Intro: guessing game
Let’s start today with a little guessing game. I’ll give you some
clues, and when you think you know what it is, whisper it to your
neighbor, and let’s see how many clues it takes you to get it. I’m sure
everyone will by the last clue. Ok? Here we go.
1 The first one of these appeared in our country in 1915
2 The very first ones were white with black letters.
3 Until 1954, they were usually yellow with red letters.
4 In 1954, they became officially red with white letters.
5 Ok, I’ll make it easy for you. They’re now red with white letters and 8
sided like an octagon. That’s right… STOP signs. (Stop sign on screen)
How many figured it out in less than 3 clues? More than three clues? And
how many didn’t participate at all because you hate guessing games?
Did you ever think about the fact that there weren’t always stop
signs? Apparently, stop signs weren’t necessary before there were cars.
The current red and white octagon became regulation in 1954, and since
then almost every country in the world uses the same design. That means
regardless of whether you’re in
Mexico
or Taiwan
or Iran
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you’ll still have a pretty good chance of knowing what to do at an
intersection whether you speak the language or not.
Series recap
Welcome to part II of “My Story”. Last weekend we talked about
how in the story of our lives, there are important things that start or need
to start. Every great story needs a beginning, right? And the most
important new beginning of all comes from God, like we talked about last
week: the beginning when we find our way back to Him in Jesus, when we
come into personal relationship with Him.
The cool thing is, once we start that new beginning where we start
following Him, it’s not just about our stories getting better. It’s also about
stepping into to a bigger and more significant role in His story of bringing
the world back to Him. Around here we think that as happening best
through apprenticing, through coming along side someone and learning
from them about how to best bless the world.
Elisha’s story
In this series, we’ve been looking at the story of Elisha. Elisha has a
great story. Elisha is this guy that the great and powerful prophet Elijah
called to apprentice with him. (“Elijah went and found Elisha… Elijah
went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen
and ran after Elijah.” I Kings 19:19-20) And don’t let the similary
sounding names confuse you. Elijah was one of the most powerful and
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influential prophets in history. Elijah called God’s people, who were often
in full-out rebellion against God, Elijah led them back to God. Some of the
most dramatic demonstrations of God’s power came through Elijah. Eijah
was like the Michael Jordan of prophets.
And one day, Elijah comes up to Elisha and asks him to become his
apprentice. I don’t know about you, but I’d have been pretty freaked out
by the greatest man of God of my time wanting me to come alongside
him. But even if Elisha was intimidated, he still says yes and a new
chapter, a whole new story of his life, really, begins.
So Elisha’s new story starts. But as it starts, as we’ll see, some things
need to stop in his life, and the same thing is true in our stories. Truth is,
whatever new beginning starts in our story, it won’t go much of anywhere
if things that get in the way of where our story is heading don’t stop. Like,
say, if a new story of personal physical health and fitness is gonna start,
like it probably does for all of us after all the stuff we ate in the last 3
weeks, if we’re going to start getting healthy some old unhealthy things
have gotta stop, right? At least the bacon double cheeseburgers at the
drive thru!
Elisha stops
And for Elisha, for his new story to start, some things in his life
needed to stop. In fact \ in his case, it was his entire old way of life, the old
story of his life that needed to stop for his new story to move forward.
Let’s take a look.
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The Bible says that Elisha was out plowing in the fields with a team
of oxen when Elijah came up to him, and “Elisha then left his oxen and
ran after Elijah. ‘Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye,’ he said, ‘and
then I will come with you’.” (1 Kings 19:20) Elisha knows he’s got to say
goodbye to his old life as a guy working the family farm. He knows he
needs to leave behind pretty much all that he’s known and step into the
new story that God has for him. Now his old life wasn’t evil or immoral or
anything as far as we know. It just needed to stop because he couldn’t
follow God and have his life still about what his old life was all about.
And here’s the part of Elisha’s story that I want us to zero in on
today: “He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the
plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they
ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant.” 1 Kings
19:21
Now to us this is weird: sacrificing oxen and burning stuff sounds
kind of out there, right? But keep in mind Elisha lived in a culture where
ritual sacrifices were commonplace. Everybody would’ve understood that
this meant he was saying goodbye to his past through this ceremonial type
of thing.
But don’t skip over that he not only sacrificed his oxen but that he
also “burned his plowing equipment.” Now I know there probably aren’t a
lot of farmers here today, but my grandfather was a farmer, and burning
your plowing equipment is a pretty serious move! In Elisha’s day it was
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even moreso, because plowing equipment was super valuable. Elisha
could’ve replaced the oxen much easier than the plowing gear. But he
doesn’t even try to sell it on Ebay or anything!
In the best-selling book Greater, it talks about it this way:
“Elisha was making a decisive break from his old life, from the
source of his livelihood, from everything that represents the stale
stability and predictability of his life behind the plow.” Steven
Furtick, Greater, Steven Furtick
And the book goes on to say: “You can’t step into your new life until you
first set fire to whatever is tethering you to your old life.”
Elisha’s stop sign was a sacrificed team of oxen and his plowing
equipment on fire. That’s what tethered him to his old life, his old story.
So it had to stop. So what’s keeping you tethered to the old story of your
life? Maybe it’s a new story in your marriage, or a particular friendship,
your job, your relationship with God? Now for some of us, yeah, what
needs to stop are bad behaviors and bad habits. But we’re definintely not
talking today about us just cleaning up our act.
Truth is, oftentimes there’s good things in our lives that stand in the
way of the story God is trying to author in our lives. For many of us our
problem is that we take good things and turn them into ultimate things. We
do that with our careers, our relationships, our standard of living, our stuff,
you name it. We end up worshipping things God gave us in our lives
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instead of worshipping God with our lives. What’s tethering you to your
old story?
Knowing how to stop
Whatever it is, we need to not only identify what needs to stop, but
we need to know how to stop. Last week we talked about these part of the
Bible from the New Testament that parallels Elisha’s story, and we talked
about how whatever needs to start in our lives, its gonna have something
to do with these words from God: “Follow God’s example as dearly loved
children and walk in the way of love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself
up for us.” (Ephesians 5:1-2) The new things God is calling us to start in
the stories of our lives, they’re not just improvements. They’re about a
new direction in our lives, waking in the way of love, living a life that is
more outwardly focused on the needs of others and the world around us.
And then the next part of that same part of the Bible says this. The
very next words are:
“Among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or
of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's
holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse gesting,
which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be
sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person--such a man is an idolater--has
any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive
you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on
those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be partners with them. For
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you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as
children of light.” Ephesians 5:3-8
Now I know that’s a pretty big chunk of Scripture, but I’m going into
it because right after telling us that our new stories are about walking in
the way of love, that that’s what the new start is about, what we’ve got
here is some crucial stuff we need to know about how to stop. Let’s break
it down real quick.
Positive motivation to stop
First, notice the motivation for stopping what needs to stop in our
stories is primarily positive. See how after it talks about examples of
what needs to stop, it says “For you were once darkness, but now you are
light in the Lord. Live as children of light.” Ephesians 5:8
Stopping isn’t just about getting rid of the negative and dangerous
stuff. It’s about a new life, a new story as people of light, as children of
light. And I hope that doesn’t sound like some kind of spiritual sounding
cliché. This is saying that what needs to stop is ultimately about you
moving into who you really are as a Christ-follower: someone who is light
in a dark world. There’s that outward focus of the new story again, right?
And think about it. The world can be beautiful, but by and large there’s
just so much darkness. And stopping isn’t about just getting rid of stuff
that needs to go. It’s about moving more and more into our identity as
light in a dark world. Now you are light in the Lord, so live as children of
light.
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My parents used to live in Cincinnatti and one time Nobel Peace
Prize winner Desmond Tutu from South Africa gave a speech there about
the world and it’s problems, and he closed it with these words: “You are
dearly loved children of God. So live like it.” I love that. He didn’t just
say “stop making things worse you messed up people”, or “try hard to
make a difference in the world”. He reminded everybody of who they
really were and encouraged them to step into it. Stopping needs to be
positively motivated. Whatever needs to stop in your story right now, I’ve
got good news for you: it’s a good thing, because as you stop, you’ll move
more and more into your true identity as a person of light in this world.
down real quick.
Realistic motivation to stop
So stopping is primarily motivated by the positive, but it’s also
realistically motivated by the negative. The Bible gives some examples of
what might need to stop in our lives:
“There must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind
of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy
people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse gesting,
which are out of place…” Ephesians 5:3-4 And quick sidebar here:
notice right after it talks about sexual stuff, it also talks about greed.
God’s just as concerned about our tendency to put money and stuff in the
wrong place in our lives as he is about sexual choices that we make. Are
you with me? And then after those examples, God says this:
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“Let no one deceive you with empty words, because of such things God's
wrath comes on those who are disobedient.” Ephesians 5:6 Yikes. Heavy
stuff, huh? Yeah. It IS heavy stuff. It’s saying “Don’t buy into that idea
that because God loves everybody, nobody’s got anything to worry about.
It’s just not true. God does love us deeply and passionately, and He also is
passionately opposed to some things in our lives that need to stop. So we
need not only the positive motivation of being people of light, but the
realistic motivation that the stuff that needs to stop is gonna lead us places
we don’t want to go in our stories if some things don’t stop.
Doesn’t matter whether its sexual immorality, or greed, or gossip, or
some addiction. There’s things that need to stop because God’s wrath is
coming on these things, and we don’t want any part of that in our stories
and neither does He.
So first there’s primary, positive motivation to stop: You’re children
of light in a dark and needy world. And there’s realistic, cautionary
motivation: God’s wrath is coming on stuff that needs to stop.
down real quick.
Community motivation to stop
And there’s one more thing to help us stop. It says “Let no one
deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath
comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be partners with
them” (Ephesians 5:7). See how it says “let no one deceive you with
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empty words?” and “do not be partners with them?” Who’s that talking
about in our lives? Good question, thanks for asking!
That’s referring to people from your old story who will not encourage
us to stop whatever needs to stop because it’s no big deal or because
everybody does it, or nobody’s perfect. Makes me think of a guy who I
(ts) know and care about very much who sadly has cheated on his wife
multiple times. And he said that one of the hardest things is that the guys
he works and hangs out with were all cheating too and basically
encouraging him to keep on having other woman on the side because it’s
just what everybody does at his level in the company. And he knew he
had to stop not just cheating on his wife, but having people who cheat on
their spouses as his confidantes and close friends.
That’s why it says “Do not be partners with them” Ephesians 5:7
No, this doesn’t mean stop being kind or being friends totally with certain
folks. It means don’t let people from your old story be your confidantes
and support system in your new one. God wants you to have people
around you who act as both insulators to help warm your heart and
conduits to let in more of God’s light into your life.
Elisha didn’t just follow in Elijah’s footsteps all by himself. He is
close with Elijah and his mentor and friend, and as we will see next week,
being a prophet in those days meant being part of a community of
prophets. And this is so important: if I am going to “stop” things
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connected to my old story, I need to take steps to make sure I surround
myself with people who God is writing new stories in their lives, too.
Recap motivations to stop
If we want to stop, we need positive motivation: understanding who
we are. And we need realistic, cautionary motivation: if I don’t stop, my
story is not going to go where I want it to go. And I need community
motivation: I need to no longer look to people from my old story as my
main support system and find my new support system with other Christfollowers. We can help you get started with that through a small group
today!
And I know, changing is hard, stopping certain things can feel
impossible and futile. But good news: this isn’t about you and me gritting
our teeth and slamming on the brakes on certain things in our lives. I like
the way that Alcoholics Anonymous amended Reinhold Niebuhr’s
Serenity Prayer. My guess it will sound familiar to you: “God grant me
the courage to change the things that I can, the serenity to accept the
things that I can’t, and the wisdom to know the difference.” How many
have heard that one before? And I love that because stopping is going to
take courage to say no to set fire, as it were, to some of the plowing
equipment from our old story. And there’s things I can’t change no matter
how hard I try. Like other people in my life. And often times, like me.
Often times I can’t change, I can’t stop, and I need the serenity and
humility to accept that and turn to God for strength and for forgiveness
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when I fail. I need the courage to change when I can, the serenity to turn
to Him when I can’t, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Conclusion: What needs to stop?
Ok now: it’s time. It’s time for certain things in my story and your
story to stop. Not tomorrow, not later, not someday. Today. Starting right
now. For your story and my story to go where we want it to go and be
what God wants it to be, some things need to stop. What is it for you?
Right now, where you sit, you are at a crossroads in your story. Identify
what needs to stop, and ask God to help you put a big ole red stop sign in
your heart. As move out of your old story into your new story, what needs
to stop? What needs to stop? (Pause, then pray)
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