Matthew 4:18-19
January 8, 2006
Sermon by Rev. Barry Hidey

I had never been west of Deep Creek Lake, Md. until I got onto that bus with 15 other high schoolers the second week of July back in 1971. I knew that when I said yes to the chance to travel to Colorado for a week of camp at Young Life Frontier Ranch I was looking forward to something that was going to be exciting and wonderful.

I had heard the stories from my sisters who had been to that camp a few years before, and so, when the invitation was made by my Woodlawn High School Young Life Leader, Gorgo, I was ready to say yes. Yet it wasn’t an easy yes, for I realized it would involve some costs. I had to work hard at raising the money to be able to go that summer. I worked cutting lawns and bailing hay at my grandparents’ farm next door. I used money that I got for my birthday a couple weeks before and just did some begging along the way to raise the cost of about $210. And to help me reach my goal, my Mom posted a chart on our refrigerator.

As a matter of fact, it says I only ended up with $182. And I think I probably asked for money from grandparents and other folks to get to the top so I could go.

As excited as I was about this trip, I had my second thoughts about it. Because when it came time, leading up to the week beforehand, it became apparent to me that none of my good friends ended up going on the trip. I found out that the leaders that were chaperoning us were folks that I had never met, John Gerstmyer and Pat Sanders, and instead of 40, a full bus that we expected, only 16 ended up going. So I wasn’t that confident when I got on that bus and said goodbye to my family. And, maybe you can identify with that. Sometimes there is a little bit of concern about journeys we about to take. The cost that we need to consider, makes us say, well, I am not sure if I want to do that.

1. The start of the Journey

We know that every journey starts with an invitation – and so in the church we understand that we need to say yes to Jesus’ invitation to start the Jesus Journey. Have you said yes to Jesus? And how do we do that? Many folks come to me and say, Barry, what is it that I need to do to be a follower of Jesus?

The first thing that we need to do is to
a. Believe that Jesus is the Son of God. 1John 4:15 clearly lays out that if anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him. And so, we know that we need to believe who Jesus is – we need to trust that Jesus is who He says He is.

The second thing is to realize where we are, be willing to leave that place and come to a new place. For us that means we need to

b. Confess our sins and receive Jesus as our Savior and Lord. John 1:12 reminds us that to all who received Jesus are given the right to become children of God when we believed on His name. So we need to make a choice to leave where we are. The question that we all face in our lives is, have we said yes to Jesus—not, have we joined the church—not, have we grown up in a Christian home, but have we owned that – have we made that choice? That’s what we see in our scripture lesson today. All these people that we heard about in scripture were asked to do something. If read each of these stories, we find out that Noah did say yes, Abraham left where he was comfortable and moved on. Moses did go to Egypt and confronted Pharaoh. Paul, we know said yes to Jesus and followed him. And, we also know the disciples stopped what they were doing and started the Journey. In Matthew 4:19, when Jesus says, Come follow me, it is the invitation of a lifetime…an invitation that we all have.

We all get that invitation in life whether subtly or directly. The question as we begin this Jesus Journey is - Have you come to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Many of my friends in the Young Life Club all heard the invitation to go to Frontier Ranch, but only a few of us said yes to the invitation. Have you said yes to the invitation to Jesus? Because when we do that, the Holy Spirit begins to take up residence in our lives and we know that it is God’s grace that has saved us and God’s grace that will change us.

c. We begin this Journey of abiding in Jesus, because that’s what it is about. It is the image that John gives us in John 15 -- Jesus is the vine, we are the branches-- and so we understand that it is God’s grace that is a part of our life and that God’s strength and purpose continue if we remain connected to Jesus.

As we read through the gospel stories of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John we find there is no systematic definition of… what is a disciple…what is a follower of Jesus? As a matter of fact, it just kind of seems like there is this three year walk through Palestine. Additionally, Jesus didn’t have any systematic regiment – no 3-step process, no detailed diagram of how to connect the parts to create a follower – a disciple of Jesus. We do find there are a lot of conversations along the way. Jesus did something…and folks asked questions. He taught on a subject and the disciples came alongside and said, did we get this right, because we don’t understand what this parable is all about. There is no “pixie dust” that just landed on top of folks and all of a sudden they were this transformed person. No, what we do notice is that they spend a lot of time traveling and living with Jesus. They were on the Jesus Journey.

So, today we are going to start a new series called the Jesus Journey - 7 Things to Pack. And, in this introduction today, I want to lay out the vision for the Jesus Journey. As my Young Life Leader, at one of our group meetings, said, hey folks, we’ve got this opportunity! He then began to explain what this week in camp would be like and what we needed to do to sign up, to commit ourselves and what was going to happen along the way. And so it is today. I want to help you to understand this Jesus Journey. We have to realize that indeed this Jesus Journey is something that isn’t just about jumping through some hoops, figuring out a checklist and doing it – it is much more.

2. What is our model for defining a Christian?
You might say, well, isn’t it pretty clear what a Christian is? I do think we have some good clarity on this, but I realize that over the years that I wandered down some paths on my Journey and ended up some places where I didn’t need to end up. Not that they were wrong, but they misguided my priorities – I took a perspective and highlighted a way that didn’t need to be highlighted. So as I was trying to figure out how to explain this to you, I was reading a book Peggy had showed me, “Helping Others On the Journey,” by Terry Wardle. It really helped me to bring clarity to an understanding that we have this model that sometimes isn’t really helpful in living out a Christian life. I think it’s very helpful as we are talking about what a Christian is. Paraphrasing from the book, there are two models that Christians tend to use to define what a Christian is.

The first one is called The Courtroom Model. This is image that God is the judge and the rules are that if you sin, you displease the judge and there is a penalty. The scriptures tell us that “the wages of sin is death.” We have heard that, and I have preached that, and we understand that we are all brought before God at some point…but then we have Jesus who comes by as our advocate and says, listen God, Barry believes in me, I have forgiven him and so now when you look at him he is the forgiven person, because I died for him on the cross. – God, bangs the gavel. God says, OK, he is forgiven – he is free…go. That is a great model, isn’t it? It explains what Jesus did by the death on the cross, but there are some problems if that’s the only thing that the Christian life is about. Because what happens is, we can walk out of the courtroom and say, I’m free, I can do whatever I want. I’m covered by this “Get out of Hell card” that I just got from Jesus. I can just pull it out any time I want. And so we find that the Courtroom Model really isn’t good in the fullest sense of what we need to do.

The second model is what we call the Classroom Model. This prioritizes the place of sound doctrine. It is the idea that if we teach people the right things, if everyone believes the right thing…if you understand that Jesus is the son of God…He died for you…He rose from the dead…know the Apostle’s Creed…Everything is black and white and as long as we give the correct answers on the exams, say the right things – that everything will be fine.

However, I realize that there are some weaknesses with those models. Both of those models are very important, but they don’t go far enough. They fall short as metaphors of the Christian faith. And why is that? Because they don’t really make us understand clearly that the Christian life is more than just being free from the consequences of sin. Or, the Christian life is more than understanding some important truth related to the Christian beliefs. We know that there needs to be transformation and change. For example, there are times at a funeral when someone says this person’s, life was pretty terrible, but, they went forward at a Crusade years ago, so they’re saved. They didn’t do anything about, but at least they got their insurance card with God. A lot of people think that as long as they get saved they don’t have to really do anything else. Or those that believe the right things, but they don’t do them – we call them hypocrites. You know they have got all the right beliefs, but they never have the right practices. So we find that, indeed, there are some things more important in the Jesus Journey. We need to understand what the best model is for us.

We understand that in this Jesus Journey it’s about a transforming experience. It is not just believing right things. It’s acting upon them. You noticed about a year or so ago, we started the new logo – it’s on the front page of your bulletin each week – The Journey – Living Life with God’s Word. The Journey metaphor is very instructive about life itself and spiritual maturity is a journey with Jesus that is life changing.

3. What is involved in the Jesus Journey? Well there are three things that are key. And this is what I want us to know as I look at this reference point over the next seven weeks. There are some things that we need to understand.

The first thing that we need to understand is our destination. Where are we heading? On any trip you need to know that and for me, I couldn’t wait to get to Frontier Ranch. That was my destination. I couldn’t wait to go on the jeep ride that would take us up the Continental Divide and being able to see those beautiful mountain ranges.

Or to swim in the pool that was heated by the natural hot springs, or climb Chimney Rock, or watch the rodeo, or go horseback riding. I had heard all the stories about how wonderful that week at camp was – and so my goal was to get there – and I couldn’t wait for camp. Now this is where many of us get lost along the way -- because what if I were to ask you what is the destination for the Christian? We would say well, as a follower of Jesus, our destination is Heaven. In scripture, John 14, Revelation 21--God’s going to prepare this place for us – a mansion in Heaven.

I want to suggest another destination. Not to say that Heaven’s not important – that’s our long-term goal--but there is something else that I see the Bible making very clear. This Journey of Jesus is a journey to Christ-likeness. It’s about spiritual maturity – it’s about change – it’s about a life that becomes more like Jesus. Jesus didn’t say we would be judged by how well we believe certain things or how often we attended church or how we impress other Christians with good behavior. No, what he is talking about is an honest assessment of our lives and the power of the Holy Spirit working in us. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 lays it out saying that “we are being transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ”. That’s what it’s all about.

These next seven weeks we will share with you some of the important tools that we need to have in our life – that we need to be a learner – that we need to be a worshiper – that we need to pray – that we need to be a server – that we need to be a relater – and that we need to be a giver and a proclaimer. We have created this list, as a staff, over the last couple years, but realized that you could do all of these things without having a heart change in Jesus Christ. And to be honest, I have a friend who is a pastor, who was a missionary, and he came back and told this story. I went as a missionary and I didn’t have a clue what I was doing – I was converted as a missionary on the mission field. I really figured out who Jesus Christ was. We can do certain things because they are the right things to do, but unless we are being transformed by Jesus Christ – unless we discover the power of the cross that is transforming, we are heading in the wrong direction.

It is not textbooks that change non-believers – it’s when they see people like you and me who are being transformed and are being changed day in and day out. We want others to realize that where I am today is a different place than where I was yesterday. So these next seven weeks would be worthless if you just see it as another checklist of the seven things that I need to do to please God. No, our destination isn’t getting enough goody points, checking off enough things – saying, hey look at this! No, it’s a matter of a Journey of transformation. And, we want to give you the tools so that you will be all that God wants you to be. So each week we are going to introduce you to another tool that you need to put in your backpack, which you need to carry with you through your Journey with Jesus.

So, the first thing we need to know is where we are heading! What is the goal? What is the purpose of our Christian life – it is to be transformed. It is to be a different person – to act and look and to be like Jesus. This makes us uncomfortable if we were thinking, all I need to do is just show up…I need to give my offering…I need to do this and do that. But no, it is about an inner change and taking the responsibility for seeking to be someone like Jesus – allowing the Holy Spirit change us. So we need to be clear about our destination over these next seven weeks. We want to create men and women who are more like Jesus in seven weeks than they are today…in seven years than they are today. And, can we look back and see that transformation? If we can’t -- then we have the wrong destination in mind.

Second, we need to understand that on this Journey there are going to be challenges. You see, I thought my big challenges were over after I got on that bus and started heading for Colorado. Too often we think when we come to Jesus, all our troubles will be taken care of. Back in youth group, we used to take a Simon & Garfunkle song and sing it, Jesus is the Bridge Over Troubled Waters. But that’s wrong, because Jesus doesn’t – the Christian life is not where we walk 50 feet above the problems of the world. No, we understand that the Christian life is Jesus walking with us through the troubles and challenges of this life. So, I want to tell you that if we are not having challenges in our life, then we are really not walking with Jesus. We’re taking the easy road. When we understand that, then we understand that we are going to change, because challenges help us to become more like Jesus. It is in the challeneges that we find out who we really are. There are challenges that decide whether we are going to be like Jesus, or we are going to quit and settle for the status quo. Well, it didn’t take me long to realize that cross-country bus trip wasn’t all that much fun. It wasn’t a school bus – it was a coach bus…no air conditioning…no bathroom…the seats were not all that comfortable…it wasn’t that great of a thing. Then there was not knowing the people, having to meet these new folks, then getting to camp and one of the first activities was to climb Chimney Rock.

This was something that I had waited for and then they warned us about all the dangers, advising us to wear heavy shoes and watch out to the right and left. They were preparing us for the climb and said there is one really dangerous place where you can fall to the left or you can fall to the right and they told us, “if you are going to fall, please fall to the right because there is a much better view on the way down”. I mean, that was really encouraging! And then, of course, there are those distractions that 16-year-olds have at camp.

Now that was just a set up – Ruth and I - there wasn’t anything going on.

We understand that we have destinations and there are going to be challenges along the way.

The third key piece to the Journey – (and this is really one thing that causes many of our challenges and blessings) -- are the fellow travelers. If you thought about it as you read through the gospels last year, you might have wondered why Jesus put up with the disciples. If we think about it, every time we turned around they were messing this up and forgetting that. You know it would have been easier for Abraham not to have had Sara or Hagar, or Moses with Pharaoh, or Paul -- he would have been a fine apostle if he didn’t have to deal with all those members of those churches to whom he kept writing. It almost makes you think that maybe God was wrong when he created a partner for Adam…God said he was lonely and it wasn’t good, but all the problems started when somebody else joined the picture.

You might think the solo life is what it is all about – but that’s not how God saw it. And so we realize that it is important to have some fellow travelers along the way, and I realized that there were fellow travelers on the bus. There were those who wanted to stop about every hour for the bathroom, those who snored and those who could never get back to the bus on time after the pit stops. And then – there was our counselor, John. We stopped in Nebraska to swim at this pool and I realized after the fact that the reason we stopped there was that after traveling on the bus with no air conditioning for several days…ok, everybody get in the pool! You don’t smell quite so bad after that. Our counselor, John, was actually taking a real shower. He knew why we were there and so while he was in the shower, I decided – wouldn’t it be great to hide his clothes? I had not yet realized he was a star for the Western Maryland College Football team. Fortunately, he was a good counselor and took it really well and after about a half-hour we were on the bus – no, we didn’t wait that long – we got him his clothes.

And then there was this guy who was placed in our cabin. I have a picture of what is left of the cabin - they destroyed them about a year ago and replaced them all.

The camp was divided into teams. And so, this was our team – we were the Muckrakers and there were all kinds of competitions that we had…swimming competitions and horse competitions – and we lost everything!

I mean, we were a terrible group – the only thing we won was the competition for the most serious team photo contest. So, there are three people I want to introduce to you.

One – the person on the right – that’s me – and then on the left here – that’s our counselor, John – you can almost see the big shoulders. And then, that guy with the cowboy hat, this big guy that I want to talk about. He was forced into our cabin – we had our group of 5 guys and they sent in this guy who needed a cabin. He wasn’t a Young Life person and we don’t know why he was there, but he wasn’t really enjoying himself. As a matter of fact, he was kind of bad-mouthing the camp and you have to remember that I was going to the “week of my life” – I couldn’t wait to be there and this guy was just making snide comments and so I started making some snide comments back and you know how you kind of “one up on each other”. This got to be a little walking by with an elbow and a little shove and before long we were wrestling on the floor of the cabin before somebody jumped in to break us up.

Now, it’s sad to say, I had given my life to Christ about a year before. I knew I was saved and I believed the right things, but my behavior…I just didn’t seem to have any impact from the things I believed and the experience I had had of being saved – because I wasn’t going to let this guy ruin my week at camp. It didn’t matter that he didn’t know Christ. It didn’t matter that he was a new guy in the cabin trying to figure things out. Well, it seemed that John, had a much bigger view of destination. Now he knew that it was going to be a great week at camp, but he knew it wasn’t just about camp. John knew there was something more to this – he understood it was about the Journey of Transformation. A couple nights later, I was awakened because I heard these two guys talking and at times it was getting a little heated in an argument/discussion. I saw John standing in front of his bunk and John and this other guy (that I just had this wrestling match with) talking – the Bible was laid out on the front of the bunk bed and this guy was asking questions. John was just explaining the gospel to him and helping him to understand – wasn’t putting him down – wasn’t wrestling with him on the floor. Wrestling with him in the word though – and there I was, “Joe Christian”, acting like a child – being convicted by the Holy Spirit – by the loving actions of John. And so later that week I went to this guy and asked forgiveness for my behavior. It was then that I began to realize that Frontier Ranch wasn’t my destination. It was part of a Journey of faith – a Jesus Journey and seeking to become more Christ-like.

As I look back on that trip I see how God used those fellow travelers to change me. This group of 16 people developed a bond that lasted throughout our high school years and beyond into college. Every one of us came to Christ, or re-committed our life to Christ during that week of camp. As we got on the bus there was all the kind of stuff that high school kids do trying to impress each other and keeping up that false sense of security. But, as the barriers fell down, as we began to become transformed – openness and honesty and transparency – we were able to share our fears and along the way we could stop pretending. And, there is one incidence at camp where I was scared to death by something – it was all planned – and I just fell for it hook, line and sinker. I was just so scared I was pulling somebody down in front of me to just kind of hide me – cause I thought my life was…it was all a big, fun, camp joke and it was embarrassing. I argued that I just slipped on some water on the floor – I really wasn’t scared. And so, that’s what you do – you pretend that life doesn’t hurt you and bother you and later on – I admitted I was scared. There response was “Oh yeah, we knew you were”! Everyone else sees who we really are –let’s be honest in the Jesus Journey about where we are in that Journey.

John became a spiritual mentor to me. That next year I was elected President of the Youth Fellowship at Salem United Methodist Church, so I wrote some letters to him because I was leading a retreat for our Youth Group that fall. Remember those days when you actually used a pen and paper and a stamp – you all know what that is – I mean for some of us it is only a keyboard and e-mail that we need, but I saved a couple of these letters and I found them this week. Listen to what he wrote to me as I asked him, what do I do? How do I figure out this retreat?

He said, “First, put into practice, as much as you can, what the retreat is all about – love. Have fun with the guys, be sensitive to what they need and try to see things from their point of view. Enjoy yourself, be at ease, be yourself. Christ is with you and in you – what else do you need? Also, be dependent on Christ. Nobody is worthy or even capable of handling His work. Give the retreat completely to Him and then accept whatever happens.”

John ends the letter by saying, “if you still want to ask something, just write – there’s plenty of time before the retreat. I’ll try to answer anything that still might be worrisome or confusing.” That is pretty good wisdom for a college senior. And that’s what John did, he was just himself – he loved this other guy – he met him where he was and tried to remind me of that. It is not all my doings – I need to live a life dependent on Christ. I am thankful that he didn’t see me as some troublemaker who just had the idea to steal his clothes. He saw beyond that.

Our Journey through faith in life is not easy. Let’s stop pretending that we hurt or struggle. It is only as we open up to each other that we can offer honest support to each other in this Journey. Yet, it is because of Christ that life gives us these great opportunities for personal transformation when we respond to the fellow travelers, challenges and struggles along the Journey. We have faith in God’s greater purposes.

4. So what shall we pack? Well, I have given you a list of those things briefly before, but we want to give you the things that you need to make the right choices for your Journey. As I mentioned with the children, on our trip two summers ago, we had some people in the church who were travel agents who just walked us through every part of the Journey. We need those kind of people in our lives. We want to realize that we are not solos on this Journey and are not going all by ourselves, so we need to be in small groups and we need to ask others around us for wisdom and guidance along the way.

We want to give you the tools that you need to carry in your knapsack, because we want to equip you. As this couple told us everything we needed to know, we want to tell you what you need to know – whether you are just starting this Journey today, or whether you have been on this Journey your whole life. We all need tools. There are some tools that will be new to us and some that we are so familiar with that maybe they have become a little bit too routine. We want to challenge you not to stop where you are, but to take the next step – the next phase of the Journey. We have developed a weekly follow-up devotional that we are going to give you each Sunday that will help you to learn how to use the tools, or how to use it more effectively. We want you to put them into practice. We just don’t want these sermons to be a time where we just say, ok, just know these things – we want you to do these things so that transformation will happen.

5. So where does it leave us? It leaves us choosing a path…making a decision to be a part of a Journey. I invite you to be a part of this and join with us in this Journey.