What is a Sabbatical?)

A Sabbatical is common in the pastoring world.

An extended Sabbath is the idea. The focus is on intentionally taking time to be poured into by the Lord and to rest.

We spent extra amounts of time practicing the spiritual disciplines of study, reflection, biblical meditation, worship, prayer, journaling, etc.

We slept a lot.

We spent time together as a family.

It is also normal for pastors to spend time in counseling.

My wife and I spent two weeks known as an “Intensive” with the AGAPE Hope team.

An “intensive” is two-weeks, Monday-Thursday, with two 75 minute sessions back to back (2-5pm) a day.

That is 1,200 minutes in two weeks or 20 hours.

It was intense and so good for us.

(Why Take a Sabbatical?)

A study was conducted a few years concerning the most intense professions in America.

Pastoring was number three on the list behind Law Enforcement and Trauma Doctors.

My wife and I have begun our 19 year in ministry and had never taken a Sabbatical.

Our leadership cares about us and offered us the opportunity to take a Sabbatical and we said ‘yes.”

I am grateful for our leadership, their heart for us, and their heart for you.

I am eternally grateful for the lessons that I learned during these past 8 weeks.

(What Now?)

I know for many of you the word “Sabbatical” is a dirty word because you have seen pastors come back from Sabbatical and resign.

I understand the apprehension that you feel.

In fact, when we pastored in Chinook (the church before Central) we had come in on the heels of a pastor who had gone on Sabbatical and then resigned.

When we came to Central Assembly we came in on the heels of a pastor who had gone on Sabbatical and then resigned, so it is not an unwarranted expectation.

I would say to you, that we should always be wanting to do what God wants and if that is the case we should rejoice that they heard from the Lord and said, “yes.”

However, I want you to know that we are not going anywhere!

In fact, the Lord has clearly spoken to us that we should not make any plans to leave Central Assembly.

Our love and heart for you has only grown.

I dream of a day when I can say I was at Central longer than Pastor Alan!

(Sermon Introduction)

As we were preparing to return I felt the Lord direct me to pause our Mark series for a few weeks to share with you some of what the Lord has done and shared with me during my time away.

Last week and today, I want to share what the Lord has done in my life through this two month Sabbatical and look at the Scriptures together.

I have entitled these next two weeks “Convinced - Part 1” and “Convinced - Part 2.”

Welcome to “Convinced - Part 2.”

(1. Agape Love Defines Me)

It can be easy to allow the standards around us to define us.

God’s word says this:

1 Thessalonians 2:4 (NLT)

4 For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts.

Eugene H. Peterson Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 2:4

God tested us thoroughly to make sure we were qualified to be trusted with this Message.

Be assured that when we speak to you we’re not after crowd approval—only God approval.

AGAPE Hope Counseling Story Part 1

During the second day of our counseling we were looking at what is called the “Performance Trap.”

The “Performance Trap” is something most everyone of us wrestles with in some way.

It is this idea that we are living by a set of internal or external standards by which we measure ourselves (value, significance, success, etc).

At one point during the session I recognized that I was living in this trap with people and with the Lord.

One of our counselors (we had a counseling team), asked me to read a statement:

I read it okay the first time he asked me to read it, but not the second time.

I lost it!

Something happened to me in those 15-20 minutes as my wife and the team of counselors sat there in silence and let me weep.

As I sat there weeping, something deep was happening in my heart.

Jesus was perfecting every crack in my foundation in a single moment.

That doesn’t mean that everything I do now is perfect, but a perfect work was done in me.

Something that I have needed for my whole life happened that day.

[Love Defines Me Statement]

We are not defined by the standards of those around us but by the One Who has loved us with an everlasting love.

Romans 5:1–10 (NLT)

1 Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.

2 Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.

3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.

4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.

5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

6 When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.

7 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good.

8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

9 And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.

10 For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.

God truly loves all the little children of the world!

Our value has been wired into our DNA.

We bear His image and His love.

God’s love outlasts our last breath and follows us wherever we go.

(2. Agape Love Doesn’t Fail or Change)

AGAPE Hope Counseling Story Part 2

After our team of counselors allowed me the space with the Lord one of the counselors asked me to read the statement for a third time.

As I did I read it differently.

I believed it.

I believed it, unlike I ever have before.

The counselor spoke to it and said, “Josh, it appears that you are having Romans 8 moment like Paul had.

He went on and read a very familiar portion of Scripture:

Romans 8:31–39 (NLT)

31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?

32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?

33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself.

34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.

35 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?

36 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”)

37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.

39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(3. Agape Love Is Enough)

I don’t know about you but I have always struggled with the words of Jesus to Peter on the shore.

John 21:15–20 (NLT)

15 After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” Peter replied, “you know I love you.” “Then feed my lambs,” Jesus told him.

16 Jesus repeated the question: “Simon son of John, do you love me?” “Yes, Lord,” Peter said, “you know I love you.” “Then take care of my sheep,” Jesus said.

17 A third time he asked him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a third time. He said, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Then feed my sheep.

18 “I tell you the truth, when you were young, you were able to do as you liked; you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will dress you and take you where you don’t want to go.”

19 Jesus said this to let him know by what kind of death he would glorify God. Then Jesus told him, “Follow me.”

20 Peter turned around and saw behind them the disciple Jesus loved—the one who had leaned over to Jesus during supper and asked, “Lord, who will betray you?”

Why have I struggled?

Because I believed there were some struggles in the story.

When asked, “do you love me?” I would say apparently Peter didn’t because he failed Jesus.

I often wondered why Jesus didn’t confront Peter about his failures.

Jesus never brings it up (as far we know).

How could a conversation about love make it all okay?

Where is the “justice?”

AGAPE Hope Counseling Story Part 3

I came to a realization on that Tuesday about this story:

I felt the Spirit speak to my soul and ask:

“What if the questions I asked Peter weren’t about the love of Peter at all but the love that I had already given Him?

“What if I wanted Peter to remember my words, ‘I have loved you to the end. Love as I have loved you.”

The Lord captured my heart again and reminded me that “There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love.” (1 John 4:18), and “He hasn’t given us a spirit of fear but of love, power, and a sound mind” (2 Tim. 2:7).

It’s like the Lord reminded me again of “how great the love the Father has lavished upon us that we should be called children of God—and that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1).

I love the fact that John, the recorder of this story in John 20:15-20 refers to himself as “the disciple Jesus loved” (v. 20).

John understood this…He was loved and is loved right now in the presence of the Lord.

The love that God has for John has never ended and neither will His love for us.

Listen to God’s heart for us:

Ephesians 3:16–19 (NLT)

16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.

17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.

18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.

19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

(4. Agape Love Is Present, Patient, and Purposeful)

The Agape love of God impacts our lives and relationships.

We love others because He first loved us.

We love others as He has loved us.

His love is present with us.

His love is patient with us.

His love is purposeful in every way with us.

1 Corinthians 13:1–13 (NLT)

1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing.

3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud

5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.

6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.

7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!

9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture!

10 But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.

11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.

12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

(Pastor Stephanie on Keys)

(5. Agape Love Seeks Out the Highest Good)

Ephesians 4:14–16 (NLT)

14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.

15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.

16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

AGAPE Commitment:

By the grace of God, I choose to love you with God's agape love.

This means that whatever I do I want it to be in your highest good - what I think, what I say, in the decisions I make, and in the way l act.

Because I am human, I may fail, but that is not my intent.

If I do fail in some way, please tell me the truth in agapé love.

By the grace of God, I will make it right.

I choose to walk with you and be an instrument of healing in your life.

My desire and prayer for you is that the Holy Spirit would change our hearts and that by His grace we become the people He wants us to become and to do the things He wants us to do.

Obedience in all these matters is success.

(Closing Tension)

“I am convinced” that we are loved by God and there is nothing we can do to change that.

How does the Love of God Defining You impact your life?

How will your life change because of the Love of God?

In what way is the Love of God being enough challenge your perspective?

How is His love calling us to be present, patient, and purposeful?

According to the Agape love of God what is the highest good in the area of ____________?

(Connection Card)

(Response)

(Invite Altar Team)

(Closing Challenge)

If you want to know more about repentance, water baptism, or the baptism in the Holy Spirit, please connect with us.

(Closing Blessing)

Numbers 6:24–26 (CSB)

24 “May the Lord bless you and protect you;

25 may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;

26 may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.” ’