Gracious God, your majesty is exceeded only by your love. Grant us in this hour of worship, penitence in the presence of your grace, reverence at the thought of your majesty, and confidence in the knowledge of your love, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

Again, we’re glad that all of you are here today. As most of you know, since this past June, we’ve been talking and thinking about our future here at Broadway. Most recently we’ve been praying together. We’ve been seeking a spiritual foundation for next steps. We’ve been learning and listening together, which has been wonderful. We are trying to hear God’s leading, particularly given all the options that are open to a gifted community of faith like this one. It’s been an exciting adventure. 

 

Does anybody remember me bringing this plant to you back in June? Do you see any difference? Do you remember what it was like? I bought it for two bucks, and I got taken. Remember that? But we just set it out. The whole focus, as you remember, was getting connected – the vine and the branches. What did Jesus say? “I am the vine and you are the branches.” That’s right. We’ve been working together at getting better connected, and things are starting to blossom. Things are starting to bloom, and that has been a wonderful thing.

Because of that, I think we have come to a crossroads here at Broadway. You know about crossroads. All of you have been there before. 

 

A friend of mine was visiting his mother in Chicago. When it was time to return to Columbia, he got up at about three o’clock in the morning, which was his habit. He likes to drive before the crowd hits the roads. He got into his car and headed home. He came to this major intersection. He turned on to the interstate, put it on cruise control, and thought happy thoughts about his favorite place to have breakfast when the sun came up. An hour passed and then two hours passed, and he was singing “Morning Has Broken!” and stuff like that. Then it hit him. There were no restaurants, no familiar signs, because back in Chicago, when he turned onto the interstate, he turned east instead of west. For two hours and fifteen minutes, at 79 miles an hour, he drove in the wrong direction. Now, anybody ever done anything like that? Yes! All right!

 

You’ve come to a crossroads. Right? We’ve all gone south when we should have gone north. We’ve turned left when we should have turned right. We all make mistakes, and generally in those kinds of circumstances, it’s no big deal. You pull over, and what do you do? You recalibrate. Maybe you are a little frustrated. Maybe you burned a little gas, took a little extra time, but you just turn around, and you moved on. The loss and the consequences are pretty minimal in that kind of circumstance.

 

But here’s what I want you to think about today. Wouldn’t it be grand if in this life – your life and my life – you and I come to various crossroads, and we do, in fact, sometimes make the wrong decision? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could say, “Oh, no big thing, no big deal"? We just pull over. We make a U-ee. We lose an hour or two. There are no real consequences. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? 

 

Folks, that works on planet Pretend. OK? My experience in this place is that’s not the way it works on planet Earth. When you, and I, and others make bad decisions, there are, indeed, consequences. At this level there’s no such thing as “no harm, no foul.”  

 

That’s what I want us to talk about these next few weeks. When you and I…   When our community… When our state… When our nation… When our church… comes to those crossroad moments, what do we do? What do we do in those moments so that we choose? It is a choice. We choose God’s way, the right way, the good way, the loving way, God’s way. What causes us to do that? Now I’m not talking about “no brainers” here. I’m talking about big decisions. What if we make the wrong choices? When we do sometimes, we know there are personal and relational consequences. Think about it. 

 

Think about it in terms of our own lives. Think of it in choices we make in terms of our own financial resources. Are we going to manage our money the way God has taught us, or are we going to do it the way the world teaches us? How about relationships?   How are we going to treat other people? Are we going to treat other people the way God teaches us to treat others, or the way that most of this world treats one another? How about our sexuality? Are we going to express our sexuality the way God has designed it, or are we going to express it the way it’s taught on television every single night? How about our vocation? What are we going to do? What are you and I going to do with the precious gift of the rest of our life? The precious gift of time. Where are we going to go? How about our church, right here? Are we going to walk in God’s way, or are we going to take the easy, the tempting, seductive way that most organizations operate in this world? We have a choice. That’s what I want us to hear. 

 

That’s why this concept of a crossroads is so important. Regardless of what crossroads you may be involved in right now, I want us to look at some of the sage advice that comes to every single one of us, that’s found in our Scriptures. 

 

We’re going to start with Jeremiah 6:16. It is a wonderful piece of Scripture. Actually, I understand it’s inscribed out in our Christian Life Center where we are doing Pathways, because that’s a crossroads event. Lord knows. 

 

Jeremiah 6 says, “Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient ways, the ancient paths. Ask where the good way is and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.” Translated: “You will find what God wants for you.” 

 

Now circle the verbs in there if you would – those action words: stand, look, ask, walk, find.  Folks, there seems to be a lot of action when you come to a crossroads. If we do these kinds of things, then we will find what God intends for us. If we do these kinds of things, we will find those God-sized opportunities that God wants for you and, I believe, God wants for us. That’s what we’re looking for. Isn’t it? That’s the whole purpose of our praying. “God, what do you want? What do you want for me? What do you want for us?” 

 

Now, as a pastor for nearly 40 years, as you know, I’ve done a lot of memorial services – a lot of funerals. At every single one of those funerals part of my task – not the only part – but part of my task is to talk about someone’s life. That’s what I do. It’s not my job to judge that person. God alone does that. But it is my job to characterize them. I do it on a rather regular basis. I try to paint, for those present, a verbal picture of what that person did, of what they stood for, of what they gave themselves to, of what they, in fact, lived for. And some folks say nowadays, “It doesn’t matter. People don’t need to get together to do that kind of stuff. Why talk publicly about somebody’s life when they’re not even there? It doesn’t matter. Let’s just move on.” 

 

Well, I want to tell you how it matters. It matters to me, and I think it matters to others. I think it matters, because I get reminded on a rather regular basis about how I want my life to be characterized. Do you know what I am talking about? A friend of mine put it well. He said, “At the end of life here on planet Earth, I want to be characterized as someone who tried to live God’s way.” 

 

Isn’t that good? “Tried to live God’s way. I’ve stood at the crossroads a number of times, I’ve taken some wrong directions along the way, but I’ve tried to walk in God’s way.” Wow. Folks, I want that for me. I want that for my family. I want that for my friends. I want that for you. I believe God wants that for you, too.

 

In Matthew 7, Jesus says, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, to the kingdom, to the reign of God, and only a few find it.”  

 

Now my hunch is there are a lot of folks here today who have stories, indeed, who have some scars, because, quite frankly, we have taken the broad road when we probably would have been better served taking a more narrow gate. We’ve done that probably on more than one occasion. I suspect – I don’t know this – but I suspect further that those experiences along the way have had their consequences. They’ve had their consequences in your life. I think those consequences have kept many of us from going God’s way. That’s what I want us to talk about today. There’s a whole range of possibilities. 

 

The one roadblock I want us to focus on this particular morning is the barrier, the roadblock, of our past. Now, I’m fairly sure there are not a whole lot of Charles Mansons here today. There are probably not too many people with a past that would make Paris Hilton look like a nun. I say that as no offense to nuns, by the way. Most of us here are not hiding criminal records. Some are. Most of them are now on the church staff. No, no. That’s not true. Just kidding. Come on. 

 

But almost all of us have made decisions, have we not, that we are not always proud of. Decisions that actually are an embarrassment to us. Relationships that have gone sour. Anger that wasn’t under control. Substance abuse in a variety of settings. Decisions you and I have made that have hurt others. 

 

The way the ancient prayer book said it is this: “We have done those things which we ought not to have done, and we have left undone those things which we ought to have done.” When we have done that, we have separated ourselves from God. That’s what the Bible talks about. It talks about separation. It is what the Bible calls “sin.”

 

Now, here’s the big deal about our past. Our past, whether we like it or not, keeps popping up. It keeps reminding us. It just won’t let us forget. We just can’t seem to get it out of our minds – these feeling of guilt, and shame, and remorse. That guilt, that shame, that remorse, actually blocks us. It keeps us from trying to live God’s way. And what’s more, it keeps us, I believe, from pursuing God-sized opportunities. 

 

We just sort of like to keep moving along at the same pace, doing the same things, hoping nothing goes wrong. No, no no. What about the God-sized opportunities that are in front of us? That’s what this stuff does. It triggers feelings that are very, very powerful. Don’t underestimate the power. They keep popping up, and the cause us to think, “Who am I? Who am I to be a Sunday School teacher? Who am I to be a youth worker? Who am I to talk or teach the Bible to any other human being? Who am I to be a leader of a small group or one of our Stephen ministers? Who am I to be a voice for peace and justice in this world? Who am I to be a deacon or an elder and serve here at the Table? If they only knew. You see… If they only knew.”

 

A friend of mine was telling me about a friend. He said he really liked this guy. He said, “I invited him to church so many times. Every time I invited him, he always said, ‘No.’ So, I thought maybe instead of inviting him, I’d try to bribe him. I told him he could have all the free doughnuts he wanted. I’d take him out to lunch afterwards if he’d come to church with me. When the offering plate came by, he could take money out…   No. I did everything I could to try to get him to come to church. You know what he said to me? These are his exact words. He said, ‘Thank you, but my past, quite clearly, would not play very well at your church’.” 

 

Wow. I wanted to say sure it would. We’ll put it up on some big screens, and we’ll charge admission. No. I didn’t really think that. “My past wouldn’t play very good at church.” 

 

Folks, if that describes anybody sitting here today… If that describes anybody that you know personally, then you need to hear that your past is a roadblock. It’s a roadblock to the future. It’s a roadblock to your relationship with God. 

 

Now, there’s another type of person here today. Those persons are Christians. They’ve been baptized, and, I think, they believe they have a ticket to heaven. But, quite frankly, they’re living their lives spiritually pretty much on the sidelines. They watch other people be used by God, and they think that’s sort of cool. That might be sort of neat if that were to happen to them. But they keep thinking, “Boy, it will be a little better if I just lay low, because of my past. If people knew… If they only knew.” If that describes anybody here, then your past is a roadblock.

 

The third type of people I want to talk about today are right here in this room. I believe this. They are people who are followers of Christ, people who are involved in their community of faith, people who respect and read the Scriptures, people who serve others in a marvelous way, people who are good stewards of their resources. They hear other people talk about a personal relationship with the Spirit of the Living Christ, but the more they try, the more they do good stuff, the more they move closer to God, the more they keep remembering the past, that, quite frankly, they’re disappointed in. And they think not only are they disappointed, they believe God’s disappointed. They’re doing all the right things. They’re taking all the right steps, but they still feel a distance, a separation from God. If that describes anybody in this room, then your past is a roadblock.

 

Now, here’s what I want to tell you. I want to tell you about a guy who’s past, quite frankly, makes your past look like child’s play. I want to tell you about a guy named Saul. I want to tell you about a guy, who had a very eventful past. 

 

Here’s the context. For three years, Jesus of Nazareth lived, and taught, and preached the message of the coming kingdom of God. In so doing, he also performed a variety of miracles, and signs, and wonders that underscored that message and brought people to faith. He developed an incredible following over a period of time. 

 

But because of fear of rebellion and threats to an established way of life, some very wicked people put him to death. They nailed him on a cross, as you know. But you also know that, three days later, God raised him from the dead. Those that followed him then saw him with their own eyes, and their relationship with the Living Spirit made them fearless men and women. So fearless that they would go anywhere and do anything, even to their death for what they had seen and what they believed. 

 

One of those persons, on that particular occasion, had the name Stephen.   We’ve even named our Stephen Ministry after him. Stephen was one of the first deacons, one of the first persons that had been appointed to look out after the other people in the community of faith. 

 

But Stephen also had a mouth. Stephen talked about Jesus all the time. Do you know in the book of Acts nobody gets more press that Stephen? Stephen has this speech that goes on and on in this long, long chapter. He just keeps talking, and he wouldn’t shut up. 

 

In Acts 7, when they finally got tired of it, they “dragged Stephen out of the city and began to stone him.”   The official witnesses took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man. Guess what his name was? Saul. Saul was one of the official witnesses at the killing, the execution, the murder of Stephen. 

 

Saul was a leader of an anti-Jesus movement. He had devoted his life to rubbing out Christian followers, trying to purge his land and his people of this thing called Christianity. Saul was going everywhere to devastate the community of faith. He went from house to house, dragging out both men and women, and threw them into jail. He was eager to destroy the Lord’s followers. How eager?  In Acts 26, Paul states, “I caused many believers to be sent to prison. I cast my vote against them when they were condemned to death. I had them flogged, whipped, beaten in the synagogues, to try to get them to curse Christ.” 

 

Now this isn’t rocket science, folks. This is a guy who is a despicable human being. He had innocent blood on his hands. He was a murderer of people whose only crime was that they were following Christ. I’m not talking about minor character flaws here. I’m talking about big stuff, huge stuff. 

 

But the good news has never changed. The good news is Saul didn’t stay rooted in his past. Why? 

 

Saul had, in fact, a genuine conversion. Acts, Chapters 9,22, and 26 tell that story. It’s about an incredible encounter that occurs between this guy, Saul, and the Spirit of the Living Christ. Something actually happened in that experience that changed Saul’s life. It turned him literally upside down. He did a 180°, and actually moved from being a violent persecutor of Christians to a passionate follower of Christ. Incredible story! 

 

Folks, genuine conversion is real. It happens. You can’t fake it. You can’t pretend it happens. You are simply, basically, fundamentally not the same. You are different. 

 

The Christians around that time found that pretty hard to believe. Here’s a guy that had been after them all that time. 

 

Acts 9: “When Saul, now Paul, arrived in Jerusalem, he tried to meet with the believers, but they were pretty afraid of him.” 

 

Yeah, I bet they were! But note the process: 1) Eventful past; 2) Genuine conversion; 3) An amazing transformation. That’s what happens when somebody becomes a follower of Christ. God’s loving gracious Spirit, somehow, enters into their heart, their core, their life; and transformation, a dramatic change at the underlying deep structure, the very character of that person, begins to take place. This is not surface stuff. And it’s a process. Sometimes it takes a long time. Sometimes it takes quite a while. In Paul’s case, it happened immediately. 

 

Acts 9: “Immediately Paul began preaching about Jesus saying, ‘He is indeed the Son of God,’ and all who heard him were amazed. ‘Isn’t this the same guy who persecuted Jesus’ followers with such devastation in Jerusalem?’” 

 

Wow!

 

Well, that’s just a snapshot of Paul’s life. I tell it to you, because I know there are folks here who are thinking, “Don’t talk to me about the past, Rick, because you have no idea what I have been through.” And that may be true. But Paul had a past that makes yours or anybody that you know look absolutely vanilla. OK? 

 

The good news today is the same as it was then. God wants to do with you just exactly what the Spirit of the Living Christ did with Saul. He simply took him where he was, led him to a conversion, filled him with a presence, and led him to an amazing, amazing transformation. Your New Testament is full of that.

 

That’s what I want you to hear today. Your past – I don’t care who you are or what you have done – is not too much for God to handle. So if that’s the case, please do not miss out on the genuine opportunity for a conversion and a transformation of a life that moves you beyond your past.

 

In 1 Timothy, Paul says, “Christ Jesus came into this world to save, to heal, sinners – of whom I, Paul, am the worst. That is why God had mercy on me, so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst of sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive life now and life eternal.”  

 

Paul went on to say, “Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight, whose sin is no longer counted against them” (Romans 4).

 

Circle those words, “out of sight”. 

 

Folks, you and I know people who just sort of pet their past. They nurture it. They water it. They wallow in it. Some of them are wearing it on their sleeves. They’re just going around saying consciously or unconsciously, “Look at me, I’m just a victim of my past. I can’t get past my past.” They just keep bringing it up, and keep bringing it up. 

 

The image that I want you to leave with today is that your past – I don’t care who you are or what you’ve done – your past is out of sight. The Bible says it is as far as the east is from the west. That’s about as far as it can get. 

 

Here is the phrase I want you to get. “Move past your past, because God, in fact, has. You don’t need to be there anymore. Move past it.” 

 

How?

 

Number One: Read. Actually read. Don’t just hear my words. Don’t listen to somebody else’s words. Read word for word what the Bible says about forgiveness. I can give you those references if you want them. 

 

Number Two: Ask. Ask God to forgive your past. 

 

First John 1 says, “If we confess our sin, God is faithful and just and will forgive us of our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.” 

 

Number Three: Talk. Talk, but not to a gossip. There are a few around. You have to watch who you talk to. Talk to a follower of Jesus. Talk to a follower of Jesus about your past. 

 

James 5:16 says, “Confess your sins to one another.” 

 

Why would you do that? Well, so that you can be healed. That’s why. It’s that simple. So you can be healed. 

 

“For if anyone is in Christ,” said Paul, “he or she is, in fact, a new creation. The old is gone. It’s out of here. It is past, and the new has come.”  

 

Let it be, Lord. Let it be. 

 

And all the people say… “Amen.” 

 

Maker of the Way, the journey of life takes us to many who, what, where, when and whys in the road. Help us to choose your way as the high way. Amen.