The Mustard Seed

Our Church

Sermon: "Staying Connected"

“Staying Connected”               Text: John 14:1-14

Elpis Christian Church

May 22, 2011                                                                

 

     It’s one of the most effective advertising campaigns in recent history.  It shows a tall, thin, kind of gangly looking fellow.  He’s wearing black, horned-rimmed glasses and looks like he might be an accountant or computer geek.  He’s got a cell phone in his hand and a serious look on his face.  And everywhere he goes, no matter how remote or strange a place, he’s got one thing to say.  Do you know what it is?

“Can you hear me now?”

What’s the ad?  It’s for VERIZON – and I bet those ads have interrupted your favorite TV show or televised sports game a thousand times or more.  Why is it so successful an ad that they keep running it and running it and running it some more?  Because it makes VERIZON a lot of money.  And why is that? Because Americans are OBSESSED with being “connected.”  Whether it’s by cell phones; email; social networking sites – people, it seems, can’t go even a few minutes without connecting.  Sometimes it’s about business, other times it’s all about pleasure, but staying connected is key.  And it’s not just Americans who are obsessed with this process.  It’s a worldwide phenomenon.

     Consider these numbers:

According to MICROSOFT DYNAMICS, an arm of the huge MICROSOFT company, the social networking company “Facebook has an impressive 640 million users. Twitter has 175 million users. The Big 3 Cloud Based email providers (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo!) combine for 362 million users.” And according to another source that watches these kinds of things, “there are 1.9 billion email users worldwide.”  That same source also predicts “that number will increase to 2.5 billion by 2014.”

     Those numbers are so staggering I can’t even wrap my mind around them.  That one Facebook statistic is enough to stop you in your tracks, isn’t it?  640 million users.  I’m one of them – and I use it every single day.  But I had no idea I had so many potential friends on line with me.

     What do I know though – is that staying connected with God, for a lot a people, doesn’t seem to be nearly as important as staying connected with their friends on Facebook or Twitter.  If it was, preachers would boast about having millions of millions of members in their churches – but we know that isn’t true.

     So today and next week I want to talk some about “staying connected” with God, because I will guarantee you this.  When the “rubber meets the road,” your friends at Facebook might be helpful.  But God is essential.  The good news is that He is more than willing to stay connected with us. And not just in times of crisis – but every single moment of our lives.  And that means we have the opportunity to be connected to not just a good cell-phone network; but to the very source of all power in the universe.  Isn’t that incredibly reassuring?

     Pastor David Crisp attested to this when he wrote these words,

     “On May 16, 2005, I turned 44, or as I preferred to say, 44 Magnum.  I guess 44 makes me middle aged, or at least it used to.  I am quite certain that now middle age must start later than it used to.  According to popular culture, I’m ripe for what is known as a mid-life crisis.  That’s when you start wearing open-collared disco shirts that reveal large gold medallions – which certainly sounds like a crisis to me.  It’s when you trade in your mini-van for a convertible and begin trying every way possible to recapture your youth by reliving your glory days (even if you really never had any.)

     Mid-life crisis is the result of the self-evaluation which comes to kick you in the stomach with the cold hard fact that you haven’t accomplished things you always dreamed you would and the reality is that it may be too late.  It doesn’t necessarily have to be that way.  Moses was 80 when God called him to lead Israel to the Promised Land.  Joshua was probably about the same age when he kicked the Canaanites out.  Caleb was the oldest guy in Canaan and he asked for and got the toughest assignment.  With God, every day is an adventure.  And with Him, all things are possible.

     When you serve the Lord, you never come to the point when you are useless.  You can always pray, always sing, always smile, and always encourage someone else with your story.  Our hope does not disappoint us.  No matter how old I am, or how old I get, I’ve decided that I will commit to make each year my best ever.  I may not have it all together, but I am connected to One who is more than able to do exceedingly and abundantly above and beyond all I can ask, think or imagine according to His power that is at work in me.  That’s magnum power.”

     He’s right.  When you’re connected to God – you are connected to the One who can accomplish anything.  You can’t do better than that.  But don’t take Pastor Crisp’s or my word for it – take the Lord’s.  He shared them with us in this fourteenth chapter of John.

     “Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Believe in God, believe also in me.”

     So often we only read or hear those words at funerals.  And that’s a good place to read or hear them.  But they belong on our lips, and minds, and hearts every day as well.  Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  Too often those words are used as a sort-of proof text for the fact that if you want to avoid hellfire and damnation you better get right with the Lord.  Well, that may true.  But I think the Lord was talking about a lot more than just how to insure for you a nice spot in heaven. I think he was talking about how to connect to the power source that will sustain you, lead us, empower and grace you with his Love every single day.

     Now what does his disciple and friend Philip do with that – this idea that Jesus is offering a sound, strong, permanent connection with the heavenly Father on a daily basis?  Well, Philip says, “That’s great – just show us the Father then, and we’ll connected.”  And Jesus has to sadly shake his head and reply, “Philip, have I been with you all this time, and you still don’t know me?”  That’s a question that must’ve stung not only Philip, but all his disciples, as well.

      But Jesus is simply pointing out that the connection to God they say they so desperately need is standing right there before them.  He’s in plain sight.  It’s not complicated.  It’s just a matter of opening our eyes and our hearts to that fact.

     And when we do – well that’s when that amazing promise comes.  Jesus says, “I am going to the Father.  I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”

     That’s staggering.  That’s almost frightening to comprehend.  Obviously, Christ isn’t talking here about asking for any little trinket we might want and getting it – how could that possibly glorify God?  But he is saying that if what we seek; what we need, will bring God glory – if we are aligned – connected if you will – with that – nothing can stop us.  Again, that’s staggering to comprehend, isn’t it?

     And what is most amazing of all – is that Jesus makes this promise right before he is torn from them and publicly executed.  Right on the edge of seeming disaster – he says – “nothing can stop you if you stay connected with me – just believe.”  How much easier it would have been for them if Jesus had called angels down to assist him, overthrown Rome, and established a new kingdom on earth – then they would have easily believed.  But they had to go on faith, didn’t they?  Only after the resurrection would they see that faith vindicated.

     Is it any different for us?  It is during the hard times, the doubtful times, the dark times, that we are most likely to doubt our connection with God.  But it is also during those times when we have an opportunity to prove His faithfulness, His love, and His overcoming power.  “Do not let your hearts be troubled; neither let them be afraid.  Believe in God, believe also in me.”  That’s connection.

     I leave you with a little quiz.  How many of you here today own a cell phone? Let’s see your hands.  How many of you dinosaurs have land-line service?  How many of you, like me, have both?  Now let me ask you.  If those lines went suddenly dead, how quickly, and with how much effort, would go to work to trying to re-establish those connections?

  Is your daily connection with God any less important?  Keep the lines open.  Keep the connection strong.  It’s not hard to do.  It’s as easy as praying; reading your Bible; coming to church; looking around at all the beauty in the world; counting your blessings on a daily, if not hourly basis – it’s easy really, as easy as just opening your eyes. And it’s a whole lot less complicated that trying to understand that phone bill you get every month.  The question “Can you hear me now?”  - when it comes from God – takes on a whole new meaning, doesn’t it?