Why Do You Call Me Lord?

Good to have you all here today.

And those of you who are online, wonderful to have you here.

It doesn't matter if you're in the room or if you are online, you are part of our house and we're just so thankful that you are here.

Thank you, Aman.

Well, we are in the middle of our series called Good Questions, kind of our our summer series, and we're talking about the questions that Jesus asked.

And um one thing that Jesus understood that sometimes maybe we don't know or we forget is that people don't experience life change, people don't experience change internally when they just receive information.

But when people are touched by the by the gospel, when the gospel touches the issues of their life, that is where real change happens. when we when a response is called up into our life and that is the one thing that Jesus understood about questions and why the questions that he asked were so powerful to the people who were in the room and in the vicinity of him or hearing the questions or the questions were given to them and in the gospels as we can read all throughout the gospels that Jesus asked questions everywhere he went and he asked questions to all sorts of people he asked questions to his friends to his followers to to his disciples, to his critics.

And here's the thing, when Jesus asked a question, he didn't ask it because he didn't know the answer.

He needed information.

He already knew the answers to the questions that he was asking.

Which really means that the questions that he asked were really a catalyst to open unseen doors in people's lives.

Makes me think about the woman at the well in John chapter 4.

Now, Jesus really was thirsty.

He really did want some water.

But when he went to the woman and approached her and asked her a seemingly normal question, will you give me a cup of water?

That wasn't really about the water.

Jesus talked with her for a while and and and into the conversation he made a bold statement that directly spoke to the issue of this woman's life and brought about life change in her when he said go call your husband and come back.

Now, if you want to know the rest of the story, like Paul Harvey would say, go ahead and read John 4:es 4-26, and you'll get the whole story.

But the questions that Jesus asked always went to the heart of the issue because people mattered more to Jesus than anything.

And people still matter to Jesus more than anything.

And that's what he does.

He he asks questions to touch those greatest issues to bring people to the transformation power of truth and then it doesn't end there.

Then to take his gospel to the ends of the earth because people are what matter most to God.

Now as we read scripture Old Testament we hear we we learn a lot about the commandments that that came down from from God to Moses. the Ten Commandments all throughout the Old Testament and even into the New Testament.

The reason why the gospel is so powerful is is it provides us not just information and it provides us truth but it provides us answers to our questions.

It provides us direction in our life.

It's Bible.

Some people call it the basic um instructional book for life.

But Jesus asked questions all throughout the New Testament which actually told us to do many things rather all throughout the Old Testament.

We're going to talk about two things that Jesus told us to do today.

The first one is in Matthew 22.

Now, the uh Jesus was traveling all throughout the the the nations and the the areas that he was in and he was the reason he was doing that is he was spreading the gospel.

The disciples were spreading the gospel and he was teaching and he was preaching and he was performing miracles and people were coming by the thousands into the into his faith.

At one point 1,200 people came and then 3,000 people came and there was a revival that was happening as Jesus was was in his ministry.

And at one point now the the Pharisees were the Jewish leaders and and some of the the lawmakers and they were they were traveling behind him not because they were curious because they wanted to know and they wanted to follow.

They wanted him they wanted to be able to claim him as guilty.

They didn't like the way.

They didn't like the new message.

They wanted the Old Testament.

They didn't understand that Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Testament.

And so they were trying to make him guilty.

And they were trying to catch him and trip him up.

And this this person, this one Pharisee came to him and said, "Jesus, what is the greatest commandment?" And Jesus answered that question by going back to the Old Testament in part when when the law came down and and Moses said in Deuteronomy chapter 6 here, O Israel, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

And then Jesus added, this is the first and the greatest commandment, and the second is like it.

And if you know it, you can say it with me.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Meaning love your neighbor to the same degree that you love yourself.

Now Jesus was asked what mattered most and he answered that that commandment really that that command that which was connected.

It was two words that were really kind of anchored together and he simply said love God and love people.

What he was saying is don't make your relationship with God so complicated.

Love God.

Love people.

That is the most important commandment.

That is the greatest commandment.

Love God with everything you have.

Love God more this week than you did last week.

Love God more this year than you loved him last year.

Follow him more closely now than you ever have before.

Love God and love people like you love yourself.

You know, church, you can't really love God without loving people.

And we love people best when we demonstrate God's love for us.

By valuing people instead of evaluating people, by making the first move, by going first in your relationships, maybe in your relationship with your family or in your neighborhood or here at church or at work.

Go first.

Make the first move.

Maybe when you go to eat lunch after church at the restaurant when the server comes up to take your order and you could just simply say, "What is your name?" "Oh, my name is Stacy." "Well, nice to meet you, Stacy."

And then what happens is over the next 30 to 60 minutes as you're enjoying your lunch together, when you need something, instead of saying, "Excuse me, excuse me," you can say, "Hey, Stacy, can we get some more bread sticks?" And it also opens up an opportunity to have a conversation with Stacy because do you know that the most powerful thing is somebody calling you by name and Jesus calls us by name.

He calls us Christian and he called you and me by name when he called us into faith with him.

And so we make the first move.

We go first.

And when Jesus was asked then it wasn't even enough that he said, 'Oh, love your neighbor as you love yourself.' They went a step further and they said, 'Well, who is your neighbor?' Again, trying to trip him up, not because they really wanted to know.

And he said, well, let me tell you.

So, the the Jewish people and the Samaritans, they were not friends.

As a matter of fact, the Jewish people hated the Samaritans.

They thought of them as less than.

They despised them.

And so Jesus said, "Who is your neighbor, Mr.

Jewish man?" Well, that Samaritan who you hate and you despise, he is your neighbor.

That is who's your neighbor.

And what Jesus was trying to help us understand is that we need to love all people.

All people means all people.

Even those who don't look like you, who don't act like you, who don't live like you, who don't believe like you, who don't even vote like you, you need to love all people.

It is easy to love the people we like, right?

You need to even love the people you don't like.

Jesus was saying, and that's hard.

But Jesus is saying, you got to love everybody like you love yourself.

Because God is a relational God.

He created you and he created me for an eternal relationship with him and with each other.

So, we need to learn how to get along here and love each other here because we're going to be spending eternity with each other.

We need to learn how to get along now.

You know, God gave us the greatest gift he could ever have given.

He gave us salvation.

He gave us eternal life with him.

And when we accept Jesus as our savior, we are not saved as individual people living our individual lives.

No, we are saved into a people group called a church.

See everybody people think that that a church is a building that you walk into.

No, it's a it's a family.

It's a people group that you belong to.

The Greek word for ch church is ecclesia which means a collective body of believers who are on mission and have a mandate to go and make disciples of all nations.

Matthew that is the second thing that I'm talking about today where God is telling us what to do.

He is telling us to go and make disciples of all nations.

This is the great commission to break apart that word.

It is a co-mission where we get to do this together with God.

When Jesus was walking and gathering his disciples, he said what to them?

He said, "Follow me." Right?

Follow me.

I will make you fishers of men.

Follow me.

At the end of his ministry, when he was getting ready to ascend, he said, "I am giving you a mission.

A mission that we get to do together.

My final instruction to you was stay comfortable, chill.

No, he didn't say that.

He didn't.

He said, "Go, go and make disciples of all nations." He told his disciples and his followers that before he left.

And he is still telling you and I that today.

When we accept Jesus as our savior, that is just not a decision that we make and then go and live the rest of our lives.

No, he has called us out on a mission to make disciples of all nations because take a look outside our doors, outside this building.

There is a there are hundreds and thousands of people who don't know Jesus.

There are hundreds and thousands of people who if they died today would not spend eternity

And so you and I, we know something.

We know how to inherit eternal life.

Why wouldn't we do everything that we can to share that truth in love?

Not holding up a billboard saying you're going to hell, but in love.

Why wouldn't we create relationships with people so that we could share the truth of the gospel with them?

Go.

By the way, go and make disciples of all nations.

Go is not just for pastors.

It's not just for church staff members.

It's not just for missionaries.

It's for you because you, we collectively are the church. and in our church and in our community.

Do you know that while you're sitting here, there are people on the other side in the cafe, in the early childhood room, in the gym over in building 600, there are people who have who are going.

They are serving.

We have a a connect team, a hospitality team who greets you at the door.

We have a team that drives a golf cart to the north side of the parking lot because praise the Lord, our south parking lot is full.

And we have overflow parking on the north.

And we have people that will bring a golf cart to you and drive you over here so you don't have to walk in the heat.

We have people who are who are teaching your kids, your elementary age kids in the gym, teaching them how to worship, teaching them Bible, teaching them how to read the Bible, teaching and then breaking it down and and making it come to life with activities.

And I I I have I am shamelessly plugging the gym and and our elementary age kids and our early childhood because I lead that ministry.

And so if you have a heart for kids, join that dream team.

Serve.

Go in those rooms.

We have, do you know over on a weekend, we have over a dozen opportunities for you to go and make disciples right here in our church because don't think that everybody in here knows Jesus.

Not everybody in here has made that decision.

We have more opportunities than you can imagine.

The point isn't where you go.

The point is that you do what God said and you go.

We have celebrate recovery here on Fridays.

They go and they are helping people who have hurts, habits, and hang-ups walking through their lives.

We have people in our church who have who are certified and licensed to carry Narcan kits with them wherever they go.

So if somebody has an overdose, they not only can save their life, but they can tell them about the saving power of Jesus.

We have people in our church who are committed to going.

And my hope and my prayer for you is that will be your commitment too.

You know, Jesus's followers didn't view church as a place that they may or may not show up to on a Sunday.

No.

And neither should we.

You know, church isn't a club.

It's not a country club.

It's not a check on your to-do list.

Oh, it's Sunday.

Let's get up and go to church.

Check.

No.

And I hope that we would never reduce the church that our savior died for to an obligation.

And I say this with with all the love I can.

This is not I'm not saying this in judgment or condemnation.

I'm saying this because I want so much more for all of us.

But if you have gotten to the place in your life where you are too busy for church, I think that maybe you should re-evaluate your priorities and rediscover your salvation moment.

Think about the the moment that you learned that Jesus died for your sins and that you could have eternal life by by developing a relationship with him that he's just waiting for you to say yes to and then walking with him.

I remember mine so so clearly because maybe like some of you, I was a mess.

I was on a path to destruction. to look at me from the outside.

If you didn't know me, you wouldn't know because I covered it up really, really well.

But inside, y'all, I was a mess.

And so when I said yes to Jesus, you could not keep me out of the church.

I love Jesus and I wanted to be in his house and I wanted to be with his people as much as I possibly could.

I went to a midweek Bible study, a ladies Bible study, and I was in a life group.

On Sundays, I went to church in the morning, and then my friends and I would go to the beach because I lived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and we would play volleyball all afternoon.

And then we didn't want to miss Sunday night.

So, we would just pull on our shorts, put a t-shirt on, flip-flops, and we would go to church, and we would worship sandy, dirty, smelly, all of it, because we didn't want to miss what was happening on a Sunday night.

And then on Wednesday nights we would go to church.

We had mid that was back in the day when we had midweek's service.

And then on Thursday young adults all of those services I unless I was working I didn't miss them because I wanted to be with Jesus and I wanted to be with his people and be in his house.

And I was growing and I was maturing in my faith and I was making better decisions in my life.

My life choices were showing where my faith li was like where my faith was and I was on fire.

I was one of those people that I just share Jesus everywhere I went.

I didn't know better.

So I was even sharing him because this was very early on in my faith.

I was still sharing Jesus at the bars and in the clubs.

And I don't recommend this.

It's not really a good place to share Jesus.

But I didn't know any better.

And then when I was when some friends gently told me, you know, you really shouldn't be doing that anymore.

Oh, okay.

I didn't know.

Okay.

So, I stopped.

But I was sharing Jesus at the beach.

I was sharing Jesus at school.

I was sharing Jesus at work.

I'm not going to tell you where I worked, but I was sharing Jesus there.

And I was sharing Jesus because I knew what I had.

I knew that that God had rescued me from me.

And I loved my friends and and my co-workers and my my colleagues at school.

And I wanted them to know what I knew.

And I wanted them desperately to have what I have.

And I will also tell you that I probably had seven more bump Jesus bumper stickers on my car than any person should have.

I was that crazy Christian.

But when I moved home to Virginia after living in Florida for five years and graduating from college, I didn't necessarily miss Florida, but I grieved my church.

I grieved my the life that I had in Florida.

I grieved the experiences that I had because that's where I I was born again and that's where I grew and matured and became a a a follower of Jesus and everywhere I went in Virginia when I looked and I searched and I could not find a Calvary Chapel Fort Ldale in in in Virginia.

And it wasn't until God showed me that Karen, that time that you spent, that three years that you spent in Florida after you were saved, that was my gift to you.

And that was a season I allowed you to go through so I could prepare you and mature you for the season that you're in now.

Oh, okay.

I didn't know.

So I found a church and I started serving in that church and God prepared me for that new season and the season was called James Cordon because if I hadn't gone to to that church service in Fort Lauderdale that I was invited to and I hadn't accepted Jesus and fast forward three years later I'm living in Virginia and James saw he would have run so fast from me the other way because I was like bad news.

But God, I allowed him to transform me and grow me into who he needed me wanted me to be, even to this place where I am today as a wife, as a mom, as a pastor, as a grandma, as a business leader.

None of that would have been possible without Jesus in my life.

And five weeks ago, Jesus allowed me to experience and kind of rediscover the sweetness and the newness of my early days as a Christian.

I've been praying for this for six years.

Every year, Jesus, is this the year?

God, is this the year we get to go?

I really want to go.

Is this No, not yet.

Not yet.

And then last summer, I was preparing for an annual retreat with with some of my sisterhood leadership uh girls and I was praying, God, is this is this the year coming up?

Is this the year?

And he's like, yeah, you're ready.

This was the year you get to go to Honduras.

This is the year you get to take a team to Honduras.

And I told the girls and they were, "Yeah, and just cheering and so excited."

And then fast forward May 28th, five weeks ago, there was a team of us.

There was 11 of us.

Some of us are in this room right now.

Jesusloving, adventurous people who were willing to just invest in people and kids in another country.

And we landed in Honduras.

And God invited us to set aside our expectations, to set aside our comfort, to set aside our ability to drink water out of a tap.

And we just were present for seven days with these beautiful Honduran people.

And as in the weeks and the days leading up to our trip, I I know that I'm not the only one that felt this way, but we felt like, wow, you know, we're so excited.

Lord, thank you for giving us the opportunity to impact these kiddos with the love and the message of Jesus.

But what we had no idea and we didn't realize until our first day there was that we were about to be impacted so much more than the impact we had on others.

We had a few different projects that we were doing while we were there.

We we were went into communities and we visited with families and spent some time with them.

We did what was called a sidewalk Sunday school where we went into similar communities and we had like 50, 60, 70 kids that would show up and we would play with them and then we would do like a mini VBS where we would do we'd worship with them and then we do a Bible study with them and then we worked at the Honduras Life Center which was kind of the hub of where we were and this is the life center that has um uh eight home six homes rather for kids uh 5 to 18, kids who have been abused, kids who have been trafficked, kids who have been neglected, um kids that were rescued even out of state systems, and they and so we spent some time there.

But when we went to the the first thing we did really was going into the local communities and this was probably I mean I I loved everything we did but this was probably one of the most impactful because as we walked down the dirt path dirt mud stone because it's you know tropical so it's very wet there.

As we walk down the paths to people's homes the thought just crossed my mind.

Wow.

They really don't have anything.

They have uh corrugated metal walls and roofs that are held up by sticks and small trees.

And I felt like sorry for them.

I felt pity.

And then then we get to the first house.

And this is the first house we went to.

And as the the gentleman that lived there, as he was sharing his story, I realized if I were to say to you, gosh, you really don't have anything.

They would say, 'Well, that's not true.

We have Jesus.

We have his church.

We have this pastor who is who's wrapped his arms around and and brought you all to us to pray for us, to to bring a bag of food to us.

And just listening to their stories really humbled us and humbled me.

And I and I got to we we got to know them a little bit in a short period of time and understand their experience and understand their situation.

And then they trusted us with their stories.

They didn't have to they didn't have to tell their story.

The pastor could have told their story for them.

But each single home we went to, they opened up and trust us with their experiences and their stories.

And then we were able to offer them a word of encouragement.

And this part really kind of tripped me up because I was thinking, what could I possibly say to them?

How coming from the United States here, how could I how could I relate to their situation?

And then I understood they don't need my words of encouragement.

They need Jesus's words of encouragement. and anything that we said and and and we all we didn't even say it out loud this understanding.

It was like we all just knew.

And so we all got an opportunity to share a word of encouragement and then share a scripture and then we all and then we all had the opportunity to pray for these people.

And the the sweetest thing I have to tell you is a number of people who stepped forward to share and to encourage to share a scripture and to pray.

That was the first time they had ever done that publicly out loud.

And I thought, what a sweet moment this is.

What a sweet opportunity that this gets to be their first that they got to lay down their fears and just do what God told them to do and go. and their faith.

I will tell you this this sweet lady here that we prayed for, this is a woman that we're probably going to be able to help.

She has a a a pretty serious medical situation and we we heard her story and we prayed over her and prayed for her, but that's not where it ends, right?

We go and we do what we can do.

And then we got to go do our sidewalk Sunday school, which was so fun.

So much fun.

These kiddos, I will tell you, Sonia is is holding a a bag of candy right here.

She couldn't get her hand out of the bag fast enough to get the candy in the kids' hands.

And we'd learned something.

We learned that nail polish and candy and jump ropes are superpowers for breaking down walls.

And we learned that when these kids know that we were we were there for them and we we we didn't want any of this for ourselves.

We were there 100% for them and we just wanted to pour into them and we just wanted to play with them and sing with them.

And when they knew that, their level of excitement grew and their level of engagement just exploded.

And in a very short, we were only with them for like an hour or an hour and a half.

And the connections that we were able to make and then our time at the the life center, 180% humidity, it was so humid there.

And they didn't they actually didn't let me do this part because I'm old.

They didn't let me carry cinder blocks.

But one day, the second day we were out there, I said, "No, I mean, I I'm I'm leading this group.

I have to go out there.

I have to at least sweat a little bit."

So, I went out there and I got to I didn't pick up any cinder blocks, but I got to lay some Lee, you would be proud of me.

I did a really great job.

I laid some block.

I took some pictures.

I sent it to James.

I said, "I did that.

That little block, right?

I did that."

But those blocks were heavy.

And you see Tara here with this wheelbarrow.

What you and there's probably like 10 blocks there.

And not only was she wheeling that wheelbarrow through the grass, she had to wheel it up a ramp that was about 15, it was about a piece of wood that was maybe 15 inches.

She had to get enough momentum going downhill so she could get that wheelbarrow up and and Motti did it.

She was wheeling and hurling cinder blocks and Sonia, they were all out there and I was inside.

I was I was organizing clothes inside and they came in and I wish I should have put a picture of them after they came in.

They were hot and they were dripping and they were exhausted and they they said, "Well, this is your break.

You get like a 15minute break and then you're going to go out there and do it again." And they and they did it with willing hearts and with smiles on their faces.

And these walls that they were building are going to be homes or going to be rooms kind of like dormitories for missionaries because right now when we like when we went to Honduras we stayed in a hotel that was nearby but they're building these dorms so that when missionaries when people come they can stay on the property and how much more impact can we have when we actually staying on the property and I would one other thing that we learned if you look at this fire pit you'll see bunch of kids around this fire pit and one actually putting his his shirt over his nose.

And that's because not because of the smoke, it's because he kept getting burned.

And what I understood and what I think some of us really understood is we in the US, we are helicopter parents because there's no way I would let my kids or grandkids anywhere near a bonfire like this.

It was probably 4 feet in diameter.

It was going up and these kids are just I was just so worried and frantic.

I didn't have a marshmallow because I couldn't stop watching what was happening.

And then we went to the river and the river that we were in this there was the top of the it fed into a waterfall this beautiful waterfall and I don't know how far out we were for but the current was pretty strong and we took 35 kids with us to the river.

Now if this was in the US and we were going to like the river or or Lake Pleasant or something.

I mean there would be several people that would just be like on guard watching these kids making sure every not in Honduras.

They just jumped in the water and I guess they figured that we were taking care of them.

I don't know.

But these kids were fearless jumping off rope swings.

Um they were just swimming in the and the current were like if you weren't careful it would carry you away.

But those kids were fearless.

We also learned that they love to eat.

We actually there's one little girl named There's one little girl named named Sasha.

Sasha has been um and she ran away from home but she had a six-year-old brother had a connection with Melvin and Mary had a connection with Melvin and Mary who run who are the directors they're really hurting they at the life center and they said please can we have these two these siblings do you have room for them they they're a meas and he really connected with s do you have room for him yeah bring them there there's a story.

There's 35 kids.

Every single every single child has a story similar to that.

And so every child has um five sponsors, takes five five people.

And so James and I had a conversation and and we said, "Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna sponsor Sasha." She just really I really had a connection with her. first, but it it really brings it to a what we can do as a church family, a place of of recognition of what we can do if we go go to Honduras. go to the physically and these kiddos are going to have but I really can't help but think that because of your life because of the life you live because of your relationship with Jesus and you know because God's mission always has been and always will be going anywhere you're not doing to do to serve.