To Reject or Rejoice

this time we're going to go ahead and dismiss our kids to their classes kids I'm going to give you a challenge as you're heading to your class you're going to be learning about Jesus and so make sure you're ready to tell your mommies and daddies something good about him after church all right so make sure you're focused when you're in your classrooms for that for everyone else good morning my name is Dwayne I am one of the pastors here at the district and we do announcements at this time now so that's new for me as well um but uh so a couple of announcements coming

up in a few weeks we are going to be kicking back off our community groups and so make sure you're looking for the information in regards to those groups whether it's via emails or talking to Josh as well and uh and just making sure that you're in the know for that so that's coming up in a couple of weeks I also want to say on this Sunday happy seventh anniversary to us as a church as a body of Christ yes amen um and so we have a our annual Pie Party um and and I think actually um as I was looking back over the last

sermons um Josh even mentioned like I don't know where pie party or that idea came from and and I think early on I just like pie um and so we just started doing Pie parties um at the very beginning and so uh bring a pie at one point everyone did kind of stray I love sweet pies and we started doing some Savory stuff um and so it's now sweet and savory so bring either or uh tonight five o'clock here at the church and we will have just a good time together um just discussing with one another uh what the Lord's been doing in our lives

in addition to that um again I've been gone for three months and so it's been a Grace and a gift from you uh to be able to give my family some much needed rest as I've entered into or have been in my 7 17th year of ministry and eighth year in planting this church as well and so with everything that's happened with us personally and ministry-wise as well it was we believe it was a good time for us to be able to take a few months off and so our family has just been very very grateful for this time and and I know we'll have

a lot more to be able to say in regards to that but I don't want to use this time to do that so just find us tonight chat with us and and even the weeks to come invite us over for dinner not because we want a free dinner but just because we want to see you and we want to uh or you can just also invite yourself over to our house too that's fine as well but we want to reconnect and we want to be able to see you and and talk about what the Lord Has Done in our lives over the last three months

and and I think that also kind of pulls me into what we're going to be talking about today and especially with it being the seventh anniversary of this church so if you have your Bibles go and open them up Luke chapter 10 we're going to be looking at verses 13 through 20. Luke 10 13-20 and while you're turning there one thing again that we want to continue to implement more and more in the life of our church is prayer and just specifically praying the scriptures I know that's something that was kind of transformative for me over the past three months as I prayed through the

Psalms and and the wisdom literatures but it was also enlightening for me specifically when there were times that I didn't know what to pray especially as I was processing through some things I didn't have the words to pray and as I turned to God's word the prayers in scripture sort of anchored me it grounded me grounded my soul and in a way they prayed for me what my soul longed for and so I want to pray this scripture over you this morning as you're finding yourself there in Luke 10. I want to pray for you Ephesians 3 14-21 and so so put yourself into this

as if Paul is speaking this prayer on behalf of you that he he's praying this for you and so he says for this reason I bow my knees before the father from whom every family in heaven and on Earth is named that according to the riches of his glory that he may Grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being so that Christ May dwell in your hearts through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend what is the breadth and height and length and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses

knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God as to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or even think according to the power that is at work within us is to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever amen all right I want to read Luke 10 13-20 for you this morning but I'd like for us to stand together as we read it since it is the word of God that we live by and not just simply bread alone and so if you've came come in

here this morning maybe weak and crawling like just let the word of God help you stand this morning so let's read this woe to you to reason woe to you bethsaida for if the mighty Works done in you had been done in Tyree and said on they would have repented long ago sitting in sackcloth and Ashes but it will be more bearable in the Judgment for Tyree and said on than for you and you Capernaum will you be exalted to Heaven you shall be brought down to Hades the one who hears you hears me and the one who rejects you rejects me and the one

who rejects me rejects him who sent me the 72 returned with Joy saying Lord even the demons are subject to us in your name and he said to them I saw Satan fall like lightning from Heaven behold I've given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall hurt you nevertheless do not rejoice in this that the spirits are subject to you but Rejoice that your names are written in heaven this has been inspired authoritative and just god-breathed word of the Lord and so you may be seated foreign if you've ever wondered why there are

churches in the Backwoods who handle snakes in their services every Sunday this is where that comes from all right and so I've got a prop um I'm just kidding I'm not pulling a snake up here but you might be wondering okay why if it's the seventh anniversary of our church if it is a time in which we want to look to celebrating why are we pulling in this passage or choosing this passage that feels like or looks like it's a passage of judgment and condemnation to a few cities um here and I think it's a fair question one it's way to answer it is this

is where we're at in the Book of Luke so I didn't have to choose it and to be honest with you when I was coming out of sabbatical about a week ago and and thinking about and praying about where where we would go and what we would preach on this Sunday oftentimes we use this one as a stand-alone Standalone Service uh where we just kind of preach a vision or we preach kind of what we're celebrating or what we're looking back on and what we're looking forward to and then I just felt the Lord and actually had something and I started writing it out and

I felt the Lord just kind of prompting me and saying like go look at the preaching calendar and so I went looked at the preaching calendar I haven't looked at it in three months I honestly I didn't even know where we were in The Book of Luke as of a week ago and so as I came back in and I started looking at it and I went back and I listened to Josh's sermon last week as well I just felt I was like we just keep going just keep going because what warning he gives to these 72 disciples I believe is not only just a

warning for us but it's an invitation for us I believe it's an invitation for us as Josh alluded to last week you're here in Indianapolis at this time for a purpose you're living in your neighborhood for a purpose you're living in your or working your vocation for a purpose you have the friends that you have for a purpose you you're here this morning not by happenstance or by chance or by accident but you're here this morning for a purpose and in Luke for months now what we've been studying the three-year Ministry of Jesus he's been teaching he's been healing he's been meeting needs he's been

recruiting disciples and followers as you saw last week these disciples were equipped to be sent out into the cities to heal people to provide needs to to Proclaim that the kingdom of God is at hand in other words Jesus is here don't miss him if you were to put it into a a three-point sermon the 72 were going out to proclaim the power of Jesus the provision of Jesus and the propitiation of Jesus the 12 and even these 72 others who were sent out are some of the first church Planters to ever exist and as Josh covered in these verses 13 through 16 the cities

either received Jesus or they rejected Jesus there's no room for indifference with Jesus there's no room for indecision with Jesus there is no nominal belief in Jesus you can't be in the middle here we're either with Jesus or without team Jesus or the opponent you either receive him holy or you reject him fully that was the warning that Jesus gave them and one of the great benefits of receiving Jesus is that it leads to rejoicing rejoicing if you remember at the turn of um the year when we were moving on from December to January one of the things I said at the beginning of the

year is that I my if I were to give one word to us it's Joy I I want us to be a people filled with joy not making sure that hey this year is the year that you're going to get your finances in order that you're going to get you know the better house or the nicer cars or you're going to get your relationships worked no just Joy people that are rejoicing and so the question I have for us today as we look deeper into this passage are you experiencing rejoicing or are you experiencing what feels more like ruined ruin do you feel like your

life is leading more towards vibrancy or do you feel like you are wasting away Jesus tells us what leads to rejoicing and Jesus tells us what leads to ruin we don't have to wonder here we don't have to guess we don't have to question it we we don't have to wait around for things to get better or hope they get better we can know and what he says leads to rejoicing is what he sent them out to preach and Proclaim repent and receive Jesus for that leads to rejoicing if you were to put it into an equation receiving Jesus plus repenting equals rejoicing rejoicing and

you're like okay I understand the kind of receiving Jesus part I prayed that prayer one time when I was younger like I received Jesus I accepted him as my Lord and Savior I heard about the good news of what he offers to us and I want that I received that repentance is also then the proof that you've received it because it changes you it transforms you to say no to doing things the way we always have done them or think we should do them or continue to even look into ourselves to figure out what it is that we want to do and how we should

order our lives and organize our lives and how we should do our jobs and how we should raise our families and how we should do like it's still turning from your way of doing things and turning and looking to Jesus for how he does things and how he's designed things so repentance isn't just a one-time thing where I said no to my sin and yes to Jesus and I accepted Jesus but then jumped back into doing life however I want to do it I've received Jesus I've Got My Ticket To Heaven it's a daily ongoing always turning from myself to turn to Jesus look to

Jesus that leads to a life that is filled with joy a life that is rejoicing the opposite when they went out and they were sent out to Proclaim Jesus in Repentance the opposite of rejoicing is ruin and the way that you get ruined is if you reject Jesus and continue on in unrepentence reject Jesus be unrepentant you're going to ruin your life you're going to ruin your life and so a question is which are we choosing and which are we proclaiming if you if you work your way through the gospels what you will see is for those who receive Jesus they go on rejoicing and

for those who reject Jesus their lives implode and eventually end in ruin take Judas for example one of the twelve one of the twelve appointed Apostles eventually rejects Jesus because of greed and doesn't even spend the silver before he hangs himself ruin take the Rich Young Ruler the man comes to Jesus and wants to receive Jesus but is unwilling to follow Jesus according to Jesus's terms and so what does he do he walks away saddened and disheartened then you have Capernaum here where Jesus did a great deal of his ministry and miracles but they rejected it and Jesus says they will be brought down to

Hades another name for hell ruin not once anywhere am I aware of someone who rejects Jesus and goes away rejoicing but it is those who do receive Jesus fully who Rejoice why because Jesus is where we receive life and life abundantly the the entire purpose of sending the twelve and sending the 72 and continuing to plant churches for the past 2000 years is so that we enter into the domain of darkness and we deliver people to the kingdom of the beloved Son via receiving Jesus repenting of doing things our own way and trusting to do life his way and it's only there that we rejoice

and I want this church to be a church known for rejoicing I want each one of you to be filled with joy that is Everlasting that transcends time and circumstances if we were to look at the passage again it talks about the 72 being filled with joy and yet Jesus even gave them a warning too look at it in verse 17. the 72 returned with joy that's what we're asking for right that's what we want saying Lord even the demons are subject to us in your name and he said to them I saw Satan fall like lightning from Heaven behold I have given you authority

to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall hurt you nevertheless do not rejoice in this that the spirits are subject to you but Rejoice that your names are written in heaven here's where I want to make the point of this message as crystal clear as possible on the seventh anniversary of this church my job is not to motivate you for another seven years of ministry that's not what I'm doing today and that's not what I'm going to continue to do as I'm back now my job is to lead in such a way that we are rejoicing

in Jesus alone in Jesus alone that's the point that's our strategy that is all we want to do in this church if you are trying to find your ability to rejoice in anything other than Jesus alone then your life is going to reflect ruin it's going to reflect ruin it's it's it's it's the opposite of The Lord of the Ring whoever is the closest to the ring wastes away but with Jesus whoever is closest to Jesus thrives thrives look at the text the disciples come back and we're excited about the ministry that they just accomplished great things they did in the name of Jesus they

were more excited or most excited about the fact that the demons listen to them and obeyed them I can picture this moment the 72 coming back Jesus Jesus you're not going to believe this we're so excited the demons listen to us they obeyed us we cast them out we beat them like Jordan punched a demon in the face and then Jesus responds with I knew a guy once who was also very excited about his job and his responsibilities his name was Satan and I threw him out of Heaven because he was prideful now why would Jesus Reign on their parade why would Jesus say this

they're so excited about Ministry they're so excited about success if your love and affections turn from Jesus to his ministry then we cut off our own head you become the body of Christ without Christ as the head of the body I believe there are a thousand reasons why some Churches last for hundreds of years and others don't not all of them are effective agents of gospel change in their communities but one thing I know is certain the ones that have the greatest impact in their cities are the ones that rejoice in Jesus alone and not the ministry in which they conduct what exactly is Jesus

warning them of here I believe we have an example in Revelation he says in Revelation 2 to the angel of the church in Ephesus right the words of him who holds the Seven Stars in his right hand who walks among the seven Golden lampstands That's Jesus holding the churches in his hand with his power and presence Jesus says this to the people in Ephesus I know your works I know you're toil and you're patient endurance I know how you cannot bear with those who are evil you've tested those who call themselves Apostles and are not and found them to be false I know you are

enduring patiently and you're bearing up for my name's sake you've not grown weary I mean that's an amazing sounding Church like I've worked for that church that sounds like a great church but I have this against you that you have abandoned the love you had at first remember then from where you have fallen repent and do the work you did at first and if not I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent maybe this seventh anniversary is not only a marker of Celebration but also a moment of opportunity where Jesus is inviting us into something deeper something deeper

maybe it's less about looking to the next year of ministry activity and planning and I'm not saying those things are bad things we must do them we will do them but maybe the invitation of Jesus for us right now in year seven is to not forget our first love everyone in this room right now lands in one of four categories or responses to this invitation from Jesus I'm sure there are a lot more categories but here's the four that I came up with and there are four r's and so if you're taking notes a little alliteration here number one is rejection as you saw in

verses 13 through 16 you hear about Jesus but you've just rejected him completely don't want anything to do with him he's a nut job in your mind and so are Christians as well as a matter of fact everything that Jesus says you should do or should be I'm going to Buck up against that and I'm going to do the complete opposite and I'm going to do as much of it as I possibly can I am my own authority I am my own moral compass I know what's best for my life and I'm going to trust that and nothing else it's possible that there are some

in this room who operate like that number two is religion Ministry activity if you will we've heard about Jesus we accept his moral law we believe his rules are better than anything we can come up with so we're going to follow them but it's void of any real relationship with Jesus we don't abide in him but we abide all in his rules we love them we're all about the religious activity we're all about doing the right thing and anytime Jesus invites us into a relationship with him that is deeper and more abiding we crank up the heat on our religious activity to try to drown

out his voice even though we know we can't we think we can try to operate as our own Sovereign and savior number three is remedy we've heard about Jesus but we go on living life as if we can find satisfaction in the material in our stuff so instead of processing our hurt and our sin with Jesus alone we look for comfort and pleasure and possessions and relationships and when they don't satisfy our starving Souls we crank up the heat once more bigger homes nicer cars better jobs different friends newer Hobbies more established churches despite the fact that your car is rattling you just crank up

the music louder to drown out your problems we live life looking for a remedy ignoring the fact that it's Jesus we want to numb our problems rather than solve them and number four bucket is rejoicing we've heard about Jesus and we've received him fully by repenting and believing in Christ alone for the Forgiveness of our sins which is great cause for rejoicing we find our satisfaction in Jesus alone we find our purpose in Jesus alone we find a rejoicing in Jesus alone we do not find our rejoicing in our ministry activity or lack thereof or even in our rule of life or our calendar or

a family life or our vocation or we don't find it in anything else we are satisfied in Jesus alone now the majority of us in this room are going to say that's me I'm in category four that's me that's what the 72 disciples would say too but if we can be honest for a moment we bounce back and forth between all of them that's why we are so complex we bounce back and forth between all of them I mean just think about the churches in Scripture that we study from to try to emulate the Ephesians were guilty of rejoicing in religion and trusting their mind

in Dogma more than the spirit of God and Jesus was on the verge of removing his transforming presence from their body the Corinthians were guilty of rejoicing in remedy and what felt good and what numbed the soul and they went all in on it the Galatians were almost guilty of all out rejection as they were on the cusp of abandoning the true Gospel of Jesus let this be a moment of opportunity and invitation for us to be honest with ourselves for the sake of our joy don't do what Adam and Eve did in blame shifting well if the church would do this or if the

church had this or if the church provided this that's not helpful don't listen to Satan and let him speak negatively about the bride of Christ does our church need work absolutely absolutely but we examine our own lives and our own rhythms and examine our own day-to-day routines and decide which category we feel like we're operating out of and the more we individually get back to trusting and rejoicing in Jesus alone for all the satisfaction of Our Lives guess what happens as you mature and as you are built up in Christ the body of Christ matures and is built up and so let me ask you

some probing questions if you're unsure of which category you land in and these questions are adapted from JD Greer so if you don't like these questions you can email him does your generosity reflect where your treasure is does your evangelism reflect where your treasure is does how you speak to others reflect where your treasure is what if you evaluated your relationship with Jesus solely based on how often you hear from him by reading his word or how often you communicate with him in prayer does your frequency reflect how much you treasure him or is he just a meeting on your calendar or an afterthought or

just someone you come to when you are in crisis mode these are real honest questions and these are not questions to condemn or judge these are questions to invite to Joy all of a sudden we don't feel as confident about saying we're category four I don't I know some of you are experiencing maybe a rise in blood pressure right now and haven't emailed me in three months so you're queuing one up but I hope this will disarm you I'm not saying that you're rejoicing in Jesus is dependent upon whether or not you do the right thing but doing the right thing is an indicator light

that you are rejoicing in Jesus that you're rejoicing in Jesus Ministry activity and Christian Behavior flow out of our love from Jesus and our love for Jesus it is not the other way around A.W Tozer once said if the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference that hurts he goes on to say if the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament Church 95 percent of what they did would stop and everybody would know the difference if I were to rephrase that by substituting your name with church

would the statement be true if Jesus removed his presence from your life would we see a difference that's what the warning to the church in Ephesus was all about Jesus possibly removing his lampstand his transforming power and presence to convert law Sinners and make them save Saints they would still be able to do the ministry activity they were engaging in that's the same warning to these 72 disciples don't let Ministry activity ever distract you from rejoicing in Jesus alone listen happy seventh anniversary we can either be a church that does Ministry the right way but does not treasure and rejoice in Jesus and therefore will

Wilt her away and die on the inside with no real Joy or we can be a church that does not forget our first love Jesus treasuring him beholding him waking up and looking to him alone as the author and Perfecter of our faith gazing upon him and his Beauty fixing our eyes and attention on him alone and letting it produce nothing but life abundantly that is expressed in deep overwhelming joy and rejoicing and out of that comes Ministry activity and sound Doctrine and being sent with the gospel message to the Nations and serving the poor and on and on and on I could go we

are not a hobby for making you feel good about yourself we're the bride of Christ that looks at the groom and is smitten with him in love dancing with joy that he is ours and we are his we are to live lives that cry out and Echo what David said in Psalm 27 one thing I have asked of the Lord that I will seek after one thing that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his Temple I recently listened to a sermon from Darren Whitehead pastor

of Church of the city in Franklin Tennessee Kelsey's former youth pastor actually and he preached on this Psalm 27 and he looked at this word gaze gaze and found that in the Hebrew there are a couple of words used for this idea of gays one is Raya and one is haza now he said them a lot cooler because it was in an Australian accent um but these two words in original Hebrew Raya means to glance to glance it it gives the impression that you can see and are aware but do not give weight or wonder to what you see you might study it a bit

but it doesn't take your breath away it's like seeing a picture of the Grand Canyon versus standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon while your knees begin to buckle that's Raya the word used in this Psalm 27 is haza the word used here means to gaze it goes beyond just glancing or looking at something but rather seeing it beholding it and being in awe of it in all of it it's why postcards will never be an appropriate substitute for the real thing Ministry activity will never be a good substitute for the real thing Jesus it's why on July 4th we were standing amid 60

000 people to watch the fireworks behind Cinderella's castle at Disney World this is not a promotion for that but everyone had their phones out and I just held Shepard and left the phone in the pocket so I could just experience the moment because I can tell you what I'm never going to do I'm never going to go back and look at the video of the fireworks they don't do it justice I wanted to sit in the moment and experience it and be filled with a level of excitement and joy and happiness what I don't want us to do is go through our lives with our

cell phones out via the way of ministry activity hoping that we see something Jesus is doing and then try to reprise that same feeling and emotion I mean it's it's why is it and don't hear me saying don't recount all the good things that God has done in your life but if all I'm doing is always looking back on the Glory Days of remember when he did this remember when he did this remember when he did this and not also sitting in the moment with him with me in me as I am in him and abiding in him in a relationship with him and I'm

constantly coming back to him and saying remember that time you did this remember that time when you made me feel this way remember that time when you showed up here and he's saying I'm still right here put the phone down enjoy me enjoy me enjoy my provision over your life right now I am your Sovereign Lord enjoy my ongoing forgiveness of the stupidity that you just engaged in 10 minutes ago I'm your savior enjoy me as I walk you by Still Waters because I am your pastor and join me as I give you rest because I am your Sabbath he's doing all of that in

our abiding relationship with him and what he's warning these 72 of is don't let anything whether it's the lack of success or great success in Ministry distract you from the fact that it is me that it is all about it's me that it's all about that's why Paul says in Philippians 1 18 what then only then in every way whether in pretense or in truth Christ is proclaimed and in that I rejoice I rejoice one ritual Jesus gave us to remember this truth that all we need is Jesus is communion it's communion or Lord's supper or breaking of bread as you see it in the

scriptures you see we are designed by God to hunger and thirst everyone in this room we are designed by God to hunger and thirst that's that's why you eat and drink every day we are designed to feel hungry and thirsty as a reminder that we need nourishment and we need provision in order to live and thrive Jesus Takes that god-inspired design and he applies it to our spiritual relationship with him he is our bread and our wine he is what we hunger and thirst for not better Ministry programs or better pastors or better budgets those things will mature and happen as we mature but what

we cannot do is stop hungering and thirsting for our first love for our first love he says this in John 6 33-35 for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world they said to him sir give us this bread always Jesus said to them I am the bread of life whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst I know from my own soul that I feel like I'm always hungering and thirsting and the only time well my natural bent to try to feed that hunger and thirst I'm just put

my cards on the table is to make sure that you're happy with what's going on and I think what's been good for me in these last three months is having that Stripped Away thing that Jesus is so beautiful so good and that it doesn't matter what the ministry activity looks like if we are beholding Jesus if we're beholding Jesus it will come it will happen the church will be built and continue to be built immature let's get receive this invitation to treasure Jesus and to maybe even walk away today just examining Our Lives to see what that relationship looks like how are we operating in

our relationship with him how are we treasuring him why don't you go ahead and stand for those who have received Jesus and are trusting him for forgiveness of sins he invites us to remember all that he has accomplished for us and that he is what satisfies our hunger and Thirst by him giving us this meal where he represents his body as the bread and his blood is the wine that it's everything we need for the nourishment of our souls all we need is him all we need is Jesus and so if you want to remember that and celebrate that and be nourished in your soul

with that I invite you to come and grab the elements and come back to your seat and we will partake together