Clarify the object of your faith. I have that jotted down here, too. Who’s the object of your faith? It’s got to be Jesus.

Leave The Island

Oh, this is a funny one here. Leave the island. Did you ever watch “Gilligan’s Island” growing up? Man, that show messed me up. That’s a frustrating show. Here the professor could make radios out of coconuts, but they couldn’t figure out how to make a boat to get them off the island.

A lot of people, when we doubt, we’ll keep it secret. We want to be on Gilligan’s Island just hanging out with Skipper, Gilligan, Mary Ann, Ginger, Lovey and Mr. Howell on Gilligan’s Island. We think, “I’d better not share my doubts, because they might think I’m not a believer. And I feel all this guilt and shame because I doubt. Maybe I am an unbeliever. I doubt. So I guess I don’t believe.”

Don’t do that. Leave Gilligan’s Island and doubt in community. That’s what the local church is all about. If you’re truly seeking, say, “God, reveal yourself to me.” I’m telling you, he will do it.

Talk To Yourself

Here’s something else to do. Talk to yourself. I love New York City. And last year I went to New York and saw some crazy people up there in New York. I’ve seen people walk the streets of New York and they just talk to themselves. You see them just carrying on a conversation walking around talking to themselves.

I’m not talking about that. Not crazy talk. You see, I can get dominated by doubt when I listen to Ed. When I just listen. Because I’m a sinner, I have a sin nature and I tell myself some stupid stuff that causes me to doubt. “Maybe doubt is unbelief and I don’t know.”

They’d be involved in HomeTeams, probably in the parking crew, or the usher’s ministry. They’d go on mission trips. The kids would be involved in youth activities.  WOW!  The ultimate culture. Here’s the question.  Is that what is happening in today’s world?  Is that what it looks like?  Is that what the family is dealing with?  Do you have all these entities highlighting and supporting those transcendent values?  Do you?  Are the structures really supporting the framework of the family?  Before I answer that question, let me give you a quick history lesson.

From the Roman Greco times until about the 18th Century, man looked outside of himself for truth.  Man looked outside of himself for values, for those transcendent truths.  Christians would look to the Old and New Testament.  Jews would look to the Old Testament.  Even those who didn’t follow Christ would look outside themselves for those transcendent values.  All this was going on.  All this was rolling. Until the 18th Century.

In the 18th Century you have something called the Enlightenment. And for the first time, watch this now, you have man looking not outside himself for the transcendent values, but inside himself.  There are three big dogs you need to understand who kind of came to the forefront during the Enlightenment.  Emanuel Kant.  Kant said it’s all about the mind.  Kant said, “Don’t look outside yourself. Forget those transcendent values, if there are any.  It’s in the mind.  You can do it.  It’s all right up here.” The next one was Russo.  Russo said, “It’s not the mind. It’s not outside yourself. It’s your heart.”  And Russo said this, “Every child is born with a perfect heart.”

How many of you grew up in a church where you heard teaching like this about sex?  I doubt very many did.  How many of you grew up in a family where sex was talked about lovingly and openly?  I doubt very many of us.  So, some here are in this camp—just deny and suppress your sexuality.  Well, that’s whack.

Others here are in this camp—you just express it and go for it with whomever, whenever, and however.  You’re mantra is, “I’m just going to do it!  It’s all about the buzz and the high and the thrill and the chill.  I’ll have sex with you, and I’ll have sex with two or three people, and I’ll get into homosexuality and all sorts of things.”

Sex is a God-given gift so often used in a God-forbidden way. But we’ve got to take this God-given gift and use it in a God-driven way, which is in marriage, a life commitment. Sex is a supernatural gift when it’s used in a commitment, a covenant between a man and a woman.  During this series, we’re going to reconnect God with sex.  Usually we don’t use sex and God in the same sentence, do we?  And if we use it, it’s usually in the negative.  This series is going to be positive, because we are going to connect the two. God’s not, because God’s already connected with sex.  We, though, are going to reconnect God with sex.  Several weeks from now when we leave this series saying, “Wow!  This is unbelievable!  I had no idea of the depth of this topic.”

We’re going to find out, too, that sex is something we are before it’s something that we do.  Have you ever thought about that?  All of us are sexual.  If you’re a single adult, you’re sexual.  If you’re a student, you’re sexual.  If you’re a pastor, you’re sexual.  If you’re into real estate, you’re sexual.  Everyone’s sexual!  We’re made that way intentionally, so it’s something we are before it’s something that we do.

So the writer says what we have heard and what we have listened to.  There’s a difference between hearing and listening.  I heard the voice that said, “Ed, give Joseph the pen.” I didn’t do anything.  I was passive.  I heard it, though.  I listened when I said, “You know what, I resolve in my heart to bless Joseph with the pen.  I’m going to walk across the room.  I’m going to walk across the arena floor and give him the pen.”

God began to unlock, once again, his understanding of his economy.  Because when I say, “God, unlock my understanding of your economy,” guess what happens? The geological plates of your life and mine shift, and I move from greed to seed.

Because in the natural I think my stuff is my stuff.  I have this greed thing going on, and don’t act like you don’t.  Everybody hearing my voice right now at all of our campuses, you understand greed.  We need and we greed.  We greed and we need.

Yeah, I want to get it; it’s mine. Yet, in God’s economy, as he unlocks his understanding, what happens?  I discover I’m not an owner.  I’m simply a steward.  I’m a manager.  I don’t own jack.  It’s all God’s.  It’s seed.

So everything I do I’m sowing seed.  I’m a farmer, and you’re a farmer.  We’re sowing seed with the words that come out of our mouths.  We sow seed in relationships.  We sow seed in our marriage.  We sow seed in a dating relationship.  We sow seed with our kids.  We sow seed in your career.  We sow seed if we’re playing some sport.

We’re always sowing seed, sowing seed, and sowing seed.  And Jesus talked about, in Matthew 13, the different soils where we sow the seed.  Jesus said, “You better sow seed in the most fertile soil possible.”  God, though, wants to move all our understanding. He wants to unlock it from greed to seed.

The parents work in this ultimate culture and the parents work in this ultimate culture for an ultimate corporation.  It kind of sounds like an oxymoron.  The ultimate corporation.  And this corporation, whoa! You talk about cool!  This corporation is run by men and women who highlight and underscore the transcendent values taught and modeled in the family.  It’s pretty cool.  Whenever the corporation would make a decision they would say, “How does this decision affect the family”?  And the people that run the corporations in this ultimate culture would bow the knee to God and ask God for his advice, for his word.

I’m telling you man, this is the ultimate. Government?  Government is the ultimate in this ultimate culture, too.  The government officials would make decisions that highlight those transcendent values.  They would tax everybody fairly.  Whoa!  The judges, and legislatures, and everybody would make these decisions based on Mom and Dad, based on keeping the marriage first and the parent child second; based on the family.  Whoa!  This is fun already, can’t you tell?  You’re going, “Ed, I thought this was kinda of a tough message.”  Just hold on.  Hold on.

Television. There’s some creative people in television.  In this ultimate culture the media moguls and the producers, and the actors and actresses would be cranking out stuff that inspires and uplifts the human spirit.  It would like support everything the family is doing. And by the way, how about church?  This family would be very involved in church.  And the churches, like television, would be underscoring and highlighting those transcendent values taught and modeled in the family.  This family would be very, very involved in church.  They would go to church regularly, first Wednesdays.

I always know I’m talking to a crazy person when they say Ed, God told me to tell you ‑‑ whoa.  I talked to God this morning and he didn’t tell me that.  Oh really, God told you.  That’s interesting.  Your dream that God has for you will always be about the advancement of gospel.  It will always fall in line with scripture.  We can’t, though, play the God sticker.

Illus: Let me even get deeper about this God sticker.  You have a tract of land for sale and you make $50,000.  That’s pretty good in this economy.  You turn a tract of land, you make 50 grand.  And then you go, there’s this boat that cost 50 grand and you go and that money is burning a hole in your wallet and you buy the boat.  And then you have the audacity to put the God sticker on it and say God has blessed my life.  Don’t be playing games with God.  You’re not living God’s dream by doing that.  I can tell you that right now.  We’re talking basic Christianity, Christianity 101.  The Bible tells me that the stuff that I have is really not my stuff, it’s God’s stuff.  So if I make 50 grand, good for me.  I should bring 5 grand to the dream center.  Where’s the dream center?  It’s the house of worship, the church.  I know if I’m living the dream then everything is God’s, I bring the 5 to church and now I have 45.  Now if you want to you can buy a boat for 45.  I wouldn’t recommend that.  I would save some of it and maybe buy a boat for 25 but I think you see where I’m going.

So don’t play the God card.  Don’t say well I’m building this and doing that and God told me when you’re not being obedient in the basics of the Christian life.

She said, “What do you talk about at your mass or the thing that you do?”

I said, “Recently,” I just tossed it out again, “I’ve been talking about divorce.”

When I said that, she got a strange look on her face and she said, “Divorce?! That will <blank> up your life.”  She said, “I left my husband ten years ago, and someone should have taken my <blank> and tied me to a tree and beat the <blank> out of me.”

I could just feel the hurt, and I experienced some of the venom.  She said, “You know what,” she said, “My daughter called me just a couple days ago. And she said, ‘Mom, our family isn’t normal.  You’re here; dad is over there.  Everything is totally screwed up.’ ”

And then she looked at me and said, “You know what?  My daughter was right.”

And then she said, “When you talk about divorce, you tell people the grass is never greener. And you tell these couples, these husbands and wives to look past the now.”

Wow! Powerful words from a pagan.

I was thinking, “What if we could go back ten years ago in that lady’s marriage?  What if we could go back to when she had her hands on the hardware of the door? And what if we could go back and see what pushed her into the door and through the door of divorce?”  That would be interesting.  I could tell you, though, what did it.

I’ve talked to enough people; I’ve done enough marital counseling; I’ve read enough books. I can tell you what led her to divorce.  In fact, these predictors pretty much lead every couple through the door of divorce.  And what’s so interesting about it is that recently I sat down and had a conversation with a relational expert about some of these things. And I want you to join our conversation and listen very, very carefully to what this guy has to say.

You know, one of the cool things about Fellowship Church is the fact that we’re diverse.  We have many different backgrounds, socioeconomic levels, people from all walks of life, different skin colors, different ethnicities. But one of the things I love about Fellowship is the fact that we have a wide range of ages at Fellowship Church.  Have you ever thought about that?

Illus: I knew this guy in high school and his name was Larry.  And Larry, when I first saw him, I thought he was in his forties.  He was young, but he looked old.  Do you know what I’m saying to you?  He dressed old and had an old spirit.  When I met him I thought, “You’re in high school?  I thought you were my dad’s age!”  Have you ever met people like that?  They’re young but they’re old.

Well, we have people at Fellowship Church who are old.  I mean, our world would call them old; however, you’re young in spirit.  You see, if you’re young in spirit, you will dig Fellowship Church.  Who cares how old you are.  I know some people who are old, but who are young in spirit.

On the other hand, I know some people who are really young, but they’re old in spirit.  So the goal is, if we’re going to go onto maturity, we have to be young in spirit.  We have to be young in spirit.  It is all about others.

Illus: Lisa and I went out to this cool restaurant a while back, kind of romantic thing.  We were by ourselves and enjoying this mean. And about midway through the meal I look up and it’s like this convoy of strollers surrounded us with all these families and the noise and kids. And I was thinking, “This kind of ruins the moment.  All these kids, crying and yelling and drawing on the place mats.”

There is nothing that I can do; there is nothing that you can do to cause God to love you any more or any less.  Nothing!  That freaks me out!  That blows my mind if I think about it.

“You mean, nothing?  God’s going to love me unconditionally?  Irrationally?  With a one-of-a-kind love?”

There is nothing I could do right now to cause God to love me any more or any less.  That’s what Scripture says.  Now some of you are thinking, “Oh, this is a great message.  God loves me unconditionally?  There is nothing I can do to cause God to love me any more or any less?  I guess now I can go buck wild! I can just do whatever I want to do!  This is great! I love Fellowship Church!  Ed, I love you. Thank you for sharing that with me.  I will go out and go crazy, man!”

Ahhhh!  No, no, no, no, no.  No—no—no.

Yes, God loves us unconditionally, irrationally.  There’s nothing we can do to cause God to love us any more or any less.  That’s a fact.  We can count on it. It’s a promise of God.

However, for us to access the fullness of the unconditional love, there are some conditions that we must meet.  What’s the key to the Christian life?  What’s the key to discovering the irrational, unconditional love of Jesus?

I’ll tell you what the key is. It’s one word—obedience.  That’s it.  Trust and obey, there’s no other way.  Obedience is the key that unlocks the door to this deep, unconditional, irrational love.  Here’s what’s so interesting. A lot of people are experiencing the unconditional love of God, but they don’t even know it.  They’re walking through life without tapping into the power of God’s love. They don’t even know it!

“Well, Ed, how can you say that?”

Last time, what did we say? God uses cantaloupes and money and the things of the world, the tangibles, to test us. “Okay, you say you love me,” God says. “You say I’m the man. You say you’re trusting me with your eternity. Show me the money.” God doesn’t need it and we don’t need it. Show God the money. God tells me that every time I’m paid, every single time I’m paid, “Okay, am I Lord, Ed? Am I really number one? You say, you preach about it, am I? Let’s see.”

Wow that’s some heavy stuff, but see, it’s all about blessings and it’s all about the stuff that God can unleash in your life and mine.

Number five: Generosity is all about maturity. Generosity is all about maturity. One of our twins was talking to Lisa the other day and Lisa was talking to her about becoming a woman and some of the changes that will take place. And she was listening, and she started crying, “Mommy I don’t want to grow up.” I talk about this. I talk about bringing the tithe. I talk about offerings, and I talk about maturing in Christ. And I feel like some of you are the same. “But, Ed, I don’t want to grow up. I don’t want to do it. I don’t want to bring the tithe and the offerings.” It’s just an observation.

Fellowship Church, no question, is one of the most spiritually mature churches I’ve ever seen. In fact we’ve got to be one of the top two or three most spiritually mature churches in the nation. You’re saying, “Ed, how can you say that?” Well, I’ll tell you how I can say that. You’re unselfish. There is a core here, man. You guys are so unselfish, you blow me away. It takes unselfish people to grow a great church. When I’m immature, I’m thinking about me. When I’m mature, I’m thinking abou—what?—others.