Refuel

My first car was a 2007 Toyota Camry. It was a little beast of a car – 6 cylinders of torque and almost 268 horsepower. Some of you might be thinking…wow I bet that was a nice car! While it was pretty nice, it also looked like a grandma car in all honesty. It was pretty quick though.

My car’s nickname was Cameron the Camry. It was silver and honestly for the time it had really good fuel economy…but I’ve also been other end of the spectrum with fuel economy. When I got back from college and started working here, one of my first purchases I made was a big lifted 2000 F150 with some big offroading tires and American Racing Chrome wheels…I honestly liked it but it just wasn’t practical for me. It maybe averaged 15 mpg.

The truth is that for all of us it’s hard to stay refueled – especially as students! You have books to read, papers to write, mind-numbing math homework. There are boy problems, girl problems, friend problems, mom problems. Stress at home, stress over your job, stress over being so stressed. Practice for the big game. Working out for the big game. Playing in the big game. Crying like a baby because you LOST the big game …

Because of this we always feel drained, right? Physically you’re like a zombie – falling asleep in class. Emotionally you are worn out from relational drama, your life feels like a reality show, and it looks nothing like The Hills. And all of this affects us spiritually. Have you ever felt like you’re so worn out or stressed that slowing down to talk with God feels impossible? Or so emotionally frazzled that God seems cold and uncaring, or it feels like he’s a million miles away.

POLL: How how strong do you feel your connection with God is right now? (4 choices) STRONG, OK, WEAK, EMPTY

If you’ve ever felt like that, it’s a sign you’re running on empty spiritually. Your spiritual life’s “empty light” is lit up. But this isn’t how God wants us to live.

Ephesians 3:19 ESV

and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

God’s design for humans is that we would know His love and walk with Him. We need to be connected, refueled, to live as He intended.

But here’s the problem: we don’t always live the refueled life. Sometimes, our fuel gauge is empty or the warning lights have come on and the car is about to stop working

We all know warning lights, right? The check engine light, the one that says service engine soon, oil temperature high, low fuel, door ajar, small child dragging behind your car. If you’ve driven at all, you’ve certainly seen these little lights. I found out this is called a MIL – malfunction indicator light.

I remember not taking a warning light seriously. Time about tire being flat on my birthday.

Anyone ever seen a car on fire before? It is a beautiful but terrible thing – you can’t not look at it. *story of driving through Desloge or STL*

Imagine what it would be like coming out after the game and seeing your charred car in your spot. Awesome.

Warning lights are important! I’ve ignored them before and done some damage! Adults ignore them, and their lives burst into flames, too. Have you ever seen an adult’s life implode? When:

· A dad loses his tempter and punches a kid on the other team at a baseball game

· Road rage, where someone overreacts to getting cut off

· How about the classic mid-life crisis – a guy turns 40 and trades his wife in on two 20-year olds and buys a red convertible to compensate.

· Marriages burst into flames into divorce

Some of you sitting in the crowd here tonight have experienced what happens when an adult ignores the warning lights. I’m sorry for that, so sorry. I’m glad you’re here tonight and pray that you will respond differently when the “low fuel” light comes on in your life. I don’t want you to become that person.

Here’s the deal: even in an age of the Prius, or ultra fuel efficient cars - being full is as important as ever. There’s a battery indicator on your phone. On your laptop. Your camera – it’s on everything except your combo meal but I’m sure that’s next. So here’s the big picture thought as we kick off the series: God wants us to live a filled up life. He was us to be “refueled” by Him and walk through life living Him.

There are two ways this might hit you (backed up by the live-poll results):

1) You feel empty. You love God but aren’t “feeling it” anymore.

2) You isolate yourself from the people closest to you.

3) You get frustrated when people aren’t perfect.

4) Or, you don’t feel this way and this talk is preventative maintenance on your life. You want to live in God’s design.

As we jump in I want to give you a couple of warning lights that might be flashing in your life: The Game of Comparison

Here’s the deal. Comparison is a thief of joy. You can always find people who either “have it together” more than you which will make you discourage you or you can always find people who are a little more “messed up” than you which give you a false sense of accomplishment.

We see people that seem to have it so much more together than we do. They’re always bright and happy and put together. They raise their hands during the music time, and when they talk about the Bible you’re not even sure what they’re saying, because of all the big words they’re using. And you think “I’ll never be as good a Christian as ____”

Or we compare ourselves against some vague idea of what we’re SUPPOSED to be doing. We have this sense that we’re not doing enough, no matter how much we do.

We put up their best about our worst and we always lose. When you compare, you lose. This leads us to living an empty, shallow life that robs us of God’s best. When we compare ourselves to God, we bow in humility, when we compare ourselves for others; we play a game that leaves us empty.

Here’s another derailer on the road to living a refueled life, another warning light: The Trap of Doing

In high school - If you work hard accomplishing some things, and don’t get in too much trouble, you’ll graduate. But it is a mistake to approach God like you approach school – follow the rules, don’t do too many bad things, and you’ll make it into Heaven.

Instead of “abiding” in God and “walking with Jesus” we stumble into DOING what we think God wants us to do. We think God expects us to have:

· Mother Teresa-like faith – Mother Teresa was notable because she wasn’t normal. Impossible Quiet Times - Get up early for school and read your Bible and pray. Your prayer must last at least 1.5 hours and you have to read 15 chapters of the Bible. Or my favorite …

· Read through the Bible in 1-year. Reading the Bible is good, you should do it - but in 1 year is a huge challenge! Getting through the book of Leviticus is impossible.

So we get caught in the trap! We focus on the do’s and don’ts and begin to judge other’s spiritual lives and stop looking critically at ourselves. There were a group of people in the Bible called Pharisees that did just that. They were all about rules and regulations. They followed every verse in the Bible, and sometimes they added some. The couldn’t even cook food on the holy day and couldn’t walk more than a few paces from their house. It was an amazing existence – they had reduced the Christian faith to a list of do’s and don’ts without any heart for God.

I wanted to tell you the story of one of these guys this week as we kickoff Refuel – his name was Nicodemus. Here’s his story from John 3:

1 There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee (remember these guys – warning lights are flashing but they don’t see them). 2 After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.”

3Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

4“What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”

5Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6 Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. 7 So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’

9“How are these things possible?” Nicodemus asked.

10Jesus replied, “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things?

Here’s proof he didn’t get it! (skip a few verses)

16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

18“There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”

Nicodemus had religion, but never truly entered a filling relationship with God. He was so busy doing this and doing that and wishing he could DO more, he was empty and shallow. Jesus shattered all of that and said forget what you thought was spiritual and love me. Through me you can enter Heaven. Students, God wants us to BE the person of God. Getting refueled starts with accepting Christ as the center of your life. Believing in Him and asking him to look under the hood of your car.

Hosea 6:6 ESV

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Tonight I want to present you with a choice:

a) Maybe you don’t care about the warning lights, sure maybe you see them, but nothing seems too serious right now so you’ll see how it pans out.

b) You care, maybe even deeply, and want to begin the process of refueling.

I’ll show you how to refuel next week. But first, let me tell you the end of Nicodemus’ story.

You’ve got the chief religion guy of the day who sneaks in the see Jesus at night. Nicodemus discovers the freeing and filling relationship with Jesus Christ. That living a refueled life starts with Jesus, no comparison or traps. Nicodemus cared about the warning signs in his life. He realized he was living a life of rules and laws and was even a leader of these “religious” people but it wasn’t enough – he was empty.

That night he was refueled. His life was changed forever. How do I know? Because his story is told again in a couple verses in the Bible several chapters later.

John 19:38–41 ESV

After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.

Did you see that? He was carrying Jesus’ bloody body in linen sheets, at a time when it wasn’t exactly popular to be seen as a follower of Jesus. Nicodemus finally got it. He saw the warning lights and his life was changed forever. He knew that if he didn’t change he would run on empty and miss out on God’s plan. He went from just doing Christian things to being one … and his first step was identifying himself with Jesus.

I want to invite you into that same refueled relationship with God as well. I imagine a place where students live a life for God – not judging others falling in the comparison trap and trying to “do” spiritual things - but truly walking with him every day. I can imagine a group of 1,000 students in Orange County living a genuine faith every day, and it excites me to the very core.

Next week I’ll dive into the practical ways on what it takes to be refueled, but I wanted to give you some hope, and invite you along for this journey, too. Hope to see you back next week.

Pray.