Pastor Jeff Williams: May 1, 2011 Going Beyond, Part I, "Beyond Ordinary." We're starting a new series today called, "Going Beyond." I'd like you to turn in your Bibles to the Book of 1 Corinthians 1. While you're turning there, I just want to give praise to you. I think it's important to acknowledge milestones. Last weekend, for the first time ever, we broke through that 1,000 barrier in attendance. That's pretty significant for our church-to be able to pass and say we packed 1,000 people in our services. Thanks to those of you came on Saturday night. Some of you came at 8 o'clock in the morning and that enabled us to do that; so thanks to you, a lot of people heard the Gospel message last weekend. I praise God for that. We are moving on. We are starting a series called "Going Beyond." As you can see from the arrows, it's about moving forward and onward. I don't know how this word picture fits into your life-and we also have it on the screen here as well-but in going over that bar (as seen in the banner for this series), how high do you set the bar in your life? Can you just flop over your bar? Is it set that low, or do you set it high? Does it require momentum, striving, and reaching, or is it attainable? What about the arrows? Are they pointing upward and forward, or would they be sideways or even pointing down in digression? It's my open prayer that this series will help light a fire in our spirits to pursue because I believe God made us for a purpose. I believe God made us to accomplish extraordinary things, to be ordinary people accomplishing extraordinary things. Most of us are ordinary, aren't we? I felt very ordinary this week while watching the wedding footage (of Prince William and Princess Kate). I didn't get up in the middle of the night to watch the wedding, but it's kind of hard to not notice the Royal wedding because it's kind of everywhere. You're watching all the pomp and circumstance. I did watch a little segment on one of the talk shows which was talking about the seating arrangements and how they had plastic chairs where the people who weren't as important were to sit. Still, if you're invited to the Royal wedding, that's pretty good; but lesser important people, like Sir Elton John, sat in those. That's where he sat-in the plastic chairs. Then you had the more important people who sat in the wooden chairs, and the chairs got better and better until you got to the plush velvety chairs that the Royal family sat in. Just watching all this pomp and circumstance and all these thousands of people and the whole world-thousands of people watching-I felt very ordinary. I felt very peasant-y. That's not my life. What is it like to be royalty? I'm just an ordinary Joe, and so are you. But the good news is that God uses ordinary people. Isn't that good? In fact, many times you'll find that when God taps someone on the shoulder, they usually talk about the fact that he or she is a nobody. They usually talk about the fact that they can't do this or can't do that, and that's exactly the kind of person God wants to use-people who walk uprightly, who walk humbly, and are willing to be used by God. I really don't see the page in the Bible full of people that God taps on their shoulders and they say, "Well, it's about time You recognized how great I am. It's about time You recognized how wonderful and useful I am. Sure, of course, I'll do that." Usually, when people are tapped by God, they're reluctant. They're offering excuses as to why. In the Book of 1 Corinthians 1:25 (page 1128 of pew Bibles), Paul addresses that. He says, "For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength." Verse 26, "Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth." He doesn't say none of you were, because some were, but not many. "But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things-and the things that are not-to nullify the things that are…" Why? "…so that no one may boast before Him." It is strategic; it is deliberate. God loves to use the weak to show His strength. He loves to use the humble to accomplish great things. There are defining moments in each of our lives when we see a need, and we have to make a decision, "Am I going to rise up and meet that need, meet that challenge, or am I going to look the other way?" We recognize a need; we feel passionate about it; we feel strongly about it. We say, "Something needs to be done. Somebody needs to make a difference," and we begin to recognize that we have some talents and abilities that can make a difference. Maybe we can't eradicate or alleviate the need, but we certainly make a difference in that area. Then we begin to contemplate what needs to be done, the resources involved, the time involved, and the sacrifice that would be involved to make that difference. Then we have to make a decision, "Am I going to throw my hat in the ring? Am I going to take my pole vault, make a run, and try to leap over that thing; or am I just going to turn and walk away and hope somebody else meets the challenge, hope somebody else takes care of the need? That's what I call a defining moment, and you've had those defining moments. Sometimes you've risen to meet the challenge, and, sadly, other times you've turned and walked away. You've said, "The need is too great, and what can I do? I'm just one person. It's just too daunting of a task." It's my goal to challenge you in this series, and it's my prayer that you will accept the challenge. You'll say, "You know what? I am willing to use my gifts, my talents, my energies, my resources, to make a difference for God because I believe God has made us for a purpose." I believe God has made us for something greater than what most of us are doing right now. He's placed passions, talents, gifts, and a calling within us. The question is…will we fulfill that calling? Will we reach that potential? Or will we squander the opportunities that we've been given? That's what we're going to address in this series. First of all, I want to just introduce the topic, just kind of wet your appetite in talking about going "Beyond the Ordinary." One thing I thought I'd do this week is a little bit different. I thought, "I'll use a Bible example. I'll use this one. I'll use this." I began to think about different people in the Bible, but here is the problem I ran into. When I use a Bible character, you don't buy that that's ordinary, that they're ordinary, because they're in the Bible. Even though they were living ordinary lives and they accomplished extraordinary things, you say, "Yeah, they don't count. They're in the Bible, so they are extraordinary just from the fact that they were in the Bible; so I'm not counting that. I want to hear about somebody like me." Today, I decided to tell you a story about somebody who is very important in your lives that is not in the Bible. In fact, this man is so important-I'm sure it would have happened eventually-but you would not be reading this Bible in English if it weren't for this man. Have you ever thought about how this Book got in our language? Have you ever thought about what was involved with that? Was it a piece of cake getting this sacred text in English? Was that just something a translator said, "Oh, I'll do that," and the world received it and it was great? Or do you think it might have involved sacrifice? Could our having this in our language even have cost some people their lives? I want to tell you a story about a man we're going to call Bill. Bill lived in England in the 1500s, the dawning of the reformation. It was a time in the history of the church that was a dark time. As a protestant, I can tell you there have been times in the history of the church I've been ashamed of, when I knew that things that were happening weren't of God. I'm certain our Catholic brothers and sisters would say the same thing. There were times in the history of the church where things were not as they should be. This was a time when that was the case. One of the problems was that the Bible was in Latin, so when someone opened the Bible, and it was in Latin, most of the people couldn't read Latin. Latin was already a dead language. It was used in universities; it was used in the church for mass; it was used in hospitals for certain terms, but the everyday man did not speak Latin, did not read Latin. Only the elite, the educated, and the priests could read Latin. What happens when you know this Book is the Book of God? You know this is the Bible, and it's from God, but when we open it up, I'm the only person in the church that can read it, understand it, and tell you what it says. What does that give me? A lot of power, right? If I'm the only one that can understand, interpret this, and tell you what it says, I have a lot of power. If I'm a good priest, a good minister, then that's fine; but if I'm not-if I'm corrupt, then that's very dangerous because I can get things from you and just tell you it's in the Bible. I can sell these things called the letters of indulgence and tell you if you buy one of those, it buys your ticket to Heaven. It will get your ancestor out of purgatory. You would have no way of reading it and finding out if what I'm telling you is a lie or the truth. There was a very strong influence that does not want the Scripture translated from Latin to English-even though Latin wasn't one of the original languages of the Bible. It's not Aramaic; it's not Hebrew; it's not Greek. They don't want it changed because it represents power. Bill grows up, and he is very gifted. He is gifted in the area of language. He is an ordinary guy. He came from an ordinary family. He didn't have wealth; he didn't have prominence. He was simply an ordinary person, but he had a knack for learning and speaking languages. In fact, he learned eight different languages and could speak them all fluently. They said you could talk to Bill in any of the eight languages, and you would swear that was his native tongue. There wasn't any stumbling or staggering trying to find the words; he was just fluent. He had the accent; he had everything. He knew the vocabulary, and he had the grammar down. I admire people like that. I think of our own Pastor Sean who has been on our staff for seven and a half years and is now a missionary in Haiti. In two years' span, Pastor Sean went from knowing no French to knowing French well enough to teach Haitian pastors Hebrew and Greek in French. Plus, he had to learn the language of every man, which is Creole. He had to learn two languages to teach Haitian pastors Greek and Hebrew in French. That's mindboggling to me. I couldn't do that. I have problems with the English language, as you know (congregation laughing); but he is gifted and wired in that way. But, as good as Pastor Sean is, this Bill was a genius. He was an absolute genius. His ability to master a language (was like no other). Because he could read Latin, he could recognize false teaching. It really disturbed him when he would hear people being taught something that wasn't true and they couldn't verify that it wasn't true. That really bothered him. The second thing that bothered him was he thought it was important that moms and dads were able to read the Bible to their children, to be able to read the Lord's Prayer in their language. He felt like every man should have the Bible in their language, but what could he do? He was just one guy. He graduated from Oxford, which is a prestigious university, so he was very intelligent; but he took a job as a tutor. That was his full-time job. A prominent family hired him to teach their children, so this man had all this talent, all this ability, all this wisdom, and it almost seemed like it was being wasted on this little tiny group of children. There is something stirring within him to use his gifts and abilities to try to find a way to put this Bible in the language of the every man of his country; but he thought, "Who am I to take on the church? Who am I to take on the king? I'm just a guy," and he kept it inside of him. The frustration just grew with every passing year as he was living this quiet, ordinary life as a tutor until one day, there is a defining moment. The local priest came to town, and there was a discussion. The discussion became heated. The man made his statement. I'm sure not all priests felt this way-but this particular individual did. Bill said, "We're losing at teaching the Gospel. We're losing the Gospel. It's not being communicated correctly. We are saved by grace through faith. People need to know that." The priest responded, "Better to lose the words of God than to lose the words of the pope." That enraged Bill. At that moment-that defining moment-he looked him in the eyes, and he said this, "If God allows me to live, there is going to come a day when the boy in the field with the plow is going to know more about this Bible than you do." He decided he was going to do something about this, so William Tyndale went to the Bishop of London all excited. "God has put on my heart a vision. God wants me to take the Bible and translate it not from the Latin, not from the Vulgate; God wants me to go to the original Hebrew and the original Greek, and for the first time from those texts translate the Bible and put it in the language of every man so that people in every country [can read it]." Now not everybody could read English, certainly, but a whole lot more people could read English than Latin. He said, "I want to be able to have moms and dads read Psalm 23 and read the Lord's Prayer to their children. I want the people sitting in the pews as the Pastor is preaching to be able to look in the Bible and read for themselves the Word of God!" He was very excited, and the Bishop said, "Well, that's not a good idea! We don't want to give that kind of power to the people. We want to keep the Bible in the Latin. It's the job of the clergy to explain the Scripture." He was just not buying it. He went not only from being a potential friend of William Tyndale to being a foe. In fact, as he began this work, the Bishop started to dog him. He started chasing him around and tried to have him arrested. He was trying to stop him, so he had to go undercover. He had to go from place to place to place to place. Finally, it got so intense in England that he partnered with a wealthy merchant who funded his way to go to Germany. In Germany, he met up with Martin Luther, and through a series of events, he met a man by the name of Gutenberg who just happened to invent this little thing called the printing press with moving type. He finally finished translating the Bible, and they began printing it. They printed 3,000 copies. I think two are still around-extant copies. They were sent to England on a ship with flour. They were wrapped in cloth and hidden. When they got there, there was a network of people, and these people began distributing this on the black market. They began to sell these Bibles; it was illegal, but they were getting the Word of God into people's hands. People were excited. They smuggled these Bibles into England, and Christians were buying them and reading for the first time the Word of God in their language. They were so excited, and they couldn't sell them quick enough. When the Bishop of London heard this word, he started to go ballistic. He started going around gathering all the English Bibles. He preached a sermon at St. Paul's and burned them. He said, "We don't want to see anybody reading these, selling these, or distributing these Books." Then, King Henry sent him on a mission to Belgium. He boarded a boat, sailed over to the mainland, and ended up in Belgium. Guess what Belgium is? He was in the city of Antwerp. Antwerp is the hub of distribution. It's a distribution center. He met a man by the name of Augustine Packington who said, "I can tell you where there are a lot of Bibles." The Bishop was like, "Really?" "I have a stash. Come with me." He pretended to be the Bishop's friend because he knew the Bishop's intent was to destroy them. Augustine was going to lead the Bishop to this shrove of Bibles knowing that the Bishop was going to destroy them. Why would he do that? This man was a friend of William Tyndale. In fact, this man got his Bibles directly from William Tyndale. Why would he sell this man the Bibles knowing that he was going to burn them? In the Bishop's mind, if he got rid of all the Bibles, it would be that much harder for them to distribute them in England and "corrupt the people." But this shrewd businessman Packington sold him the Bibles for four times the amount of money that each Bible cost. He cleaned out his inventory. The Bishop gets the Bibles; Packington received the thanks, and Tyndale got all the money. So, unknowingly, he funded the publication of the Bible in mass. Now thousands more copies are printed, more than he could ever keep up with. Tyndale stayed in hiding [during this]. We laugh at that; it's funny. The story gets really dark here because our hero is betrayed by a friend. He is arrested, and he is sent away to prison for 500 days in a castle. You think, "Boy, if you're going to be put in prison, a castle is the way to go!" Not so. The castle was cold and dark. There wasn't any electricity; there was no heat of any kind, and he only had the clothes on his back-some shirts and a few articles of clothing. We have the letter he wrote; we still have that. In it, it sounds very much like Paul's letter. He is asking for a hat; he is asking for some warm clothes to wear; he's asking for a coat; he's asking for a lantern so he can have light because he says it's so depressing to be in a castle in complete darkness at night. He talked about how cold he was and how much he shivered. He asked for warmth. He said, "But if you can't give me a light and you can't give me anything warm to wear, could you please bring me the Hebrew Bible and a Hebrew dictionary so I can study the Word of God?" That was his desire. At the end of 500 days, they took him just outside of the castle. They tied him to a stake; they strangled him until he was dead; and then they burned him at the stake, but his legacy is with us. In fact, most of the King James that we have today and 90 percent of the Geneva Bible, which predated that, came from the sacrifice of William Tyndale. Not only did he lose his life, but many of the distributors, many of the printers who printed this Bible in English, died as well. That's the story of how we got it in our language. An ordinary man from an ordinary family who had an ordinary job received an extraordinary calling that he felt completely unworthy of and inadequate of; but he responded to the challenge and said, "Okay, God, I'm all in." Now you know the rest of the story. You see, we offer up a lot of excuses. In fact, we're going to show some of them right now on the wall. Let's put up excuse number one and see if you recognize it. I'm not giving you a page number or chapter. "Then" blank "said to the Lord, 'Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past, nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.'" Do you recognize that quote? This was Moses [in Exodus 4:10, page 57 of pew Bibles], and God was calling him to speak to Pharaoh. He was the most powerful man in the world. Moses says, "Let me get this straight: You want me to go to the most powerful man in the world and say these words: 'Let my people go,' and he is going to release his entire workforce? He is going to deliberately put his economy in the tank just because I, a shepherd, said 'Let my people go'? I think You have the wrong guy. I don't speak very well." We don't know if it's because of a lack of self-confidence or if there was a physical stuttering, stammering problem; but he said, "You want me to be a spokesman? I don't talk very well. I'm a fugitive that is on the run. I've taken residence in this country. I'm living as a shepherd. I'm an old man, but I'm happy." Some of you say, "You know, I'm situated in my life. I'm in my comfort zone," and you just come up with all kinds of excuses. "I like life the way it is. Besides that, I'm not gifted. That's going to involve speaking, and I'm not gifted at speaking. I'm not gifted at talking, and I don't have any experience. I'm not the person You're looking for." You offer all kinds of excuses, and God said, "Listen, don't say that because you will open your mouth, and I will give you the words to speak. I will demonstrate that I am with you through works of power." Let's look at another quote from the Bible. Let's see if you know where this one is from. "Then I said, 'Alas, Lord God, behold. I do not know how to speak because I am a youth.'" Do you recognize that? This is Jeremiah [1:6, page 746], and God is calling Jeremiah to be a Prophet to the nations. He says, "I've never been to Prophet school. I don't have any experience being a Prophet. You want me to speak not just to my region, my city, but the nations? You want me to make a difference in the world? You have the wrong guy. I'm just a kid." God says, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. I ordained you as a Prophet to the nations." God says, "You are fulfilling your purpose." Do you know when God makes you, He makes you with purpose? Ephesians 2:10 (page 1157) says, "We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." We aren't accidents. We aren't born into the world and God then scratched His head and said, "What am I going to do with this one?" There is a plan; there is forethought. Our job is to discover that plan and to work that plan. So Jeremiah says, "You have the wrong guy. I'm not qualified. I'm too young," and God says, "I have the one I'm looking for. Don't tell Me you're too young. If you open your mouth, I will fill it; and you will be a Prophet for Me." Let's look at another excuse found in the Bible. "But when" blank "saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet saying, 'Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.'" This is the Apostle Peter [in John 21, page 1075]. He is being called by God to be a fisher of men. He sees the miracle of the miraculous catch of fish, and he hadn't caught anything. God said, "Put your net on the other side." Peter said, "Well, we've been fishing all night, but nevertheless, if You say so, I'll lower the net." Then he can't even bring the haul back in the boat it's so great. He realizes who Jesus is, and he sees his own insignificance. He sees his own ordinariness, his own sinfulness, and he says, "Just depart from me. Just leave me alone." Sometimes God has put His hand on you, and your response has been, "Go away! I'm fine with the way my life is. I don't feel adequate. I don't feel significant. Lord, just please leave me alone. I'm a sinful man." Friends, everybody God has ever used is a sinner except for the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God, so that excuse doesn't hold up. "Your fallen nature is not an excuse, Peter. Your lack of education is not an excuse, Peter. The fact that you're an ordinary fisherman is not an excuse, Peter. I have gifted you to reach men for Me," and so He called Peter out of his boat to be a fisher of men. Let's look at one more and see if you recognize this one. "He said to him, 'O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father's house.'" Do you recognize that? This is Gideon [in Judges 6:15, page 239]. Gideon is saying, "God, You are so far off. It's almost like You intentionally made this mistake." He said, "We are under the oppression of the Midianites. They are bullying us. They are oppressing us, so we are a slave people. Of the tribes of Israel, my tribe is the least tribe. Of the families in my tribe, my family is the least family in my tribe; and of my family, I am the least in my family." It was like he was saying, "God, do you realize You have picked the absolute worst person to pick? There is nobody lower in our society than I. Do You understand that, God? I'm in a winepress hiding from the Midians. I have my bare feet covered in grape juice hiding, and You're coming at me telling me I'm a mighty warrior? Boy, did You get the address wrong!" As if God is going to say, "You're Gideon? Oh, I was looking for Gibeon. Okay, I'm sorry. He is down the road a little bit." No, God says, "I have the right guy. You're the right Gideon." God strategically picked the least of the least. He said, "I'm going to use you to deliver my people from the hand of the Midianites," and miraculously he did-you can read that story. Let's look at one more. This one is not an excuse. This one is simply a statement of fact. This person said, "My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God, my Savior, for He has had regard for the humble state of His bond slave, for behold from this time, all generations will count me blessed." Who said this? This is Mary from the Magnificent. She is saying, "Every generation is going to know my name. Every generation is going to know who I am, and I'm just a humble servant. I'm a peasant girl. I'm nobody, and You've chosen me out of all the women in the world? You've chosen me to give birth to the Redeemer?" God picks the most humble in the land to bestow the greatest honor. Do you see a pattern here? Do you see this pattern? God looks for ordinary people, and He says, "Deep within you there is a seed of greatness that you don't even know is there." He begins to water it, and it begins to grow. For some of you, your defining moment is going to be this series. Your defining moment is going to be today. God is going to use us to water that seed in you, those talents, that calling, those passions; and there's going to come a defining moment in your life-only this time instead of walking away, you're going to step up. You're going to say, "Okay, let's give it a go. I'm going to give it my best shot. I'm going to make a difference. Even if I fail, that's okay because I'm going to try." If God is behind it, it won't be a failure. We're going to listen to a song right now on this whole theme of seizing the day and going from ordinary to the extraordinary. This is a song by the artist named Carolyn Arends who wrote a song by that same name, "Seize the Day," [lyrics can be found here: http://www.christianlyricsonline.com/artists/carolyn-arends/seize-the-day.html] Would you please pray with me? Father, I think if we were to answer the question, "Are we doing everything we could for Your Kingdom? Are we fulfilling our potential perfectly?" everybody in this room would say, "No, I'm not. There's more I can do. There's more I can be." Father, I pray that in this series You would challenge us to leave our comfort zone, challenge us when those defining moments come to accept that call, to fulfill that mission. Lord, for those who do not know it yet, guide them to know what Your plan is for that life; and for those who do, grant them courage and grace to pursue. We thank You for men like William Tyndale who sacrificed so much for a great cause that he believed in. We thank You that Your Word shows us people who felt just like us and had all kinds of excuses-uneducated, too young, no experience, couldn't talk-whatever the excuse was, we found that if You had placed the call in their lives, that trumped any excuse they might have. Lord, fulfill Your call in our lives and in our church. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.