The Call to Respond

My brother is getting married in four weeks. It's exciting. He and his fiancee are in that wedding planning chaos kind of season, which has forced me to reflect on my wedding.

I got married two and a half years ago right here, standing here. And weddings are insane. There's the rings and the suit and the dress and the invitations and the flowers and the venue and the vows and all of that stuff comes down to that moment.

I was standing here two and a half years ago and the pastor, who happens to be my dad, who was marrying us, said these words, Courtney, do you take Benjamin to be your lawfully wedded husband? And then silence.

The whole wedding comes down to this moment and she said those two beautiful words, I do. And then you may kiss each other and everyone's clapping and we got married. The entire wedding requires a response.

The wedding requires a response. In the same way, the good news about Jesus, the invitation of Jesus, the gospel of his life and death and resurrection requires a response. It requires us to do something to receive it and that is just to receive it.

So the banquet has been set, the victory over sin and death has been won and God the Father stands ready to welcome you right now. The question is, will you respond? The call to respond, that's the title of today's message.

If you didn't know, we're in week three of our seven week series called Let Me Tell You About Jesus. And I hope you have the book in front of you because we're going to be working through the book. You can also find it as an ebook on our website.

In this series, you have been told about God, the creator of this intricately ordered universe. You have been told about his goodness, that our God is not distant and unconcerned, but he is close and compassionate.

You've been told that this world is beautiful and yet broken and suffering, full of suffering. You've been told that the Bible says that the root of the brokenness of this world is our estrangement from relationship with God.

The Bible calls that sin, and the natural consequence of sin is death. You've been told the good news about Jesus, how He is God, become a man.

You've been told the good news that He healed the sick, He cleansed the lepers, He gave sight to the blind, He opened the ears of the death, the death. You've been told how He died for our sins on the cross.

You've been told how He rose again, but did you know you have to respond? The good news requires a response. So today we're going to think about what it means to respond to Jesus.

I want to offer seven reflections on this call to respond. And before I do, I might pray and ask that God might help us understand what this means.

Lord Jesus, we know that you said that you have come to seek and save the lost, and I know that I was lost. I still am lost without you, all of us are. But there are some in this room who don't know that they can be found.

We thank you that you might, we thank you that you have done all that is necessary to find us, to forgive us and to bring us home. So help us now to understand what it means to respond to you in repentance and belief. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Seven brief reflections on the call to respond. The call to respond is number one, grounded in the resurrection. If you have your book, page 54, study seven quotes this Bible verse at the top of the page.

Romans 10, verse nine, If you declare with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. I want to focus firstly on the second part of that sentence.

If you believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. The call to respond to Jesus is grounded in the resurrection.

Now Christianity is a global religion with billions of followers today and billions upon billions stretching throughout history. And Christians have been on the forefront of advances in education and civil rights and women's rights and medicine.

But at the heart of the entire system of Christianity is the fact of the resurrection of Jesus. What that means is if you want to dismantle Christianity, disprove the resurrection of Jesus.

Because if Jesus did not rise again from the dead, Paul says we are most to be pitied in the entire world because we have built everything on a lie. The call to respond to Jesus is grounded in his resurrection.

I was talking to someone about Jesus a few weeks ago, and they said, yeah, Jesus said some really cool things, didn't he? And I agreed. He did say some cool things.

I think if you've read the words of Jesus, you would agree he said some pretty cool things. Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you.

Give to the needy. But it caused me to reflect that if Jesus is primarily a teacher, then the proper response to him is to learn from him, to study the things he said. I was talking to someone else.

And actually, I overheard a conversation many years ago between these two parents in a former job, and they were talking about wanting to send their kids to a Christian school. And they said, yeah, just to be like Jesus, like a nice person.

I want to send my kids to a Christian school. Now, if Jesus is primarily a good moral example, then the proper response to him is to imitate his life, to try and be nice to people the way that Jesus was.

But Paul says here in this verse that he said, if you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved. Our faith is not in Jesus as primarily a teacher or primarily a moral example, even though he is those things.

Our faith is grounded in the fact that Jesus was dead and then he rose to life again. That is the core of this religion called Christianity. It is the supernatural event at the heart of faith.

And it is the fundamentally historical fact that our life is built on. Page 50 in your book has a bunch of arguments proving the resurrection. I encourage you to have a look at them.

The call to respond is grounded in the resurrection. And number two, it is declaring Jesus is Lord. We're going to keep reflecting on Romans 10 verse 9.

If you declare with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. The call to respond is declaring Jesus is Lord.

And I think this idea logically flows on from the previous one, because if it is true that Jesus was dead and rose again, then he must be the Lord of all.

Then he is not just a teacher who said nice things or a moral example to follow, but he is God himself. So these words, if you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord, they come from a book of the Bible called Romans.

And you might guess from that title that these words were written to the church in Rome. Now, these words, Jesus is Lord. Think about what that does in the place called Rome.

In Rome, there is someone who calls themselves Lord, and that is Caesar, the emperor. So Paul is writing that foundational to Christianity is the belief that Caesar is not Lord, but Jesus is.

The early Christians lost their lives for believing Jesus is Lord, and Caesar is not.

And now, 2,000 years later, in this country, praise God, you're almost certainly not going to lose your life for declaring that Jesus is Lord, but it is still a radically counter cultural thing to say.

In this world, I think the air that we breathe says that I am Lord of my life. You are Lord of your life. You are Lady of your life.

We are each kings and queens of our own kingdom, but the call to respond to Jesus is to say, I am not Lord, Jesus is Lord. And that is radically counter cultural. You might remember Pat's story from last week.

Part of his story, he said that he tried living as the Lord of his own life. And then he found Jesus and he declared Jesus is Lord, and he realized Jesus is a better Lord. He is a Lord of love, one who leads him in the path of life.

The call to respond is declaring Jesus is Lord. And number three, it's making the internal external. If you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Notice the two parts to this passage. Declare with your mouth and believe in your heart. This is external and internal.

And I think core to what it means to respond to the good news about Jesus is making the internal external. That is moving from believing in my heart that God raised Jesus from the dead to actually declaring Jesus is Lord.

It's an action and a decision, not just an internal posture. So, what does it look like to make the internal external? My wife and I, earlier this year, were fortunate enough to catch a train from London to Paris.

And it was one of the Eurostar, and it leaves King's Cross Station. And at first, the scenery outside the train is London, just urban kind of cityscape. And then you go through a couple of short tunnels and you end up in the English countryside.

There's beautiful green fields. And I was engrossed in my book as we were on this train, so I wasn't really looking out the window. I was just vaguely aware of some green pastures.

And then we went through a short tunnel, and then pretty soon the pastures were back. And I looked up out of the window, absentmindedly thinking about what I was reading. And I realized the cars are driving on the other side of the road.

I'm like, hang on, what is this? And I found a sign as we went past, and it was in French. At some point along this journey, we had crossed into France.

The journey of faith, I think, is a little bit like being on a train, where in your heart, you might not realize what you actually believe. It's like being on a train and not looking out the window.

And eventually, you look out the window and realize you're not in the UK anymore, you're in France. You actually realize, when I look at Jesus, I actually believe that He lived and died and rose again. And maybe that takes you by surprise.

And so, the invitation of faith is to look outside the window and realize that you're in France. To realize, in the words of Paul, Jesus is Lord.

You believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, but now is the invitation to make the internal external.

The call to respond to Jesus is making the internal external. And number four, it's repenting from my ways. Page 54 of the book quotes this Bible verse, Acts chapter 3 verse 19.

Repent then and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord. Now, if you are exploring faith in Jesus, my strong hunch is that our word, repent, is a tricky one for you.

Even if you are already calling yourself a Christian, you hear the word repent, and the first thing I think of is a person standing on a street corner with a cardboard sign scribbled in repent in red letters, and they're shouting at you, and you're

just trying to walk to get a coffee at the cafe. This word repent can be loaded with a lot of baggage, but I want to just dig into what this word actually means.

When Paul used this word, when Jesus uses this word, it's the Greek word metanoia, and metanoia means change direction. If I'm walking this way and I metanoia, I walk this direction.

Now, repentance can involve emotion and a whole massive event, but fundamentally, it's just realizing you're going the wrong way and turning to face the other direction. So last week, we looked at the parable of the blind man and the elephant.

Remember, one man's feeling the leg, and he says, it's like a rhino. One man's feeling the tusk, and it's like a tree. I won't explain the parable.

But the point of the parable that Jonathan made last week is that there cannot, all truths, all religions cannot all fit together. Someone has to have exclusive truth. And Jesus claims in the Bible that he is the way to God, the only way to God.

And that means that if Jesus is the only way to God, then I am not the way to God. And if I'm not the way to God, I need to turn from my way of living my life, and I need to trust in his way. When the Bible says repent, that's what it means.

Turn from your way of doing things, and realize that his way is better. Now reading from page 56 of the book, repentance is not about perfection. You don't need to have your life cleaned up before you repent.

Repentance is not just feeling guilty. Feeling sorry for what you've done is part of repentance. But emotion alone isn't enough.

Repentance is not earning forgiveness. Repentance doesn't make God love you. It's a response to the love and mercy he already offers.

Repentance is turning from sin. We acknowledge that we've gone our own way instead of God's way. We stop defending, denying or excusing it.

Repentance is turning to God. Repentance is relational. It's not just about stopping bad behavior.

It's about returning to the God who made you and loves you. Repentance is a change of heart and direction. It involves the whole person, your mind, heart and will.

The call to respond to Jesus is to change direction, to realize my life has been going this way, but Jesus calls me to go this way. Number five, the call to respond is believing in his way.

So we've talked about the necessity of turning from my way, but the second part of that idea is trusting in his way. Jesus connects these two ideas together in Mark chapter one, verse 15. The time has come, Jesus said.

The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe. The good news.

This is the two parts of the movement of faith. Repenting from my way and believing in his way.

Now, this word, believe, it comes from the Greek word, pistis, and the related family of words, and it doesn't just mean intellectual agreement with an idea. It means loyalty, allegiance, faith.

It's like if you asked me now, do I believe in the integrity of this stage to hold me up? On one level, I could weigh up the evidence and it seems pretty solid. Gary designed it.

He's trustworthy. The builders, they were trustworthy. Do I trust that it's going to hold me up?

I don't know. On another level, do I believe that this stage will hold me up? Yes, I do because I'm standing on it.

If I didn't believe it, I'd be standing down there. To take another example, do I believe that these clothes are going to hold together and not leave me exposed in front of 200 people? Yes, I do because I'm not covering myself.

Do I believe that you're not going to stand up and throw a tomato at me? Yes, I do. Deeply believe that and deeply pray for that.

And you know how you know that I believe that? Because I'm not cowering in fear at the back of the stage. Do I believe that Jesus is who he says he is, that he died and rose again and offers forgiveness and eternal life?

Yes, I do, not only because I agree with those ideas, but because I'm walking in step with the Spirit of God. Belief is not just an idea, it is an action. It is trusting Jesus.

So the call to respond to him is turning from my way and then trusting his way. And yes, there's like a moment. Yes, it's an idea, but it's also an action, walking with God.

The call to respond is believing in his way. And number six, it's ongoing in process. The time has come, Jesus said, the kingdom of God has come near.

Repent and believe the good news. To get a little bit nerdy for a second, these two words, repent and believe, they're in the present tense in Greek. And the present tense means ongoing, a continual process, not like a one-off event in the past.

So belief in Jesus, the call to respond to Jesus, is not something you do once when you were a teenager or once at a church service, and then never again, it's a constant thing in the life of the Christian.

It's constantly turning from my way and constantly choosing to trust in his way. When I was a kid, I remember I was five years old, and I told mom, I want to be a Christian.

This stuff that dad talks about and I hear about in Sunday school, I want to be a Christian. And so, mom prayed with me.

I remember exactly where we were in the front room of our house in the subtle and shy, and mom prayed with me, and then she called dad and dad came home and we had a great time.

I repented in that moment in such a way that a five-year-old could possibly repent. And now, I'm here, 20 years later, I have a five-week-old baby, and I'm realizing at 2 a.m. in the morning, I'm less patient than I thought I was.

And so, constantly, even now, I've been led to repent from my way and trust in his way, to realize that I actually haven't got this whole life thing figured out. 20 years later, I'm not actually that much. I think I'm better.

I'm a better person, but I'm not a perfect person. And so, constantly, turning from my way and trusting his way, this life of repenting and believing is ongoing in process. It's not a one and done event.

The call to respond is ongoing in process, and number seven, it's simply good news. So, I've offered six reflections, six so far, this is the seventh, reflections on what it means to respond to Jesus.

And hopefully, they're true, hopefully, they're helpful. But the seventh one is just simply good news. I don't want to leave you with this impression that responding to Jesus is complex and difficult and hard to do.

It's the easiest thing in the world. The good news is that Jesus died for your sin and he rose again that you might have forgiveness and new life. It's like a present, all wrapped up in a nice bow, presented to you, Ben.

All you have to do is open it. That's the good news. You don't have to pay anything, do anything.

Jesus has done it all. But the gift is before you, ready to be unwrapped. It is simply good news.

The call to respond is grounded in the resurrection. It's declaring Jesus is Lord. It's making the internal external.

It's repenting from my ways. It's believing in his way. It's ongoing in process.

And if that's all too much, it's simply good news. Seven reflections, and it all comes down to the call to respond. It's like that wedding.

The rings are ready, the suit is pressed, the dress is shining, the invitations are sent, the flowers are blooming, everyone is taking their place, and we're waiting for those two words. I do. The call to respond is before you.

I'm going to give you a chance to respond in a minute, but before we get there, in your books, page 59 asks the question, what happens when we place our faith in Jesus?

We've talked at length about what it means to respond to Jesus, but if you do respond to Jesus, what happens? What's your life going to be like?

Now, rather than me talking, we're going to hear a real life story of the transformation that God has done in someone's life. Would you please welcome Grace warmly to the stage?

It's such a pleasure to be able to share what the Lord has done for me and continues to do. I began life in an orphanage in India. I was alone for six months until I was claimed by an Australian couple who were only 25 years old.

They could have children, but had decided they wanted to adopt before having their own. So I was flown to Sydney to live with them. I grew up with a homegrown brother and a full extended family.

They never questioned my belonging and never saw me as an outsider. My eyes saw my white Australian family and they were the mirror to my world. And in a way, I saw myself as white too.

It wasn't until primary school where I understood I was actually different and I didn't look like anyone. My identity became painful and shameful. During these primary school years, my family went to church for a few years.

But as my dad was unwell, our attendance was inconsistent. My understanding of God never got past him being distant, an authority who was too busy and attending bigger matters.

As a teenager, I navigated the world and floundered around as best as I could to fit in. I immersed myself in the latest music and magazines and filled my knowledge with hot gossip.

I was devoted to reading my star signs daily, as that's how I found meaning and purpose to my day. Lots of my friends did the same, and we would label each other according to our star sign behaviours.

I had plenty of crushes on sports players, and often went to the cricket and soccer matches, not actually watching the game. I wasn't much of a swearer, but I did know how to twist the knife in if I wanted to hurt somebody.

Putting others down so that I could feel good about myself meant I could avoid the insecurities I had. I'd watch scary movies and then be afraid at night. In fact, I worried constantly about all sorts of things.

About what people thought of me, about how I'd be perceived, whether I could measure up to others and the standards of the world. It was exhausting.

Nevertheless, I carried on day in day out in my own strength with the weight of the world on my shoulders. Being a young adult, despite my parents' discouragement, I spent most of my weekends going out, drinking, smoking and dancing in the city.

My downtime was mostly spent with my boyfriend and doing yoga or reading books. In 2006, I discovered that Jason Stevens, a rugby league shark player, had written a book a few years earlier.

And so without knowing the content, I bought the book and read it. And boy, did that read change my life. Worth the Weight was about God's intention for marriage and how important it is to save sex for only your spouse.

Whilst reading this, I felt so convicted about the values, safety and privilege of intimacy in marriage. This book rattled me because deep down I resonated with this truth.

That same day I finished the book, I had a hard conversation with my one and only boyfriend of six years. I told him I'd made a decision to follow that truth, and he was horrified. Over the next weeks and months, I started to feel different.

I felt lighter in my heart, and I started feeling a peace I'd never felt before. I suddenly had a desire to find out about Jesus, and I had less interest in what the radio was saying. I started to become aware of what I was doing and saying.

I began to feel guilty when I swore, or if I laughed at someone's misfortune. I found myself looking for a Bible in the family home, and less interested in what this daily star sign said.

I continued to go out drinking on weekends, but chatting rounds and doing shots was no longer satisfying. My friends were getting worried about me sometimes saying no to things. The spirit was at work and stirred in me a desire to go to church.

I sought out an old friend and asked him where to start. So there I was, spending Sunday nights, sometimes still hungover, listening to God's word, and spending time with people who had a fire for Jesus.

Sometimes the church jargon got too much, and I'd get lost, but I still felt compelled to come back again and again. I also gradually got used to the preacher saying my name all throughout the sermon.

Honestly, though, at first, I thought I was in trouble for spacing out when I heard my name, until I understood it was actually one of God's characteristics.

The most important thing I learnt, though, was that there was great power in the name of Jesus, that chains could fall off because of His name. Even though my priorities were changing, I wasn't afraid.

The Holy Spirit was revealing other truths to me as well. He gently nudged me to address the sin in my heart, to see people as his precious image bearers, brothers and sisters, the family of believers that I now belong to.

The world had tainted my view, and I felt convicted of the sorrow I had caused him. I no longer wanted to harbor the bitterness towards people, or see lustful images in my mind anymore. Did you know that when we ask and he agrees, miracles do happen?

Did you know that he can sever images from our brains? He supernaturally cut off those screenshots from my mind. Still today, I can't access them.

There's a blockage. Like the pruning of a tree, he was cutting away and cleaning me out from the inside out. The chains of the enemy started falling off.

He then backtracked and revealed my life with a different lens. In the orphanage, I was called Aditi, and my parents had decided to call me Grace. The lady who brought me out from India asked what I was to be called.

When they exchanged names, there was amazement. Aditi translates into Grace. There was a purpose for me.

My identity was never shameful or painful. God the Father was telling me that I belonged to him and not the world. I was not alone.

I did not have to prove my worth. I did not have to earn love. I did not have to carry my burdens anymore.

I could hand them over, leave them at the cross, and he could fight them for me. I found the ultimate love that truly satisfies the soul, and I couldn't turn back to my old life. I'm so thankful to be free, known and loved.

I'm no longer a prisoner of the darkness. Jesus transformed my life. Please don't hesitate to speak with me or ask for prayer.

He longs to set us free from chains that hold us back and from being who we truly intended us to be. Amen and thank you.

Thank you, Grace.

What a story. I'm sure we could fill this room with stories if we ran around with a mic, sharing stories of what God has done in our life. You remember Cedric's story?

He shared it in week one. You remember Pat's story last week, and now Grace's story. That's what God does in someone's life.

But when you look at those three stories, and we'll probably have some more stories in the next four weeks, they're all different. Different stories of the specific way that God has transformed a person's life.

It's been said before that the good news about Jesus is like a diamond, and the light hits the diamond and it goes in a million directions. And when you spin the diamond, it just creates this different picture.

So the good news, page 61 of your book, the good news is new creation, that God can take the old you and make you new. The good news is adoption, that you can become a son or daughter of God the Father.

The good news is reconciliation, that you can be restored to right relationship with the God who made you and knows you. The good news is salvation. You can be set free from the destructive power of sin that ultimately leads to death.

The good news is justification. You can be declared legally not guilty by God who is the judge of all things. The good news is regeneration.

You can be made a new person, spiritually made alive from the inside out. The good news is eternal life right now.

Did you know that the message of Christianity, the invitation of Jesus, is not only to avoid going to hell when you die, but it is to enter into relationship with God now. The Bible calls that eternal life.

Yes, it's the life that won't end, that's everlasting, but it's the eternal kind of life here and now. That is the invitation that Jesus offers you.

To be made a new creation, to be adopted by the Father, to be reconciled with your Creator, to be saved from your sin, to be justified by the judge, to be regenerated in your spirit, and to experience eternal life right now. So the rings are ready.

The suit is pressed. The dress is shining white. The invitations have been sent.

The venue is prepared. The guests are arriving. And we're taking our place.

The pastor has said those words, and we wait for your response. The call to respond to Jesus is before you. You have to make a decision about Him.

Is He who He said He is, or is He nothing at all? The call to respond is before you. I want to give you a chance to respond to Jesus.

But before I do, I'm not going to make you do anything. I mean, yes, there's power in making the internal external, but I don't want the social awkwardness of this room to be any hindrance to what God wants to do.

I want you to know, no one can force you to do anything. I am not charismatic or funny or clever enough to make you do anything. It is a free choice to respond to God's drawing on your heart.

So if you feel God, or maybe you don't have a name for it, if you feel something stirring in your heart, that this stuff is true, I actually believe Jesus rose again, then I encourage you to look out the window and realize that you're in France.

You're actually a Christian. You just have to make this step of responding. So do you want to do it?

I'm going to lead you in a prayer. I'm going to say some words, and in your heart, I encourage you to say these words after me, and then we'll sing together. If you want to commit to Jesus, pray this with me.

Dear God, thank you that you love me, that you made me and you know me, that Jesus lived and died for me. I believe in my heart, he rose again. I declare with my mouth that he is Lord.

Please forgive me of my sins, and welcome me as your child. I want to live this life with you. And pray for your help to do so.

In Jesus' name. Amen. Would the bands like to come up?

If you prayed that prayer, make the internal external. Tell someone. We would love to pray for you again.

We'd love to give you a Bible, and tell you about what it means to follow Jesus next. But most of all, I want to invite you to come back next week. We're only three weeks into our Let Me Tell You About Jesus course.

There's still four weeks left to come. So if you have prayed that prayer, please come back next week, and we'll keep talking.

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