1990s | Choices

The story you're about to see is true. People have got to know whether or not their president's a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. Learn the ways of the force and become a Jedi like my father. Wait a minute.

Wait a minute, Doc. Are you telling me that you built a time machine out of a DeLorean? Senator, you can see the firemen assembled here, the police officers, FBI agents, and you can see the two towers. A huge explosion now raining debris on all of us. Tick Tock Street.

It's official. The government shutdown is now the longest in U.S. history. We wrote the song I still haven't found I'm looking for, which is a gospel song, pretty much.

I mean, it doesn't sound much like a gospel song the way we do it, but if you look at the lyric and the basic music, that's exactly what it is. And we got a cassette from a friend of ours in Island Records of the gospel choir covering the song. And it sounded like, sounded totally different, but it sounded really exciting and new. So we traveled down to Harlem and visited this church in the middle of Harlem where this choir were going through a rehearsal. And we played with them and got the idea to do a combination arrangement.

And we played with them for the final action arrangement. And from the Catholic Church in the middle of Harlem. And we played with them as a golf woman who was born. Every decade tells a story, and every song tells a story. It tells a story, and this song by U2, I still haven't found what I'm looking for, it tells an amazing story, I have climbed highest mountains, I have run through the fields, only to be with you, only to be with you, I have run, I have crawled, I have scaled these city walls, these city walls, only to be with you, and the U in those lyrics is God, it's a story about God, and God's love, and God's grace, and the power of this whole song comes in the end, when the lyrics go right directly into the truth of scripture, I believe in the kingdom come, you broke the bonds, and you loosed the chains, carried the cross of my shame, you know I believe in you, but I still haven't found what I'm looking for, every decade has God breaking through, to reveal who he is, to reveal who he is in Jesus Christ, and sometimes people go, and I still haven't found what I'm looking for, and sometimes the church goes, and I still haven't found what I'm looking for, but we're searching and we're reaching because every Sunday tells a story, so today let me tell you the story of the 1990s, in 1993, Nelson Mandela won the Nobel Peace Prize, for ending apartheid in South Africa, Dr.

Seuss passed away, Dr. Seuss passed away, in the 1990s, Theodore Geisel, and the Cat in the Hat will never pass away, maybe you have a favorite Dr. Seuss book, like Hop on Pop, or Horton Hears a Who, and those stories will live forever, June 9th, 1993, Jurassic Park hit the big screens, all across this nation, all around the world, June 9th is my birthday, so I'm taking it as a personal gift to me from Steven Spielberg, and I always get a lot of questions as a pastor, they go something like this, when it comes to the Bible, what about the dinosaurs, and I always say the same thing, you want answers to the dinosaurs, watch Jurassic Park, watch all the movies, you'll get all the answers to the dinosaurs, that you need to have, in the 1990s, our 42nd president Bill Clinton was elected, in October of 1993, Michael Jordan retired from basketball, from the Chicago Bulls, after three consecutive championships, it was amazing, and then what broke my heart, in the 1990s, 1994, August the 11th, Major League Baseball went on strike, that was absolutely crazy, it took them a long time to recover, they actually had already printed, the World Series baseballs, for 1994, and so I bought two cases of them, because I thought someday, They're going to be worth a lot of money. You know how much they're worth? Zero.

Zip. Nada. After the service, if you want to buy a 1994 baseball, please see me. In April of 1994, we had the tragedy of domestic terrorism in Oklahoma City as the federal building was blown up. It was horrible.

It was awful. 160-some people lost their lives that day. And then in 1996, there was a bombing at the Olympics in Atlanta. Right after the bombing, I went to the Olympics with my son, and we saw a bunch of different things, soccer and basketball and baseball. But that bombing rocked the world.

Clint Eastwood then did a film about it, which he titled simply Richard Jewell. And Richard Jewell was exonerated for that as the investigation went on, and he just didn't do it. And then in 1990-something, about 1995, I'm back. Michael Jordan comes back to the Chicago Bulls after a brief stint with the Chicago White Sox and AAA baseball. And he wins another three championships, another three straights, and then he retired again.

In the 1990s, I had to say this, the New York Yankees won three World Series. Three World Series with their super mega star at the time, a young man named Derek Jeter. You see now commentating on the World Series as it unfolds tied up at one game apiece. You also see him on commercials all over TV. Three World Series, 96, 98, and 99.

These pictures I took myself of Derek when I was sitting right next to the Yankee dugout at Camden Yards. If I tripped, I would have fallen into the dugout. And I tried not to do that because they would have ejected me from the stadium. But I was close enough to reach out and touch Derek. And if you roll over into the year 2000, we had the Subway Series and we beat the Mets.

In the 90s, the world mourned Diana. And what a tragic loss. A woman with a great heart, a heart for the poor, a heart for the needy. And as her two sons there mourned and continue to mourn to this day, that loss probably will never be fully understood. There were themes in the 1990s.

One theme was my religion. My religion. My religion. My way. Humanism.

Humanism is always a theme that runs through our culture. I'm in charge. I can do it. It's all about what I can think, what I can envision, what I can do. I can make the plan.

It's about me executing the plan. And then that rolls easily into leadership. Leadership got big in the 1990s. And book after book after book about leadership came out. And they still are continuing to parade into our lives today.

Book after book about leadership. And as you look around, have we have we yet . . To figure out what leadership is, what it's supposed to do, how it's supposed to take care of things and solve problems, and so the books keep on rolling. But going back to that theme of my religion, there was a song that was very popular in the early 1990s, and it went like this.

If God had a name, what would it be? And would you call it to His face if you were faced with Him in all His glory? What would you ask if you had just one question? And yeah, yeah, God is good. And yeah, yeah, God is great.

And yeah, yeah, what if God was one of us, just a stranger on the bus, trying to make His way home? If God had a face, what would it look like? And would you want to see if seeing meant that you would have to believe in things like heaven and in Jesus and in the saints and all the prophets? And so for millennia, people have asked questions. They've asked questions about God and faith and life, and it was no different in the 90s, because every decade tells a story, and people are trying to figure it out.

And sometimes people just cry out, and we still haven't found what we are looking for. Let me take you back in time. The year is 1406 BC, so it's about 3,500 years ago, and Moses is about to deliver a great speech to his people. Let's turn to Deuteronomy chapter 30 to hear what he says. Now, what I am commanding you today is not too difficult.

It's not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It's not up in heaven so that you have to ask, who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it? So I love this opening part of the speech. I'm going to tell you this. It's not really hard.

You don't have to have a degree. You don't have to go to school to figure this stuff out. You just have to understand that God is trying to give you something very special today, and it's right here within your reach. It's not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. And then he goes on and says, nor is it beyond the sea.

You don't have to go to the other side of the ocean so that you have to ask, who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so that we may obey it? It's not that far away. No, the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. It is in your mouth and it's in your heart so that you may obey it.

It reminds me of John chapter 4 where Jesus has a conversation with the woman at the well. And she says, well, you know, should you go to Jerusalem and worship? Or is it okay? I'm going to pray for you. If we worship on the mountain and Jesus says, you don't have to go to Jerusalem.

You don't have to go to the mountain. The time is coming, and now is, when God is seeking people who worship Him in spirit and in truth. Such people God seeks to be His worshippers. It's always been in the heart. The heart is the place where we meet Him.

The heart is the place where we invite Him to reside in our lives. Know the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and your heart, so that you may obey it, John said. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. This day, Moses continued, this day, I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death.

You have choices. You have choices. You can choose things that bring you alive, that make you come alive. You could choose things that deaden the spirit with inside of you. I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.

If you do what I'm asking you to do, you will have blessing upon blessing, even in the struggles. Sometimes the struggles will be blessings in disguise. But if you don't, then your life will be overwhelmed by things that are negative, that pull you down, that roll over you and you lay in the dust. Now choose life. These three great words from Moses.

Now choose life so that you and your children may live. Now choose life. It's always about choices. Every decade tells a story. It's a story of choices.

How do we choose life? If we have so many choices and it's upon us and it's incumbent upon us to choose life, the operable question is how do we choose life? And that's what I want to tell you about this morning. In his book, People Fuel, Dr. John Townsend gives us the four quadrants of understanding how we choose life.

Let me unpack that for you today. He said, everything significant starts with relationship. At the end of the day, your faith, your family, your work and your leadership are all based on who you relate to and how you relate. And that includes the church. It's based upon who you relate to and how you relate.

Because choosing life has a lot to do, if not most of the time, it has most of the time to do about relationships. Think how energized you are when you are around someone who gets you and encourages you. It's like guzzling an energy drink and rebooting yourself. Now think of the opposite experience. That person who drained you or worse, was overly negative toward you.

For me, the feeling after that encounter is that I'm... Walking through sludge. And so here's his conclusion. So I have learned to embrace the first. If I'm going to choose life, I have to embrace the first.

And as much as possible, avoid the second. How do we choose life? Let me take you through John Townsend's four quadrants of choosing life, where he gives you the details that we all need to know to make those choices, to make those choices with faith, to make those choices with integrity, to make those choices guided by God's Holy Spirit. Quadrant number one is simply called be present. Be present.

Be in the moment. Be really in the moment. You know, sometimes we're in a moment and we're not there because we're thinking about something else. Or sometimes a moment is happening and we don't even realize that it's happening. Be present.

This is about acceptance, validation, and identification. I take you to Joshua 1. As I was with Moses, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will never leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.

Acceptance, validation, identification is all in that word to Joshua. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left that you may be successful wherever you go.

Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. For the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Quadrant one is about being present. God is with you.

We need God to be with us. He is present with us. It's an example of how we must be present with each other relationally. Be present. Acceptance means connection without judgment.

So often we're so quick to judge somebody. We're so quick to point out the flaw or the misdirection or the errant thinking. Connect without judgment is what acceptance is about relationally. Validation is about conveying that a person's experience is significant and not to be dismissed. Somebody sharing something with you, by being present with them, by listening, you honor their experience.

You honor what has happened to them, whether it was something good, whether it was something very, very bad or awful. I received a text yesterday, and it was one of those texts that is really long and very detailed, and it just broke my heart. It was about so much suffering that this person had in her childhood. It was about so much suffering that this person had in her childhood. And then the— The only way I could respond was to try to listen, and hear, and then to respond in a positive way to help this person take the next positive step in her life.

Acceptance. Validation. Identification. Sometimes you share your story that is similar so that a person understands that they're not alone, and then you can allow the other person to vent while staying warm in your heart to them without reacting, and just be in the moment. Quadrant one says, be present in relationships.

By being present, you are choosing life. You're choosing the life that God tries to create, that God wants to create in all of our relationships. Quadrant two for choosing life is called convey the good, affirmation, hope, forgiveness. We go to Philippians 4.8.

Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. Let your mind be stayed on those things. For conveying the good, affirmation, hope, and forgiveness. And you will choose life. Affirmation is about always drawing attention to the good.

Thank you for always being there. Thank you for your volunteer service. Thank you for showing up when you didn't have to show up. Thank you for going the extra mile. You pay attention to the things that are good, and you call those things out.

Draw attention to the good. Encouragement. Convey that you believe in someone's ability to do the difficult when it's difficult, and yet somebody keeps going on and keeps going at it. You know, I heard Mike Krzyzewski in the years when he was coaching Duke. I heard him downtown Norfolk at the Chrysler Hall.

And he said the two, the words, four words that most touch somebody's heart are I believe in you. Encouragement. And you heard that encouragement back there in Joshua 1 also. And then hope, providing reality-based confidence in the future. If you stay on that path, you are going to make it.

You're going to get there. God's going to be with you through all the ups and downs and in-betweens and the dark valleys, what I call the valley of the questions. When you go into the valley of the questions, You will listen, and God will give you a holy answer. And then, P.S.

, celebrate. Celebrate as you convey the good. Celebrate with people for what has happened that is good. Celebrate and recognize that together we are achieving something for the kingdom of God, and we do that together. I shared this at the first service.

We used to do something at Spring Branch in the early days, and we called it Out on a Limb. And we would give these awards. It would be called Out on a Limb Awards. It was related to Spring Branch, but now you're Out on a Limb. And Out on a Limb Awards were always given to people who got very little recognition.

Their names are never up on a screen. Most people, you know, didn't really know that they were doing the things that they were doing. But we would sit down and think about this and say, who's going to get an Out on a Limb Award this year? And then we'd have a small banquet, and then we'd call the person up. We'd explain what they did, and how they stayed the course, and how they made a difference.

And then we would give them the Out on a Limb Award, and everybody would cheer for them. That is so important as we choose life to cheer one another on, to recognize those moments in each other's lives, and as we build the church together. Quadrant three is succinctly stated in these two words, provide reality, provide reality. This might be the toughest quadrant of them all, because a lot of people are sort of in fear and trepidation to step into this quadrant. I go to Ephesians chapter 4, verse 15.

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. Maturity is one of the greatest themes of this book. Maturity is a great theme in what we call the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures. It's a huge theme in the New Testament. It's a huge, huge, huge, huge theme in Paul's letters.

Respect the maturity in every respect. Become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. Let's peel back the layers of providing reality, which is found in perspective, insight, and confrontation, probably the hardest of all. In providing reality, we offer perspective, we offer a different viewpoint. I know that you think this way.

I know that your experience kind of has put you in that position. Can I offer another perspective? And so you offer to provide reality that opens up the discussion a little bit wider. Insight. You convey a deeper understanding of what is easily misinterpreted on the surface of things.

You want to... We're the most insight and I say that and I even as I say that I remind myself Michael don't say that but one of the most interesting places for insight in the Bible is the book of Proverbs all you have to do is open the book of Proverbs you'll have insight after insight after insight after insight sometimes I'll open it up and a proverb will just nail me to the wall and it'll just net out all the the truth of my life that I was missing that I needed to understand and embrace insight. convey a deeper understanding and then confrontation obviously the toughest of all things so many people so many of us and even in the church we just avoid confrontation but confrontation is a blessing in disguise face someone with an appeal to change it's the word candor it's it's with a sensitivity and a love in candor to say I think I think the way you're looking at this is ultimately going to be hurtful I think what you said at the meeting to her was hurtful I think the direction that we're taking right now is not positive for the future but is going to be destructive candor gives life through candor we choose life and in quadrant three the action is in providing reality so we go to quadrant four to conclude quadrant four is a call to action advice structure and challenge you can have all the dreams and hopes and goals that you want to have without structure you're never going to get there blessed are those who are blessed blessed are those who find wisdom those who gain understanding for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold she is more precious than rubies nothing you desire can compare with her long life choose life long life is in her right hand again proverbs is just netting out the wisdom netting out the wisdom and gives us what gives us there are those who gives us the truth in very succinct formulations so quadrant four is about advice recommending the right action step what's the right action step what's the right action step as you get closer to thanksgiving and christmas what is the right action step for salt church structure providing a framework a pastor's job a lot Pastor Leon's job has a lot to do with providing a framework for you so that you get to the places where you have to go and you have to honor that structure and honor that framework. Challenge. Strongly recommend a difficult action.

Sometimes that's the call. That's the call that takes you from providing reality to understanding that reality is not something to be afraid of. It's something to embrace. Strongly recommend a difficult action. We can do this.

We can get there and then. And then develop and create a growth environment. Without a growth environment, we all sort of always repeat the same thing over and over again. We have, you know, 20 years of experience in ministry. It's really one year of experience that we have repeated 20 years in a row, and we're not going anywhere.

So you have to put this all together. And when you put it all together to choose life, you have to be present. Be really present. You have to convey the good. You have to provide reality.

And you have to have a call to action. Quadrants one and two are about the present. They're about the now. This is where we are now. Quadrants three and four are about the future.

Quadrants one and two are about grace. God's abundant grace. Quadrants three and four are about tough love. They're about tough love. Being honest and real.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend. So how do we choose life? When you take all this together, we can simplify it into three words. I call these words the Jesus process. Grace, truth, and time.

God's grace, which is so abundant and so generous. His truth, which is always going to keep us going in the right direction and over a period of time. It's not going to all happen today. It's not going to all happen next week. It's probably not even going to happen by the end of the year.

But it's important for you to answer the question, Where do you need grace, truth, and time as you choose life right now? As a matter of fact, there's a line at the bottom of the notes in your bulletin where you can write in. This is where I need grace, truth, and time as I'm trying to choose life right now. Right now. Every decade tells a story.

Every life tells a story. Your life is telling a story right now. We had already talked briefly about the tragedy in Oklahoma City, April 19, 1995. Domestic terrorism exposed in all of its ugly forms. And we still see terrorism at work, both domestically and internationally.

We see it every single day. And it's so sad. When I was in Oklahoma City, I went to the memorial. What they decided to do was to put together a very peaceful place where there was one such great destruction. And so they put a chair up for everybody who lost his or her life, men, women, and children.

As you can see, they get decorated. I took these pictures. And then there's a pool. On either side of the pool, there are two monuments. Beautiful pool.

And these monuments are very stately. And then there's absolutely. On one monument at the very top, it says 901. 901 was one minute before the bomb went off. 901 was everything is normal in Oklahoma City.

Everything is the way it always was in Oklahoma City. I'm dropping off my kid at daycare. I'm driving to work. I'm grabbing a cup of coffee. It's a beautiful day.

Today, everything is the way it's supposed to be. And I say a prayer, God, give me a day that honors you. 901. At 902, havoc struck. There's nowhere at this site where it says 902.

At the other end of the pool, it says 903. And I heard a pastor say this. We marked 901 when everything was the way it was always supposed to be. And then we marked 903. 903 was the moment we started rebuilding Oklahoma City.

In other words, 903 was the moment that we started to choose life. The life that God would give us. The life that God would grace us with. The life that God would embrace us in. On one side of this park, there's a tree that survived the blast.

And it stands there stately and majestically. And if you go up to that tree, you see the wall. Carved into that wall is one word. It's the word faith. It's the word faith.

Because faith is what helps us to choose life. Faith in the one who gave his life for us is the defining moment of life. It will forever be the shining pinnacle of our lives. It's faith. By grace, you're saved through faith.

It's a gift of God, not by works that anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which he prepared beforehand for us to do. So some days we're going to go, I still haven't found what I'm looking for. I still want to find and be a part of a church that is changing the world and makes a difference. But every single day we choose life.

And I'll close with these words of Paul as a benediction. Philippians 2, 12 and 13. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation in fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Choose life.

Be present. Be in it. Be honest. Be real. Be the church that Jesus talked about when he said, I will build my church.

Have the faith to take the next courageous step. And watch, always watch what God will do. In Jesus' name, Father, we give you this morning. In Jesus' name, Father, we give you all these words. In Jesus' name, Father, we ask that the reality of the living Christ, the resurrected Christ be alive in us and through us today.

Father, take us, shape us, fashion us into tools for great service for your kingdom, Father. We give it all to you again. For your honor and glory. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Choose life. Amen.