Pastor Reece Whitehead
April 28, 2019 - W1917

God’s Blessing

Bless This Mess

Pastor Reece Whitehead of Willow Creek Church

April 27 & 28, 2019

Aloha! It is such an incredible privilege to be with you! I began my ministry about 20 years ago in Australia, when I was given a S.O.A.P Journal, written by a pastor who lives in Hawaii. In 2003 when my wife and I moved to the states, Pastor Wayne Cordeiro came to Willow Creek to a leadership summit and brought an impacting talk that I still remember! Then early in 2017, I received a phone call and was invited to be part of a new masters program that Pastor Wayne was teaching—I accepted this incredible honor, and I don't take it lightly! 

Shortly after, I was having lunch in London as part of our residency with Pastor John Burgess and Pastor Jon Tilton, and they gave me the unexpected honor to come to Hawaii and preach a sermon! I said, “Wow! That would be an incredible privilege!” I wasn’t expecting that! Right after I agreed, they told me, “We have five services every weekend.” That, I did not expect, but a blessing, nonetheless. So thanks for your trust in me, and the opportunity to be with your congregation!

So I want to ask you all today, “When was the last time you had something really unexpected happen in your life? You know, something that took you by surprise.” 

When I think about unexpected things that happen, I think about a particular passage of scripture:

Hebrews 5:11-14 NLT says, “¹¹ There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen. ¹² You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. ¹³ For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. ¹⁴ Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.”

The writer of Hebrews is unknown. Some scholars believe it was Paul, Luke, or Apollos. Whoever it is, it’s quite unexpected to get a verse like this—a verse that isn’t really an affirming word to the followers of Jesus. In fact, the verse is calling many of us out, giving us a stern wake-up call, through a language of frustration! Let’s read further:

Hebrews 6:1-3 NLT says,“¹So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. ² You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. ³ And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding.”

The writer of this passage is perplexed at the lack of spiritual progress taking place. When my daughter was born, my wife and I bought, what they call an ExerSaucer, a baby bouncy/jumpy contraption with a bunch of little toys around it. So you sit the baby in the seat, which is in the middle, and they can entertain themselves for hours. Our daughter, Lily, loved this thing! She would see one little toy, play with it, then discover another little toy and play with that one. She kept going as she saw all the new toys, to the point that she would go round and round and rotate with the seat.

Now, see this scenario from the perspective of the writer of Hebrews. It’s as if we are in the ExerSaucer of faith: We start off playing with the idea of repentance, then move on to faith, then baptism, and come all the way back around. The thing is, we don’t move out of the seat—we just keep rotating around and around in the same spot! Instead of moving on in our faith, we actually stand away from entertaining faith and practicing it.  

This passage uses milk as a metaphor; it describes how infants drink milk because they aren’t ready to eat solid food. As a believer of Christ, it’s important to understand the illustration of milk as the basic foundation of faith and repentance.

But scriptures also tell us to move on from milk to solid food. (Hebrews 5:14 says, “ Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.” The mature understand the deeper things of God; they put their faith in God through the Word during tough times! We are being called out for becoming overfamiliar with the basics and not moving on—recognizing the difference between right and wrong, and choosing the right!

Eating solid food gets the nutrients into the root system of the God Head—the knowledge of His love, calling, and purpose in our life. We become more aware of His power and presence and we see the activity of God expressed through us in a greater way—this is what it means to take on solid food!

We are encouraged to hunger after the things of God. When is the last time someone in your small group was so hungry for God and said, “I want more of that in my life?” Have you felt like a tool in the hand of God in his work here in the kingdom?  When was the last time you felt like a walking, talking billboard for the kingdom of God? 

Can we say God is moving in and through my life and I’m hungry! I’m hungry for more of God. I am hungry because I want to see people who are far from God cross over to knowing that there’s a God who loves them; so they can understand His grace and mercy; and that His hand is outstretched in acceptance to take hold of theirs and to draw them into a relationship with Him. If we just stay with the basics of faith, we will only get a false satisfaction on what we’ve received from God. 

Statistics show that the average church attendance is just 1.9 times per month. This is because we have settled for just the basics—just attending church about twice a month and not feeding on meat, God’s Word. As we approach scriptures, we will see a lot of behaviors that we shouldn’t be doing. We need to repent, ask forgiveness, and move on with God. The following is a recap of our spiritual growth: 

THE BASICS/FOUNDATION STEPS:

Step 1 – Explorer (spiritually curious about faith, unsure if God exists, doesn’t know Jesus)

Step 2 – New Christian (learning the foundations/basics of the faith, enjoying this journey) 

Step 3 – Growing Christian (repenting, putting faith in God through His Word, in tough times)

Step 4 – Christ-Centered Believer (relinquished control of their lives to Christ, and have a greater awareness of God's activity and love for them.) 

We are being called to gather together and encourage one another to see more activity in God--Come together and be hungry for God’s nutrients! Paul describes this to the church in Galatia:

Galatians 4:1-7 NLT says, “¹Think of it this way. If a father dies and leaves an inheritance for his young children, those children are not much better off than slaves until they grow up, even though they actually own everything their father had. ² They have to obey their guardians until they reach whatever age their father set. ³ And that’s the way it was with us before Christ came. We were like children; we were slaves to the basic spiritual principles of this world. ⁴ But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. ⁵ God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. ⁶ And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, ‘Abba, Father.^’ Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.”

New Identity in Christ! The title of adoption is not given in the spiritual ExerSaucer or in the feeding on milk alone. The title of adoption takes us from slaves to become sons and daughters of The Most High and given co-inheritance with Christ! This kind of understanding doesn’t come when we settle for anything less than what the Kingdom has asked for! Those who are feeding on milk have not trained themselves to discern when there is a trap of temptation that they are about to walk in. 

Moving from milk to solid food changes everything: The identity of Christ becomes real to us and instead of just hearing the spoken words on Sundays, our behavior changes, our thinking changes, and our character becomes that of Christ—our lives actually changes everything about us!

When I was growing up, I had a very close family of friends who inherited a fortune. It was very interesting to have friends come into a whole lot of money; they bought a lot of land and their dream house, a beachfront holiday house, a boat, and new cars. 

On one hot Australian day, I was in one of the new cars with my friend, and I said, “Why have you not put the air on?” They said, “Because it uses more gas.” I thought for a bit, and said, “But you could just buy the gas station.” 

You see their fortune had not changed everything in their lives—it didn’t change their mentality when it came to gas mileage in their brand new car.

This is what happens when we stay in the basics of faith; but when we come into a greater understanding of God’s love, purpose, and plan for us, the knowledge of God’s love for us changes everything. Every area of our lives is transformed by the information of scripture. It moves from information to transformation. We are completely changed by it.

So how would we go about this in a practical, everyday fashion?  Well, if we look back in the book of Hebrews, we find guidance:

Hebrews 5:14 NLT says, “Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong [then do what is right].” 

I want to encourage you to dive into God’s Word and allow the truths of scripture to permeate all of you. You’ll learn to see the traps of temptation from the devil and be able to resist it because you will move on from spiritual milk to spiritual meat. Make the choice to come to the knowledge of what God is calling you for, and then train yourself in it. This is a choice that only you can make!

2 Corinthians 2:14-16 ESV says, “¹⁴ But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. ¹⁵ For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, ¹⁶ to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.” 

The people around you who are far from God are looking for you to be the aroma of Christ.  They're looking for your presence to walk into a room and the fragrance of the kingdom of God to permeate the space so people say, "What is it that is in your life?  What is the hope?  What is it that I am smelling from you?"

I want to extend an invitation, this week after Easter, to connect the writer of Hebrews to call you out. Do not be a casual Christian. Do not be neutral in your spiritual growth. Train your spiritual life to take on the solid food—the solid truths toward God. And I will pray for you.

STUDY QUESTIONS:

1.      What basics of faith have you been staying in?
2.      How can you transition away from your basics toward the solid truths of your faith?
3.      What things make you afraid of leaving your comfort zone of faith?
4.      Read 2 Corinthians 2:14 and think about what your triumph, would be regarding your faith.