God Works In Messy Situations

Big readers make some noise. (audience cheering) Not like you're in the library, you know, reading something. Make some noise, you love a good story. (audience cheering) And I need you to know when you read a autobiography usually, it's based on a true story. And one statistic that I read said, well over 75% of memoirs that we read if it's a famous person or someone who won a gold medal in the Olympics or somebody who was a former president, they will have had help from a ghost writer. And I know you know the term, but just so we get on the same page, working in my different categories of my sermon. The ghost writer is someone that the person will bring in if they have a story, but they need help telling it. And so the ghost writer might come along and spend 20 hours, 40 hours, in some cases, even a year with the person saying, tell me your story, tell me what it was like when you won American Idol. And you know, just because you're a good singer and you won American Idol doesn't even have to tell the story. You have to give the sing, but you may not have to give the rights. So you bring in some help and you have a story, but you need some help. You know, you might have done something really incredible,

like you hiked a huge mountain, but just because you're good at hiking doesn't mean you're good at grammar. So you bring somebody in, you're like, I want to tell this story, how we almost died, and then I want to tell them how almost ate my brother and because we ran out of food, but I'm good at surviving and I'm good at climbing, but I'm not really a storyteller. I need some help. I've got a story to tell, but I need some help telling it. And that's where a ghost writer comes in. And that's where the Holy Ghost comes in in my life and the life of the disciples that I just read to you about because I have a story to tell, but I need help telling it. Say amen somebody if you've got a story to tell. If you got a story to tell of how God made a way for you, of how God saved you, of how God kept you, of how God blessed you, of how God raised you. I have a story to tell and I need some help. Now imagine for a moment that you were one of these disciples. Let's say you're not even a main character, you're just Bartholomew. And you've just seen Jesus taken from you. The one that you were guiding by is gone. The one who broke it down and made sense of it for you every step along the way. Now here's why I'm talking to this woman by the well. Now here's why I'm feeding people that you want to send away. Now here's why I sent you into the storm

so that I could show you that I'm Lord of the storm. Now here's why I said that in this parable and this is what I meant. All of a sudden what they have been guiding by is gone. In their sight he was taken up, hidden in a cloud and they are told to be witnesses. Watch this, of the story of his sinless life, his unjust death and his supernatural resurrection and his eventual coming again. They were entrusted to be stewards of the gospel story. My brothers and sisters, we are stewards of this same story. Do you not know that the same spirit that lived in them lives in me because I believe in Jesus? I have a story to tell. I wasn't there to see it firsthand when he opened Bartimaeus's eyes. I didn't see them lower the man on the mat through the roof and Jesus said your sins are forgiven and oh by the way get up and walk to bonus scene, deleted content just 'cause I'm Jesus like that. I wasn't there to see it but I have the same spirit that witnesses to me. He said you will be witnesses in Jerusalem. That's where they are. Judea, Samaria, that's the next circle or the circumference of influence and to the ends of the earth, imagine your Bartholomew what you have guided by is gone and God has commanded you to go. It makes no sense.

It makes no sense. For many of us even to praise God today from a sensual perspective made no sense because you've been under depression. For you to begin to sing from your spirit today and declare that God didn't leave me where I was. It made no sense because in some ways you're still there. I came to church because I need the Holy Spirit. I need the third person of the Godhead. I need the one that Jesus said He would send. He actually said this. He said, "I'm leaving, and you've got to go and do this impossible task." Now, for you, even raising an 11-year-old might seem like an impossible task, I certainly felt that way at each stage of our children's development. It makes no sense that I would be a parent while I still kind of, in a way, feel like a kid. It made no sense I would pastor a church that was several times the size of the town that I grew up in. None of this makes sense. My story, I'm telling you my story. My story, what God has allowed me to see and do, makes no sense without the Holy Spirit. I'm like that frog sitting on a fence post. I didn't get here by myself. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. It's not by might. It's not by power. It's by the Spirit of the Lord. Oh, I'm excited about the Spirit of God. I believe when you sit with the Holy Spirit, He's going to help you tell a better story. What is it like to have the Spirit of God as your ghostwriter?

Bring out my teaching screen. I'm ready to break this down. Y'all give it up for the screen as it comes. 30% of y'all did that when I said it. You non-conformist, aren't you just so strong-willed? You didn't clap. Thank you, fellas. Let's see if we can make sense of this. In by line, verse by verse, I think there is an amazing story being told in the Scripture. How the gospel will eventually go all the way into the Roman Empire, and yet it's starting in such a strange place. I'd like you to write this phrase down. The best stories are born in the messiest moments. Isn't that true? How did you get here? Let's go back to your birthday. Was it messy? If it wasn't messy, you didn't make it. The only way you made it here is through a mess, and so it goes again and again. I'll show you this in the Scripture because, you know, I don't know if you're really listening or not. There is a pin somewhere. I believe it by faith. Oh, they're all on this side. Yeah. Professor Vertic in the house. I love it. I want to show you this Scripture in a way where you can see what it must have felt like for Dr. Luke. Luke is writing this book, and notice the first thing he says, follow with me, he says,

in my former book, Theophilus, he's writing to a patron who is enabling him to tell the story of Jesus. Now, you may recognize Luke who wrote the book of Acts from such blockbuster presentations as Luke, the gospel story that he recorded. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Luke was his, and he didn't name it Luke, but we call it Luke because he wrote it. Now he's saying, in my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus, and I love this word and I hope I can make you love it too, all that Jesus began to do and to teach. So what does that mean? Okay. If Jesus came and lived a sinless life, died a criminal's death, rose from a borrowed grave, and then ascended to heaven to send the Holy Spirit. And when Luke starts writing this book, he says, I wrote a book about all that Jesus began to do, it makes me think that he's just getting started and there will be a sequel. That is not only true of the book of Luke and the book of Acts, that is true for you. That Jesus is just getting started in your life, and even if you were only to live a few more days, you have no idea the ripple effect of what your life will mean to a generation not yet born, because you are a steward of the gospel story. You have a story to tell. It's not just Luke that's telling the story. It's not just the writers of the Bible that tell the story. The Bible says you are a living epistle, not an apostle, that's the people that followed Jesus, and an epistle is not the wife of an apostle, an epistle is a letter. The Bible is basically saying... That means that when people meet you, they have an opportunity to meet Jesus. The same Jesus who met you in the mess you were in. All of the angels can sit this part of the sermon out, but everybody who was in a mess and met a Savior who was in a mess and made a mess and met a Savior. I want you to understand your life is a story, and here's the really good news. He said Jesus began to do it and teach it until the day He was taken up.

This seemed like a loss. He was taken up. It was a complete change for all of the apostles. He was taken up to heaven after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles. He had chosen, and every word of those two verses would preach, but for now, maybe I could just talk about the fact that the Holy Spirit is going to help you tell this story. I see that they're not going on my verse here on the screen. I've got to get over here. The Holy Spirit is going to help you tell your story because you've been telling yourself some really bad stories, and I know it because I do it. If we don't have the Holy Spirit, we will try to make sense of our life through our senses, and we will keep solving the wrong problems, creating more pain. We will keep solving problems at the level at which they appear and never understand the level from which they originate, but the Holy Spirit, when He comes, He will help you tell the story so that you stop telling yourself Satan's story about why you failed, so that you stop telling yourself Satan's story about why you blew it. You keep telling yourself the story I failed because I'm a failure. You edited out 99 times you didn't fail that God gave you a victory. You took the one that you failed at. You magnified that. You got stuck in a scene and called it a story, but I have help because the Holy Spirit will help me zoom out and see that failure is always an event. It is never an identity. Telling yourself stories, you've been telling yourself stories about where you ought to be by now in your life. I should be farther along by now. How do you know that? You don't even know how long you have left. How do you know you're not as far along as all your friends? Has somebody asked me the other day, "All of my friends are doing great things and I'm

not. Do you have anything to say to me?" All I want to say back is you don't know what your friends are going through. You just see your friends through their filter. You just see them through the filter. You don't know what they're dealing with. You don't know if they are farther along. They might play trade places with you in a skinny minute. In a New York minute, it's in a New York minute. I don't know. But the fact of the matter is even the way we measure time is kind of crazy. No, that's all of what Jesus said. Jesus said, "In a few days, you're going to receive the Holy Spirit. I did in one of the fellas, Bartholomew, go, "Excuse me, Jesus, one clarifying question. When you say a few days, what is a few to you?" Because it's like basketball, right, like, "Hang on, honey, I'll be there. There's only five minutes left in the game." That could be three hours in basketball time. Depends if they start fouling, right? We tell you about our life sometimes, and many of you know that against my will, I was basically manipulated into buying my family a dog of Austin Terrier, and we've enjoyed his presence in our home for the last two years. I'm going to tell you more about this in a coming week, so just come back and I'll tell you the rest. But we realized the other day that Beau, first of all, he is very anxiety-ridden dog. Something happened on the 4th of July with some fireworks. I'm not exactly sure what didn't mean to do this to him, but he is traumatized by loud sounds, particularly storms. So when there are storms, we have to give him some medicine. And it's really sad, and he shakes, and my binadrill bill is through the roof ever since

I got this dog. I didn't put that little line item, but I didn't know I was getting such an anxious dog. And then the second thing that we just realized he's really triggered by is suitcases. But makes sense, because he doesn't know. You've been gone for, like, two weeks? He's not looking at the size of the suitcase. Oh, it's just an overnight trip. They'll be back in no time. And he tried to make sense of it like, are you gone for a day? Is this it? Is this goodbye? Now I've got to imagine, watch this, that since we know the story, we know that Jesus was resurrected three days after he died. He was taken from them 40 days after he was resurrected. Then there were 10 days, 10 days while they were waiting for the spirit that he spoke about. And not only are they going through a storm of uncertainty, but they don't know what this suitcase means. Jesus, you're leaving and you're sending the spirit to live in us, and we trust you. But it's kind of hard in this 10 day period to know what to do next. And these are the moments, my friend, when you need the Holy Spirit, because you can do something so stupid while you are waiting 10 days that it'll spend you 10 years trying to undo it. You will tell yourself a story. Have you ever texted somebody that didn't text you back quick enough? And the bubbles came and the bubbles went and the bubbles came and the bubbles went. And every time the bubbles came and went, you told yourself a story about why they weren't texting you back. Oh, God, they were texting while driving and they drove off the road and the bubbles went away. Oh, God, and really it was nothing more than the fact that they got distracted and you weren't that important to them to text you back right away. But you had them dead in your mind because you told yourself a story. Not do you see why? We need help not only telling the gospel story, not only that our lives would be a testimony to the Savior who shed his blood for us, but so that we tell ourselves the right story in the spaces of 10 days. How wonder is somebody in a 10 day space between what you know God promised you and the help that you believe that he'll send you and you need the Holy Spirit to make sense of him? So they go back to Jerusalem. They start praying, which I think is very important. They start praying with their prayer partners, which I think is even more important. And then something very cool happens. Luke gives us a cast of character since we're going to be

in the book of Acts. Let's see the opening credits for the church. Now remember, the church is being born and it's a messy moment. And here's what's messy about it. The apostles return to Jerusalem. All they see is a suitcase. Jesus is gone. They don't know how long it's going to take. He said a few days. Did anybody hear him say that he say two days? No, he said a few days. Is a few 20 is a few 12 is a few is a year. I mean, Jesus to the Lord today is a thousand years, thousand years is a day. Holly says something very profound the other day. She said, I could go through trials easier if God would give me a time clock on them. If I only knew, it's just 10 days. And so the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day's walk from the city. When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter. We won't read every name again. I already read them once, but notice who's not there. Jesus, the last time they were in this room, maybe Jesus was with them. He's not now. What they have guided by is gone. And you're like, well, Jesus is always with me. I can see somebody clipping this right now and saying, Stephen Fertig said that Jesus was not with the disciples. I don't see his name on the list. He doesn't have a physical body at this moment on the earth. They can't hear his audible voice. That's what they're used to. And all of a sudden they're joining together constantly in prayer, along with the women, Mary, mother of Jesus, his brothers, they're there. It's about 120 of them. And we have two elements that are in every great story. One is that everything is messy. That makes a great story. The second is something is missing. Something is missing. And whenever you see a great story, one of my favorite shows that ever came on Netflix, or I don't remember the original network, but the opening scene of the series, you see a pair of khaki pants fly through the air. And then the next scene, you see a guy in his whitey tighties behind the wheel. how did he end up in his whitey tidies? How did his khaki pants fly through the air? Who's pants are these? Why is there a gas mask? What's going on on this show right now? And I gotta watch, 'cause it's messy. And there's something missing.

Is it possible that the messiness in your life right now and the missing thing in your life right now is the birthplace of a story that is just about ready to unfold for God's glory in your life. I think so, because the Bible says in those days, Peter, in those days, Peter stood up among the believers. Now let's take just a moment to appreciate the beauty of the moment that Peter is standing among the believers. And maybe you wouldn't appreciate the beauty of this moment if you didn't read Luke's other book. In Luke's other book, we see Peter when Jesus was going to the cross to be accused and condemned and hung and mocked and whipped. And as Peter is watching Jesus go to the cross, I wanna show you this in Luke's other book, the Gospel of Luke, chapter 22, verse number way down here. It's a long chapter, Luke. It's a long chapter, Luke, where he lets us know that when some there, as Jesus is going into the court of Caiaphas to be tried, when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. So now do you understand why it's so amazing that by the time Luke writes his sequel, tell somebody next to you, wait 'til you see the sequel,

because by the time we get to the sequel, the same Peter, I love it too, this gives me hope, 'cause there's been times in my life where I sat down by the fire. There's been times in my life where I compromised my convictions. There's been times in my life where I denied Christ with my actions, even though my lips said that I loved him. But isn't it good to see Peter, who in Luke 22, 55, was sitting by the fire and the Bible says, the Bible says, the Bible says, the Bible says, I don't care what your past says, the Bible says, I don't care what Bartholomew thinks about it, the Bible says, I don't care what the accuser of the brethren says, the Bible says, in those days, Peter stood up among the believer, so watch this, now we've got the one who was sitting by the fire, and now he's standing with the fire on the inside to clear in the world of the Lord, I'll speak a new sequel over your life, I'll speak a new season over your life, I'll speak character development over your life, I'll see someone who was sitting down last night, sitting down in front of a computer watching porn, but God brought you to stand you up on your feet to praise God today. That's the story, oh yeah, my story. Go ahead.

My story doesn't end with me sitting by this fire, my story doesn't end with me sitting in this failure, my story doesn't end with me crying over who left, my story doesn't end with my weak moment causing me to relapse, my story doesn't end with the fear telling me to stay out, my story has a sequel down if you've got a sequel. (audience cheering) Oh, oh, this is the sequel. I thought your neighbor say it's the sequel, baby. This is the sequel. I was sitting in the last scene, but wait till you see my sequel, wait till you see this sequel. That's the best stories are born in the messiest moments. (audience cheering) Give 'em a messy hallelujah. Give 'em a hard fought hallelujah. Give 'em a hard felt hallelujah. Give 'em a bend through hell and came out on fire, hallelujah. Oh yeah. My mind said it was over, but I got a ghost rider. And when the Holy Ghost comes upon you, you will be my witness. Stand up if you're a witness. Stand up, Peter. Sit down, Simon. Stand up, Peter. Stand up. Stand up if you've got a story. Stand up if you've been through the waters. Stand up if he wants you clean. Stand up. (dramatic music)