The Climb

MESSAGE TRANSCRIPTION: 

Today, we are kicking off a brand new series around here that we’re calling the climb. And we’re going to go on a journey together with Jesus on the final week of his life that was leading up to the cross. And here’s what we’re going to discover. We’re going to discover how to build faith. That will help us climb even the highest hills in life. You know, I was reading recently about a story of this little boy. He was pushing this really heavy cart up a steep hill, and it was exhausting work. And someone standing nearby saw him and decided to help this little boy push this heavy cart up the hill. Well, they get to the top of the hill, and the man asks the little boy. He said, Who in the world asked you to push this heavy cart up this hill? He said, Well, my dad, sir. He said, Well, why didn’t you tell your dad that? That’s not fair? That’s too hard for you. That’s even abusive to do to a child. He said, Well, sir, I did tell my dad that. And he said, Well, what did he say? He said, Son, just start pushing the cart, and some sucker will come along and help you get it to the top. Here’s what I’ve learned in my life. There are some hills that we can only climb. With the help of some friends. There are some hills that we can climb in life that we need some help, some friends to come alongside us and give us a hand. And, you know, I realize that many of you, you’re facing some pretty steep hills in your life right now. Maybe for some of you, it might be a financial hill that you’re trying to climb. Maybe you’re just piled under this load of debt, and you’re trying to climb that debt mountain so that you can become debt free. Or maybe it’s a physical issue, and it’s just been a doctor visit after doctor visit and tests and getting poked with needles, and maybe you’re going through some kind of treatment, or they can’t even figure out what is wrong with you. And it’s a physical hill you’re trying to climb today. Or maybe it might be something going on in a relationship in your life. Maybe your marriage is struggling, or you have a broken relationship with a son or a daughter, and it’s just tearing you apart inside. Or maybe there’s an ex-spouse that just is making life miserable for you. I don’t know. Maybe it’s something going on in your mind, and you’re battling the hill of depression or this hill of anxiety in your life. I don’t know what it is, but I know that many of you are facing some pretty steep climbs in your life right now. But the good news is that Jesus models for us on the final week of his life leading up to the cross how to build a faith that will help us climb to the top, even the highest hills of life. You know, back in 1989, there was an earthquake that took place out in California. Some of you might be old enough to remember this. It was up in the San Francisco area, really close to Oakland. It was in 1989. And as a result of that earthquake, the Nimitz Freeway actually collapsed, and 42 people lost their lives that day. Well, the engineers came in after the earthquake, and they began to do the work and try to figure out why the Nimitz Freeway collapsed, killing all of those people. And here’s what they discovered. The freeway didn’t collapse because of a lack of vertical supports. The freeway collapsed because there was a lack of horizontal supports. And, you know, for so many of you, you’ve recently found faith in Christ. You’ve even if you maybe come here in the last few weeks or the last few months, and you have found your way back to God through faith in his son, Jesus Christ. And I’m so happy for you. But here’s what I want you to know. Today is your pastor. There are some hills that you’re going to have to climb. That you’re going to need more than just. Vertical support that you found in God through faith and the son, Jesus Christ. There are some hills that you’re going to have to face and climb, and in order to make it all the way to the top, you need more than just vertical support from your Heavenly Father. You’re going to also need some horizontal support from some other friends, some life-giving friends who can come around you when life gets really hard, when life is really tough, and you want to just give up, or you want to quit, or you want to fall back into old bad habits that you had developed before Jesus set you free. You need some community, you need some friends, and some horizontal support to see you through those times because there are some hills that you can only make it to the top. With the help of some friends. Now, what’s fascinating to me is that Jesus did model this for us. He models for us how to develop that kind of faith. During the last week of his life leading up to the cross. So I’m inviting you today to go with me to Matthew chapter 26 as we begin this week with Jesus. He’s now there in Jerusalem, and the scene is in the upper room. Jesus was preparing to leave these guys that he had built a deep community with over the past three years. He had traveled with them. He had vacationed with them. He laughed with them. He cried with them. He broke bread with them. He poured his life into them. And he knew that life was going to be hard without him.

He knew that his disciples were going to be tempted to drop out of the race when things got tough. So. He pulls them together in this upper room. And he helps them understand how to build the kind of faith that would be required of them. After he was gone. So just before he was arrested, he used the upper room as a place of connecting, a place of building unity with one another. And we all need relationships. We all need friends. We all need deep Community in our lives. Because if we’re going to climb and make it to the top, we need to climb together. So just before he’s arrested there, we come to the scene in Matthew chapter 26, and I want us to look through that lens as we discover what they did in the upper room that brought closeness and Community and unity and undying friendship to this group of believers. Here are three things that we’re focusing on right now as a church leading up to Easter and the season that we’re in. If we’re going to build the kind of faith that’s going to take us on the climb from the upper room to the empty tomb. We need to do as a church family these three things. Number one, if you’re taking notes, you want to write this down. We need to focus on.

Serving together. 

Focus on serving together. In Matthew 26, we pick it up here in verse 17, where the disciples they’re in Jerusalem, and they’re preparing to celebrate the Passover together. And we read this in verse 17.

MATTHEW 26:17-19 

On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?’He replied, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.”” So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover.

So here they are. They’re there making preparations, and they go to Jesus, and they’re like, Hey, you know, where are we going to? Where are we going to hold this party? Where do you want us to get together to celebrate with one another? He replied.And we see them coming together, the 12 serving together, making preparations, getting things ready. And I think Jesus knew that they needed to experience. This kind of connection comes when we serve together. Some common good that is greater than us. And they come together, they make the preparations, they go to the store, they get the food, they get the wine they get. They make all the preparations. And Jesus knew that through even just those seemingly ordinary, everyday tasks that, it would lock their hearts together. In such a way. That when you know you serve, and you get your hands kind of dirty. And you do some work with some other people. You know how that makes you feel, right? It makes you feel like family. And you know, this Easter. We have a lot of opportunities for all of you to serve together for the common good of helping our friends. Find their way back to God. And so if you’re. Part of this church, and you haven’t yet stepped into serving. Please let me be the first one to invite you to join us this Easter. Maybe for the first time. Just do it once. Just get involved. You say, Well, I don’t know, I. I can’t play a musical instrument, and I can’t sing. And I’d never get up on stage. Freak me out. I’m scared of that. Listen, there are so many more serving opportunities than what just happens here in the auditorium. I mean, this Easter, we’re going to be making we’re you heard we’re building a bridge, right? So if you know how to, you know, swing a hammer and pound a nail, there’s a place for you to serve. You can help build this bridge if you love yard work and gardening. We’re going to be sprucing up the place. I believe in God that this Easter, it’s going to be warm, and we’re going to see some flowers around here. The grass is going to get green again. Come on, somebody. Can we believe that together? I know Easter is a little early this year, but so you can help us get the church looking great. We’ve got so many activities going on with kids. We’re going to have tens, hundreds of thousands of Easter eggs that we’re going to fill with candy. We’re going to Easter egg hunts after each of the services on Easter Sunday and make it fun. Well, we’re doing art installations out in the lobby, getting our lobby ready as we throw a big party. We want it to be fun for people. See, there’s something that all of you can do to contribute. Come on, Church. We want to serve together because it brings us together, just like the disciples did, you know, later on in that upper room. Jesus models for his disciples. What true leadership really looks like? When he picked up a towel and a basin, he got down on his knees and began to wash the feet of his disciples. And he said to those men, this is what true leadership looks like. It’s when you get down. You humble yourself, and you serve others. That’s what servant leadership is all about. You know, later on in the week. Jesus would stand before Pontius Pilot. And you remember what Pilot did. He stood there and washed his hands of Jesus, symbolically saying, I don’t want anything to do with him. And in many ways, I think that is a picture for all of us that we have one of two choices as a church family this Easter. We can either wash feet. Or we can wash our hands with other people. And I don’t know about you, but around here, we are in the foot-washing business. That’s what we do. We don’t wash our hands of people. We don’t wash our hands and say, oh, they’re not good enough or judge them for how they look or how they talk, or how they dress. That’s not what we’re about around here. We’re about getting down low, humbling ourselves and picking up a towel, and beginning to serve those around us, loving them just the way that Jesus loved us. So what are you going to do this Easter? You’re going to wash. Your hands are going to wash your feet. Come on, let’s watch the feet together. Come on. Let’s serve the Poconos. Let’s serve those that are far from God so that they can find their way back to him. So, friends, listen if you haven’t. Join the surf team yet. Join us for Easter. And here’s all you need to do when you walk out of here. Just a few minutes, go to the big group sign. It’s all lit up there, says groups, and just say, Hey, I just want to wash and feet around here this Easter. I want to serve somebody. I want to be part of what God’s doing around here. And they’ll be like, Yes, they’re going to high-five you. They might even hug you. I don’t. If you don’t like a hug, just tell them I’m a handshake kinda guy or whatever. And. And then they’ll just take your name and your number, and we’ll get you plugged into the team. Where you can make the biggest contribution in a year. That sounds like a good deal. Come on. Here’s the second thing. If we’re going to build a faith that’s going to help us climb all the way to the top, we not only need to be serving together in this season, but we need to be. Connecting together.

Connecting Together. 

Back in the upper room. It goes on and says this in verse 20.

MATTHEW 26:20-21

When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. And while they were eating…

So they didn’t sit in chairs. Like we sit in chairs and gather around a table. They would recline on these pillows on the floor. And so here’s Jesus, and he’s reclining at the table with these disciples of the 12. And it says and while they were eating. Hanging out with Jesus. They’re breaking bread there. They’re sharing a meal together. And here’s what Jesus knew. Food brings people together. You know, one of the first things we’re going to do when we all get to heaven. We’re going to have some food together, right? We’re going to gather together around the marriage supper of the lamb, and we’re going to eat together. Why? Because food just brings people together. It’s one of the things I love about our church. And somebody invites us over to their house, and we get to just sit at their table. There’s just something about being at somebody’s house and getting around their table, and they serve food. Maybe it was a family recipe that was passed down for generations. And we have so many different people from so many different backgrounds and so many different, you know, ethnicities. And I just love all of it. All of it. I mean, I go to a friend’s house, and she’s Puerto Rican, and she’s got her, you know, chicken. And she got the pork and the rice and the beans. And she got, I mean, all this I learned about annatto. Some Puerto Ricans know what annatto is. It’s a spice that most am I saying it wrong. And what is it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, you know what? It. Whatever it is, it’s delicious. Yeah, but they put that in their sofrito. That’ll change your life. And, hey, how did you learn how to make those from my abuela? And then all of a sudden, it starts talking about all these different stories and how where they grew up and what life was like in Puerto Rico. And I know that the next thing you know, it’s like we’re best friends. Why? Food. Food. It brings people together. You know, in my house, my wife and I, we work really hard at getting our family together around the table and sharing family meals every week. We do it as often as we can. And. It’s really important to us. So we put some music on, and we cook together. We teach our kids how to cook, and I love to cook. And then we set the table and, you know, we gather around the table, and we put all the food there. And a lot of the times, they’ll invite a friend over too, and we’re getting to know their friends, and they get to see us interact as a family, and we pray together before the meal. We kind of go around the table. What was the best thing that happened in your, you know, in your day? Highs and lows, we kind of share those, and we talk together, and it just brings our family together.

As we sit around the table. And, you know, while we can’t all do that every day as a whole church family, there is a way for us to build Community like that around here, not in big groups, but in smaller groups. In fact, that’s what we call them, small groups or community groups that meet every night of the week all over the Poconos and the surrounding area where people get together. And they break bread together. They sit together in their homes, and they share a meal, and they talk, and they build Community. And they help one another grow in their faith and have spiritual conversations. And there’s a shepherding leader, a community group leader that’s helping that that small group connect with one another, build Community together, be there in the good times, be there for each other the in the hard times of life. And that’s really the heart of what our church is all about, helping people not only find faith but find friends so that they can grow in their faith. You know, last week we launched two new groups just last week. One is a she’s a brand new group leader. And Becca, my wife, oversees groups now. And she was meeting with her and training her and helping her get it all said and helped her find some people that go to our church that live in her neighborhood. And she invited all these people to come to her house. And you know what? Eight people showed up, and this small group Leader Day. Her name is Andy. And she was scared to death. She’s like, oh, my gosh, I don’t know if I can do this. And Beck was discouraging her, but so she said, Becca, that was the best night of my week being able to meet. And they’re amazing people. And I didn’t even realize that they live right around the corner from me. And they also go to this church, and we connect together. We were able to pray together. We shared a meal together, and it was beautiful. And I’m so glad. That I obeyed the whisper of the Holy Spirit, who was leading me to open up my home. And make some time for other people so that we could connect and build Community. We started another group last week up in Scranton. We got a lot of new families coming from up in the Scranton area. And here’s a really fun story. So this single mom, and she’s got a couple girls, just started coming to our church. I believe this is right around Christmas time. And her little girl has fallen in love with the church, and she loves her Sunday, you know, her opportunity to meet with our kids’ area. And she has so much fun. She’s she loves her small group leader and kids and learning about Jesus. And she just loves loves loves the church. And her mom said to her last week, Hey, honey, I’m so sorry we can’t go to church tomorrow because your sister’s sick. And this little six-year-old girl said, Mom, I can’t miss church. I mean, I memorized my Bible verse. I want to see my small group leader. I want to see all my friends. Mom, it’s the best day of the week for me. I’m not missing church. Well, I can’t take you. She said, Well, I’m going to call an uber. Six years old. I’m calling an Uber. I’m making it happen. Mom. And her mom was like, No, you’re not calling a number. You’re six. She said, Well, then I’m calling grandma. So she called her grandmother. Her grandmother had not been in church for five teen years, and this six-year-old little girl called her grandmother and said, Grandma, please take me to church. My sister’s sick. I can’t go. Mom won’t let me call an Uber. You’re my only option. And her grandmother’s like. She didn’t really want to do it. But you know what? She decided to do it anyway. To do it for her grandma, for her granddaughter. So last Sunday, her grandmother showed up to church for the first time in 15 years. And she was really nervous. She said, Man, it’s kind of a bigger place. And I’m a little nervous about checking out my, my, my daughter into this, you know, C kids area. I don’t know any of these people. I want to make sure she’s safe. But she said everybody at the kids checked in. All our kid’s ministry leaders were amazing, so kind and friendly, and gave her a tour and helped her see, like everything, you know, with, you know, in the ministry, how safe it was and just kind of let her know how we run things around here that we believe in making a safe place for kids to find faith in Jesus and learn about the Bible and make some friends here. And so the grandmother said, okay, this looks good. She felt comfortable. And then she came, and she was really nervous about coming in here and having to sit all by herself after not having been in church for 15 years. But she said the ushers were so amazing, and they were so kind, and they were so welcoming to her, and they helped her find the C, And she sat here last Sunday, and she loved it. She absolutely loved it. She felt the presence of God in her life so, so powerfully. And after the service was over, one of our team members met her and realized, Hey, where do you live? And she said I live up in Scranton. And so this team member gave her information to our new small group leader that lives up there and said, Hey, she just came for the first time. Why don’t you invite her to come to this new group that you’re launching?

Well, he reached out to her, and they connected on the phone, and she decided what church was that Much fun. And it was so good. And the people were so friendly and kind. Well, maybe. Maybe I could do this too. Because she was lonely and she was isolated, she said yes. And she went to that small group just this last week, and she let that small group leader. Now, this was the highlight of my week. It was the best part of my week, making new friends, finding life, giving to people, connecting with them, sharing my story, and hearing their story. Gang, this is what we need to be focusing on right now. Not just serving together but connecting together. The most important thing I can help you do as your pastor is to help you get connected in the Community around here. I love that you’re here on Sunday morning. I love that you just keep coming back. But listen, God has something more for you, and that more is sitting all around you. I believe some of the most amazing people that live in the Poconos. Are seated right here in this room. They love God, they love people, and they’re always making room for more. So before you leave here today, go to the group’s table out in the lobby and say, hey, you know what, the pastor is right? I need to get connected around here. I don’t want to just come on a Sunday and sit. Enjoy the service and then go home. God has something more for me, and He does. It’s called Community. Here’s the third thing we need to be focusing on not only serving together, not only connecting together but in this season. If we’re going to build the kind of faith that’s going to help us climb all the way to the top, we need to be.

Worshiping together.

 We need to build not only deep friendships where we serve one another and wash feet, but we also need to worship together in that Community to worship God. Together. That’s what they did in the upper room. It was in the upper room that Jesus gathered them around that table, and he served them for the very first time what was now known today as the Lord’s Supper. Or maybe you have known it as Holy Communion. And he served it to them for the very first time. Let me read it to you. What happened? It says this.

MATTHEW 26:26-28

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying,”Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

And here’s what Jesus was doing on that Passover meal. He flipped the script. He said, I am now giving you a new covenant that no longer are you under the old covenant, that the only way you can find your way back to God was through the sacrifice, through a blood offering of an animal for the forgiveness of your sin. I’m giving you a new covenant. I’m going to give my body. I’m going to give my blood for you as a once and for all sacrifice. As I go to the cross and give my life for the sacrifice to pay the penalty for sin once and for all. This is a new covenant. But Jesus was introducing. His followers were there. And. As best as they could. They tried to understand Jesus, but it still wasn’t quite making total sense. But he was introducing a new way. For people to find their way back to God, that it would be through him that he would do for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves. He would build a bridge through his blood and through his body on the cross. So today, before we close, you’ll find us in the seat back in front of you. This little communion. I want you just to hang on to it. Don’t do anything with it. Maybe just hold it. We’ll do this together. I want to invite you through a time of worship where we can worship Jesus together in Community as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper together. And if you could, I just want you to imagine maybe just kind of close your eyes for just a second and just imagine that you were one of the 12. You were there with Jesus in the room around the table. Just imagine what that must have felt like, what it must have sounded like to be in that upper room with Jesus that night.

Just imagine that in just a number of hours, Jesus would be arrested after you went and prayed with him in the garden. Just imagine that in just a number of hours, you would watch and see how Jesus was. Forced to go to a trial with trumped-up charges and found guilty. And imagine standing there watching a pilot wash his hands of Jesus. Imagine then, as Jesus was being whipped and flogged with the cat of nine tails, beaten almost beyond recognition. Imagine having to watch as Jesus. Beaten and bloodied, having to pick up that cross and carry it up that hill called Calvary. Hardest climb of his life. Imagine standing there at the foot of the cross with other onlookers. Jesus would hang there as they hurled insults at him, and he reviled them not and instead, What did he say? Hear those words. Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do. Imagine Jesus eventually gives up his life and breathed his last breath. He did that for you? He did that for me. In fact, Paul reminds us when he tells this story of Jesus’ upper room celebrating this time around of worship, around the Lord’s table that Jesus said. And when you do this, when you eat this bread, when you drink this cup, here’s what Jesus said. Remember me? Remember me. Remember me. Today. I don’t think Jesus was saying, Hey, remember me? Because they were going to, like, forget Jesus. Like, Oh, Jesus. Who? Jesus? No, no, no. I don’t think that’s the kind of forgetfulness that that Jesus was concerned about. He was more concerned about the kind of forgetfulness where worship and Community just become an empty ritual and where you’re just kind of going through the motions. Jesus is more concerned about the kind of forgetfulness that leads us to spiritual apathy and half-heartedness to a lukewarm faith. Jesus was more concerned that some of us would continue to live in guilt and shame, even though he’s already carried. Our sins for us to the cross so that we wouldn’t have to. So, Jesus, He takes this bread and takes this cup in the upper room, and he says, Remember me? Because I know this is true of me, and it’s also true of you. We oftentimes can forget the right stuff. And instead, remember the wrong stuff. Isn’t that true? Like, we can remember all of the terrible things that we’ve done in our past, but we can forget. What Jesus has done forgives us and sets us free. So communion is a time when we can remember the right stuff. Like the first time, maybe you met God and experienced His grace, his amazing grace in your life. 

Remember that? Remember that communion is a time to remember sins that you’ve committed. And how because of his body that was broken and his blood that was shed for you. You are forgiven. You are clean. You are free. In Jesus’s name. Remember that today. So Jesus takes a common piece of bread, and he holds it up, and he breaks it, and he gives it to his disciples. And he says, symbolically, this is my body. This is what I’m about ready to do. I’m not going to be broken. For you. For your sins. His cousin. On the day of his baptism, when he saw him walking down the riverbank, he said, Behold, the lamb of God. Who takes away the sin of the world. He is the bread of life. You can taste and see that he is good. So today, we remember his body that was broken for us. So. I’m going to encourage you to gently. Remove the top cellophane. And, before we take this, we’re going to pray. And Paul reminds us that this should be a time when we reflect on our life in our sins that we want to make sure we’re in the right standing with God not because of our good works, because of what he’s done for us. The Bible says we should examine our hearts. In other words, we should judge our hearts now so that when we stand before him, we won’t have to be judged before him. It’s better for us right now to seek forgiveness for the things that we’ve done in our life that don’t measure up to God’s righteous standard and seek his forgiveness today so that once we stand before him, we can hear him say, Well done good and faithful servant. So you can pray this prayer with me just in the quietness of your heart. Use your own words. It could go something like this. Heavenly Father, I hold this piece of bread. So I’m worshiping together Community with those around me. And I’m remembering what you did for me. You were broken. But you gave your life for my son, So. Just take a deep breath, and I say, Father, forgive me for my sins. All those things or that times when I pushed you away and thought I knew better. I copped an attitude with you. I didn’t obey. I didn’t listen. Did my own. Father, forgive me? Forgive me today. Thank you for your grace. I eat this in remembrance of you and your name. We pray. Amen. Let’s eat the bread together.

Now we took the cup and said this cup represents my blood, which will be poured out for you on the cross. So today, we remember his sacrifice. How precious is the blood of Jesus? Washes us as white as snow. The prophet Isaiah says the Crimson Stain makes us white as snow. We’re not saved. Because of our good works, we are saved because of Jesus and what he did on the cross. And it was his blood that covered over a multitude of sins. So today, we remember the right stuff. But this cup is a cup of gratitude. Aren’t you thankful today? Come. Are you thankful today? Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for your bloodshed for me. Thank you for wiping the slate clean in my life. Thank you for making way for me to find my way back to God. And I drink in remembrance of you and your great love and your great sacrifice today. It’s in your name, I pray. Amen. Let’s drink the cup together. Thank you, Jesus.