Voices In My Head Podcast Episode # 266: Matthew Cole Sermon in Lexington Kentucky

Have you ever thought to yourself, man, I'd like to host my own podcast? Well, guess what? You can go to podbean.com/voices and get everything you need to create, manage, and promote your podcast. I use Podbean every week for Voices in My Head. There's easy uploading and publishing tools, stunning templates, custom domains, social and promotional tools, an embeddable podcast player, monetization tools, and more. It is your all-in-one podcasting solution. With Podbean, you can create professional podcasts in minutes without any programming knowledge. Best of all, everything is mobile ready right from the start. So go to podbean.com/voices, and when you sign up, use the code "voices" and you'll get a sizable discount. Podbean, for your home podcasting. Thank you for listening to Voices in My Head. Welcome to Voices in My Head, the official podcast of me, Rick Lee James. I'm a recording artist, a singer-songwriter, an author, a worship leader, and an ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene. The Voices in My Head podcast is your source for discussions on music, literature, movies, pop culture, theology, and more. Now sit back, relax, and listen to the latest episode of the Voices in My Head podcast. And don't forget to let the voices in your your head be heard by following me on Twitter @RickLeeJames and sharing your thoughts about today's show. Hello, my friends. Welcome to another episode of Voices in My Head. As always, I am your host, Rick Lee James. This is a special episode today. This is a sermon that I was a part of at a church in Lexington, Kentucky, just over this past weekend. I was at my friend's church and I was doing some music. There, and my friend Matthew Cole, who has been a guest on this show a few times before in the past, he just preached a really good sermon, and I asked him if I could record it and if he would mind if I played it on the podcast. So what you're going to hear is a sermon that he brought, which is excellent, and at the end of the sermon you'll hear me coming up and helping with the leading of music as we go through communion. And it was just a really special Sunday, so I'm glad to be able to present this. He was definitely one of the voices in my head that week, and we had a a very good weekend together, and I hope you will enjoy these words from scripture and the sermon that Matthew Cole brought to us. So without any further hesitation, Matthew Cole on this episode of Voices in My Head.

Good morning. I would like to ask if you would to turn to the letter of 1 John. This morning we continue this, this walk through the resurrection season, and we're asking this continual question of what does it mean to walk with Christ? And as we turn to 1 John chapter 4, we're coming to actually a verse that meant a lot for me when I was first answering my call into ministry. As you're turning there, I want to ask you a question that's going to, I imagine, elicit a lot of different responses. And even over the last 10 years, as things like smartphones and social media have totally altered the way that we have looked at the world and the way that we interact with one another and even the way that we understand ourselves, that even this question is going to not only, um, not only going to elicit a lot of different answers even in the way that we, we think about it amongst ourselves and generational gaps between us, but also just the way that maybe we would have answered it 5 years ago versus the way that we would answer it today, maybe even the way that we would have answered it a year ago or 2 years ago, definitely versus 10 years ago. But here's my simple question for you this morning. What's your current status? What would it be? Or no, not what would it be. What is your current status right now? While you ponder that, let's have a word prayer. Gracious and holy Father, speak into our world this morning. Speak into our world that is, is rattled with chaos, that is rough at every edge, that many times, Father God, is at its best a collection of shards and slivers and pieces, that even when we try to move through, we end up jaggedly cut and wondering why we can't put anything together into smooth relationships that just seem to move. And yet, Father God, the words that you speak are words like peace and hope and love, words like kingdom and eternal, words, Father God, that sometimes fall on our ears as foreign as any other language that we could possibly imagine. But yet these are the words that you call us to, not simply as maybe someday if everything works out right, but these are the words, Father God, that you use to describe where you're calling and forming and reshaping, all things being made new. Every time we pray, thy kingdom come, as your will is be being done in our lives. And so once again today, Father God, into our world of chaos and darkness and brokenness, we're praying for light and peace and wholeness and kingdom to come. And oh Lord, as it comes, may it never be held or hoarded, but may it also and always be poured out into the world around us. May this be your world, your kingdom come. Open your word to us today. In thy holy name we pray these things.

Amen.

So what is your status this morning? And does your status really matter? Because I mean, to be completely honest, we want it to matter. We want— well, let's get in my— I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's go back. What is your status? Because for some of us, whenever we're immediately answering that question,. Some of us aren't even thinking social media at all. The very first thing that we're thinking of is if I ask you, "What is your status?" you're probably going to answer, "That's kind of an odd question. My status is I'm alive. I have a heartbeat. I'm vertical. My name wasn't in the obituary this morning. That's my status." For some of us, a few years back, we wouldn't have actually connected that immediately with any type of social media, but as soon as you would have said What is your status? And maybe this is where some of us are this morning. Katie, your first place that you're thinking of for status is, "Well, I'm single," or "I'm interested," or "I'm dating," or maybe, "Daddy doesn't need to know that I'm dating, so don't bring that up, Pastor," or whatever the case may be. Or it's complicated. We'll leave it at it's complicated. And so, immediately, status goes into terms like relationship status issues. Depending on where you're at socially, what age you are. And for others of us, just simply because this is the world that we live in, social media has made such an incredible impact. Status has to do with: at church, bored, ready for my Nazarene nap, really excited, this sermon rocks. You know, I don't know what that status might be. Maybe your status didn't make it past the stage of emoji, and it's just, you know, a little smiley face or the little funny face one that came out there. I don't know what it is, but maybe your status is the last meal that you ate if you're using Instagram to post your status. What is your status at this moment? And I'm really curious, and you can tell me afterwards if this is the case, how many of you were actually tempted to check just to make sure, what did I actually put as my status? What was the last thing that I really put? And how long has it been that way? When was the last time I actually changed it or altered it? And when I posted it, did I really want it to make a difference in this world? Was I really expecting someone to look at it and read it and say, "Ah man, that's really cool. That should affect my life in some way, shape, or form." What things would never be your status even though they're radically true? So here's my status for today. Human. Now, some of you may laugh and say, "No, I'm not really sure of that." No, seriously, I wasn't hatched human. That's my status this morning. My status is human. And I guess maybe the point of whether or not there's any real point to putting human is it seems kind of obvious, right? I mean, why? Why bother to put something that everybody else is, that doesn't distinguish us in any way, that doesn't make us stand out in any way? And if we're just putting human as our status, then what's the point? Why is that going to stand out at all? We'll come back to that. I want to ask you another question, or actually talk to you about another question that was being asked a lot whenever John in this letter. What's Jesus' status? Who is he really? Because that was a huge question that was going around because there were, there were a lot of different camps that were coming down in a lot of different places. There were some that were coming down over here and they were saying, well, Jesus was this really great guy, and because he was such a great guy, there were, there were ways that he did things so amazingly that by the time that he died, God sort of gave him a boost on his status. And he wasn't really the Son of God in the sense of he was always born that way, but because he was such a great guy, God sort of adopted him at the last minute. And there were some that were at the exact opposite end of the spectrum that said, "No, no, no, humanity and fleshliness is so messed up, and everything physical has to be so bad that it has to be redeemed by the supernatural and the spiritual, that he couldn't have been flesh at all." In fact, he only appeared that way. And one of my favorite arguments of one of the people who was in this camp says, "Can you find any footprints that Jesus actually left? And since you can't find any footprints, that means his feet never touched the ground. If his feet never touched the ground, that means he wasn't actually physical." Which, well, they were making this argument, you know, several years after Jesus had already died and resurrected and ascended into heaven, as if that we keep footprints around for that long. But that was one of the arguments that was being made. And so there was one camp over here that says, No, he was totally a spirit and nobody could be that good and actually have any physical thing about them be actually physical. And there was another person that says, no, he was totally physical and there was nothing actually divine about him. God just sort of gave him the "you're really cool" badge at the point that he died and he got like some special treatment. And there was all these different variances of seeing Jesus's status in between. And there was this constant question of who is Jesus really? Is he God or is he man? Is he a messiah or is he a really good prophet? Is Is he just this really, really good, great guy? Or did he have kind of a special foot in the door? Was he kind of half God and half man? Was he a demigod? Was he a God who was in the shape of a man? Or was he a man who sort of got a godlike status? And there was all of these different things about trying to figure out what is the real status of Jesus? What do we put on his tagline? How do we really describe him? And shape him. It's kind of interesting because yesterday Rick and I were joking around about just some— I don't even know how the conversation came up, but he was noting this movie that he had seen and all these different people were trying to argue in the making of a movie about Jesus. And they just kind of— the one guy at the end of it just sort of throws up his hands like, I don't have anything to do with this anyway. I just wanted to argue about it. But that was going on in John's day and people were really They were having some serious debate over it, and they just wanted to know, who is Jesus really? And this started a long time back, because even Jesus is going to ask this question. He gets his disciples together, they're on the way to Caesarea, and he says, "Who do the people say that I am?" "Oh, I got this. Some of you say you're Elijah. Some say maybe Jeremiah come back. Some of you say just another prophet." And then so he asks them, he says, Jesus says, "Well, what about you? Who do you guys say that I am?" And then of course it's Peter that gets the $25,000 question correct, just before sticking his foot in his mouth. But he does get the question right. He says, "Oh, you're the Messiah, Son of God." The alarms and the bells and the whistles all go off and he wins the prize. And Jesus gives him the proverbial pat on the back and says, "Yay, you got it right. The only way that you would have known this This is only if it had been revealed to you by my Father in heaven. Way to go. And shortly thereafter, he gets called Satan and told to get behind him. But that's a different sermon for a different day. But at least in that brief moment, he gets the status right. But in the process of getting the status right, everybody up here, from the guy who says, no, he's just a really good guy, gets a special badge, all the way to the guy who says, no, there was nothing physical about him, are actually still totally confused.

Confused.

Because when you get the answer, he doesn't still fit neatly into any one of those places along the spectrum. Because he's still 100% man, and he's still 100% God at the same time. And he is the Son of God, and he is God, and he is the Messiah. All at the same time. That doesn't fit neatly into a nice clear status on. And so we come to 1 John chapter 4, and he's going to talk to us very briefly— kind of briefly, considering all the other stuff that's been written about Christology— but John's going to write to us somewhat briefly about what does it mean to say that Jesus is the Christ. And whenever he says that Jesus is the Christ, He's going to tell us a little bit more than just his status line. He's going to say something that should impact our status line. But as we're reading this, I want us to realize that when John gives this statement, we didn't quit asking the question. What we actually did is— human thought kind of works like water. Have you ever started pouring water downhill? I used to do this all the time and get in a whole lot of trouble with my mom. When I was a kid, if the water hose was on, I had this overwhelming tendency to just start spraying at places on the ground and start just totally destroying my mom's yard by making little trenches, a road through the yard with water. Not a great idea. Please don't do that. I got way more trouble than I should have over this, both with the wasting of the water and with the destroying of the yard. But have you ever noticed how water flows? What path will it choose? The easiest possible path. That as soon as water starts hitting something that stands in its way, it will just kind of veer off to this side or that side and find an easier path. Christology, the question of how do we understand Jesus as both of God and man is not an easy question. That's a big rock in our theological discussion. And so you know what we do as humans? What does it really matter anyway? I mean, when it comes right down to it, isn't it just easier to say, you know what, we believe that Jesus was the Son of God, and we're all for that, and that sounds great, but as long as we sort of follow the Big Ten. I love God. I'm not gonna worship anything besides him. I'll be nice to mom and dad, I'll keep the Sabbath, I haven't murdered anybody today, I'm trying not to lie to anybody, haven't committed adultery last I checked. As long as I keep those in check, the Big Ten, and all the rest of them, no covet, blah, blah, blah, then it's all right. I don't need to worry about where I fit on the status line of whether Jesus was here or here or exactly how it works altogether. But in the process of trying to figure out where we are on the easiest way of having that discussion, we've forgotten that asking the question of who is Jesus, who do we say that he is, has far greater implications for our life than just saying, well, I can now participate in a very good theological debate with Dr. Henry Spalding. No, it's a lot more significant than that. Turn with me, if you would, to 1 John chapter 4. Hear now the word of the Lord as we come to this text and as John tries to answer once again a question that he's been dealing with since he was there with Christ himself at Caesarea. Beloved, let us love one another because love is from God. From God. And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God's love was revealed among us this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this, in this love, not that we love God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God, and if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is perfected in us. Now it's by this that we know that we abide in him and that he abides in us, because he has given us the of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. Now God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. Seems like such a simple statement, doesn't it? Jesus is the Son of God. We confess that, we abide in him. Okay, yeah, we can just make that confession. But what's interesting is everything up to this Point says that when God sent his Son into the world, it was so that the world would finally figure out who this God really is. Don't forget, ever since creation started, God has been trying to walk with us. In the garden, he walked with us, and we messed it up because we said, we got this, God, we'll do it our own way. No sooner had we been kicked out of the garden for our transgression, than once again God's grace and mercy kicks into high gear. And he says, "No, no, I'm not going to leave you in your brokenness. I want to bring you back home." He closes, and he already starts the history of the story of redemption. He does it through the flood. Even though all of chaos is broken loose once again, and all the world is turned inward once again, he says, "No, no, no." story of redemption. And so he says, I'll take this family. I'm going to provide a way even through the chaos of the flood. Even when once again we've lost our way one more time, he says, no, no, through this family, through Abram and through Sarah, I'm going to bring out a nation who's going to be my priesthood to all peoples. And even when we mess that up, a kingship, when we mess that up one more time, he says, no, no, this time I'm coming I am coming to reveal myself through my own Son. The perfect revelation. To say that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of God sent into the world, is more than simply to talk about a doctrinal affirmation that we hold. Ladies and gentlemen, Zimtje Wright will say, we're talking about the very DNA of what it means to confess that you're a Christian. This is at the very heart of our faith. Verse 16 goes on, so we have known and believe that the love of God, that this is the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this, that we have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. You have to understand, to be in Christ is to no longer have any fear when you walk in love, because perfect love, it casts out all fear. Fear has to do with being in punishment. Fear has to do with losing. And whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. And those who say, I love God, and hate their brother or their sister are living a lie. For those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must also love their brother and their sister. So we talked about it. We talked about this, this idea of our status and what we hold and how we see ourselves. And we talked about this, this concept of trying to figure out what is the status of of Jesus? What if I were to say it this way? My status is I'm married. Now I get it, there was definitely a point in my story where that would have been the thing to post. On your wedding day, you're different. Hey, this is the day I'm now married. This is a huge point. But I'm now 18 years into this. Probably don't need to say it over and over again. But here's the reality. If I'm married and I'm not faithful to Kara, What difference would it make if I posted it or not? If I'm married and I never speak with my wife, what difference does it make if I post it or not? If I'm married and I say, "You know what? The kids are mine and I'll raise them my way and you just kind of go do your job and do your thing and we're just going to keep that completely separate." Or even the exact opposite. "They're your kids. You keep them. I'm going to go fishing." We're just gonna keep it opposite. Is it really worth posting to say that I'm married and I'm not participating in the fullness of that relationship anymore? So what is it for us then to turn around and to say, "I'm Christian," but yet not talk about this reality that who is Jesus? Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God come in flesh, and he is the living revelation of God. Got it, we believe it, Pastor. Now can we move on? Now this is why it's so crucial to stop and to hang up on that statement for just a minute. Like I said earlier, this is the very DNA of who we are in Christ. Go back to John chapter 1, the Gospel of John. John chapter 1, verse 18. The world people didn't know him except through the one, except through Jesus Christ, the one he sent. It'd be kind of nice if our neighborhood knew the love of Jesus Christ, wouldn't it? It'd be kind of nice if there was just this nice easy way that I could walk up and I could say, "Hey, you just need to know Jesus and about his love." He's awesome, He's great, He wants to save you, and He wants to redeem you. Wouldn't it be great if you just knew that kind of love? And to be completely honest, most people in the world would be like, "Yeah, that would be great. I'd love to know that. Where is He? Where can I know this love?" And don't get me wrong, I love this book. I love the Word of God. Please don't hear me wrong. But if the best thing I can do is just say, "Oh, he's in here, just read about him," then I've totally missed everything that John just had to say to me. Because John just said that Jesus was the embodiment of God's love to the world. Because they didn't know him. And now if you know who Jesus is, the only way you know him is because at first he loved you. Even before you knew how to love at all, he loved you, gave himself for you. This is the embodiment of who God is. God is a self-sacrificing God. He is a God that goes to no lengths. He is not a God who is afraid of his neighbor. He is not a God who is afraid of violence. He is not a God afraid of giving his own life for us. In fact, he went, he died on the cross. He looked across every possible harmful line. He looked into the face of the one the ones who would humiliate him and crucify him. And he says to them, "I forgive you." He looked into the face of the one who would betray him and he says, "Here. Here's my body broken for you. Here's my blood which is shed for you." He looks into the face of the one who is the completely other, the one who is the Gentile, the one who is the nations, the one who doesn't fit into his social categories whatsoever. And he welcomes them in as well. And he says, "Now this is how the world is going to know if you're of God." if you act just like he did. And if we have any qualifiers, we'll put, "Well, I'd like to act like Jesus, but you don't know how bad they've hurt me." There is no fear in love. "But Pastor, you don't know how dangerous that could be." There is no fear in love. "But Pastor, do you know how that race could act sometimes?" There is no fear in love. There is no fear in love. But we don't speak their language. There is no fear in love. You see, we've spent so much time with excuses, we've come really, really good at casting out everyone else instead of allowing perfect love to cast out all the fears that we carry around with us. Perfect love casts out every fear. And if we need the perfect example of that, just look to the one who went to the cross and was able to look down to the one who took his life and say, "Forgive them, Father, they don't get what they're doing." Perfect love casts out fear. And if the world is going to know that Jesus is among us, it'll only know it because of the way that we love one another. Not because of our doctrinal stance on this, or because we We've memorized the stance on that. Trust me, if anybody's going to like our doctrinal stances that we can communicate in systematic theology, that's me. But it won't save the world. The beauty of how we love one another will. Because that's where we reveal Christ to the rest of the world. That this table, there is always this reality that Jesus is watching across and he sees a Thomas who will doubt, a Peter who will deny, a Judas who will betray. And even in, and especially in those moments. We know that the reality is, is that he doesn't hoard in shame or defeat or shunning them. He doesn't go back to a stance of self-defense or what weapons must I carry, but rather he continues the stance of being a self-giving God. And the confession comes to us this morning: And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. To confess that Jesus is the Son of God is not an acknowledgement of a simple statement of truth and fact, but it is to say to the world, I'm not just going to pattern my life after an example. I have to live in such a way to reveal to you what has been revealed to me. Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. He was God incarnate. He died, was crucified and buried, and in having risen again, he defeated death, hell, and the grave. And he invites me into the family of God to be an adopted child, participant, a co-heir with him. And he does this out of his unending and infinite love. And now the invitation. My invitation is also for you. And I can only show that to you through love. Unending, sacrificial, missional, Christ-like love. Rick, would you come, sweetie? Come to the table. The night that Jesus was to be betrayed, and maybe on the night whenever living out the fullness of his status was most difficult, he gathered with his disciples and he set the table for eternity. He set the table for eternity not only in what would be served that night, but in the way and to whom he would serve. When he set the table that night, he was offering to all who would come, this is the opportunity to see how I will love the world. In that moment, he had every chance to say, I'm going to serve you and you and you and you who will follow after me, but to you who will deny, to you who will doubt, to you who will betray, you have no place at my table. He could have set the table that way, but he didn't. Rather, the table was for everyone who would come. To all who will seek Jesus Christ as Lord. But I think Paul's solemnity about the table also needs to be mentioned here. That we do not come to the table flippantly, although it has been has been set for us in holy love. It has been set for us in a love that demands so much of our lives. A love that calls to us and says, "This is the body which has been broken for you, the blood shed for you." And in so doing, calls us to live and to love like Christ, who set the table for us. And so on that night, he took the bread, Having lifted it towards heaven, he blessed it and he gave thanks. He said to his disciples, both then and now, "This is my body, broken for you. Take and eat of it, and as often as you do so, do so in remembrance of me." Likewise, after they had dined together, he also took the cup. He lifted it towards heaven, he blessed it, and having given thanks, He said, "This is my blood which is shed for you, the blood of the new covenant. Take and drink of it as often as you do so, do so in remembrance of me." Let us pray. Almighty Father, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden, cleanse now our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we might worthily magnify and glorify thy holy name. Come, O Holy Spirit, into this moment. And as we partake of these, these symbols in this moment of memorial, this bread, this cup, we ask, O Holy Father, that at this table we might find ourselves consumed into something much more deep in this mystery, a place, Father God, where our lives are radically being to be continually transformed by the renewing of our minds into the image of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Remind us of your holy love for us. Remind us of the sacrifice in which we now partake. Remind us, oh Father God, of the depths into which you have gone to show us your love. And remind us, oh Father God, into the holy depths into which we have been called, that we might be fully transformed to know you, to seek you, to be your children. Oh God is Father God, and as we are consumed and as we are consuming, may we also be radically transformed to go into your world scattered as people of the gospel, proclaiming the good news that Christ has come, Christ has risen, and Christ will come again. Oh Lord, we pray these things in thy holy and precious name. And now let all those who seek you as Lord come to the table.

To every daughter, every son, to every tribe, and every tongue. This is the call, the heart of love. This is the invitation, a table spread with bread and wine, life and love. Of Jesus Christ. Take and eat, raise and drink. This is the invitation. This is the table of the For everyone there is a place. Taste and see that he is good. The bread of life, the cup of grace. This is the invitation to every soul, both strong and weak, for every heart that Who dares to see, to all condemn, there is mercy. This is the invitation. This is the table of mercy. People love the Lord. For everyone there is a place. Taste and see that he is good. Bread of life, the cup of race. This is the invitation to every daughter, every son.

This is where we Thank you for joining me here this week on the Voices in My Head podcast. I hope you'll visit me on my website at rickleejames.com, follow me on Twitter @RickLeeJames, like my artist page on Facebook at facebook.com/rickleejames, and keep up to date on what I'm writing at my author page on page on Amazon.com. Make sure to follow my calendar on the website, and if you would like to have me come to your town to do a concert, a speaking engagement, or a book event, you can book me through my website by clicking on the link for Pare Booking Agency. That's P-A-R-E Booking. And finally, it would mean the world to me if you were to leave me a review of this podcast on iTunes. The more positive reviews that we receive, the more visible this podcast is on the internet. And now the benediction: May the God of peace, who raised Christ from the dead, strengthen your inner being for every good work. And may the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, rest upon you and dwell within you this day and forevermore. Amen.