Choose Your Own Adventure

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Communion

The theme of Hebrews 2 is the honor due Jesus because of his suffering on our behalf. A specific phrase deserves attention: “. . . that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone” (v. 9).

William Barclay translated this verse in an interesting way in his book The Letter to the Hebrews. He wrote,

But we do see Him who was for a little while made lower than the angels, Jesus Himself, crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of His death, a suffering which came to Him in order that, by the grace of God, He might drain the cup of death for every man.

This phrasing recalls the occasion when Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39, New American Standard Bible).

As we gather around the Lord’s table, consider two things about this “cup of death” Jesus drained.

First, consider the potency of the cup. No cure was found in it . . . only a curse. The content of the cup was an elixir of evil. The dosage proved lethal, as the sin of all humanity was heaped upon Jesus . . . and then God forsook him!

Next, consider the resolve of the One who drank from the cup. Jesus was aware of its potency. However, he obeyed God’s will and willingly drank of it . . . and not just a few sips. No, Jesus drained the cup of death. What resolve! What selfless love for you and me!

By draining the cup of death, Jesus provided us with a cup from which to drink. The contents of which, once drained, becomes in you and me a “spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). Let us be thankful to him as we gather around his table.

1 Corinthians 11 “

Message

I have in my hands a very special book. Let me read you just a little…invite choice 2x…put the book down.

Choose your own adventure. This one is for small kids, I can remember reading ones with pirates and explorers, or wizards and dragons that were a little more robust.

But what a cool idea! It’s one of the things that have changed in video games in the last decade or so. Not a lot of start here, follow the path and finish here type games, but options, choices, and the best games, the ones fans love the most are those which offer choices with consequences. Moral dilemmas.

The fun of these books or games is that they mimic the choices of real life. There is tension created as we make our decision.

Of course very different is that in life, we don’t get to restart or turn a few pages back if we recognize a mistake.

And of course there is the problem for us. We feel a call to adventure, but also are keenly aware that we only get one shot. More so as we get older.

Steven Curtis Chapman wrote a song that I first heard in my early days of faith that pressed on that pressure point:

Started out this morning in the usual way Chasing thoughts inside my head of all I had to do today Another time around the circle try to make it better than the last

I opened up the Bible and I read about you and me Said we'd all been prisoners and God's grace had set us all free Somewhere between the pages it hit me like a lightning bolt I saw a big frontier in front of me and I heard somebody say "let's go"!

Saddle up your horses, we've got a trail to blaze Through the wild blue yonder of God's amazing grace Let's follow our leader into the glorious unknown This is a life like no other, whoa whoa this is the great adventure

A trail to blaze, the glorious unknown, life like no other...

Something in my heart, the more I read the bible told me that this was not Chapman’s idea, but God’s.

That for every one of us, he had an adventure planned. Probably not an adventure like Indiana Jones or Uncharted, but an adventure of kingdom life, loving unflinchinly, knowing we were putting our hearts into places of danger but going forward anyway knowing he kept it safe. Getting into the mess of another’s life in order to share the hope we have to get us out of ours. Giving up our lives in exchange for his…This is a great adventure!

But there is another voice.

You can’t give that…you might need it.

You can’t ask that…they might not want to share.

You can’t invest in them…what might others think.

You can’t…because there might be a cost that you are unwilling to pay.

You just heard the passage read from Matthew. Let me read the beginning of that passage.

Matthew 1:18-19 CSB

“The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit. So her husband, Joseph, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly.

Let’s take a moment and imagine.

Imagine you are in a small tight community

Deeply religious, strong feelings about matters

You are engaged, in a culture that viewed engagement in such a way that divorce was the only way to call one off.

Your betrothed finds herself pregnant…but swears that this is God’s doing and no unfaithfulness.

Choose your own adventure...

You divorce Mary and start the search for a new wife…maybe eHarmony (turn to page 34)

You believe her and marry her anyway (turn to page 72)

I think this was a hard decision for Joseph. He made the choice that made the most sense. He prepared to divorce her.

But notice: “Joseph, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly.”

He still not only cared for her because of her, but because he was a man who was righteous. A man who trusted God.

God honors this and gives him another chance to choose his page turning.

Check this:

Matthew 1:20-23 CSB

“But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Immanuel, which is translated “God is with us.””

Now that makes the decision simple! or not.

Not only will you and Mary live with the community thinking you got married in a hurry because you were trying to cover up your premarital consumation, but you are being asked to raise a son who is...

Not your flesh and blood…but that’s not the kicker.

The. Son. Of. God.

How many dads in the room, considering all your mistakes along the way of raising your own kids would feel comfortable to raise the son of God?

To raise the son of God as your own and be a disgrace in the eyes of your community, turn to page 45

To decide that Joppa is nice this time of year and take a nice long vacation to clear your head, turn to page 64.

But what happens?

Matthew 1:24-25 CSB

“When Joseph woke up, he did as the Lord’s angel had commanded him. He married her but did not have sexual relations with her until she gave birth to a son. And he named him Jesus.”

I said last week that Zechariah’s only story leaves us remembering him as the guy who had to stay silent while his wife was pregnant because of his unbelief.

This is the only story we get of Joseph. The guy who turned to page 45.

He chose the adventure.

You and I are not being called to raise God’s son…but, I will maintain that we are being called to the adventure. We are being called to take the risks, pay the price, to hurt and suffer, and laugh and take joy, and find that in the giving up of everything…we find that great adventure Steven Curtis Chapman was singing about.

I’m convinced of that for several reasons, and I want to share a few of them with you this morning.

God is calling us to an adventure...

Of Faith

In Romans 14, Paul is dealing with a matter of disagreement and division between the Jewish and Gentile Christians over the matter of eating meat that had in it’s preparation been sacrificed to an idol. It was hard to buy meat that wasn’t in much of the Roman Empire.

Paul makes the point that there is nothing wrong with it because the idol is a piece of rock. If you don’t ascribe worth to it, the meat is just meat. But he also highlights that if it causes you or someone else to stumble…to falter in faith, then it should be avoided for the sake of love or conscience.

But he makes a statement here that is much bigger than this one issue:

Romans 14:23 CSB

“But whoever doubts stands condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith, and everything that is not from faith is sin.”

Everything not of faith…is sin.

I’m not saying that when we are responsible we are sinning. I am saying, that when God lays a risk before us…if we have that nudge…or if we stay safe behind our walls so we can avoid the uncomfortable nudges and choose our time and place to safely serve God...

Are you able to live your life without testing and stretching your faith?

It takes faith to be generous when things are tight (it takes faith to be generous when they are not too…)

It takes faith to engage in a Christ sharing conversation

It takes faith to build a relationship with a person who isn’t like you...

It takes faith to let hard words slide so you can love your accuser

It takes faith

Paul tells us in 1 Cor 10 to do everything we do to the glory of God…but how can we do that when we aren’t trusting him? And if we aren’t living in such a way that we have to trust him…how can our lives bring him Glory?

That Costs us…Everything

Consider these words of Jesus:

Matthew 16:24-26 CSB

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it. For what will it benefit someone if he gains the whole world yet loses his life? Or what will anyone give in exchange for his life?”

or these of Paul about Jesus:

Philippians 3:7-9 CSB

“But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith.”

Why in the Indiana Jones movies, did this archaeologist with a steady job in a college keep risking his life, fighting nazis, and braving snakes? A prize that he deemed valuable enough.

Why does Jesus urge us to give him everything? Why does Paul declare that he has readily done so (and if you read on…continues to do so)?

Next point:

And Gives you More

I don’t even need more scripture here (though there’s plenty)

Jesus says if we try to save our lives, we will lose them. But if we lose them for him…We will…FIND IT!

And why does Paul consider everything else worthless? Because nothing....nothing. nothing compares to the value of knowing Christ more. And to know him means to trust him. And to trust him means being willing to lose…everything else you cling to.

This is not a suprise when you read the Biblical narrative!

In the garden, we were supposed to put it all on the line all the time.

We could be totally vulnerable because we had:

perfect trust in God

perfect trust in each other.

Sin created fear. Sin makes the risk…risky.

This is the moment when we started holding or taking our lives into our own hands…instead of freely giving of them.

Every story and law in the OT is God calling out people to find life again by giving it up.

As we celebrated at the Lord’s table this morning, we remembered the day God stepped in to this world and showed us how it was done.

Back to Joseph, God holds two options out. Obedience, risk taking, shame, cost…or disobedience…safety. We aren’t told what the consequence would have been for Joseph if he had ignored the angel and divorced Mary. Because he turned the page to the adventure.

I wonder…what did his family say? What was the commentary around town? Mary’s getting along in that pregnancy…her and Joseph did get married awful quick. I heard she’s claiming God made her pregnant…Joseph is buying that story?

What a fool. What a fool.

Meanwhile, Joseph looks into the eyes of his newborn son and names him Jesus. He is the first to speak that name to that pair of ears. The one who gets to teach him to walk, hold him when he cries, He teaches him how to build, how to join wood together into a home. He shares wisdom with God incarnate…who as a child needs it.

No other man got that privilege. It cost him something. He was a fool. And he held the hand of the son of God they talked about rivers and the sky and every other lovely thing a dad talks to his boy about.

Paul gave up his successful and comfortable life as a Pharisee to shipwrecks, beatings, prison, accusers (in and out of the church) and suffering.

But he got to watch as Lydia became the first convert in Asia.

He got to see a group of hungry souls become the seeds of the church in Ephesus.

He was able to watch Timothy grow from a timid boy raised by his mom to a pastor caring for the flock.

Fools.

You can read Fox’s book of Martyrs to read about a whole collection of fools who lost their lives for the sake of the gospel…and would do it again if they could.

Final point

For Happy Fools

Paul summarizes this point this way:

1 Corinthians 1:18-25 CSB

“For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is the power of God to us who are being saved. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will set aside the intelligence of the intelligent. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish? For since, in God’s wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of what is preached. For the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”

I started with some song lyrics…let’s end with some. Because we are streaming, I can’t play this song, but I really encourage you, as an action point of this message to look it up and listen later this afternoon.

Charlie Was A Fool Did You Hear What He Went And Did? He Quit His Job, Threw It Away Gave His Life To A Bunch Of Kids He Said He Was In Love With Jesus But His Friends Didn't Understand He Could've Had It All But He Just Smiled And Said That He Already Did Chorus: He Saw The Big In The Small He Saw The Beauty In The Call Even When No One Else Approved He Took The Job Only A Fool Would Do Verse Two: Sarah Was A Beauty Queen Miss Something Or Another She Took Off Her Crown Rolled Up Her Sleeves Gave Her Life In A Mission To Others She Said She Was In Love With Jesus But Her Friends Called Her A Fool They Said She'd Never Find Happiness She Just Looked At Them And Smiled And Said She Already Did

Chorus: She Saw The Big In The Small She Saw The Beauty In The Call Even When No One Else Approved She Took The Job Only A Fool Would Do Bridge: The Way Of The World, It May Look Wise The Way Of The Truth Is To Realize Wisdom Will Only Come Through To Those Who Are Only The Fool Chorus: Show Me The Big In The Small Show Me The Beauty In The Call Show Me The Road That I Should Chose I'll Take The Job Only A Fool Could Do

Give it a few plays. Pray the prayer of the last chorus. Show me...

Today, if you have never put your faith in Christ, if you have never put down your attempts to get right with God, if you have never surrendered to him, Will you do so today?

For the rest of us…There is a job in front of you that only a fool could do.

Maybe you have been hurt before taking a risk. Maybe relationally, maybe in the church, maybe any number of things. God is calling you to take a risk again.

Maybe it’s making a sacrifice you don’t know you can do

Maybe it’s stepping up and embracing a calling to a bigger vision of what you can do to share God’s kingdom with those needing to hear it.

Maybe it is getting yourself into the place where you can meet people and build friendships you never could have expected.

The risk is worth it.

Jesus is worth it.

To follow Jesus…turn to page (trail off…)

Pray