Giving up what we want for God's Redemptive Purposes, Matthew 16:21-28

This week is my first sermon as the senior pastor of Trinity Church of the Nazarene. It should be fun and probably a whole lot shorter than most preachers.

I'm actually using Indiana Jones for this illustration, which makes me happy. I love Indy after our kid's camp theme! I am using the scene where the pretty girl is falling through the cracks of the earth, about to plummet to her death, one hand held by Indiana... one hand reaching for the ancient artifact. Indy instructs her to let go of it, he needs both of her hands and she refuses, tragically falling to her death. The next scene is Indiana falling through the cracks of the earth, about to plummet to his death, one hand held by his Father... one hand reaching for the ancient artifact. His Father, in great wisdom, stops and says something along the lines of "Indy... just let it go. Just let it go." And Indiana lets it go, and is saved because of his choice.

It seems to me, many stories have this theme... of the hero giving up something. Even changing genres and looking at a movie like the Pacifier we see the big, huge, strong military guy who has never done anything but active, potentially deadly, and dangerous missions... suddenly having to care for kids. He finds himself needing to change diapers, dealing with drama at the kid's schools, and most importantly... giving up what he wants for the family. And the thing I really want to point out with this story is that it is when he gives up what he wants for someone else, that he truly lives.

"Just let it go," from the mouth of Indiana Jones' Father, will be my guiding metaphor. Giving up what we want for what God wants. My New Century Version (a 3rd grade level Bible that I enjoy preaching from) reads, in the words of Jesus, "If people want to follow me, they must give up the things they want. They must be willing even to give up their lives to follow me Those who want to save their lives will give up true life, and those who give up their lives for me will have true life" (Matthew 16:24- 25).

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Just prior to these verses we see Peter jump in the way of God's redemptive plan. Jesus speaks of his upcoming death and Peter says, "God save you from that" or, in other words, "that kind of suffering, humility, and cruelty will never happen to you!" I'm sure Peter thinks the Greek tragic hero down at the movie theater in Rome can suffer and submit to humility but NOT Jesus! He's the Son of God.

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And before we are too quick to judge poor Peter and say, "naughty, naughty Peter, you should

know better than to get in the way of Jesus' suffering or to get in the way of God's redemptive plan," we should look at ourselves. We don't like to think about Jesus suffering either. How many of us just love to dwell in the sadness of the crucifixtion and focus on the death of Jesus? Of course we don't. We love Easter. We don't like to focus on the suffering of our Lord. We are just like Peter. And what about our daily lives? How many times to we choose what we want, just like Peter did, over what God wants? We hear God tell us about God's plan for redemption and instead of getting behind Jesus we are focused on what we want. When we refuse to "just let it go" Jesus tells us, "Get behind me Satan," just like he did with Peter.

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We do not want to get in the way of God's redemptive plan. We are following a Christ who submits to humility and cruelty, a Savior who suffered. Which means... we are called to follow the model of this Lord. We must be willing to submit to humility ourselves and be willing to "just let it go" and give up what we want for what God wants. For, just like in the Pacifier, it is when we give up what we want that we truly live.

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Jesus says to us, "Just let it go. Just let it go. There is a greater redemptive plan, so much bigger than the things you want." I have this vision... of God wanting to draw all of creation to God. I have this vision of God wanting to restore and renew all of creation. See, creation is fallen. We have been choosing what we want over what God wants for a LONG time. But this is not what we were created for and we were meant for something so much better than this! God wants to help us BE who we were meant to be... instead of choosing ourselves again and again.

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And when we act in the way God intended for us to act... and we choose what God wants over ourselves... and when we ARE the people of God who God intended for us to be... then we can offer back to God a beautiful offering- an offering of a restored and renewed creation.

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My prayer following the sermon will be something like this: "Lord God, the one who has a greater redemptive plan than any of our best laid plans, hear our prayer. Forgive us for the times we act like Peter... and get in the way of your suffering or in the way of your redemptive plan. Forgive us for the times we choose what we want over what you want. Help us to be able to "just let it go"- and give you all of our lives. Make us more than we could ever make ourselves. And may the offering that follows the model of Jesus Christ, be a beautiful offering to you. Help us to act like the people of God, whose who have the habits and patterns of self-sacrifice, so we might BE who you need us to be for a suffering world."

Ontology of "Camp Rock:" The Review Disney Channel Will Certainly Care About THE Most

Camp Rock was an incredible film that shows the struggle in youth to find value, learn who they are, and decide who they want to be. This movie follows a young girl as she becomes who she is meant to be, a singer not afraid to hide her face anymore. By the end of the movie, the entire cast comes together as a community, giving up their claim to talents as a means to feel value and instead become one voice as a means to enable each other to feel value.

The basic plotline is this (spoiler warning to all who wish to see this film): We meet Mitchie, a beautiful young girl from a non-famous family who can sing better than any kid I ever met. She wants to go to "Camp Rock," a camp for young musicians, but her family can not afford to send her. However, her mother's talents as a caterer come in handy and she gets to go to camp because her mother will be the camp chef.

Once she is at camp, Mitchie wants to be popular, as many young people do. She wants to fit in with a famous singer's daughter and tells the other kids her Mom is president of "Hot Tunes" China (probably a play off MTV or VH1). Everyone thinks she is fabulous and she is forced to keep up this lie throughout the film in order to keep her "value" to these famous kids.

When her lie is revealed, Mitchie realizes her value as a person does not come from having connections to fame but her value as a person comes from being who she was meant to be. She decides to stand up, take responsibility for her lie, and not hold back who she really is anymore. She refuses to be anyone's back up singer and in the words of another girl at camp "screams until there's nothing left" for she cannot be ignored anymore.

Mitchie's main song, "This is Me," says, "I've always been the kind of girl that hid my face, so afraid to tell the world what I've got to say. But I have this dream, right inside of me, I'm going to let it show. It's time, to let you know... this is real, this is me. I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be now, gonna let the light shine on me. Now I've found who I am, there's no way to hold it in. No more hiding who I want to be, this is me." Excellent lyrics soaked in ontology.

For a kid's film, I was super impressed. It has a lesson that perhaps us good church folk need to hear more often. Our value is not found in what we do. Mitchie's value was not found in the fact she could sing. Mitchie's value was not found in her fake connection to fame. Her value was found in learning who she really was and being that person. And had this been my film, I would have added... and we learn who we are when we learn WHOSE we are.

Almost as interesting of a character to observe as watching Mitchie, was watching the famous singer's daughter (who ran the camp with her popularity campaign). We watch as she appears to feel as if she has no value because her mother is too busy to even speak to her on the phone. So she finds her value by taking it away from Mitchie (and others). She grabs onto this false sense of value by taking value away from another person.

How many times do we see that one in the halls of school or even in the foyer of churches? Someone will feel so small and insignificant based on how people treat them and since they feel as if they have no value, they will do whatever they can to gain that value back. Often, they act just like the pretty girl in this movie, and they take value from others to gain a false sense of value for themselves.

So when we feel like we have lost our value based on how we are treated by others, what should we do? In this movie, in the "Final Jam" scene, all the characters come together as equals, and become one voice. They sing the song "We Rock" together and become more than they could have ever been alone. They become a team, not taking value away from each other based on their weakness but instead empower each other in spite of their weaknesses. Powerful lesson.

Perhaps those of us in the Church should watch this film a few times. We must remember we become who we are meant to be, as children of God, when we give up our claim to the things we do as a means to establish our worth or value. We become who we were meant to be when we give up trying to find our value by taking it from others.

Our value comes from God's approval of us and our offering back to God by being who we were meant to be as the people of God. And it is in the community, particularly the community of faith, that we empower each other in the midst of our weaknesses as we become one voice (the Lord's voice) to become more then we could have ever made ourselves.

Top 10 Things I Learned as a Kid's Camp Speaker 2008

10. You can actually preach on less than 5 hours of sleep.
9. I should not, under any circumstances, eat the brownies during adult break time, for I may require an epipen.
8. Even when you're nervous to speak in front of hundreds of people, Flo's cooking still tastes awesome!
7. By about 10pm, everything's funny... even Mark Hall (oooh, got you back for terrorizing me!)
6. Larry Latrine's plunger through the head hat is eternally humorous.
5. Songs of lament with doom and gloom are actually the funniest, most hilarious thing ever.
4. You should be prepared for insane reactions if you dare let someone hold the brand new Mylie Cyrus CD on stage.
3. Pastor Chedda, formally known as Matt Wells, has the power to make kids puke.
2. Pastor Sloppy Joe, formally known as Dewayne Horner, claims he has Sponge Bob panties and enjoys spooning with GPS.
1. When you think about lice, your head will start itching. Yep, yep. Uh huh, go ahead and scratch. Do the camp 2008 wave!