“The UpRising” Weekend
A Jesus that Sticks
I am so burdened for our young people, it weighs heavy on me.
Just the difference even with ten years of ministry, and the general focus of students being against God. An apathy almost a concern as they are unwilling and against the things of God.
Unfortunately, 65% to 75% Of Christian Teens Leave Their Faith When They Attend College.
Large numbers of young adults who frequently attended Protestant worship services in high school are dropping out of church. Two-thirds of young people say they stopped regularly going to church for at least a year between the ages of 18 and 22, a new LifeWay Research survey shows. That means the church had a chance to share its message and the value of attending with this group, but it didn't stick, said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research.
The 66 percent who said they stopped attending church regularly as young adults cited a variety of reasons for leaving. The survey listed 55 and asked them to pick all that applied. On average, they chose seven or eight reasons, McConnell said.
The reasons fell under four categories:
- Nearly all — 96 percent — cited life changes,including moving to college and work responsibilities that prevented them from attending.
- Seventy-three percent said church or pastor-related reasonsled them to leave. Of those, 32 percent said church members seemed judgmental or hypocritical and 29 percent said they did not feel connected to others who attended.
- Seventy percent named religious, ethical or political beliefsfor dropping out. Of those, 25 percent said they disagreed with the church's stance on political or social issues while 22 percent said they were only attending to please someone else.
But leaving was not an intentional decision for many. Of those who dropped out, 71 percent said they did not plan on it."A statistic like that says, 'Wow, we need to help these young people plan ahead,'" McConnell said.
In Faith for Exiles, Kinnaman and his coauthor, Mark Matlock, get to know the one in 10 young Christians for whom they’ve coined the term “resilient disciples.” “From a numbers point of view,” Kinnaman says, “10 percent of young Christians amounts to just under four million 18–29-year-olds in the U.S. who follow Jesus and are resiliently faithful. In spite of the tensions they feel between church and everyday life, they keep showing up.”
How Do We Make Jesus Stick
We could look at stats all day, but let’s look to the word of God.
Matthew 13:1-23 and a little Bit of Chapter 12
1That same day…What in the same day?
Go back to Matthew 12 in verse 46
46 While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. 48 But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
For whoever does the will of my Father…Are you following people who do the will of the Father. Your “family,” may not be your “FAMILY.” Not if they aren’t serving the Lord.
This is instrumental in serving a Jesus who sticks to us…
Letting go of “family,” or “friends,” or “relationships,” that aren’t doing the will of the Father.
In my opinion, this is the number one reason why we see people “Fall Away from Christ”
Not because of theology, past hurt, you don’t like the church, or God this or that…
Jesus Doesn’t Stick because the closest people around you don’t do the will of the Father.
Or at least they don’t do the “Complete Will” of the Father
And our tendency whether young or old is to do what the people closest to us are doing!
And so Jesus addresses this before he ever starts his Story.
You have to find a family of believers and plug in!!
A Bible based, Holy Spirit Believing place, and become Family!!
…Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2 And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6 but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears, let him hear.”
The Parable of the Sower Explained
18 “Hear then the parable of the sower: 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. 20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. 22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 23 As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
Jesus Doesn’t Stick… Because You Don’t Understand It | And the Evil One Comes and Takes It Away
You don’t understand the completeness of Jesus.
You don’t understand that Jesus is not the rules, regulations, the ugliness of “churchdom.”
You don’t understand that Levitical law that we have tirelessly read through in the scriptures these past few weeks has been fulfilled in Jesus.
You don’t understand The mystery of Christ. The Lordship of Christ.
You don’t understand The glorious good news that He hunts you down
You don’t understand as read through the bible with us
- In Genesis, Jesus is the Seed of Woman
- In Exodus, He is the Passover Lamb.
- In Leviticus, He is our High Priest.
- In Numbers, He is the Pillar of cloud by day and the Pillar of fire by night
- In Deuteronomy, He is the Prophet like unto Moses. (but a better Moses, Abraham, Issac, and Jacob)
- In Joshua, He is the Commander of the Lord’s army.
- In Judges, He is our Judge and Lawgiver.
- In Ruth, He is our Kinsman Redeemer.
- In 1st and 2nd Samuel, He is the Seed of David.
- In Kings and Chronicles, He is our reigning King.
- In Ezra, He is our faithful Scribe
- In Nehemiah, He is the Rebuilder of everything broken
- In Esther, He is our Mordecai, our Advocate.
- In Job, He is our ever-living Redeemer.
- In Psalms, He is our Shepherd.
- In Proverbs, He is our Wisdom.
- In Ecclesiastes, He is our meaning for life…
And I could go on but this is only part of my sermon…
How could you know that and turn away?
How could you know that and not believe?
You don’t understand it and the evil one comes to take it away!!
Jesus Doesn’t Stick Because you have No Roots, you Endure For a while | But you leave because of Tribulation Persecution and Trials
I have a friend and we had bought some herbs (not marijuana) mint, basil, dill, cilantro.
It was beautiful and green, so I went home that day and planted them in my herb garden, and what was beautiful became a little sickly looking, and a little wilted, and my friend she brags…my herbs are beautiful just like the day I bought them. But she never, planted them and they endured for a while, but when trials, and tribulation, and persecution came…
And they do come. We don’t get to live in a Jesus bubble for the rest of our earthly live.
We live in the here and now, and so someone is going to make fun of your faith students.
There will be a trial that hurts and stings us.
There will be a tribulation period that overwhelms us.
But if we have roots, marching forward and standing firm, faithful to gathering, reading the word, lifting up a song of worship, you are serving, you are inviting and burdened with beautiful feet, giving cheerfully, remaining steadfast….
Those are roots, and her plants died and my lived.
Roots are needed to survive.
Jesus Doesn’t Stick Because You are Concerned By the Cares of this World | And it Chokes your Life and it Proves Unfruitful
This is how the Amplified Bible describes it, “And the ones sown among the thorns are others who hear the Word; Then the cares and anxieties of the world and distractions of the age, and the pleasure and delight and false glamour and deceitfulness of riches, and the craving and passionate desire for other things creep in and choke and suffocate the Word, and it becomes fruitless” (Mark 4:18-19).
But in this reference, we see the plant imagery.
They creep in. Did you notice that, they creep in.
I am not the most excellent of gardeners, but anyone worth their salt knows that thorns and weeds don’t just appear right away, they creep in a little bit each day. The third type of soil is full of thorns. As the plants grow, the thorns also grow and choke the plants, robbing them of essential nutrients so they cannot produce. Notice no attention is given to weeding or removing the thorns, they are allowed to grow alongside the plants having access to the same nutrients and water supply. The weeds flourish, grow strong, overtake the plants and make them unfruitful.
There is nothing more frustrating than fruitless, fruit trees.
But your life reflects what you have allowed to Grow!!
And then there is the 1 in 10. What the chart called the “Resilient Disciple.”
What I would say today, “A Jesus that Sticks.”
Can I read to you the meaning of resilient “A person or subject be able to recoil or spring back into shape after bending, stretching, or being compressed.”
The resilient seed in the story, had a Jesus that sticks….
Good Soil - Indeed Bears Fruit and Yields thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold
Oh that is my prayer for my life.
That is my prayer for students that have been with us this weekend.
That is my prayer for Hope Community Church.
That Jesus would STICK!!